[Macros]

I get the idea, jsut a gerneic malazan discussion forum, where you discuss malazan stuff that isnt one book specific (karsa's cock etc)
Sound like a good idea, as any semi serious malazan discussion in the inn usually gets derailed by post 3

[amphibian]

Cougar, on 06 December 2009 - 12:11 PM, said:

If you want examples of what would be in a general home forum then it would be stuff like the Naina thread that caused so much friction, the thread in DoD called Lovemaking and the MBotF, the usual 'hardest character' threads and the meet up info etc. I guess that the real reason would be to create amn area that appealed to some of the fans who don't join us cos they don't like the Inn (and there are certainly a few) but are a bit worried about posting dumb threads in the very strict arena of the book discussions.

Sounds good then.

But I'd just like to remind you that the friction was largely caused by Malaclypse kind of dropping an emotional turd seemingly out of nowhere on us.

[caladanbrood]

If it would be general malazan discussion, what would the spoiler policy be? That's all I see as the main potential problem...

[Hetan]

There will be no spoilers allowed. If a topic is spoiler-worthy it should be in the relevant book forum.
It's more for general stuff like "Who is Ice? and that sort of thing.
It will, of course require some serious moderation and if it doesn't work, it will go - simple as that. Point is that some folks think it's worth trying out so we'll give it a go

The proposed layout at the bottom of the board will look more like this :-

General Book & Site Related Forum
General Discussion Forum for book related topics.(no spoilers)
Malazan Art
Polls
Admin/website topics

Off Topic (and generally off the wall!)
Other Literature
Discussion
Photography & Writing
TV, Movies, Music
Sport
The Phoenix Inn (Subforum : Hall of Fame)
Games (subforums : Mafia, Knoll Barrow, Other Games)
User Group Forums

[Grief]

I support cougars idea for Off topic and General to be seperated, because at present there isn't really a place for non-serious book discussion-they either clutter up the book forums or spoiler up the inn.

[caladanbrood]

It strikes me that throwing the Inn right to the bottom may be a bit counter-productive. Yes, it might scare occasional people off, but it does still get the most traffic... well, we'll see I suppose

[bubba]

I like it Hetan

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Hmm. I see the need for it, but I think the spoiler issue will be a huge problem. I can imagine 3/4 of the threads getting shut down and moved to specific book forum, if not on the OP, then when someone cites a spoiler from a book. It's worth a shot though, the worse that can happen is it won't work.

I think what might have a better chance of working is to allow more non-serious threads in the book forums, as long as they ae related to that book. Sure, they can be annoying, but it's really easy to not open an annoying thread.

I really like the idea of having a noob section. That should help a lot, and ease people's transition form the real world into the madness that is us.

[alt146]

Is the change to the 'new content' screen part of this upgrade? Just my two cents, but I preferred being able to just click the thread title to go to the first unread post instead of having to click the little orange box.

[Silencer]

Spoilers in threads will be fine, I'm sure, if they are appropriately spoiler tagged.

No reason to totally prevent mention of certain events, it's just that threads discussing *specific* events should be in their relevant forums.

For example, the cited "Who'd win" threads require spoilers to debate.

[A friendly Jaghut]

I know I'm new which makes my opinion not hold much weight... but I'm liking the proposed changes.

[Silencer]

Hey! A fellow NZ-er. Welcome.

(And don't worry, *everyone's* opinion holds about the same weight around here )

[Cougar]

There is no reason for the Inn to change at all, people will still find their way there and there isn't a reason for the existing crew to stop posting unless they have a bizarre fit of pique. Unless people feel it's some kind of prestige issue it shouldn't matter if it's lower down the list.

The thing is that getting everyone's opinions is only so useful in this, the existing members are the ones who weren't put off by the Inn andour general demeanour, so we' only end up perpetuating and stagnating if we just stuck with what we like. We are trying to maintain what we have and improve the areas we don't exploit now to make us more accesible to new members.

[Abyss]

Illuyankas, on 06 December 2009 - 05:37 AM, said:

You just want the General Malazan Discussion forum so you can have a place to make the thread 'How big is Karsa's cock?', don't you, Cougar?

ADMIT IT

Goddammit Illy, stop making me rep you! STOP!!!!



