The Best Way To Increase Debate Hall Member Activity

[KrazyGlue]

Why? Because, I find making a thread like that is just an excuse for you guys to be "lazy" (sorry if that offends anyone). What I mean by that is, there are tons of social threads on Smashboards already, if you thought a social thread could spark a good debate, then go talk on one of those threads.

You're missing the point. I realize the pool room exists, but that directs traffic there, NOT HERE. Going to social boards in other rooms doesn't bring people into the DH, which a social thread in the DH would.

Also, I really think it is a lame excuse, to say that you guys can't think of ideas, and put that as a reason why the DH has been inactive. {much more here but it doesn't all need to be quoted}

If I recall correctly, I never named "we can't think of ideas" as a reason the debate hall is empty.

Personally, I think it would be better to just merge the DH and the PG at this point.

Eh, that would allow all sorts of spammers to get in here and ruin the quality of debates in my opnion. It would certainly spark activity, but not in a good way lol. Just imagine a bunch of "insane carzy guy"s all over the place.

I would post more often, I just don't have any free time with school / social life and such.

I hear ya. I've been having trouble finding time to post here over the last few weeks with school in full force. Unfortunately there's not much we can do about that lol.

 

[blazedaces]

What if CK/the other mods decided to offer a new position, someone in charge of a "current event of the week debate". That person would quite literally do exactly what Aqua suggested above, but be in charge of doing it EVERY week. So every week, said person would just post a thread (doesn't have to have a long introduction) and link to an article they found about a current event topic and somehow spin it slightly into a debate. The position could even come with some kind of custom avatar/title/color/whatever.

This could avoid the whole issue half this debate hall has with the social thread, but do exactly what the social thread is intended to accomplish: increase the reasons members might return to check back at the debate hall. If there HAD to be a new weekly current event thread people like SOLID and I who quite literally think, "there's probably no new activity in the debate hall, why bother checking, we're busy with school and such" would instead think "maybe a quick check to see this week's current event and what people had to say about it wouldn't hurt".

What do you guys think?

-blazed

 

[Aesir]

Well I use to do that, then things of interested stopped happening.

I read some news articles today and had some ideas form, but got side tracked by homework and friends. I suppose I could get back into doing it though.

 

[thegreatkazoo]

What if CK/the other mods decided to offer a new position, someone in charge of a "current event of the week debate". That person would quite literally do exactly what Aqua suggested above, but be in charge of doing it EVERY week. So every week, said person would just post a thread (doesn't have to have a long introduction) and link to an article they found about a current event topic and somehow spin it slightly into a debate. The position could even come with some kind of custom avatar/title/color/whatever.

This could avoid the whole issue half this debate hall has with the social thread, but do exactly what the social thread is intended to accomplish: increase the reasons members might return to check back at the debate hall. If there HAD to be a new weekly current event thread people like SOLID and I who quite literally think, "there's probably no new activity in the debate hall, why bother checking, we're busy with school and such" would instead think "maybe a quick check to see this week's current event and what people had to say about it wouldn't hurt".

What do you guys think?

-blazed

Meh on this.

I really think we should just post more topics--period. But that's just one guy's opinion...

 

[¯\_S.(ツ).L.I.D._/¯]

What if CK/the other mods decided to offer a new position, someone in charge of a "current event of the week debate". That person would quite literally do exactly what Aqua suggested above, but be in charge of doing it EVERY week. So every week, said person would just post a thread (doesn't have to have a long introduction) and link to an article they found about a current event topic and somehow spin it slightly into a debate. The position could even come with some kind of custom avatar/title/color/whatever.

This could avoid the whole issue half this debate hall has with the social thread, but do exactly what the social thread is intended to accomplish: increase the reasons members might return to check back at the debate hall. If there HAD to be a new weekly current event thread people like SOLID and I who quite literally think, "there's probably no new activity in the debate hall, why bother checking, we're busy with school and such" would instead think "maybe a quick check to see this week's current event and what people had to say about it wouldn't hurt".

What do you guys think?

-blazed

I think it's a pretty good idea to be honest.

Basically, if I knew there would be something here to catch my interest every week, I would have a reason to come down here. I can't speak for anyone else, but people would probably be more inclined to come here in the first place if something interesting were to be posted. (It might not always interest everyone, but still).

