The Condition of the Expanded Universe Community Forum

I think some people are looking back at the ?golden age? of DA a bit too much, and forgetting that DA?s hard-nosed approach to running the forum cause about as much discontent as Genghis12?s hands off approach is now (anyone remember how vehemently JMA expressed his opinions?).


I can?t remember having ever posted in an EUC social thread. However, I don?t see how removing so many of them will make this forum a happier place to be. You?re talking about alienating a lot of posters, and I don?t want this forum to go through that kind of thing again.

Should we limit the number of social threads? Probably, but I doubt just 3 is going to cover it.


RP has its own forum. RP within a preexisting thread, to a limited extent, is fine. However, threads devoted to RP should be taken to the RP forum.


Off topic posts? Those are very dangerous waters. I suggest y?all worry about the other problems, because ?off topic? is an ill-defined phrase around here. I personally think there?s nothing wrong with people in the Jacen FC discussing LOTR.

I defend a FC?s right to discuss whatever the members see fit.


Pointless FCs:
I?m with Genghis12 on this one: there is no such creature. Any character can have a fan club. If there aren?t enough people willing to contribute to a specific fan club, it will die. I mean, there have been at least three incarnations of the Vergere fan club that I can remember, and the fact that none of them lasted very long proves that the system works.

 

That brings up a great question, if the EUC is for book discussion and the Lit forum is also for book discussion, what the hell is the difference?

 

i personally am looking back to the reign of sturm

which was a multi-mod reign if i remember correctly


the EUC is to 'Get to know your fellow Expanded Universe fans. A place for character fan clubs and other associations, along with any topic that does not fit within any of the other Expanded Universe forums.'

so social threads with the EU crowd appear to be its focus

 

Having been here for a while, I've sort of watched as the forum went downhill. When I first came here, it was good, DA and Genghis kept the forum going, the newbies didn't make useless fan clubs, and all was fairly good. Now almost all of those have changed. It's a little depressing...

 

the newbies didn't make useless fan clubs

Useless is in the eye of the beholder.

 

I don't see anything wrong with rp, if it's constrained to a social thread environment. There was tons of RP in the Outlander (Sturm even rp'ed some IIRC) and that didn't stop anyone from hangin out. In fact it just contributed to the atmosphere.

 

I personally feel that it adds to the flavor of the environment.

Since nobody answered this before I'll ask again. What is the difference between the Lit forum and the EUC?

EDIT: OOPS sorry about that, thanks Infiltrator, thanks

 

that's what i was saying fire

the boardwide underlying RP and conversation topic during the senate vs empire and the clone thing was great

it made the board much better than any of the newbies have ever seen

i think returning to that should be the goal of this, because we cant take a discussion board like this and make it TOO serious, otherwise it'll suck for all of us

i think that the board should be for the users



i answered it in edit d00d, just below yer post

 

Literature is for in-depth discussion of the books only, etc. EUC is for socialising with other EU fans (eg. fans of the games, the RPG, the TCG, etc.).

 

not really I_F

there are boards for those things

it's for socializing with all EU people

maybe that's what you meant to say
maybe that's what you said

 

To oversimplify, Darth-Dispicable: the difference is clubs. Fan clubs, critics clubs, and so on. That?s why this forum was created in the first place.

Social threads are a distant second in terms of EUC priority, IMO.

 

How very interesting. Perhaps a history lesson should be thrown in to help enlighten those who feel a bit lost in all the angst and recriminations being tossed about.

A long time a go in a forum far, far away, the EUC was a lot less defined as it is now, and a bunch of twits decided that role-playing as Imperials would be fun.

Another bunch of capital gents decided it'd be fine to rile the Imp RPers up by posing as a Rebel Alliance, and suddenly an RP fad was born.

From memory about 12 odd threads at any one time where factional threads or role playing threads, and whilst great fine, it choked the life out of the rest of the Community. Kadue then quite rightly decided to clamp down upon and ban such Role Playing, helping to define the EUC into the forum for frank discussion about the expanded universe and the myriad nuance of fandom we love and enjoy today.

