Any new forums in the making?

[Hennessy]

Just curious...

Have there been any forums that were canceled?
Were there any forums that were being debated but never added?
Finally, are there any forum additions being debated now?

[Rachellelogram]

If they haven't announced it to the board at large, why would they tell you?

Sorry if this is snippy, I've just read your stoner rants all over the place for the last 24 hours and it's grating.

[Hennessy]

Didn't you just break up with a stoner of 6 months? Don't you smoke weed on the weekend? Did I not thank you for you comments in the thread? Why are you following me? Couldn't you have said one post instead of all over the place? The other was a marijuana thread so no harm there...

You've gotten personal for no reason... You could easily send me a pm if you want to get personal, I don't bite unless you ask me to.

I am a member here and I've made a request for information regarding this forum, if one question can't be answered maybe the other can. If no question can be answered then I'm sure they will let me know.

[Morgenstern]

I think there's some talk about a forum where members can unload on each other. They are going to call it "the hole" or something.

[C K Dexter Haven]

So far as I can remember, there's never been a forum that was cancelled.

We only add new forums rarely. When we began, Cecil thought there only needed to be two forums: "Comments on Cecil's Columns" and "Other." We initially discussed setting up forums by traditional academic classifications (science, literature, etc) but rejected that on the grounds that very few columns fit the traditional pigeon-holes. So, instead, we set up the forums originally based on the type of question -- GQ for questions looking for factual answers, GD for questions that have no factual answers but are a matter of debate, the Pit for flaming, etc.

Over time, when we've found a great many questions on one (or more related) topic, we have started a new forum. Thus, Cafe Society for entertainment-related questions and, most recently, Elections for elections.

There is currently no discussion amongst the mods of any new forum.

The "Happy Forum" on April 1 was, of course, an April Fools' joke, and consequently excluded from my "never had a forum cancelled."

[Polycarp]

Just to amplify Dex's comment, he's referring to the "world-wide" SDMB, and there are two exceptions to his general comment:

1. When the Chicago-specific columns began and got their own section, there were several subforums created, a couple of which got folded into others as relative lack of interest showed up, then at the end of the experiment all the subforums in the "Chicago" section were consolidated into the "Straight Dope Chicago" forum.

2. At the time, around 2000, when the board moved from UBB to vBulletin, there was an effort to archive the best threads, which ended up blowing chunks and was cancelled. TTBOMK, none of the "archive" forums were ever available to anyone but the Admins., but they've been forthcoming on what was attempted and why it failed. The skips in forum numbering that people have remarked on are (except the two staff-only forums) the ones that would have been the archive forums.

The second of these is admittedly a minuscule nitpick, and the first was clearly not what Dex was speaking of, but in the interests of accuracy, his answer needs that clarification.

[Rachellelogram]

I think there's some talk about a forum where members can unload on each other. They are going to call it "the hole" or something.
I admit, his comments in monstro's thread have royally expletived me off. Mea culpa.

[Cicero]

Well Dex this is just irresponsible. Why isn't there any discussion between the mods about a new forum?

[C K Dexter Haven]

Well, on the first Friday of this month* we discussed a special forum for spam. We thought it would save a lot of moderator time if all the spammers and spam-bots would put their advertisements and virus-links and whatnot in one forum. Then we wouldn't have to go looking for it all over the place. Any spammer who put crud-ola in the wrong forum would be severely warned. We rejected it, I don't quite recall why.

On that same day, we also discussed a new forum just for trolling. We'd call it "under the bridge" and trolling would be permitted there. The problem we faced was that some people would respond to the trolling, and their responses would be not trolling, so how would the forum survive with some posts trolling and some not? So we decided against that, too.


* Please check calendar before responding, I'd hate to have anyone whooshed.

And thanks for the corrections, Polycarp. I'd forgot about Chicago forums etc.

[NoClueBoy]

There was the conspiracy forum.

I wonder why that got canceled? Got too close to the truth?

[Morgenstern]

There was the conspiracy forum.

I wonder why that got canceled? Got too close to the truth?

The feds threatened to reveal the location and number of hamsters if that forum wasn't closed.

[Czarcasm]

There was the conspiracy forum.

I wonder why that got canceled? Got too close to the truth?That is a very good question, and we're sending over a couple of guys who will explain it all to you.
BTW, do you happen to live alone?

[NoClueBoy]

:eek:

[Johnny L.A.]

Personally I think there are too many forums. Since nobody wants to get rid of any, and if I were in charge, I'd institute sub-forums.

First I'd move Straight Dope Chicago to Side Conversations, which I keep collapsed. (This would not be a sub-forum, but it would be moved to an appropriate place.) Marketplace would be moved to Side Conversations, or be made a sub-forum of MPSIMS. The Game Room would become a sub-forum of Cafe [sic] Society. Elections would become s sub-forum of Great Debates.

These changes would remove four forums from the main page, making the main page less cluttered.

