Request for YOUR feedback on Superthreads

BBDBB

:eek: dont start the Trekkies off ffs!



It seems to me that the purpose of a "super" thread is one of collation, keeping things tidy and easy to access under a convenient banner headline that acts as a direction finder for users. It shouldnt be at the expense of other threads or prevent the same issue being raised seperately. Is the duplication such a bad thing? Im sure when in the club house or pub after a game there are several conversations about identical incidents/issues.

awec

Superthreads are good and bad IMO.

They're good in the sense that they keep things together, and provide somewhere to make throwaway comments about a topic (say I have something to say about Ulster, but what I have to say doesn't warrant me starting a new thread).

The problem though with superthreads is if there is more than one topic being discussed at any time it gets really confusing. Like if 2 people are discussing one player while 5 others are discussing another player, or someone is discussing a event during a game while others are discussing the merits of an international callup.

I don't read the Leinster / Munster threads because when I do I usually have about 20 pages to read and who can be bothered with that? If that 20 pages were 4 threads of 5 pages each I'd read them at my leisure, and I'd be able to follow the conversation far better. The Ireland thread is just as bad, if not worse.

I'd like to see anything topical or worthy of proper discussion being given it's own thread, even if the topic in question is related to one of the superthreads. And then the superthreads can be used for the stuff that doesn't warrant a thread being started.

Fishooks12

I like the provincial super threads tbh

The Ireland one is tough to navigate but I'd fear the kind of stupid/player bashing threads that would spawn from it being disbanded.

In saying that I'm a student and a heavy user but I can understand how it would be frustrating for guys not checking in as often

Fight_Night

Superthreads are good for provincial stuff. Conversations do become a bit saturated but it gives you a medium to leave a comment that on its own wouldn't be worthy of a thread.

Ireland superthread is no good though. Very messy. All the problems you have in the provincial superthreads are far more prominent here. Instead of 1 page arguments there are 10 page arguments which makes it impossible for anything else to be discussed.

Fight_Night

Rigor Mortis wrote: »

Given that we are really talking about five Super Threads; Ulster, Munster, Leinster, Connacht and Ireland, is there any grounds to allow sub -forums for each of those - at least on a trial basis.

It strikes me that, taking Sci Fi as an example, that there are probably more regular users and a lot more activity for any of the five teams than there is for Doctor Who or Star Trek. Not intentionally dissing the Sci Fi fans.

Sub forums are a very bad idea imo. Alienates the users and discourages the more neutral fans from posting.

irishbucsfan

Is there anything to be said for super duper threads?

Scioch

I like the superthreads, handy to keep up with stuff without having 12 different threads popping up in your notifications or having to jump around so much.

I get the point about the Ireland thread though, if you're away for a day its hard to find anything related to something that happened particularly the team announcement.

That can be solved with a team announcement thread though. Might also help the Ireland thread as it would draw a lot of the short term bickering over selection which would stop the thread being swamped in such a short space of time.

tolosenc

I think superthreads work well for the more constant, ongoing nature of things like the province, or le Cafe du Rugby, etc. But for things with a very start stop nature, eg Ireland, it just doesn't work. Traffic volume is too high, and then nothing happens for months. AI superthread is impossible, too many conversations going on at the same time.

ScissorPaperRock

I don't think sub forums for provinces are a good idea either, it'll just cause more divisionism between people.

Why not have general discussion threads, but allow more specific threads where there is scope for discussing a topic on its own.

Unfortunately, unless reorganising things would encourage a load of new posters to begin posting, I can see a lot of threads ultimately ending up dying after a few posts or ending up in provincial rows.

awec

The other issue with Superthreads is unless you have been following the thread you have no idea what's being discussed. In other threads the thread title is relevant.

Superthread = open thread. Read post. Don't understand context of post. Look at the quoted post. Keep going back through quoted posts until you find the comment that started the discussion. Realise that you've gone back 10 pages. Read forward, trying to figure out which posts are part of the discussion you are reading and which are about something else. Catch up to the initial post. Read the post after that. Realise it's a different discussion, so start going back through the quotes etc etc etc.

At this point, realise you can't be arsed and click on the "Last page" link, skipping the 5 pages of comments and not reading them at all.

Swiwi

Teferi wrote: »

Just adding my support for keeping the provincial superthreads, they work well.

