...general news is not what, I personally feel, myGaming needs to be involved in. If people feel like punishing themselves with discussions about recent events, they can go to myBroadband.
This discussion is becoming rather circular. A few extra topics in the Off Topic section is hardly breaking the usability model of MyGaming. As mentioned, we are testing this out to see if it helps bolster traffic and discussions, and perhaps encourages people to post their own discussion topics.
I'm genuinely surprised to see how negatively people are reacting to this. I'm not seeing many logical arguments that apply broadly; the main complaint is along the lines of "I personally don't want to see this topic here because I usually see it on a different website". For every person that doesn't like the topic, there appears to be one that does, and engages with it.
We foster a civilised community on MyGaming, and I would assume people can therefore discuss local current affairs topics in such a manner. It doesn't have to emulate the brutal style of MyBroadband or News24 discussions - if it did, a moderator would step in to keep things civil, or simply lock down the discussion.
The suggestion also seems to be that because a few of the regulars aren't happy with the addition, the content shouldn't be posted for anyone's benefit.
If another member was posting such topics it would be well within their right to do so; in fact I'd encourage it. A forum thrives because the community is active. I'm encouraging activity. If this testing period turns out to be a bad idea for some reason, we'll stop it. If it turns out to be wildly popular, we'll create a new section.
If people don't like the topics, they don't have to reply to them. Lack of replies is a pretty good indicator that a topic is bad. That topic will also fall off the leading discussion in the section pretty quickly as well, and the problem resolves itself.
I personally think there must be more posts and updates from MyGaming itself: I frequently visit the site but when I see nothing changed on the front page I close and go somewhere else....
We typically update with 10 articles a day. Sometimes more, depending on how much news breaks in the gaming world. There are always 4 headline stories per day, including unique local content. *melodramatic falling to knees, shaking fists at the sky* WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?
Is it possible to have an instant messenger chatbox of sorts on the homepage of the forum where people can just stop and say hi, maybe have a quick chat? A host of other sites have this feature and it is way more interactive than traditional static threads. I prefer it over an archaic Threadkiller thread...
There are a few reasons why we wouldn't do this. Most significantly, because it would require a 3rd-party plugin, and those tend to break stuff when there is a core forum software update. Secondly, and also import, a shoutbox doesn't leave us with any lively discussion threads. It's actually a detriment to a lively forum.
