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[Nezdragon]

Nothing too serious, just some mild concerns I have.

I've been steadily trying to work myself back into this community.  The observant among you may have noticed my posts; or should I say, the lack thereof.  Simply put, I'm looking for interesting threads to post in, any discussions that catch my interest.  I'm specifically looking for topics along the lines of spirituality.  Mature, thoughtful discussions where different beliefs are balanced...

I'm finding none.  There's no clear-cut section for the discussion of spiritual beliefs. 

I guess my issue is feeling somewhat detached from the community.  I wish I could explain it better; it's like I feel hardly any connection to it at all.  It seems... warped, changed.  It's not the place I remember.

Damn, now I just sound like I'm ranting.  It doesn't help that I am ranting.  I just have no clear way to explain what I'm ranting about...

[Rossenod]

Nothing too serious, just some mild concerns I have.

I've been steadily trying to work myself back into this community.  The observant among you may have noticed my posts; or should I say, the lack thereof.  Simply put, I'm looking for interesting threads to post in, any discussions that catch my interest.  I'm specifically looking for topics along the lines of spirituality.  Mature, thoughtful discussions where different beliefs are balanced...

I'm finding none.  There's no clear-cut section for the discussion of spiritual beliefs. 

I guess my issue is feeling somewhat detached from the community.  I wish I could explain it better; it's like I feel hardly any connection to it at all.  It seems... warped, changed.  It's not the place I remember.

Damn, now I just sound like I'm ranting.  It doesn't help that I am ranting.  I just have no clear way to explain what I'm ranting about...

Although I've enjoyed posting here thoroughly in the last few days, I would tend to agree with Nezdragon.  I don't see an actual board discussing spirituality, and I too would like to see something dedicated to that.  Finding out what other dragons believe spiritually on Google is less than encouraging. 

So I too want to add my voice to the OP's.  Not that I'm necessarily ranting, but just that I'd like to see a board dedicated to spirituality here. 


Blessed Be!

[Saq]

I think we used to have a Spirituality topic (or even a whole board) but I never got greatly involved in it, so I can't help out, sorry.

[Airy]

I'm interested in spiritual topics, but I think there were some people not interested in my version of spirituality. :-/

Anyway, I think that's the reason for the heated and cooled sections now.  If you want to bring up those types of topics, that's the place to do it.

[Rossenod]

I'm interested in spiritual topics, but I think there were some people not interested in my version of spirituality. :-/

Anyway, I think that's the reason for the heated and cooled sections now.  If you want to bring up those types of topics, that's the place to do it.

Huh.  I suppose that makes good sense.  Thanks for pointing that out. 

[Nezdragon]

Anyway, I think that's the reason for the heated and cooled sections now.  If you want to bring up those types of topics, that's the place to do it.

The problem with those sections is that really, anything goes in there.  It's weird, it doesn't 'feel' like a place where spirituality would go.  I also get this feeling like the atmosphere of the forum is wrong for spiritual discussion.  I apologize if I'm being blunt or anything, but between the icons and some of the topics I've seen... the forum almost doesn't lend itself to serious, mature discussion anymore. 

[Aurelia]

The Heated and Cooled sections are indeed for all types of discussion, including spirtuality.  I had the same thoughts as Nez to begin with and sometimes still do now, that we perhaps still need a dedicated spiritual discussion board but then that would also need to be split into heated and cooled sections to cover both types of discussions, which then begs the question "why not just use the heated and cooled sections we already have?".

There are quite a few spiritual discussions going on on the forums and ALL of the older posts from the boards are there too if you look through the discussion boards - any of them are welcome to be posted in or started new.  It's not like the older content from years ago has been deleted and only newer threads are in those forum sections.

I agree the forum needs some more spiritual and even more dragon related topics going on and the only way that happens if those who want the topics, start them!  If you have serious, mature spiritual subjects to discuss then start a thread, or as I said before have a look through the older ones (which you've said are the ones you miss being able to see on the boards - they are still there!) and re-start some of them, or inject life into the existing ones.

