Octopus Overlords

Based on the feedback in another thread, we are going to merge the trading forum and bargain bin (I suggested we rename it 'The Walrus Stick' but was shot down).

To do that I am going to need to take the board offline, back it up right before the change, and then try my hand at merging. It will happen sometime between this afternoon and Sunday afternoon (I'm solo parenting, and want to have a few hours of focus in case things get hairy and I need to restore the backup).

Once that proves to work successfully, we will merge the console and PC gaming (Again the suggestion of 'Fishpants' tickle trunk' for a name were shot down..) forums -- potentially at a later date if the process takes a long time (honestly I don't know if it's a matter of forum pointers being updated or database records being re-written for every post).

Stay tuned, and if you get the site totally unavailable (No response) or a PHPBB notice that the board is closed -- it's all good. I'm PROBABLY sober and things are PROBABLY going well.

Awesome, Fishpants. While there is still some activity in the trading forum, the original purpose has gone by the wayside for the most part. It makes little sense to have an entire forum for it. Likewise, typically only the top 5 threads in Bargains are relevant at any one point in time. You could almost get away with auto deleting any thread that is older than a week. Almost.

So I think the change makes sense, is all I'm saying really.

Even OO is getting Marie Kondo'd.

Hot damn! I do think that both changes are good ones. The few trading forum posts that do pop up (mostly just the PIFF thread) would benefit from the extra attention they'll get, and it will keep the merged threads busier than either by itself. And the gaming forums being separate is no longer useful at all. Half of the threads in PC Games these days are mixed PC and console players discussing the same titles anyway.

Are the Preacher or Arcanis going to apply for unemployment or have they been eaten by the Overlords?

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 12:17 pm Are the Preacher or Arcanis going to apply for unemployment or have they been eaten by the Overlords?

They get to mod one of the new forums:

Randomness
Medicare and Retirement Questions

FishPants wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 11:53 am Once that proves to work successfully, we will merge the console and PC gaming (Again the suggestion of 'Fishpants' tickle trunk' for a name were shot down..) forums -- potentially at a later date if the process takes a long time (honestly I don't know if it's a matter of forum pointers being updated or database records being re-written for every post).

Ugh. Don't like this idea. I think merging them on Gaming Trend helped kill that forum.
PC gamers and console gamers are still 2 different breeds in my mind.
While neither is bursting with activity, keeping them separate helps drive the traffic to each specific forum.

stimpy wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 12:41 pm

FishPants wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 11:53 am Once that proves to work successfully, we will merge the console and PC gaming (Again the suggestion of 'Fishpants' tickle trunk' for a name were shot down..) forums -- potentially at a later date if the process takes a long time (honestly I don't know if it's a matter of forum pointers being updated or database records being re-written for every post).

Ugh. Don't like this idea. I think merging them on Gaming Trend helped kill that forum.
PC gamers and console gamers are still 2 different breeds in my mind.
While neither is bursting with activity, keeping them separate helps drive the traffic to each specific forum.

+1

PC games and Console games *were* two distinct groups at one point. The overlap is too large to ignore at this point.

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”

Maybe stuff needs done maybe not. Ive come to hate change. Since my wife passed away it seems everything is being forced to change around me. I appreciate your hard work but I don't care for change, especially now days.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 12:56 pm PC games and Console games *were* two distinct groups at one point. The overlap is too large to ignore at this point.

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”

But what's the purpose for the change?
If it's to streamline the board, how about merging Forum Games, which hasn't been active in 2 months, with Gaming in General?

I love change and thank you for the work. Hopefully it goes smoothly!

I vote aye to 'The Walrus Stick' .
I vote nay to 'Fishpants' tickle trunk'

But I am selfish, I don't console Game or hand held game, so to me there is a difference and it's not a snobbery difference, it's a reading through what is relevant to vs wading through and determining what is not relevant to me difference. I get that so much is cross platform that it is annoying for everyone else... But I am selfish.

I would not object to other mergers such as GIG and Forum Games and am still awaiting my invitations to the super secret forum and sports forum.

