Reminder: Post your topics in the correct forum!

There has been an epidemic on the rise as of late with users lumping everything into General Discussion. Please, use the correct game/platform/concept specific forum as there is a board for virtually everything related to gaming on Giant Bomb.

If you can't figure out which forum to post your topic in, and it relates to gaming or the site, it goes into General. Anything else that has nothing to do with video games goes into Off Topic.

August 2011 edit: Sweep wanted me to tell you all that he welcomes all of your private messages and wall posts should you have any questions or comments.

Bastard.

speaking of this, you cant create polls on any forums other than Off-Topic and General Discussion.. which is why you might find a game-specific poll on the General Discussion board

" speaking of this, you cant create polls on any forums other than Off-Topic and General Discussion.. which is why you might find a game-specific topic on the General Discussion board "

" speaking of this, you cant create polls on any forums other than Off-Topic and General Discussion.. which is why you might find a game-specific poll on the General Discussion board "

" @Ahmad_Metallic said:

" speaking of this, you cant create polls on any forums other than Off-Topic and General Discussion.. which is why you might find a game-specific topic on the General Discussion board "

Actually, you can. You just have to use a work-around rather than the usual method of making polls. "

Hell yeah, this is one of the rules I do follow very well.  As some users have noticed with my popular "Let's Talk" and Hentai Review sections.   
 
I shall not break this rule!   
 
EDIT:  MB told me off years ago for doing this with an NHL game, so it stuck with me.  :D

I have a question, but general enough that any reply might be worth more people seeing it.
 
I've favourited a few forums (just General, PC and Hamburger I think), and though I didn't realise at the time of favouriting, this means that only threads from those forums appear on the GB front page for me.  I don't know how many people use the favouriting forums feature but it seems likely that General would get favourited if they were using it but obviously all the random page forums wouldn't be.  This means that if I write a blog, for example, I feel like I should attach it to General so that it might land on the GB front page for more people and so get a greater possible viewership from people that might otherwise not come across it.
 
Am I wrong in any of my understanding as to how the system works?  If not then this is a reason, though I don't know if it's one that factors into other people's brains.

@RagingLion said:

" I don't know how many people use the favouriting forums feature but it seems likely that General would get favourited if they were using it but obviously all the random page forums wouldn't be. This means that if I write a blog, for example, I feel like I should attach it to General so that it might land on the GB front page for more people and so get a greater possible viewership from people that might otherwise not come across it. Am I wrong in any of my understanding as to how the system works? "

I wouldn't make this assumption. Personally, I favorite forums for games I enjoy, so that I can read conversations on them that I otherwise might miss.

Typically there's nothing wrong with attaching a gaming blog to General Discussion, but I don't think it will necessarily benefit you any more than being attached to a game forum.

"Please, use the correct game/platform/concept specific forum as there is a board for virtually everything related to gaming on Giant Bomb."

" @MB: You need to enforce this so users know. I had to ask ZombiePie what the hell was the difference between Off Topic and General Discussion. If the mods started moving the topics more frequently users would get a better idea where threads should go. "

just happened to me but I can't move it after I posted it, right? 
 
edit: 
also: I am sorry

I've also been seeing lots of users posting stuff about video games in off-topic. Should these posts be moved?

I think i mistakenly put an off topic post in the general discussion today, Im part of the problem! NOOOOOO!

I think i mistakenly put an off topic post in the general discussion today, Im part of the problem! NOOOOOO!

It's been a few months and lumping everything into General is getting really bad again. Come on people, save the few moderators around here a lot of work and use the appropriate forums for your topics. I swear we spend about 90% of our time on the site moving things out of GD...that's time that could be better spent on any number of things.

Thanks.

1) Hopefully it's very simple from an administrative point to move posts (ie, one or two clicks instead of a long ugly admin interface).

2) WHY DO YOU HATE FREEDOM?!

@Branthog: It's pretty easy and only takes a few seconds, but multiply that by hundreds of threads per day and a it quickly develops into a full time job.

@MB said:

@Branthog: It's pretty easy and only takes a few seconds, but multiply that by hundreds of threads per day and a it quickly develops into a full time job.

Oh, no, I definitely agree that even a minimal interface doesn't help when you have thousands of off-topic things being posted elsewhere (ugh) -- but as someone who has both had to develop and use a forum engine to handle around a hundred thousand users (and designed a quick and dirty spaghetti interface, initially), it can make a huge difference. :)

What I eventually did was write in a sort of self-moderation system that automatically moved a message if enough users suggested it should be (they could even suggest where it should be moved). It seems like the sort of thing that could be delegated to a chunk of interested users without them needing to be moderators or entrusting them to anything significant.

Even after twelve years, I never found an actual ideal solution to it, though. I thought the problem must have been "poor design leading users to post in the wrong place" but I eventually determined that it was usually laziness or occasional stupidity and there's rarely any countering that. *sigh*

@Branthog: That's actually a brilliant idea, it could be implemented in a way similar to how crowd moderation for image submissions is. Of course...it takes man hours to design something like that, and those are in short supply as always.

I love posting in the wrong thread by accident.

@Branthog said:

2) WHY DO YOU HATE FREEDOM?!

