Megathreads Revisited

Megathreads - Keep them or get rid ?

  • Total voters
    75
  • Poll closed .
They are a good idea but seem to stifle debate IMO.

If you read through the big player threads they just seem to be have morphed into the same posters recycling the same arguments(Evans, Carrick, and in the past Nani, & Valencia and any of the Messi/Ronaldo ones).

One of the reasons I don't post that much in the football forums is how repetitive everything now seems in the United forum.
 
I suspect that things are highly repetitive no matter now many or few threads are created.
 
Just to make my arguments known for limiting the amount of mega threads, I'll quote an old post of mine.

Top said:
Do not try jamming a new topic into an already existing thread just because some people have told you that creating new threads is evil. A thread about Butt, Gaz, Scholes and Beckham as kids should not halfway through and 4 years later be turned into a thread about Fergie feeling bad that he let Phil Neville and Butt go.

Do not be afraid to create a new thread. Even if Weaste makes a mean face.

Take Chris' thread here: https://www.redcafe.net/f6/nani-rafael-317622/
It's much neater and easier to discuss because he created a new and specific thread rather than jamming it into a thread about how Nani is now the best winger in the country.

Likewise see Pogue's thread on Fletch: https://www.redcafe.net/f6/good-fletchers-back-317631/
There are plenty threads on Fletcher that he could probably have bumped after a quick search, but what would that archive? Then you'd just have a discussion intertwined among other discussions on Fletcher with none of them actually being related to the original post = A mess.

The thread title and the original post should match the content of the entire thread. And if what you have to see doesn't follow that then just create a new thread.
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Say Rooney has just scored the best goal of all time, a week later he gets caught shagging a granny and the next day he signs a new contract, while also playing each weekend.

Scenario 1 (1 thread with at least 4 different topics)
Is Wayne Rooney World Class?

Scenario 2 (4 threads with each of their topic)
My God what a brilliant goal by Rooney!
Rooney caught cheating again
Rooney signs new 5 year contract!
Is Wayne Rooney World Class?

Over the last few years the fear of creating a new thread has resulted in scenario 1 too often in my opinion. There's no point in clustering everything together, all it does is confuse matters and bury interesting topics because a dozen different discussions takes place in the same thread.
 
i post in a few megathreads, the good thing is that you know where to go when something new happens and it's worth discussing it

i know they tend to be highly repetitive, but you wont avoid it just by closing the mega threads, the discussions will move to another one

so i think its better to keep it in one place
 
My view is that it should be context specific. For example, no one would want six Sneijder threads in the transfers, or 5 Nani threads in the United forum. In certain cases, its just easier to go to one thread with the assurance that anything discussed about that particular player is likely to be there.
 
Dislike megathreads, ultimately a forum is about discussion and I want quick access to the latest topics. I dislike having to wade through several streams of debate and pages of superfluous discussions to get to the topic I'm interested in, in a mega-thread.

Obviously forums need moderation, but I see no harm in new threads about changes in situation.
 
I agree with Marcos. Posters are quick to create new threads everytime they think they have a unique thought; 99% of the time its already been discussed, they just cant be arsed to look

theres nothing more annoying that having to post 2 or 3 times the same post because theres multiple threads on the same topic

I believe posters just need to have a bit of common sense. There doesn't need to be a specific policy; if the mods think its a repeat thread they can just copy it or close it and link to the other thread
 
That said my above statement does not apply to transfer speculation threads, more to the football forums.
 
marcosdeto said:
i post in a few megathreads, the good thing is that you know where to go when something new happens and it's worth discussing it

i know they tend to be highly repetitive, but you wont avoid it just by closing the mega threads, the discussions will move to another one

so i think its better to keep it in one place
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Take the huge Messi thread.

In there you had all the gay fanboy battles, updates on his recent performances, news about his sponsor deals, videos of a brilliant goal he'd scored, comments from Pele saying Messi is crap etc.

That meant if I only wanted to talk about what a twat Pele is, then I'd have to wade through pages of FranklyVulgar and Cal arguing, skim trhough posts from GCHQ saying the sponsorship deal is nothing compared to what the Glazer's could have gotten etc. before finally finding pieces of a discussion regarding Pele's comments.

I'm exaggerating a bit, but it just seems unnecessary and messy (heh) to me.
 
Except those aren't really the alternatives.

If they were nobody would care and thus mega-threads wouldn't be necessary or even created.

Mega-threads are usually the result of multiple 10's of threads being posted by posters who thing their own infinitesimally different opinion on a topic of current interest requires an emotional excitable response in a new thread.
 
Top said:
Take the huge Messi thread.

In there you had all the gay fanboy battles, updates on his recent performances, news about his sponsor deals, videos of a brilliant goal he'd scored, comments from Pele saying Messi is crap etc.

That meant if I only wanted to talk about what a twat Pele is, then I'd have to wade through pages of FranklyVulgar and Cal arguing, skim trhough posts from GCHQ saying the sponsorship deal is nothing compared to what the Glazer's could have gotten etc. before finally finding pieces of a discussion regarding Pele's comments.

