[skyhawk133]

Over the last year or more, the quality of discussion and number of good topics in the Caffeine Lounge has slowly deteriorated to a point where a large majority of topics regularly degenerate in to name calling, racial/religious attacks, or general stupidity and immaturity.

When we created the Corner Cubicle, the goal was to give more professional topics a place to live without the noise and off-topic banter that often occurred in the Caffeine Lounge. What we've found though, is that the Corner Cubicle has essentially become a vacuum, leaving the Caffeine Lounge with mostly trash topics and members who add little or no value to the rest of the site.

In addition, a lack of moderation in the Caffeine Lounge has meant several members have gotten out of control and regularly dominate conversations or derail them with crap posts and childish behavior.

For me, it's important to have a strong and thriving off-topic community here with lots of great discussions. But in order for this to happen, we need to fix whatever problems exist with our current off-topic areas and work toward a long term solution that is good for the majority of folks here at Dream.In.Code.

We have several ideas on the table, but I would like you to look at the poll above and choose what you feel would be the best option and share any comments you have in this thread. Check all the answers that apply. And please be aware that while there are many other options, most require additional code modifications which we are not looking at doing right now. We're simply looking for ways to improve the off-topic/general discussion areas here at Dream.In.Code and would like your input on how you think we should go about making that a better area.

[drhowarddrfine]

General Discussion and Off Topic boards ALWAYS degenerate to the lowest common denominator on every forum I've ever been to but two in all the years I've been on the 'net. Such areas are equally served by innumerable boards all over the place and offering such just duplicates them. Generally they're populated by kids or people who otherwise don't participate in any of the other boards. They're totally worthless and should be done away with entirely.

[AdamSpeight2008]

The following 3 should be group together under a common area.

Software Engineering
+-Computer Science
  Corner Cubicle
  Software Development

More professional type discussions.


Rep in Caffeine Lounge only for on first post, not replies.

This post has been edited by AdamSpeight2008: 31 January 2011 - 05:32 PM

[dorknexus]

I find the reasoning behind people's votes interesting and useful so I'll expound on my on reasonings here:

I voted that we merge all off-topic forums into the lounge. The original reasoning behind splitting off more serious conversations into separate forums was alright but its sucked all of the interesting topics out of the lounge. Now we are only left with mostly crap in the lounge. There are already plenty of mediums in the forums for professional discussion concerning more serious topics. I think we've sort of crippled the more social/off-topic/fraternizing sub-community on DIC because some people get offended every now and then.

I voted that we don't change anything as far as moderation goes. The lounge is supposed to be fun and a little bit out of control. If that means people get called names, bashed, flamed. So be it. Such is also the nature of going to the bar to have a few drinks with friends. It's all in good fun.

I voted that we enable reputation in the lounge (both up and down reps). However, I kinda found myself unsure about this because it seems like people have no idea how rep is supposed to work in the first place.

How most members use rep:
I agree/like that, up rep.
I disagree/don't like that, down rep.

This misses the whole point that you might disagree with something, but it's still well said and contributes meaningfully to the topic at hand. I'm afraid if we do enable rep in the lounge people will just mercilessly down vote anything off-color or anything they disagree with. This will ultimately discourage people from posting things that are interesting, controversial, entertaining, etc., that they might have normally posted. So it should be made clear that rep should be used reasonably and rationally and not just because you don't agree/like what was said.

TL;DR: The lounge should remain free, open, and devoid of moderation to encourage entertaining and worthwhile discussion. Thus, we should utilize reputation to enforce communal standards on the quality of discussion.

This post has been edited by Dark_Nexus: 31 January 2011 - 05:45 PM

[Gorian]

In terms of religion, I frequently am told not to talk about religion, and it had been brought up a lot. Yet, regulars and alumni frequently make remarks that attack or attempt to discredit a religion, frequently being the catalyst for such "religiously charged remarks" in the lounge. Should "religiously charged remarks" be disallowed, then attempting to incite others to defend their "religious" views, should not be allowed either. I can pull up examples of this happening in the lounge if needed.

I just want to make it clear, this is a 2-sided issue. While I don't hide the fact I am a Christian in these forums, the majority of the time I comment about it is in defense of Christianity when another makes comment bashing Christianity, thus starting any "religious" arguments.

So, in terms of name calling and bashing, my view is, this is the internet. I mean, does it really hurt that much? I am hardly serious, or take things personally, and I spend a lot of time in the lounge. On the other hand, I also don't make stupid, or offhand remarks or posts that result in me, in general, getting flamed or bashed. I do agree though, that we should work on not making things hard for people new to our forums, and give a hard time purely because they are new. While I don't mind is superloth makes a comment about or towards me (after all, would it be the same lounge without it? ) someone new Dream.In.Code most likely won't understand the dynamics of our community.

