Why can't stories that are in news discussion be talked about on the main forum or at least have a thread dedicated to them? Some stories in news discussion are small and don't really warrant an actual thread on the main forum but some other stories should though. It wouldn't be a big deal but for the most part the news discussion is just a place for some people to post "wow, that's awesome" or "that's relly cool I can't wait to ride [new coaster]". It turns into nothing more than members just wanting to increase their post count which I have no problem with. It's just that no real back and forth discussion takes place usually in there.

I'm not saying that TN should eliminate the news discussion section. But if some of the stories end up as threads on the main forum, they should be left open. There are some threads when on the main forum are really popular and have actual discussion. Then a mod notices it, closes it and links to the news discussion thread. You click the link and what do you get "oh, that sux" and "man, that's crappy" or something, but certainly very little real discussion. So you went from having good conversation about a topic to mostly useless posts. What does that accomplish? You rarely see a conversation in new discussion actually go annywhere. You never see much debate, just mostly spam.

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

you do have a point. i started a thread on a news discussion and it was closed. its not always easy to find the news article if it is older so it makes sense to have a thread if it warrants it.

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I was going to submit the news story, but I didnt get back on untill last night because I was really sick. Thats why I didnt submit it.

You do have a point though. A good amount of times threads become good with the news, and its nice to talk about it for a while.

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Well, here's the thing...

If we were to allow news discussion in the forums, when the news already supports discussion, we would thus be breaking the rules by allowing duplicate discussions. In addition, we want other the others to see the rest of the site.

Remember, the forums are just a part of the site... nothing should be centered around the forums on here.

Also, I don't have a problem finding a news story that is old... we support searching for news stories as well as listing them all.

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ThrillNetwork Webmaster/Systems Administrator -- My Official Fansite -- Get Firefox!
Everytime I ride a coaster, it valleys. I've never been on a stalled coaster or had one roll back (except Wicked Twister and what was Superman: Ultimate Escape, which does that by design).

Here's an idea. We know by looking at the stories in the news discussion which will be big topics and which won't and will just get the usual "that sounds cool" comment. So for the bigger stories, instead of posting there, it could have a link to an actual thread in the main forum for people to really discuss it. While the forum may not be the only part of TN, regardless it will always be the main part. That's where most of the members spend much of their time and it's a shame that some good and interesting stories won't get the attention it would likely get if it had a thread in the forums.

Think about it like this, I check the news discussion often and I can only remember a couple times when stories went into a second page. Maybe a couple days after the news dicsussion thread was started, it could be closed with a link to the new thread in the forum that has been started.

It's just an idea so that good news stories aren't limited in the conversation as they seem to be in the news discussion section.

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

I've gotta agree with coasterlove here. I always check the front page when coming into the site, and I do look at the news articles. I read most of them and do post in news stories where I have something to say. The problem is that then I go to the forums. I click the "new posts since last visit" and that's how I view the site. News items aren't listed there so I don't know if there was a comment. I'm not gonna open every news story every time just to see if someone posted something and have to cut though the 90% of worthless posts that are out there. On that same note, I know the staff isn't either since that's why all that spam is allowed to go unnoticed.

As far as the breaking the rules comment, you make the rules, you can tweak them however you like. This isn't for every news thread, just the big hitters. For example, when Comcast tried to take over Disney. The topic could have gone on forever and was argueably the biggest story of the year, but because the news posts aren't all that user friendly, it was dead after maybe 20 posts.

For that matter, there are times when there are news stories and threads that have been allowed to go on. I don't know if it's cause the mods aren't reading the news or what, but it has happened.

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Pleasantly missing since 2006

I agree 100% with the love of coasters. (coasterlove). It would be a lot better for us to discuss the news stories in this forum. I say we have every single news story not just the main ones. All the ones are important even tho they might only say little things, they still need to be seen.


Drew I do what you do. Every time i get on TN i got to "new post". Thats the way I work. lol.

I like the idea mentioned above that if a story is a "big" one and generates some discussion, then letting them discuss it in the main forum and placing a link to that discussion on the news article seems like a good compromise to me. Like the others, I'll glance at the news, and sometimes have something to say, but there really isn't much discussion on the news threads.

One way to help it out though is to place a recipricol link in the forum discussion- the first post about it would say that it's discussing the article found at <link>, that way you're feeding people both ways.

I know that the forums are only part of the site, along with the news and so much more, but they are where the main discussions take place. Might be worth at least a try and see how it works.

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Have you read my number 1 best seller? There will be a test! ~God
Life with God is one thrill ride you'll never want to get off of.
My park & coaster photos: Sir Willow's Smugmug pictures

Well, how about this...

While we really cannot allow it (it would be counterproductive toward what we have pushed to do since we started doing news, and we want people doing more than just forums), I have had another idea that to be honest has been a pipe dream or a design nightmare because it potentially would involve hacking vBulletin (which I don't want to do at any cost). But, there's probably another way around it.

I'm going to be planning another round of site enhancements within the next couple of months. What I am thinking is for news stories, as well as SpeedZone comments, we create respective "forums" for them. While in reality they are not part of the actual forum, when you view the "thread topics" they will link to the news stories or park/ride uploads in a similar fashion as you link to threads now.

This has been a very long term goal for a while now. I might just add it to the site plans.

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ThrillNetwork Webmaster/Systems Administrator -- My Official Fansite -- Get Firefox!
Everytime I ride a coaster, it valleys. I've never been on a stalled coaster or had one roll back (except Wicked Twister and what was Superman: Ultimate Escape, which does that by design).

WHOOSH

That sound heard was your post going over my head. I'm not sure if I follow but if it makes it easier or more friendly for conversation of the biggers news topics, I'm all for it. Thanks for listening to the suggestion.

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

I like it. Not bad, nice idea.
Like coasterlove said,

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So a seperate 'forum' for news and Speedzone? If that's what you mean, that would be great.

Basically what is being suggested is sorta've what I have in use at another site.

http://www.sfgamworld.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=11
That is our news forum, where people talk about the news, the catch is only mods/admins/editors etc can start a topic in it because that story then if you look on the main page http://sfgamworld.com/ gets posted on there. So the two are basically tied together. What Steven is proposing is a similar idea sans the topic posting since that would still be done through our seperate news form. But the forum would look like ours in terms of the news headline would make up the thread title, and then the first post would be the news item, followed by commentary in a threaded view.

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Kyle Rehm

I like it. That looks like it would be a great solution to me, and looks like it would accomplish both sides of the coin, as it were.

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Have you read my number 1 best seller? There will be a test! ~God
Life with God is one thrill ride you'll never want to get off of.
My park & coaster photos: Sir Willow's Smugmug pictures