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Requesting Megathreads?

Decrit·7/24/2015, 1:28:09 PM·4 votes·1,102 views

So, with the latest increase on posts about HUD and fiora design it became really really hard to value other posts of intrest, like the bilgewater event. Not that i have anything against those who complain about these changes, they have the right to voice theyr opinion ( even if sometimes they are just incivile ), but that can asphyxiate other discussions.

So: what about the introduction of megathreads? I' ve seen this practice working on some forums and looks like it can work well here too, if i am not too much naive.

A megathread is a thread opened by a moderator that deletes a group of threads that talk about the same thing and pust them all together in the same thread, so instead of having a lot of different ones you have a centralized one. This works rather well with the boards view, since every moved thread stays indipendent and with his own branching and replies; it has the added plus to veicolate better messages to the Rioters in charge, that then can write a single reply to answer all the moved threads. Probably this will require some adeguate tech tought, and megathred might need more memory location, but what do you think about it? or i missed some cultural/netiquette fundamental stuff?

4 Comments

Blue Socialist7/25/2015, 12:09:53 AM2 votes

It really would be useful.

BrooklynGear7/30/2015, 6:30:42 PM1 votes

Idk I like the way the boards are simple and anyone can navigate it, and this might change that

Daen7/31/2015, 11:06:38 PM1 votes

There are a few issues with megathreads, I'll outline them below:

  • With the current format of the Boards platform, it can be extremely difficult to follow long conversations (anything past 100 comments).
  • I don't have statistics on this, but I would be willing to bet that the average user will only read x number of comments/lines into a thread before feeling he/she has a general understanding and doesn't continue.
  • Megathreads end up being extremely general since they encompass all possible variants of a particular topic.
  • Deleting an entire group of threads in favor of a megathread can feel very oppressive to the creators and participants in/of those threads.
  • It can be empowering to create your own thread on an issue, with your own ideas and your own specific focus. This is completely lost in a megathread.

There's probably more, but those are the basics. I think the general theory of megathreads is good, but we just straight up do not have the tools we need to make them viable. A megathread on something like the HUD might have six thousand replies within the first two days, and it becomes impossible to join that kind of conversation or say anything that hasn't already been reiterated hundreds of times.