[Jake]

Noclueboy, if somebody who calls himself "Uncle Louie" knocks on your door, be afraid! ;)

[elmwood]

First I'd move Straight Dope Chicago to Side Conversations, which I keep collapsed. (This would not be a sub-forum, but it would be moved to an appropriate place.) Marketplace would be moved to Side Conversations, or be made a sub-forum of MPSIMS. The Game Room would become a sub-forum of Cafe [sic] Society. Elections would become s sub-forum of Great Debates.

Except for the Game Room forum, I'd probably do the same thing.

[Polycarp]

Noclueboy, if somebody who calls himself "Uncle Louie" knocks on your door, be afraid! ;)

Cousin Vinnie is an inactive former member who handles these things. I believe he was last seen in Lynn Bodoni's footwear.

[Cicero]

I'd just merge MPSIMS and IMHO. There seems to be a lot that could go in either.

[A. Gwilliam]

Why am I never able to find Schroedinger's forum?

[BigT]

Why am I never able to find Schroedinger's forum?

:confused: You can always see it. It's just hard to get it to open.

Now Heisenberg's forum is the one that disappears: every time you think you see it, it disappears. It can't be observed.

[C K Dexter Haven]

Personally I think there are too many forums. Since nobody wants to get rid of any, and if I were in charge, I'd institute sub-forums.

First I'd move Straight Dope Chicago to Side Conversations, which I keep collapsed. (This would not be a sub-forum, but it would be moved to an appropriate place.) Marketplace would be moved to Side Conversations, or be made a sub-forum of MPSIMS. The Game Room would become a sub-forum of Cafe [sic] Society. Elections would become s sub-forum of Great Debates.

These changes would remove four forums from the main page, making the main page less cluttered.Interesting idea. The mods are discussing behind the scenes. Thanks!

[Irishman]

I disagree. The point of putting them in subforums is so they can be hidden from the main page. But if they're hidden from the main page, then newbies who get to the main page won't see they are there, and won't know to post that content in those locations.

Or else they will be indented on the main page, which doesn't reduce clutter, just clutters it differently. Not an improvement.

I like it like it is. Reduce number of clicks to any forum.

Maybe moving forums around makes sense, like Marketplace in Side Conversations, but otherwise, where is the value added?

[Johnny L.A.]

Maybe moving forums around makes sense, like Marketplace in Side Conversations, but otherwise, where is the value added?

The point is de-cluttering the main page. It used to be that all of the forums could be seen without having to scroll down. Now the most popular forums are at the bottom and are not visible upon entering the site. Most people spend their time in GQ, MPSIMS, IMHO, and Cafe Society. These should be up front.

Straight Dope Chicago is a parochial forum, which belongs in Side Conversations; not pushing the more popular, more widely-oriented threads farther down on the page.

Elections is a very narrow forum meant to de-clutter Great Debates. But it is a subset of GD, and so should be a sub-forum there.

The Game Room is fairly popular, but it's really a subset of Cafe Society. It's not as popular as MPSIMS or IMHO, and so it shouldn't push those forums off the page.

As for Marketplace, it's useful to have a place where Dopers can sell things. But SDMB ain't eBay. It doesn't need to be on the main page. A sub-forum of MPSIMS or Side Conversations is a better place for it.

I agree that they should not be indented on the main page. That wouldn't do anything. But the issue of newbies not finding them is not that big. Even people who have been here a decade or more occasionally post in the wrong forum. Newbies are probably not going to have Side Conversations (an area of the board in which I have virtually zero interest) collapsed, so they'll see it. Me, I have it collapsed to reduce the clutter. Making the forums I mentioned into sub-forums that are accessed by entering the main forum should not confuse newbies (many of which probably have experience with sub-forums anyway) and will de-clutter the main page for everyone else.

Otherwise, why not have a hundred forums? We could have a forum called Animal Shelter, for talking about pets. Or better yet, The Kitty Korner and Man's Best Friend and Assorted Critters. And Café Society could be a place for talking about the Arts, as the name implies. We could have another forum dedicated to cooking. Great Debates is a bit broad; so we could have Great Debates for some issues, The Fifth Column for debating Socialist Issues, and Don't Call Us Fascists for the Conservatives. You can see how it can get out of hand. I think the main page has four forums too many as it is. Who knows what else may be added?

I don't want to go the other way, where there are just ATMB, Comments on Cecil's Columns, Comments of Staff Reports, and General Questions, and that's it because this is about The Straight Dope, dammit! I do like the social parts of this board. But they need to be condensed.

[Rhythmdvl]

The Game Room is fairly popular, but it's really a subset of Cafe Society. It's not as popular as MPSIMS or IMHO, and so it shouldn't push those forums off the page.If we do go sub-forums, is there any support for subbing The Game Room into sports, video games, and Dope games?

[Hennessy]

Probably not but only because The Game Room doesn't move too fast.