Newbie/Birthday threads...

[Ø]

Just a general pondering here, feel free to disagree with me, banish me, whatever... but I'm starting to think that there ought to be a whole new sub-forum for these kind of threads to make newbies feel welcome and birthday people feel special Lots of other Forum sites do it, including my native forum (UKAN).

My reasoning? well... I know it's nice to welcome people to the boards when they're new, or wish someone happy birthday, but am I the only one who's starting to find them a little annoying? I mean, they can't really be discussed and apart from the few people who say something mad and random to liven them up, people more or less repeat themselves throughout the whole thread. So... yeah... what do you think? Separate forum? or am I just mad :rolleyes2

[Roogle]

Since this is kind of like feedback, I'll just move it in there, 'kay?

[Shoyku]

I can agree with you here, I just try to not bother with those threads most of the time anymore. I wouldn't mind a sub-forum in which I wouldn't have to bother seeing them anymore. This would also mean no more disguised birthday threads, which would also be rather beneficial for me.

[TheAbominatrix]

I like the idea. I enjoy birthday threads especially, and newbie threads are okay, and in a way kind of beneficial because it gives the newbie a good idea of the forum in general, and what sort of people s/he will be spending his/her time with. A seperate forum would be nice, perhaps a sub-forum of General Chat. And it would be especially nice for the people who dont like to see them or participate in them.

[Dr Unne]

Pretty sure this has been suggested approximately 753 billion times already.

[m4tt]

Originally posted by Dr Unne
Pretty sure this has been suggested approximately 753 billion times already.

And ever time it's been shot down, as you can see.

[Loony BoB]

Often Newbie threads have topics inside them aswell, and a lot of people would miss out on contributing to those. Also, having a newbie forum would only further encourage people to come and post the same thing as the people before them. One thing I noticed from other forums which had newbie forums is that all the newbie threads were pretty much the same - here in EoFF, 50% of newbie threads have their own unique little twist.

There's something about having the newbie threads in General Chat / EoEO that makes it a lot more friendly, welcoming, comfortable and just nice for the newbies. And everyone was a newbie at one point, and I'm pretty confident that most people will agree when I say that the newbie days in EoFF have a kind of 'magic' to them, and I think that that is just one of the reasons for it.

Oh, and 'no'. =P

We should really make a FAQ for the Feedback Forum that explains the things that will never happen (including: Tech Forum, Newbie Forum, Events Forum (ie, leaving, birthday, coming back, etc), Food Forum, Anime Forum, seperate Music, TV, Film and Sport Forums, Sig Preview hacks, Forum Mods, Header/Footer hacks ... uhm... what else was there? Hrmm...

[Dr Unne]

Spam forum.

[Loony BoB]

Ooh, right. Good one. I always miss one of them.

[Citizen Bleys]

I still want a Tech forum. Help isn't as good in the sack as ShinraTech or AnimeOnline's Tech Zone.

[PhoenixAsh]

How bout adding a rule for birthday threads so they have to have 'Birthday' in the the title in brackets. It does get a little annoying opening up threads with vague titles to find another birthday thread.

I'd suggest something similar for hello threads but I don't think many people would remember to do it.

[The Man]

I don't think anyone would NOTICE the rule, to be honest.

And yes, I agree with birthday thread titles having "[Birthday]" in brackets, I find the disguised thread titles annoying myself

[Burtsplurt]

Yeah, some kind of clue as to who's birthday it is woudn't go amiss as well. I'd usually only look at the thread if it's someone I like (which is most people, so ignore me).

If a new forum does appear (doesn't matter what it is) would it replace that hotbed of conversation, The Study Forum?

[Flying Mullet]

Originally posted by Burtsplurt
If a new forum does appear (doesn't matter what it is) would it replace that hotbed of conversation, The Study Forum?

The study forum is probably dead right now because a lot of people are on summer holidays. It will be interesting to see how the forum is in October, and especially around Christmas time when a lot of people have finals and papers due.

[Burtsplurt]

Originally posted by Flying Mullet
The study forum is probably dead right now because a lot of people are on summer holidays. It will be interesting to see how the forum is in October, and especially around Christmas time when a lot of people have finals and papers due.

Nope, I'm guessing it's still going to be dead. Unless a Final Fantasy-loving professor signs up, in which case it might get a little more popular.