Cafe Announcements 📣 Should word games be in the New Posts list?

[Pete Thomas]

I noticed we have a couple of word games going on plus the gen. chat daily check in so sometimes the actual saxophone related posts are a bit swamped.

A while back there was some heated debate on SOTW about this, ie some members didn't want the OT stuff in the New Posts but other members did.

So I'm wondering whether it would be a good idea or not to remove those from NEW POSTS. ie does it rankle with anyone? (Obviously they are still accessible from the Breakfast Room in the Forum List)

What do we all think?

 

[Targa]

I don't see any reason to move them.
Then there is Wildlife and Pets with new topics such as sheds and electric cars.
Would you have to create a subsection 'new posts not sax' for them?

 

[Pete Thomas]

I don't see any reason to move them.
Then there is Wildlife and Pets with new topics such as sheds and electric cars.
Would you have to create a subsection 'new posts not sax' for them?

No, that would mean the entire Breakfastroom. I only mentioned the word games and checkin because they are bumped very frequently and possibly go on forever. Other OT topics like TVs will (hopefully) die (albeit a slow and painful death)

 

[mizmar]

IMHO it's not that bad as things stand.
On sotw, with more "games" and users it could reach saturation very often.

 

[Pete Thomas]

IMHO it's not that bad as things stand.
On sotw, with more "games" and users it could reach saturation very often.

My concern would be for non-members, ie if they want a saxophone forum but are put off by too much OT chat.

 

[mizmar]

My concern would be for non-members, ie if they want a saxophone forum but are put off by too much OT chat.

Fair enough - but can't a form be hidden from people not actually signed in / search?
Indeed, if / when one browses SOTW without logging in, it would be much more interesting/appealing with the quizzes hidden.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Fair enough - but can't a form be hidden from people not actually signed in / search?

Indeed it can, but only a whole forum not specific threads and maybe we don't want it to look there are no OT posts at all. I think the Breakfastroom shows a thriving community with interesting outside interests.

 

[mizmar]

Swings and roundabouts!

 

[Wonko]

I'm not interested in the word games but I find the daily check in interesting.
I would keep them all in the new posts page (they are new posts after all).
I just filter out what I want to read, that filter is going to be different for every individual.

 

[Pete Thomas]

I just filter out what I want to read, that filter is going to be different for every individual.

Yes that's why we have the filter/ignore system for logged in members

 

[rhysonsax]

I was one of the main people over on SOTW pushing for the (annoying and tedious) games threads to be excludable from the New list if a User wanted to not see them.

As is fairly typical of SOTW much of the response was about how I was wrong and stupid, as I should just look past them and not click on them if I didn't want to read them. And also why should other people be deprived of their enjoyment and preferred experience (which was not what I suggested or wanted).

My view then and now is that technology can allow users to tailor their experience to their own preferences and keep every forum user pretty much happy.

Unless the Cafe gets inundated with lots and lots of new threads of word games, then I am happy that forum members can easily ignore individual threads that don't interest or annoy them and those will not keep reappearing on the New listing.

Rhys

 

[mizmar]

My concern would be for non-members

Looking at both the cafe front page and New, from a not logged in page, I think it looks like a good mix; plenty of really interesting sax threads, some door bell, some OT.

New, unlike Latest Activity, isn't vulnerable to a disproportionately active thread which can saturate a page... A few OT threads spinning out and games doesn't appear to break anything.
For everything else, there's Ignore.

 

[Jeanette]

At the moment I think it's fine, the non sax ones are quite newly revived/ created and I suspect will dry up again at some point, until revived further down the line.

Jx

 

[Nell]

I’ve noticed that the word games and general chat often drown out the saxophone posts, which is a bit frustrating when you’re just looking for sax-related stuff. I remember there was a big debate about this on SOTW a while back. Some people didn’t want the off-topic posts in the New Posts feed, while others didn’t mind.

Personally, I’d be all for removing the non-sax content from New Posts. It would make it easier to find the discussions about saxophones without having to wade through everything else. The Breakfast Room will still be there for the non-sax stuff, so it seems like a fair compromise.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Personally, I’d be all for removing the non-sax content from New Posts. It would make it easier to find the discussions about saxophones without having to wade through everything else

All you need do is use the ignore button for those threads and they are gone.

 

[Targa]

I don't see in what way they 'drown out' saxophone posts.
The first page of 'new posts' has twenty entries, recently two were 'games' and now just the one.
Hardly any 'wading through' needed.

 

[Pete Thomas]

I don't see in what way they 'drown out' saxophone posts.

When I originally made this post I think there were more. However as I mentioned all members have the option to remove them from showing.