Why I miss old clickies: a lament...

[The Coil]

Ok, I said I was done...I lied. If POS can do it, so can I... :)

Several quick (I promise) points:

1) McIvan is the very voice of reason. Listen to him, he speaks truth.

2) There are really 2 discussions going on in this thread, and they have often become mixed together, leading to a lack of clarity, I think. Discussion 1 involves how clickies should function as a part of these boards. Discussion 2 involves how they actually did function. Discussion 1 is a command decision by those running the boards based on their vision of the type of community they are trying to create. Discussion 2 is the one I was trying to have. You may think they way they were functioning is bad, or stupid, or whatever. I'm just observing how that function did work, and that I thought that function was valuable. Whether or not it should continue to function that way, or whether that function was beneficial is for someone else to decide.

3) McIvan sort of said this already (voice of reason he is, did I mention that?), but I'm not saying talk about clickies was valuable in and of itself, and that the clicky talk was the only real chatter happening on the boards. Rather, clickies spurred other, relevant posts. There weren't many "clicky talk only" threads. It was interspersed throughout a lot of interesting and informative threads about CM. Except for that one time when /hirr/Leto went nuts. But you'll have that sometimes...

4) RD, you said:

Taking a look around, there is very little CM topic discussion going on at the following sites, Waw, Gamesquad, FMJ, kampfgruppe, the only site generating major CM talk is TPG and that's mainly designer and playtesting talk, at a CM only site.
Based upon this survey, it is fairly reasonable to state that CM based topics are slowly dwindling down. It is also safe to say that CM forums everywhere are slowing down, in regards to CM topic posts.

I've made this point several times myself...I'm not sure why you'd make it again as an argument for the new clickies. The Blitz was different while old clickies were around, it was the one lively board for a while. Now it's the same as the rest, "dwindling down". Clickies were spurring discussion about many CM related topics. Now there is no such discussion about much of anything. You seem to view this as inevitable or desireable or something. Those other boards were just as dead while the clickie talk was going on, so I don't think you can attribute it to people going on vacation or whatever. Anyway, at least the Blitz isn't so dead that we're having discussions about other boards' clickie systems... ;)

5) It seems crazy to me to suggest clickies didn't spur more posting. Do a quick search of the word "clickie" (or clicky, or clickies). To suggest there would have been as many posts without the clickie talk strikes me as an opinion trying to make itself fact.

6) It is equally absurd to try to make the whole clickie thing about me, #hirr#Leto, and Col T. Sure, we were probably the popularizers, but there was way more to it than just the 3 of us handing clickies to each other (I actually don't think there are any old clickies on my rep from *hirr*Leto). !hirr!Leto actually jumped into the clickie thing pretty late. It was a way more widespread thing. For instance, a quick look at my rep sheet shows silly and superfluous clickies, given for reasons outside the stated purpose of the rep system, from:

Fubar
Cillmhor
Fullhouse
Fluidwill
Bluehand
Bootie
ATCS
Kineas
Nort
Peek
McIvan (wise, he is)
and...
REDDEVIL!!!!!!!! (really!)

Apparently the perversion of the rep system was a little wider spread than you've been willing to admit, RD... And that's not even counting all the people who didn't give reasons (but gave them for silly ones), and all the people whose clickies were erased (it was a lot of them). And that's just ones I got.

Now it may be that the decision from on high is that we should clamp down on that "abuse" of the clickie system, and that if doing negatively affects the post count, so be it, because it's inevitable that the CM board is going to die regardless. Like I said, what clickies should be is beyond my ability to affect. I just though it was interesting what they had become. Anyway, I'm gone for real now...promise...I won't keep coming back like Piece of Spike does...

Edit: Oh yeah, and point 7) If this is true:

By looking at the # of times a post was viewed the member gets an idea of how many are reading and if his time is worth the postings. clickies have nothing to do with the # of views, which is a stronger indicator of how much interest is aroused by your post, since most readers don't leave clickie feedback

Then there is plenty of interest in the subject of clickies, judging by the post count of this thread...