The Lounge is being overrun

I vote for choice a), and agree with you entirerly.

What is wrong with it? If there was something about it people collectivly did not like it would not be the most popular forum. What else are people supposed to talk about on the lounge anyway? The other forums are for game development and related fields and they fill that role well.

If the site is having problems with storage space then that may be a good idea to get rid of the lounge.

I personally am not bothered by political, religious, or mangina threads.

The previous lounge lockdown worked well.

I agree with getting rid of religion and sex threads, for the most part. 98 page threads on whether or not Person A's MASTER-AND-RULER-OF-THE-UNIVERSE is better than Person B's MASTER-AND-RULER-OF-THE-UNIVERSE aren't really useful.

I don't really agree with getting rid of politics though. For example, what about discussions of net-neutrality? That's obiously political, yet is very on topic for a game development site. Discussions on other laws that affect the members of this forum (game regulation, etc) will be political in nature, so should they be banned?

I guess what I want to know is what you mean by "political". Politics is a very wide-spread topic that encompasses just about everything you can discuss in the lounge. Heck, a discussion of desk building has to do with politics if you discuss the type of wood to use!

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I don't really agree with getting rid of sex and religion threads, there's nothing better than coming home after a long day and lolling at all the funny things people do with their life. In that way, I'm made more grateful for my own life, and the lounge has made me a better person.

Agreed. [smile]

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(* I will concede there are 'good' political threads, but these almost always reduce to petty arguments over nothing)

Yeah, but I think the ration of Good:Bad threads on Politics is a bit more than Good:Bad for, say, religion.

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I agree with getting rid of politics threads, for obvious reasons. 98 page threads on whether or not Person A's I-FAVOR-THIS-POLITICAL-AGENDA is better than Person B's I-FAVOR-THAT-POLITICAL-AGENDA aren't really useful, especially since both sides have already resolved, for the most part, and are basically unwilling to change their minds about anything.*

Dude, you totally copied me! That is unfair, I call shenanigans.

I agree with getting rid of politics threads, for obvious reasons. 98 page threads on whether or not Person A's I-FAVOR-THIS-POLITICAL-AGENDA is better than Person B's I-FAVOR-THAT-POLITICAL-AGENDA aren't really useful, especially since both sides have already resolved, for the most part, and are basically unwilling to change their minds about anything.*

I don't really agree with getting rid of sex and religion threads, there's nothing better than coming home after a long day and lolling at all the funny things people do with their life. In that way, I'm made more grateful for my own life, and the lounge has made me a better person.


(* I will concede there are 'good' political threads, but these almost always reduce to petty arguments over nothing)

I would also lean towards option a.

However, wouldn't it be nice if people could discuss these topics from an unbiased objective view? None of this I hate people from country X, or state Y, or religion R. But this truly is wishful thinking.

I think the Lounge is an important part of GameDev, however. This is a great community, and I think providing a place where we can all interact informally, in a non-technical manner is fun and adds a lot of personality to the site as a whole. The place really wouldn't be the same without it.

Anyway, I need to get back to work, but those are my initial thoughts.

To actually make a point, instead of poking fun -

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Original post by Oluseyi What do you (collectively) think? Keep in mind that restricting political, religious and sex-related threads doesn't do a huge disservice to the internet, as there are dozens of forums that exist specifically for that purpose, as well as USENET/Google Groups.

Have you ever been to those forums? I mean, I love 4chan. Its funny, but, for the most part, its a completely different community. It has its own jokes, memes and customs. We on GDNET have our own set of jokes, memes and customs that I've grown to love over the years.

I don't come to the lounge just to talk about a certain subject. I come here because of the community. If I wanted to screw around I'd just go to 4chan. I come here to screw around with fellow programmers, that will laugh when I inform them they left a fork in their server tower.

I don't see a problem with the lounge, and don't feel you've presented any case against it at all, Oluseyi, which disappoints me. I side with this opinion until someone can bring specific evidence that shows that the lounge is directly resulting in the death of the site.

How about a more creative solution? You may only make N posts in the Lounge for every post in a non-Lounge forum, plus maybe a free post or two per day (but free posts don't accumulate). That way people might be a bit more careful to actually have something to say before they post, *nix related threads will actually go into the *nix forum, and members who only post in the Lounge and no where else will get weeded out. And maybe if you're a GD+ member then the restriction is lifted. It's win-win!

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Original post by Forum List GDNet Lounge: Chat about anything you feel like, but keep it mature and civil. It does not have to be about game development, but it should be about something.

Politics, religion, and manginas all fit into the realm of "something". I love the technical forums, and try to answer a question for every one I get answered there, but this is something different. Unless the Lounge is considerably increasing the cost of maintaining GDNet, I'm all for keeping it as-is. I think the current policy of banning bad posts by people who registered that day is sufficient. I am genuinely interested in the views on outside matters of other people who share my pasttime/obsession of game development.

In short, I'm for Lounge Neutrality.

I'm going to vote the unpopular option and suggest it be closed... Maybe then I could get some work done. I have no idea why I keep lurking on the lounge, but it's like freaking crack.

*shrug

The political and religious threads seem to be an inevitability in this day and age. People want to voice opinion, and the GDNet Lounge is as good a place as any. I'd be concerned if the stuff mentioned started to turn up in the other forums, but I don't mind it so much in the Lounge.

