everytime there is a big Prince event where there are lots of posts the mods are told to make everybody post on one big thread which in my opinion is crazy..first of all you still have many people using dialup yet and it takes forever for those people to read those big threads and then if there is pictures on the thread forget it many people won't even bother to look at it..i have broadband and its a chore...second there are so many different topics to discuss that things simply get lost..for example a user posted about Howard Stern commenting on Black Sweat and the thread was locked and he was told that it belonged on the one giant Black Sweat thread..well if somebody wanted to see that message do you know how long they have to look for that message? i dont understand why multiple messages are such a problem...if a person doesnt want to see a certain topic they dont have to! but this way you are forcing them to look at all the topics if they want to or not

one big topic may work fine on boards where the message board software is more current but the org software is very much outdated and makes it much harder to view longer threads

I agree.

And Poor Banana for sure became crazy locking them all.

i totally agree ..... there can be different topics ... or lil conversations goin on better .... PLUS .... the big thread thingy just provokes ME to not even open it ... cus it takes too long ....

I agree. It takes forever to open them and they don't allow any side discussions.

Things are kinda chaotic right now. Actually, I thought the Madonna Confessions On A Dancefloor threads went well with this method, after the thread got a bit long, a new one was created and the old one retired.

When you leave all the threads open, it's kind of frustrating as well because you don't know which one is worth posting on, and you have to jump between 10 or so different threads to see what everyone is saying about the song.

Tom said:

it worked okay, but once a new thread got started, you couldn't really carry on any of the discussion from the previous thread.




isn't that part of the fun, though, about a new event? info/rumors/reviews coming fast and furious.... that stuff gets me kind of excited.

TheAstonishing said:

Couldn't we have a balance? Keep the sticky thread and redirect "general discussion" of the song to that thread. But a thread specifically about something like the Howard Stern thing should be allowed to stand alone, IMO. Or a well-thought-out post about a certain aspect, question, thought, comparison, etc. of the song that could be its own discussion.

I know the mod job is not at all easy, and the pay is nonexistent. I know it would be more work to sift through a million threads and decide which ones can stand alone and which ones can be absorbed, and you'd have to deal with defending your decisions. But it would be nice if it could be spread out just a bit more.

What's crazy is when there are twenty different threads being discussed about a new album or single!

We have to moderate what's there, and creating an "official" thread on a same-topic multi-opinion type thread makes the most sense to us.

I understand there are several different conversations regarding a same topic, and if that's been made clear in the headline, then it's usually allowed to stay (in my experience). However, if every thread is titled "3121 Released" (or something to that effect), then it's going to be locked and directed to the "official" thread.

Work with us, we'll work with you... and we'll try to please all we can.

June7 said:

Makes sense.

Thanks, June7.

FunkMistress said:

Good points, and I honestly think that this time we've actually got the balance as right as we possibly can. Contrary to what you may have heard, a lot of time, effort and thought goes into making the information as readily available and easily accessible as possible, as we get it. (I did a mammoth 11-hour stretch yesterday, modding pretty much solo - and it all seemed to kick off! By the end of the day I think I had Black Sweat fever)

We DO take notice of what you guys say, and there was a fair amount of discussion behind the scenes regarding this very topic. We took it onboard and decided this time instead of creating one giant sticky, that we would break them down into easily digestable bite-size chunks, by creating a number of them instead. This way they would cover different facets/topics of discussion, whilst at the same time helping to keep the thread lengths down.

We also realise that there will always be a proportion of orgers with slower, dial-up connections, and as such this is where the gallery can really come into its own with the thumbnail pop-ups, and yet another reason why we've not only broken the topic discussions down, but will also create fresher threads as and when needed.

Topics can be continued by copying and pasting another orgers quote within the html quote tag: [/quote] prefixed by the orgers profile name.

We have to work within the site/mod guidelines as well as the tools at our disposal, and until such a time as we see 'Prince.org 3.0' for now, it will have to be good enough. Stickies are nothing new, it's been the same procedure any time there's been some major development or 'happening' in the purple camp. Some people should note that moaning about it in the wrong forum (however sly) isn't big, or clever, and will get you nowhere fast. But a calm, and constructive thread in the correct forum however will get you noticed, your points addressed and the ball moving.

The main thing is we've listened, we've taken it on board, and tried to meet you all half-way. Now you guys just need to do the same.

So go enjoy all this cool stuff before it passes you by...

Dansa said

plus it's easier for the mods to deal with it in a central location instead of lilypad-hopping from thread to thread to thread to thread to take care of stuff, like the mods have been doing for the past 24 hours now.

Yea the past 24 crazy freaking hours.

making one big thread may be insane, but not reading through the forum and checking for similar threads before you post yours is absolutely batshit. there is absolutely no excuse for starting up a thread about something that's already on the board--variances of the topic included. funneling all these "bs" threads into one single location, on a sticky, is a great help. it keeps the forum neat & tidy, plus it's easier for the mods to deal with it in a central location instead of lilypad-hopping from thread to thread to thread to thread to take care of stuff, like the mods have been doing for the past 24 hours now.

you like/loathe the song and you wanna speak on it--great! now just take the time to find the thread that's either being: a) responded to the most, or b) responding on the sticky (if a mod makes one). don't make another thread if one exists, and furthermore, don't make one in order to simply spite the mods and make their work harder for 'em and/or piss 'em off. in the end, it's not a big deal.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Oh man, you're killin' me here!