Also, I don't see why we don't just give some of this stuff a try. Everyone saying "Nah, that won't work" but then not really supplying a better alternative isn't adding anything. We want to increase people coming here, and people posting here. Either blazed's idea or the social thread idea will probably to both. Why not just try these? If they don't work, get rid of them. If they do work, then there we go, we have more activity.

 

[Hydra.]

You're missing the point. I realize the pool room exists, but that directs traffic there, NOT HERE. Going to social boards in other rooms doesn't bring people into the DH, which a social thread in the DH would.




If I recall correctly, I never named "we can't think of ideas" as a reason the debate hall is empty.

I think you missed my point. I am saying people can go to those social threads and bring their ideas here. Once people start to do that, the board will be more active and there wouldn't be a need for a social room here. True a social thread in the DH would bring more people here but for the wrong reasons.

Also I wasn't directing that toward you.

What if CK/the other mods decided to offer a new position, someone in charge of a "current event of the week debate". That person would quite literally do exactly what Aqua suggested above, but be in charge of doing it EVERY week. So every week, said person would just post a thread (doesn't have to have a long introduction) and link to an article they found about a current event topic and somehow spin it slightly into a debate. The position could even come with some kind of custom avatar/title/color/whatever.

This could avoid the whole issue half this debate hall has with the social thread, but do exactly what the social thread is intended to accomplish: increase the reasons members might return to check back at the debate hall. If there HAD to be a new weekly current event thread people like SOLID and I who quite literally think, "there's probably no new activity in the debate hall, why bother checking, we're busy with school and such" would instead think "maybe a quick check to see this week's current event and what people had to say about it wouldn't hurt".

What do you guys think?

-blazed

I think this is a great idea, I think it would be more effective then the social thread would be.

 

[Crimson King]

☆ I believe the lack of activity is due to the topics already discussed is repeated more than once. And there's not many new topics that would increase the activity because most of us would agree on the same idea or debate. ☆

I think this mentality summarizes the lack of activity.

There will be no social thread in the Debate Hall. This room is meant SOLELY for intelligent debates, whereas the Proom is the social room.

But to answer Viper's question, I am considering instituting Tabula Rasa - Clean slate. Every single debate will be closed and moved to an archive room, and the room will be completely blank for new debates.

IF I decide to do this (I will speak to other room mods), I need some serious promises to start good debates.

 

[CRASHiC]

I promise to write up a good debate on weather or not America is racist (already been working on it)

 

[¯\_S.(ツ).L.I.D._/¯]

There will be no social thread in the Debate Hall. This room is meant SOLELY for intelligent debates, whereas the Proom is the social room.

The PRoom is full of idiots and anyone can go there.

Why won't you just give it a try? If it doesn't lead to new and interesting debates then close it down, but we won't know, you won't know, unless it's tried. Being closed minded to potentially beneficial ideas definitely doesn't help activity.

 

[CRASHiC]

While talking to Lythium, I saw this from Victra.

Exacctttly. It was such a cute match. I remember the easier times when you could just ask CK and you got admitted. XD I used to be a debater, a lot of people were actually. At least it was active back then haha. Now, it seems like it's pretty dead since admission is so strict.

How many users have we received since the recommendation was closed?

 

[KrazyGlue]

What if CK/the other mods decided to offer a new position, someone in charge of a "current event of the week debate". That person would quite literally do exactly what Aqua suggested above, but be in charge of doing it EVERY week. So every week, said person would just post a thread (doesn't have to have a long introduction) and link to an article they found about a current event topic and somehow spin it slightly into a debate. The position could even come with some kind of custom avatar/title/color/whatever.

This could avoid the whole issue half this debate hall has with the social thread, but do exactly what the social thread is intended to accomplish: increase the reasons members might return to check back at the debate hall. If there HAD to be a new weekly current event thread people like SOLID and I who quite literally think, "there's probably no new activity in the debate hall, why bother checking, we're busy with school and such" would instead think "maybe a quick check to see this week's current event and what people had to say about it wouldn't hurt".

What do you guys think?

-blazed

Sounds like a good idea. If the "Current Event of the Week" person is having trouble thinking of topics, they could always ask the other debaters to help out and PM them with ideas.

