@The Proctor this is what people think bossman. It's been two weeks and basically nobody except the fag likes the change and EVERYONE here is a regular user. I really think you should put it to a public vote and end this charade, the forum simply does not have enough people to support split generals anymore and we only LOOSING frequent posters, not gaining them.
A potential loss of users due to the nature of the transition was anticipated during the planning stage and deemed acceptable in order to accomplish the goals that staff laid out. Two weeks is in no way a sufficient amount of time to judge the results of this transition.
This is the new status quo. It will not be reverting. You are welcome to suggest alternatives and expansions of the existing topic range, or extra add-ons that will make the new site experience easier to navigate and pleasant to use, but that is it.
I am enjoying the new atmosphere in the new threads. I see people positively discussing things that would previously have gotten multiple sarcastic 'LITERALLY WHO?' or similar derogatory comments in the general thread. The majority of complaints are people talking about having to do 5% more work than before to find content they want. I do not consider these to be substantive criticisms.
In regards to the accusations of the new threads being hugboxes as worthy of consideration, I have a different interpretation. Members have become very used to having control over one general thread. Within the single-thread structure, just a few people can easily suppress any viewpoints they disagree with and push any conversations they don't want to partake in out of consideration. Over time, this has created a very insular view of differing opinions, and an internal culture that is designed to be impenetrable to most of them.
As a result, the same talking points are repeated and reinforced, and challenging them becomes progressively harder. The illusion of openness is maintained because established users with good track records of not rocking the boat are able to sometimes suggest new ideas or avenues of discussion that don't threaten the overall culture that has developed, but radical new ideas are rejected and considered dangerous.
I do not view this as healthy, and I take the negative reactions towards the new threads and the arguments that took place during their initial creation as justification for their implementation, rather than a reason to rescind their existence. A community that cannot endure the sight of other people posting about things they personally disagree with, in their own spaces, which they must
voluntarily expose themselves to in order to even be aware of, is
not a healthy community. I consider disrupting this status quo to be worth a short-term fall in user activity, and I hope that others will come to agree with that assessment as time passes.
I've restored the 'New Threads' sidebar display so that new threads will actually get the proper exposure they need. I apologize for not accounting for how used people are to there not being any new ones until now.