Atari Forum?

[marurun]

I will say that every forum I've visited has a horrible search engine implementation that makes it really hard to find threads, so the increased ability to browse categorically is helpful.

[Exhuminator]

I will say that every forum I've visited has a horrible search engine implementation that makes it really hard to find threads, so the increased ability to browse categorically is helpful.

I've always had to use Google to find old threads I'm looking for on Racketboy.

On the other hand, if someone is specifically interested in particular things, drilling down into old topics via subgenres is useful.

On the other other hand, modern forums handle that by allowing users to search associated tags assigned to threads.

[isiolia]

I use the Active Topics most of the time too, but then there's searching for a topic you're looking for.
The forum search is only so helpful so being able to browse a certain category is helpful many times. Plus you can narrow a forum search to a certain sub-forum.

I think part of the consideration is that splitting things up too much makes it difficult to discern where a given conversation belongs. In turn, similar posts or threads can end up in several places, basically requiring forum search just to find it all. Someone just browsing the particular boards they're interested in might end up completely missing interesting discussion because it's in a section they didn't think to look - hence Active Topics/New Posts buttons, I suppose.

The big catch-all threads seem to be better for conversation, but not great for reference. No way to tell what the ginormous Random Gaming Thoughts thread has specifically contained over the past five years and change without searching, and no real point trying to reignite most of the conversation either.

Either way, I don't think that creating boards tends to be a good way to stimulate discussion, if that's the goal. To me, with an active forum, the more logical thing to do is make new subforums when thread/post frequency warrants it. With regard to Atari...I don't see that.

[marurun]

I would argue we have more people actively playing PC Engine and TurboGrafx 16 games than we do Atari games. Then again, we don't have a lot of active PC Engine discussion.

It would be great if we had a tags/subject assignment system, except that those can get pretty messy if not carefully monitored, and nobody is going to go back and tag old threads.

[Exhuminator]

It would be great if we had a tags/subject assignment system, except that those can get pretty messy if not carefully monitored, and nobody is going to go back and tag old threads.

You give a tag pool to choose from when creating a thread, not let people just make their own tags. And this shouldn't be a retroactive thing if it ever came to pass, I agree.

As for Atari, I don't see enough interest to warrant it. About the only regular Atari player we have is Bone. If anything, retro discussion on this forum has been on the decline for a while now. Unfortunately. Who cares, let's talk about Destiny 2 and Super Mario Odyssey!

[marurun]

I think classic gaming is just a tad less exclusive, now. We're not all grognards who won't touch anything newer than 10 years (mostly). It's much more common for us to be fluid in our gaming preferences, swinging back and forth between classic and modern games. And it's also more common for players who normally stick to modern stuff to occasionally pick up a retro indie title or a classic re-release.

[Exhuminator]

swinging back and forth between classic and modern games

Somebody needs to open a swing repair business around here.

ANYWAY don't want to derail the thread. Let's talk Atari! I did very recently beat two Atari games; Haunted House (2600) and Dracula the Undead (Lynx).

[BoneSnapDeez]

I would argue we have more people actively playing PC Engine and TurboGrafx 16 games than we do Atari games.

So that's what, five people vs. three people?

I actually kind of like the idea of an Atari forum (i ultimately voted yes) though I share the noted concerns about clutter and ease of navigation.

[Tanooki]

I put in one of those no votes. It just didn't seem very practical to me as it's not often brought up all that much. There are other systems or system makers who have more discussion about them within various general threads or boards where they just end up getting dropped. It would feel to me if things kept breaking up it would just end up diluting things really. Ok fine, you add Atari then what? SNK because of the NG MVS, AES, NGP, NGPC, other SNK arcade and conversions? How about NEC?

There's a reason for that other area as it's a solid catch all for a forum that isn't overly dedicated to a format like the AtariAge and PC Engine FX Forums type people are, or the friendly Neo Geo for Life facebook (they fairly well retired the old web format) page too. They're all the bests at representing those system/brand makers as it is now. There are some seedy places for such things too so you get the good and bad. This place like it or not is a catch all.

[Nemoide]

I think that if there's going to be a new subforum, it should be splitting up the Sony and Microsoft one into two separate places.

(I've never had much interest in Atari, so I voted against a new section.)