This was my first response, the rest are all secondary. Yes, we could try to find more moderators (it’s not as simple a task as you suppose, the number of qualified volunteers are few and far between), etc. We split off Cafe Society because something like half the threads in GQ (perhaps not quite that high) were related to arts/entertainment, plus a substantial number of threads in IMHO as well.
Currently, in GQ, there’s this thread: Have a computer question? Look here first which has a little under 100 repleis in just over a year.
Out of the 100 topics on pages 1 and 2, I see 11 that are computer-related. Yes, that’s a lot, but not enough to warrant a new forum.
PS - in contrast, I see 14 posts in the first two pages of IMHO about cars or travel, but I don’t hear anyone suggesting a separate forum for modes of transportation…?
So many message boards have tens of subforums, once for each little niche interest. I like the fact that the SDMB has few subforums. If there were subforums for computers, sports, cars, and G*d knows what else, the site would become no different than Off-Topic or other general interest message boards. Nothing wrong with those sites, but the SDMB should maintain its own distinct identity. Part of that is the limited number of subforums.
Besides, the SDMB has a large membership, but there certainly aren;'t the number of computer gurus that can be found on an extremely large general interest board, or a computer-specific site like Ars Technica. Post an obscure question about MySQL or OpenBSD here, and there’s a good chance it might go unanswered, something that’s very un-Dopelike.
First, I wasn’t being condescending. I was implying that there is depth here you might not be seeing.
Neither is a very good solution. Finding more mods is difficult, and losing an experienced mod is even worse.
And the success of CS is the biggest counterargument to all of my points. I still think a computer forum would be meaningfully different from CS, however:
[ul]
[li]Art doesn’t touch on some of the most contentious legal and ethical debates of our decade. I’m talking about the DMCA and the gradual sea change occurring in copyright law, not to mention the concomitant shift in how artistic control, commercial profit, and the idea of fair use are all perceived both legally and socially. Any thread that begins in the computer forum that touches on any of those issues will either be closed or moved to either GD or The Pit before it hits ten posts.[/li][li]Art really doesn’t evoke the zealotry certain computer systems do. You don’t see shouting matches in CS even when people make contentious or unpopular statements. This is not the case when the merits of certain computer systems are debated. Another computer topic probably unsuited for any hypothetical computer forum.[/li][li]Computers aren’t simply about taste and opinion. This is probably my biggest point. To discuss computers you need actual facts and experience. While we have a broad range of smart people here, we don’t have as many computer-minded folk as the Ars Technica fora or tech-centric Usenet groups. From a purely technical perspective, this is not a good place to discuss computers at a very advanced level.[/li]
(To be brutally fair, art isn’t just about taste and opinion, either. Art criticism, as opposed to art reviewing, is about analysis and perspective that really has nothing to do with whether you ‘like’ the piece or not. Criticism demands technical knowledge. But almost nothing in CS is criticism, and it’s okay because you can discuss art without it. You can’t discuss computers without technical knowledge.)
[/ul]
That is not only more work for the mods and the board hardware, it’s more confusion for the membership.
What’s more, it gets at the heart of why many people come here at all. The SDMB isn’t about hundreds of narrow fora, all different. It’s about wide-ranging discussions about everything under the sun and many things beyond it. Every content-based forum takes away from that just a bit, and it’s something I’m determined to fight.
No, they are not misplaced. Your argument is a Strawman, I believe: I didn’t mention a complete shift either.
“Every content-based forum takes away from that just a bit, and it’s something I’m determined to fight.”
Agreed. This forum should be wide-based. General directions of a post should be directed by the mods who take care of where they go. (and they do it very well). But, getting too specific will turn off many newbees