[NSC] Should NSC just be a football forum?

[Greg Bobkin]

When you start dictating what a forum should or shouldn't include, it's the beginning of the end, IMO. Conversations veer all over the place, so an Albion thread might go off into other non-footballing directions – how do the mods police that? Remove any non-specific Albion comments? It just potentially creates more work for them and they don't get paid enough to deal with that...

For me, part of the draw of NSC is, of course, the football, but also other subjects – the running thread helps keep me motivated fitness-wise, the old Brighton postcard one is fascinating and helps me learn loads about how the area used to be and that puzzle one that appears around Christmas-time keeps me entertained for hours. Then there are other random threads provide a context to subjects I wouldn't necessarily find elsewhere (politics, TV, dead people, etc, etc). Get rid of all of that and the whole place loses a massive amount of its appeal.

I can't comment on other threads such as the ones about restaurants, albums, infinite jukebox, best song today, naps and books because I don't go near them, but the very fact that I know about them is because they are almost always on the first page of NSC. Therefore, they are popular (some of the numbers must put them at the most-read/contributed threads ever), which is reason alone to keep things as they are.

What I WOULD say is that if someone wanted to start a football/Albion-only forum, knock yourself out. But I BET it would be more hassle than it's worth, you'd get pissed off trying to police it within weeks and it would pretty quickly fade and die.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

If you want my opinion? No, I'm only here because I had an involvement with the club relating to (the big one) sponsorship deals, I am unlikely to comment on favoured formations who who can play left back for Brighton. Moreover, one of the big advantages of a forum over FB, X etc is that it isn't an echo chamber, you are going to see opposing views, they may even help you see things differently? Fundamentally that's why a popular recent flouncer left, unable to cope with that fact he couldn't just close people down. So, I'm not and never will be a Brighton fan and I don't particular warm to everyone here but overall it's great and I spend too much time here.

I like fans of other teams posting on here, and most contribute to the discussions with great info.

 

[Seagull27]

None of the above. There are lots of topics discussed on NSC by decent people with one main shared interest. Unfortunately the forum is let down by its political content. Banish that alone to a sub forum and I reckon the nastier posters would go elsewhere.

There is a filter option on the Big Board where you can filter out threads with a Politics or News prefix, wouldn't that do the job for you?

Personally, NSC is the first place I come to for following news events and my opinion/knowledge on these subjects is frequently altered by postings on here. The fact that we only have one thing in common: a football club (plus an affinity to Brighton/Sussex, I guess) means there is a breadth of backgrounds and opinions.

I use NSC more than any other social media site and would be quite sad if it was shut down to football chat only - if it was, I'd probably only log in at the weekends.

 

[BadFish]

I would like to see an alert plugin added so we can keep up with where the binfests are happening.

 

[dazzer6666]

I like fans of other teams posting on here, and most contribute to the discussions with great info.

Except Palace. They can all **** off.

 

[Bozza]

I would like to see an alert plugin added so we can keep up with where the binfests are happening.

Paid option.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Keep it the same, it's good, it works for most (nearly all, surely).

For those that don't wish to negotiate round threads they don't want to read, then, the ignore thread paid option mentioned by Bozza seems like a good idea to me.

To go further, if someone doesn't like hearing a range of different opinions, with a wide range of merit and substance, perhaps the internet isn't the place for them.

Like most other people I use the internet mainly for work. Also for researching holidays and restaurants. I think you will find that people find many similar and other ways to use the internet that do not involve ‘opinions.’ The differences between people’s motivations for being here are probably correlated with whether or not they are also members of Twitter. In that respect NSC has quite a cross section of internet users and lack of understanding of the difference is what drives much disagreement on threads.

 

[BadFish]

Like most other people I use the internet mainly for work. Also for researching holidays and restaurants. I think you will find that people find many similar and other ways to use the internet that do not involve ‘opinions.’ The differences between people’s motivations for being here are probably correlated with whether or not they are also members of Twitter. In that respect NSC has quite a cross section of internet users and lack of understanding of the difference is what drives much disagreement on threads.

Fair comment, I should have said social media (in which I include NSC) rather than the internet.

 

[Guinness Boy]

When you start dictating what a forum should or shouldn't include, it's the beginning of the end, IMO. Conversations veer all over the place, so an Albion thread might go off into other non-footballing directions – how do the mods police that? Remove any non-specific Albion comments? It just potentially creates more work for them and they don't get paid enough to deal with that...

