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?

[*mipadi*]

I think two issues are the general community's obsession with post count and attention. I've often considered in my mind the idea of removing post count from user info displays and profiles. I think the idea would be highly controversial, but I think removing any indication of a user's post count status might help reduce spam and nonsense posting. Let's be honest—many people post simply to increase post count. I say let's remove it entirely.

The other issue is attention. A lot of people post crap just to get their name out there. As cB grows, it becomes harder and harder to gain notice, so people resort to tacky strategies: posting excessively, picking fights, spamming, and so forth. I think this goes back to cB's focus on superlatives: So many members are trying to be the best or most prolific member, and the only way to do that is to drown out everyone else.

Nate, in the beginning, you noted that one solution might be to form another, smaller community. I used to be opposed to that idea, but lately I've been feeling it's not a bad thing. I belong to several other forums and several IRC-based communities. Some of them are so small that they're barely active, and that's no fun. The ones that are the most fun are the ones that have enough members that you can expect to see a few dozen new posts a day, but few enough that you can, in essence, keep up with the personal details of each member, or at least the most active ones; and be sure that the new posts are interesting, insightful, and engaging. I feel those have the most sense of community.

Some members might see users like Dani and I talk about the IRC channel a lot. The IRC channel is often times dead; mostly it's just populated by Dani and I, or more likely just Dani, or in some cases just me. But when there are a few people in there—two or four or six or eight—it's a lot of fun. I think Dani and others would agree we have some really interesting discussions. Sure, it's small, but it's small enough to be personal, and that's what makes it interesting.

So maybe your suggestion, which seemed to be more of a "Plan B" sort of idea, isn't such a bad idea at all. Forming a smaller, more personal community with like-minded members (such as what happened with Hitherston, and I know I'm probably putting my neck out there by even suggesting the founders had the right idea) isn't a bad idea if it means forging more personal connections—and it also doesn't mean abandoning cB entirely. You may have been on to a really good idea by posting that suggestion.

[NoSex]

Let's be honest—many people post simply to increase post count. I say let's remove it entirely.

No aversion to such an idea.

I think this goes back to cB's focus on superlatives: So many members are trying to be the best or most prolific member, and the only way to do that is to drown out everyone else.

I would have to agree that this attention obsession is definately a huge problem. We have to trash this middle school popularity contest mentality.

So maybe your suggestion, which seemed to be more of a "Plan B" sort of idea, isn't such a bad idea at all.

Although I don't believe I explicitly suggested the creation of an entirely new community, I am not in any way opposed to it. An experiment of sorts would actually be a welcomed thing on this side. Sounds like we could all form something great.

[SarahxJoy]

I would have to agree that this attention obsession is definately a huge problem. We have to trash this middle school popularity contest mentality.

..I think that'd be just a tad difficult, seeing as how a great deal of our members are IN middle school.

[NoSex]

..I think that'd be just a tad difficult, seeing as how a great deal of our members are IN middle school.

I would suggest an age limit. But, I think I know how impossible that would be.
Either way, I think an age limit could actually help.