E4 Proposal - Split the Forums into 2 Sub-Forums

[smpratte]

If someone can create or find a plug in to separate per section that sounds like the best option.

Also @quuador, you are PSA 10!

[azulryu]

This is what I was hoping to see after stepping away from the thread for a bit - discussion on how things can be changed to make the forums feel less of a hassle to navigate. And I’m glad to see there are more suggestions than my initial proposal - I knew it might not be the best idea, but figured it’d get the conversation going either way.

I also apologize if my introduction seemed polarizing as it was not my intention. I’m not as eloquent of a speaker as some of the other members here. I tried to emphasize that the conversations we have here have a place - I just didn’t want people to feel discouraged from participating in it in case they were feeling negatively. I know we can’t please everyone, but if we can change the format of the forums to make it so that more people feel welcome than we currently do, I think it’s a positive step towards our growth as a community. There is a lot to love about what’s been created here.

I will also reach out to some computer engineer buddies to see if they know anything about filtering plugins.

[pierce]

You’re gonna have people posting in the wrong section and have these kinds of threads no matter what you do. We have forum rules that don’t get read and are broken everyday. It can be a bit irritating seeing all the stonks threads, but realistically it takes me what, like 10sec to read all the thread titles on page 1 of new topics? It’s pretty easy to see which threads I’m not gonna be interested in based on the title and not open them. The proposal is a lot of work for the sake of saving a few seconds and not wanting to see certain threads in new topics just cause they annoy you imo.

[krill]

@smpratte

@krill

@smpratte The issue with a market mega thread is what would have been dozens of individual threads are all crammed into one thread and maybe theres something on page 10 you want to talk about but the conversation has long since moved on. I think a mega thread for the market is very detrimental to conversation on the forum.

I hear you, but that was the previous recommendation. Which I think ties into my point about net focus; you can’t satisfy everyone. Even in this thread alone, some people prefer the mega threads, some people want separate. I personally am not bothered by market discussion, outside of “how do I make money” topics, which aren’t that common on E4.

I understand. I think what would be a good solution for the market discussion section is a price check megathread. We really don’t need entire threads for “how much is this 1 card,” and it’d clear the market discussion for actual discussions on the market.

[teamrocketop]

@churlocker

I think that there has to be an acceptance of the new place financial conversations have in the collecting world.

This affects all collectibles of all types. 10 years ago, the hobby was still always talking about the most expensive cards. People love that element of the hobby. That doesn’t make the conversation about collecting impure. There is no dichotomy between investing and collecting. They are intricately intertwined. E4 is not experiencing a metamorphosis in purpose. E4 is doing exactly what it always has: meeting the biggest, the best, the brightest, the most dedicated, the most curious, and the sickos that prefer miscut cards where they are at in their collecting journey right now.

Creating a community that doesn’t acknowledge the elephant in the room is never going to be healthy or thrive. E4 remains topical. Anyone can choose to participate only on the topics that they want to participate. People have the freedom to leave for years and come back as life takes them different places. People have the dignity to assert authority and put themselves out there when they know their shit and take a back seat when they don’t both without judgment or consequences for failing.

Every time a conversation comes up where people try to put their finger on the exact difference between a collector and an investor, the thread is filled with 200 people who all identify somewhere unique on the spectrum of investing/collecting. This is the natural diversity within the hobby that we need to learn to embrace. The flipper chad and the “pure” collector are equally annoying archetypes that miss the point. And the reality is that a lot of people aren’t ever even going to be at the same place on the scale. There are days when I’m pouring my wallet out to buy cards I love without a concern and days when I’m jumping on an opportunity to make some money that I see. We have old school icons that have never sold a card and old school icons who have made this their daily job. This boogeyman of the person taking advantage of the hobby to suck it of all of its life doesn’t exist because the barriers to entry of knowledge and reputation severely impede the ability of ignorant people to influence the hobby on a grand scale. And even the few tiny segments that are impacted represent cards so rare that logistical challenges and the luck of when you entered the hobby are a bigger factor in who does and doesn’t obtain the cards.

E4’s growth comes with challenges. The staff feels them first. Increased moderation requirements. A sense of direction that needs to constantly be tended to and reaffirmed. And yeah, the members sometimes are going to have to flip through the new threads a little more to find the content they’re looking for. But all of it seems like a small price to pay when you consider we are winning more than any other segment of the collectibles world. We have unbridled growth, new members every hour, fresh excitement, new things happening, baller products from TPC, and so much more going for us. E4 is benefitting from and reflecting these new circumstances. And I firmly disagree that the response to it is to deconstruct what we have going.

This couldn’t have been said any better. Unfortunately, many times we get a lot of sour people that taint the hobby sometimes but is common in any hobby (ie possibly an artist cancelling an event for signatures). It’s interesting to see the spark in Pokemon lately and I actually enjoy reading many of the threads but not always commenting. I really liked M’s post about a receipt he found years ago for prices for WOTC commons. I think this a great proposal but at the same time, those megathreads do just fine!

[krill]

Also, threads that are market related that are being forced to be moved to the giant market thread or locked because they aren’t there really suppresses discussion

[pokemon_matt]

As a binder collector, price discussion is boring. We don’t invest in grades or chase POP reports, we just are immensely satisfied when completing a set. Can’t we have a binder collecting sub forum? Then it’s much easier to ignore the 99.99999% of threads that bang on about the market.

[azulryu]

@pokemon_matt

As a binder collector, price discussion is boring. We don’t invest in grades or chase POP reports, we just are immensely satisfied when completing a set. Can’t we have a binder collecting sub forum? Then it’s much easier to ignore the 99.99999% of threads that bang on about the market.

As Charlie pointed out, there is a large spectrum of people on this forum, and thus a lot of crossover. I fear that if something like that were made, it’d create niche categories which would be impossible to split up - a lot of binder collectors also collect graded for example. I dislike conversation about pop reports and numbers most of the time, but there are exceptions and sometimes I’ll even enjoy the banter. So as excited as I would be for a binder collection sub forum, it runs the risk of alienating those who collect both or only graded which is the very problem I was trying to solve when I started this discussion. I don’t want people to feel alienated from the hobby.

[KingPokemon]

@krill

@smpratte The issue with a market mega thread is what would have been dozens of individual threads are all crammed into one thread and maybe theres something on page 10 you want to talk about but the conversation has long since moved on. I think a mega thread for the market is very detrimental to conversation on the forum.

Yeah. I can see getting rid of the mega market thread. People can just post individual threads which you can just ignore if not interested instead of having to go over tons of replies and comments in the market mega thread.