Shall we close the "Breaking News" threads?

[Woebot]

Do people like these?

Simon Silverdollar started the first one, the Grime one, and to be honest I *never* saw the need. It might have been Simon's considerate reaction against what was being termed Grime Spam. But Grime Spam was actually just promotional guff, and we have a forum for that now. I'd rather see 100 tiny threads on any subject than these kinda unweildy monster threads.

So I'd like to table a motion. Shall we close all these threads?

 

[tate]

Simon Silverdollar started the first one, the Grime one, and to be honest I *never* saw the need. It might have been Simon's considerate reaction against what was being termed Grime Spam. But Grime Spam was actually just promotional guff, and we have a forum for that now. I'd rather see 100 tiny threads on any subject than these kinda unweildy monster threads.

I don't have an opinion either way (and I started one), but before people vote they should probably take a look at this thread, which began at the end of August 2005 when K-punk vociferously objected to the number of grime threads; and if you don't wish to read the whole thread, then at least read both the beginning and the end, where K-punk's views are made exceedingly clear . . . I offer this only as 'fyi' for some of the newer members who may be unaware of the origin of these 'breaking news' threads.

 

[john eden]

I think they are fine for general chit chat., but people shouldn't be afraid to start new thread if the topic warrants it. E.g. that massive thread on the Burial album and interviews.

I posted on the reggae/dancehall one about the stageshow riddim but didn't feel I had enough to say about it to warrant a new thread - then other people chipped in with snippets of other stuff that wouldn't have fitted so well in a "stage show" thread.

 

[Melchior]

What John said. They're useful enough as they are and I don't see them doing any harm.

 

[luka]

the hiphop one is my favourite music thread.

 

[nomos]

For better or worse, they each seem to have their own little communities operating in them. I almost never look in most of them but when I have I've seen people in there who I thought had disappeared from the board altogether. I use the dubstep one when I've got something small but not thread-worthy to say. But then their presence does make it feel like that's the only place to post about dubstep/hip hop/cricket/... Maybe closing them would inspire people to start more proper new discussions.

 

[gek-opel]

I agree with Paul: They obviously serve a function (and end up operating as almost autonomous boards in their own right) however, I get the vague impression that they act to stifle debate: within the threads themselves, they end up largely being little more than a kind of news snippet archive, all the tips on the latest releases etc... (notable exception to this: the "Authentic" debate going down in the hip hop thread a couple of weeks back) they basically end up becoming a little bit aimless... But is that reason enough to dispense with them? The "rolling news" ones on ILM usually end up becoming quite contentious after a certain number of posts, so perhaps they are merely symptomatic?

 

[mistersloane]

I really like the threads FOR the fact that they ar esnippets of 'waht's new' info, which then seem to break out, randomly, into discussions, and then back again into 'news', they feel organic.