I vote for pruning the overtly political, religious and sex/gender threads for a while/forever. I don't think that threads which deal with these topics in an adult manner, and don't descend into pointless flame wars, should be nuked though. There's always room for discussion.

I don't really see what's so bad about having lots of politics and religious threads. It's the Lounge, that's where people talk about stuff not game-related with a bunch of people who have similar interests as them. There are a lot of political and religious threads in the Lounge because there's a lot of politics and religion in real life. People take those things seriously, big deal.

Personal disclosure/sex threads? I'll use the obvious response here: if you don't want to hear about third testicles and manginas, don't read threads about them.

What's so bad about the Lounge that would put it up for execution anyway? Wild out of control bandwidth usage?

I don't want to lose the politics, religion, or sex threads altogether since there have been entertaining and enriching examples of all three in the past. However, I do think that the moderators need to be more strict when it comes to threads that are clearly flamefests and intellectual dead-ends. In other words, don't let a thread run on for 10 pages after it becomes clear that it consists almost entirely of posts saying "Lol my viewpoint is right yuo suck" and "OMG ur viewpoint is flawed y won't u take my criticism seriously!" Of course, you can be even stricter than that: if a thread is just a rehash of old arguments but hasn't quite degenerated into a cesspool of futility, it would make sense (to me) to give it the axe. Just don't ban the threads that have a shot at making us better people.

Please?

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Original post by BradDaBug And maybe if you're a GD+ member then the restriction is lifted. It's win-win!

I'm pretty sure some of the worst offenders here are already GDNet+ members.

I like the lounge, it's something to read. Just don't take it too seriously. Double thumbs up for Oluseyi's moderation skills. Less Bread is hot on facts, and not afraid to ban teh eedjits. Keep it up I say. Some of the most interesting characters hang out in the lounge.

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Original post by ArchWizard I don't want to lose the politics, religion, or sex threads altogether since there have been entertaining and enriching examples of all three in the past. However, I do think that the moderators need to be more strict when it comes to threads that are clearly flamefests and intellectual dead-ends. In other words, don't let a thread run on for 10 pages after it becomes clear that it consists almost entirely of posts saying "Lol my viewpoint is right yuo suck" and "OMG ur viewpoint is flawed y won't u take my criticism seriously!" Of course, you can be even stricter than that: if a thread is just a rehash of old arguments but hasn't quite degenerated into a cesspool of futility, it would make sense (to me) to give it the axe. Just don't ban the threads that have a shot at making us better people. Please? Quote: Original post by BradDaBug And maybe if you're a GD+ member then the restriction is lifted. It's win-win! I'm pretty sure some of the worst offenders here are already GDNet+ members.

I agree 100%. I was really shocked when the Dinosaurs vs whatever thread reached 80+ pages. Especially since the thread was pretty much dead from page 3. Maybe add a "report dead-end thread" button to alert the mods of a thread that will probably end up in an infinite loop in about five minutes?

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Original post by Oluseyi Too many political and religious threads. Too much personal disclosure (I don't want to know about your third testicle, your inner mangina, none of that)

I guess my question would be, what exactly do you/the staff think is wrong with those threads ? Do you feel that it detracts from the professionnal image of the site ? Is the issue, like a previous poster mentionned, purely one of storage/bandwidth costs ?

Because without those, I frankly fail to see what the lounge would offer that is not covered by the news section besides tech-support threads.

One think to ponder when it comes to abolition of the lounge is their impact on the member of this community. I often come to read the lounge and entertain myself in the morning. In the process, I also check if I can lend a hand in For Beginner and browse Game Design for interesting ideas. If the lounge isn't there, you'll probably loose a fair bit of those clicks as I only come to check Game Design (which isn't as active as the lounge).

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Original post by BradDaBug How about a more creative solution? You may only make N posts in the Lounge for every post in a non-Lounge forum, plus maybe a free post or two per day (but free posts don't accumulate). That way people might be a bit more careful to actually have something to say before they post, *nix related threads will actually go into the *nix forum, and members who only post in the Lounge and no where else will get weeded out. And maybe if you're a GD+ member then the restriction is lifted. It's win-win!

The problem with that, and other incentive alternatives, is that people will inevitably abuse it. I can see the 'I agree with what I quoted' posts in other forums skyrocketing if this were the case.

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Original post by Samith I don't really see what's so bad about having lots of politics and religious threads. It's the Lounge, that's where people talk about stuff not game-related with a bunch of people who have similar interests as them. There are a lot of political and religious threads in the Lounge because there's a lot of politics and religion in real life. People take those things seriously, big deal. Personal disclosure/sex threads? I'll use the obvious response here: if you don't want to hear about third testicles and manginas, don't read threads about them. What's so bad about the Lounge that would put it up for execution anyway? Wild out of control bandwidth usage?

Indeed. While "Public Service Announcement" is fairly vague, "Help me debug my scrotum" is pretty easy to see the subject matter of.

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Original post by Mercury I'm going to vote the unpopular option and suggest it be closed... Maybe then I could get some work done. I have no idea why I keep lurking on the lounge, but it's like freaking crack. *shrug

add me to this side, i love the lounge but everytime i want to get to work i always check out websites 1St as my daily routine 1) check anandtech (5min) 2) gamedev ->gamedev lounge (forever) 3) work ... oh nm it's time to sleep already