Number of Posts in Technic Forum

[Jim]

Okay guys, that's good to know!

I will take this into consideration while regulating/moderating the topic.

[dr_spock]

I think subforms would be more effort to go through, read and maintain stuff.

Perhaps a pinned FAQ thread that answers most common questions. Guidelines on thread creation. What needs a topic of its own or can be posted in the General discussion.

The Technic forum is busier now than in the past. Maybe more volunteers can help manage it in which ever direction goes.

[DrJB]

Removing threads that you don't like, like how to make the best use of black parts in MOCs?

I am more in favor of tolerance than censure.

Now this is becoming 'personal' , as I have certainly initiated a large number of 'general/social' threads ... be it 'black parts', your 'other hobbies', an 'AFOL perspective', or 'When do you call it Quits?'. All were intended to generate some discussion, gather various opinions, and 'enliven' this forum. Granted not all of us come here for the same reasons (of course) and see value in such discussions. I am happy with the way the forum is, as I do not see anything 'broken', though this is a hobby and it's meant to be enjoyable. If it's too much of a headache for either the readers or the moderators, then we're doing something wrong (or at least our expectations need be revisited). Nonetheless, here are some thoughts, based on my own experience on here, and on various other forums (e.g. reefcentral.org).

1. A 'general technic thread' is too vague, many questions get asked at once, and difficult to have a 'focused' flow ... Instead, might be better to have a 'short Q&A' thread.

2, While threads are sorted by 'newest' on the main page, might be worthwhile to enable different sorting options (under preferences/settings) - e.g. threads I'm following/contributed to/...

3. General/Social' type threads could be all grouped under a sub-forum... e.g 'The Lounge' as others forums call it

4. While some questions/discussions seem deja-vu, we must keep in mind that user-base is dynamic, and the focus changes/evolves as well, be it because of availability of new parts/sets, new software platforms for mindstorms, or new building techniques/solutions as in efferman's and sequential gearboxes.

All in all, I'm happy with the way the forum is ... but possibly a poll with 10-20 questions on what we like/dislike about the forum might provide valuable input to those in charge.

Edited December 18, 2013 by DrJB

[aol000xw]

Recently I joked about DrJB threads beign moved and I'd like to make an observation about 'general/social' threads.

Even if Eurobricks is one entity as a whole, I think many people like me rarely move out of their area of interest, in my case Technic. so I rarely find myself out of the LEGO Technic, Mindstorms & Model Team Theme.

Beign so it creates a weird situation the fact that there is no clear place for 'general/social' threads exclusively focused in the community I am interested most, If someone wants to ask what sets you like, dislike, got, lost, colors prefer, how you sort, classify, etc etc etc. It may look like something general enougth to not to pertain to a theme, but it may not be necessarily so. I just feel the General is too General for some General topics. After all I don't really care that much about your Lego Friends sets

This might be related to the Technic community growing and putting a bit of strain on the current design. I guess Technic might be a little bigger than Minifig customization ... right?

edit: Btw if general topics are a necessary evil, I think they need to be pinned. No point in having to browse to find them specially those that arent that frequently used like the mindstorms one.

Edited December 18, 2013 by aol000xw

[Jim]

Recently I joked about DrJB threads beign moved and I'd like to make an observation about 'general/social' threads.

Even if Eurobricks is one entity as a whole, I think many people like me rarely move out of their area of interest, in my case Technic. so I rarely find myself out of the LEGO Technic, Mindstorms & Model Team Theme.

I do agree with you on this one. When I first came here, I made the same "mistakes" as DrJB did. You want to have some casual conversation with Technic members.

Maybe a Technic Lounge isn't such a bad idea

And a poll might indeed be nice to find out what you guys like the most, or hate the most. After all, it's the community that makes a forum.

Would it be an idea to post potential Poll questions is in this topic?

"Future of EB Technic"

[NevynPA]

I'm a HUGE fan of title cleanup. That, along with standardized "prefixes" go a long way toward making search easy. Things that have become common use for prefixes like [WIP], [MOC], [REVIEW], etc. make search and identification real easy.

As far as general conversation, I'd rather a bunch of small threads than one "general" thread, for the 'lost topic' issues already mentioned. Keeping those threads in a "lounge" is a good idea from what I've seen.

It's not easy to be a moderator; I was one for a while at a different site. Keep truckin'! You're doing great.

[Jim]

I'm a HUGE fan of title cleanup. That, along with standardized "prefixes" go a long way toward making search easy. Things that have become common use for prefixes like [WIP], [MOC], [REVIEW], etc. make search and identification real easy.

It's indeed a way to improve identification and searching. I try to change the topic title if it contains on of these words

As far as general conversation, I'd rather a bunch of small threads than one "general" thread, for the 'lost topic' issues already mentioned. Keeping those threads in a "lounge" is a good idea from what I've seen.

Apparently you are not the only one

It's not easy to be a moderator; I was one for a while at a different site. Keep truckin'! You're doing great.

Thanks! An important thing is not to enforce rules because of the fact that it's a rule. There needs to be a valid reason. So hearing the members opinion once in a while can be a great thing.

I think this topic is very useful

[aurly]

It seems the Technic forum is getting busier and busier. Today's posts alone cover a page and a half. I don't get the time to check in as often as I would like, and the rate at which topics disappear off the 1st page means I often miss something of interest to me.

You can read the second page by clicking 'Load more topics', or 'Next'.

You're welcome.

