[Yuun]

Hello there!

   After talking to Mein Kloud about some things regarding usergroups, user activity (mainly on the forum), shoutbox stuff, etc., I've come to suggest the addition of lounge threads to this forum to increase activity (which seems to be lacking in a way, more on that later) and make it easier for people to, say, "fit in" with the community. As both of us were not sure if you guys have ever heard of or seen such a thing, we've decided to post a thread regarding this model so we can gather your opinions on it and decide whether it's worth or not to implement it.

Now what are those so-called "lounge threads"? :Nier:

   While roaming around the forum, I've noticed that many of the threads we see are "one-time response" kinds, where you don't post much more than the thread asks you to without actual discussion of whatever is within. Here's where those threads come in.
The way they work is as follows:

• A thread, which will act as our "lounge", is stickied by the staff/admins in a sub-forum that's related to generic talk, such as General Discussion.
  
• In this thread, people are able to post freely about things that aren't relevant enough to be posted as threads. It would act as a "forum discord", in a way that people talk about whatever they want and keep talking till the thread reaches a certain amount of posts (say, 1000), where we lock the thread and post a new one.
  
• This will also be implemented in usergroups, which is one thing we're also planning to add so people can talk about certain topics privately with like-minded people and chill.
  
• This may replace the shoutbox depending on its success, but that's definitely uncertain and will be discussed more later.
  

   So, after reading this, you might have some questions. "How can we be sure this will truly work?", "Is this really going to bring more activity to the forum itself (not the discord)?", "Isn't it going to incentive shitposting?". Well, let's give a bit of a background to this idea.

   This kind of lounge "threading" is not exactly a "new" thing, but it is also not known to many people. I've only seen this being implemented in one community so far, which is close to dying at the moment, and it had great success back in the day. Heck, the usergroup I was in generated something close to 80,000 posts alone over the span of "just" two years, and in the open forums, over 350,000 posts in one year and six months. Now, as far as I've seen in the threads I've lurked on here so far, the posting of useless stuff doesn't seem to be a real issue at all here like it was back there, which is better for us.

    With that said, if you people are still sketchy about whether this will work or not, we can give it a try! We stick a thread in the GD sector, set a goal of one thousand posts within one week/month, and if it gives good results, it's in. Cloud is already up to doing this as he's already seen how it works, so it's all up to the community and the other staff to decide if it's a good idea or not! Post what you like about the idea, what are the possible cons of it, ask more in-depth questions about the idea, and help us find out if it's worth it!


  Thank you all for reading this thread and have a nice day!