Replying to Should We Delete The Gaming Forums?

if gaming forum don't seem that worth having, why not narrow it down and remove sub-forums (or merge) to one Forum?

Everybody enjoy to play some kind of games, including computer/video games.

If the problem is the garbage, then you can:
1. enroll more moderators
2. work more time
3. add/change to more strictly rules, by example:
--> game related topics need to be approved before display(like tutorials).
--> max of 20 replies for every topic, moderators will allow more according to the quality of posts.
--> ONE SPAM post is enough to delete your account and add your name to our PUBLIC SPAMMERS LIST.
4. improve your "banned words" list
5. add the option to earn credits informing SPAM POSTS

Blessings!

Do I get to vote even if I have not been active for quite some time and I am in the process of moving over to Computing Host?



Any case, here is my opinion. I have posted in the gaming forum, but most of the time, it is with the perspective of a designer. Here are the options:

1. From seeing how things are going there, I would say get rid of it and direct interested members to Trap17 forums.
2. If that is too harsh, you can remove the post count/credit given for posts there.

And if it is kept, I would say at least combine all the subforums to one - it would hopefully deter and result in one spammy post instead of one in each sub-forum.

Just to toss my own suggestion out there...
Before I begin I'd like to say that I have VERY little understanding at how these forums are set up or how they work and what can/cannot be done with it...

But I think it mught be a decent idea to like... Have the gaming forums so they only give hosting credits to people after they've proven themselves to be capable of good discussion.

Such as, after they're hosted, or after they've been a good member for a certain amount of time... Or maybe just people who have achieved the higher level hosting package (The one that requires 30 Hosting Credits to request).

I have no idea how well that would work, honestly, or if it wolud be ridiculiously hard to implement, if even possible... But I think it should be at least considerable...

Because with it in place, new members who would only go in there to spam their way to hosting credits would recieve nothing in return... But once a member has proven themselves able to have an intelligent discussion and not spam and give more work to the moderators, they will be able to benefit from posting along in the gaming forums.

As for myself... At the moment I haven't posted there at all, which is weird for me because I'm rather a big gamer alot of the time...
I haven't even looked through the forum because I -know- they're horrible-esque right now.

20 persons voted.
So, seems that only 20 persons seems concerned by the problem.
I would say something : suppose that the gaming forums turns to "no post count". I'm pretty sure that, then, no spammers will be interested.
Then, no more spams in this forum. Unfortunately, the people with a gamer-mainly profile will loose the opportunity of earning credits.
I see an intermediate solution : what about allowing a game-only profiled guy to be a moderator on the gaming forum ? He would be motivated to keep this forum clean and spam-free !

Killer, we delete all the spam we find, that's why most aren't

I'll weigh in on this saying to keep the section. While I also put in a lot of time tracking bullshit posts in the gaming forum as well as rarely posting there myself, this place IS a technology site. Gaming is a very important and very lucrative technology business so it makes sense to keep it to me. Sure a lot of people try to abuse the section and post ridiculously cheap posts, but on the other hand sometimes there are very good discussions and debates about gaming on a level higher then "th15 g4m3s awes000me!!!1111ONE!"

So yes, I'll vote to leave it and even leave it counting for credits even though it will make me have more work to do. Maybe you should just be like me and get a little quicker on the old ban button

I'm for removal of the section, or at least removal of the post counter around here. I was quite surprised when, after passing by the "technically minded forums only!" warnings, I saw the gaming section.

Although I admit that I've posted several times here, and some of the threads are on a high quality level, a lot of them are not. If fact, I'm a staff member on a site with 25000-members community, and I know how hard it is to moderate such section, which already is on the edge of usefulness for otherwise fine themed-forums. It is true that some of us participate in fine game-related discussions here, but there are other places (trap17 among them) we can do that on, and seeing how this section becomes an excuse for the said one-liners or other posts that nobody will read I definitely support Mark420's idea. I also would not mind deletion of my posts in this section, and would prefer the staff focusing on the threads more essential to the site's theme, instead of wasting time here.

There's a voice in the back of my mind urging me to say "Just get rid of the gaming forums; they're useless!" But I guess I'll try being a bit more reasonable. It is very possible to have a gaming forum without spam. So maybe the gaming forum as a whole shouldn't have post count but specific topics that usually require "better" posts should? Like when a moderator finds a topic to be interesting/worthy of discussion, they'd mark at as having post count. (Or perhaps that system would be waaay too complicated...)

With that said, I think it should stay as someone said before. As long as it pertains to more technical aspects instead of which game is favorite and listing your entire life time game collection, which I believe is a total waste of time and in a way I find it spamming...

Same. But a lot of the threads are what you would consider spamming...And people can't exactly be warned off that. Every new member will inevitably go do that because it looks like an easy way to gain credits (which it is).

Alot/most of the posts in the gaming part of the forums isn't spam, almost all of the ones that I have looked at/wrote have been good debates, and reviews. Not to mention I'm an avid gamer Definantly keep it Specially for me

I have perused the gaming forums here once in a while and have seen some posts that just bother the heck out of me in the past. I see another one now that a member reported already and hesitating on taking action on it. I believe that we should keep it, but change it to a no credit count forum instead. The "fun" part is still here, so there should be no problem. Astahost is used mainly for information on technology (mostly computer related). Gaming should have a category of its own and I believe that Trap17 is a good choice.

This is not to offend anyone, but if you have problems keeping up with the computer related forums, I suggest going to Trap17. This has been mentioned more than once before in the forum by other members and maybe even some staff. Not only will you be earning credits more easier over there, but it will probably interest you more.

With that said, I think it should stay as someone said before. As long as it pertains to more technical aspects instead of which game is favorite and listing your entire life time game collection, which I believe is a total waste of time and in a way I find it spamming...