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Gothic Idea for new page on the site/forum -- random thread page

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mouser:
Gothic (aka John, the DC server admin) had a fun idea the other day, that we should have a page that showed a few random general-interest thread on the forum at a time.

The idea would be that it could alleviate boredom but also be used to revive some attention to older posts that don't otherwise ever get seen.
I think it's a fun idea and will implement it -- but before I do I thought maybe I should ask if anyone has any ideas or suggestions for how it should function and what it should show and in what format, etc.

Thoughts?

VictorM:
very interesting you'd be going down that route - most forums are worried about bringing old threads from the grave. I for one would like to see it - really old threads should be closed, anyway.

JavaJones:
I never understood the desire to avoid old threads, much less close them. If an older thread has relevant discussion for a current topic, it should be added to. Nothing worse than duplicating old discussion, or the pointless kludge of "see previous topic here".

Anyway, sounds like a cool idea. I think just random threads, inclusive of anything not locked, and displayed in a "latest threads" style I suppose. Nothing too complex.

- Oshyan

Gothi[c]:
The reason why I came up with it, is that we have quite a few threads on dc that aren't very popular due to their very special area of obscure geeky interest, which get buried in time.

The fact that the forum pushes older posts with less replies down into oblivion by default makes the entire thing feel kind of like digg ( which isn't a good thing :) ).

really old threads should be closed, anyway.

--- End quote ---

Only if they have become irrelevant or deprecated. If it's just information or a topic that nobody at the time had interest in or knowledge about, it's perfectly fine for it to be revived later on if someone does come along with that interest.

Imagine if scientific researchers could only work on an idea until it gets pushed down because of newer more popular posts, then having to constantly re-start their project. Nothing much would get done. That's how I feel forums work sometimes, the same stuff keeps popping up now and then, and gets discussed without depth, or mediocre-depth until it is forgotten. Except for the very popular topics (our huge note-taking thread comes to mind...)

Sure, you can search for things using the forum search, but that wouldn't help you find discussions you wouldn't think to search for.

sgtevmckay:
Greetings Gothic & Mouser

Something we are looking at coding for the Rainmeter forum is a simple Random type button to add to the menu bar.
This would target certain forum threads (ie. Tips and trick) then return a random posting.

This will keep certain ideas fresh and/or updated.

We have also considered targeting the recorded dates from the DB, anything older than 4 months may also be part of the Random function.
Of course for us...4 months is a long time and we are still relatively new to the Game.

I am thinking this is a great idea, especially here, as DC has been around for a long time, and there are literally thousands of posts.
We are unsure about doing this for ourselves at this point, as we are fishing our threads and deleting irrelevant information at this time.

But here it may even produce just a trip down memory lane.

It is part of the thinking: Bored??? Press here!

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