i've lurked for quite a few years (only a registered member for less than a handful) but i've seen various changes in how the GARM operates and flows on a daily basis throughout the years. i'd like to open a (civil) discussion of how we might make this a better place to talk rockets basketball. feel free to contribute or critique others ideas but again let's try to keep it civil and not turn this into OMG PLS LEEV LIN FANS.
didn't want to detract from my original post but an idea i've seen on some other forums is only have one thread dedicated to 1 player and all the discussion concerning a current player on the houston rockets will be posted in the one thread named in their title. IE if we want to talk about Jeremy lin we open a thread named 'Jeremy Lin' or the 'All encompassing Jeremy Lin thread' and delete any other threads started about lin.
In before the following. Cool Story Bro IBTL Five Star Thread! (sarcasm) One star thread! In all seriousness, this place is a cess-pool. I only use it nowadays for the Hangout section and because Reddit will likely never reach the amount of active users in the Rockets subreddit. Plus, there are quality posters here such as Bima, Clutch, etc, and of course the blog posts, podcasts, and occasional interviews are great. Besides that? The constant circle jerking, knee jerkin, accusing everyone of being a INSERT PLAYER HERE onlyfan and such is annoying.
Make high quality posts. Ignore (or report) low quality posts. It's that simple. For an example, take a look at posts by Cautiously_Op after every game in the post-game analysis section.
Count to ten, or fifty, before posting. It's amazing how much more objective you can be after letting an initial emotional response pass. And wear body armor in the game threads.
The GARM should be a team-first forum. I know that's impossible to implement, but still. Users will obviously have their preference between player A and player B; some may like the coach while others may want him fired; and some will question our GM while others defend him... The point is that people sometimes get carried away with these small details/opinions, and form an agenda (often subconsciously) to make others have the same opinion, rather than thinking about the team. And that, is when the GARM suffers...when more users are attached to their opinions/affiliations than the team itself. Unfortunately, it's so polarized that any thread taking a position on a touchy topic (i.e. Lin, McHale etc), will be shot down, even if it's made in an objective manner.
It isn't very clear where exactly the line is on high vs low quality post. Does humor qualify? Does humor that only appeals to a subset of the [forum] audience qualify? Should I say something in an area I know less about? It's easy to read a thread and say "well, I know more than that bozo." (Preferably to myself rather than to the bozo). On the other hand, I find myself being the bozo on occasion. Life was less complicated when I was just a lurker.
1. Team support, those that continuously pump up only one player sh/be banned (the constant Harden/Lin/Dwight is great/horrible comments are a waste of time) 2. Racist comments - immediate ban 3. Positive/Negative comments with facts are great 4. Get rid of thread rating and repping
Stop reading the Game Threads. Ignore the comments that involve "he who must not be named" in every thread.
Which would only encourage trouble makers to create fake accounts. But being able to see how many people have you on ignore might discourage you from trolling. After all, why bother if no one can see it?
Don't feed the trolls. Use your ignore list. Post quality. Rep quality. Learn to live with the static.
How about forcing one to rate the thread before they can post on it? This way the 1 star threads can be dropped out quickly and the thread rating actually means something.
I simply cannot read through 46-page threads for the pertinent information I want on page 26 or today's info that starts on page whatever. How about locking long threads after 12 hours then starting a new thread with any real info then locking it after 12 hours and so on. That way it is easier to see what has been added recently.
The pertinent information on a 46 page thread is usually in the first few pages. The rest is tail-chasing.
If I remember correctly, an account had to be approved first before he/she can post something? But real question, what is a quality post actually? If I know this I might take better care of what I post. I usually post reactions on someone else's posts. What should I post and what shouldn't I post? During gametime I usually don't post, because I'd be chatting about the game with other people instead of posting in the gamethread.
