Createspam, Createblog has created a monster Options

[NoSex]

Alright. I have noticed recently that these boards have been suffering from an obscene amount of spam and one on one conversation based posting. The entire vibe and feel of the boards have, in my opinion, reached a kind of low. The debate threads are more stagnant than ever. The lounge is a waste of time. The entertainment threads suffer any kind of in-depth or worthwhile posts. It just seems like the community boards are really beginning to suck.

The problem is, how would we solve this problem?
Do we need to punish those spammers? If so, will traffic decrease to a useless degree?
Maybe we can try to attract some older parties?
The debate thread could become exclusive. But, then it might actually become entirely stagnant.
The idea for an art subforum seems to be a push in the right direction.
Or maybe I should just find a more suitable community board?

What do you guys think?

[NoSex]

We can all be candid without being malicious. We can speak our minds freely while still following the rules. The idea that this is a dichotomy between spamming and biting our tongues is absurd. Eitherway, I don't think anyone wants you to not speak your mind. But, if what we all have been seeing on the boards is the contents of everyone's mind, we don't have a prayer.

Sorry to be cynical, but it is beginning to seem hopeless. We need more meaningful, more honest, and more friendly threads and posts. The lounge is expected to be laid back, but that doesn't mean we should vandalize it.

I think we have capable and well-intentioned posters. But, I think we need a lot more. Although there have been a great number of useful and worthy suggestions relating to the boards, I think our biggest issue is our members. Very few members seem interested in actually creating a strong and meaningful community here. "Drive-by-posting" isn't the worst thing that could happen, but when nearly all the board consists of it, everything becomes characterized by monotony.

[*mipadi*]

I think we have capable and well-intentioned posters. But, I think we need alot more. Although there have been a great number of useful and worthy suggestions relating to the boards, I think our biggest issue is our members. Very few members seem interested in actually creating a strong and meaningful community here. "Drive-by-posting" isn't the worst thing that could happen, but when nearly all the board consists of it, everything becomes characterized by monotony.

That is the problem though: Most of the threads are "drive-by" threads. Look at the first page of any forum; very few of the threads feature actual discussion.

Look in Entertainment, for example. One of the active threads is "What's your favorite band?" or something like that. How much more general can one get? The thread is four pages long now. That's at least 76 posts, maybe as many as 100 replies. Do you think there is any discussion in that thread? Not likely. No one is going to read who 76-100 people like to listen to. No one cares about the majority of the members in that thread (no offense to anyone who posted, but it's the truth). It's not meaningful discussion.

Most of the threads on the first page of The Lounge exhibit the same behavior.

"Drive-by posting" isn't a bad thing if it happens in limited doses, no; but it's out of control on cB, and that is the problem. You're absolutely right when you say that few members seem interested in creating a strong and meaningful community, and that is exactly what I was getting at in the posts I cited back in the first post in this thread. The problem isn't just drive-by posting, but it's that everyone is so focused on that, that no one is interested in actually doing anything interesting. Perfect example: I tend to be verbose in my posting, and I've received a number of responses that say something along the lines of "Wow, I didn't read that whole thing, but…" And that's one post: Think about threads that stretch to two or three pages. No one is going to put effort into reading that, so long threads that require continuous involvement quickly die.

[NoSex]

"Drive-by posting" isn't a bad thing if it happens in limited doses, no; but it's out of control on cB, and that is the problem.

Absolutely.

So, I think our goal should seem obvious: Discourage meaningless impersonal "drive-by posting," while encouraging meaingful and personal posting.

The problem is exactly how we would do that.
However, I think a fantastic start would be dumping these "drive-by posting threads" into the sanbox and creating rules against highly general and impersonal threads in anywhere but the sandbox.

[Spirited Away]

Absolutely.

So, I think our goal should seem obvious: Discourage meaningless impersonal "drive-by posting," while encouraging meaingful and personal posting.

The problem is exactly how we would do that.
However, I think a fantastic start would be dumping these "drive-by posting threads" into the sanbox and creating rules against highly general and impersonal threads in anywhere but the sandbox.

Discouraging "drive-by posting" means strict rules. While I have no problem with it, I am reminded by Jusun's thread about making the lounge an "anything-goes" zone.

[*mipadi*]

I think we just need more capable, well-intentioned, and dedicated members. Sometimes it feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack around here.

Precisely. I think partly the problem is the over-organization on cB. We have subforums for many, many topics, and I think some people start to post things just because we have a subforum for it, making it hard to find the meaningful threads. There are a lot out there, they're just scattered.

But aside from that, you're exactly right—well-intentioned threads are often drowned out by the habitual posting that happens.

Discouraging "drive-by posting" means strict rules. While I have no problem with it, I am reminded by Jusun's thread about making the lounge an "anything-goes" zone.

You posted my exact thoughts. I'm not in favor of layering more and more rules on cB; I think the community needs to take it upon themselves to reward "good" threads by posting in them and making them active—or making new good threads to replace the old. It shouldn't be a duty of the moderators to enforce good posting, and I also don't think we should sequester good posting into yet another forum.