Tech Help's gone

alms 2020-01-09 13:53:30 UTC #1

So Tech Help has been silently rebranded as Hardware for a while and I haven’t seen any sign of it being reverted…

I personally don’t think this is a great change, because of how the scope of the topics that can be discussed there are restricted.

For instance, if someone has problems with their Steam client, or perhaps their WIndows, or Linux, am I supposed to send them over to a competing platform?

I can’t see how that would be a change for the better.

BillButNotBen 2020-01-10 08:45:50 UTC #2

I guess it’s to match the fact that the main site now has Hardware coverage from Katherine.

A quick look over the thread titles there seems to show that it’s about 30% asking for hardware recommendations, and then the rest is split between hardware and software issues… with most issues being more solvable through software.

I wonder if they’re planning to link up the forums and the site posts/comments a bit more closely?

Otherwise, I’d agree that Hardware is a bit too limiting. Maybe ‘Hardware and Tech Advice’?

While we’re at it, I’d rebrand ‘PC Gaming Discussion’ as just ‘Gaming Discussion’ and change the ‘Other Stuff’ subtitle to something like ‘Non-gaming discussion’.

I’m undecided on this, but I’m wondering if it’s worth an experiment of setting the default forum view back to ‘Latest’ instead of ‘Categories’. Given the low volume of posts, it might make things seem a bit more alive. Or not. Might be worth a spin for a month or so though.

alms 2020-01-26 15:21:27 UTC #3

All this change seems to have been rather effective at, is discouraging new threads from being started.

In light of the prolonged silence, I don’t suppose Graham will mind if I add that his stated aim was to restrict discussion on Other Stuff to non-PC gaming, IOW he wanted the forum to become strictly gaming-related.

That said, I struggle to understand Tech Help’s being killed, as it was never a source of highly problematic posts.

These decisions appear to slot in within a curious mix of action and non-action that has pulled a number on this community and its attendance, in particular over the course of the last two years or so.

BillButNotBen 2020-01-27 03:08:14 UTC #4

From a purely personal point of view, which i recognize doesn’t necessarily mean it is good for the whole, that’d be a shame as I come here as much for the moves, tv, books etc… threads as the gaming ones.

Hasn’t the main site been toying with the idea of throwing in a few non-gaming related things from time to time?

Forums all around the web seem to be going a similar way, so it may not be specifically down to anything here. Some things haven’t helped. Some things I thought might help didn’t seem to have much effect. I have no idea.