Hello all you wonderful folks! We have been discussing the possibility of closing down the Media subforum due to the lower level of posting activity it gets these days and we'd like to merge its topics back into General Discussion. Merging would mean that all topics normally suited for Media would once again be appropriate to post in General Discussion. We could also move certain popular threads from Media into General Discussion so they wouldn't have to be remade.
However, we'd like to hear what you think of the idea first, so we've opened up this poll. If you do vote, please leave a post if you can. Especially if you have a suggestion or are against the merge. You can also let us know if you think a certain thread should be moved after a merge.
We'll be running this poll until 2/14, one week from now. Afterwards, we'll ultimately decide on what to do.
If you have any suggestions or questions please feel free to post them here! Thanks for reading!
It sounds like a good idea to me - I feel like even popular shows/movies don't get as much active discussion as they deserve here, which might have something to do with the (apparent) fact that a lot of people seem to almost exclusively frequent the GD forum. Heck, I have a feeling most people wouldn't even notice if they were merged.Twitter
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I'd also like to bring a few things up in case it clarifies a few things we've discussed.
A merge means that all future Media topics would be in GD again and will very likely even move some of the more popular threads from Media into GD to keep them going.
With that last point made, please feel free to list/link threads that you think should be moved.
Merging seems like a good move. The site isn't as active as it once was, likely because Discord has been the go-to for people showcasing stuff and discussing gaming and media.
But in the end, I don't care either way. So, I'd say-- Ooh, a pretty picture of Peach! Unfortunately, I'm not very active on the site anymore like I was before; I'm mainly on Discord now. Thanks for understanding.
Yeah, it definitely sounds like a good idea to me; I can't understand why the Media forum was created in the first place, and since I fully understand when something has to be done with a "ghost town" sub-forum, it's a move I support 100%.
I assume it was created back in 2008 because there was a lot more activity on the forums, and actually having a dedicated place to post media-related topics outside General Discussion was something the forums needed. It's just that we don't really need it these days, now that forums-wide activity has died down since our younger days.
I like this. Even on a more populous site like Smogon they did a similar thing, merging the previously split media-specific forum back into the more general threads, and it went off without a hitch
I do have to note that TV, Movies, and Literature in general kinda died in terms of discussion and that Music is really the only topic that remains relevant today. Most of the other topics have usually just been talked about on Discord, if theyre talked about at all.
As well, there's a large difference between SMWCentral's activity now and activity back then.
So feel free to make your judgment call here based on this observation.
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STELLA!
I agree merging it is a pretty good idea media and general discussion seem like almost the same thing anyway plus we already have discord as an alternative to it the fact that i don't really care if they merge media with general discussion because i don't really use or visit it at all i didn't even know it existed until nowThis is my non existent layout I plan on adding one soon.. or never
In the year of our lord 2020 I see no reason why they shouldn't be merged tbhYoutube ~ SPC Thread ~ Last.fm
How I didn't notice this just baffles me
In all seriousness, I don't see why not move Media threads to GD and move Media to Forum Graveyard. Threads about important events could be considered media, but most of them have place in GD and mods apparently don't mind it. Good thing for sure because mods won't have to move certain threads twice. Heck, they won't move them at all!
Also, I can see why Jukebox thread was made in GD and not Media. Moving it to GD from Media would be a waste of time. I wanted to talk about it there, but I wasn't sure if that's the right place for it.
The Media subforum is pretty dead looking, but I think that merging it into the General subforum would make it harder to carry out media-centric discussion; general discussion forums tend to only have very limited oxygen for specialized topics. I think that the forums should be merged, but there should also be a few dedicated stickies for discussion of the various kinds of media; I'm imagining one for anime, one for music, one for TV, one for movies, and one for literature.
The point, though, is that people here are evidently not all that interested in talking about that stuff to begin with. It wouldn’t make much sense to have a bunch of stickies for anime/movies/shows/etc when there’s hardly any activity in this forum relating to those things in the first place.
Maybe having a single new sticky dedicated to all non-music media would be fine, though I feel like GD’s gonna end up with a hundred stickied threads at this rate.Twitter
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There's always the idea of a stickied discussion containing a list of some moved threads so if it doesn't get as specific as that thread you can track down some others or something along those lines.
I don't think 2 more stickied threads would be too bad though. Not like all 25 or 45 (depending on your setting) unstickied threads shown on the forum page are all active. And if a sticky isn't doing too well it can just be unstickied.
I think we could also just play it by ear if the merge happens, and start without any media stickies. We can also add stickies over time if need be. I'm also not opposed to stickying threads that regular users make if they become active enough to warrant a sticky. There's no rule saying every sticky thread must be made by a staff member after all--it's just what usually happens.
I'd rather prefer discussions be having explicit categories of separation. Merging cam make them very confusing and general discussion should not be expanded to include media discussions.Modern Redrawn Mario Bros. 1.5 (last update - February 14, 2023, some new bonus frames, tons of minor touchups to various poses)
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I've gone ahead and closed the poll. The votes were overwhelmingly in favor of merging the two subforums. We'll think about what threads should be preserved, and archive this subforum in the coming days. Thanks to all of you for your feedback on the matter.