M, read before closing.


I enjoyed, along with many others I'm sure, adding our own random thoughts, ideas and just having plain fun in GC. I definitely enjoyed reading about Hopeless's daily dillemmas (which were many and little between).

I mean, what right do you have to close down something which I find very enjoyable and fun?

I don't disagree with going on IRC instead, but when you just want to drop someone a line, or say something you might find interesting (e.g a youtube link) are you going to say it in an empty chat room?

So, vote according to whether you want one again or not. If this gets closed I don't think I'll ever come here again, seriously, M your a little power hungry :unsure:


Oh and;

Currently Active Users: 16 (2 members and 14 guests)
View Who's Online
Most users ever online was 340, June 27th, 2007 at 05:32 am.
Phard



Losing a lot of regulars.

*raises hand slowly*

....yeah I want GC back :cry:

honestly was going to quit forums until I reached member and discovered the fun and randomness of GC

The other threads in The Pub seem somewhat deadbeat.

Well grumpy Angelic is the one that forced GC's end. As long as Angelic wants to stay on the forums it is doubtful that you will get your GC back.
My only suggestion is get a chat client.
Server: ichigos.com
channel: #ichigos

You can leave the chatroom open all day and even log the chat. Set up alerts so that a box flashes when people start speaking.

Then I apologise, sincerely, to M, for making out that she was just out to close everything. Sorry.

To han, It's just not the same though.

REBUTTAL TIME!


I enjoyed, along with many others I'm sure, adding our own random thoughts, ideas and just having plain fun in GC. I definitely enjoyed reading about Hopeless's daily dillemmas (which were many and little between).

The problem with the General Chat was that it was a catch all.

Many of these conversations /should/ be placed in other threads. No one was using the existing or creating new threads. The General Chat was funneling all the traffic and the rest of the non-site specific boards looked nearly 100% inactive. In the example you provided, the recent couple of posts that Hopeless made could have posted in three separate threads: the Go thread (yes, we have one), the programming thread (yes, we have one), and the mood thread (yes, we have that too). Hopeless simply being an example. I could list off several other users, myself included, that used the General Chat instead of respective threads.

Another problem with the General Chat system is that it is NOT friendly to newer users. It's a thread that towers and makes previous conversations hard to locate and obtain. There has been a grand total of 1 user that actually read all of the General Chat after it was established (good ol' Sir Jaso). All of the rest have either lived it and forgot about it, or simply skipped over majority of it.

The only part that the General Chat thread accomplished is pure and utter randomness that a single thread cannot be justified for. At the same time, most of that shouldn't even be present in a forum. This is where the IRC comes in. IRC may not have an interface where you can see everything that occurs and any time (logs), but it does provide a sandbox to be as completely random as you'd like, so long as you abide by a few coherent rules, which are loosely enforced.

So, ultimately, the only problems with closing the General Chat is:
You have to *gasp* find threads (http://forums.ichigos.com/search.php?) or create them, and
Useless/minor topics are no longer present on the forum (http://ichigos.com/chat).

I don't really see a problem with this other than people whining about seeking or creating new threads.


I mean, what right do you have to close down something which I find very enjoyable and fun?

I don't disagree with going on IRC instead, but when you just want to drop someone a line, or say something you might find interesting (e.g a youtube link) are you going to say it in an empty chat room?

Again this part already has a solution. For dropping someone a line, we have the PM system (http://forums.ichigos.com/private.php?do=newpm) and the new VM system present on your members page. Besides, one-on-one conversations are frowned upon here, and there's a rule (http://forums.ichigos.com/faq.php?faq=faq_post#faq_new_faq_item) saying that they should not exist in threads (anything should be for everyone). As for the interesting YouTube video, though not many people are on IRC at the moment, I do know that there's usually one person on at any particular part of the day. If you still don't like the thought of IRC, why not make a thread dedicated to the YouTube posting? Or you could even make a thread for interesting YouTube Videos.

As I said in my earlier response, General Chat has clamped down on the user's willingness to create new threads. Right here is an example of someone whom didn't even think to make a new thread.


So, vote according to whether you want one again or not. If this gets closed I don't think I'll ever come here again, seriously, M your a little power hungry :unsure]

That's your provocative. It's not like we're limiting the users freedom; we're simply bringing the forum back to the way it was. People need to realize that a lot of thought usually goes into these decisions and that the best choices are made, along with a lot of devils advocate play. The Staff thought this out, we argued on an administrative scope, we argued on an enduser scope, and we made a decision.


