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Ideas for community beta and why GD doesn't work

Dantilq·2/21/2014, 3:02:17 PM·9 votes·925 views

Why is community beta necessary, why not stick to GD and just improve it?

First of all, Riot is addressing a very common feedback "why is there no reds in my region?". They are about to make ONE forum for all. Imagine GD with 10-20-100 times the current population.

You know how your topics just disappear the front page as you post them, and the threads on front page are just lots of threads people bump over and over? Imagine how bad it will be then with MUCH MUCH higher population. GD would be impossible to follow, nothing constructive would be possible to do there at all.

People doesn't want to use other subforums, so all traffic goes to GD, it's a situation that will not last forever.

Hate have as big chance to get to the top, as constructive threads, positive or negative, red posts is hard to find, unless you use one of the red trackers. In other words current system WILL NOT WORK if you merge all as one, and that is a necessity. You can't have 10 red-dead forums and 1 alive, forcing people to get smurfs to communicate with the reds.

Whole of GD is focused around red posts, whole forum is formed around communications with Riot and community. Community itself also have discussions but red interaction is core of it all, and it's important people easily talk to Rioters, and that Rioters doesn't have to waste as much time.

From that perspective, GD is horrible, it is hard for Rioters to answer, hard to find red posts, and the good content disappear into the void unless you put in lots of efforts.

Community Beta tries to achieve this better, by having a popularity based system, this means you filter out the worst posts, but a legit concern is that unpopular opinions disappear too.

A problem with community beta is also LOTS AND LOTS of good posts never hit critical mass, and people will never see them. Even when Thoorin or Travis post one of their interviews on Reddit some of them never reaches out, because they can't pass the magical threshold, so people never notice it. It disappear into the void of thousand unnoticed posts.

Another problem is that red posts are in direct conflicts with community contents, red threads will get a HUGE boost in numbers, since people can find them through lots of sources (reds advertise on twitter, reddit, GD, and they always have their red tracker). The number of posts on front page is limited, and it will mainly be filled with Red posts.

Community is focused around red posts, so what I would suggest is the following;

Have a popularity system, and popular posts rises to the top. The twist is though, once a red posts in the thread, it is moved off the popularity system and doesn't show up there. It is instead moved to a red tracker, where threads replied to by reds are put, and it's GD system based on reds there with most recent red activity on top.

Red Tracker alone will generate traffic alone just by that, so it doesn't need the popularity system. This system makes it easy for reds and community to find other red posts, and also for reds to find popular up and coming threads to respond to.

26 Comments

HalcyonicHS2/21/2014, 8:41:51 PM4 votes

The idea of segregating red posts seems fine, but it still doesn't ansewr the problem of how everything flows to GD. It's not hard to imagine that one section of the forum will become wildly popular than the others, being a second GD- just look at how crowded GD is, despite the (rather unpopular) attempts of segregating and force-moving threads to other subforums in the recent months.

Popularity is fine in concept, but once we come to a certain scale, I fear that it will be so swamped and that threads/posts that deserve attention will never recieve them. I don't really see community beta working out until it solves this issue, or at least segregating forums by region, as per currently.

Hellioning2/21/2014, 7:25:49 PM3 votes

I'm fine with removing posts with red's in the from the normal rotation and putting them into a separate location. I'm not sure, but it's not like it's going to bother me.

I still hate the idea of a popularity system deciding which threads I can see, though.

Newbert Newman2/21/2014, 4:54:44 PM1 votes

Not a bad idea! Upvoted.

However, you did say "First of all" twice in a row at the top of your thread. Now I'm confused, which one do I read first and which one is "first of all"? :( :( the struggle is real!!!!

Sir ArmaMalum2/21/2014, 5:39:31 PM1 votes

Te current Red tracker does this a point, showing the most recent red comment itself (albeit without context). You're idea to simply 'move' Red visited posts is an interesting angle that I find myself liking, especially since this "Red front page" ordering won't develop too quickly as it will be limited by the small number of Reds and their conversations. One problem though is when an individual but active Rioter like Ironstylus or Pendragon goes around on a normal "forum patrol" and replies to a bunch of different "virgin" posts in a burst, this has the possibility of flooding this front page and producing the exact same problem. This is a small possibility sure, but as you said, when the higher amount of traffic comes, this will continue to have a higher and higher chance of happening.

I love the idea! I just try to always think of problems ideas can run into in an attempt to improve them. Devil's advocate ftw :)

Pryotra2/22/2014, 3:56:07 PM1 votes

Sry, but I feel this is a poor idea.

Firstly, I don't feel the community revolves around redposts; If that was true, then the forums would have died back around the ambassador catastrophe. I feel that the community itself can carry its own weight when it comes to content.

Secondly, a popularity system in place wouldn't help these threads hit critical mass in any way. Even taking threads where reds have already posted out of the equation makes it no less difficult to get the traction required to get off the ground.

Alot of redposts that happen in "fun" threads really shouldn't force the thread to be available ONLY through redtracker. That would unnecessarily kill alot of controversial and fun threads for little to no gain. Not to mention a red could EASILY kill a thread by posting a funny post in a serious thread, then never have to look at it again. Anyone remember the Pendragon Dog incident? Would have gotten away with it in a system like the one you propose. It never had the chance to fly thanks to GD going full ham with rage.

I feel that there are much better ways than this. While your idea is definitely new and interesting, that doesn't make it a good one. A for effort and thoughtfulness, but F for functionality and simply thinking it through.