Should they just go ahead and open the General Forum back up?

a user may 'declare' what they wish but its still not a GD forum. Should there have been only a Yes choice in the poll?
I voted how I feel and explained why.

Sure we have the virtual world to chat in, but that's not always practical. Tonight is a perfect example. The grid is down completely for me.

In real life you stay in touch with people by using the phone or email - you don't always hop in a vehicle and go to a hangout. The 3d world is really cool, but you could never have lengthy discussions like these in a big 3d chat room. We'd be typing all over each other's comments.

We need a GD forum to help make SL(tm) a community.

I was here back when there was a general discussion forum. I also remember the constant bitching that went on there too. Most of the bitching was directed at LL. The reason so many people started hateful threads about LL was simple. At the time there was also a forum called "Linden Answers".............a place to ask questions to Lindens about problems or how toos in Second Life. However, the questions were seldom answered.........in fact only one Linden (Torley) even came to the forum on a consistant basis and attempted to answer questions at all. Pretty big work load for one person. The Linden Answers forum was set up so that you could start a thread to ask your question but no one could post a response except a Linden. And when only one Linden is coming to the forum about once a week your question would be buried fairly quickly and almost never answered. People were going to GD to rant about that...........constantly.

LL decided that since Linden Answers needed to be closed to make their Blog more useful (at least that was what they said anyway)...........they also closed GD. The reason is pretty obvious to me.......they didn't like what they read there since 95% or the threads were rants against LL.

The problem could have been solved pretty easily if they had simply answered the questions in Linden Answers in the first place.........then closing the forum would have a lot less painful. RA was over run with the rants that were in GD before the closings......it was hell for a while to get anything answered.

So, yes, I think LL should open a General Discussion or Off Topic forum..........but they won't. Their tender feelings might get hurt again like a couple years ago. All their own doing, by the way.

The Blog would be very useful if it wasn't included with system status reports. It's a mess to just scroll through for information.

I went and checked it out and remembered why I stay over here. There are lots of frames and bright green and white lettering on a black background and blinky graphics. That's a little hard on my eyes and nerves.

I posted a couple of times but felt like a fish out of water. I may stick it out and try again since you recommend it. A lot of people endorse SLUniverse.

you can change the color of the skin in preferences. That's the first thing I did over there.

Overall, a bunch of good peeps there and not a lot of repetitive nonsense or people typing the word "pie" thinking it's witty.

Add in the fact that time zones and other factors, prevent people from even being in world together sometimes.

never dis the shoes....

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but yeah i voted yes as well...for reasons already posted thus far..it would free up RA for questions and make the hall monitors happeh.

until someone says something bad.
or offends them.
like shoes.

Check it out again. It can get really silly over there which is fun. I lurk over there but like it. I don't have time to post in both forums and this one is my priority for now.

typo while running from flying shoes... Moderator(s)
Moderators were the 5 or 6 No votes against a General Discussion Forum
It sounded so much funnier in my head LOL!

This forum needs a general descision, u cant get rid of general chat, just move it

I found the option to change the appearance as Raymond suggested and that helps a lot. I must have some kind of mild attention / focus problem for all those bells, whistles, and wriggly animated gifs to distract me so.

They do look like a freindly enough group and there are a lot of familiar names which helps too. It is just a little bewildering after this streamlined forum.

Ahhhh. . . I kinda thought that was what you meant but wasn't sure LOL
Thank you for the clarification

Give the people their Resident Answers forum back. Then they will have a place to ask questions without having to sift through the off topics. Give the people who want to talk shit their General Forums, HERE on the SL boards! Why should we banish a forum for open idea's to somebody elses website??? This is SL! WE are SL!! "Ohhhh it was soooo messy back when they had a General forum!!" PFFFFFFT, DONT READ IT!! They dumped the GF cus they thought all the negative banter being tossed around made all those newbies they were trying to recruit have Second thoughts on Secondlife! The newbies are still here!! Now THEY are talking negative banter, but so what , WE ARE A COMMUNITY!!
The good, the bad, and the ugly!! We are Secondlife, HEAR US ROAR and WOO WOO and WHATEVER ELSE!! Give us our soapbox dammit!! And Brenda, GO BUY A NEW COMPUTER FOR CRIPES SAKE!!!

Yeah, so I'm one of the 6 who voted no.

All the GD and off topic stuff should go to SLU.

www.sluniverse.com
It is a lovely place where you can talk about politics, name names, flame your fellow residents, promote products, stir the pot and talk smack about LL to your hearts content.

These forums should be strictly product support and resident to resident support.

*dons flame-proof suit*

I can understand why you feel that way ..

But I think were already there now, a basically unmoderated general discussion forum

SO I don't see how it would get "worse"

I don't see a return of strict moderation to RA...

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Still if thats how you feel, thats how you feel. I don't think anyone should flame you for it.

Do you see strict Moderation making a return though?

I don't see your stance as viable without moderation more like what Strife did (or maybe even more stringent)

I don't buy the "go to a 3rd Party cop-out".

What is there something dysfunctional about this site?

Are we somehow not as good as SLU or something? Are the Lindens afraid of people speaking their minds here?

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Besides which Resident Answers is already General and is quickly sliding to be General PLUS Off-topic.

Im sure many who voted no did so because they want Resident answers to be for resident answers, SO how would we get back there?

I don't think this would be a bad idea at all. Strict adherence to what RA was created for and go to SLU or another sight for all the wild and woolly fun. That would require strict moderation, though, and not by one person. I'm not expecting that to happen anytime soon.

I suppose if we convinced a lot of people to just LEAVE then it could return to "resident answers" ..

But is a dead forum any better than a chaotic one?

I've been to others that adhered to stictly product information and discussion. It's not unheard of at all. I think it'd be a terrible idea if there weren't other options out there to go have fun to at all. I need both (just not mixed together).

You know I have no objection to having a GD forum here either - I think it'd be great, actually. I'd just be open to either option.

I am completely cool with people who vote "NO" ..

I just don't see the solution involved I guess.

In my mind if Resident Answers follows its current tract it will become:

Resident Answers + General Discussion + Off-Topic Discussion

So either thats fine ..

Or something has to be done one way (more forums) ,

or the other (more mods)

I have never seen a strict forum that wasn't either relatively dead or it included a more relaxed posting area.

Or maybe even worse didn't involve discussing one of 3 or 4 topics over and over and over again.

I hope and pray every day for a return to days of Strife or stricter. I realize that he pissed a lot of people off, but the SL is a very different place from 2005 or even 2006. Residents whinging and rioting with torches and pitchforks on the forums no longer affects LL policy. All the crap just gets in the way of people getting questions answered and the sharing of information.

Right now there are 7 BS threads on the front page - which is about normal since Strife left. Yeah, most questions get answered but then they drop off the front pages and 10 other people who could have been helped by those answers never read them and start the same thread two days later.

The pie is overdone. The thinly veiled "buy my stuff" is overdone. The ZOMG clique is overdone. The only reason I stayed on the SL forums after GD closed was to help out in RA -- it was such a breath of fresh air when all the drama mongering moved off site but RA has slowly been turned into the same pile of crap the old GD was.

I'd point you to my forums but they reveal my RL identity, which I'm close to doing anyway but still holding off on.