Preserved Topic: Idea for the Asylum...

I was reading the thread in the Photoshop Forum about Filters, 3rd party etc, and read someones "we've discussed this before, lets move on..." comment.

The thing is, there are lots of controversial issues regarding what we do here - Filters, Frames, Pop-Ups, Cross-Browser, Usability, to name a few. I think we all have opinions when it comes to these things... yet I (for one) am very interested in others thoughts, but wouldn't like to start a thread thats been done x times before.

How about some sort of forum where there are a limited moderated list of posts - such as Filters, Frames, Pop-Ups etc etc. Each Asylumite would be allowed one post in the thread, where they can explain their thoughts on the subject. This way, when considering using Frames, I could read through that thread and find out what my learned cell-mates think of it, without starting *another* thread on the subject.

Comments?

(Probably not too easy to set up within UBB, but maybe within Doc's new Lobby?)

Great idea - I'm all in for it!

that smells like 'work'
are you going to voulnteer to set that hole thing up?

Sonicsnail: That is an interesting idea and would be a good way for people to assess the range of opinions on various topics. I'm not sure about the settings here and if you can just set it so that people have one post and one post only - we are an argumentative bunch (but its all good) and it would quickly turn into debates over the pros and cons of various techniques - which might not be a bad thing. The simplest thing would be to do this with PHP over at the GN - thoughts?

Possibly names: Sounding board, talking stick.

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

I think open debates or discussions would be better. It would be cool if we could have a thred or forum specificaly for this kind of debate or discussion. Say one a week or one a month. Then at the end of the week/month the entire thred gets converted into static HTML and hosted on a tiny sub site of some kind. Kinda like archiving those important (aka often discussed) threads execpt a little more permenant and easier to reference if the topic is ever brought up again.

This could work for those often asked about things in many forums. Eyeballs and Glass Spears in the PS forum perhaps?

I think it would help if we gave more thought to how we named our topics. It makes digging through archives a LOT easier if you name it say... Glass Ball- lalala
whatever. Just a thought

I would prefer a more open discussion because someone might raise a point I might never thought of which might make me change m opinion. I think I mentioned something like this before and I don't think we'd need a new forum: The site review forum would be the best place for most of the web design topics (frames, iframes, tables, CSS, splash screens, flash, etc.) and I'd be happy to open a thread a month to cover one of the topics - I'd be interested to see what other people think on these topics (I've probably expressed my feelings a time or two on most of the above). Thoughts? Good, bad, etc?

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

This is sort of like asking for an Asylum FAQ, which the question 'hey, why don't we all make a faq section for all the questions that get asked over and over again' would naturally be there too.

--------------
cheers.jay

Jestah: Well it would cover important aspects that an FAQ wouldn't be able to cover esp. where the answer is purely a matter of opinion (where an FAQ couldn't give an answer or cover the range of opinion without getting messy). I think there is room for something like this within the forums we already have and the results could be interesting.

Slime has got the ball rolling on an FAQ over at:
http://www.gurusnetwork.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=9&t=000250

Feel free to throw in ideas, questions, answers, etc. before a first draft is prepared for comment.

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

Thanks for everyones comments/ideas...

my thoughts..

Grumble: I wouldn't be too confident in setting the system up, but I'd be pleased to spend time admin'ing it.

Emp: To be honest I think the GN has a life of its own now, and whilst the content could be shared, I think that this is something best kept within the Asylum.

Dracusis: Open discussions are great, but we'd lose peoples opinions amongst the debate and cookies/slaps etc. I'd like to think of this as a reference document that can be looked into when making a decision over a questionable technique.

Shi: A very good point! - esp. in places like the Photoshop forum.. titles like "how do I do this" are baaaaad.

Emp: It'd be cool if people could edit their post, if their opinion changed, or technology changed etc. Keeping all this in an established forum however would lead to it being lost.. and if we archive it, we'd not be able to edit (and they'd be buried in a pile of archives too)

Jestah: I think this is quite different from an FAQ - Emp explains well in his last post - FAQs can be answered in a short sentence (usually).. where this idea would cover contentious issues that we may all feel differently about.

Emp: I won't reply to you again.. I have twice already.. Don't want to make the others thinking you're my favourite.

I'm left wondering... What does the Doc think?

sonicsnail: Thats OK I'm wouldn't want to make you pick favourites!!

I think only allowing people one post is overly restrictive and wouldn't really fit in with the frums here (which is why I suggested the GN) but I prefer a more open discussion where people get to explain why they take such a stance and this could be incorporated within the Asylum's existing forums. I believe a separate archive for these kind of posts could be created so they wouldn't be lost in the general whirl of discussion and they would all be kept in one space even if the different threads came from different forums.

And sonicsnail you are right: What does the good Doc think?

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

Well, we have a FAQ archive and a Misc Archive. Might belong in either of those. I suggest starting the various topics in Ozone or Silliness, then someone making sure they get archived appropriately.



-schitzophrenia has benefits

:steps up to mic:

ahem...we already have a system for already posted threads. It's called the archives. It's already serchable by author or thread text. We don't need another forum to make the archives redundant.

:steps down from mic:

<blatantly dragging this to the top of the forum so Doc won't miss it>

sorry

</blatantly dragging this to the top of the forum so Doc won't miss it>

*pats SS on the back*
There there, it's ok...