This Place has Died Down: Debate The Best Way To Make This Place Active

[illinialex24]

Recently, I have really noticed that this place has had a severe drop in the number of people posting, and I as well have been coming here less and less frequently. When I originally became a Debater, I came her multiple times per day and was arguing constantly, on both religion, evolution, government or more. Now, I don't even come here for a single day and I miss 1 or 2 posts. This place is really starting to lose what it was made for: Debate.

There are a few general approaches to how we can fix this:

1. Essentially make this an open forum for a while so people will come here in much larger numbers. At first I didn't know about the signature application thing and I am guessing there are at least a few people who have the same issues.

2. Start kicking out members for inactivity. Although Steel is going to get pissed at me for saying this, I don't believe I've seen Steel2nd in the Debater thread for a few weeks. If we start requiring people to post, maybe it will get people to post here more often. However, it could also have a detrimental effect.

3. Allow many more members in. Essentially allow anyone in who applies as long as they aren't known as the world's biggest troll, even if they have many infraction points for unintelligent things (although I have many infraction points, most are for random things along the lines, signature issues, making fun of Steel2nd for freaking out about Emblem Lord being gone for 3 days, and 3 month old censor dodging before I got the infraction). This might make the discussion slightly less intelligent at first, but as long as we make an example of the posts that look like this, we should be fine fairly soon:

Yo bros, abortion should get its *** slammed for telling my girlfriend to kill my child man. Tell that hoe Roe to get out a this buildin'.

Debate your own opinion on this and I hope a few mods who run the Debate Hall will take this into consideration.

 

[BFDD]

I don't like number 2 personally. Now that I am back in school I don't have the time to be researching topics outside of my classes. I get on to keep up with the posts, but that is really all I have the time for When it gets closer to May I will be able to pick up debating again. I'm sure there are probably others here that are in the same situation.

 

[illinialex24]

Yeah I had an influx of school work a little while ago when I didn't come, but we need to find a way to increase the activity here.

 

[aeghrur]

We seriously do need more people, and more open registration/acceptance process would REALLY help.
A lot of forums have people debating openly on certain subjects, and while they do become flame wars, the activity is tremendous. What this means is we need to keep a balance here, of activity while keeping away from flame war/idiocy. =/ However, finding this balance point is hard, and truthfully, I hardly know how to do this. =/

 

[illinialex24]

Yeah I believe if we can find a way to get more people informed on how to apply, we might get a lot more members. I believe that if we have this as an open forum for a while it might create a lot more debate.

 

[Crimson King]

This will never be an open board again.

 

[DtJ Jungle]

You can't just let anybody into this subform, some people don't understand what real debate is...

 

[Aesir]

We seriously do need more people, and more open registration/acceptance process would REALLY help.
A lot of forums have people debating openly on certain subjects, and while they do become flame wars, the activity is tremendous. What this means is we need to keep a balance here, of activity while keeping away from flame war/idiocy. =/ However, finding this balance point is hard, and truthfully, I hardly know how to do this. =/

No an open board is bad, BAAAAD. Not just because of flames but because of people who don't understand what evidence and logical arguments are.

 

[SkylerOcon]

Last time CK loosened up on admission standards, we got JonaDiaper. The success of these boards really just depends on the amount of intelligent people who have an interest in debating.

Sadly, the current group of active posters and the few people like me who don't post here very often are all that we've really got.

 

[GoldShadow]

This was an open board for like 6 or 7 years (or however long it's been around). I never posted here much even during that time, but I did read it from time to time. I think it's safe to say that system is never coming back.

 

[LordoftheMorning]

I'm thinking about introducing a Policy Debate thread, which is different from a normal debate thread. In this debate, you make a policy and defend it with a series of arguments. It's a bit more complicated, but I think it has the potential to be a LOT of fun. Sound interesting? I'll finish creating it within the week or maybe next week.

 

[~Peachy~]

Open board forum? There's a high chance that many "unnecessary situations" will arise such as flame wars, unrelated debates, etc.

Kicking people out for inactivity also seems like a relatively bad idea. There are acceptable reasons people don't post in these SWF nonetheless these forums such as sickness/ailments, long vacations, etc. Maybe if a person doesn't post in maybe... a year or so. That would be a reasonable time limit if this plan is actually carried out.

The third plan actually not bad of an idea. Add anyone who applies, and file the number of "bad" members down if necessary. The criteria of a member's expulsion and posting criteria of the forum may have to be loosened up a tad bit. That could be a reason why the forums are becoming less active. Call me crazy, but the "guidelines" of making a "good" debate post make posting new debates and just posting in general more difficult, probably because of the fear of being penalized. Of course, that doesn't mean we'll be totally lenient. Just lenient enough to not restrict posts too far. Just a few guidelines such as good grammar and punctuation, respect, and other rules of that kind should suffice. As aeghrur said, this may not be an easy task...

