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Poll - BIG GNex Pre-Release Thread - OT posting options.

How to handle OT posts in GNex Pre-release thread.

  • Option 1

    Votes: 119 39.1%
  • Option 2

    Votes: 61 20.1%
  • Option 3

    Votes: 83 27.3%
  • Option 4

    Votes: 11 3.6%
  • Option 5

    Votes: 26 8.6%
  • Other, explain

    Votes: 4 1.3%

  • Total voters
    304
Status
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Phases

NO LONGER ADMIN
Sep 9, 2008
9,068
20,634
Nashville, TN
Ok guys,

Let's put this to vote - though I hope the thread closes (due to release!) before the voting is done. ;) But, since we don't really KNOW the date it will launch on VZW, may as well go for it.

Please know this is the only open thread on the forum right now that has this in place. Please bear with us while we try to find the sweet spot so that we can run these threads better in the future.

PLEASE DO NOT POST A REPLY UNLESS YOUR IDEA IS DIFFERENT THAN ONE OF THE OPTIONS. If you like a posted idea, thank it.

Option 1: Allow off topic posts - as it was for the first 50k posts. Assume all good on topic info is found in the original post and by scanning for large numbers of thanks.

Option 2: Allow OT posts but require it to begin with a bold warning:

OFF TOPIC: I like cake.

Option 3: Hide very OT posts (football, brewing your own beer), but allow OT posts that still relate to phones, carriers, etc.

Option 4: Hide all OT posts.

Option 5: Disallow OT posts completely.

Other: Please explain.
 
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The problem with hiding the OT topics is then if you want to be reading the OT banter it takes 2x as long and you don't know what you are missing if you don't unhide it.

If we just have people mark things as "OFF-TOPIC" that would be great, and then if they "/hide" excessively long posts / pictures / etc it will make scrolling through the thread much easier. That's my take, at least.
 
Upvote 0
Other:
Move OT discussion to IRC. IMO, the thread is for discussion about the phone, whereas in IRC it's a less "structured" and more conversational communication device, thus OT stuff works well there.

Yeah, but there's a distinct difference between a forum (where anyone can read a post any time later) and a chat channel (where you HAVE to be there at that time to see the message).

I voted for option 2 myself. I agree with Reborn58 - just make sure OT posts are marked as such, and save "hide/show" for OT pictures that would take up thread space. That keeps it fairly easy to skim through the thread without having to actually read every post.
 
Upvote 0
I don't know if it's possible since I'm no programmer, but what about a "show all" button? So you could "hide" the off-topic stuff, but those who want to participate in that would only have to click once per page instead of dozens, and those who don't could still easily ignore it and discuss the phone.

Personally, when I'm "catching up" on the thread I just scan it for posts with a high # of thanks, and don't pay attention to the rest. With it (hopefully) being released in less than a week though, it's probably a moot point and wouldn't make sense to implement now. It could be an option for the next big phone though.

As it stands, I'd probably vote option 2.
 
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Other:
Move OT discussion to IRC. IMO, the thread is for discussion about the phone, whereas in IRC it's a less "structured" and more conversational communication device, thus OT stuff works well there.
Not everyone can be in IRC long enough to get involved in the discussion on there. I know I can hop on the board for a few minutes here or there during break and have some fun talking about the Nexus and/or other things going on in the thread.
 
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i voted for option 2, but i would like to add, that I hope that all off topic content is handled equally in a content-neutral way. for example, posts about football are just as off topic as posts about milestones in the thread. actually I couldn't care about football, but posts regarding thread milestones are actually on-topic to the thread, if not to the subject of the thread. same goes for jokes.
 
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OTHER:

I really don't care. As long as it is enforced consistently, the thread should be what the mods decide it should be. AF knows what its intent is, they should enforce that intent and should do so consistently. Milestone posts ARE NOT on-topic, jokes are not on-topic, comments on other phones are not on-topic. On-topic means news and information about the Gnex and credible release date info. Not "My mother's butcher's mailman says...." So either the post should be governed to on-topic information, or it should be "anything goes." Anything in between is personal preference and discretion that leads to people feeling victimized because their "OT" info was screened but someone else's wasn't.
 
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Upvote 0
Definitely 3; there is a lot of related material which might be off topic but still related or tangent to the core topic; however it is quite impossible to read a 1200 page thread which is littered with completely unrelated information. Mind you for a short thread I think a bit of OT is fine but at this point it as run amock :(
 
Upvote 0
Quite simply, the GNEX pre-release thread has been allowed to become a chat room. At "other" forums where pre-release threads exist, no off-topic discussion is allowed at all so that anyone that wants to view information can easily find it.

