Speculation about Things 'n' Stuff

[The Ari-tificer]

Why is it that when there's a forum dedicated to a specific thing, 75% of posts on the forum are not about said thing?
Edit: This question has been answered, so now it's just for general speculation.

[JeenLeen]

Can you give an example?

For this forum, with the subforums, things seem to be mostly on-topic. I suppose one could argue that "Friendly Banter" is an exception, by literal definitions, but that is because (at least to my understanding) it is a catch-all for stuff that doesn't fit elsewhere, so not necessarily 'banter' (though the forum tries to keep things friendly.)

In other forums, especially if it lacks subforums, I could see folk wanting to converse about stuff and so non-topical things get posted. For example, a car mechanic forum might have folk discussing movies or sports or other unrelated stuff more than cars, at least by thread-count. But this is really the only forum I visit, so I can't say for sure.

[The Ari-tificer]

That's not exactly what I meant.
For example, this is the GitP forum, but over half of the content on here, while appropriate for its subforum, has no relevance to GitP.

[ve4grm]

Ah, see, here's where you're missing a key distinction.

This isn't a forum ABOUT GitP.

It's a forum for FANS of GitP.

To meet, talk, and interact with each other about whatever they want to. Which often includes GitP, but doesn't have to.
Many other forums have a similar idea behind them. Some are more focused, especially tech forums where people can come ask for help on things.

[JeenLeen]

That's not exactly what I meant.
For example, this is the GitP forum, but over half of the content on here, while appropriate for its subforum, has no relevance to GitP.

What do you mean by GitP? (I know it is this website, Giant in the Playground--I mean, what is content related to GitP?)

I don't see this forum as a place to discuss GitP, although that happens, as there is a subforum for rules & technical issues and a subforum for the webcomic hosted on GitP. The rest of the forums are for folk who like to frequent GitP to discuss things. Really, since GitP is a website used to host a comic, a forum, and maybe some other stuff (Stories, News, Shop)... I don't see exactly what discussing GitP would mean.

Also, to some folk, I reckon the forums are the primary feature of GitP, perhaps as a way to discuss roleplaying games or play Play-by-Post games, or just to enjoy the friendly atmosphere while discussing what they are discussing.

[Algeh]

I think it's because these sorts of forums act as a collector for people who all have one thing in common (in the case of this forum, they're probably fans of Order of the Stick, although there's also a more general D&D fans population). There's really only so much to say about that one thing, and it's generally been discussed to death by long-time fans, plus the density of people who want to discuss that thing is so high that it's actually hard to have a good back-and-forth more general conversation about it with a few other people.

However, people who like one thing I like probably also like some other things I like. Thus, this forum is a pretty good place to find, say, 10-ish other people who also want to talk about Babylon 5, or GURPS, or whatever other kind-of-but-not-directly related thing I wanted to discuss in a fairly general way. Sure, there are places on the internet that are specifically for discussing those things, but it's actually more fun to discuss them with a smaller crowd of people that I also have at least one other thing in common with than it is to discuss them with a much larger crowd of people that I may only have that one common interest with.

I used to particularly notice this on email lists for really specific fandoms back in the 90s. The actual content of those books (or whatever) would have been discussed in such detail that no one had anything to say about it anymore (unless a new book came out), but we'd find other things we had in common and discuss those things. (Now I wonder whatever happen to those people that I used to write to back then, but we mostly tended to use pseudonyms and that was about 20 years ago so I suspect they'd be hard to track down now.)

[lio45]

That's not exactly what I meant.
For example, this is the GitP forum, but over half of the content on here, while appropriate for its subforum, has no relevance to GitP.

As others have pointed out, all the content on here is linked to GitP because all of it is generated by people who share an interest in Rich Burlew's work that's strong enough to create accounts here and participate.

You can just rename in your mind every "Thread about X" to something more like "GitP fans discussing X" and then you'll find that everything is now "related" ;)

[Tvtyrant]

Why is it that when there's a forum dedicated to a specific thing, 75% of posts on the forum are not about said thing?

