63 replies to this topic

[Fozzie]

Hey all, a couple of people have brought up the idea of consolidating Nightly to fewer, or even one, forum. There's also been talk of doing away with the archives.

My thought is, if we do it, I want to do it slowly. I would merge Star Wars/Movies & TV/Superheroes as the first phase, then if that works I'd merge the others into a large Entertainment board, with a subforum for games (fantasy football, reading challenges). Eventually we would end up with one massive board with subforum for games and horrible people to be horrible (aka the Lyceum).

For the archives, phase one would involve making them viewable for members with 1000+ posts, because of a) having an almost celebrity and b) not having our youthful stupidity on display. Eventually the archives would have only the real highlights - for example, I would want Thunderdroid's board stories to survive, and I'm sure there are some real highlights that wouldn't ruin anyone's life. We'd slowly cull them over time until that would happen. Additionally, we'd cut some of our backlog of active threads for the same reasons. If stuff is still open after a year without a post, it's not going to be resurrected. Stuff that's even older is gone and forgotten and nobody would miss it, again unless it's especially noteworthy and historic.

[Fozzie]

This thread is intended for opinions, not telling you a plan that's definitely going to happen.

[Poe Dameron]

For what it's worth, I think the forums are mostly fine the way they are.  The two specialty boards hold their own by Nightly 2018 standards, so I'd let them be.  And the lightly used boards like Video Games and Books are pretty much harmless.

 

The only obvious consolidation I'd suggest is to ax the sports subforums and merge them back into Sports.  WWE sometimes gets discussion going and it's a little strange that it's hidden in a subforum.

 

You'd be kinda surprised how often I go back in time looking for old conversations when some nostalgia hits me.  But I won't complain with whatever pruning you feel like doing.

[Jacen123]

I understand the idea of merging some of the forums, but I think it still makes sense to have a few separate ones, at least.

[Tank]

I like blackout boards and want to write a Star Wars movie some day so I say burn it all down.

I also, (here's the serious reply) rather enjoy breaking comfort. Nightly has been this way for eons. You may say, if it aint broke don't fix it-- but consolidation in my eyes would put more conversations in front of more people. There's not a ton of us, but we post in ven diagrams.

I like change. Change that promotes conversation is great. It's not like this would be some reddit mess. Keeping something the same just because it's always been that way isn't a strong reason for me.

As for the archives, I sometimes worry about them, but I probably shouldn't. We're in such a little corner of the internet, I certainly don't want my ego or paranoia ruining anybody's fun. But 90% of the content there is full of people who are no longer here.

As part of my service the people posting here now it doesn't do anything. Does it effect our storage space/rates?

[Poe Dameron]

I like change. Change that promotes conversation is great.

 

I think that's the question.  Would it promote conversation, or retard it?  I think not having an obvious place to put something makes it less likely it gets posted at all or be confined to the one thread on the subject.  For example, would someone bother to post a new thread for the "loosening" in Episode IX, or would Iceheart have just stuck it in the middle of the "Episode IX production spoilers" or whatever thread and get like one or two snarky replies and that's it?

 

We're already pretty minimalist.  I kinda think consolidating to one board would pretty much be turning off the lights.

[Poe Dameron]

Man, I think I just depressed myself.

[Destiny Skywalker]

I kind of agree that mass consolidation is essentially turning off the lights. We lost our way when we tried to pretend we weren't a Star Wars forum. If cost isn't an issue, I'm against it. We specialized in specialty, it's what made Nightly unique. But at the time we were too worried about our image and the appearance of traffic. Look where that got us.

I would be ok with pruning archives, even though they're fun.

[Odine]

I'm ambivalent. Willing to roll with whatever changes really. I can see and agree with both sides of the discussion. 

[Iceheart]

 

 

I think that's the question.  Would it promote conversation, or retard it?  I think not having an obvious place to put something makes it less likely it gets posted at all or be confined to the one thread on the subject.  

 

 

How far we have strayed from the "there's ALREADY a thread about this we can't clutter the board I'm merging these threads DO YOUR RESEARCH AND MAKE SURE YOU'RE NOT DUPLICATING A THREAD OMG!!!!" days of yore.