There will be no social thread in the Debate Hall. This room is meant SOLELY for intelligent debates, whereas the Proom is the social room.

I realize that the social thread does not adhere to the "only intelligent debates" policy. However, I believe that because this room's activity and even the quality of the actual debate threads would benefit from the social thread, it would be in DH's best interests to allow just this one room as an exception. As I've said, this could not only dramatically increase activity, it could also cut down on spam, one liners, and questions in the actual debate threads. Once you consider the benefits, I think the social thread is worth it.

Honestly, I think we should be more concerned with trying to produce succesful, quality debates than adhering to a rule that could potentially restrict the DH's success. As SOLID mentioned, if you and the other mods disapprove of the room once it has been in effect for a while, then we could always just close it.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

But to answer Viper's question, I am considering instituting Tabula Rasa - Clean slate. Every single debate will be closed and moved to an archive room, and the room will be completely blank for new debates.

IF I decide to do this (I will speak to other room mods), I need some serious promises to start good debates.

It's an interesting idea, I just can't see where the benefit would be. If you could explain how this would help that would be nice.

 

[Crimson King]

With locking and archiving the past debates will allow every topic ever discussed to be open for new conversation.

The PRoom is full of idiots and anyone can go there.

Why won't you just give it a try? If it doesn't lead to new and interesting debates then close it down, but we won't know, you won't know, unless it's tried. Being closed minded to potentially beneficial ideas definitely doesn't help activity.

There are four mods for the room, and the other three feel similar to me.

 

[¯\_S.(ツ).L.I.D._/¯]

There are four mods for the room, and the other three feel similar to me.

Alright.

Can you at least listen to what we're saying?

What is the harm in trying it out? You haven't answered this, and I'd like to know.

 

[blazedaces]

I think this mentality summarizes the lack of activity.

There will be no social thread in the Debate Hall. This room is meant SOLELY for intelligent debates, whereas the Proom is the social room.

But to answer Viper's question, I am considering instituting Tabula Rasa - Clean slate. Every single debate will be closed and moved to an archive room, and the room will be completely blank for new debates.

IF I decide to do this (I will speak to other room mods), I need some serious promises to start good debates.

If you did this I would be willing to add at least one debate/thread...

I'm honestly willing to try ANYTHING at this point. This used to be a place I checked daily wondering what I missed... and now well, it's not.

-blazed

 

[KrazyGlue]

With locking and archiving the past debates will allow every topic ever discussed to be open for new conversation.

Ah, I see. So it's a way for us to revisit our old debate threads and spark new discussion about the topics.

I think the archive is a pretty good idea. It should bring people back to see the newer versions of the discussions.
______________________________________

There are four mods for the room, and the other three feel similar to me.

So you, Evil Eye, Zero Beat, and Mediocre all agreed that you dislike the social thread idea? If so, could you post your reasoning behind this decision?

 

[RDK]

Let's wipe the slate clean and archive the old threads. The thought of a fresh new Yossarian / Kur / Why Would Anyone Believe In God discussion makes me all tingly on the inside.

 

[KrazyGlue]

Yeah, we should at least do the archiving and current events of the week; there seems to be no opposition to those. As I've stated before, I also think topic variety is one of the key things we can improve in the DH.

 

[Aesir]

Kur is really the Anti-aesir.

Everything I stood for, he was against.

 

[Crimson King]

Alright.

Can you at least listen to what we're saying?

What is the harm in trying it out? You haven't answered this, and I'd like to know.

After speaking with Medi, we seem to be at a conflict as to WHAT the social thread would be. I am opposed to a thread that would be about discussing your day, what you are doing, and all of that because of the fact we have other rooms, and my approving that would be walking over their respective jurisdiction (and also make me hypocritical in that I normally close threads that do that). I would not be opposed to intellectual discussions instead of a flat-out debate, or the current events discussed.

 

[Aesir]

After speaking with Medi, we seem to be at a conflict as to WHAT the social thread would be. I am opposed to a thread that would be about discussing your day, what you are doing, and all of that because of the fact we have other rooms, and my approving that would be walking over their respective jurisdiction (and also make me hypocritical in that I normally close threads that do that). I would not be opposed to intellectual discussions instead of a flat-out debate, or the current events discussed.

