Alright... What to do? (gated, organic, live)

[Traveler87]

The Ohio chat sticky didn't go like I had planned. Seems like everyone, even in the smaller states that don't have even half the posts that the Ohio forum has, seem to have somewhat successful chat threads. If the thread does not start up soon, I want to take that sticky away and replace it with something more commentable if you will.

In the chat thread you talk about anything from the economy, politics, weather, jobs, family life, etc. Its a good way to keep other threads from getting off topic; something that happens quite a bit on this site.

So, if the Ohio chat thread does not start up soon, what are some ideas for a new sticky, a successful one?

[000000]

be happy that people are conversing in the other topics and not try to force anything, even one person's sense of order, on to people at large.


limiting all off-topic discussion to one thread will only stand to make one absurdly unreadable and undiscussable thread. one that is not welcoming to people who are already discussing matters in threads which sometimes organically expand beyond the original intent of a thread. furthermore, a sub-forum is a much more logical way of separating off-topic discussion so as to give all off-topic discussions to be easily readable by humans who do not have all of the time in the world to sift through a potential behemoth of a thread.

[Traveler87]

Originally Posted by 000000

be happy that people are conversing in the other topics and not try to force anything, even one person's sense of order, on to people at large.


limiting all off-topic discussion to one thread will only stand to make one absurdly unreadable and undiscussable thread. one that is not welcoming to people who are already discussing matters in threads which sometimes organically expand beyond the original intent of a thread. furthermore, a sub-forum is a much more logical way of separating off-topic discussion so as to give all off-topic discussions to be easily readable by humans who do not have all of the time in the world to sift through a potential behemoth of a thread.

I see what you are getting at here, but what I am talking about is a sticky. A chat sticky is a perfect way for people to talk about anything from politics, weather ( which we can talk about a lot lately), jobs, your day at work, vacations, anything.

I have seen some states with their own weather sticky.

One state had a political sticky, which we have a forum just for that so I would like to keep that one out of the picture.

But I need ideas. If people are not willing to chat, what else could we start to get people talking and just converse, without being on the spot of a question.

What are some ideas?

[000000]

Originally Posted by Traveler87

I see what you are getting at here, but what I am talking about is a sticky.

a sticky is just another thread with the exception that it does not get sunk down as newer posts are written. this holds true throughout message board systems throughout the internet. there is no technical difference (all stickys are threads, but not all threads are stickys). the only difference is that you posted something with good intentions and it didn't pan out exactly the way you wanted it to go.

what i was getting at is that we, the users, bother to take the time to respond to questions on this board as we do. i seriously doubt that advameg is paying anyone here anything for enriching the value of their property while also helping each other. that is cool. no one is doing anything wrong. we are not collectively trying to impress the pennsylvania board, or the california board, or any other board, and what works there might not work here (you have even deemed it not to have worked with your first go round).

furthermore, we might not have anything off-topic of interest to discuss right now. we haven't failed because there are only so many interesting things that go on in our lives that need a public airing. we could be resting.

Originally Posted by Traveler87

A chat sticky is a perfect way for people to talk about anything from politics, weather ( which we can talk about a lot lately), jobs, your day at work, vacations, anything.

if it were perfect, you would not have started a thread about another thread that you started. i again mention that most people do not like reading through entire twisty threads that become unreadable because everyone is talking about everything all at once. while it may make you feel that the board is "cleaner", clearly that sole thread ran out of steam and has created an additional thread about the sole thread's percieved failures.


i have never seen a "chat sticky" work for anything on any other message board other than to give mods/admins power trips. that since there is a chat thread somewhere else, they get to have a small degree of power over regular users by telling user they are wrong. many users will step in line. others will object to being told that they did something wrong for bothering to reply.
i am not saying that this is your motivation. i do not know you well enough to ever write that is for sure what it is. i want to think that you are sincere in wanting to make the ohio forum more inviting to people. i have seen the proposed method fail too often to have any hope.

Originally Posted by Traveler87

But I need ideas. If people are not willing to chat, what else could we start to get people talking and just converse, without being on the spot of a question.

let it be known that people can start such "off-topic" threads as needed and let people organically converse. if you try to stop this from happening, it likely will happen anyway unless you want to be up all day and night preventing it.

[000000]

if we are the only two discussing it, it also may not be that important or interesting to the community.

[Alaskapat528]

Originally Posted by 000000

a sticky is just another thread with the exception that it does not get sunk down as newer posts are written. this holds true throughout message board systems throughout the internet. there is no technical difference (all stickys are threads, but not all threads are stickys). the only difference is that you posted something with good intentions and it didn't pan out exactly the way you wanted it to go.

what i was getting at is that we, the users, bother to take the time to respond to questions on this board as we do. i seriously doubt that advameg is paying anyone here anything for enriching the value of their property while also helping each other. that is cool. no one is doing anything wrong. we are not collectively trying to impress the pennsylvania board, or the california board, or any other board, and what works there might not work here (you have even deemed it not to have worked with your first go round).

furthermore, we might not have anything off-topic of interest to discuss right now. we haven't failed because there are only so many interesting things that go on in our lives that need a public airing. we could be resting.


if it were perfect, you would not have started a thread about another thread that you started. i again mention that most people do not like reading through entire twisty threads that become unreadable because everyone is talking about everything all at once. while it may make you feel that the board is "cleaner", clearly that sole thread ran out of steam and has created an additional thread about the sole thread's percieved failures.


i have never seen a "chat sticky" work for anything on any other message board other than to give mods/admins power trips. that since there is a chat thread somewhere else, they get to have a small degree of power over regular users by telling user they are wrong. many users will step in line. others will object to being told that they did something wrong for bothering to reply. i am not saying that this is your motivation. i do not know you well enough to ever write that is for sure what it is. i want to think that you are sincere in wanting to make the ohio forum more inviting to people. i have seen the proposed method fail too often to have any hope.


let it be known that people can start such "off-topic" threads as needed and let people organically converse. if you try to stop this from happening, it likely will happen anyway unless you want to be up all day and night preventing it.

Actually, I've only seen this in rare cases on other chat threads. I do see it on a regular basis on many of the State's forums for other topics. You're always going to get someone who wants to put others down, name calling, etc. That's the only time I've ever seen a moderator step in.

[000000]

maybe city data is different, but i have been around the web and i am sure we all know things about human nature.

note that i also did say that i was not accusing him of doing this. i was saying that about the only thing putting multiple conversations into one thread does is allow for such type of moderation. it does not make for more discussion because the place where "off-topic" discussion is segregated to becomes a conceptual cluster****.