Is this board dying?

[innonimatu]

I don't think splitting OT was ever a good idea.

 

[BirraImperial]

I don't know...If you check the front page of OT, you'll notice the same threads being there most of the time, barely any new ones and the fact that this thread is still in the front page with no replies since Wednesday, really reflects on the lack of new and interesting threads being created on this board...I don't post that often anymore, so I'm part of the problem...

 

[Kozmos]

Rolling up all the colosseum sub-forums into OT would inject the diversity. Sort of, I mean there's no getting around that over half the users are from North America, so American topics will dominate either way.

 

[God of Kings]

Rolling up all the colosseum sub-forums into OT would inject the diversity. Sort of, I mean there's no getting around that over half the users are from North America, so American topics will dominate either way.

Don't forget that American topics are also popular outside of North America even.

It's extremely difficult to find anyone on this website who doesn't know who Donald Trump is.

 

[Gen.Mannerheim]

Rolling up all the colosseum sub-forums into OT would inject the diversity. Sort of, I mean there's no getting around that over half the users are from North America, so American topics will dominate either way.

My only fear about rolling up the subfourms into one is that such a congestion might find some good topics falling between the cracks.

 

[Akka]

Don't forget that American topics are also popular outside of North America even.

It's extremely difficult to find anyone on this website who doesn't know who Donald Trump is.

It's less a question of "popularity" and more about the fact that if you see half the people constantly talking about a subject, you'll end up learning about it anyway.

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

Noticed how everything in life has its labor pains, infancy, youth, adulthood etc.? Well this forum is either past all that or at least in serious middle age crisis...

 

[Groff]

Don't forget that American topics are also popular outside of North America even.

It's extremely difficult to find anyone on this website who doesn't know who Donald Trump is.

As someone who's not from the USA, the fact that the majority of the most active topics revolve around USA has never been an issue. I'm guessing that most users here are, in fact, from the USA.

Forums are simply dying a slow death. I believe that the one's similar to civfantacis (dedicated to a specific game/niche, and with a pretty constant userbase) will survive in one way or another.

 

[God of Kings]

If Firaxis all of a sudden disappeared, then in a few years' time, CivFanatics might disappear as well.

It's the new games, DLC packs, and expansions that are keeping this website alive, as well as the community. Even many people here are no longer interested in the Civ games, but still remain.

 

[Commodore]

What would shoving those six threads into an independent sub-forum do positively for OT if that's where everyone is posting?

After thinking on this some more I would say the reason there are only a few main threads for discussing American politics is specifically because it doesn't have its own subforum. Posters may be afraid of getting infracted for making spam threads about essentially the same topic over and over again, so limit their discussion to the threads that already exist. Create a subforum specifically for political discussion and I bet there would be a lot more than six threads in it. It would also likely become the most active non-Civ related subforum on the site.

 

[Synobun]

After thinking on this some more I would say the reason there are only a few main threads for discussing American politics is specifically because it doesn't have its own subforum. Posters may be afraid of getting infracted for making spam threads about essentially the same topic over and over again, so limit their discussion to the threads that already exist. Create a subforum specifically for political discussion and I bet there would be a lot more than six threads in it. It would also likely become the most active non-Civ related subforum on the site.

I'm not sure about that, personally. A lot of the political discussions can be condensed because they're interconnected. @Cutlass's clown car thread, for example, is essentially a catch-all thread for all the nonsensical things happening in American politics without necessitating the need for a thread to be made for each one (which would mean a thread was being made every day about the latest "wut" event). The advantage of condensing these discussions is that you can have an overarching debate/train of thought that doesn't get disconnected because a new thread is made for each new point.

You can see this with other subjects like global warming. Having a big, catch-all thread works because it helps maintain a coherent discussion. Separating each article into individual threads would entail a lot of drive-by posting and very little in-depth discussion unless a group of users turn it into a catch-all thread anyways (like the Mueller special investigator thread).

I do agree with you however that a politics forum would be the most active non-Civ section on CFC. Politics being popular is a no-brainer when we've all joined a site that is dedicated to politics (and the history surrounding it).

Right now there does not seem to be a need for separation. The first page of OT makes up 45 threads and the activity across that spread is 60~ hours. That's a healthy amount of activity that ensures nobody is missing anything if they log on once a day. Perhaps that is unfortunate for those of us who spend our time pressing F5 over and over again on CFC, but we're the minority I think.

 

[Groff]

If Firaxis all of a sudden disappeared, then in a few years' time, CivFanatics might disappear as well.

It's the new games, DLC packs, and expansions that are keeping this website alive, as well as the community. Even many people here are no longer interested in the Civ games, but still remain.

Absolutely, I rarely if ever play Civ anymore but I still browse Civ 4/5 forums, though I spend most of my time browsing OT.

 

[God of Kings]

After all, @Vincour, history is just politics of the past and politics is the history of the future.