Are Games Killing Groups?

From what I’ve seen, groups are the most used section of the forum because many people want to avoid arguments, ridicule, and rejection, which often happens in general forum conversations. When someone posts, they’re usually met with responses like 'This has been said so many times' or are demonized by a few who try to shut down the thread or, worse, get it closed by admins by turning it into a battleground. If someone replies, they’re accused of arguing instead of having a conversation. If they’re overly nice while replying, they’re told they’re 'taking over the thread' or 'talking too much.' These actions usually result in the thread dying, and it seems some thrive on shutting down every conversation. The games posts, however, are immune to that. imo

I think it's true that the "post your own..." should be separated from the "post from the previous poster" type games. I've said this before, but the idea gained little traction.

I have nothing against the "post your own" type of posts, but I generally hide them from my feed so I don't see them. I feel that they're very much a write-only place, with few people ever doing anything more than adding their own image, so are basically doing the same as the recent images and the shoutbox.

Hide the ones you don't want to see.

B.

Buddygb Separating the two types of "games" into different groups would make doing that much simpler.

Edited by Sensual Art

Seeing as the "post the best ... from the previous poster" type games are so unpopular, maybe these can be moved to a different forum and leave the rest in the current games forum.

There are various reasons why these are unpopular including ...

1. People spamming these groups by replying too frequently - seems like too much attention seeking
2. People posting to a group where they have no suitable photos for the next poster to select (e.g. select the best b/w from the previous poster when they have none themselves)
3. People whose portfolios you would rather avoid replying to these groups

ANDY00 said

'This has been said so many times' or are demonized by a few who try to shut down the thread

Honestly the most tiresome part of the forums. I don't actually get why there's a need on the part of some posters to reply to things with the sole intention of shouting "shut up shut up, I don't want to talk about this". As though there's a lot of other things going on or they were being forced to read them at gunpoint.

I am not sure thought that the Games one is the root of things though. Most folks that seem to be post there are divided into those that actively enjoy them and those who just want to post something new for extra traffic? I'm not sure dividing them into more subgroups might solve that. But welcome to hear suggestions.

Edited by gm7.photography

Probably everyone else knows this; most of my images are marked 'members only' but as soon as I post them on a forum they become visible to Google bots.

Do the threads where you just post your own pictures along a specified theme even count as games? I think perhaps the "post your own" threads should be in the love shack group because it's literally just people who want to get their pictures noticed. Which again, not judging or suggesting people shouldn't do that, but they aren't really games as they don't require or even suggest any interaction with other members.

ANDY00 said

... When someone posts, they’re usually met with responses like 'This has been said so many times' ...

As with Internet News groups, a group with recurring topics deserves an FAQ.

One approach was to repost the FAQ every month.

They also need some little maintenance.

There are not many FAQs here.

Very few things are new under the Sun, whether this will be different under an exosun remains to be seen. 

gm7.photography said

ANDY00 said

'This has been said so many times' or are demonized by a few who try to shut down the thread

Honestly the most tiresome part of the forums. I don't actually get why there's a need on the part of some posters to reply to things with the sole intention of shouting "shut up shut up, I don't want to talk about this". As though there's a lot of other things going on or they were being forced to read them at gunpoint.

I am not sure thought that the Games one is the root of things though. Most folks that seem to be post there are divided into those that actively enjoy them and those who just want to post something new for extra traffic? I'm not sure dividing them into more subgroups might solve that. But welcome to hear suggestions.

Edited by gm7.photography

Exactly! :-) comp Groups are popular because they’re immune to all that drama. It’s a simple case of supply and demand—if people let discussions flow naturally, maybe the chat side of forum would be more popular. Shutting down the only part that’s working properly isn’t really the answer, lol, in my opinion.

MidgePhoto said

ANDY00 said

... When someone posts, they’re usually met with responses like 'This has been said so many times' ...

As with Internet News groups, a group with recurring topics deserves an FAQ.

One approach was to repost the FAQ every month.

They also need some little maintenance.

There are not many FAQs here.

Very few things are new under the Sun, whether this will be different under an exosun remains to be seen. 

See, I would say if a topic comes up often, it deserves a conversation. I’d also say if a conversation doesn’t interest someone, they can just scroll past it. But apparently, that’s too difficult for some :-D

ANDY00 said

...

