Response Rates in Various Forums and Moving Topics

Post Reply New Topic

Is it really such a good idea to move topics to the more "appropriate" forum? I wonder. I know I at least check the General Discussion forum first and most frequently when I visit WrongPlanet.net, and I might not bother checking most of the other forums at all since new threads aren't started in them very often. If one assumes many other people who visit these forums are the same in this regard, it might not be so wise to move threads from General Discussions to another forum because it may impede the rate of discussion.

Any opinions pro or contra?

I think they were moved to a more appropriate forum due to their content Neant, not so much because it was appropriate really. The threads that were moved were of a member that had some rather offensive as far as sexist posts and likely thought better to not be in the general discussion board due to that fact.

I believe Neant was talking about my moving of some other topics, not this one.

I notice my poll has been moved to bug reports - I posted it in general as I felt it was an issue affecting all of us and that general was therefore suitable and would allow the highest number of members to see it and express an opinion. Hopefully enough people will see it in its new location for it to have been a worthwhile exercise.

Dunc

there is more then one way to catagorize a post. however with a static database like a forum, it is offten the most effective if done by the prevalent topic.

I'm not talking about categorizing posts; I'm talking about people explicitly posting their threads in General Discussion and then later finding them moved to a different forum because it matches the topic of the thread better. While it may be true that the topic is better matched by the forum, it is possible that the author of the original post deliberately chose General Discussion simply because a thread is more likely to be seen and replied to in General Discussion than in one of the specialty forums. Many of the other forums don't get replies for days at a time.

In my opinion, the optimal solution would be to allow cross-posting so that a thread can be posted in General Discussion and in a specialty forum most relevant to the topic being discussed. That way, casual browsers will see the thread; and people who are looking for threads on a particular topic would have an easier time finding the thread, as well.

I agree - this allows users the best of both worlds.



dunc

People will see the thread no matter where it is if they click "view topics since last visit" Thats what I do.

ah, but you are. its just that the user whom posted it felt that it deserved to be catigorized as important. and that cross posting thing has to do with catigorizing posts by multiple topics, which is hard to do with the way that things are structured.