Oh and;

Currently Active Users: 16 (2 members and 14 guests)
View Who's Online
Most users ever online was 340, June 27th, 2007 at 05:32 am.
Phard

Losing a lot of regulars.

You don't pay attention to that much, do you? The lower portion of the forum which tells you activity has always been low. In fact, in the past 6 months, it's never exceeded 14 users. Ultimately, this forum as a group of about 22-25 regulars in different timezones, and the rest are music request accounts. It's not that we're losing members do to the General Chat being closed, it's that we're losing members flat out. We've been on a decline ever since the year 2007 rolled around. It wasn't until last year that it became noticeable, though. Even the RolePlay that was once a very active part of the forum in the earlier years has essentially died. This is why NekoKoneko/Angelic decided to move it (http://forums.ichigos.com/forumdisplay.php?f=58) to a new board in hopes of gaining some stimulus.


Well grumpy Angelic is the one that forced GC's end. As long as Angelic wants to stay on the forums it is doubtful that you will get your GC back.

It was a collective decision (though he did close it without notifying anyone :)). And for reasons aforementioned it will not be opened again.


Then I apologise, sincerely, to M, for making out that she was just out to close everything. Sorry.
To han, It's just not the same though.

Accepted.


M, read before closing.

:mellow: I always read all posts in a thread before locking them, regardless of it being a spam thread, hate mail, illegal material, someone I dislike, advertisements, ... And I close them IF AND ONLY IF I find the content in violation to the rules, offensive, or brings nothing to the table.


------------

Also, just a FYI, the poll means nothing. I'm all for users having their say in things, but I completely disagree with having the users dictate how a forum should be used. This is Bureaucracy, not a Democracy.

I'm all for users having their say in things, but I completely disagree with having the users dictate how a forum should be used. This is Bureaucracy, not a Democracy.

Example:

User: M
Dictate: See previous post.
Forum: What you have open now
Used: No GC.

Joking aside, I do take all of your points. Let the crazy thread making begin!

Oh wait, that's the sound of no-one bothering :sweat:

M is always great at explaining what I think doesn't need explaining. General chat was sucking the life out of all the other forums. Random chatter can be done in IRC. Now go and make threads!

or go to IRC and join the dark side
we have fresh chocolate chip cookies for newbies :)

or follow the suggestions, these people aren't incompetent admins/mods

Hey speak for your self.

Gah, I loved General Chat so much.
But, Ichigos really has been dying lately, and I'm sorry to say that closing the GC might actually help that problem a little bit...

I dunno, I'm kind of torn. I'd love to see General Chat come back, but GC is going to be a little useless if we completely run out of members here. :(

I'm still hoping the administration will consider just leaving GC locked like three weeks out of the month, or something. You know, keep it closed all the time, except for the last week of every month. Then we can all screw around 1/4 of the time, while keeping Ichigos busy and attractive looking to newcomers 3/4 of the time. I've put this idea on the table a bunch of times before, so now I'm politely asking the moderators if there's any reason we couldn't do something like this. I'd like to hear what Angelic thinks, especially, since I get the feeling that closing General Chat was mainly his idea.

And if GC is going to be closed, could we at least be a bit more lax regarding our definitions of "off-topic" in The Pub? ;D

And I'm glad the mods haven't closed this. If they're going to change the forum around, it's nice that they'll at least listen to our suggestions, even if they don't use them in the end, hahah.

And if GC is going to be closed, could we at least be a bit more lax regarding our definitions of "off-topic" in The Pub? ;D



This indeed, is true.



And I'm glad the mods haven't closed this. If they're going to change the forum around, it's nice that they'll at least listen to our suggestions, even if they don't use them in the end, hahah.


I agree. Three cheers for the admins :lol:

And I'm glad the mods haven't closed this. If they're going to change the forum around, it's nice that they'll at least listen to our suggestions, even if they don't use them in the end, hahah. Feedback, feedback.

Because today's Ichigo's is made up of regulars who dominate General Chat, as long as the thread exists the rest of the forum has no use. Not to mention some regulars are very unfriendly to new members. Today's Ichigo's can be seen as a closed community where the regulars keep the "noobs" out.

The previous permutations of this forum were the opposite.

