Weekly / Weekend "Finds Threads" are changing.

[scorch56]

Makes a hell of a lot more sense than posting all "orphan" offers/requests in one thread. I mean seriously.. how many people scour that entire all-told ungodly amount of pages in that thread looking for a box or manual? It's become HUGE! It wouldn't be so bad if there was a way to search an individual thread for key words.. but there isn't. That thread is the LAST place I look for/offer orphans because I don't have 2 days to go through it.

I can see how many people consider "find" threads as bragging. Personally.. I have never looked inside one in the entire two years I've frequented here; nor have I posted a find in one (obviously). Living in a very small town with next to NO resources for finding old games (thrift, pawn or yard sales) next to 99.9% of my purchases are through eB or from DP members. I'm very envious (and a little bit pitiful) of those who live in large cities; and who can devote entire weekends to just going out and browsing for finds. I rarely ever find a bargain and when I see find/brag threads.. it just makes me jealous and a little bit resentful. So I avoid them like the plague.. lest I get myself "worked up" (which my doc says is bad for me.).

I just KNOW I'm gonna' catch hell for this as well.. but I'm gonna' say it. As for those who question the amount of authority handed to DP mods.. you might as well get used to it. Just like the "public scolding" idea from a year back when the mods wanted to display nyms of those who violated posting policy.. this idea originated from necessity and desperation. Of all the forums I've frequented in my 10+ years on the internet.. DP is the one that lets it's mods run things with a more "human" touch. I'm not sure if I agree with that sort of thing when it comes to moderators in a public forum; but the fact that most of these guys are doing this without any compensation suggests to me that they should have some "slack". I sure as hell wouldn't tackle such an undertaking.

I have seen "personal" feelings and subjective comments from mods in this forum more than any other, but that is understandable.. since the founder of this site very seldom takes an active role in running it anymore (let the flames begin).

If my being allowed to post a thread or not rests in the judgement of one single individual.. so be it. If I DON'T like it.. I can stop frequenting here. None of this surprises me in the least.

As for Jib getting down on others.. let it slide guys. He's actually DP's biggest fan-boy and "cop". Anytime somebody's there to make an errant post or say something that doesn't coincide with the consensus around here.. you'll find Jib. I think they ought to give him a job. He's ALWAYS got an opinion.

[GrandAmChandler]

Guys and Gals,

Basically what this boils down to is the big "C" word that a lot of people fear on this board. Change. This is for the better, I promise. It is less threads that clog up this VERY popular forum, and would allow more things to appear on the 1st page.

This will work. If everyone follows suit. I have this post so you know.


...And knowing is half the battle.

[anagrama]

I like it. This way I can just ignore one thread every month instead of two every week.

[undead455]

I'm all for it, and if you want to know the newest stuff from people it will be at the end of the post.

[dreams]

mh am i the only one in here who doesn't like this?? and i'm not even close to ever finding sth that would deserve it's own thread. if someone finds a sealed R10 colecovision hardware or sth like that, does he REALLY have to pm you first, wait 2 days for a reply and THEN post his find in a single thread long after his "wow, i JUST FOUND THIS" feeling has gone??!
and why does ONE moderator have the right to decide what's worth it's own thread or not??! what if someone you absolutely dislike finds a borderline item? i really don't think this is fair, and imho it's not the way a board should be moderated :/... but obviously i'm alone on this...

GAC is not working alone in this - this decision for this change was made by the admins and mods of this site.

Don't forget that there are FOUR mods for the VG forums here, not just GAC. We work together as a team and regularly bounce things off of each other. You can always feel free to PM any of us about a find you think might be worthy of its own thread or anything else about the VG forums.

Rest assured, when you PM a mod to see if your find might be worthy of its own thread and it's not a crystal clear decision, it will come to the group for "review." That's just the way we operate.

[Kid Ice]

If I find a CIB 2600 Air Raid I am starting my own thread with pics. Sorry.

That is just the point. What is an awesome find to you and I might be totally meaningless to someone else.

[Teknik_SE-R]

I like it. This way I can just ignore one thread every month instead of two every week.

exactly. I know it might be a little extensive, but is there any chance to combine past crap like this to cutdown on the crappy search returns?

[Jibbajaba]

As for Jib getting down on others.. let it slide guys. He's actually DP's biggest fan-boy and "cop". Anytime somebody's there to make an errant post or say something that doesn't coincide with the consensus around here.. you'll find Jib. I think they ought to give him a job. He's ALWAYS got an opinion.

I have a job here. Purveyor of fine knowledges since 2005. Click the banner in my sig.

Chris

[davepesc]

Not that I have a say, but I will not be digging through page after page of a monthly find thread.

I say to allow individual threads, that way I can read the topic title and know if there's anything I might be interested in.

[davepesc]

Don't forget that there are FOUR mods for the VG forums here, not just GAC. We work together as a team and regularly bounce things off of each other. You can always feel free to PM any of us about a find you think might be worthy of its own thread or anything else about the VG forums.