Now the challenge will be not confuse Fishpants' tickle trunk in such a way that I begin to refer to the bargain bin as The Walrus Dick.

I never look at anything other than unread posts so you could merge all the subforums and it wouldn't change my experience.

I don't really see the point in having separate gaming forums - we don't have enough traffic to justify the split and most games are cross-platform anyway.

stessier wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 1:00 pm I love change and thank you for the work. Hopefully it goes smoothly!

I'm all for the long, dark night to encompass the Patriots.

stimpy wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 12:59 pmBut what's the purpose for the change?
If it's to streamline the board, how about merging Forum Games, which hasn't been active in 2 months, with Gaming in General?

In theory that would make sense. However, the Forum Game topic (in theory) is high volume when active. It would quickly overwhelm Gaming in General (I'd think) if it were to suddenly become active. Also, having a dedicated Forum Game topic doesn't impact my life in any way. Merging two topics doesn't impact my life in any way. The nature of OO (demographics, posting volume, topics, etc...) has changed dramatically since 2004. I think acknowledging that change makes sense. YMMV, but for the record no one is forcing you to accept people on your lawn.

We could almost handle a new forum called Board and Card Games.

Exactly. A new member found the site not because of a PC or console game, but because of a thread on painted miniatures.

I'd expect we're also going to start getting new members based on hip ailments, retirement funding questions and Jimmy Buffet concerts.

With most games being cross-platform, having separate forums for PC and consoles just splits the discussion for cross platform games if there even is any discussion. Merging the forums merges the discussion. We can still tag platform in the subject where appropriate.

Now if you'd like to separate that phone/tablet mobile crap, I am fine with that.

It's been shot down before and will be shot down again, but I move that you split Sports out of EBG.

I don't visit any of the gaming forums often enough to have strong opinions about the mergers.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 1:22 pm With most games being cross-platform, having separate forums for PC and consoles just splits the discussion for cross platform games if there even is any discussion. Merging the forums merges the discussion. We can still tag platform in the subject where appropriate.

That's my view on it. The majority of the games we discuss these days are multi-platform. Except for the Switch threads, most of the games we discuss anymore already have a significant number of the people in their PC threads discussing it while actually playing on console. This doesn't change how the community works, or how the discussion works.

Our current system (PC Games, Console Games) is an artifact of the site's history. It is something left over from the 1990s! For those who don't remember, we started out as a community for Rich LaPorte's 'Gone Gold', a website dedicated to PC releases. We originally had four separate forums for PC Games ("General PC Gaming Discussion", "PC Games by Title", "Multiplayer Games Discussion", and "Road to Gold (for unreleased games).") Rich, as I recall, grudgingly gave us the console forum toward the end. For the curious, here is a snapshot of the forum as it was shortly before Gone Gold died.

We kept his format when Gone Gold went down and OO started with a few name tweaks. And here is a shot of OO just a few months after it's birth. Over the years we've already had a lot of changes. Unreleased Games, Multiplayer, and PC Games by Title were merged. It was silly to discuss a game in one thread for a year until the day it was released, then start a new thread in a different forum the day it was released, then start a third thread in a third forum if your story involved another human player. It was confusing and messy, and letting us simply discuss PC games in one thread made so much more sense.

Just like it makes sense now that when 30 people are playing the same game on three different systems that it isn't really useful to take their discussions on "How do I set up a camp?", "What gear should I sell? What should I keep?", and "Let me tell you about this cool moment..." and split them up into multiple threads in multiple forums. It isn't 1999, or 2002. Gaming doesn't work the same way now, and the divide between consoles and PCs isn't the same.

It's a good thing you decided to wait until GT's got their new forum online

This thread and those old forum pics make me want to go back in time and never come back to where I am now.

Now that we will have more room by merging, can we finally have a sports sub-forum

naednek wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 4:06 pm Now that we will have more room by merging, can we finally have a sports sub-forum

Kraken wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 1:24 pm It's been shot down before and will be shot down again, but I move that you split Sports out of EBG.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 12:56 pm PC games and Console games *were* two distinct groups at one point. The overlap is too large to ignore at this point.