In my opinion, there has been alot of information posted throughout that thread that has not been put into the OP. And that's not Steven's fault, it would just make the OP too large.

All of the pre-release videos, review videos, screen shots, etc., are all almost impossible to find in a thread of almost 60-thousand posts, most of which are off topic, and many more of which are just spam-posts to get that thread to be so large in the first place to make it the largest thread on AF.

A pre-release thread should be about pre-release information only, including pre-release reviews, unboxings, videos, etc. Not off-topic (or even on-topic) casual chatting whether it's about the phone or not.

Now, having said that, there should be an area where people of like minds can still chat about the device without cluttering up a pre-release information thread. Like maybe make a separate IRC channel for the phone itself, or have a separate thread for on-topic and off-topic chatting.

To sum things up:

* A pre-release thread should be about pre-release information only with no off-topic discussions or casual chatting.

* Another thread, IRC channel or venue should be put in place where everyone can get together and casually chat on-topic and off-topic without cluttering up an information-only thread.


Those are my ideas and opinions, most of which are implemented at other major forums and work very well.
 
Upvote 0
I'm a 90% lurker, mostly because I have a family with young children and a demanding job. I really don't care about off-topic posts. However, I was involved a lot more in the Incredible pre-release thread and I appreciate the sense of community that it inspired. Even though I can't participate like that in this thread, I don't want those who can to lose that. That all being said, the off-topic banter is a real problem with the mobile app. At least on the forum you can scan relatively quickly and catch the posts with a significant number of "thanks". But two things about the mobile app make this difficult: only 20 posts per page and "thanks" being a number in the upper right of the post. I understand the minimalistic approach to the app, but it really makes scanning time consuming. I realize changing the app is probably not going to happen, and implementing filter features like "number of thanks" probably won't either. So Option 3 is what I chose. I don't want a strict ban on off-topic banter, but scanning hundreds of posts at a time because 70% of the conversations are off-topic is a bit annoying. If we could strike a better balance in here, it would be great. My apologies to the folks who hate clicking on the "show" tag, but now you feel our pain in a relatively similar fashion.
 
Upvote 0
First off, I appreciate that admin is consulting with the community on this topic. Although I like the theory behind the hide button, I think it may be difficult to enforce. As new users enter these sorts of threads, it seems the majority don't read the OP because they can tell what the topic is by simply reading the thread title and noticing the hundreds/thousands of pages of content. Even if they did read the OP, there's the issue of mod discretion. I think it just places more responsibility on their shoulders to edit posts because if they don't, it becomes like an evolving learning curve to all users...if "X" was allowed a few pages back, then surely "Y" will be ok now. So I think consistency is the key and the way to be the most consistent is to allow anything that resides within the overall forum rules.

If we end up going the "hide" route, it would be great if we could get a designated "off topic" button instead of just using the hide one. Not sure of the possibility of making this happen but it may be used elsewhere in the forums also which could make the entire board more tidy.
 
Upvote 0
First off, I appreciate that admin is consulting with the community on this topic. Although I like the theory behind the hide button, I think it may be difficult to enforce. As new users enter these sorts of threads, it seems the majority don't read the OP because they can tell what the topic is by simply reading the thread title and noticing the hundreds/thousands of pages of content. Even if they did read the OP, there's the issue of mod discretion. I think it just places more responsibility on their shoulders to edit posts because if they don't, it becomes like an evolving learning curve to all users...if "X" was allowed a few pages back, then surely "Y" will be ok now. So I think consistency is the key and the way to be the most consistent is to allow anything that resides within the overall forum rules.

If we end up going the "hide" route, it would be great if we could get a designated "off topic" button instead of just using the hide one. Not sure of the possibility of making this happen but it may be used elsewhere in the forums also which could make the entire board more tidy.

that's a darn good post and i agree wholeheartedly.
 
Upvote 0
The problem with hiding the OT topics is then if you want to be reading the OT banter it takes 2x as long and you don't know what you are missing if you don't unhide it.

If we just have people mark things as "OFF-TOPIC" that would be great, and then if they "/hide" excessively long posts / pictures / etc it will make scrolling through the thread much easier. That's my take, at least.


I agree with this. off topic stuff is what makes this community feeling here. If there are long rants/posts or lots of pictures, hide tags are perfect. This would help regulars and admins get through posts quicker.