I'm exaggerating a bit, but it just seems unnecessary and messy (heh) to me.
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Anything that stops or reduces pointless Messi vs Pele comparisons can't be bad. Even better is all such silliness is in one thread that I'd never even open.
 
It just needs to be done by context. If you have different discussions like in Tops example, make new threads. However a few weeks ago you had 4 threads on the go about Suarez/LFC's statements. They were being put in 'Luis Suarez is a disgusting person' 'Patrice Evra accuses Suarez of racist abuse' 'Manchester Uniteds response to Liverpools statements' and another I can't remember the name of. All 4 being bumped at the same point with the same posts that could have just been one thread.
 
I hate megathreads, very difficult to keep up with and stifles my personal participation in the discussions at least.

Would much prefer if there was a thread for each event that warrants discussion, instead of for instance one humungous thread on each player.

Just my two cents.
 
I rarely go in the big long threads, they always seem to be full of crap.
 
Whatever happens, please make sure ronaldo, madrid, barca and messi have their own superthreads!
 
MikeUpNorth said:
I rarely go in the big long threads, they always seem to be full of crap.
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This.

If you spend all day in the football forums and love discussing the minutiae of each player's technique and potential, then maybe it has some value, so you can have long-winded debates without going off-topic. If you just want to discuss something interesting that happened, without getting involved in said debate, you can't.
 
I think there should be a middleground. In the sense that segegation should definitely be done based on the topic but a lot more loosely than it is. I would like there to be different threads for different specific sub topics which would otherwise come under one main topic, but the clubbing should be done to ensure that those sub topics are then updated if there is something to be posted regarding the same.

Basically, I think everything regarding one player or one club shouldn't be clubbed under one thread because it sort of reduces the scope for discussion.

However, I do agree with this post that certain specific topics should be clubbed because of the nature in which people post about them which basically leads not to an increase of threads but to litter on the caf.

Relevated said:
Whatever happens, please make sure ronaldo, madrid, barca and messi have their own superthreads!
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Wibble said:
Except those aren't really the alternatives.

If they were nobody would care and thus mega-threads wouldn't be necessary or even created.

Mega-threads are usually the result of multiple 10's of threads being posted by posters who thing their own infinitesimally different opinion on a topic of current interest requires an emotional excitable response in a new thread.
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If people start a pointless thread it will fall off the bottom of the page when nobody responds. Interesting threads remain active and don't dissapear. Survival of the fittest. I really don't see the problem with a few pointless threads. They never last long.
 
I prefer the separate threads and they can work as long as people use the correct titles and do a search before making new threads. Points get lost in the megathreads and topics go off hand
 
Quite telling that only 11% of people have voted to keep them outright in their current format at present.

Could we be, finally, seeing the end of the megathread madness?
 
Pogue Mahone said:
If people start a pointless thread it will fall off the bottom of the page when nobody responds. Interesting threads remain active and don't dissapear. Survival of the fittest. I really don't see the problem with a few pointless threads. They never last long.
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Agreed, where as if an interesting piece of news gets posted in massive thread it will be missed by the majority.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
If people start a pointless thread it will fall off the bottom of the page when nobody responds. Interesting threads remain active and don't dissapear. Survival of the fittest. I really don't see the problem with a few pointless threads. They never last long.
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Pointless threads that are actually the exact same topic are annoying, especially if the thread you have already commented in becomes the one that drops off whilst the new thread takes over
 
Would be ideal if we could somehow strike a balance between massive threads, and new threads cropping up regularly. As Raoul points out context is the key to opening a new thread.

I've voted for option 3 (Allow both (Mega and Multiple) depending on the situation)
 
Pogue Mahone said:
If people start a pointless thread it will fall off the bottom of the page when nobody responds. Interesting threads remain active and don't dissapear. Survival of the fittest. I really don't see the problem with a few pointless threads. They never last long.
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If it is a few it doesn't matter and rarely gets merged unless almost identical, when it aides discussion. Most mega threads start due to overexcited posters thinking their opinion on the latest excitement is worth a whole new thread when it a) isn't and b) there are 10's or more threads on the subject anyway.
 
There are positives and negatives. On the one hand, when the Suarez debate was at its pinnacle you had the 'Suarez is disgusting' which was essentially the same as the 'racial abuse' thread, with the same posts being posted in both threads, which was pointless. But the longer ones about players such as Cleverley and Pogba, which are constantly bumped I rarely venture into, as it's probably something like 'he's been named in the reserves tonight', or an ongoing debate from a while ago about them playing together, but actual information like 'contract talks opened' or 'injured for x weeks' we all want to know. Fortunately most thread titles get updated with that information.

Basically, new threads are better for getting information out, but when the discussion starts to go in a circle, it could be merged with a bigger one. Just my two cents.
 
I very very rarely go into these megathreads.

I see them reemerge and wonder whether it's a bump with a new topic or people going on about whatever they've written 45 pages on and can't be arsed.

Obviously, the RAWK and Bluemoon ones serve a purpose, maybe a few others, but for news we should just have a new thread with a title that indicates why you should bother get in there.
 
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