Limiting the Length of Threads/Adding new Categories

[Chienmortbb]

Some threads become too long and just a public chat between members. the Interesting FRFR thread inAmps and Cabs is one such thread. Anyone wnating to get info on FRFR could wade through thoosands of posts that go off in all directions. Anotgher of these is the DIY Effects thread.

As I see it there are two solutions, either limit threads to a certain nymber of posts ( I believe they limit threads to 1000 posst on the other place). Alternatively, if there is enough interest on one thread, it should be considered for its own category,

[ped]

IME there's no way to limit what happens naturally on the forum - a new poster would be just as well to join in and ask for info or start a new thread.

[Beedster]

I agree with the OP. I've found over the last few years that if I want technical information or opinion on bass gear I tend not to see Basschat as my first port of call for this reason. Whilst the community spirit is an upside, the downside is that off-topic banter it can make it very time-intense to find the information that you need. Talkbass is better, but still suffers from the same problems to a degree (although there the problem is more often antagonism between members than community spirit). A lot of threads here also become post after post of action/reaction "I did it and it worked perfectly" followed by "Well I did it and it didn't work at all", which means they run and run without really providing an answer to original question. Difficult one, I guess the mods spend most of their time stopping off topic going bad and policing the marketplace and don't have time to occasionally remind members that the thread is about bass/gear/music and not whatever it has become about.

I wonder if some of our more experienced and informed members (and moderators?) spent less time in OT and more time opining on matters bass/gear/music this would be less of a problem

[gjones]

I think this threads gone on too long.

[ped]

46 minutes ago, Beedster said:

I agree with the OP. I've found over the last few years that if I want technical information or opinion on bass gear I tend not to see Basschat as my first port of call for this reason. Whilst the community spirit is an upside, the downside is that off-topic banter it can make it very time-intense to find the information that you need. Talkbass is better, but still suffers from the same problems to a degree (although there the problem is more often antagonism between members than community spirit). A lot of threads here also become post after post of action/reaction "I did it and it worked perfectly" followed by "Well I did it and it didn't work at all", which means they run and run without really providing an answer to original question. Difficult one, I guess the mods spend most of their time stopping off topic going bad and policing the marketplace and don't have time to occasionally remind members that the thread is about bass/gear/music and not whatever it has become about.

I wonder if some of our more experienced and informed members (and moderators?) spent less time in OT and more time opining on matters bass/gear/music this would be less of a problem

I don't see that at all if I'm honest. Every day there are threads full of helpful advice. It's perfectly natural once the question has been answered that users start to wander and go off topic, but that doesn't stop the next person jumping in and asking something else - or if it does then people apparently feel quite happy to start a new topic and get a lot of advice and help very quickly. I think we're much better at that than Talkbass.

Typically it can be hard for long term users to see this as they become so familiar with the members and ways of the site that to them it looks like nothing is new and that things should be in a WIKI or some such (a typical response on TB is 'use the search function') but a revolving door or Q+A is the lifeblood of a forum and I'm very pleased with how welcoming and friendly people are here. Mods don't need to step in because there's nothing to do, the place moderates itself (sometimes even in OT!)

[Chienmortbb]

It is a minor niggle I agree but the two threads I am interested in just get ignored as they are two long. I suppose the only other way is to suggest that people start a new thread when they have something new to say. This would prevent threads being hijacked or just ranbling on. Socially distanced threads

Edited July 10, 2020 by Chienmortbb

[Beedster]

53 minutes ago, ped said:

Mods don't need to step in because there's nothing to do, the place moderates itself (sometimes even in OT!)

Depends on how you see the role of mods, on some forums they're there to keep things on topic, here they keep the peace

[stewblack]

On 10/07/2020 at 11:44, Chienmortbb said:

It is a minor niggle I agree but the two threads I am interested in just get ignored as they are two long. I suppose the only other way is to suggest that people start a new thread when they have something new to say. This would prevent threads being hijacked or just ranbling on. Socially distanced threads

It's interesting, often when folk do start a new thread on a familiar topic they run the risk of the "oh God not this again" reaction. (Rude and unnecessary but not mod worthy) so you're kind of damned if you do and damned if you don't. 

I love the atmosphere and humour on Basschat. Start too much regulation and you might kill the very thing makes it a fun place. 

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by stewblack

[TheGreek]

I often think that subjects that have been covered before should be merged with the existing ones - as @stewblack suggests how many times can we do "what are the best strings/pickups/etc". 

Many subjects have their natural lifespan so will peter out long before the 1000 responses. 

[ped]

Threads like that are the lifeblood of forums. Advice changes, members who used to be new become the person who answers, and those who have been around for ages should just ignore and let them be repeated. Pointing people to old threads isn’t very welcoming and rarely that useful. Let people whet their appetite by discussing ‘the classics’ and before long they become more involved which benefits everyone. 

Otherwise Basschat would be a Wiki.   

[Happy Jack]

God, that takes me back. "Read the bloody Wiki ..."

Wasn't it Old Git that used to say that?

 

[Newfoundfreedom]

I've never understood the "Oh God, not this again" attitude on any forum, It really boils my p#ss when people are pulled up by older members who have seen similar threads numerous times.

Most, if not all forums are based around a single subject / hobby / lifestyle. (Bass playing being the most important, obviously) and as such there is always going to be a limited amount to be said about any given subject. 

