On other forums I participate in and run creative writing challenges. The amount of posts can be overwhelming, on the surface. You could come back after a day or so and there would be 100 new posts... except that 90 of those new posts would simply be comments.
One of the things we do is separate the threads by 'stories' and 'comments'. It has been extremely effective and almost universally welcomed.
This format allows people to easily view the contributions all at once (in this forum they would be no-reload run summaries) without wading through what could be an avalanche of comments, off-topic posts, jokes, silliness and general commentary/banter. It also makes specific content (a certain no-reload run, a certain poster's current runs) more easily and quickly found, as actual content posts are usually much smaller in number than comments.
This is not a perfect solution as it can make the discussion disjointed for some, with comments continually referring to out-of-thread content. However, it does help make the actual content, whether it be stories or no-reload updates, more easily perused. People can and do 'keep up' much easier, at least those people who would prefer to see only the content updates and skip a lot of the comments until they are actually ready to say something. I've never had any complaints from the chatty-Cathy's who are in it to banter back and forth among the comments.
I did not see such a format 'solution' mentioned here yet, so I merely wanted to mention that it is one way of handling high volume thread topics if the admins ever come to the decision that there is a problem and something needs to be done.
Ah, for Bhall's sake, I hope this will not degenerate into a means of micromanaging people's posting habits.
It is a boon that the Bioware people decided to come on over and join us. They are superbly knowledgeable -- yet also very personable and supportive. (A rarity in gaming forums!)
I'd say leave'em be (and the other regular posters from earlier) without complaining too much about the bandwidth of their enthusiasm.
That being said, two solid suggestions were made. They are already beginning to be implemented in posts:
- post a clear header [who is your charname] and a link to previous posts of the same run, for easy reading
- better manage large images [forum experts will chime in naturally on what works best; maybe spoiler tags?]. But images are a very good thing. We should not complain that these folks are making so much effort to tell a *visual* story.
Also, post style should be optional (as is, e.g., the house rules of each run). That thread purposely stayed away from being prescriptive on what people should do.
Personally, I also find continued trilogy runs (BG1->BG2->TOB; now also with SoD) natural, instead of, say, looking at 4 separate threads. Most people (myself included) only play start-from-Candlekeep trilogy stories. (IWD posts have always been rare; possibly <5% of total post volume.)
Basically, I suggest to err away from too much micromanagement of a superbly supportive and articulate group of people. Many of them veterans for over a decade and, quite frankly, responsible for why we even have the EE games in the first place.
Ah, for Bhall's sake, I hope this will not degenerate into a means of micromanaging people's posting habits.
Basically, I suggest to err away from too much micromanagement of a superbly supportive and articulate group of people. Many of them veterans for over a decade and, quite frankly, responsible for why we even have the EE games in the first place.
If the thread format make it difficult to follow the runs, it defeats the whole point of posting in a forum to begin with. They post for others to read, not to marvel at their own words.
Comments
One of the things we do is separate the threads by 'stories' and 'comments'. It has been extremely effective and almost universally welcomed.
This format allows people to easily view the contributions all at once (in this forum they would be no-reload run summaries) without wading through what could be an avalanche of comments, off-topic posts, jokes, silliness and general commentary/banter. It also makes specific content (a certain no-reload run, a certain poster's current runs) more easily and quickly found, as actual content posts are usually much smaller in number than comments.
This is not a perfect solution as it can make the discussion disjointed for some, with comments continually referring to out-of-thread content. However, it does help make the actual content, whether it be stories or no-reload updates, more easily perused. People can and do 'keep up' much easier, at least those people who would prefer to see only the content updates and skip a lot of the comments until they are actually ready to say something. I've never had any complaints from the chatty-Cathy's who are in it to banter back and forth among the comments.
I did not see such a format 'solution' mentioned here yet, so I merely wanted to mention that it is one way of handling high volume thread topics if the admins ever come to the decision that there is a problem and something needs to be done.
It is a boon that the Bioware people decided to come on over and join us. They are superbly knowledgeable -- yet also very personable and supportive. (A rarity in gaming forums!)
I'd say leave'em be (and the other regular posters from earlier) without complaining too much about the bandwidth of their enthusiasm.
That being said, two solid suggestions were made. They are already beginning to be implemented in posts:
- post a clear header [who is your charname] and a link to previous posts of the same run, for easy reading
- better manage large images [forum experts will chime in naturally on what works best; maybe spoiler tags?]. But images are a very good thing. We should not complain that these folks are making so much effort to tell a *visual* story.
Also, post style should be optional (as is, e.g., the house rules of each run). That thread purposely stayed away from being prescriptive on what people should do.
Personally, I also find continued trilogy runs (BG1->BG2->TOB; now also with SoD) natural, instead of, say, looking at 4 separate threads. Most people (myself included) only play start-from-Candlekeep trilogy stories. (IWD posts have always been rare; possibly <5% of total post volume.)
Basically, I suggest to err away from too much micromanagement of a superbly supportive and articulate group of people. Many of them veterans for over a decade and, quite frankly, responsible for why we even have the EE games in the first place.
Make it 1000, and i consider to read that.