Basically, there is a bit of a problem with vague posts and joke threads (which get locked, but they are still a nuisance) on the suggestion forum.
Here are some ideas to help fix that.
A "tutorial" period- Reddit kinda has this. Before you can submit a suggestion, you have to comment on a suggestion forum post and have at least 10 people upvote it. It could be across several posts, but as long as you get 10 "commenting reputation", you could be allowed to submit a suggestion. This would make both joke threads less common (because you would have to work to get the ability to submit a thread) and vague threads (because your more likely to get a comment upvoted if you go in-depth and fully critique/suggest something)
Make upvotes bump a thread too- joke threads make everyone angry, and therefor comment and bump it. This makes well thought out ideas sink below them and gain less attention. To balance this, threads could get "bumped" from up votes, because people don't upvote joke threads, and people do upvote good threads.
A "Suggestion Discussion" subforum- This could be a place where a person can pitch an idea, and ask for the community to help develop it. Often, vague posts don't think their idea's through, or don't see a big flaw in it, or can't come up with enough support for their idea. This might help that.
Ok, obviously, all these ideas can't co-exist. Only one or two could get implemented, if they are good enough to be implemented.
A "tutorial" period- Reddit kinda has this. Before you can submit a suggestion, you have to comment on a suggestion forum post and have at least 10 people upvote it. It could be across several posts, but as long as you get 10 "commenting reputation", you could be allowed to submit a suggestion. This would make both joke threads less common (because you would have to work to get the ability to submit a thread) and vague threads (because your more likely to get a comment upvoted if you go in-depth and fully critique/suggest something)
Reddit uses their voting system significantly more than the forums do. As such, this probably wouldn't work well because you can easily make a good post that you put a significant amount of time in and not see any "thanks" in return.
Also, being able to create a good suggestion doesn't mean you're good at critiquing other suggestions. Most movie critics probably haven't made a decent movie, and not everyone that has made a good movie can tell why another one bombed.
Make upvotes bump a thread too- joke threads make everyone angry, and therefor comment and bump it. This makes well thought out ideas sink below them and gain less attention. To balance this, threads could get "bumped" from up votes, because people don't upvote joke threads, and people do upvote good threads.
This would be easily abused. Upvote, remove upvote, re-upvote. Free infinite bumps. Reddit has a decaying system that makes threads with large amounts of upvotes slowly drift off, which also make it so that it's about quantity of upvotes over most recent. Besides that, because of the decay system, it means most non-pinned threads last a day or two before lost entirely, whereas here we can have a thread that is refined over the course of a month because people simply keep replying and showing interest.
A "Suggestion Discussion" subforum- This could be a place where a person can pitch an idea, and ask for the community to help develop it. Often, vague posts don't think their idea's through, or don't see a big flaw in it, or can't come up with enough support for their idea. This might help that.
That's kind of what the suggestion section is meant for as well. You pitch an idea, people criticize aspects of it, you modify your idea, people criticize aspects of it, you modify...
Right now, the best way to keep ideas you like active is to actively communicate in it. Ask questions to clarify something, comment on something you like, criticize something you don't, and if you simply don't like a suggestion and want it to die off, don't post in it.
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It's hard to follow your dreams when you run from your nightmares. --
Basically, there is a bit of a problem with vague posts and joke threads (which get locked, but they are still a nuisance) on the suggestion forum.
Here are some ideas to help fix that.
Ok, obviously, all these ideas can't co-exist. Only one or two could get implemented, if they are good enough to be implemented.
Thank for reading, hope this helps!
Reddit uses their voting system significantly more than the forums do. As such, this probably wouldn't work well because you can easily make a good post that you put a significant amount of time in and not see any "thanks" in return.
Also, being able to create a good suggestion doesn't mean you're good at critiquing other suggestions. Most movie critics probably haven't made a decent movie, and not everyone that has made a good movie can tell why another one bombed.
This would be easily abused. Upvote, remove upvote, re-upvote. Free infinite bumps. Reddit has a decaying system that makes threads with large amounts of upvotes slowly drift off, which also make it so that it's about quantity of upvotes over most recent. Besides that, because of the decay system, it means most non-pinned threads last a day or two before lost entirely, whereas here we can have a thread that is refined over the course of a month because people simply keep replying and showing interest.
That's kind of what the suggestion section is meant for as well. You pitch an idea, people criticize aspects of it, you modify your idea, people criticize aspects of it, you modify...
Right now, the best way to keep ideas you like active is to actively communicate in it. Ask questions to clarify something, comment on something you like, criticize something you don't, and if you simply don't like a suggestion and want it to die off, don't post in it.
It's hard to follow your dreams when you run from your nightmares. --
Huh, good point. I'll think about that next time.
Sorry, I guess I spent too much time focusing on the criticisms instead of looking at the advantages.
No problem, they're really not bad suggestions, but just don't work for these forums.
It's hard to follow your dreams when you run from your nightmares. --