Is the goal to create an entry point (shut up) that's still book related? I suppose then a 'no spoilers' general book discussion subforum at the top might do it.

I add i've seen such 'no spoilers but you can discuss anything here' subforums elseforum and i don't really think they work because spoilers are inevitable. You can't post 'How cool is Apsalar in HoC?' without revealing that Apsalar is IN HoC, hence, she didn't die in a prior book. Unless she did and got better... but the point stands (shut up).

Hence if there's really a need to discuss Karsa's cock, can't it be done in those books where Karsa's cock appears and wow i planned on going my entire life without every typing anything even remotely like that am feeling icky now?


But i'm otherwise in agreement with the proposed changes. Especially the one that makes the Abyssmal Army the primary subforum, the one subforum to rule them all, one subforum to find them, one subforum to bring them all and in the darkness bind them and then tease them mercilessly.

- Abyss, ...what were we talking about?

[Mezla PigDog]

All good ideas, imo.

Regarding spoilers in the general forum, don't forget the main series will be finished soon and we will need a place to discuss all 10 books together. It will be much easier for people to read the full thing so the general area could simply be avoided until the series is finished. Perhaps eventually allowing it to contain spoilers from the main series and limit spoilers from the spin off books may make it easier to moderate. The general area would then be ideal for "Who is your favourite character/scene/warran/mage/fighter/race/blah blah blah" type threads and discussions about the whole concept. The number of people to complete the series will only grow from now on.

[Abyss]

Mezla PigDog, on 07 December 2009 - 09:34 PM, said:

All good ideas, imo.

Regarding spoilers in the general forum, don't forget the main series will be finished soon and we will need a place to discuss all 10 books together. It will be much easier for people to read the full thing so the general area could simply be avoided until the series is finished. Perhaps eventually allowing it to contain spoilers from the main series and limit spoilers from the spin off books may make it easier to moderate. The general area would then be ideal for "Who is your favourite character/scene/warran/mage/fighter/race/blah blah blah" type threads and discussions about the whole concept. The number of people to complete the series will only grow from now on.

Our approach until now has been that anything from prior books is fair game in the most recent one. Wouldn't a spoilers-allowed 'whole series' subforum render the TCG subforum redundant?

Plus we're looking at 4 more ICE books which will likely ref anything that happens in the SE books, AND subsequent SE books that will likely ref or elaborate on the MBF series. So tecnically the story isn't 'done' once TCG is out.

We may even find that with a ten book series on the market, interest builds in the subsequent series'.

Point being, we may not want to make make a 'whole series' subforum, as opposed to TCG as the tenth book and appropos spot to discuss everything up to that point?

- Abyss, ...completist.

[caladanbrood]

I'm still confused by the possible content of this sub-forum if there are no spoilers allowed, I have to be honest with you. Once you've gone beyond "Who is this Erikson bloke anyway" and "What, there are novellas?" is there much left? Events I could see benefiting from a non-book specific forum, such as what the hell happened at Pale anyway, will always have spoilers in... and now Silencer says that spoilers will be allowed in-thread, but not in titles??? Confuee.  

[Mezla PigDog]

Abyss, on 07 December 2009 - 09:46 PM, said:

Point being, we may not want to make make a 'whole series' subforum, as opposed to TCG as the tenth book and appropos spot to discuss everything up to that point?

But what about people who turn up a while after finishing the final book and aren't thinking of them in chronological order but more as part of a complete concept? Chatting in the most recent book forum is alright for people who are already here but that won't be obvious to new arrivals who wait to join the forum until they have finished the series. In the longer term, it doesn't make sense to keep discussion on the over arching themes etc to be in a The Crippled God forum.

[HoosierDaddy]

Ooooh, it'll be a great place for: "Do I have to read Midnight Tides?", "I'm 4 pages into Midnight Tides and it sucks can I just skip it?", "Terry Goodkind and Stephanie Meyer made a baby and it already writes better than both even though still in the womb....".

[Cougar]

Why do you all shit your pants about spoilers, it's not that hard to use the spoiler function. There are things that bear discussion that shouldn't be in the Inn but don't have a home in a book forum, exercising a little caution and spoilering properly is all that needs to happen.