Fun for who?
Forums are supposed to be fun, but there are many thousands of forums out there so ideally everyone can find one that suits their intrests. A few "community" posts that have nothing to do with the main topic can be fun, but they shouldn't take over. When fun but off topic posts by a handfull of users start out-numbering on topic posts the group is on it's way down, I've seen this happen both with web forums and USENET groups. New readers are turned off because the group is mostly fluff and in jokes that they don't get, not the topic they came to the site to discuss.
I find discussions that have some depth to be fun, I like discussing the implications of things. I don't find reading fluffy chats between people I don't know to be fun, that sort of thing would be better served by IRC, ICQ or private email. Is there some exhibitionist thrill folks get by holding pointless private discussions in public? Shallow, off-topic discussions between just a few people (say 5 or 6) clutter the boards and make them LESS fun for most of the other readers. I've barely read these forums in the last few months because nearly every topic in the recent discussions box has nothing to do with mudding.
Taking the TotBH threads out of the recent discussions box would help. Another option would be for some savvy chatter to create a #topmudsites channel on an IRC server, creating a fun, informal place for members of the community to chat without disrupting ongoing mud related discussions here.
Angela Christine
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