Shelf Rot Gaming VGF discussion

I think it makes sense but it might be better overall if some of the stickies were removed, first. Of course this is only my opinion.

I honestly believe that stickies aren't really all that necessary. Or at the very least, there shouldn't be too many of them. Otherwise, they can obviously start forcing any recent popular discussions down, when those should actually be at the top, where they can ge seen and responded to. IMO, a forum's first prioriry should be discussions, and recent posts are what fuel those discussions. As long as there aren't too many stickies, recent posts automatically end up near the top, where they belong,

So part of the problem with categorizing (sub-forums), similar to too many stickies being at the top, is that again, it may keep any recent discussions in that particular category from reaching the top of the forum list, where they can be easily seen.

Justified & Ancient wrote: "Does it make sense to have a Games sub-forum, so people can easily find threads dedicated to a specific game, such as (currently) "Days Gone", "A Plague Tale", and perhaps even "Borderlands 3"?"

You make a good point and I'll think it over this week. I may be a bit busy this week, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm not ignoring your suggestion.

A few initial thoughts... Most people tend to talk about games that have currently been released. If it's being talked about, it'll stay towards the top. However, I don't usually buy games when they first come out, so I'll often bookmark discussions for games that I know I'll eventually want to read through. That way, I won't have anything spoiled for me while I wait to play the game, and at the same time, can reference a past discussion when I finally get around to playing it.

After more thought, I've come up with a question and a few comments. These are for anyone to answer/address.


As far as the stickies, which one(s) would you consider unnecessary and like to see downgraded to normal form?

As far as sub-forums, I'm not sure that I'd like to go there at the moment, since we just had most of the other sub-forums removed. They may become more necessary in the future, but for now, I think it'd be best to just let the topics with the most recent comments rise to or remain at the top (under the stickies). Another reason that I feel this way is because it seems to work well for the UK forum. It seems like the less clutter the better.

At any point, if there's a topic that you would like to revisit or bring back into focus, feel free to "bump" it up the list. I wouldn't encourage that in a larger forum, where people would likely abuse the feature just to annoy others, but I feel like our current members are respectable enough to only use it when they genuinely want to ask a new question or make a new comment.

On the old VGF, I kept a few threads bookmarked because they would often get pushed way down the list between the times I'd have questions/comments. I didn't want them to remain at the top if I didn't currently have anything to say, but I also didn't want to go searching for them every time I had a new question.

Justified & Ancient wrote: "This might be a dumb idea, but here goes:

How about a single sticky thread labeled something like "Group Bookmarks", with simply links to the current 5 stickies (or more or less, at moderators' di..."

Thanks for the suggestion. I will think about it and discuss it with the other mods. I'll try to at least get you an answer or collective response by the end of the weekend.

Anyone else on here have any feelings on this suggestion or suggestions of your own? As always, all ideas are welcome.

What either one of you said sounds good to me, but I think the less stickies, the better. And with as little activity as we have in here lately, most discussions could probably take place within a couple of broad topic 'generic' threads, anyway.

As long as there aren't too many new threads being created, the ones that are important to some should remain near the top. If not, then maybe just bump that thread once in awhile?

Edit for my post above:

Instead of end of the weekend, I should have said end of the week. I've had little time to do much on here lately and I apologize.

So I actually just saw this thread

I also think there should be fewer pinned threads, as there are five here and only like two have any regular activity. My thought is maybe two or at the most three pinned topics, the monthly gaming and maybe the 12 in 12 one.

The OT topic might be better organized as a sub-forum item, I know I was the one saying we should have fewer sub's but if it needs to be on top of somewhere that might be the best place, otherwise it could just pop to the top when someone comments.

Just my two cents, I'm not unhappy with the way it is right now, but I think it might be slightly tweaked for better readability.

HeavyReign wrote: "So I actually just saw this thread

I also think there should be fewer pinned threads, as there are five here and only like two have any regular activity. My thought is maybe two or at the most th..."

I'm currently just waiting to hear back from Hugh. I'm not sure what will change, if anything, but I've relayed the message.

Hi all,

Updated it to make it look less cluttered due to over 2 pinned threads.

I think the monthly threads Mid has been making is solid & should be pinned. As for all the others, with the suggestion of J&A, I made a single pinned thread that contains the other threads that use to be pinned.

If someone has other suggestions, feel free to throw them out there.