BananaCologne said:

but it's the truth--how can one central thread about a topic be crazier than making several others with the same thing?

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

then just dont read it if your not interested in a topic thats all ..it's obvious most of you have never ran a message board before and it shows,,but ya know what? you guys run the show and of course you are all right and the 90% of the users that complain about this are all wrong..case closed i guess

Mazerati said:

the content of the thread isn't exactly the point here--if there's already ONE thread about something that's up, then it is pointless to start up a separate thread about the exact same thing. that's what this particular discussion's about.

So, twice or thrice upon a time, I've offered the suggestion that the site create a seperate forum to deal with "Hot Topics" or "The Latest Fashion". A Forum whose sole purpose to exist would be to offer one spot where people can start threads on exciting Prince events, while keeping them from overcrowding the forums they would normally appear in.

Each time I've been told something like "thank you but no," and "we really don't want to segregate as it would be too hard to manage."

So lo and behold, I'm looking at the Prince: Music and More forum. The Mods are working their fingers to the BONE by monitoring, locking, redirecting, editing, and pushing EVERY post into 6 STICKY posts.

Six incredibly LONG ASS posts, with TONS of avatars, pics, unrelated discussion, etc., that take forever to load on my BROADBAND connection.

wth?

Really...wouldn't it have been just as easy for the Mods to have a forum andlet people create umpteen topics? You'd STILL be moderating as much as you have been (maybe LESS), but people would be able to navigate the site HELLA easier. Heck...it might even take a load off the server as well, since you'd be pulling different database entries instead of serving the same one to 500 people at the same time.

Ah well. I still appreciate everything you guys go through to keep this site up. Thank you for volunteering.

The SNL thread has 380 posts and now takes a week and a half to open. Silly. I like on message boards where there are tons of similar threads becasue it shows true excitement for something and the best threads always rise to the top anyway.

lovemachine said:

It's going to be changed and refreshed soon. The reasons for stickys are explained above in my post, and here: http://www.prince.org/msg/3/176411 and we all listened to what people had to say, but as previously mentioned too - can't please everyone all of the time - case in point being the post above you. We altered things around and broke the stickys down into more specific threads, and still someone gripes, but that's just the way things are.

I did 14+ hour 'shift' modding that forum yesterday, a 6+ hour one the day before, and an 11+ hour one on thursday. In fact, it's been so frikin' nutszoid that Luv4u and I have been doing 'hand overs' to each other in day and night shifts.

Sorry, but I had to get some sleep.

Dauphin said:

BananaCologne said:

FYI: (Thread loading times)

Guys, check out the following - this should help y'all out and make your Org experience a more enjoyable one.

GO TO MY ORG

CLICK FORUMS

TICK THE BOX you see outlined in red ('Full recap on reply') that you'll find the following window:



CLICK SAVE FORUM PREFERENCES

Now, when you enter any future thread that is getting too long to browse through you'll be able to read the thread back-to-front (ie last/most recent post first) IF you hit either of the 'Reply w/quote' or 'Add a reply to this topic' buttons.

Hope this helps.

Thanks ,my poor laptop can't handle those long threads.

Nikki23 said:

No problem, hopefully this way things will be easier for you guys, and as you read from the most recent posts downwards, the thread will load for you as you browse, as apposed to having to sit and wait for it to load before you can read anything - I do remember how frustrating that was.

Anyway, let us know how you get on with browsing the org this way.

This is a MUST. Thank you for pointing it out.

I could have sworn that I had that unchecked before. I wonder if there was a global reset. Oh wait...this is a cookie setting, eh? I clear out cookies and temp files with every close of my browser.


Also, I am not "displeased" with the way you guys have done it. I just feel as though I was told that seperating out discussion was undesired, and here I see that instead of it being seperated into another forum, it's just seperated into 6 indivisual posts.

It's a BIG improvement over the "well, we'll sticky the first topic that somebody posts about it."

But really...I think making the forum, then having a link to it as an announcement of sorts on the Front page or the Highlights page. I would bet that the reason why people are posting duplicate topics is because they really don't immediately go to the Prince: Music and More forum. They hit the main page news, and the Highlights (newest posts), open a topic, then create a new topic from there.

BananaCologne said:

By my calculations you're not due sleep until you've completed three more shifts.

Now get back to work!

fathermcmeekle said:

you should know this poor piece of fruit has been working his lill'ass off.



(don't you just love the three l's s's and f's in the last three words)

fathermcmeekle said:

BananaCologne said:

It makes a huge difference ,it's much easier to read the threads

I never post in site discussion, but I came in here to say I love the stickies for each song/video/performance/art etc. - and I like that there's a separate one for Black Sweat song, Black Sweat single art, Black Sweat video and Black Sweat 'logistics' - it makes the dicussions more focused and easier to follow.

I would love, when the album comes out, to have separate "official" stickies for each individual song, as well as one for the album art, one for promotions etc. - while also allowing some space for discussions that purposefully discuss more than one of those items.