Dear Captain,
I know you were originally hesitant about posting all those press releases, Captain, but I really enjoy looking at them and having an opportunity to comment on them.
Posting them, particularly those from the smaller publishers, helps to remind me what's out there and, in some cases, what I'm actually already buying! Sure, I buy plenty of books but I rarely think to start a thread on them. Your press-release postings help to start conversations, and I like that!
So please keep them up!
Best,
Lumbering Jack
Replies
Mark, your complaint is exactly why it took me several years to move the PR out of the Groups ghetto. I finally decided the downside you mention was off-set by the upside of getting the information out to those who'd enjoy it. Believe me, I wrestled with it for a long time.
And thanks Jack, Philip, for the kudos!
I agree about the seperate forum category.
If we have to live with the front page sometimes being mainly PR posts, then fair enough, but a seperate forum for them would mean that I could find an ongoing discussion that's dropped off the front page more quickly on the 'general comics discussions' sub-forum or wherever.
And Cap, maybe you already do it sometimes, but would it be possible to post 'follow-up' PR announcements on already started threads. Like keeping all the X-Men Regenesis PR posts on the one thread?
It's just a thought to help alleviate the congestion. (You might need to change the topic title when you do that though...) It would probably help discussion too as seeing a few 'replies' may draw readers to a thread, and also you have all the discussion on one thread then, if someone whats to add comments after the comics come out.
I thought about a separate forum, but that would just continue the bifurcation of discussions -- we would often have separate conversations on the PR thread and a General Comics thread. Or someone would post a link to another news site, when I had the PR up already, or vice versa. Lumping them altogether seemed the solution to duplicate threads.
As to a separate forum helping with the front-page congestion, it wouldn't. Whatever is posted anywhere (except blogs) goes in that general teaser pane. Whatever forum they're in, they'll have the same effect.
And yeah, Figs, I do post follow-up PR on the original thread, when I catch on early enough that it IS a follow-up. Sometimes I'm just zipping through it and don't notice, or I've forgotten that there was a previous post on the same topic. But when I notice that it's a series, I post them all on the same thread. I didn't notice what Marvel was up to with the Marvel: Regenesis until I'd already posted three or four separate threads, and threw up my hands, figuring that with each new one, surely THIS was the last one. Nope, it went on for-friggin-ever.
You can also counteract the torrent of PR threads by simply 'bumping' a discussion you want people to see.
Lumbering Jack said:
I am as suspicious of the word 'simply' as I am of the word 'just'. They both tend to be used in describing actions that are quite complicated and time-consuming.
It's not so much everyone seeing the interesting threads (although that's obviously the name of the game), as much as me finding the ones I might have read earlier and now want to comment on. I think there might still be a case for a seperate forum for PR threads. To find this one I had to click to the forums page, then click to general comics discussions, then click three more times to get to the third page.
It doesn't sound like much, but this is the internet, where buffoons like myself lose interest after two clicks!
I'm not saying 'do it my way', but rather just wondering what anybody else might think.
I can see that the PR threads get a bit more replies now, but they'd still show in the front page for the same amount of time, even if they had their own forum.
I have to admit a bias too, in that I have no time for the marketing from the big two. Somebody dies! Somebody comes back! Never mind that the current storyline's dodgy and with a weak ending; the next one will BLOW YOUR MIND! And our marketing for it will give away how the current story ends anyway! We are Pavlov! You are the dog!
They are full of Spoilers for stories that are either rubbish, and I've no interest in, or stories that might turn out to be good and I'd want to read later without knowing every twist and turn.
Anyway, I'm just a footsoldier in the Captain's army and will go along with however things shake down.
I'm definitely pro-press release -- Like I said they're good reminders of what's out there that we're not actively talking about. But I understand the concerns too. I think a separate section on the front page would be nice compromise.
Maybe you could get the headlines to post in the "right rail" of the site.
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