People with similar interests often have, or assume they have, similar experiences. So if you and I like Buffy we can make some assumptions about demographics and further shared interests that we couldn't meeting a random stranger.

These assumptions can be wrong and lead to toxic forums though. I was on the Misfile forum for years before I came here, and it had a split between people who were there for the cars and people who were there for the gender bending that you can't adequately grasp if you weren't in the community. Eventually the community members I was close to were all banned our quit the place due to the infighting, so off I went to find other places.

To be honest though I never found another community where I was as close to the other members as that one, because the niche was so tight.

[WarKitty]

As others have pointed out, all the content on here is linked to GitP because all of it is generated by people who share an interest in Rich Burlew's work that's strong enough to create accounts here and participate.

Although with the popularity of this forum, there's a lot of people who show up because it's a good place to talk about various games.

[2D8HP]

Running out of Order of the Stick print books to read was what first brought me to GitP, but recently I described a character I wanted to play as (among other influences) "like Julio Scoundrel in OotS", and I was told, "I don't read the comic, I'm just here for the PbP", further back another poster wrote that read OotS before they ever played D&D, so different people have different reasons for being at this Forum.

[WarKitty]

Running out of Order of the Stick print books to read was what first brought me to GitP, but recently I described a character I wanted to play as (among other influences) "like Julio Scoundrel in OotS", and I was told, "I don't read the comic, I'm just here for the PbP", further back another poster wrote that read OotS before they ever played D&D, so different people have different reasons for being at this Forum.

...that was a better way to say what I was trying to say.

I wandered over here as a confused D&D player and then started reading the comics.

[The Ari-tificer]

People with similar interests often have, or assume they have, similar experiences. So if you and I like Buffy we can make some assumptions about demographics and further shared interests that we couldn't meeting a random stranger.

These assumptions can be wrong and lead to toxic forums though. I was on the Misfile forum for years before I came here, and it had a split between people who were there for the cars and people who were there for the gender bending that you can't adequately grasp if you weren't in the community. Eventually the community members I was close to were all banned our quit the place due to the infighting, so off I went to find other places.

To be honest though I never found another community where I was as close to the other members as that one, because the niche was so tight.

Do you like Buffy?

[Tvtyrant]

Do you like Buffy?

Except the last two seasons. It really peaked season 5.

[The Ari-tificer]

Except the last two seasons. It really peaked season 5.
I've only seen at most half of the first season. My parents have it on DVD, but we don't watch it very often, because of schoolwork and the like.
So far, though, I love it.

[The Ari-tificer]

Is it possible to rename a thread?
'Cause we've already done as much speculation about forums as possible, and i want to rename it to just 'Speculation.'

[2D8HP]

Is it possible to rename a thread?
'Cause we've already done as much speculation about forums as possible, and i want to rename it to just 'Speculation.'


Everyone can rename a thread when they post, only the OP can rename the firsr post by editing (give it a try).

[The Ari-tificer]

Everyone can rename a thread when they post, only the OP can rename the firsr post by editing (give it a try).

Thank you, 2D8HP.

I feel kinda stupid now.

[AuthorGirl]

Speculation about . . . Things 'n' Stuff? Just things 'n' stuff?

Can they be any forum-appropriate things?

[2D8HP]

Speculation:

Compared to decades past, Fantasy fiction books now far outnumber Science-Fiction on the shelves of most bookstores.

[Tvtyrant]

Speculation:

Compared to decades past, Fantasy fiction books now far outnumber Science-Fiction on the shelves of most bookstores.

But is that a national psychology thing, or just that fantasy is easier to write?

Because I can wax poetic about erotica were panthers with the best of them.

[AuthorGirl]

But is that a national psychology thing, or just that fantasy is easier to write?

Because I can wax poetic about erotica were panthers with the best of them.

Fantasy fans are less likely to call you out for breaking the laws of physics. Writing about organic chemistry requires a much more specialized knowledge base than writing about magic spells. So yes, I'd say that fantasy is easier.

On the other hand, reader psychology could play into it: fantasy lends itself to escapism.