From the very beginning of the boards, we’ve resisted traditional classifications – economics, sports, biology, zoology, physics, chemistry, music, theology, politics, literature, etc. For one thing, we get plenty of questions/topics that don’t fit standard classifications. And remember that when we started, there was strong feeling that we only needed two forums: “Comments on Cecil’s Columns” and “Other.”
We’ve preferred to classify things based on the type of discussion rather than the content. And all the game-related topics (sports, computer games, etc) were included as “leisure” under Cafe Society. We set up the Games Forum by popular demand, because it seemed a good idea… and while we’re always willing to consider changes, we’re certainly not going to splinter things into finer and finer shades.
I think The Game Room is a bit of a hodge podge of topics, but I think it works well. Sure, Video Games are evolved enough to be included with movies, music, and TV in Cafe Society, but there’s obviously a large number of people who are into one and not into the other and vice-versa. It’s not much different with sports either.
I kind of have a “basement feel” to The Game Room. Some people have a nice big TV there where they watch sports with their buddies, or play video games. Some people have Pool tables, Ping Pong tables, or card tables. And, of course, there’s the eternal image of a bunch of nerds in their parents’ basement playing D&D. All of these topics fit together in that sort of atmosphere.
I also don’t think splitting it up will help either. As others have said, the principle complain, as I gather, was that many of the game and sports threads pushed other topics that some people were interested in off the front page. Also as someone else noted, there’s generally 2-3 days worth of threads on the front page of The Game Room so, really, as long as you check every couple days or so, there’s little reason to imagine you’d miss anything you’re really interested in. All you’d really do is increase administrative overhead and reduce traffic to all of the new fora.
The Game Room is just fine as it is. Let the threads live and die as they are wont to do. We play games because we like them. AFAIC, video game threads can go on another board entirely. But that is only my opinion, and worth less than nothing. Just like everybody elses.
I have a proposal that will clear up the whole mess and make the board a much better. It has the advantage of reducing not increasing the fragmentation of forums.
What we should do is simply divide the board up into two forums, one called “Threads Bill Is Interested In,” and the other called “Threads Bill Is Not Interested In.” That way I only have to click on one forum and what I will get will be only threads I want to see. I will be spared the agony of looking at threads which I have no desire to see.
I humbly submit this proposal for your consideration as it will undoubtedly improve my enjoyment of the SDMB, and thus I’m sure it will improve everyone else’s enjoyment.
How about tweaking the description? Right now, the subforum description reads like a geek gaming subforum:
“For games and sports of all sorts, including video games, board games, party games, role-playing games, cards, and puzzles.”
Sure, “sports” is mentioned, but the rest of the description makes it seem like a scene from the back room of some strip mall store named “Gordor’s Dungeon”.
I see quite a few threads where people want to talk about what’s in the news. It might be a celebrity death (and if it’s some kind of performer, it goes in CS, but if it’s a politician it goes…?), it might be what is currently labeled as RO in the Pit, it might be something that is not GD material but ends up there because it’s politics ASF.
Maybe sports would fit there too, since sports tend to be interesting as it happens and a few days before and after? I’m not very interested in sports, so that suggestion might be really stupid.
The idea gained faint support and then the thread was closed by TD, because big changes were coming with free to post around the corner.
It is not stupid, but it is only one aspect of sports. Much of sports, especially baseball is questions about specific rules, oddball situations, statistics, historical context, etc. that do not belong in current affairs.
I know most of us that are active in sports threads, are happy to have a single forum for all of our sports threads and not have to search around the board.
When I joined, sports would be found (if you could actually find them) in GQ, GD, MPSIMS, IMHO, The Café and the Pit. Now almost all on in the Game Room and a rare few in the Pit. Often with a link from the Game Room thread.
I would rather have the Sports threads be a small part of the game room than a minuscule part of the Café or scattered everywhere.
I don’t think you’ll find a block of people who are into “Current Affairs”, but rather still you’d find more people interested in certain types of "Current Affairs’.
Not many people are interested in something simply because it is current. Most are interest in current events on their favorite subjects, which they can easily find by using the “new posts” feature.
I think sports should get their own forum and that the rest should move back to CS. I also think these boardgame threads belong in MPSIMS. There are just too many damn sport threads in the Game Room.
I actually think the volume of sports threads is low enough that it wouldn’t warrant its own forum, games could easily jump in Cafe Society but really make the game room worthwhile, because it adds to the number. Board games could be thrown wherever, they do seem to clutter the game room, but without that large amount how much activity would it get?
I’m still petitioning for the use of the subforum feature to make a walkthroughs and reviews forum with images enabled (not uploading, just straight [img] code), maybe do something similar for Cafe society for movies.
I think the games room is OK as it is. Once I worked out how to quickly spot and ignore the board game threads I find it easy to find what I want. I think we could even collapse the two “comments on …” forums into one.
You don’t want too many forums as it could seem intimidating to newcomers. For example, another board I look at occasionally has 33 forums for just 6862 members! I go there only occasionally because I can’t be arsed to open each forum looking for something interesting.
Sorry to be tardy to the party, folks. Didn’t see this thread until now.
I have to agree that I think the forum is fine as it is. I don’t think we need to start subforums for each individual interest. There’s no limit on any type of threads in the Game Room; the relatively lower amounts of threads on some topics and more on others is just a matter of relative levels of interest.
When we reach a point that threads are being bumped off the front page too quickly, some limits may need to be put in place. For now, people seem to be having a good time.
I’d definitely be open to a forum description change if people feel that it’s necessary. Keep in mind that the forum description is intended to tell people where to put their posts, not to be an accurate cross-section of the forum itself, though. If we need references to professional sports vs college sports vs amateur leagues vs whatever, that’s fine, though.
