Forum Administration

[Jamie H]

I honestly don't really care. I think the forum is just fine. I just wish we could go back and find some of the people we lost when we moved here.

[SeanB]

A few thoughts:

1. Allow everyone to start threads, not just mods. There are plenty of folks here who have great stuff to add and threads to start that aren't mods.

2. Clean up game threads a few weeks after they are complete. No real need to keep them around. Post game, sure, but pre and game day threads junk up the place.

3. Don't consolidate too much. It makes it too hard to find what you are looking for. I frequently read the Red Wings thread, but hardly read the Lions or Pistons thread. I don't want to wade through paragraphs about Jonas Jerebko to read about Lidstrom or Pavel!

4. Don't consolidate the interlopers threads, either. It makes it far easier to just skip right over the ones you don't want to read when they are actually separate. Let them stand alone for each school. There's usually good stuff to find in most of them.

And my "Big Wish" for everyone:

5. Encourage people to put folks they don't want around on "ignore". I'm serious. This forum has filled up with much stupid bullshit between just a few posters that it bogs down everything for the rest of us. Instead of hurling insults back and forth, let the posters (all of them) know they need to curtail the stupid name calling and just ignore the BS or face getting banned. I know I've been guilty too, but lately it's gotten really bad. I don't just mean the outsiders, either. I know this is wishful thinking, but it sure would be nice to come in and be able to read the good stuff, and not wade through 50% of utter crap.

The reason we have "lost" some of those old posters is they got tired of how this group has devolved over the years.

OK, off my high horse (again).

[Dr. Strangelove]

I'm assuming I'm one of the posters who needs to "cool it". In my defense, I would argue that I generally don't attack people personally, just mock their fandom. However, I am willing to restrict mocking of Michigan to the OSU/Opposing fans thread

[Rob F]

My wish is that the osu, Neb and ND threads be consolidated into the current threads either the Big Ten or Other CFB threads.

This is an M athletics board. My view is that our rivals don't need separate threads to give them a voice or platform equal to our voice. I'd welcome opposing views from M posters.

Sorry, Jeff, but i completely disagree with you on this one.

First of all, giving them their own thread(s) helps keep them somewhat quarantined, slowing them from thoroughly cluttering up Michigan threads with their mindless blathering. It also gives us Michigan fans the choice of whether or not to click on their thread and read, if we so choose.

Just as importantly, IMHO, it allows us to keep tabs somewhat on our enemies. Like is often said, keep thine friends close but thine enemies closer.

Personally, I very seldom have had even the slightest objection to allowing Talent, Wiz, Entropy, Clashmore, and others (and in the past, Paul S., Masspartan, SIH, Packy, and even Charles) around, if for nothing more than entertainment. I've even had an opportunity to meet a few of them, and other than hating the teams they love, they seemed to me to be decent enough guys.

I hardly think it gives them any real "equal voice", per se.

My "vote"? stay with the status quo.

[Optimus Prime]

I'm assuming I'm one of the posters who needs to "cool it". In my defense, I would argue that I generally don't attack people personally, just mock their fandom. However, I am willing to restrict mocking of Michigan to the OSU/Opposing fans thread

In this Forum, DSL is sort of like an innocuous goldfish, drifting mindlessly about in an aquarium.

Every now and then I cannot resist the opportunity to urinate in his fishbowl just to watch him turn "green in the gills"...that is all.

F...OSU.

[Ghengis Jon]

The mods are doing good job, the status quo (with perhaps a little more frequent cleanup) is fine by me. So would a major thread theme that Liney proposes. Clash and Ent make the ND and Neb threads inevitable no matter how the forum is maintained. Wiz, Talent, and DSL should be penned in their own thread simply to keep the 'Big Ten Discussion' a managable affair.

[whodean]

Agreed on overly controlled not being a good thing. My vote is to unsticky everything and just let the unused threads fade to the bottom. Natural selection.

This is the way to do it, leave the threads as they are but unstuck.

[hack]

In this Forum, DSL is sort of like an innocuous goldfish, drifting mindlessly about in an aquarium.


LOL that's brilliant.

I missed liney's 10-thread proposal when I replied. I think that would be a terrible idea. I've no idea why you guys are so keen on this, but, again, I think it would result in a lot less action here. Especially consolidating threads like the hockey and basketball, for the reason Sean explained. And I definitely wouldn't want Talent's weekly promises to go away breaking up the flow when I'm trying to get my Nebraska women's volleyball updates.

[*JD*]

This is the way to do it, leave the threads as they are but unstuck.

That's how I like it, except maybe Sticky this thread.

I also didn't know that only mods could start threads. I'm all for anyone (well, any Michigan fan) starting a thread, so long as it's not spam. Our Nebraska and Notre Dame fan participants probably could start threads too.

[lineygoblue]

I don't think we'll be able to accomplish what I WANT to accomplish, by "un-sticky-ing" everything. There are some threads of special interest that I want to remain at the top of the forum, so they are easily found.

It'd be nice if we could have something like a "main" thread, i.e. "Michigan Football" followed by sub-threads like "recruiting" "coaches" "Brandon Stuff" .. etc. But, I don't believe there's a way I can do that. There was a way to do it at World Crossing, but I don't believe so here.

Anyway, I'm seeing a lot of good ideas here. After the bowl season, I'll put a proposal out there with my ideas, combined with ideas I've gleaned here, then see how everyone feels about it.

[Optimus Prime]

Head back to WorldCrossing?

[lineygoblue]

We would have never left if they hadn't closed.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I've got no problem with keeping the ND, Neb and osu threads. My goal in the suggestion to consolidate them under the two other threads was to detune the amount of name calling bull shit - the stuff Sean is talking about - that goes on in the osu thread without singling out that thread or posters who frequent there .

I'm not guilt free in that stuff. The fact is that there remains some good stuff in all those threads so, you lose more than you gain by doing what I proposed. Good to hear other viewpoints.

I think we go through this once a year or so where we make points about de-escalating the angry rhetoric. The other part of it is that sometimes it sounds angry but its just the usual barbs going on between fan bases that "hate" each other, at least in the case of osu/M. Some do the barbing better than others. Some of it is fun and entertaining and some of it is a waste of bandwidth. I don't know how to regulate it and the point that has been made if you try to hard to do that, you cut down on some of the good action that goes on here.

I also understand the issue of sticky'ed threads. In order to keep something at the top, that's what you have to do here and there are a couple of subjects that I like at the top for ease of quick reference like recruiting, the current game discussion, and Forum Admin. But there are too many open threads now and I agree with Lines that they need to be cleaned up and I also like the streamlining and shortening of thread titles thing too which helps when viewing on a mobile device.

[lineygoblue]

I'm leaning toward the "streamlining" thing, with special threads being added occasionally as sports events dictate. For instance, if M's Basketball team makes a long run in the NCAA's this year, that will likely warrant a thread of its own.

For the most part, I want a compact and concise forum that everyone can enjoy.

[Optimus Prime]

Foreign or domestic? What sort of MPG's are we talking?