The Ireland one doesn't, nor do I feel that the Autumn Internationals thread does either. Too much varied information with no real relation to each other.

I agree. Prefer Match threads eg SA vs Aus, rather than a generic Autumn International thread.

Maybe have a general Ireland discussion thread, and then separate match day threads

.ak

What would people think of an Ireland sub-forum? Just an Ireland one.

roycon

yes perfect. ireland thread is always a joke. also move the leinster munster matchday thread into that as well. basically any big match discussion just banish it to the ireland forum

roycon

the provincial threads have a consistent but not explosive level of traffic so they should stay. the leinster thread is my favourite thread on boards and im only on it once every 3/4 days

Fishooks12

.ak wrote: »

What would people think of an Ireland sub-forum? Just an Ireland one.

I like it

.ak

roycon wrote: »

yes perfect. ireland thread is always a joke. also move the leinster munster matchday thread into that as well. basically any big match discussion just banish it to the ireland forum

Oddly enough the munster v leinster threads don't cause too many issues, it's mostly the Irish international ones...

ScissorPaperRock

.ak wrote: »

What would people think of an Ireland sub-forum? Just an Ireland one.

Could be a good idea, if there is enough traffic for it.

I think a sub-forum would only be warranted if it encourages broader discussion within a wider range of threads. If you aren't going to have a larger number of threads and a separation of topics then I don't see any point in a sub-forum. (e.g a subforum with an Ireland superthread would be kind of pointless...)

Banbridgeman2

.ak wrote: »

What would people think of an Ireland sub-forum? Just an Ireland one.

Personally don't like it, I like having everything in one forum. I think that it also encourages new posters to post on provincial threads. But that's just me

.ak

ScissorPaperRoc wrote: »

Could be a good idea, if there is enough traffic for it.

I think a sub-forum would only be warranted if it encourages broader discussion within a wider range of threads. If you aren't going to have a larger number of threads and a separation of topics then I don't see any point in a sub-forum. (e.g a subforum with an Ireland superthread would be kind of pointless...)

Yes, we would be doing it to get away from the Ireland super thread specifically.

padser

.ak wrote: »

What would people think of an Ireland sub-forum? Just an Ireland one.

I'd absolutely love it.

I try and avoid most of the Ireland discussions as they get swamped with lots of irregular posters, lots of flaming and generally just a lot of sh1t. If we could move it all to its own sub forum that would be better again, much easier to avoid.

Regarding super threads I really like them.

The provincial ones are populated (by and large) by regular, well informed posters and are where I do the vast majority of my rugby reading (I read the Leinster one very few days and scan the Munster one every couple of weeks). It's incredibly handy to have it all in one place. I know I wouldn't have missed any major story if I am up to date with them.

The Irish superthread neatly packages up most of the sh1t I don't want to read into one place allowing me to easily avoid it. A sub forum would be even better but the current system is fine.

If there was one change I'd make to the superthreads it would be to ban certain users who try and just use them to create trouble (eg capt bb, jm08 in the Leinster thread) from posting in those specific threads. If you have been borderline trolling in a superthread for months but never quite enough to be banned I'd love to see those posters banned from specific threads while allowing them to still post elsewhere (eg the Ireland thread or Ireland sub forum)

ray jay

I don't see the point in a subforum unless a significant number of threads are being started on the topic consistently. The provincial/club threads tend to be quieter during the international windows so it's not like having all the threads in a single forum will result in too much churn.

durkadurka

I know this is slightly off topic but i Have to say I find Ireland threads to be quite depressing.

All the petty point scoring, sarky jabs ,and pure bloody hatred sometimes, is really off putting.

The targetting of heaslip, Murray, Doc, earls etc is just misery injecting.

Lots of posters on here practically sign off during Ireland season.

Fishooks12

durkadurka wrote: »

I know this is slightly off topic but i Have to say I find Ireland threads to be quite depressing.

All the petty point scoring, sarky jabs ,and pure bloody hatred sometimes, is really off putting.

The targetting of heaslip, Murray, Doc, earls etc is just misery injecting.

Lots of posters on here practically sign off during Ireland season.

I'd agree, sadly I often react to it when I should use the ignore function. Some of the subtle abuse directed at players really grates me.

