UPDATE: Beyond and Bilge Talkback Topic - General Tiki

H Humuhumu Member San Francisco Joined: Aug 22, 2002 Posts: 3691	H Humuhumu Posted posted on Wed, Aug 31, 2005 5:23 PM Sabu hits the nail on the head here -- the Bilge and Beyond areas are attention sinks, in terms of both TC readers and the time spent on moderating things. I think the issue is even more complex -- I believe that the growing popularity of Bilge and Beyond skew the overall tone for the site. Beyond and Bilge have been great for giving us a place to put non-tiki threads, but one problem I see is that otherwise informative tiki topics seem to be getting pulled off-track by joking posts that have a distinct Beyond/Bilge color to them. It can be argued that it's just not possible to put the genie back in the bottle, but I think it's worth trying. We want to make Tiki Central as informative a place as we can, and it takes effort to do that: first and foremost, that involves knowledgeable members sharing what they know, but we as moderators have a responsibility to make sure that information is presented in an accessible manner. Doing what we can to try to reduce off-topic discussion can really help that. I can understand why it would appear to be counterintuitive, restricting access to off-topic areas in order to reduce off-topic discussion, but again my point is that those off-topic areas are setting the tone for the site, and de-emphasising them might get people thinking of tiki again when they go to post. Of course it is entirely possible that it could drive people to go off-topic in the tiki areas: my argument is that this is already happening. We want to start asking people to stay on-topic when that happens, which is going to mean a little more stepping-in by Hanford & moderators, but we don't mind doing that if the result is a more useful tiki website. We're trying to find ways to encourage talking tiki, and this is just one part of our attempts at that. Like Hanford said, we were tired of talking to folks about what we should do, and thought it was about time we actually tried something. It might get a little rough as we test it out, and we're so appreciative to those who are willing to give it a try and stick with us as we figure it out.

Sabu hits the nail on the head here -- the Bilge and Beyond areas are attention sinks, in terms of both TC readers and the time spent on moderating things. I think the issue is even more complex -- I believe that the growing popularity of Bilge and Beyond skew the overall tone for the site. Beyond and Bilge have been great for giving us a place to put non-tiki threads, but one problem I see is that otherwise informative tiki topics seem to be getting pulled off-track by joking posts that have a distinct Beyond/Bilge color to them.

It can be argued that it's just not possible to put the genie back in the bottle, but I think it's worth trying. We want to make Tiki Central as informative a place as we can, and it takes effort to do that: first and foremost, that involves knowledgeable members sharing what they know, but we as moderators have a responsibility to make sure that information is presented in an accessible manner. Doing what we can to try to reduce off-topic discussion can really help that.

I can understand why it would appear to be counterintuitive, restricting access to off-topic areas in order to reduce off-topic discussion, but again my point is that those off-topic areas are setting the tone for the site, and de-emphasising them might get people thinking of tiki again when they go to post. Of course it is entirely possible that it could drive people to go off-topic in the tiki areas: my argument is that this is already happening. We want to start asking people to stay on-topic when that happens, which is going to mean a little more stepping-in by Hanford & moderators, but we don't mind doing that if the result is a more useful tiki website. We're trying to find ways to encourage talking tiki, and this is just one part of our attempts at that.

Like Hanford said, we were tired of talking to folks about what we should do, and thought it was about time we actually tried something. It might get a little rough as we test it out, and we're so appreciative to those who are willing to give it a try and stick with us as we figure it out.

Post #183461 by Humuhumu on Wed, Aug 31, 2005 5:23 PM