So comments kind of blew up this past week – hello, 673-comment thread! In one of the recent giant threads Holly suggested that maybe it’s time for Man Boobz to start its own forum, or set up some kind of real-time chatroom or IRC channel. I’m thinking she may be right, but I’m not sure the best way to proceed.
Here, as I see it, are the best options:
Regular Friday and Saturday night “open threads,” plus “open threads” during the week when it makes sense – say, when a thread gets really really long and/or people start chanting “open thread! Open thread!” in the comments. (That could be the batsignal, as it were, for me to post an open thread.)
An actual forum. It looks as though setting up a free forum through something like Invision or proboards or some other free forum host would be pretty easy – though I’d love to hear from people with experience doing this before I proceed. Would you guys be interested in this? What would be the best host to go with? Would it make more sense to host the forum myself? (If so, I would definitely need help.) I sort of love the idea of a forum, but I wouldn’t want it to siphon off too much energy from comments on the blog itself. I’m torn, and any thoughts/advice you guys have would be greatly appreciated.
I’m thinking at the moment that the best idea would be to start with open threads and see how they work before setting up a forum. But if enough of you want a forum that might be the way to go.
As for the other ideas from Holly – a chatroom or IRC channel – I have to admit I have no idea what would be the best option here, assuming there are enough of you interested in this to make it work. I’ve got plenty of experience as a forum-user but I’ve never used IRC or really participated in more than a tiny bit of chat. Not sure what the best options are for a real-time chatroom, or for IRC, so … advice, please!
In any case, I’m psyched about the possibilities here and want to do whatever will best facilitate conversation amongst you guys. And if any of you want to volunteer your time and/or experience, let me know!
(The cartoon here is borrowed from the excellent Comically Vintage.)
I’m just casting a vote for “open threads.” It’s always good to start with the “least work” option, right? 🙂
I really like the idea of setting up a forum through one of the free forum thingies. It’s really easy, and it would be easier to keep track of all the separate conversations people want to have and stuff. The comments tend to move so fast that the thing thing I wanted to respond to is 20 posts ago and seems irrelevant.
Also, also. If we do make a forum I call dibs on making my username Sarah. I would be so tickled-pink to have my actual, unique username be my irl name.
My vote is for forum!
Also, if you set up a Groups page on FB, you automatically get a group chat feature. Of course, this means that people we might not want to see our RL handles will see it, but the idea is there.
I vote forum. Upon reflection, a real-time chatroom doesn’t keep a log of everything that’s said and encourages (even more) knee-jerk responses. And the thread comment system isn’t really made for the kind of meandering megathreads this blog seems to generate.
Maybe start off w/ open threads and see how it goes? I don’t really know my way around a forum.
I vote forum. I’m more of a lurker than a poster here because I find comments to be less elegant a system than forums.
I vote IRC. Every user that connects would have a log of everything that happens, and you can set up bots and the like just in case.
A forum would be fine too.
I vote for IRC, since its more fun to be able to chat in real-time. I know of at least one other blog (pharyngula) that uses open threads though, so that seems like a valid option too.
I vote threads, but a forum would be fine. I don’t like the idea of a chatroom, partly because they seem like a thing of the past that’s been supplanted by message boards, but mostly because of what Holly said.
I’m fine w/ the way it is actually b/c I like the way things kinda flow from what’s going on and you get the serious with the fun so nobody gets too bent out of shape about the e-debating 🙂 But otherwizzzeeee… open threads I guess xD I think splitting this up into too many places might end up being too much or end up being kinda cliquey for those that dun have time/dun want to go on IRC or a forum or feel pressured to have to keep up with all of that and the threads on this blog 🙁 (but purrrrhhaps I am wrong :3 ) Nebody who wants to talk to moi btw can just drop me a line on my blog and we can IM or FB or telepathically connect 😀
But I am concerned about ppl feeling like they have to keep up w/ many mediums or they get left out : esp if we start making references to the IRC/forum thingie in a regular comment thread here… and I rly do like the way things just flow here and you get the fun and serious arguing at the same time 🙂 is like cheesburger pizza! or something >_> there’s a radio ad about that btw where it says only girls eat 1 food at a time and real men would eat their cheesburger pizza xD i found that hilarious xD can’t wait for the evo psych explanation for that… back in the cave days, women ate mammoths and sabretooth tigers, and men ate sabremammotigers! xD
My vote(s) are for IRC and forum. I like being able to respond to posts quickly and sometimes it’s hard to keep track of conversations with the current format.