You have no freedom of speech on a forum hosted by a private corporation.

Remember Big Brother is always watching you.

Lets hope people actually read this thread.    :/

@musclerider said:

I love posting in the wrong thread by accident.

This is why we can't have nice things.

@Sweep said:

@musclerider said:

I love posting in the wrong thread by accident.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Sorry, Dad.

@MB said:

@Branthog: That's actually a brilliant idea, it could be implemented in a way similar to how crowd moderation for image submissions is. Of course...it takes man hours to design something like that, and those are in short supply as always.

It's the sort of thing that is hard to justify project-hours for, when there are greater ROI projects (as far as member mind-share and wow-factor go) that you could be working on. Plenty of stuff remained on the drawing table for me, because of that. Especially when you have people you can just throw at the problem manually, instead.

Frankly, I don't know of any other real solution than not having an off-topic forum, at all. I suppose the result then would be people would still post the same off-topic crap, but it'd *all* flood General. I wonder if some of the impact is lost from moving off-topic posts, because it often takes awhile for it to be done? Perhaps by the time it is done, the poster doesn't recognize what happened and doesn't learn from it?

Perhaps it would be worth testing a simple pop-up screen for first-time posters that stresses a few simple key rules (like "always check where you are posting to before hitting submit")? Sort of a brief "cider house rules".

At any rate, I would find it kind of fascinating to do some sort of study (heatmap?) that demonstrated whether the overwhelming number of incorrectly posted messages are due to "oh shit, hit the wrong button / oh shit, this interface confuses me" and how many are just due to people not understanding that "General" means "general videogame stuff" and not "general as in miscellaneous".

I certainly don't envy the job, that's for sure. It's damn thankless.

@ZombiePie said:

@Branthog said:

2) WHY DO YOU HATE FREEDOM?!

You have no freedom of speech on a forum hosted by a private corporation.

Remember Big Brother is always watching you.

I didn't say freedom of speech (which can only be infringed upon by or on behalf of a government). I said freedom, which nobody can force you to waive (though I would gladly do so, for our GiantBomb overlords -- though that's what interns are for). Anyway, how can GB (or all of WM for that matter), not be part of one of the branches of government, yet? I mean, reviewing and passing judgement is kind of the GB bread and butter -- defacto judiciary!

Anyway, I've said it before and I'll say it here -- the best thing an internet forum can do is set rules and adhere to them. I began my project (which had a very healthy community that participated in forums for over a decade) in 1997, when the lofty ideal of "I'm not going to censor anyone or anything, because we can all be grown ups and have thick skin" seemed to make sense. Boy, I grew to regret that. I could write a book on "things I've learned and you don't have to" from that. The most important of which was probably exactly that - have rules, enforce the rules, enlist manpower to help as needed. As anyone who has dealt with community management knows so well, people just can't be trusted and left to themselves will destroy everything good. :P

Anyway, that said, here's an idea (I know, it would require extra work - but just throwing things out there): If someone has enough of their posts moved in a certain period of time, they are no longer able to post new topics directly. Instead, their posts are put in a moderation queue for a week or a month and every time they post, a big notice under the edit box tells them that they are being moderated and why. Over time, it would ideally groom better posting behavior. Well, in a perfect world, at least.

DUDE...I FORGET STUFF.

Your main problem is the fact that General Discussion and Off Topic exist in the first place.

1. You mean they don't already? There are already tons of decent threads and blogs and stuff. Also, I doubt that destroying two boards would lead to more people discussing Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru.
   
2. Ah, yes, it would solve the problem of poorly thought out topics. Just look at all the poorly thought out topics in your screenshots. I doubt anybody there spent more than two minutes writing their topics.
3. Assuming that they completely agree with you on deleting these boards, yes.

1. All I've to say is that Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru would get more love if General Discussion remained. Also, a shitton of other games that people haven't heard of (for obscure non-Japanese games, see ArbitraryWater).
2. Huh?
3. You certainly wouldn't be doing Zombie Pie any favors.

If you are going to write a PAX Prime Day 1 Recap blog please remember to post it in the "PAX Prime 2011" Board and not "General Discussion."

Your main problem is the fact that General Discussion and Off Topic exist in the first place.

@1337W422102 said:

@dudeglove said:

Your main problem is the fact that General Discussion and Off Topic exist in the first place.

Wait, I'm going to sound like a real moron, but what is the difference between General Discussion and Off-Topic? If they were merged into one, would that solve at least some of the problem, unholy as that combination might be?

I've always assumed General Discussion was general video game stuff, like, "What's your favorite genre?" or "What's your desert island game?" while Off-Topic was for questions like, "East-coasters, how are you preparing for the hurricane?" kind of stuff.

@louiedog: @1337W422102: General Discussion is for blogs or forum topics that don't discuss a single game or game concept but multiple or very general games or gaming related topics. General Discussion is also the board to discuss anything related to Giant Bomb the site that isn't the Bombcast. Off-Topic is for all discussion that isn't site or gaming related (i.e. your personal life or politics).

@1337W422102: The titles have to be a certain length otherwise you screw up the formatting on the directory. Also "Gaming" is deceptive because "General Discussion" also is supposed to be the platform for site discussion.