 

[Reaver197]

Last time CK loosened up on admission standards, we got JonaDiaper.

Lol.

I wonder how many posters on smashboards are actually aware that the debate hall exists, and/or would actually care to post in it.

 

[cF=)]

I don't post in the debate hall anymore because there is an excessive amount of useless rebuttals done against logic. Why did we had a global warming debate in the first place? Why are religious debates stagnating at a ridiculously low level of intelligence? If we, at least, had members who could ACKNOWLEDGE when they're wrong, this place would be much more flourishing.

Sadly, this was only obtained when we had DYWP, and I know these contests take lots of energy.

 

[Reaver197]

If we, at least, had members who could ACKNOWLEDGE when they're wrong, this place would be much more flourishing.

I wholeheartedly agree with this statement.

 

[illinialex24]

We just don't have enough people. I am trying to get people to learn how to apply but for those who already do, its not that great. Although the open forum was meant as an extreme solution, its better than no one.

 

[DtJ Jungle]

Also it takes FOREVER to get admitted into this thing

or when i applied it took like...3 or 4 months? maybe this place needs to add a moderator or two to help keep things moving with the application process.

 

[Reaver197]

Yeah, at least for the system that was used to admit me, where you just wrote a short little something and applied for the possibility of being able to get into the debate hall, it took so long that I pretty much stopped checking, thinking I was just going to be left in limbo. It wasn't until by a random fluke that I clicked on my membership status and found that I had been approved.

Additionally, there should be some way to inform people if they have been chosen. I might've never realized that I had membership, and would've just lost it because I didn't realized I could post.

 

[Firus]

Also it takes FOREVER to get admitted into this thing

or when i applied it took like...3 or 4 months? maybe this place needs to add a moderator or two to help keep things moving with the application process.

Are you sure it took 3 or 4 months and you just didn't notice sooner? It only took about a week for me.

Besides, adding another mod or two wouldn't help -- if it truly took 3-4 months and truly took that long due to too many applications, we'd need many more mods, and that's just not realistic (not to mention that more mods wouldn't be very realistic anyways since this board isn't active enough to require them).

 

[DtJ Jungle]

yeah i applied in september and i didnt get accepted till late november/early december while i was banned hahaha

i think adding a mod would help, because CK is a smod doing a whole bunch of stuff and i think he's the one handling most of this..i dunno i could be wrong.

 

[illinialex24]

Yeah, the application process takes forever but I also believe not enough people know how to apply. Your thoughts?

 

[Pr0phetic]

WE need a major event to occur, it's as if we covered a large spectrum of things to debate on.

 

[Reaver197]

Lol, it also might help convince people to join this place if the color for it wasn't pink.

 

[Crimson King]

There was a rebellion over when we changed the color from pink. It's permanently pink.

 

[Aesir]

True men wear pink anyway.

 

[Lord Viper]

If we, at least, had members who could ACKNOWLEDGE when they're wrong, this place would be much more flourishing.

☆ That would make the debate too easy, if everyone agree's with each other, then there wouldn't be much of a debate which make's a debate thread die. Though it would make much since if people acknowledge defeat if they're wrong, but not everyone has the same options or the same way of thinking the same or a diffrent answer. ☆

Lol, it also might help convince people to join this place if the color for it wasn't pink.

☆ Real men were pink. =P ☆

 

[Reaver197]

There was a rebellion over when we changed the color from pink. It's permanently pink.

Really? That's hilarious.

 

[illinialex24]

There was a rebellion over when we changed the color from pink. It's permanently pink.

Yeah I like the pink color even if I prefer light blue for Smash Researcher (in due time.....)

 

[Crimson King]

That color used to be ours.

 

[Bowser King]

That color used to be ours.

Really?

When did it get changed?
Personally, pink suits my avi and sig better then blue

Anyway, Open forum is a Baaaad idea. This is a smash related forum and I don't even want to imagine the number of people who are going to come in here and make smash related debates.

Kicking people has already been done and it only lowered the activity. I'd say a year is a good time for a person to get kicked but other then that it wouldn't be very helpful. Especially since we don't know what's happening to that person in real life (hospital, vacation ect.) but with the year idea we would have a good idea on who's active and who's not.

Adding more people is good but they should be checked first. Do they post smart?Do they have good/readable grammar and spelling when they post? Sure there are a few exceptions of people who post smart in the DH but don't post with equally good grammar and spelling outside of it but it would help for the majority of people allowed in.

