Feedback Wanted on New Megathread/Unveiling Thread Policy

[Sec19Row53]

A downside to splitting and/or merging threads is that your 'last read point' gets lost, so you re-reading or missing out on stuff.

 

At least, that has happened to me, in particular with the LA megathread.

[BBTV]

5 hours ago, officeglenn said:

 

Yeah, this was started while gathering feedback on the new policy, but the game ball item was its own thread before getting merged in. 

Ideally it would be separate threads -- one starting with the Mavs' tweet, one starting with the game ball item, one on the Lakers' gold (which may not generate much discussion). The Spurs fiesta set hasn't been backed up by any report from outside the boards, so it and all the other speculation could go into a Sports Logos Discussion thread.

 

However, at this point, I'm willing to grandfather in existing megathreads since it would be a fair bit of work right now to split that up.

 

Doesn't this illustrate the point though?  We have a thread, where the sources are kinda similar, but under the new rules would be split into multiple threads that are in two different forums.  Doesn't that just sound needlessly complicated, and won't people just make them in the wrong place anyway?

 

As it stands, we're going to have a megathread that includes legit (Mavs) and speculative (everything else) until (at least) something is actually unveiled, which wouldn't be until sometime before the season, so who knows when?  And since we're potentially going to be talking about a lot of teams (assuming that there's legit confirms at some point), we're going to have the exact issue that the megathread policy is supposed to avoid, no?

 

And if it's "a fair bit of work right now to split that up", so it just stands, wouldn't future ones also be "a fair bit of work" to split, and just stand too?

[officeglenn]

16 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

Doesn't this illustrate the point though?  We have a thread, where the sources are kinda similar, but under the new rules would be split into multiple threads that are in two different forums.  Doesn't that just sound needlessly complicated, and won't people just make them in the wrong place anyway?

 

As it stands, we're going to have a megathread that includes legit (Mavs) and speculative (everything else) until (at least) something is actually unveiled, which wouldn't be until sometime before the season, so who knows when?  And since we're potentially going to be talking about a lot of teams (assuming that there's legit confirms at some point), we're going to have the exact issue that the megathread policy is supposed to avoid, no?

 

And if it's "a fair bit of work right now to split that up", so it just stands, wouldn't future ones also be "a fair bit of work" to split, and just stand too?

 

I don't know if this adequately addresses your points, and I can't speak for the rest of the moderating team, but with this new policy, I guess I've come to realize it's not going to be any less work than under the old system — it's just a matter of where that effort is directed. Personally, I would rather expend the effort to move, split or merge threads to keep them organized early on (preferably earlier than the NBA 2020-21 thread, which I may still take a crack at splitting up once we finalize the policy) than to have to slog through 20+ pages of a megathread and make judgement calls on MOD EDITs and possible suspensions if things really get off the rails. I find the latter draining, and I would much rather put in the time to head things off at the pass before it gets to that stage. 

 

I think we're all in agreement that megathreads suck. But there is no perfect solution to getting rid of them. So far, these are the best solutions we can think of. But that's why I wanted to put it out for feedback before implementing anything. If anyone has any suggestions on how it could work better, I'm all ears. To that end, I'm going to keep this thread open through the weekend to gather any other input we can.

 

And it won't be set in stone once implemented either. If it's not working and we need to go back and tweak, I have no qualms about doing that.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I think there are a few different issues:

 

- Uniform unveilings: each team should have its own thread

 

- In-season discussion: each league should have its own thread

 

- Generic off-season discussion: this is where the problems lie. At what point do you split off rumors from news? I don't know. It seems like you can only really officially do so once a uniform is officially unveiled.

 

So therefore my proposed system is:

- Merge News and Discussion forums. You discuss on both and the distinctions between the two are arbitrary at best

- Create off-season rumors threads for each league

- Create In-season discussion threads for each league

- Only create a separate team thread when either a uniform is unveiled or an unveiling is officially confirmed/scheduled (note "officially)

 

[BBTV]

1 hour ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

 

- Only create a separate team thread when either a uniform is unveiled or an unveiling is officially confirmed/scheduled (note "officially)

 

 

Not sure about this one.  The Browns change has been a discussion since 2017.  Any megathread is eventually going to start getting dominated by certain teams, and it's lousy to want to talk about the Browns, but there's 5 pages of the Titans in between every Browns comment, but they're not split because we're still a year or so from the unveiling.

 

Short answer - there's no perfect way to handle it.  Common sense should win out, but ultimately there's going to be someone that's unhappy with whatever decision is made.

 

Final comments* before this locks:

 

1) I hope this was a genuine request for feedback, and not simply a heads up veiled as a discussion.  If so, and if the discussion was actually read by the decision makers, then awesome, even if the suggestions aren't adopted.  This is how it should be.

