Topic: Trial Board Function (Read 2405 times)

Going to put this one back up
There is a lot of support for a Ponzi sub section so using it a case study where a trial board would have strong community support and be worth experimentation and to illustrate how the forum should be able to adapt over time to experiment with new sections/subsections.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.10172690


Took a few months H@C but to get back to you on that directly again but Ponzi's seem more than ever to fit the criteria at present as you yourself noted  
(It seems to be more work to monitor them than to separate them)

we need a domain board for sure..those guys have destroyed the auction section.

For me the main benefits of implementing trial boards is:

It allows boards that are able to garner sufficient user support to be experimented with in real time and can help to determine whether it is worth the time to implement it as a main board or not, instead of an admin or mod being presented with the choice of yes/no to any new board proposals they can try it out first and determine if there is sufficient user support.

It provides a central location for these inputs, previously there would be no way of knowing what boards people want except for a user requesting it by himself in meta then having it buried, this creates a central area where one can submit proposals and have them viewed by the community and remain visible for longer periods of time.

It saves the time of people requesting X board in Meta.

_
In my opinion, most boards suffice at present but I would like the new forum software to allow for some experimentation and it's best to code it as a function when its being developed.

I have seen a few meta requests for specialized boards now and then but they get lost in the general context of all the topics in meta and this would provide an opportunity to experiment with them, instead of saying X board would never get enough traffic without having a test case.

If the trial board fails then that settles it and the trial board is removed, if proven to be viable it can be implemented as a new board to the forum.

Presently the main boards that would be worth suggesting some trial boards to in my opinion are Distributed Blockchains fundamentally related to the Bitcoin protocol (Bitcoin 2.0) which is separate from Altcoins and Crytocurrencies or clone coins.

And a Science and Technology level to go with the Politics and Society and Economics.

Inside it a general forum for technology related discussion that is not part of mining or bitcoin discussion but may be worth looking into like a general/distributed computing subforum etc.

And a request board where users propose suggestions such as this one for the new forum software.

An example I hear often enough is a certain forum section was getting annoyed with Ponzi's so it might make sense to try and resolve those type of issues by creating an appropriate trial board and seeing what effect it has in that section.

Another common one is a Sports sub board.

The above are just examples though, they would need to be tested to see if they were worth keeping but that is what a trial boards primary function is to experiment and adapt to the community's needs.

That said it never hurts to have a few spare slots open that can be filled but only if there are enough users to fill up the board.
But you do have a fair point H@C janitors and mods don't grow on trees, and are easily the forums most valued and in-demand resource.

Possibly. I have thought there maybe could be a Service Help sub for those sorts of quandaries as simple help me with this service threads obviously get mixed up with people just generally discussing services etc.

Blockchain.info wallet child board(If child board can also be suggested) [1]. There is no need for other boards now, IMO.

[1] Many of the posts are moved to service discussion and it won't be resolved as most of them(who can help) doesn't see it.

   ~~MZ~~

Seems like a bit of a hassle to implement imo and a thread discussing the need for a new board would probably suffice. Out of curiosity, what new boards would you suggest? I can't think of any that are desperately needed and more boards can sometimes create more problems than they solve and cause more hassle than they're worth.

Approved, good suggestion.

Didn't see this as a suggestion yet

Suggestion:

The option for users of the community to vote in trial boards to broaden the scope of the website. The forum would open new trial boards as resources permit, based on requests from the userbase. If a board does not perform well, it is removed to make way for others. A board's trial status is denoted by its name appearing italicized on the navigation menu.

Boards are added only if there is enough interest to drive quality traffic to them.