Forum participation has been pretty low. I feel like we are over using the all-inclusive threads that we have. Don't get me wrong, I love having these threads. But I feel like they are ultimately hurting forum participation. I think we're using them wrong.
For example, we have the Switch Discussion Thread. Anytime anyone wants to talk about the Switch, they post in that thread. So now we have a bloated thread that's currently at 394 pages. Or the "How is your X gaming going?" threads. The SNES one is currently at 229 pages. And the worst culprit, the Random Gaming Thoughts thread.
I thought these threads were great (and I still do) because it was a place to post thoughts that weren't good enough to start a thread for but would otherwise go unheard if we didn't have such threads. But then we all started to use these all-inclusive threads way too much, instead of making new threads when appropriate. It became clear to me when a new Nintendo World Championship cart was discovered and the Racketboy forum only had a brief mention in the Random Gaming Thoughts thread (which is currently at 2,007 pages). C'mon, guys, if that news isn't new thread worthy than I really don't know what is.
New threads and replies in said threads is what's gonna keep forum participation up. A new NWC being discovered is huge news in the retro gaming world, that NEVER happens. A brief remark in a thread with over 2,000 pages isn't gonna get a passerby to decide to join and start posting, but a new thread about it might.
Again, I like having all the "official" and "random" threads, but not at the sacrifice of never making new threads. Some silly random thought about the SNES? Sure, post that in the "How is your SNES gaming going?" thread. But discovered a new game that you've been hooked on? THAT needs a new thread, not to be buried in a large and bloated thread. It's easy for those of us that have been here for years to be OK with having ANY discussion in these all-inclusive threads, but it really puts an outsider off from wanting to join in. Think about it, if there's a Switch thread with almost 4,000 replies, how is that gonna make a newbie feel like they can join in? They would like like if they posted that someone would certain say, "Gosh, we talked about that already," but they can't be expected to catch up with the rest of the community over the past 4,000 replies in that thread! Or if they find a post in Google that they would want to reply to, but it's on page 58, they might feel like they can't reply now because it was hundreds of pages ago. But if that discussion on page 58 was it's own thread, with maybe only 2-3 pages, that wouldn't be the case.
In addition to putting off potential new users, we also have seen a decline in regular users. Myself, who has been coming here regularly for the past 11 years, find it difficult to keep up with the forum because of these threads. For example, every time I check the Random Gaming Thoughts thread, it's several pages past the last time I checked it. I can easily miss something that could have been a nice conversation if it was it's own thread.
I don't want to see these "Official X" threads go away, but I feel like we need to stop using them almost exclusively and start creating more content on the forums. Maybe we should have all of the "Official X" threads locked for a certain amount of time, to try and retrain ourselves how to use the "create new thread" button?
What do you guys think?