 

2) Whatever decision is made, splitting discussions between forums isn't the right choice.  

2.a) There's no need for both forums, but if they stay separated, then team discussions shouldn't span.

 

3) Once threads start to get out of hand (to the point where it's "too much trouble to split"), which is inevitable, common sense should say that someone (pref a mod) would just know when to create a new thread for a team, and if previous comments get lost because of the work involved in splitting?  So what.  Nobody is saying anything so profound that it's a big loss. 

 

It's a sports logos forum, where we moan and complain about contrast stitching, piping, and get fired up over gray facemasks.  Let's not over complicate or over legislate it.  If I wake up at 3AM with a dying need to express how I feel about the connected line in the webbing of the new BiG, I just want to go do it.

 

 

 

*maybe.., depends on when it locks.

[infrared41]

34 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

1) I hope this was a genuine request for feedback, and not simply a heads up veiled as a discussion.  If so, and if the discussion was actually read by the decision makers, then awesome, even if the suggestions aren't adopted.  This is how it should be.

 

I can assure you that this thread is a genuine request for feedback. Full disclosure, I just made a suggestion that addressed one of your concerns. 

 

 

[charger77]

2 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

I think there are a few different issues:

 

- Uniform unveilings: each team should have its own thread

 

- In-season discussion: each league should have its own thread

 

- Generic off-season discussion: this is where the problems lie. At what point do you split off rumors from news? I don't know. It seems like you can only really officially do so once a uniform is officially unveiled.

 

So therefore my proposed system is:

- Merge News and Discussion forums. You discuss on both and the distinctions between the two are arbitrary at best

- Create off-season rumors threads for each league

- Create In-season discussion threads for each league

- Only create a separate team thread when either a uniform is unveiled or an unveiling is officially confirmed/scheduled (note "officially)

 

 

Pretty good plan

[DG_ThenNowForever]

1 hour ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

Not sure about this one.  The Browns change has been a discussion since 2017.  Any megathread is eventually going to start getting dominated by certain teams, and it's lousy to want to talk about the Browns, but there's 5 pages of the Titans in between every Browns comment, but they're not split because we're still a year or so from the unveiling.

 

 

To address that you could:

- Make a dedicated thread for each Big 4 team and tightly regulate conversation to each thread is limited to that team. I think that's the worst outcome.

- Spin off threads as-needed if one team is dominating an off-season or in-season thread.

- Accept that discussion for each team peaks and valleys within an omnibus thread, and you can't really do anything about it.

- Create team-by-team rumor threads as warranted to supplement official unveiling threads (similar to the Tampa and LA threads)

 

Whatever way you go, you still need to merge News and Discussion.

[Sec19Row53]

Not sure how this change would address the 2020 MLB Changes thread. The latest discussion is of the Philadelphia Flyers orange.

[BBTV]

2 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Not sure how this change would address the 2020 MLB Changes thread. The latest discussion is of the Philadelphia Flyers orange.

 

I'll take care of that.  I'll compare the Flyers orange to pumpkins, steer the conversation to halloween, then segue to WCW Halloween Havoc, then the next two pages will naturally be about wrestling.  Would have happened eventually anyway.

[Sec19Row53]

23 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

I'll take care of that.  I'll compare the Flyers orange to pumpkins, steer the conversation to halloween, then segue to WCW Halloween Havoc, then the next two pages will naturally be about wrestling.  Would have happened eventually anyway.

I double dog dare you

[BBTV]

17 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

I double dog dare you

 

I skipped a few steps.

 

I think this is just another one of those quarantine-related outliers.  There's no baseball, no uniform news to talk about, people with time to post, and this board's two favorite past times are hockey and wrestling, so here we are.  I'll concede, that's a lot of hockey talk in a baseball thread even for this board.

 

[Sec19Row53]

There's probably a point after the release of the uniform and before the season begins where there's little sense in having the unveiling threads open for comment. Anyone who has wanted to state an opinion has probably done so. There are only so many rankings for best/worst that are needed. Until they are seen on the field in game action, what's the point?

[BBTV]

8 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

There's probably a point after the release of the uniform and before the season begins where there's little sense in having the unveiling threads open for comment. Anyone who has wanted to state an opinion has probably done so. There are only so many rankings for best/worst that are needed. Until they are seen on the field in game action, what's the point?

 

This reminds me of something I thought of a while back:

 

Rankings are kinda like realignments in a way.  They just start off a string of someone's personal 1, 2, 3, blah blah blah, and no actual content.  

 

There should be a "pointless uniform rankings outpost" thread, just like there's one for realignments.  That might be worth it's own forum, with a thread per league, just to keep that stuff out of the main threads.

[BBTV]

i meant "pointless uniform rankings outpost" thread.