EDIT: I agree with 's point about rep. I was here for the beta testing of rep, among other things, and when rep was allowed in the lounge, and I would say that is a pretty good assessment of what it boiled down too.

This post has been edited by Gorian: 31 January 2011 - 05:43 PM

[tlhIn`toq]

I think you left out a voting option.

[X] Just delete the sections. This is a programming site, not Facebook. Do we really need to provide a place for people to announce they are getting a divorce or discuss which NextTopModel is the hottest?

[Gorian]

No. A large part of this community is built upon our regulars. It is what makes us, Dream.In.Code, unique. I have better social interactions with others in the lounge, than when we meet in the programming forums.

This post has been edited by Gorian: 31 January 2011 - 05:50 PM

[skyhawk133]

tlhIn, on 31 January 2011 - 05:41 PM, said:

I think you left out a voting option.

[X] Just delete the sections. This is a programming site, not Facebook. Do we really need to provide a place for people to announce they are getting a divorce or discuss which NextTopModel is the hottest?

Yes, because after 10 years, this is still where I enjoy coming to hang out and relax. And we're not just a Q&A site, we're a community of developers. You've gotten me interested in living out of an RV and traveling, others have supported us through hard times, I've made good friends, and had great discussions. It's an important part of Dream.In.Code to me and many others. It shouldn't detract from the site (Which I think it has been lately), but it certainly can add to it, and it's completely optional whether you participate in it or not, but I think it should be a healthy place that makes Dream.In.Code more than just a Yahoo Answers or Experts Exchange.

[macosxnerd101]

@Gorian: I don't see anything wrong with such religious debates, so long as respect is being shown on all sides. Such debate can be healthy and interesting, but there is something to be said for learning about the other sides' views and expressing your own without attacking other people.

The types of comments alluded to in the poll as racially or religiously charged are more the racist comments of recent. Some of the /b/ Hitler pictures have been downright offensive, and there have been a lot of other racist remarks some members have found offensive.

[dorknexus]

Quote

and it's completely optional whether you participate in it or not, but I think it should be a healthy place that makes Dream.In.Code more than just a Yahoo Answers or Experts Exchange.

This.

Quote

The types of comments alluded to in the poll as racially or religiously charged are more the racist comments of recent. Some of the /b/ Hitler pictures have been downright offensive, and there have been a lot of other racist remarks some members have found offensive.

I agree that sometimes fairly offensive things are posted and because we all have different levels of comfort associated with those offensive topics we could perhaps enforce that potentially/blatantly offensive content be posted in spoiler tags so you have the option to skip over it?

This post has been edited by Dark_Nexus: 31 January 2011 - 05:52 PM

[Gorian]

I will note, that many of the people I communicate with in the lounge, have formed what may, (this is the internet after all), be called "friendships" with many of them being friends on facebook, twiter, etc. I know that I game with some of the DIC regulars, and am working on some business stuff with another. However, for those of you with high rep, and may help, but almost never enter or participate in the lounge, I know almost nothing about you, other than the fact you can answer some questions.

(I saw Chris had posted after me, so I though it would make sense to make this a new post, rather than an edit)

[skyhawk133]

For those voting not to merge the Caffeine Lounge with the Corner Cubicle and Games forum, or not to enable reputation. Can you please justify this as I'm curious the reasoning behind your vote.

To me, merging the corner cubicle back in to the lounge will provide a wider sampling of topics and more activity day to day making it a more interesting place, and elevating the quality of discussions and diversity and number of replies.

And for those voting not to enable reputation, I'm curious what your perceived downside is.

[Gorian]

Argh!! I am having to make love to my F5 button to keep up with people posting

@macosxnerd101 I don't either, as long as we are not biased and allow one party to attack, but tell the other they can't defend. That was my point, is that I have been told not to talk about religion, but then someone attacks it. I agree that debates are healthy and fine when kept in check.

[Sergio Tapia]

@tlhIn'toq: I used to like the Caffeine lounge. Our resident latino Sloth made me laugh most of the time with his ways. Not having an off-topic area is taking the D out of DIC. This site is fun to use because of the community.

This post has been edited by Sergio Tapia: 31 January 2011 - 05:56 PM

[CharlieMay]

There are a lot of times when a forum is not active with a lot of topics and at those times I turn to the Lounge and Corner Cubicle to pass the time. I think the lounge needs to stay just as it is. As far as allowing reps, I think that as you stated prior to turning off rep that it would go back to people being "afraid" to post new topics in fear that they will lose rep points. Keep the reps based on helping people with their programming problems which is the soul of DIC.

This site is great in that it has all the flavors of a social site but with the ability to never be a part of it. Anyone can jump into their favorite programming forum and never leave it. But then there are those that prefer the non programming-specific forums that just like the sporadic array of topics.

Merging of common forums like AdamSpeight2008 listed seems logical as they all have to do with general conversations on programming and are not specific to a particular language.