When I first suggested the idea I originally figured it would be like a more intelligent pool room. Not a discussing your day thread, but a place we could all discuss intelligent things. Instead of making a new thread about something we could just mention it in the social thread and discuss it then.

If there was a topic that was debate worthy we could just make a thread about it. I think a social thread would promote a lot of activity because it's always something to check, and it could really help get members to brain storm possible debate topics.

But that's just my two cents.

 

[¯\_S.(ツ).L.I.D._/¯]

I agree with Aesir.

The PRoom is great for discussing your day, etc., as that is basically what it's there for. The drawback is that there isn't much intelligent discussion, mainly because of the abundance of idiots. I just think that implementing it would add a lot more activity. This thread has shown that if people know for sure that there's something worth coming here for, then they'll come. I believe that will happen if a social thread is added. But we'll never know unless it's tried.

 

[Zero Beat]

After speaking with Medi, we seem to be at a conflict as to WHAT the social thread would be. I am opposed to a thread that would be about discussing your day, what you are doing, and all of that because of the fact we have other rooms, and my approving that would be walking over their respective jurisdiction (and also make me hypocritical in that I normally close threads that do that). I would not be opposed to intellectual discussions instead of a flat-out debate, or the current events discussed.

I am also opposed to a thread that people go into just to talk about their days, seeing as there are already alternatives to this(pool room, vm's, and social groups). What I'm not against are discussions with a certain level of merit, for example:

-Questions/discussions about a certain theory you may or may not disagree with in Physics
-How thorough has science been in mapping the Big Bang? Evolution?
-Natural science vs social science

Conversations like these are not only fine by me, but actually encouraged because it may verify current ideas, help you think on higher levels if the topic of discussion was good enough, etc.

What I don't want:

-Bickering(considering it's negative) about members outside of the DH(Including the PG's)
-Posts like "sup bro?"
-Any violation of the boards' rules(especially one liners and double posts to be funny, which DID happen in the previous Debater nomination thread that got locked)

Just keep it civil.

 

[thegreatkazoo]

While all these ideas are good, I would still recommend the following: Making new threads and replying to newly made threads.

I am not really comfortable with this idea of finding an apparatus to make us talk more. That is something we should be doing automatically, given the nature of the room. Though our lives still get in the way sometimes, we should still give support to the DH, and more so the PG. Heck, I go to Georgia Tech and I still try to make a thread here once a week (excluding the several posts I may make here)! It is possible, you know. I personally know of @ least one person who left the PG because he felt so discouraged by the lack of communication between PGers and us.

Even though I am on school vacation for the week, I will actually take some time to make a new thread or two. I would recommend that some of ya'll do the same.

That's just one guy's opinion...

 

[KrazyGlue]

I am also opposed to a thread that people go into just to talk about their days, seeing as there are already alternatives to this(pool room, vm's, and social groups). What I'm not against are discussions with a certain level of merit, for example:

-Questions/discussions about a certain theory you may or may not disagree with in Physics
-How thorough has science been in mapping the Big Bang? Evolution?
-Natural science vs social science

Conversations like these are not only fine by me, but actually encouraged because it may verify current ideas, help you think on higher levels if the topic of discussion was good enough, etc.

What I don't want:

-Bickering(considering it's negative) about members outside of the DH(Including the PG's)
-Posts like "sup bro?"
-Any violation of the boards' rules(especially one liners and double posts to be funny, which DID happen in the previous Debater nomination thread that got locked)

Just keep it civil.

This is pretty much intended when I mentioned the social thread idea. I think what gave people the wrong idea was when I mentioned the Pool Room. Also, I intended it to have general purpose functions, such as this:

it would also be a good place to discuss your idea for a topic, ideas for events, or other miscellaneous things such as that. As blazedaces mentioned, the fact that the thread would be bringing people back to the DH over and over would have a very positive effect on the actual debates.

It could also cut down on duplicate or short posts in the actual debate topics, as the social thread would be a more appropriate place to put those posts. For example, if a newly accepted DH member wanted to jump into the Intellectual Property thread but didn't want to have to read through all 240+ posts, they could go into the social thread and ask if their idea had been brought up already. If their idea had already been mentioned, they wouldn't waste time writing a huge essay about it as well as someone else's time who has to tell them their point had already been brought up and countered. If their idea hadn't been brought up yet, they could elaborate on it in the actual thread.

