Boring Editorial

[dave archer]

Mark, I have the same problem with the sheer volume of posts. A while ago I was keeping up because I had fast internet at work and naff all work to do. Now my workload is ramping up again I'm having to be much more selective about threads I read.

Not sure what the answer is, or even that there is one. Being able to select which forums the New Posts function returns would help sometimes, but like you I'm interested in most of them. Learnt a lot from RB and DIR forums even though I've nothing to do with either.

Can see where you're coming from, but not keen on the several mini YDs idea. Grouped by who you dive with? That'd result in a for a north south split most likely. And halve the collective knowledge. Nah.

I think growth changes the forum, and we have to accept it's now more dip in than read everything. Cliques (or preferably groups of friends, i.e. without the hostility to "outsiders" that cliques exhibit) will inevitably form to some extent as numbers grow. Better tools would make reading easier, but I think Moray hit the nail on the head... it's the open, approachable atmosphere of YD that makes it great, and what we need to preserve - all we need to do to keep it great is insist on that from everyone, new and old.... All are welcome, the only stupid question is the one you didn't ask, and it's not acceptable to shout others down just cos they have a different view...

(...and if any of you numpties don't agree, then fcuk right off the lot of you, gits! )

Dave.

[Janos]

What he said. I used to read *everything.* I still read lots because I have time on my hands. Next year I'll have a new job (start on the 1st of Jan) and I doubt I will, so I probably won't be replying to the 'Spartacus' threads.

Laters,
Janos

[AirAssisted]

I'm taking a week off, let evolution run its course

[Mark Davies]

I was interested to see what would happen to this thread. I went to work all night and spent the morning in bed. Best part of a day away from the computer, so when I turned it on I expected one of two things;

(1) The thread had caught attention, took off and there'd be an extra 10 pages of postings (far too much to go through),
or
(2) It had dissappeared into obscurity, not being noticed amongst the myriad postings on Monty Python's middle eastern action groups.

I see the latter was the case. Now it might just be that no-one else is interested or it could be that no-one noticed this thread amongst all the rest. Either case is a shame and it goes well to illustrate my point.

Another example; I just noticed today that there is a Recent Trip Report thread on the Red Sea holiday I went on a couple of weeks ago. Obviously a subject I'd be interested in and I was watching out for any reports, but it still managed to pass me by for a week before I saw it.

Clicking on Equipment, just as a random example. This isn't one of the most active of fora, but I still found 16 threads with new postings - too many to look at them all.

I don't want anyone to misunderstand me - all our more recent members are more than welcome. We are a happy community (for the most part) and it's nice to see that sprit spreading through what is a traditionally grumpy world in UK diving. I'm just beginning to see signs that the volume of postings arising from the size of our membership is starting to make the site unmanageable. It can only become more of a problem, and quickly.

I'm simply hoping to provoke a discussion on whether others percieve it to be a similar problem and if so, can we come up with a solution. I'd hate to see my beloved YD destroyed by nature of its very success.

[Dr Stevil]

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

I'm just beginning to see signs that the volume of postings arising from the size of our membership is starting to make the site unmanageable.

I think that was part of the message from our recent troll friend, albeit not quite as gently stated as that.

Lou summed it up when she said she hankered for the old style YD of about a year or so ago.

[Spoon]

Originally Posted by Steve W

I think that was part of the message from our recent troll friend, albeit not quite as gently stated as that.

Lou summed it up when she said she hankered for the old style YD of about a year or so ago.

There seem to be plenty of posts about Monty Python to fill the space.

[Moray]

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

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[

I don't want anyone to misunderstand me - all our more recent memebers are more than welcome. We are a happy community (for the most part) and it's nice to see that sprit spreading through what is a traditionally grumpy world in UK diving. I'm just beginning to see signs that the volume of postings arising from the size of our membership is starting to make the site unmanageable. It can only become more of a problem, and quickly.

I'd hate to see my beloved YD destroyed by nature of its very success.

That is very perceptive!

I was on Scubaboard recently, and the sheer volume of posts is daunting. They have tried to counteract this by dividing and sub-dividing, which is a help, one visits only the forums of interest.

But what happens to the friendly banter and personal atmosphere so prevalent here? I too have no solutions for this. Getting rid of trolls and idiots is not really the problem, but de-personalization could be.

Thread rating could be perhaps be more actively used: What appears to be of general and true interest to the rest of the forum could be 5-starred or so by the first reader (we do, after all, know each other's tastes more or less) etc.

What then to do about the posts like "New to Scuba, cannot clear mask" that will then appear in some variation for the 117th time? I do not know. Perhaps making some patient and long-suffering person moderator of a new forum subdivision would help, but where to find such an altruistic soul (am not volunteering ). This has not yet become a problem, but please see scubaboard as the case in point.

Does the loss of atmosphere really have to be the price paid for the success of the forum? Finally it is up to US, if that happens or not. If some of my favorite folk are posting, I will read their posts, and the friendliness will continue. After I have read a few threads by a new member, and after say, the 5th one, they are still pointless and boring, I would then simply pass over threads started by that member, unless something such as a good rating or many replies would attract me to it.

Sorry to be so long-winded.

moray

[Padowan]

Some days all I want to do is look at the RB forum and talk about PO2, scrubber reaction fronts and bailout options, other days I expand my horizons and remember the good old days of OC diving and share knowledge and opinions on this, and every so often (particularly when bored at work) I just want to read some shite!

Variation and individuality is important - if we were all the same we'd only need the DIR forum (sorry, couldn't resist that one - please take with pinch of salt as intended)

[Mark Davies]

It's a difficult problem. I don't want to pass over any particular forum - there's something of interest in all of them. As Padowan says, some days you're in the mood for one thing - on another it's something else. Equally, I don't want to be ignoring posts by any particular individuals. Everyone has a valid opinion and everyone has a contribution to make that has some worth.

In straightforward terms, there's just too much! About 12 months ago it was just right. There was enough going on to ensure a wide variety of interest but it was still possible to keep in touch with it all. Since then we have seen exponential growth in membership and a corresponding growth in content.

It would appear that the optimal membership size for a board such as this is around 1000 (what we had this time last year) and we now have more than double that. Of course, in terms of people actually posting the numbers are less, but the correlation is there. Not for a moment am I advocating a limit to members - the inclusivity of YD in what is so often a closed-shop world of diving is what makes it such a success. But having user groups of around 1000 in each group might help.

There are obviously issues in implementing it - how do you decide to divide the membership, for instance? I don't necessarilly have the answer. I'm just throwing out ideas to see what people think - to be honest I don't even know if it's possible.

Or perhaps someone has some useful tips on using the tools that are already available to make navigating the content a little less daunting?

[Padowan]

Depending on what the aim of the forum is, one way of "controlling" membership would be for memberships to expire is the user does not post for say 3 months - however this would be implying that the focus of the forum is for people to contribute information into, and it would exclude those who only take knowledge and information out, and these people are doing no harm whatsoever....


It's a toughie.