See, I would say if a topic comes up often, it deserves a conversation. I’d also say if a conversation doesn’t interest someone, they can just scroll past it. But apparently, that’s too difficult for some :-D

A conversation without a purpose, perhaps.

Yesterday's football game between two particular teams.

A set of statements which annoy people about how photographers or models should conduct their activity, the purpose of this site, with the at least implicit purpose of altering the consensus, Overton Window or justifying some peculiarity is worth starting from the existing state, how we got here, and with a summary of what has been done before.

Otherwise it degenerates quickly into annoyance and repeated efforts resemble Einstein's* definition of insanity .

An example is this one https://purpleport.com/articles/1033/photographers-pictures-in-their-profile-/

* A Physicist, who described important aspects of the fundamental structure of the universe, how to blow up cities and make electricity, and an interesting refrigerator with no moving parts which people think they understand, and usually don't.

The Portrait Cowboy said

Do the threads where you just post your own pictures along a specified theme even count as games? I think perhaps the "post your own" threads should be in the love shack group because it's literally just people who want to get their pictures noticed. Which again, not judging or suggesting people shouldn't do that, but they aren't really games as they don't require or even suggest any interaction with other members.

And, further to my last, do "games" that are just 'post your pictures of models wearing red' kind of games just duplicate the function of custom groups on this site? Or even image tags?

When checking the recent Games section, the 'Game' most recently replied to was 'location shots':

https://purpleport.com/group/games/166318/LOCATION-SHOTS--post-your-location-shots---/

Which, you know, has a variety of location shots in it. As does:

https://purpleport.com/images/search#tag=location

And:

https://purpleport.com/group/amazing-location-events/
https://purpleport.com/group/location-location-location/

Etc etc etc.

And this isn't to say that you can't have a thread that's just about location shots.... but it isn't a "game". There's no "interact with another member in manner 'x' then fulfil requirement 'y' then post afterwards" kind of system. These 'games' serve literally only to benefit, realistically, the first poster as their image always appears first, and the tiny trickle-down engagement of being the last to post. Nobody checks pages 2-(last page minus 1), so they aren't even great for browsing all the images that fit the specified category.

But, you know, each to theirs, etc. But as far as the games section of the forum goes, it's just attention spam which isn't very gamely at all.

I turned the shout gizmo off years ago because that was being a PIA. Though regarding games, anybody who doesn't like them may hide what they don't like. I turned competitions off, got boring.

I turned politics off too, though this is a group that has no place on here imho as it has FA to do with what the site is about.

If it wasn't for games, it would just be squabbles and other nonsense. They do no harm in the grand scheme of things.

MidgePhoto said

ANDY00 said

...

See, I would say if a topic comes up often, it deserves a conversation. I’d also say if a conversation doesn’t interest someone, they can just scroll past it. But apparently, that’s too difficult for some :-D

A conversation without a purpose, perhaps.

Yesterday's football game between two particular teams.

A set of statements which annoy people about how photographers or models should conduct their activity, the purpose of this site, with the at least implicit purpose of altering the consensus, Overton Window or justifying some peculiarity is worth starting from the existing state, how we got here, and with a summary of what has been done before.

Otherwise it degenerates quickly into annoyance and repeated efforts resemble Einstein's* definition of insanity .

An example is this one https://purpleport.com/articles/1033/photographers-pictures-in-their-profile-/

* A Physicist, who described important aspects of the fundamental structure of the universe, how to blow up cities and make electricity, and an interesting refrigerator with no moving parts which people think they understand, and usually don't.

Someone walks into a shop and asks, 'How much is that product?' The clerk answers, '£10.' The next day, another person comes in and asks the same question, and the clerk responds, '£10' again. This repeats forever, and not once does the clerk say, 'This has been asked so many times.' Why? Because the clerk values the person’s question, understands it has a purpose for them and is part of the reason for their job. also It’s polite to respond. A forum’s purpose is to converse, so why do many delight in shutting down discussions just because they’ve happened before? New people in a conversation bring different results—it's better than just 'kill thread, kill thread. imo

The fact is, on this forum, a game thread can easily reach 5,000 pages, while a conversation thread is considered great if it lasts for 5 pages. If it reaches 10 pages, it’s either an epic discussion or a full-blown warzone with lots of blocking going on.

Edited by ANDY00