...unless someone is opposed to using the social room for those functions.


So, barring any dissent, should I open it? (I'll have a "social thread guidelines" ruleset in the OP to prevent any misunderstandings of the title)

While all these ideas are good, I would still recommend the following: Making new threads and replying to newly made threads.

I think the main reason we haven't discussed this as much is because it goes without saying that we should be making a sufficient amount of topics (and replying to them, as I mentioned when I bumped this thread).

 

[Crimson King]

So, barring any dissent, should I open it? (I'll have a "social room guidelines" ruleset in the OP to prevent any misunderstandings of the title)

Waiting on Evil Eye to sound off.

 

[RDK]

A "social room" where people talk about nothing in particular is a dumb idea. If we're going to have a general discussion thread, I'd like it to be something like the Debaters social group we had (before everyone stopped posting there). It was fun to have people post links to scientific articles and the like that made the news, books they had just read, or interesting topics relevant to debating, which in turn sparked discussion. When it was still active, I looked forward to seeing what links other people posted.

People who were a part of the social group should understand what I'm getting at.

 

[Zero Beat]

That is exactly what would change my mind from "No" to "Sure," as I said in my post. Glad to see some people verifying the ONLY way we'd have a social room.

 

[Mewter]

I think just a thread like that would be nice.
If you had a couple of questions that you'd like answered, then asking them in a Debate Hall general thread would be useful for that type of stuff.

It would also be way better than visiting a dead social group.

 

[Crimson King]

So, I definitely misread KrazyGlue's post: there is absolutely no chance of a social ROOM ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever happening. This discussion is about a social thread.

Just for clarification, it's in response to this quote:

So, barring any dissent, should I open it? (I'll have a "social room guidelines" ruleset in the OP to prevent any misunderstandings of the title)

 

[Zero Beat]

Ah, I meant it as a title for a thread, not an actual room.

 

[KrazyGlue]

So, I definitely misread KrazyGlue's post: there is absolutely no chance of a social ROOM ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever happening. This discussion is about a social thread.

Just for clarification, it's in response to this quote: So, barring any dissent, should I open it? (I'll have a "social room guidelines" ruleset in the OP to prevent any misunderstandings of the title)

I meant social thread guidelines, not social room guidelines. I accidentlly put the wrong word down. My apologies.

Any word from EE?

 

[Crimson King]

I meant social thread guidelines, not social room guidelines. My apologies.

Any word from evil eye?

Good! He's studying at the moment; I'll give him time to reply.

 

[Faithkeeper]

I think a wipe and restart of threads would definitely help with activity. I haven't completely decided on my opinion of the social thread, but if one were made I would probably use it.

 

[Evil Eye]

Alright EE is back! Wow that was a lot of studying (that's right, I haven't slept)! Jeez stop calling me Evil Eye, guys, it's so formal and disconnected!


A social room was proposed a long time ago, and I shot it down because it's a stupid idea. A really stupid idea. You can already post "general topics of intelligent discussion" and even rants or silly debates (within reason) per Debate Hall ammendments Eric and I made, like, three years ago, so it's completely unnecessary and redundant. Might as well give the CM a social room or something. Ridiculous.

A social thread I will concede, I suppose. RDK makes a valid point in that the DH social group spawned some interesting one-off discussions and article sharing and the like, things that didn't quite fit into their own debates in a sort of Debate Hall: The Twitter Edition. The fact that the social group died, but was a success for a while, proves to me why it could be a good idea and might be worth trying out.

I also endorse Zero's guidelines for what is or is not acceptable within the social thread, and you can expect us to be trawling it with red/yellow cards at maximum levels of readiness. I don't want to see any "cool story bro" bull****, any how was your day nonsense, any word association games. Keep it in the spirit of the room or face penalties, paddling, and possible closing of the thread (forever and ever and ever).

Reasonable?

EDIT: I would wait and let one of us modly types open the thread, just so we can have codified rules and expectations for the thread in the first post from the get-go and thus no excuses or waaaahmbulance calling if we start penalizing posts deemed as trite or misuse of the thread later on because nobody bothered to check the OP for edited in rules.