I don't think the community has changed, even with new members here, but the content has drifted away from spiritual discussion it seems for most threads.  You guys are the ones in control of the content here - start the discussions you want to be part in because Sel, draco and I can't start 100s of new threads every week to cover every topic for every person.  Noone is going to say "how dare you start a new and interesting thread here!!!!"  

On the subject of the board layout though, what solution would you guys think works to have sections for discussion that stay active.  Believe me that when the forums were split into 6 or 7 different discussion topics we'd get about 1 new thread in maybe 2 of the boards every couple of weeks.  It didn't make enough sense to keep everything segregated when it all fell under the forum topic of "discussion and debate".  One thing that keeps nagging at me about the combined boards though is that it can be difficult to find specific topics - like if you only want to read the dragon discussions, or only want the spirituality ones.  I tried to combat this by making popular threads sticky, with the intent to sticky other popular ones on a sort of cycle.  But again it comes down to people are saying "I want to talk about [this]" but not actually starting a topic about it.

Ideas and thoughts about a forum layout are always welcome.  What if we had sub-forums under the heated and cooled sections for each area (like spirituality, dragons, etc)?  But then you have to ask what happens to the threads that fall into more than one category?  Also what do we do about the sections that only get 1 new post every couple of months, do they get merged with another thread?  Do they just stay there inactive?  What about discussions that don't fall into any category that we have listed there, do we also have to have a general thread?

It took a lot of thinking behind the Cooled and Heated idea because we wanted to make the forums as user friendly and uncluttered as possible.  We obviously still want people posting though ...which you still can, about any topic.

Make the threads and they shall come! ...or something like that hehe.

EDIT:  But seriously, all ideas and thoughts on board layout welcome.  Lets discuss it and make it the best layout possible - you guys have as much input on things here as you want to have.

[32-bit int]

...when the forums were split into 6 or 7 different discussion topics we'd get about 1 new thread in maybe 2 of the boards every couple of weeks.  It didn't make enough sense to keep everything segregated when it all fell under the forum topic of "discussion and debate".  One thing that keeps nagging at me about the combined boards though is that it can be difficult to find specific topics - like if you only want to read the dragon discussions, or only want the spirituality ones...

Caught between a rock and a hard place? There are ways to solve both problems at once, but a traditional forum engine like SMF doesn't support any of them.

It can be done by giving each thread multiple degrees of freedom with respect to categorisation. For example, instead of the one index page, which organises threads by placing them in boards, you could have two indexes, on separate web pages, one which has threads under "heated" or "cooled", and one which has them by topic. Or, you could use a system which enables tags to be placed on threads, so that there's just the one set of categories, but threads can also be searched for by the tags on them, which would enable a given thread to be filed under any number of topics. There are many ways to do it, but none of the ones I can think of can easily be implemented on this kind of forum.

[Rocangus]

Well, I think at least that I see quite many dragon related topics here anyway. Well, a few. Like the "The faces of draconity" thread could be a bit dragon related, since you talk about how you look, and therefore possibly how you look as a dragon. Therefore, that thread would become dragon related, right?

[Selroth]

I hear ya!  And I know how organization of a forum can change a lot of the "feel".

As you've read, we did have threads categorized by subject, and that was difficult as sometimes a thread deals with multiple subjects.  I know of what 32 is saying, and kinda a meta-style organization, but the massive change in technology would make converting near impossible and not worth the absense of familiarity and features.  Also, it doesn't remedy the problem of a thread changing subjects as posts continue (a thread becoming "off topic").

We tried to categorize threads differently, a way I figured was pretty original to forums like this.  Instead of by subject, we're trying by it by emotion.  I think it's worked out kinda well, even if it does take some getting used to and maybe a bit of faith in "I hope this topic belongs here."