A petition was formed, and it was decided a Role Playing Forum would be formed, elimination ANY need for Role Play in the EUC. Should this change in the future, so be it, but for now there is an entire forum for those who wish to role play: and there is nothing against having a faction or community of friends from the EUC transfer their activities to the RPF as well.


Think of it as "splitting" your threads. You keep all the discussion and so forth in the Community forum, and the Role Playing in the RPF, having a thread in each, albeit differently and with divergent aims and content.


This was the intent behind the formation of the RPF, and as one of those who was here to see the split, I can advocate that it has been for the better. The EUC is as good as it ever was pre-RP binge, and all the RPers amongst us can enjoy their activities in an exclusive forum.

That at least, shouldn't really need too much further discussion or elaboration. This forum is in my mind, in good health. If you individually find it boring etc. Then go out and make some threads that are interesting.

People make a community; not moderators, not rules, and not even usually which threads are were.

If you want to make it fun, make it fun: as long as you do within the appropriate context for both this forum and the JC, you shouldn't have a problem.

 

and the slumber party thing is essentially EUC for girls only

which is dumb

and it shouldnt even pretend to be more than a social thread, like many threads are


slapping an 'EU discussion' somewhere in the first post or title of a thread shouldn't be sufficient to not lock it

 

So let me get this straight, the EUC is for social interaction and to have fun, what the hell is the issue then?

 

I feel that the EUC does have too many social threads, and that it would be beneficial to combine some of them together.

 

it IS for fun
the whole JC is
generally at least

i dont know why we need such harsh policies and a hard mod reich if people are happy

some mod control is nessisary though, and i think we need multiple mods here to balance eachother out because we've had loose mods and tight mods and both kinds make us unhappy

 

Good idea Swan, its nice to see you are in favor since you post alot in social threads, patrons liek you need to combine your ight ito justa few threads

 

To respond to Dev's post in the Hangar

Hey that's what it grew into and no one's complained.

What are we doing now? Surely we aren't complaining, since no one's complained.

I know what yall are striving for, I've seen it in plenty of places, but eventually the forum falls and you must start over from the ashes.

What?

Going again towards that pinnacle of perfection.

Maybe I should've waited to say 'What?'.

 

Yep, I am. I think that since several of the social threads that are out there have the same exact people (or at least, same 'regulars') posting in them, those ones could easily be combined.

I personally have posted in almost all of the social threads, so it is easy to see that some have the same 'atmosphere', if you will.

 

The kid is talking some sense.

"I'll be following your career with great interest." - Palpatine.

 

Very good Swan, I like the way you think its good to relaize when less can be more

 

You know, Protege-of-Thrawn, you make a fantastic point. And you?re right?

Maybe instead of trying to get a mod do all the dirty work for us, we should do it ourselves.

BultarSwan brought up a good idea. Which social threads might we convince to merge together, without causing any problems?

 

other threads have tried, and failed

some people are always dissatisfied with the merge and are alienated, leave the board, or dont move with the thread

 

However: I don't agree with some about the "Golden Age of the EUC", for I think that it occured before the social threads ever came about. Some say it was during DA's reign. Some day that the current state is ideal.

This is a startlingly divergent set of goals, is it not? So then how are we to simply decide on what is best?

I think this is the crux of it.

Post what makes you happy. Talk about what you enjoy. Like PoT said, make threads you think are interesting. That's pretty much the only way you'll find spending time here fulfilling. There's no magic fix on this, other than discovering what you want out of the EUC, and working at it to make it a reality.

A number of people think that Spring-Summer '02 was a highpoint for this board. Bbut all it basically boiled down to was a lot of newbies (and some oldbies) doing their own thing (mostly EU related, but not always so) and having fun. The OC regulars, the Zekk/Jaina/Jag people, the Janson maniacs, it was all good, and no one tried to bring us down by talking about a "Golden Age."