[DrJB]

... same "mistakes" as DrJB did ...

Maybe a Technic Lounge isn't such a bad idea

And a poll might indeed be nice to find out what you guys like the most, or hate the most. After all, it's the community that makes a forum.

Would it be an idea to post potential Poll questions is in this topic?

"Future of EB Technic"

Three answers:

1. What some call 'mistakes', othes call 'innovative ideas' ...

2. Yes, I 'floated' the idea of a 'lounge' a while back .. as I'm sure many have done before me. Do I see a shimmer of hope?

3. Fully agree, let's start a "Future of EB Technic" thread. Might be useful to set the proper scope and some rules, for example: Revamp is for basic improvement, not a total rewriting of the whole forum structure...

[Jim]

Indeed, it won't be a complete redesign of this forum. Just some improvements to get everybody aligned and to make sure everybody enjoys this forum as much as possible

[aol000xw]

So is it fine tunning "social" and "consolidation" threads management? Easier said than done.

[DrJB]

I must reckon that all this 'commotion' has generated quite a bit of work for our recently appointed Moderator. In light of this observation, and for both Jim and Ted to keep their sanity, I'm available to help in, for example, tallying up the results of the poll or anything 'data management' related.

[me00rjb]

It seems I may have opened a can of worms! To reply to some of the points raised, in no particular order, and perhaps explain my thoughts a little bit more clearly...

Is the consensus that having sub-forums would fragment the community? I hadn't considered that aspect. I thought about it more along the lines of one's Lego collection. Initialy, everything lives in one big box. As the collection grows, an attempt is made to sort out parts. Further growth yields further sorting - with the limit being a separate compartment for each piece and each colour. I guess this is fragmentation by definition, but there are benefits in being able to find exactly what you want quickly. Eurobricks itself is already split up into themes, so some fragmentation already exists. Is this a bad thing? I tend to frequent the Technic forum, and occasionally visit the Trains forum. Other than that, I don't think I've ever browsed any of the other themes, certainly not as a matter of course. As the volume of posts grow, is it not natural to 'sort' further?

I have certainly noticed increased moderation lately, but I think it largely goes unnoticed. In my book this means it's being done well! How far moderation can ultimately go, I'm not sure (although I accept the point that creating sub-forums would require extra moderation).

I hope no one took offence to my post, I was really only thinking out loud, and in my opinion having some dedicated sub-forums would be an improvement. I'm not criticising in any way. Of course a busy forum is a good thing, and I specifically stayed away from any comment on what particular posts interest me, as everyone will want different things from a forum, and have different interests. The impossible aim of course being to satisfy everyone at the same time!

My reference to yesterday's posts expanding over a page and a half was not to suggest that this was a problem in itself. The problem is when visits are spaced a week or two apart - that becomes a much more onerous task to review and check there's nothing important I've missed! A selfish request perhaps.

Regarding searching, I've often come across useful posts through google - it's more my desire to check I've not missed something of interest that makes me suggest a further degree of 'sorting' for the forum (i.e. when you can't search for it, because you don't yet know what you're looking for!).

I like the Index idea, and the planned improvements sound great. Of course this could no doubt extend across sub-forums if necessary. I must confess today was the first time I had a look at it for some time - so if nothing else this has served as a reminder about what already exists.

My main thoughts about the benefit of sub forums, is that it is potentially easier to avoid any subjects that might not interest you as much as others, thereby making the process of finding the good stuff that little bit more efficient.

I like the idea of an area for more social type threads, and now I come to think of it, shorter, specific threads are a better idea than longer bloated ones; as has been noted, there is sometimes little incentive to browse these given their generic nature. Of course more threads means further organisation might be needed.

A poll sounds like a good idea. I feel a little guilty creating extra work for people seeing as I probably take more from this forum than I contribute, however a lot of the time I read a thread and everything I would have said has already been said - so I guess a general thank you is required to those of you who take the time to post models, create instructions and share ideas, along with everything else that goes on - I guess there must be more people like myself that appreciate what goes on, but don't actively join in as much as we perhaps should.

Richard

[Chilly]

I also use a couple of other non-lego forums, and feel that a limited number of sub-forum/groups would be worth trying. Lounge (for social chats), WIP, MOC and Help Needed might be useful. I definately think it worth a poll to see how we all feel about this. Like a number of others have commented, I only lurk in Technic. Nothing else interests me. I tried the Ladies forum, but nothing there was for me. I don't even go to the front page, when I want "Lego on the internet" I go straight to the Technic page.

Jim and Blakbird and doing a fantastic job keeping us all in check, and bringing things to our attention, but (don't kick me out for saying this), but I do miss DLuders who used to bring loads of interesting lego stuff to our attention, and put pictures into threads where original posters had only put links.

[Paul B Technic]

Jim and Blakbird and doing a fantastic job keeping us all in check, and bringing things to our attention, but (don't kick me out for saying this), but I do miss DLuders who used to bring loads of interesting lego stuff to our attention, and put pictures into threads where original posters had only put links.

I agree they are both doing an excellent job, I also do miss DLuders but I don't think we are allowed to talk about that :(

[Lakop]

Hi,

I like it as it is. I can see the titles and take my pick if I want to comment. If someone wants a general chat or a conversation then why not use that in the title. Some members are just curious about their fellow technic builders. If I want to search for something I do use google knowing full well it will find me a link to eurobricks anyway. Moderators are doing a good job.

I just wish I had more time to build!

H