 

[Firus]

Anyway, Open forum is a Baaaad idea. This is a smash related forum and I don't even want to imagine the number of people who are going to come in here and make smash related debates.

Yes. I know I saw a "Tires Don Exits" thread once in here, for a debate on tiers. I'm sure if it were open the number of locked threads would be comparable to the GBD. And just look at it right now, if you will...there are at least 10 closed threads on the first page alone.

Adding more people is good but they should be checked first. Do they post smart?Do they have good/readable grammar and spelling when they post? Sure there are a few exceptions of people who post smart in the DH but don't post with equally good grammar and spelling outside of it but it would help for the majority of people allowed in.

Yeah, this. Activity is not worth the spam the board would receive from high accessibility. People will mistake discussions with different sides and petty arguments as debates. People will post in leetspeak and AIMspeak in here. If you think the mods are slow now, just wait until they're constantly purging crappy members that they just admitted.

The best way to make this place active is for the current members to be more active. I know it's hypocritical coming from me, since I haven't posted in here in quite a while, but that's because not many of the current topics really grab my attention. I'm not saying that it's an easy fix, but the "fixes" that you presented are not really fixes at all. They'd just hurt the Debate Hall in another way.

 

[Darxmarth23]

I too have not been posting here as much. I felt like there hasn't been much for me to respond to. For the past few weeks to me it has felt like the only thing that had kept this place even slightly active was the "Fallacies in Christianity" debate. If there were more things to respond to (In each individuals viewpoint) then this place would be more active. My 2 cents. Sorry if others have said this too and it seems repetitive.

I lean towards allowing more people in. But making the rules of the debate hall enforced to the letter. When people apply and don't get in, its most likely they were just trying to get a pink name, not debate.
Those who have gotten in probably have posted once or twice a month to keep the name and not be stripped of there title for inactivity.

With more people we should have some pros and cons.

Pros:
1 More people with different responses making this a place with diverse personality.
2 More topics bought to our attention.
3 Frequent posts.
4 We could potentially resolve topics sooner.

Cons

1 Probably some trolling

I can't really think of anything else to add at the moment, but these are my thoughts.

If we have a stricter ruling then illins idea of a slightly more open forum should work in my opinion.

 

[RDK]

Last time CK loosened up on admission standards, we got JonaDiaper.

Wow, how did I miss this?

This literally just made my day.

 

[DtJ Jungle]

Yah that was a phenomenal quote.

Honestly, I say we get another moderator, someone who's been here a while or can put the time into it. So if we let other members in, the rules can be enforced.

 

[Firus]

Honestly, I say we get another moderator, someone who's been here a while or can put the time into it. So if we let other members in, the rules can be enforced.

The rules can be enforced with the current mods. Just because the rules are enforced doesn't prevent a certain amount of spam and unintelligence from entering the DH.

 

[DtJ Jungle]

No I know. I'm just saying that the mods that run this room also have other obligations...

It's just a suggestion lol.

 

[adumbrodeus]

The rules can be enforced with the current mods. Just because the rules are enforced doesn't prevent a certain amount of spam and unintelligence from entering the DH.

I think the suggestion is with a large force of mods, this room can be modded in a draconian fashion, with it's own little set of rules, and basically anyone who's not intelligent will get annoyed enough to leave after their posts disapear within 2 seconds for the 900th time.


That said, I'll tell you the answer. School.

Speaking for myself, I'd be a lot more active if I didn't have schoolwork to deal with, during the summer and breaks, activity will pick up.

 

[Firus]

I think the suggestion is with a large force of mods, this room can be modded in a draconian fashion, with it's own little set of rules, and basically anyone who's not intelligent will get annoyed enough to leave after their posts disapear within 2 seconds for the 900th time.

Yes, I know that. Even if the rules are enforced to the highest extent, unintelligence is still going to come into play here. That's my point. People visiting here are still going to be plagued by non-debates and spam.

You notice how at least once every week there's a thread asking about someone's signature in the GBD? Or a separate thread asking what game someone should get in the Light House? It's not because the same people are persisting, it's because people keep joining and noobs who don't know the rules keep posting. The same would happen here. Noobs will keep leaving, but they'll keep coming too.

 

[Mediocre]

I'm just popping in to say that we've got the Proving Grounds almost all set up. I just have to get off my *** for a little while and do the final preparations before we can start letting Temp Debaters into it.

I expect that once people from the Proving Grounds start coming into the normal Debate Hall, the place should liven up.

 

[DoH]

Dear G-d we need policy debates. These willy nilly debates about ideas are dumb and you can never prove what's wrong or right, as everything is hypothetical.