If you could also somehow add a "Thread Tool" filter for filter to posts with X number of thanks, that would help skimmers find important posts.
 
Upvote 0
I don't think searching for posts with most thanks is a good solution since this thread has several posts with thanks that have nothing to do with details of phone.

I don't see why the original poster can't dicate the rules for his/her thread. If Steven is OK with OT conversation in a thread he started than so be it. If someone else wants a thread with purely details, start another thread. My guess is that each person will flock to the thread he/she prefers. Feel free to cross-post/cross-link where necessary.

Personally, I would think a mod should be able to "highlight" the posts that are relevant and then have them reposted elsewhere for a "reader's digest" version of the main thread.
 
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I don't think searching for posts with most thanks is a good solution since this thread has several posts with thanks that have nothing to do with details of phone.

I don't see why the original poster can't dicate the rules for his/her thread. If Steven is OK with OT conversation in a thread he started than so be it. If someone else wants a thread with purely details, start another thread. My guess is that each person will flock to the thread he/she prefers. Feel free to cross-post/cross-link where necessary.

Personally, I would think a mod should be able to "highlight" the posts that are relevant and then have them reposted elsewhere for a "reader's digest" version of the main thread.

I tried to curate posts that are rumors or speculation from the main thread.
http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus/455326-pre-release-relevant-info-thread.html
 
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Just FYI, Phases. The people that are most likely to visit this thread and vote are people who spend a lot of time on AF posting off-topic posts. Thus, the poll is going to be heavily skewed.

I, for one, found it almost impossible to find any decent information regarding the Galaxy Nexus release date on AF. Honestly, using Google search was much easier. Let's not forget all the traffic and bandwidth all these off-topic posts require (I'm assuming someone is paying for it).

Anyways, to sum it up: Allowing OT posts is good for all the AF addicts who like to post OT stuff; OT posts ruin the thread for people who don't have alot of time on their hands, like me.
 
Upvote 0
Run two pre-release threads, one strictly to release information, and another allowing OT posts.

Conversation that results from the topic, but it's not exactly about the topic is fun, so a thread where all is fair would be great.

For pre-release specific info, there should be a thread that only allows relevant info (be it rumors, specs, etc).

That's kind of what is happening right now with the official thread by the steven58 and the thread by woodraskam. :)
 
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I agree that the majority of people voting are the ones here everday posting off topic.

I think there should be two threads. There was a point the thread had 3 straight pages of star wars.. ridiculous....

But don't take my opinion for anything. As soon as it releases I will probably jump ship to RW or XDA where its more developer oriented and a lot less off topic threads.

The whole milestone posts and 100 thanks for hitting post 1,000 is silly. You can tell on other forums easily who has a history of posting good thing by their thanks or rep meter.. some devs dont have that many thanks as a new guy here with 100 post to put in some sort of perspective..
 
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I agree that the majority of people voting are the ones here everday posting off topic.

I think there should be two threads. There was a point the thread had 3 straight pages of star wars.. ridiculous....

But don't take my opinion for anything. As soon as it releases I will probably jump ship to RW or XDA where its more developer oriented and a lot less off topic threads.

The whole milestone posts and 100 thanks for hitting post 1,000 is silly. You can tell on other forums easily who has a history of posting good thing by their thanks or rep meter.. some devs dont have that many thanks as a new guy here with 100 post to put in some sort of perspective..

I respect your point of view and also say to each their own. AF has a community feel that I haven't found elsewhere...and to me that's why I'm here. It's really a matter of what the site owners are aiming for.
 
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Upvote 0
Alright. Most the poll heads toward "allow OT in some way or another". Most are for allowing it completely, followed by hiding way OT stuff but allowing partially on topic, and that is followed by allowing it with just an OT disclaimer.

On the other hand, as pointed it this poll is probably most likely to be visited by registered users that are hanging around to chat.

With all that mind (and seeings how launch day is supposed to be this week anyway) let's split the difference and for the remainder of the thread let's simply make a best effort to:

* Mark OT content however you best see fit - at the end of your post. That is, if you have on AND off topic to discuss, discuss the on topic first then either go with the bold OFF TOPIC: disclaimer or hide tags.

Obviously if it is way off topic, football and Star Wars, your best effort needs to be to mark it one way or the other. ;) If it is something like, say - talking about verizon's voice plan - do whatever you think is best, no worries either way.

At any rate I thank everyone for their input and understanding considering the spot we are in. We're doing our best to mold these types of threads to what is best for the community and will use this feedback going forward.
 
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