As if we haven't seen it enough, LFS is currently growing at an exponential rate, and so are threads; this forum undergoes around 20 some odd new threads each day, half of which are being created by new users not familiar with LFS

So my proposal this time, is to cut out the fat on some of these threads, mainly the improvement suggestions area (if this is at all possible, i have no idea if it is) by having an "approval" staff which will limit the improvement suggestion threads to first-time suggestions, because out of the 67 pages of improvement suggestions (holy crap i didn't know we had that many..), surely 60% of those threads are repeats


i know alot of you guys here want to keep rid this forum of the thousands of superflous threads that are going around each day, mainly in the sake on the dev's side on space and bandwidth

unsure if this needs a poll or not, so i wont do a poll just to keep it open to debate

Howdy XCNuse,

The phenomena you are seeing here is not unusual at all, as far as the growth of members and posting madness.

New people always present a mix of n00bishness and/or future contributing membership. There are many ways to combat the Department of Redundancy Dept. posts, especially when dealing with folks who don't take the time to read FAQ's, stickies, or (heaven help us) utilize the search function, but unfortunately human nature being what it is, they don't often work.

I've seen forums that tried post moderation for specific sub-forums, but this leads to overworked moderators, and a plethora of "Why did it take x hours for my post to show up" threads in the Q&A sections. It works for awhile, but ends up being a strain on the Mods and regular members.

One of the most effective ways to deal with this, as a regular member, is to take a leadership role. Don't spam a useless or redundant thread; that just alienates folks and contibutes to the mess. If it's a useless thread, best not to reply at all in it. If it's redundant, try posting a link to a more pertenant thread, or a thread that has covered a topic more completely.

They say a place is what you make of it. As regular members and/or Mods and Admins, we can all do our little parts to make this place better.

so who would do all this work ?

This has been suggested before. Please do a search before making a suggestion...

hahaha, just had too .

You will not get around this problem on any forum. For example, the RC forum beginner airplane section can look like this:

- looking for a plane
- what is a good first plane?
- 1st plane suggestions?
- Which plane to buy? please help
- best training airplane?
- newbie help please (he asks what plane to get)
- beginner plane?
- Need advice for my first 4 channel plane
- New to RC Airplanes! Advice?
- Need a recommendation for a plane

Just an idea of what can be posted continuously on the RC forum just on the front page, especially during Christmas time. People just can't think for themselves anymore and hunt down their own answers. When I first downloaded LFS, I practically read through everything at RSC in the LFS section. I knew more about LFS before my first online experience than some people now that have been racing since the last physics update. It's sad really how some people can think up an impovement as simple as "the sounds suck, I suggest they improve them" and not think that after 3 or 4 years, this has not been thought of yet.

Quote from NoQuarter :

Department of Redundancy Dept.

Clever.

Not premod. Look how many people that monked of on the BBC.

First off, am I mistaken or does hyperactive play a role somewhere in that thread? or is he taking care of that log? If so what exactly should be in this log?

XCNuse, probably alot more than 60% of those are duplicates maybe not in word but a lot go on to suggest the same idea.

If some nice mod could give a 'spring-clean' there it would make decision making a lot less stressing for the Dev's to read.

I suggest to have at least 10 stickeys, cutting the suggestions into different areas such as that 'cars we wanna see in s3' needs to get stuck,

some stickies like this:

• Server options wish list:
  
• Cars we want to see in S3:
  
• Sound suggestions:
  
• physics suggestions:
  
• Engine suggestions:
  
• Demo suggestions:
  
• Track/circuit suggestions:
  
• Server/network suggestions:
  
• World suggestions:
  
• Weather suggestions:
  
• Input device suggestions:
  
• General/other suggestions:

etc etc. Ouch! I see 47 pages there, that would take a good few hours to sort out though.

We try not to have more than three stickies threads in any one forum.

Thread approval isnt that hard. The job could be offered to the top 22 Sadness-ratings.

Quote from Bob Smith :

We try not to have more than three stickies threads in any one forum.

I don't understand, why ?
Does it not make sense to have important threads at top of page for quick navigation to what ever one is searching for?

If you have too many stickies, nobody reads them. The one exception is the beginners forum.

