What can we do to liven this place up?

Let's be honest here, EvC forum is dying, the place is just so boring nowadays.I have 3 suggestions to bring this place back to life.Number One: Scrap the Showcase Forum and let the loonies out of there and into the general populace.Number Two: A three warnings and you are out policy. Apply it fairly to all members. Three warnings and then permanent ban.Number Three: Scrap the Proposed New Topics Forum. Sometimes takes too long to clear a topic and when asked to tidy up the OP many people just don't bother and leave. If the OP is a bit ambiguous then general members can ask the proposer for clarification.Any other suggestions about how we can revive this place?Brian.

I could sing and dance.

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I agree with you somewhat about the PNTs...I will make an effort to let a few loony ones loose just for you, Brian.

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Lets us start a few controversial topics ourselves! I can think of a few tried and true Faith/Belief Gems that will draw some controversy.

'tis the season for reason, so I say:"Christmas Music!"
"Green and Red, Everyywhere!"(actually, I'm just joking. I don't want to hear another crappy variation of sleigh ride, silent night, white christmas, or any other perenial classic. same goes for the colors (sorry brian, colours)).Keep the proposed topics forum, but make the process much, much more streamined. If someone leaves because they've been asked to clarify their OP, and they leave without asking why they should, we probably don't want them.Showcase can go--why should randman be given free reign and not us in the same thread?I don't like the three strikes and you're out system, but I do think we need something a little more effective than the current suspension system.other thoughts:
get jar and others back. throw out percy's elitist ideal (for reasons of practicality)ban people from specific forums, and let them back only when they can show they respect the rules for said forums (such as science requiring an evidential based argument versus the faith forums where logic is all that matters or coffee house where it doesn't matter)

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something tells me that theological proof that God is actually satan won't go over very well.we don't need singing and dancing--the theological mind-bending in entertaining enough for us atheists. I don't think I could handle laughing much harder if you started singing and dancing.

More posts from Dan Carrol. He was what got me hooked here, originally.

Well, I haven't been here for a year yet, so I can't compare it to anything else. I'll take your word for it, though. I agree. Controversy is what people like. People want to argue and assert their views. That's what they want. I agree about scrapping Showcase. I realize that Randman is often considered a loony, but so what? His posts generate alot of revenue in the form of posts.When Faith was still here, it was the same thing. People love to love the things they hate. And most people on EvC hate creationism and theism. I say give the people what they want. They want to argue their points. Let it be so. I agree with a 3 strike rule. But, what constitutes an actual warning that is ban-able offense? I think it should be for spamming, for gratuitous use of ad hominem, and for repeated failures to follow the orders of Moderators and Admins. I've seen some people banned for stupid reasons, like, 'being too preachy.' Well, what the hell is this forum for? Its about preaching-- whether its the gospel or about asserting their viewpoint on evolution, creation, ID, cosmology, archaeology anthropology, philosophy, etc, etc... Preaching is what gets people's attention. I disagree here. I think its important that someone articulate their points. I've been on other forums where their "spurious generalities" forum has a new topic, literally, every minute. Its pointless. You'll have three posts for every thread. Aside from which, the dialogue just gets ridiculous, like, "What if Jesus was actually a goat from outer space?" I think moderation is necessary for the topics. I would encourage other good posters to post more. We seem to have a problem with a lack of participation-- particularly, controversial, but well-spoken posters. Holmes is a good example. He generated a lot of revenue, but now he's gone. His leaving will effect the traffic on EvC.

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"With derision the atheist points out that there can be no God because this world is so unfair. Without hesitation, I concur with him. Indeed, we live in an unfair world because of all sorts of social ills and perils. I must not contend with such a sentiment because it is factual-- we don't live in a fair world. Grace is unambiguous proof that we live in an unfair world. I received salvation when I deserved condemnation. Yes, indeed this world is unfair." -Andrew Jaramillo-

I would tend to agree about the showcase forum but I disagree about letting people like randman back into the fray. Some people are just mechanical in their responses with no regard whatsoever to the content of their opponents replies. I could probably write a computer program to mimic randman's participation history. People like him need to be banned if this site is going to be about more than just bickering.Faith on the other hand at least would respond to what you said. I think she needs to be let back in although on a short leash because she had a way of evasion that was subtle.IN short, banning only need occur when a moderate feels that a poster has a history of not debating in good faith. Being that this type of judgement is subjective I would call Faith's banning a grey area.

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Of course, biblical creationists are committed to belief in God's written Word, the Bible, which forbids bearing false witness; --AIG (lest they forget)

It looks like Percy is going to set me up with a development environment to work on site improvements. Other than his to-do list, are they any board features that you all would like to see that we could talk about?I was thinking about things like a built in peanut gallery for GD topics.User defined sticky threads that always stay up at the top of your list. This could be useful for things like slow moving GD topics that you don't want to forget about but constantly get bumped off the first page.I would like to see a post rating system. If you have ever seen slashdot.org, you can go in and spend points that you earn to rate a post in various was on a scale of 1-5 with categories such as 'Interesting', 'Funny', 'Bogus', etc. You would have to spend more points to rate something stronger. You collect points daily or for each post you contribute. Users could then look at recent posts based on their rating to see where the real action is rather than having to look for it themselves. If a thread had enough 'Interesting' posts for example it could be flagged as a HOT TOPIC.I think it would be cool to allow posters to volunteer more information about themselves. Their religious alignment, evo or creo, education, etc could be displayed near their avatar if they so choose.Just some of my ideas to throw out there. ANy other thoughts?

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Of course, biblical creationists are committed to belief in God's written Word, the Bible, which forbids bearing false witness; --AIG (lest they forget)

Also, I think there needs to be a way to flag extra special posts like the ones Bill Birkland used to write. There needs to be some kind of area where you can find the 'Best of the Best of EvC' so you don't have to remember how to find old threads.

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Of course, biblical creationists are committed to belief in God's written Word, the Bible, which forbids bearing false witness; --AIG (lest they forget)

if it's not a problem, let us see the "to-do" list.that tends to help me, at any rate.

Under the three strikes rule, Randman would probably only last a day in the 'fray' before being booted forever.Brian.

It wasn't that subtle. Most of the time it was just "you're wrong, although I can't explain why; but I know you are, so I'm going to pretend like you didn't say anything."

As would pretty much everyone in 'Showcase', which is why it is there. Scrapping showcase and instituting '3 strikes' essentially means permanently banning everyone in showcase, I'm not quite sure how this will liven things up formore than the one day it takes for them all to be banned.TTFN,WK

So we throw out Percy's elitist ideal and institute yours in its place? We all know after all that insisting on scientific arguments in the science forums is itself elitist, apparently.TTFN,WK

I haven't even seen it myself. Its existence is all my speculation. I figure there is list of things somewhere that Percy wants to have done to this place even if it is just in his head.

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Of course, biblical creationists are committed to belief in God's written Word, the Bible, which forbids bearing false witness; --AIG (lest they forget)