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”

This. I would also love to see a separate Sports forum.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 1:17 pm I'd expect we're also going to start getting new members based on hip ailments, retirement funding questions and Jimmy Buffet concerts.

I'd like to hear fellow members' ideas about Velcro shoes.

Gaming in General
Video Gaming
Board and Card Gaming
Forum Gaming
Sports Gaming
Everything But Gaming
Political Gaming
Compootars and Teknieologogie, Non-Gaming
Bargain Gaming and the sad lack of trading

i tried to start a Resident Evil 2 (remake) thread in the PC thread and it died on the vine, since everyone else here is playing it on console - fully in support of unifying the PC/console topics.

Z-Corn wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 5:02 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 1:17 pm I'd expect we're also going to start getting new members based on hip ailments, retirement funding questions and Jimmy Buffet concerts.

I'd like to hear fellow members' ideas about Velcro shoes.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-styl ... 88896.html

People's shoes are crashing after a Nike app stopped working.

Nike's new Adapt BB shoes have been hailed as the future of sneakers, after they were released just days ago. They use futuristic motors to allow them to be precisely tightened up automatically, without any shoelaces or other input.

All of that can be controlled by an app, which allows people to slip on the shoes and then let the motors do the work of tightening them up, in a way shoelaces would traditionally work. They use much the same technology that allowed Nike to recreate the self-lacing shoes from Back To The Future in a limited run.

But that feature has broken after the Android app stopped syncing with the sneakers. Now, the shoes have lost one of their main features and cannot be controlled in the way they are intended.

No mention is made of Nike changes related to afoot blown out by Zion. Nike sought to comment, but alas, there was no Sports forum to comment in.

I think ultimately we were convinced by the convergence of electronic gaming. It really shouldn't have too much of an impact on PC gaming purists, as the console gaming forum doesn't have so much traffic that it will overwhelm the PC side. We shouldn't run into the scenario we used to fret about where too much traffic would push topics off the main page too quickly.

At this point, I think board gaming does pretty well in the Gaming in General forum. That may not always be the case, but I think it works OK for now. The other end of the "too much traffic" argument is the "too little traffic" argument. Too many separate forums with very little traffic doesn't look great to me.

Someone (stimpy?) mentioned the Forum Games forum. We talked about that a bit, and there may come a time when we remove it/fold it into another forum. It was very popular at one time, but it may have run its course as an independent forum. We'll keep an eye on it for a while and see where it is in a few months before making a call.

I like my sports in my EBG, so there.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 1:22 pm With most games being cross-platform, having separate forums for PC and consoles just splits the discussion for cross platform games if there even is any discussion. Merging the forums merges the discussion. We can still tag platform in the subject where appropriate.

Agreed

Now if you'd like to separate that phone/tablet mobile crap, I am fine with that.

Where would the Switch games go?

Where would the Switch games go?

Wherever they damned well please.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 10:00 pm

coopasonic wrote: ↑Fri Feb 22, 2019 1:22 pm With most games being cross-platform, having separate forums for PC and consoles just splits the discussion for cross platform games if there even is any discussion. Merging the forums merges the discussion. We can still tag platform in the subject where appropriate.

Agreed

Now if you'd like to separate that phone/tablet mobile crap, I am fine with that.

Where would the Switch games go?

That's why I specified phone/tablet. Switch is still a console. Anyway it was mostly a joke, there is very little talk about that type of game other than one thread that seems to have mostly died now anyway.

Well that was far easier than I was expecting. Both changes have been made.

Sweet. I like the changes.

Also would love a tabletop area... Food for thought

To be honest, Gaming in General is already about 2/3 tabletop gaming. If we split that off, there wouldn't be enough left in GiG to justify its existence.

Although, as one of the more active traders back in the day (and as the keeper of the feedback list for years), it's kind of depressing to see them unpinned and gone. The final ELOG is now on page 24! The official end of an era.

Its weird not seeing PC gaming and Console gaming. Just more changes since wife is gone. Ill get used to it I guess but miss seeing PC Gaming. I mean its only been 15 years Thats almost half as long as me and my wife had.

The look of the forum looks a little squished. Ill get used to it.