Quote from CSU1 :

If some nice mod could give a 'spring-clean' there it would make decision making a lot less stressing for the Dev's to read.

that may sound nice and dandy, but cleaning up even 5 pages takes a good long time trying to figure out where it goes

when i cleaned up the skins section of the forum, which is now only 9 pages, it took me several days; before i believe it was about 16 pages or so, but seriously i spent a full 24 hours cleaning up that section, (and the great part is that im probable not even done yet.. still) a "spring cleaning" is hardly effecient, and stuff like this needs to be taken care of before it happens, that way it is possible to clean up, otherwise its like Hansel eating the bread crums Gretel drops; a bigger mess is being made .. as its being cleaned up
not sure what you mean by hyperactive playing a role in some log though..

@wheel4hummer, well.. possibly, but it doesn't have to be that way, i assume someone like jakg would accept all of them and post right away in them to raise his count more
but no really, it isn't to much of a task if only a certain amount are made each day, which.. if it gets out of hand, more people can sub in and help, all we need to worry about is that its being checked on 24/7 by people around the world

Quote from XCNuse :

@wheel4hummer, well.. possibly, but it doesn't have to be that way, i assume someone like jakg would accept all of them and post right away in them to raise his count more
but no really, it isn't to much of a task if only a certain amount are made each day, which.. if it gets out of hand, more people can sub in and help, all we need to worry about is that its being checked on 24/7 by people around the world

Well, I check the forum about 5 times a day lol

Quote from CSU1 :

First off, am I mistaken or does hyperactive play a role somewhere in that thread? or is he taking care of that log? If so what exactly should be in this log?

I just list the useful/usual improvement suggestions in one thread. So, yes, I kinda take care of that log

---
I think it is better to have multiple short threads instead of few long ones. Some short threads get quite long and the discussion on some threads goes on longer than in some others. It is also difficult to discuss/argue about something in a long thread because the "hot" topic changes all the time. One group of people are trying to discuss/argue about something while others post new stuff. There is no reason why discussions about NOS, turbos and blow-off valves should be under one thread. It would make things more complex.

The best way to keep forums tidy is to have as clear structure as possible. imho

Maybe we could have one more sticky on the LFS improvements section: short suggestions? For small, simple requests and suggestions that may not have enough importance to have their own threads...

Quote from Bob Smith :

If you have too many stickies, nobody reads them. The one exception is the beginners forum.

Nobody reads them! If this is the case what are they doing? using search to bring them to the post/thread containing the info? I think not if they don't bother to look at the stickey/sub-forum clearley labled eg: weather suggestions.

Ok if not stickeys then sub-forums as is the Leagues & Events forum.

Most users will just suggest away because as we all know most 'new' users never use the search feature.The above method would have it there in-their-face, then the probability of a double suggestion will be less.

My point is there is going to be a lot of post's regarding suggested improvments for S3, so it only makes sense to seperate the posts based on whatever area of LFS they are.
Imo it's lunacy having one thread with all the suggestions inside having only an order of time.

I just dont see what the problem is giving a structure to the suggestions, sorting them by method above but at the same time I'm just throwing ideas at you guy's and I'm sure whatever you decide todo will be for the best.

I have no idea what you can do with forum software. But, could you make something in the suggestion section that when you try to create a new thread topic, it states a window before you can post that says...


============================================================================
Have you checked out the improvement sticky threads to see if your question/comment has been stated before? See the following list of sticky threads and feel free to browse them.

• Server options wish list:
  
• Cars we want to see in S3:
  
• Sound suggestions:
  
• physics suggestions:
  
• Engine suggestions:
  
• Demo suggestions:
  
• Track/circuit suggestions:
  
• Server/network suggestions:
  
• World suggestions:
  
• Weather suggestions:
  
• Input device suggestions:
  
• General/other suggestions
  

If you'd like to continue to post, click here.[/code]
============================================================================


Like I said, I have no idea if that is possible or not, but I"m sure you understand what I mean. Might help.

If people did use the search facility, and replied to a very old post, the complainers would have nasty comments about bumping such an old post...

I don't think there is an easy solution, unless there is an easy way to combine threads that relate to the same topic.

Yep, for mods it's no problem. If the topic is identical, then as soon we get an URL for the older thread, they can be merged. If the topic is similar, it's best to leave it on it's own so the thread still flows. You don't want multiple conversations in one thread.