Rest assured, when you PM a mod to see if your find might be worthy of its own thread and it's not a crystal clear decision, it will come to the group for "review." That's just the way we operate.

Great, now it takes 4 people to decide if I can start a thread here...

Give someone a little power and it goes straight to the head

[Jibbajaba]

[Goblin]

Guys and Gals,

Basically what this boils down to is the big "C" word that a lot of people fear on this board. Change. This is for the better, I promise. It is less threads that clog up this VERY popular forum, and would allow more things to appear on the 1st page.

This will work. If everyone follows suit. I have this post so you know.


...And knowing is half the battle.

I'm not sure I agree that anyone fears change, I just think people need to be practical to human nature. Sadly there are way too many people on this board who already don't follow the rules or directions. I see way too many posts that are posted in the wrong forums, ocasionally they get locked or moved. More often, they just get ignored or tolerated. To me this seems like selective enforcement. I don't disagree with combining the threads in theory as I rarely look at them anyway. But I don't agree with asking for permission. I think if someone finds something truly worthy that they will be filled with excitement and emotion. They are not going to take the time to email or PM asking for permission. It might be good, but they just won't.

Last summer when I found an Intellivision Playcable unit (R10), one of the first things I did after getting it home and looking it up in the guide was post here about it. I'll tell you flat out I wouldn't have stopped to ask permission, even if it was the policy. If I found it today I would do the same thing. If it gets locked it gets locked. I really doubt it would, but maybe that is the direction the forums are heading. Personally I only post about a find when it is truly worthwhile, but I realize I might be an exception.

Regardless of the rule you will still get people posting about finding relatively common stuff. There is a degree of comon sense and judgement, which maybe some people will lack. Idiots will still post and share stupid things and the only people this hurts are those who generally follow the rules and those who like to hear about great finds but don't want to wade through 100 EB stories.

I'm in favor of a rule of thumb saying R8 and higher don't need permission, anything else ask a mod. Although it sounds like you have made your decsion so I'm anxious to see how it plays out.

[Teknik_SE-R]

Not that I have a say, but I will not be digging through page after page of a monthly find thread.

I say to allow individual threads, that way I can read the topic title and know if there's anything I might be interested in.

If you are into the weekly, daily, hourly, minute-by-minute find threads, I have an Idea:

subscribe to the monthly threads at the first of the month and turn on email notification. then you can keep up to date on the finds and not miss a beat.

[Teknik_SE-R]

maybe an automatic subscription can be put in place? I don't know jack about phpbb so don't flame me if this is a retarded suggestion

[DeputyMoniker]

I like this idea. Nice and clean. It sure is going to fill up though!

[orrimarrko]

Sorry, but this is retarded.

In effect, two things are happening here, both of which are discouraging.

First, I thought that this was a place that people could come to talk about video games, collecting, their finds, etc.

This type of "over-moderation" in my opinion is unnecessary. If you feel that (for server space, because that should be the only reason to do this in the first place) only one thread is necessary for the finds of the week, then a mod should start it every week - same bat-time, same bat-channel. Problem solved.

Secondly, now I realize that there are a lot of us old, hardened collectors that have pretty much seen everything or had everything at one point or another, so not much excites us anymore. It has to be truly noteworthy to be interesting.

However, please remember that part of the purpose of this site is to get people interested in video games, whether that means collecting or discussing. To say that someone's finds are meaningless or unimportant; not worthy of posting, is just plain wrong.

Part of the joy of (or at least it used to be) this site was that we all had one thing in common, and could discuss our finds, should they be important enought to us to post.

This thread clearly attempts to discourage the new collector or the casual collector, and it just plain sucks.

Rant over, but give it some thought folks - MANY people on this site started out posting in the "my weekly finds" thread, and I can promise you that they rarely contained items that were R8 or better.

Just lighten up and keep this fun. If you don't want to read the post, then dont.

Just my two cents.

Orri-

[Teknik_SE-R]

Sorry, but this is retarded.


However, please remember that part of the purpose of this site is to get people interested in video games, whether that means collecting or discussing. To say that someone's finds are meaningless or unimportant; not worthy of posting, is just plain wrong.


Orri-

Noone said that people's finds aren't important! Its just getting to the point of their being more finds threads than actual discussion threads. I'm interested in what people find whether they get a good deal or it is rare, but to post a new thread that is only going to get two or three "pat on the back posts" after it.... I'm pretty sure most everyone would agree that these types can be consolidated....hence, the action you see here.

so don't make it to be sometihing it is not. It may save web space, but all the finds threads are annoying and proly discourages new users more than the consolidation would.

[GrandAmChandler]

I am going to go ahead and lock this now. Thanks for everyone's feedback. Like it or hate it, this is something new we are going to try. If it doesn't work, then we can always change it. But this is the way it shall stay for the time being.

-Chris