Splitting of the New Products forums... In the end was that such a smart move?

When i first read about the splitting of the "New Products" forums, i was already skeptic, but went with the usual "oh well, we'll see how it goes".
I perfectly understand what's the logic behind it, to avoid single posts being choked under the sheer weights of the massive number of new products that are released every day.
The splitting of the forum was a decent placebo more than a solution, but caused worse (at least in my opinion) problems.
two days ago i released my new Nissan Fairlady Z, and counting the very high numbers of IMs that i got in the past few weeks asking me when my new car would have been released and the sheer amount of work that it required, one can for sure imagine how i was eager for comments and feedback about it.
That made me look at the new products forums for long periods of time during wich i kinda managed to observe how people browse them:
The problem is kinda simple. almost everyone just drops into the clothing and body shop forums, completely ignoring the others, and honestly it's kind of discouraging.
It's well known that the clothing/apparel market is the biggest of second life, being a clothing designers myself, i had the chance to know this to it's full extent.
The fact that LL support for different features like vehicles is kinda limited (not to say shameful... i'm trying to be nice, maybe nicer than i should actually be) for sure doesn't help this kind of products to get out from their productive ghetto, but at least, when the new products forum was still only one, truly good products were able to stand out, despite the sheer amount of posts (i remember, for instance, the long threads caused by every vehicle Cubey or other premium "tech priests" caused, it's saddening to see a post by cubey with only 30 views and no replies...), it's not a mistery that most of business this kind of products get is from casual customers that just notice them while looking for something else and says "oh, how nice!".
Now that the New Products forums are split, people (that for the most part don't have the time nor the will to check every single forum these message boards are made of, and for a reason, since they are too many and dispersive) just go and look the usual clothing/apparel ones and almost completely ignore the rest.
Making vehicles in second life (i mean good ones, that at least try to work around the engine's limitation) takes an hellish amount of time and effort, playtesting and hard work. Personally I think the results of this shouldn't be thrown into a ghetto that no one rerads or cares about. It's discouraging and for sure doesn't help the development of second life itself.
Sure, the splitting of the forums probably helped the clothing/apparel market to a VERY limited amount, but come on, it didn't need ANY help in the first place (and clothing is my main trade, but still..), since good clothing NEVER failed to gain attention in the forums. On the other hand it gave an hard blow to the other markets (or at least to the VERY important advertising function of the forums on them), that really didn't need to be sunk more.
I recently talked with a few people that always provd VERY interested in my cars and that regularly browse the forums, and what was the result? They didn't have ANY idea than a new car was out, because the vehicle forums is so dead that they don't even read it, almost everyone else... And that is kinda sad and discouraging.
Of course this is just my opinion, and i might be wrong, but i think a rejoining of the new products forums (or at least a new organization in two bigger forums, clothing/apparel and Everything else) might help focusing the attention and giving a chance to the content creators that decided to work on something different than clothes.

Sorry for the long rant and thank you for your attention.

You've voiced what my initial fear was when these forums were split up.

While I think, overall, it was a positive move, one definite problem that has surfaced is that we've lost "Trickle Down" exposure... While everyone was exploring the ONE Products forum, they would be exposed to not only what they were perhaps looking FOR, but other products as well, indirectly.

We've lost that and have gained, technically, equal amount of exposure as far as the forum system goes. Unfortunately, it's resident habits that are now our limitation in advertising/announcing new products of perhaps an uncommon nature.

What can be done about it, I'm not so sure. I'm not even sure there can be any real solution... go back to the flood we had before or keep our isolated "corners"?

Yup, this is definitely an issue. I used to read the New Products forum off and on, and now I rarely even open that whole section since it's too much work to check about five forums.

I said it before this change was made, and I'll say it again: Leave the New Products forum open to ALL new product postings, and make it post-only. That way, new products are truly new and not bumpable days, weeks and months later. This is a simple and efficient way of making sure that everybody's new products have an equal chance of being seen on the main forum, and nobody's stuff gets shunted off to a dusty corner of the Classifieds section. Yes, it will mean a fast-moving forum, but it's easier to scroll back through a couple pages of postings on one forum than to peruse a handful of forums separately, IMO.

The only problem I see with your idea, Beryl, is that for those designers that release more than one outfit/thing at a time, and if they posted each new product a seperate post... (As some people do...) It could quickly drown out other new products as well.

It's not a great system, but atleast the option to allow community feedback offers those products who others have found useful to remain visible.

I'd be all for a change though, if it addressed that issue.

Delairen

Personally the last place I go is the clothes and body area. To cluttered and to efw things I like. I read all posts that are new and at least open them if not read them if they are interesting. If there is a problem with the new forums wat is the solution...obviously the old way did not work and the new way is suppossedly not working. Maybe we should make the area no reply so only designer ads show up so no "bumping" occurs to drown out other products, therefore crushing any encouragement of new "designers"?