-I

 

[KrazyGlue]

Alright EE is back! Wow that was a lot of studying (that's right, I haven't slept)! Jeez stop calling me Evil Eye, guys, it's so formal and disconnected!


A social room was proposed a long time ago, and I shot it down because it's a stupid idea. A really stupid idea. You can already post "general topics of intelligent discussion" and even rants or silly debates (within reason) per Debate Hall ammendments Eric and I made, like, three years ago, so it's completely unnecessary and redundant. Might as well give the CM a social room or something. Ridiculous.

A social thread I will concede, I suppose. RDK makes a valid point in that the DH social group spawned some interesting one-off discussions and article sharing and the like, things that didn't quite fit into their own debates in a sort of Debate Hall: The Twitter Edition. The fact that the social group died, but was a success for a while, proves to me why it could be a good idea and might be worth trying out.

I also endorse Zero's guidelines for what is or is not acceptable within the social thread, and you can expect us to be trawling it with red/yellow cards at maximum levels of readiness. I don't want to see any "cool story bro" bull****, any how was your day nonsense, any word association games. Keep it in the spirit of the room or face penalties, paddling, and possible closing of the thread (forever and ever and ever).

Reasonable?

EDIT: I would wait and let one of us modly types open the thread, just so we can have codified rules and expectations for the thread in the first post from the get-go and thus no excuses or waaaahmbulance calling if we start penalizing posts deemed as trite or misuse of the thread later on because nobody bothered to check the OP for edited in rules.



-I

Yup, reasonable.
_______________________

Just to clarify, there was never any intention of making a social room, that was simply an accidental mistype on my part.

 

[Crimson King]

So, in order to streamline this, Zero, RDK, and KrazyGlue, could you three work on a ruleset for the thread? Zero had the ideas that I liked, but I'd like to create a composite of rules. Try to cover EVERYTHING, such as whether we should put on in the PG or not, should we have current events posted weekly (PMed to me as OP), stuff like that. EE, Medi, and I will go through these rules, add any we need, subtract what isn't good, then I'll post the thread with the rules.

 

[KrazyGlue]

So, in order to streamline this, Zero, RDK, and KrazyGlue, could you three work on a ruleset for the thread? Zero had the ideas that I liked, but I'd like to create a composite of rules. Try to cover EVERYTHING, such as whether we should put on in the PG or not, should we have current events posted weekly (PMed to me as OP), stuff like that. EE, Medi, and I will go through these rules, add any we need, subtract what isn't good, then I'll post the thread with the rules.

Ok, sounds good. I'll be stuck on homework for most of the rest of today, but I'll be able to work with Zero Beat and RDK starting later tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Zero Beat]

Let's just get one thing clear, there will not be a social ROOM. It will be a SOCIAL THREAD.

 

[Riddle]

Hi guys. I have an idea for something that could imrpove activity in the Debate Hall by improving the quality of aspiring Smash Debaters. We should have a little mentor program where an up-and-coming debater signs up to have an experienced debater as a mentor for a couple of weeks. The mentor would point out errors and help the temp. debater to construct good, sound arguments and come up with good thread ideas and all that stuff. Then at the end of the mentoring period all of the tutees would have a debating tournament and the winner could get a prize like a custom title, or entry into the Debate Hall.

This would promote competitiveness which is naturally associated with debate and improve the quality of PG'ers which would get more people into the Debate Hall which would promote more discussion.

What do you guys think?

 

[KrazyGlue]

Hi guys. I have an idea for something that could imrpove activity in the Debate Hall by improving the quality of aspiring Smash Debaters. We should have a little mentor program where an up-and-coming debater signs up to have an experienced debater as a mentor for a couple of weeks. The mentor would point out errors and help the temp. debater to construct good, sound arguments and come up with good thread ideas and all that stuff. Then at the end of the mentoring period all of the tutees would have a debating tournament and the winner could get a prize like a custom title, or entry into the Debate Hall.

This would promote competitiveness which is naturally associated with debate and improve the quality of PG'ers which would get more people into the Debate Hall which would promote more discussion.

What do you guys think?

Nice idea Riddle! I never would have thought of that. That said, I don't really think a tournament would be easy to judge nor would it be necessary. Other than that, I like this idea and support it.