For me, part of the draw of NSC is, of course, the football, but also other subjects – the running thread helps keep me motivated fitness-wise, the old Brighton postcard one is fascinating and helps me learn loads about how the area used to be and that puzzle one that appears around Christmas-time keeps me entertained for hours. Then there are other random threads provide a context to subjects I wouldn't necessarily find elsewhere (politics, TV, dead people, etc, etc). Get rid of all of that and the whole place loses a massive amount of its appeal.

I can't comment on other threads such as the ones about restaurants, albums, infinite jukebox, best song today, naps and books because I don't go near them, but the very fact that I know about them is because they are almost always on the first page of NSC. Therefore, they are popular (some of the numbers must put them at the most-read/contributed threads ever), which is reason alone to keep things as they are.

What I WOULD say is that if someone wanted to start a football/Albion-only forum, knock yourself out. But I BET it would be more hassle than it's worth, you'd get pissed off trying to police it within weeks and it would pretty quickly fade and die.

PAID?

We barely get let out of the dungeon.

 

[Braggfan]

I've mentioned this on previous threads, but when people talk about the "togetherness" of our fans during the dark days, i can't think of a better example of where it still exists than on NSC. This is a community of fans, who obviously have Albion in common, but we're also linked, by the the day to day things that happen to us and that we then talk about on here. Sometimes we have differing opinions, but mostly we get along and people genuinely help each other out on here. It's more than a forum for just chatting about football, and I think that's why most people come here.

 

[banjo]

I only come on here for the fish puns.

 

[jcdenton08]

I only come on here for the fish puns.

I camembert

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

After reading the messages in the "Manchester City vs BHA Score Predictor", and the discontinuation of these threads which is saddening…..

Genuine question, what occurred? I ask as I’ve spent a serious amount of time on here but this one totally passed me by (and it hasn’t been mentioned again on this thread)

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Except Palace. They can all **** off.

Even Palace, if they behave themselves. Be honest, they were part of the success of REMF.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

After reading the messages in the "Manchester City vs BHA Score Predictor", and the discontinuation of these threads which is saddening, I thought it may be interesting to know the general consensus of users about whether NSC should exclusively focus upon football related topics.
I understand that this isn't an issue for me, and there are others who have a greater role in managing the website, but after seeing this question raised several times on many different threads, I thought that there should be a singular thread asking this question. So, what do you think?

No football forum I’ve ever seen has focused exclusively on football, and I’ve not seen a single person suggesting that this one should do that either. Most football forums however do however have a much clearer division between football topics and the world at large. NSC is more like Mumsnet with all the random bullshit it’s filled with. If people want to argue about Israel vs Hamas, or Twix vs Mars Bars, let them do it — but let them do it in a separate area.

 

[dazzer6666]

I only come on here for the fish puns.

Sole purpose then ?

 

[Justice]

I only come on here for the fish puns.

I only come on here for the fish puns.

Can you stop carping on about fish puns.

 

[BadFish]

Sole purpose then ?

Can you stop carping on about fish puns.

I know they are really wrecking the Plaice

 

[Mustafa II]

No football forum I’ve ever seen has focused exclusively on football, and I’ve not seen a single person suggesting that this one should do that either. Most football forums however do however have a much clearer division between football topics and the world at large. NSC is more like Mumsnet with all the random bullshit it’s filled with. If people want to argue about Israel vs Hamas, or Twix vs Mars Bars, let them do it — but let them do it in a separate area.

The current format encourages all users to engage with all threads.

Separating on and off topic threads into separate forums will result in the same thing it does in the forums of other clubs - less engagement in the off-topic threads, and a handful of prolific users contributing to them... and ultimately less activity overall.

 

[Bozza]

No football forum I’ve ever seen has focused exclusively on football, and I’ve not seen a single person suggesting that this one should do that either. Most football forums however do however have a much clearer division between football topics and the world at large. NSC is more like Mumsnet with all the random bullshit it’s filled with. If people want to argue about Israel vs Hamas, or Twix vs Mars Bars, let them do it — but let them do it in a separate area.

But each thread IS a different area. Once you've opened a thread to swear your undying love for the mighty Twix, you'll not see any criticism of Fannying Around At The Back™ until you intentionally click away and go elsewhere.

By way of some history, in the past I've been an advocate of separate areas, and have polled on it several times over the years. Every single time, without fail, the consensus is exactly the same as the poll here: "leave it alone".