I'm pretty much with Juro... I love the split.. Not only does my stuff (usually scripted gadgets) stay on the page for more than 40 seconds, but as an added bonus I can look for things that interest me easier.

I'm not an impulse buyer, so if I'm looking for a new car, I don't wanna wade through 450 pairs of stilettos to look at one.

I like the split as well. I just wish people would post in the proper categories. Some people are already starting to mispost their gadgets in the Clothing & Accessories forum because it's the most popular one.

Not trying to be sexist or anything, but am I the only one that thinks a two-forum system, one labled "Women's Fashion" and the other labled "Everything Else" is about the only way the new product forums would ever be balanced?

Yep, I like it too, mostly because I usually only check the New Products > Clothing. Also, I post in New Products > Clothing. And it stays there! Where people can see it! It's amazing!

Come on down to the virtual ghetto that is the rest of the forums sometime...

Meh. Any way you do it is going to have drawbacks. Life is just a series of trade-offs and compromises.

I'm OK with any format so long as I can use it same as everyone else.

Your right, i dont like it either

I personally think they should stop with "Bump" threads... so if you post a thread it stays in the top until someone else posts a new one.

I dont like the idea of bumping threads, the same people that comment in your stuff comment again in everything you do. Even if they dont like the item.. just for been friends.

I have nothing agaist it, but it gets kinda boring the same people over and over again.
Sure the designer wants and needs support, but are their friends supporting them? or just bumping their threads so everyone can see the item??
Is the designer using their friends to sell the items?!?


I have known some people that asked me to post in their threads, why i dont know.
Now im just posting on stuff i like, and stuff that i see that the designer actually spend time on.

But again, everyone has their own opinions, this is mine

I would also prefer if replies didn't bump the threads.

thanks for putting it in a short term hehe

Lol i SO agree.
True, for some it's easier to browse like this, but for the bulk of the people just makes the non-clothing/apparel forums just another useless line to make the forum list longer... what an annoyance uh?
At the very least it would be in order to make it in two forums: Clothing/apparel and everything else.
This would avoid the cluttering, but at the very least the "everything else" would have a decent amount of attention, since the total number of other products hardly make the total sheer amount of new clothes coming out.
People would be sure willing to browse a couple of forums instead of six.
I guess that's a common problems of the SL forums as a whole anyway, every day new forums are opened and discussions get more and more dispersive.

PS: Wuv, would you bump my thread please?

FINE!!! going there now... lol

lol ^_^ sorry hun, i realy couldn't resist

Edit: lol, she really did it ^_^;;;

I enjoy comments from people about my clothing when I post new items but I agree about the whole "bumping" problem. I've seen people drag in their alts, their friends, and anyone else they can find to keep their thread at the top and give it lots of praise/attention. I've actually had someone "compete" with me to keep their thread above mine...at first I brushed it off like I'm just being silly, but then I tested it out several ways and sure enough they bit every time, sometimes actually having friends post *twice* lol.

I'm not sure if making the forum no reply is the best solution, I know it's good to have some encouragement when you're designing. It's a good way to see what people are interested in as well. I just wish that people would change their thinking about placement and amount of replies in the forum. Just because you have 5 replies and someone else has 20 doesn't mean your designs suck, take into consideration what I mentioned at the start of my post lol. The amount of people that actually check the forums is a small percentage of the SL population.

Yes, it helps some to advertise in the forum but if you don't advertise in world in some way, it's something you should consider.

I guess I've never noticed... I always hit the New Posts button when I log into the forums, pulls up everything new since I last did it.

I've had the exact same experiences. I've even told my husband, "Watch this, now so-and-so will post.." and sure enough, the usual suspects show up to encourage their friends. Not a bad thing, really, but it sucks for those whose threads get bumped down off the page. I sometimes read the positive comments in my own threads, and feel cheesy for posting a Thank You! in case it looks like I'm bumping my threads.

I'd love if we could somehow keep the Classified forums respondable (is that a word?) without having those responses bump threads to the top. Having never ran a forum, I don't know if that's an option, but it would be nice.

I am not sure about this forum software, but I know with the software I use on my site, I was able to set up the classified forums to have subforums that sorted by the date of the thread creation, not last post. As this software is pretty feature comparable, I would imagine it may just be a setting on the individual forum - and a desperately needed one at that. I am tired of the "OMG THAT IS SEXXAY!!!! I AM GOING TO GO BUY ALL 20 COLORS!!" posts bumping some two week old thing up to to the top (or conversations back and forth between the designer and some other person).

dont forget:

"OMG im SO GONNA DIE IF I DONT GET THIS OMG OMG OMG"

Yes hysterical bumping is tiresome.

However I much prefer the split forums. If I'm looking for hair I can't be bothered to fish through 3000 threads on clothing. Other items get much more exposure this way.

How about splitting it between "Clothes" and "Everything Else" then? That would probably be closer to balanced, and give some of the more neglected forum's posters a break.