I may be able to change the actual theme and look of each forum, but that may end up being more distracting with different pictures/backgrounds.  I'm willing to try things though! 

I'm also wondering if a wiki would be best for this kind of discussion, and research.

[Rossenod]

Aurelia and Selroth,


I think a good way to reorganize the forums might be simply to remove that little red-letter warning that comes up when a thread hasn't been posted in for more than 120 days.  That right there has kept me personally from posting in a couple discussions that I really believed had some merit.... at least, that's what happened in the very beginning.  I think that posting the warning is a double-edged sword, because even though it could keep people from making frivolous posts on those threads, it could also convince some posters that their legitimate on-topic posts are not allowed on those threads. 

I've since come to understand that those warnings don't mean you can't post in those threads, but they still give me a sense of trepidation when I actually go to post in them.  Removing that warning might liven up those threads considerably, if only because people won't be so afraid to post in those particular discussions.


That's one thought.  If I think of any others, I'll certainly be happy to post them. 


Blessed Be!

[Nezdragon]

The Heated and Cooled sections are indeed for all types of discussion, including spirtuality.  I had the same thoughts as Nez to begin with and sometimes still do now, that we perhaps still need a dedicated spiritual discussion board but then that would also need to be split into heated and cooled sections to cover both types of discussions, which then begs the question "why not just use the heated and cooled sections we already have?".

Not necessarily.  A spirituality section or two would, by nature, be of a more cooled discussion area.  I think it's important that we have dedicated areas for such discussions.  While simplicity is good, it is also hindering because frankly, I don't want my spiritual concerns sitting next to a topic about Obama.  Having a conglomerate forum gives... I dunno.  It feels like the entirely wrong atmosphere. 

In addition, it would make spiritual topics easier to track.  Rather than having to hunt down different topics over two or three different sections I can simply jump to a single section. 

I agree the forum needs some more spiritual and even more dragon related topics going on and the only way that happens if those who want the topics, start them!  If you have serious, mature spiritual subjects to discuss then start a thread, or as I said before have a look through the older ones (which you've said are the ones you miss being able to see on the boards - they are still there!) and re-start some of them, or inject life into the existing ones.

Again, it's difficult to track down the spiritually oriented topics between the politics and such. 

I'll be posting a topic on the changes I'd like to see, if not now, then Soon™.

[Aurelia]

Ok so what it boils down to are 2 points.  First that the forum structure could be done differently and second that more spiritual content is needed.

The second one is all down to you guys and girls, the members, as you create the content here.  The first though I've been thinking about a lot more and just to throw a suggestion out there, what if we don't think as spirituality as a discussion/debate?  What if we had a dedicated Spirtuality forum section that could include discussions, yes, but also how-to's, book suggestions, personal experiences, etc?

Again this could wind up being less active than other forums and most likely will with regards to thread numbers.  But if you all want the spiritual topics to have a different "feel" in their section then that could solve it?

[Nezdragon]

Ok so what it boils down to are 2 points.  First that the forum structure could be done differently and second that more spiritual content is needed.

The second one is all down to you guys and girls, the members, as you create the content here.  The first though I've been thinking about a lot more and just to throw a suggestion out there, what if we don't think as spirituality as a discussion/debate?  What if we had a dedicated Spirtuality forum section that could include discussions, yes, but also how-to's, book suggestions, personal experiences, etc?

Again this could wind up being less active than other forums and most likely will with regards to thread numbers.  But if you all want the spiritual topics to have a different "feel" in their section then that could solve it?

I like that idea more.  I would much prefer a section with less activity and more substance than a section with more activity and less substance.

Also, suggestions have been posted.

[Aurelia]

:)

Thought I'd clarify something too.  When you say spirituality, are you including all of the religious threads/topics in there too?  Religion and spirituality are generally seen as 2 different things so I'm not sure about your thoughts on that one.  Particularly as some of the Christian threads definitely belong in the Heated section.

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