Another pet peeve is calling Declan Kidney names like "Homer". The guy might not be the best coach in the world but that kind of thing is juvenile and insulting

durkadurka

What also pisses me off is I feel I can't say 'FFS ROG' or whatever for fear of being charged with incitement to hatred, despite the fact that I don't ever try to stir it up on here.

Grimebox

I say remove the superthreads entirely. I have no idea what I'm reading half the time I join them. If you have a specific argument to bring up regarding anything rugby related, start a new thread. At least there will be some context to what I'm reading straight away. I don't even bother with the majority of the super threads any more. I feel almost any thread started that isn't a super thread or a match day thread either gets locked or merged, what's the point of that? Is the traffic here that busy that we have to do that?

Ciaran-Irl

Trojan wrote: »

Hi Rugby folks,

We got the following feedback and we think Ciaran has a point:



Some people hate the "superthreads". And some people think superthreads make the forum EASIER to navigate as you often have tons of threads that are irrelevant to many forum users, and a thread you are interested in could end up on page 3 in less than an hour after the last post.

We can eventually put a question to a poll, but before we do that we'd like to have some comments and suggestions on both side of the argument. Is there a middle ground, ie a limitation to amount of these superthreads? Or should we just encourage posters to start up new threads for every topic?

-The Rugby mods (and an interested admin)

Never let it be said that the moderators don't listen to feedback! Thanks. Very much appreciated.

My two cents: I don't have time to sift through hundreds of pages when I get a chance to log on, and I get more than enough email already without needing to deal with mountains of them coming in from Boards. I'd much prefer it if specific topics were split out into their own threads. I mean, the Lions super thread is approaching 100 pages already. Lord only knows what it will look like in June.

I feel like interesting topics of debate get lost in the general quagmire of certain types discussions (ROG, Kidney, provincial favouritism etc.) It feels like interesting topics get a bit derailed. If you don't want to read about ROG vs Sexton/whoever, then you can just avoid that thread. Simple. You might want to follow a thread about the pros and cons of the 3 year residency rule, or you might be interested in the debate on youth over experience, or in a discussion about how the Irish team is afflicted by particular types of injuries etc.

Maybe a sub forum for Ireland would work well (would an 'International' forum be better?). It might just be easier to have a series of threads on the different areas.

Thanks again though.

Dravokivich

I think you could end up moving more traffic off from the main part of this Rugby forum if their was to be sub forums branched off. Instead of having a mega thread for Aviva / Top14, should we have a seperate subforum for them too? I don't think there'll be a need for something as drastic as that.

If trials are to be done on what volume we've got, could it be better to try and branch off the main mega threads,in a similar fashion to match day threads being split. Have a seperate thread for incoming/outgoing players, be it injury/fitness or what have ya per mega thread. Possbily 1 for Ireland predominantly, but also for the Provinces?

I suspect this could be the main bulk of the news people would look for, that'll end up getting lost in the mega threads.

As it is now. All we are saying is there's a lot of posts in the mega threads, but not of what type and whether or not there's enough variation in the topics within those mega threads to warrant a sub forum.

If it doesn't work, posts can be merged back into the mega threads easy enough. But I've seen issues before with moving around between different sub forums on boards.

roycon

you could nearly have a separate thread for each position in the lions 15 in a separate lions sub forum at this stage and a similar thing with the ireland 15.

the main thing i think most people cant stand is the fact that there is no discussion or information shared on the ireland thread - just continuous baseless opinions which nobody reads including the posters themselves.

i would love if we had some private ireland match day thread because i always want to post or read posts or share views but there is no point

Dravokivich

roycon wrote: »

you could nearly have a separate thread for each position in the lions 15 in a separate lions sub forum at this stage and a similar thing with the ireland 15.

the main thing i think most people cant stand is the fact that there is no discussion or information shared on the ireland thread - just continuous baseless opinions which nobody reads including the posters themselves.

i would love if we had some private ireland match day thread because i always want to post or read posts or share views but there is no point

If that's the main issue that stand's out, can we not call for more action from the mods under such circumstances by reporting posts that interupt the flow of the thread? Work is needed on the problem, instead of moving stuff elsewhere so it isn't seen.

raymann

theres almost a full front page of super threads that knock any new threads of the front very quickly before they get a chance to develop.

why not have a separate board for the superthreads and then we get a normal board with loads of smaller topics for discussion emerging. if the mods thing they are unnecessary then they can just move them over and join them with the super threads.