[baystateoftheart]

Now that the site's been reorganized, post the topic for goodness' sake MadhattanJack

Also, just a general observation: if every time someone got the urge to post a reply somewhere about missing the good old days, BEA declining, not enough forum activity, low-quality topics, etc. etc., they instead posted a brand-new topic starting a conversation about something musical, there would in fact be much more music forum activity.
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[CA Dreamin]

[albummaster]

Still early days, but moving the automated posts hasn't made much difference yet. The only truly active thread is now the __listening one. The Diaries forum remains the most active. Just delved into the BEA archives to look back at the rationale for creating the Diaries forum ten years ago (and still agree with the rationale), but there are some interesting observations about the __listening thread from way back when:

"The beginning of the end of the most abused thread in BEA history"

"Would it be better to have that thread in that forum do you think? Maybe for someone who wants to post what they're listening to but doesn't want to write up a whole thing about it? Or perhaps we should just let the thread die".

"Some of the posts that end up in the "What album are you listening to?" thread would be much better preserved in a diary-like thread that could be easily browsed"

The main argument(s) the other way (and same arguments repeated in other threads):

"Even if people just post what they are listening to without talking about it, there's value in it. It's interesting to see what people are listening to... listening to albums is why we're here, and the thread is a big part of it. The diaries are separate, in a separate forum, and should stay that way. It's also probably the easiest source for recs on the site."

This is a bit of a stream of consciousness from me, so apologies, but if that thread (and other threads like it) were moved out of the Music forum, then I don't think anything else right now will pick up the vacuum. I think the Music forum has lost it's purpose and maybe needs to be redefined in an age where we also have a Diaries thread for people to express themselves. Most quality content has now migrated to the diaries.

In linked thread (above) which championed creating a Diaries forum, there was also the idea of making the diaries more exclusive rather, than open to all (a 'perk' for higher members). If this became the case, would this help move content elsewhere? Is there any point keeping open the Music forum if it will forever be mostly void.

I personally still believe the Music forum has a purpose as a 'gateway' into the site and for more general music discussion. There's also definitely an overlap with some of the content in the Diaries, which could work just as well in the Music forum. Maybe both forums need to be redefined (in terms of their descriptions), so they can co-exist without cannibalising each other.

[Romanelli]

I believe that the Diaries forum has been good, but it's also become kind of thin. There are a few threads there (the Rank-Em threads, for example) that would be much better served in the Music forum, as they aren't really built to be diaries, but discussions. The real music diaries tend to be more one sided...as a diary is in real life. Discussion is not necessary for the thread to thrive. It's someone putting their thoughts and musical journey out there for others to read without having to participate.

Maybe if the more discussion based diaries were in music, they'd get more notice? With AOTD and COTD gone, things won't get buried nearly as easily.

There are easily six or seven threads in Diaries that would be better served in Music. The diaries page is, in reality, not very deep in threads...page one still contains threads last posted on in the month of June.

At this point, do we even need both?

Also, the New Users forum is a graveyard of "hi" that goes back more than a full year on page one. Games has the two "Albums Below You" threads that would probably get more traffic in Music (and because of where they are, get ignored more than they deserve)...otherwise, it's a wasteland of tournaments that rarely seem to happen anymore...only 2 in the last year. Maybe we move the Albums Below You threads to music and rename Games as Tournaments?

Politics & Religion hasn't been posted on in over a year, and contains only one thread that isn't locked and dead. Naples isn't here anymore...do we really need it?

I guess what I'm getting at is that we could maybe streamline some things. Fewer subforums. Have some threads moved to spots where they might be seen a bit more.
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I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history

[baystateoftheart]

[albummaster]

[Romanelli]

Hey...here's a question.

Is there a way to post the AOTD and COTD in music...and then have them move automatically to Announcements after, say, 24 hours, when the next one comes up? That way, you would have both upfront in the music forum, but just for a day. And there would never be more than one of each of them there at a time...
_________________
I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history

[albummaster]

[Johnnyo]