TCH & Fun - A personal observation

[Pyrite]

To counterpoint Pyrite a bit I don't think anyone on TCH has any issues with Kyng and the rest of the staff and everyone does appreciate the amount of work Kyng and the others put into this site from maintenance to new threads to posting to checking on new members and so on. I mainly just say this because I don't want any intentional or unintentional conflation between people critiquing the site and how things could improve and how anyone in TCH leadership is doing jobwise. No one is denying the amount of work they're putting into the site. It is a valuable discussion however to see what TCH does right and where it could improve as it continues existing as a site, especially in an area with so much competition for not only new members but for retaining current ones as well.

I actually think that the thread was steering in that direction, which is why I decided to speak up. Obviously we are capable to receiving feedback (happy to on a personal note if anyone feels I've been a killjoy), but I also think it's important that the members encourage the staff, especially Kyng, in what they are doing right. Because this place wouldn't exist if it weren't for Kyng.

[Kyng]

Thanks !

Although, to be honest, I think we've strayed pretty far from the original point of this thread - which was how the 'fun' aspects of TCH could be strengthened. There was also some discussion of rules and moderation - which, by their very nature, will never be 'fun', but could at least be made less 'un-fun'. Nevertheless, I think that aspect of the discussion has run its course: I will be updating and condensing some of the forum rules, but that obviously isn't going to be done overnight!

So, going back to fun activities: I am open to suggestions, but like I said earlier, we are constrained by: a) what can feasibly be done on a forum (or perhaps Discord), and b) the availability of other members (who are in different time zones; have commitments outside TCH; and so on).

[Moonshroom]

So... here's some updates:

• People universally agree that TCH is "hard to keep track of".
  
• That there's "not much room for shenanigans'.
  
• That the boards are "a bit hard to navigate".
  
• And that the conversation "doesn't flow as freely, causing the topics to die after everyone had given their thoughts, usually around the second page".
  

All valuable feedback for sure, although I'm not sure how applicable it is.

Also: I just cast my line on the White Whale herself, #25. She's so impossible to convince that I actually take it as a point of pride. Just upped my pitch, too XD

[Kyng]

Thanks for the latest feedback - and, I'll just quickly offer my thoughts on these points:

• People universally agree that TCH is "hard to keep track of" - To be honest, I don't understand what is meant by this point. Could you please explain further?
  
  
• That there's "not much room for shenanigans' - I think this was already addressed by my very first post in the thread. TCH doesn't really lend itself to that sort of thing - but IMO, that's a feature, not a bug. Some people like TCH because they find it relatively peaceful - and if we made more room for shenanigans and craziness, then we'd simply ruin it for those people.
  
  
• That the boards are "a bit hard to navigate" - Yeah, I can see this, and I am open to suggestions on how to improve the navigation. But I want to make it clear, right off the bat, that I won't be condensing the 'Topical Discussions' part of the board - because I consider the focus on those things to be a key part of TCH's "brand identity". And the forums outside the 'Topical Discussions' section are all quite distinct from each other, so I don't see a lot of room for condensing those either.
  
  
• And that the conversation "doesn't flow as freely, causing the topics to die after everyone had given their thoughts, usually around the second page". - In all honesty, I don't consider this to be a problem. In my mind, the point of a forum is that we have specific topics about specific subjects. When we run out of things to say about a given subject, I'm happy for the thread to die, and for people to move on to the next thread. Respectfully, if people prefer free-flowing conversations (where the subject of conversation constantly changes), then I believe those people would be better-served by a Discord server than by a forum.

And one final note: the idea of this thread was to figure out how to make TCH more 'fun'. But I'm worried that we're drifting away from that, and it's instead turning into a general topic for any and all criticism of TCH. And while those criticisms aren't necessarily unfair, we do have to understand that people want different (and oftentimes incompatible) things, and thus it is impossible to please everyone (and attempting to please everyone will likely end up pleasing no-one). Indeed, some of the things mentioned here are things that I could change - but not without ruining the board for some of the people who like it the way it is currently. And ultimately, if somebody doesn't like the core premise of TCH... then, it probably isn't worth us going to the effort of making changes in order to entice them back. That's not in our interests - and in the long run, it's probably not in their interests either.

[Shiny Star]

Thanks Moonshroom with the update, I am glad that people feel comfortable enough to share this.

I agree with what Kyng has written above, especially the bit where there are many people happy with how the board is and have stuck around . This thread has definitely generated useful conversation and I am glad that the ask me threads section is being utilised more often again. For the navigation point, I feel like this is something that we are constantly developing and evolving (for example the introduction of the transit) so it would be good to know more about what makes it difficult to navigate. Is it too long? Too many sub forums, overlap? That could be really useful - but I appreciate that you’ve done a lot already. 

I’m only active on this forum and I don’t think other boards are necessarily a benchmark to compare to, but I am interested myself on if and how these issues translate across forums. There have been some great conversations, for example the vaping topic, where I feel like I have learned from talking to others. However, I can see how there may be a few discussions where people may not be able to interact as much as they would like to. But I would say that that isn’t necessarily a TCH problem exclusively but can be a problem with general chat boards in general. 

But yeah, thank you to whoever shared these thoughts and insight.

[Kyng]

Another thought I had (in the interests of steering the discussion back towards 'fun'), was that we never found a satisfactory replacement for the arcade.

Admittedly, I don't think the solution is "Bring back the arcade exactly as it was". When I attempted to install it on a PHP 8.x test board, I immediately ran into compatibility errors which would take a long time to fix - and, even if I were to fix those, the arcade would look very dated in this day and age, since it'd be dominated by Flash games that are getting on for 20 years old (or, in some cases, over 20 years old). I've had plenty of fun with the arcade in the past - but it's had its day, unfortunately.

Still, it'd be nice if we could find something modern that has the same appeal. But we've never even come close to doing that. The closest we've come is the game nights on Discord - but even those don't really have the same appeal IMO (and of course, they require us all to be free at the same time, which the arcade never did!).

[Shiny Star]

I used to love the arcade but I agree they’re a bit outdated on forums. It does leave a void as I don’t know what else would fill that space - I always enjoyed seeing high scores. Snake was my favourite. I agree that Discord isn’t the same.

[Cool Cory]

Moonshroom, are you still in contact with anyone who joined here? Even if they're now more occupied with real-life things and such, it might be a good idea to message them and see if they're up for posting on here again.  Be sure to let them know about the changes being made to make TCH more fun. They might be up for trying TCH again now that it's changing.

[Bryn]

I used to love the arcade but I agree they’re a bit outdated on forums.

Yes, especially when they're now no longer work since Flash was decrepated five years ago.
 

@ Moonshroom, are you still in contact with anyone who joined here?

By my reckoning, I don't think he's heard from any of them... I'm sure he said that already here.

[Moonshroom]

Yeah... I only ever keep regular contact with one, who was actually the one who inspired me to make the thread in the first place.

I have a very small contact with about six, and then once-in-a-blue-moon conversations with the rest, except for two who seem to have fallen off the face of the Earth entirely. Amusingly, I recently ran into Stargazette and she had forgotten she had even joined XD