Two suggestions

[Antinark]

I was browsing through writers discussion and D & D the other day when i realized how unfortunately inactive both of these awesome boards are, so i got to thinking of ways of boosting up interest in both fields.

 

A Debate League and a Short Story Contest!

 

Now you might be asking why i'm bringing this up here instead of just going ahead and doing it, well the answer is: staff support. I.E. help in pinning the contest threads and what not.

 

I am personally willing to host both contests, but if i'm not seen fit (i know there are many others more active in both forums than me) i will happly hand it over to someone more apt.

 

I was also thinking of producing a guide to formal debating (i.e. opening statements, rebuttles, closing statements) and was wondering it this was at all necessary.

 

So what are your thoughts?

[Over The Wall]

Both boards are great, and we all are guilty of not spending the time to vitit them more often. I'd participate in one, if not both of the events if they were to come about. Glad someone is taking the initiative to do something about the lack of activity there.

[Brown Streak RR]

I agree.

 

These forums have been strangely inactive lately.

 

The Short Story contest sounds very appealing. And so does the debate.

 

I'm curious as to what others think.

 

(No, I'm not posting in here for the heck of it, I do post writings in the Writing Discussion and occasionally pop into Debates. )

[Mafia Drive Gunner]

 

I tried a short story competition. It would have worked, but due to the relative stagnant of this forum it never kept going. I have a scaffold for it(I think I still have it) if you would like to try and start it up again. PM me. -MDG

 

[Swarz]

Formal debating was attempted by Cerbera before and it failed, despite his valiant efforts.

 

Basically, there are only a handful of members, probably around 20, who could form a coherent debate and continue it to reach some kind of conclusive point that's actually worth the trouble. And of those, many aren't active enough for a lively discussion over a set period, and others won't participate in debates in areas that really don't interest them.

 

Most forumers just want to post their traditional one line and be outta there: 'the war in iraw woz bad cos people died and war is bad man'...

 

 

Anyway, at the end of the day it just doesn't work on these forums - sorry for raining on your parade, but I can assure you it's not worth the trouble. Informal debates in the standing fashion of ad hoc are best methinks.

[Otter]

The short story contest sounds like fun, Antinark. I say go for it; spark some creativity.

 

As for the D&D, The best way to spur interest in there is to create an interesting topic and post it.

 

You know, it wouldn't hurt to return and support your arguments after they've been torn to pieces, either.

[SWEETSAPRIK]

D&D, pfft. As it is most of the people in there are arguing about things they won't have any experience with until after they get out of middle school. I have hairs on my nuts that are older then some of the people that think they know better about issues they haven't ever encountered besides in theory. And of the few people that are actually knowledgeable enough to have a serious debate, a good portion of them are suspiciously ignorant when it suits their argument. Circular logic, sophistry, and plain old "playing dumb" make up too many of the posts in there as it is. (At least IMO anyway.)

 

Besides, I don't really see the point in debating serious issues. It's rare that even being proven wrong will change someone's mind. People think what they think, and will most likely continue to do so, even when faced with being wrong. So debating such things has no real effect besides making one feel better/superior once having "owned" someone.

 

[/rant]

 

As for the Writer's Discussion section, there was actually a thread in a while back about upping it's activity. In it I made the suggestion that maybe the Gang Weekly should be posted in there, not because I actually think it belongs in there, more because it's one thread that is sure to get a set amount of views no matter where you put it. That, and it's not like the PGC is hurting for activity, so as long as people knew where it was being posted, they'd read it.

 

My thinking was that maybe if more people went in there at all, they might see something that interests them and stick around.

 

The only other thing I could think of was some sort of contest. Something along the lines of people submitting a beginning, or a first chapter of a story. All of those that submitted, and a select few others (just to ensure that people didn't all vote for their own submission) would then vote on the best one. Whichever one was voted the winner would then be the story that must be either continued, or completed in the next "round" of the competition.

 

Meh, probably wouldn't help, but it's all I could think of.

[SloStenRacing]

Both bad ideas. For the simple reason that they have both been tried and for the most part failed. Not to mention the fact that I don't think D&D is THAT inactive. It always has at least one new reply when I come on each time which is more than I can say for these "Network" forums.

 

Plus to further reiterate Swarz point, there are alot of people who can't form valid debates that would attempt to were a contest to be held. That one is not a good idea.

 

With GWD, it is way too inactive to even be considered. People can post a story and three months later only have a page full of replies about it. It just isn't and probably never will be strong enough to house a good, fair contest.