At the same time, a forums life blood is new and returning members. So if all you have is a bunch of miserable gits complaining that something has been discussed before, then your forum isn't going to last very long. 

At the same time, on a lively forum, there are also going to be a lot of newer members that haven't seen any of the earlier posts on a given subject, that will be happy to discuss it. So it really wouldn't bother me if there was a different thread on the same subject every day of the week. If you don't like seeing it, then wind your neck in and move on to the next thread that interests you. "Been discussed before", "use the search feature", or "not this again", really doesn't do any forum any favours. 

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by Newfoundfreedom

[Chienmortbb]

As the OP I can see both sides. The threads that particulary interested me were the DIY Effects thread. It is so long and covers so mant types of effects and building methods that, in my opinion, it deserves a sub category in the same way the Lefties does in Bass Guitars.

The Interesting FRFR thread is the other one and I have stopped reading it. Again it meanders and often resembles a Helix supports thread.

Ironically I posted a piece of information in a long thread the other day and was castigated that i had already been mentiioned earlier in the thread. The very next post thanked me for posting the information. So I can see Ped's points and they are valid.

With the FRFR thread I have just stopped reading it although I see that it is a good resource for some. With the DIY Effects thread, I still think it deserves a sub-category.

 

[Baxlin]

I agree to some extent with the OP on this, and if I’m going to ask a particular question which can’t be answered by rtfm, I’ll usually read/search first, before posting, as in the ‘read before posting’ thread.

That’s OK when coming in ‘cold’, but if while reading a thread, if it prompts you to ask or comment, which, while being appropriate and related, might be a tad away from the core thread subject, then on this forum it doesn’t always work, for me at least. 

This is because I have my Favourites listing to default to Unread posts, and if I leave the thread to search the forum,  when I come back to it, it’s no longer ‘Unread’, so it has disappeared, and has to be searched for again.  On other forums, such as the Volvo OC,  back means literally going back through the pages last visited, ie back to where you were.

Having rambled through all that, it’s not really life changing either way:  the way this forum is built has advantages others don’t, so I just take the rough with the smooth.

[SpondonBassed]

You might as well try and stop people from reposting jokes from the Bad Jokes topic in the Bad Jokes topic.

It's fine by me.  I get the OP's point and sometimes find myself frustrated by meandering topics too.  Unlike Internet search engines though, searching BC you don't get other search engines touting for business among the results.  THAT's irritating.

Edited September 25, 2020 by SpondonBassed

[Beedster]

On 10/07/2020 at 10:04, Beedster said:

I agree with the OP. I've found over the last few years that if I want technical information or opinion on bass gear I tend not to see Basschat as my first port of call for this reason. Whilst the community spirit is an upside, the downside is that off-topic banter it can make it very time-intense to find the information that you need. Talkbass is better, but still suffers from the same problems to a degree (although there the problem is more often antagonism between members than community spirit). A lot of threads here also become post after post of action/reaction "I did it and it worked perfectly" followed by "Well I did it and it didn't work at all", which means they run and run without really providing an answer to original question. Difficult one, I guess the mods spend most of their time stopping off topic going bad and policing the marketplace and don't have time to occasionally remind members that the thread is about bass/gear/music and not whatever it has become about.

I wonder if some of our more experienced and informed members (and moderators?) spent less time in OT and more time opining on matters bass/gear/music this would be less of a problem

On reflection I was over-critical above. I'd like to add that if you ask a specific question on this forum, and you frame it well, thereby constraining the range of answers and the degree to which opinion might overpower knowledge and experience, you can get some really valuable advice here. I think part of the problem I was trying to describe above is that a lot of threads start out pretty vague and get progressively worse.  

[BigRedX]

I wouldn't be so bad if it was actually possible to search for your own posts within a thread. 

Often I come back to a very long thread - especially if I have already contributed and wonder exactly what my previous contribution was, so any new post I make is not simply a rehash of what I said a year or so ago. Unfortunately as I have already discovered this is not possible, so unless I know for sure that my new contribution is based on recent experience or information I have only recently discovered, I'll mostly likely pass.

[fleabag]

Rambling over long thread ?

https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/352620-den-of-iniquity-thread/

 

[SpondonBassed]

23 minutes ago, fleabag said:

Rambling over long thread ?

https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/352620-den-of-iniquity-thread/

 

Yust.

We're about to hit the thousand page mark in little over a year.  It's ALL total rubbish.  We're really quite proud of it because it kept a LOT of us near sanity during the lockdown.  Its founding OP, @Teebs may not have known what a monster it would become when he dared us to all share our "inner loons".  In fact he disappeared a while ago seemingly overwhelmed by the number of twerps that he was regularly being confronted by...

He's back though and the page count has accelerated ever closer to the prized kilopage.

(It really shouldn't be allowed.  You can blame Douglas (@Dad3353) because not only has he allowed it to become the festering mass of bored bassist off-topic culture that it is... he's one of the worthy contributors to the lunacy also!  Somebody chuck him a marmalade sandwich... PLEASE?)

Edited September 26, 2020 by SpondonBassed

[Dad3353]

Mmm..! Marmalade sandwich..! (... but I prefer tea...)

Edited September 28, 2020 by Dad3353