 

My take is that one huge forum will promote conversation. I don't have time to board surf. I'm aware of discussions here through the recent threads sidebar and the most recent post feature on the desktop version's homepage, hence why I can post a thread and ignore the resulting conversation for days - if it wasn't the last thing commented on in the forum, I will either assume no one posted a reply, or I'll forget I started a thread in the first place. I know I'm more likely to join and stay with a conversation if I can see them all in one handy place. I'd imagine it would be doubled for the mobile site users who don't see the extra features the desktop users do.

 

That being said, multiple forums with looser structures (say, three forums - Entertainment, Politics and Current Events, and General Discussion) would essentially do the same thing, but also keep some divisions in place.

[Tank]

I rarely use the main page, I fo immediately to the "new since my last visit" page which isn't confusing at all despite the list being from a variety of forums.

[Iceheart]

For 18 years, every time I say "this is how I Nightly" the response is always "you know, there's a feature for that!"

 

... and I have never, ever once used any of those features. Even when I adminned this place.

[Tank]

VIEW NEW CONTENT

 

It's all you need.

[Dark Wader]

 

That being said, multiple forums with looser structures (say, three forums - Entertainment, Politics and Current Events, and General Discussion) would essentially do the same thing, but also keep some divisions in place.

 

I think that's the best bet. Even if lately there seems to be a bit of crossover, please keep the political threads seperate to the entertainment ones.

[Lucas1138]

I, at least for now, fall into the "eh whatever, if it isn't broke don't fix it" camp. My gut instinct is that it wouldn't "help" matters (see: Poe's post).

 

If we do consolidate/delete archives or whatever, my request to keep would be any of the Jeopardy! games.

 

I'm a sentimental packrat in real life and it's the same thing here. I've always hated the idea of deleting anything at any time, no matter how mundane. Dumb, but just how I am.

[El Chalupacabra]

I'm ambivalent. Willing to roll with whatever changes really. I can see and agree with both sides of the discussion. 

Same here.

 

My only other input is I wouldn't have a problem if the archives go. Maybe if there is a way to save them in document form, and place them on a google drive or drop box for those interested in them to download.  But personally, I don't really read archives, let alone threads more than a couple years ago.  

[David]

Im all for change. I think Star Wars forum needs to stay where its at. Then maybe an entertainment forum that includes movies, superhero discussion, video games, books and music all in one place. Keep sports the way it is but get rid of all the sub forum nonsense. Wrestling is a sport. Stop it. Then keep Cantina in its own forum and delete Lyceum.


As far as archives, delete that ****. I was a pompous prick in my youth and reading most of that **** in there is embarrassing.

[Jacen123]

I second keeping the Star Wars board separate, regardless of whatever else may be done.

[Zerimar Nyliram]

Two forums: Star Wars and everything else.

[Cashmere]

I only ever use the "new content" feature, so forums don't really register for me.

[Iceheart]

Yeah, okay...

 

The New Content feature is pretty cool. Even though I still did not just start there when I logged on today.

 

And now that I know about it's existence, while I'm still for pairing down the forums (if only so the board doesn't look quite as dead as it does when there are forums that have gone weeks with no activity), it seems like that's the perfect solution for people who don't like forums vs. people who do.

[Poe Dameron]

And now that I know about it's existence, while I'm still for pairing down the forums (if only so the board doesn't look quite as dead as it does when there are forums that have gone weeks with no activity), it seems like that's the perfect solution for people who don't like forums vs. people who do.

Agreed.  If people who want it basically already have one forum, seems the compromise is already in place.

[Tank]

But I want to actively ruin it for people who have a different opinion than me. It's part of my manifesting a job writing a Star Wars movie.

[Fozzie]

To actively ruin it for people who have a different opinion than me.

That's the Nightly mission statement

[3 & 6 years to go...]

If the archives are taking up too much space, and a small number of people access that information, then I say slowly start getting rid of that data.

 

It has some classic stuff in there, but as was said most of the people that you will see posting in there are no longer here.  Shame.

 

Lando was always close to my heart.