Sectioning will lead to fewer people participating in threads

[Gasmask Ted]

Please note that splitting something like "video releaes" or "cartoons of the week" into their own forum sections will lead to many people never reading anything that's posted in them. Many of us will bookmark a specific forum and read the posts in it; we will not bother to check the other sub forums. This is a weakness of GAC that shouldn't be replicated.

[eutychus]

I would agree, but only up to an extent.

If people want to read about new video releases, they are not going to want to wade through pages of discussion about classic animation to find them. And they are not going to automatically participate in a thread in a forum they are just not interested in.

But I do agree that splitting the forums to the nth degree can hurt things. I wouldn't want to start splitting the Video section into different studios. It's a fine line trying to keep the baby/bathwater ration good.

I'm not really trying to recreate the GAC boards over here. On the other hand, I don't see any need to reinvent the wheel. The GAC had a good layout that people have been comfortable with and I think it's good that, while we get our feet wet and people start to get themselves accustomed to the new board, that we follow their lead in certain things.

[Yowp]

Please note that splitting something like "video releaes" or "cartoons of the week" into their own forum sections will lead to many people never reading anything that's posted in them.

Conversely, Ted, I have no interest in either topic and wouldn't read them regardless of where they are. So why not let the people interested in them have their own little corner?

I subscribe to a bunch of message boards on non-animation topics and they're far more fragmented than GAC ever was. No one seems to have a problem with it.

Yowp

[Gasmask Ted]

The sectioned parts become dead to them. I saw the video sectioning as problematic at GAC, but it was too entrenched to do anything about. If they had been in the main forum, I would have read the breakdown posts. But dumping them in their own section means I never bothered to read them. I never read the video release threads once they were banished to their own section after being started in the general forum where I would read them.

I understand the value of having a section that points to video threads, but a post that points from that section to the actual thread in the relevant forum would keep the people who will not look at that section in the discussion.

[David Gerstein]

If people want to read about new video releases, they are not going to want to wade through pages of discussion about classic animation to find them.

I have to admit, that's what we GAC members have been doing for years, and it feels perfectly natural to me (as long as the video releases are related to classic animation too, of course).

Many general discussions of classic cartoons drift in and out of the subtopic of video availability/restoration—and vice versa. GAC didn't try to separate off the video release discussions—and I don't think we should here.
Just my two cents.

[Gasmask Ted]

David's post illustrates the problem. GAC _did_ section off video releases, and many posts started in the main forum that were focused on video releases  were moved  to never be seen by many of us again. They were often moved to the GAC News and Reviews forum in the Golden Age Cartoon News forum
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IFRfR4nyvTwJ:www.forums.goldenagecartoons.com/forumdisplay.php%3Fs%3D%26daysprune%3D1%26f%3D8+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
As I say, things in sectioned off forums are just dead to many of us.

[David Gerstein]

Oops! I forgot (already) about GAC having had the News and Reviews subforum. But not all video discussions were segregated there—quite a lot of them, when not about current or impending releases, took place in the regular TTTP forum as well.

Tangential topic: if "Questions, Comments and Suggestions" is now going to be a subforum under "About The Internet Animation Database," then it should be listed/shown among the subforums on the IAD front page.

I was just now trying to get back to this thread and couldn't immediately remember where the "Questions, Comments..." subforum actually was—and had to stumble around until I found it.

[Professor Bluteau]

I'm definitely with Ted on this one. Sectioning off the admin side of things (e.g. questions and comments about the site) is a natural thing to do, but to split obviously closely related content (e.g. "classic cartoons" and "classic cartoon video releases") will only lead to a fragmented community.

Personally, I'd merge as much as possible for now and leave well alone for a few weeks and see how everything beds in. Just my opinion.

[David Gerstein]

Tangential topic: if "Questions, Comments and Suggestions" is now going to be a subforum under "About The Internet Animation Database," then it should be listed/shown among the subforums on the IAD front page.

Thanks for doing this, Patrick.

[drmark7]

>>>Show unread posts since last visit.

I see some good and bad points... But I already do here at the IAD what I did at the GAC... Look at the top left of the screen... I set my LINK to the "Show unread posts since last visit." and that SHOULD bring up ALL unread post in ALL forums... So there's no need to worry about "buried" forums. Hope this helps.

*_*_*
Questions?/Comments? * This Has Been e-mail From:
"Dr. Mark" Hill * The Doctor Of Pop Culture /*/ drmark7@juno.com

[Gasmask Ted]

My experience on GAC was that that option only highlighted posts within a subforum.
If it did show it for all forums, that makes it problematic for actually separate subforums someone doesn't want to read (assuming there is activity in the general or television animation sections, from my perspective).

[eutychus]

Okey doke ... I've read all of the debate back and forth. Here's what I'm going to do.

There hasn't been that much new traffic in the Video section since I set it up. I'm going to give it a few more days. if I don't see any dramatic traffic increase there, or hear any real pressing reasons to keep it the way it is, I'll change things back.

[Gasmask Ted]

Thanks for considering the feedback.

[mulroz]

Okey doke ... I've read all of the debate back and forth. Here's what I'm going to do.

There hasn't been that much new traffic in the Video section since I set it up. I'm going to give it a few more days. if I don't see any dramatic traffic increase there, or hear any real pressing reasons to keep it the way it is, I'll change things back.

Personally I only watched the video section when there were new releases.

[eutychus]

Okay, I have seen things develop over the last few days and there doesn't seem to be a huge outpouring of support for the new board. Indeed, it seems that in most cases, people are posting items about video releases in the regular boards and had to be told this one was here. It seems wise to use a "go with the flow" philosophy instead of trying to convince people to use a board they're just not interested in, so I've moved all the topics back to their regular place and deleted the board.

In the future, any news about new releases or video releases in general should go in the relevant discussion board.

Also, as a side note, in the future, if you see any posts you believe need moved, or anything you think might need my attention, please message me privately instead of making it a part of the thread. That was we can hold digressions down as much as possible.

Thanks!