I kinda agree with Ami about the forum thing. If conversations get split up, it will only make it more difficult for people to keep up. As it is, its almost like we’re a big family here. 😛
I think chatrooms are still workable, but I get the point that they may create more knee-jerk responses. The easiest thing to integrate would be an open thread, which has the benefit of showing up on the “latest comments” display thingy, and is closest to the types of conversations that have been going on already.
As usual Kirbywarp is as wise as he is beautiful :3
Also, I doubt our dearly beloved trolls would follow us to a forum (especially if registration is required), which would rob all the fun from it.
I vote forums. I think it would be kinda nifty to have that as well as a blog. I don’t think IRC would be good for the reasons others mentioned above.
Open threads are a good idea, too. The only thing I don’t like about the comments is the older/newer thing and having to find the place that I left off – especially since comments or pages of comments aren’t numbered. For posts with less comments, not such a big deal, but for the 200+ comment threads, that’s rather annoying.
I find myself agreeing with kirbywarp & ami. I vote open threads. I like the way topics come and go, and I like having One Big Conversation rather than a lot of separate ones. Listening to Holly try to talk MRAL off the ledge wouldn’t be the same without the interspersed references to hamster shows.
Speaking as a lurker I’d prefer open threads. Separate forums siphon off some of the conversational energy, in my experience.
Open threads allow for derailing and wandering and general tomfoolery without requiring readers to navigate away from the blog to Yet Another Place online. Forums feel more ‘clubhouse’ to me than blog posts, more like I have to know someone or be known already.
I vote for Fourms/chatroom. The former can be used for conversations where more structured conversation would help (like, for example, alerts on news and other stuff, not just what MRAs bitch about, since David handles that just fine with this blog.)
The latter can be used for more conversational fun, plus it would probably be fun to see an MRA pop in there once in a while.
Hmm. More support for forums than I expected.
I’m actually sort of leaning towards forums now myself. But I also see the appeal of open threads.
So I’m thinking maybe we should do a combination, with open/social threads on weekends for the sorts of conversations that were going on here friday and saturday night.
Here’s what I see as some of the pros and cons:
Forums, pro:
Gives readers the chance to start their own topics, and deal with stuff I haven’t written about. For example, I haven’t written about slutwalks and the MRA response to them (yet). Also allows talk on related subjects that don’t quite fit into the purview of the blog.
Allows people to talk about what they want without worrying about derailing topics.
Offers the opportunity for off-topic talk
Cons:
Could drain energy from the blog discussion
Will our MRA pals come along for the ride? (I want them to.)
A hassle — another site, registering for it.
Open threads:
Pros: Good for the sort of free-for all conversations we’ve been having here in recent days.
Easy to set up, requires no extra registration for users.
Cons: Might lack focus.
When would I have them? On weekends? When else?
IRC/Chatroom:
Leaning against this. I think it sort of complicates things, and I like the sort of thing we had going this weekend, a mix of short comments and longer ones. And people can go back and read them later, or go away for a couple of hours and catch up with an ongoing conversation (which is what I was doing last night); don’t have to be there right when it’s happening.
Right now I’m fiddling with a forum on proboards. Very simple, straightforward, lots of useful features for commenters and admins. It’s almost all set, could go live any minute.
But I’d like to hear from anyone who has had experience with different free forums to let me know if proboards is the best choice.
Thoughts on any of this?
Off topic: David, I’ve just noticed that your Pandagon account still links to the old blog.
My question would be do any of these alternatives have threaded discussions? I tend to hang out much more on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth and love the threaded discussions–I rarely participate in many discussions in blogs for just that reason.
If not, I’d vote for open threads.
My PERSONAL opinion would be to go w/ the lowest common denominator 🙂
unless ppl rly object to open threads, I think we should stick w/ the sort of loose community we have now in the blog comments where ppl can lurk or just stumble in cuz of the topic du jour or w/e 🙂
cuz I rly worry that splintering it up would make it seem like we’re not all commenters but some are “members” and inside jokes and stuff and then it would make the comment sections more inaccessible and might hurt your own readership as well as turn off some of the lurkers… and also it’d mean more places ppl might feel they have to go to check for updates : But that’s just what I’m worried about 🙂
I just feel the most inclusive way to go would be the one most ppl would be OKAY w/ doing so we dun turn off the more casual ppls 🙂 But I am a giant ball of pink marshmallow as ppl know xD (until I get spiky >_> )
I like the open threads idea better.
Given a choice between forums and open threads I’d really prefer forums. Not a fan of open threads, honestly.