Even though they had GC threads, they welcomed new members and had plenty of meaningful discussions. GC was a place to mess around rather than a thread that dominated the entire forum. That balance made them such welcome communities.

GC made Ichigo's unique. But for now, closing it is the best decision even though it was obvious the regulars would not respond positively at first. I don't think GC will be closed forever, but that's for the future to decide.


I'm still hoping the administration will consider just leaving GC locked like three weeks out of the month, or something. You know, keep it closed all the time, except for the last week of every month. Then we can all screw around 1/4 of the time, while keeping Ichigos busy and attractive looking to newcomers 3/4 of the time. I've put this idea on the table a bunch of times before, so now I'm politely asking the moderators if there's any reason we couldn't do something like this. I'd like to hear what Angelic thinks, especially, since I get the feeling that closing General Chat was mainly his idea. When the community restores the balance of the forums.

Not to mention some regulars are very unfriendly to new members. Today's Ichigo's can be seen as a closed community where the regulars keep the "noobs" out.

It's true, and sad. Some of the moderators can even be thrown into the "sometimes unfriendly to newbies" lot. I see a lot of newbs come into the forum with a misguided attempt at introducing themselves, only to be shut down by a mods, and five other members, usually in a cold "what are you, an idiot?" manner. We should all start being friendlier to the idiot children who wander in here. After all, the idiot children of today are the idiot regulars of tomorrow. If I'd been shunned so quickly for my stupid ways, I might not be around still today, dumbing down the place, and Phard wouldn't be able to enjoy hearing about my near-constant state of life-crisis.
So, basically, let's all be nicer to everyone now on.

GC made Ichigo's unique. But for now, closing it is the best decision even though it was obvious the regulars would not respond positively at first. I don't think GC will be closed forever, but that's for the future to decide.
I think the problem is that the moderating atmosphere around here has become too easy. I've bragged to other forums that our moderators here "never have to do anything" because we're such a tight community, but I think that this is one of the main causes of our problems right now. The moderators aren't at fault for this, obviously, since loose moderation is something this forum has come to expect over the years, but I think tighter moderation from here out will keep this forum healthier overall. Using what M said earlier as an example, we have a Go thread, a programming thread, and a mood thread. I could have posted in those separate threads, but why would I? I knew the moderators wouldn't say anything about it, and I knew that GC would generate more replies. I don't think I'm a bad member for posting like this, since the moderators allow it. I don't think the moderators here are bad for allowing it, because lax moderation has become expected in this community. I think stricter posting rules from now on would be good for the forum, though.

Excuse me for blabbering. What I'm saying here is that the General Chat isn't inherently bad; it's only bad because people were allowed to post anything they wanted to in it, even when other topics would have been better places for their posts. Basically, if idiots like me learned to post in the correct topics, and moderators took care of the idiots who didn't learn to post in the correct topics, the General Chat wouldn't need to be taken down. We should all try a little harder in this area from now on, too.

When the community restores the balance of the forums.
Then, starting tomorrow, I will rebuild this community...WITH THESE HANDS!!!~!

The last problem I see is that in general, our regulars have become a little lazy with their posts, eschewing quality posts in favor of quick and easy chats with other members. Tomorrow I'll start a thread that I hope will generate some decent discussion and learning among members. We should all try to do the same, at least once in awhile. The more quality threads we have running, the less we'll feel the need for a general chatting thread - who needs to chat when we can talk?

Hehehe... actually, the Forum Leaders were very clever with this decision. You just have to give it some thought to see how cunning it really is :whistle:

Since everyone's giving their $.02 on this, I must say I've only posted in General Chat an amount of maybe three times, and they haven't even been recognized. I have been a pretty active member here (especially since August, and before summer) and I have no hard feelings to having General Chat closed. Even as M said, unless you're not a regular on Ichigo's and know about jokes, etc. the chances are that new people aren't going to just jump in and have fun with the rest of everyone. And I don't think those people care THAT much to "belong" with a bunch of Ichigo's regulars just to have fun in one topic on Ichigo's.

I guess all that I am saying is that, in the grand scheme of things, this is no real big deal. Get a little organized?

Ichigos on facebook for you~

Oh wow, general chat's gone?

things sure have changed here...

Is this thing still here? :lock:

Why on earth did you change your name?

Because I felt like it. I've been using this name everywhere for ages.