Changes to Love Boat

[Niall]

The message board staff have been continuing our discussion based on the results of the survey we did last year, and have come up with a plan to make some improvements on the message board.

One of the things we know a lot of people have asked for is the establishment of group discussion threads in the Love Boat as opposed to just threads dedicated to individuals. Indeed, we have recently allowed people who post in Kit and Tab to have such a thread, and have previously allowed threads for the older and younger members of the board in Banter, and in 2009 a thread for people involved in the USoE game.

Whilst over the previous years we've banned these threads because we felt one thread in Banter coupled with the Groups facilities was sufficient, especially when the board was sensitive to heavy traffic, it's become increasingly clear that one thread cannot facilitate so many discussions amongst people on the board and that there is a clear need for somewhere more visible that the Groups section, especially as the board continues to grow.

In response to this we will be allowing certain group threads in Love Boat in addition to threads dedicated to individual people. Whilst there are no strict guidelines as to what constitutes a valid group, any general demographic can have a group thread (although specifically International threads will be kept separately still), as well as people familiar with certain forums or established, long term threads on the board. If you're unsure as to whether a group thread would be worthwhile, just contact a mod.

The Love Boat was started years ago as a joke forum but has since grown in to a place where friendships, memorials, relationships, and even marriages have formed, and we would like to foster the sense of community that has developed on the board. As such, we will be renaming the forum to Community in the near future to coincide with the changes.

In the mean time, we'd like to hear your feedback and suggestions for the improved forum

[Dee3Dee]

I'm not entirely sure why it has to be renamed to something boring and sterile like "Community". I mean, they're still love boats, aren't they?

[Tintin]

I agree with Dee, a good clarification with the group boats but I'm saying no to the name change.

[Niall]

The only issue with the forum in those regards are it's purpose isn't evident to those who don't already know what it's there for, so alternative name suggestions that are more descriptive are welcome. It would be good to encourage posting from new members of the board (and there will be a lot of them come September) in some way by making the forum's purpose more evident.

The reason for that is so they don't go noobing it up in S&R or Banter with pointless threads that annoy people and having a selection of off topic community threads that they might identify with would help that...would be nice to solve the problem of new members being intimidated by old members and old members being annoyed with new members a bit!

"Community" is a bit sterile, there was also the suggestions of "Community Corner", but anything else is obviously welcome, and if there is a lot of hate for a name change when we'll have to think of something else that'll work.

[Meep]

The name change idea is really horrible.

[Dee3Dee]

Originally Posted by Niall

The only issue with the forum in those regards are it's purpose isn't evident to those who don't already know what it's there for, so alternative name suggestions that are more descriptive are welcome. It would be good to encourage posting from new members of the board (and there will be a lot of them come September) in some way by making the forum's purpose more evident.

The reason for that is so they don't go noobing it up in S&R or Banter with pointless threads that annoy people and having a selection of off topic community threads that they might identify with would help that...would be nice to solve the problem of new members being intimidated by old members and old members being annoyed with new members a bit!

"Community" is a bit sterile, there was also the suggestions of "Community Corner", but anything else is obviously welcome, and if there is a lot of hate for a name change when we'll have to think of something else that'll work.

Well "Community" is a bit lofty as well, isn't it? It doesn't strike me as the kind of name that would say "hey, new members, come here". I think that you should keep the name as it is, but make the actual forum description more clear. Rather than "now with 50% more boat", you could add an actual description of the content. "A place to show your appreciation for other members" or something like that.

Originally Posted by Meep

The name change idea is really horrible.

Essentially this.

[L.]

Originally Posted by Dee3Dee

Well "Community" is a bit lofty as well, isn't it? It doesn't strike me as the kind of name that would say "hey, new members, come here". I think that you should keep the name as it is, but make the actual forum description more clear. Rather than "now with 50% more boat", you could add an actual description of the content. "A place to show your appreciation for other members" or something like that.

We were actually planning to do it the other way around. We want to change the main name to Community as the section won't be just about love boats but also group threads and a place where new users will be able to introduce themselves but we were hoping to keep the words love boats in the description so it doesn't disappear completely as people seem to be quite attached to it i.e. a 'place for member's love boats, group threads and where new users can introduce themselves'.

[Dee3Dee]

Originally Posted by L.

We were actually planning to do it the other way around. We want to change the main name to Community as the section won't be just about love boats but also group threads and a place where new users will be able to introduce themselves but we were hoping to keep the words love boats in the description so it doesn't disappear completely as people seem to be quite attached to it i.e. a 'place for member's love boats, group threads and where new users can introduce themselves'.

Then why the change? You could just as easily add another forum, call it "Community" and have it serve whatever purpose you want. I still think you should leave the Love Boat section as it is. We used to have a forum for new users to introduce themselves, what happened to that?

[L.]

Originally Posted by Dee3Dee

Then why the change? You could just as easily add another forum, call it "Community" and have it serve whatever purpose you want. I still think you should leave the Love Boat section as it is. We used to have a forum for new users to introduce themselves, what happened to that?

The new user forum was taken out because there only was one relevant thread (the new user thread) and the rest was getting over run by spambots but we have been wanting to reintroduce a new user introduce yourself thread so quite a while now as it is useful.

[WutDaFucksy]

I wonder how many new users actually post in the new users thread though. Maybe it could be an idea to re-direct them (noobies) when they sign up to the new users thread and have to make a post there before accessing the other sections of the forum?

[Dockertae]

Originally Posted by Dee3Dee

Then why the change? You could just as easily add another forum, call it "Community" and have it serve whatever purpose you want. I still think you should leave the Love Boat section as it is. We used to have a forum for new users to introduce themselves, what happened to that?

I don't use Love Boat, but I think the changes are a good idea. There's no point is new users having their own forum - why introduce yourself in a forum that no established users read nevermind post in?

Maybe I'm missing something but I'm not sure what's lost from the Love Boat forum by doing this.

[Furygirl]

Agreed. There were reasons for the changes, which were explained, so I'm not sure why people are resistent. People can still post just like always. The name change makes it easier to allow for additional types of threads.

[Niall]

Originally Posted by Dee3Dee

Then why the change? You could just as easily add another forum, call it "Community" and have it serve whatever purpose you want. I still think you should leave the Love Boat section as it is. We used to have a forum for new users to introduce themselves, what happened to that?

It was just a list of people saying hello mixed with spambots that went either unreported or engaged with because new users didn't recognise them.

I think think people are being "resistant", this thread has only had a few people post in it! We know for a fact that group threads are the most desired thing on the board.

[crazybobbles]

was sad that the love boat didn't die when public profile messages were implemented. thought that fitted in quite nicely.

[bucket_]

You're gonna change it from "The Love Boat" to "Community"? Love Boat is the best forum name on this forum, you can't change it to something like that

Why not just change "Now with 50% more boat" to explaining what it is and does?