" Why do TMPers click on topics of no interest to them?-reply" Topic

Hi All,
I posted the below reply to the above post, but it appears it's quite a way down the post and not being read or commented upon. I thought I would re post it here, for your perusal

Hello All,

Seeing as I am probably the cause of this post (although not exclusively), I think I'd better try and explain how I feel.

1. The site is called 'The Miniatures Page', perhaps it should more accurately be renamed ' The Miniatures, and Anything Else Which Takes Your Fancy Page.

2. As others have said, titles of posts aren't always accurate.

3. I enjoy The Miniatures Page, It has great content related to the hobby, be it wargaming, painting, modelling or just collecting. It's great for ideas, hints and tips and gleaning useful information from clever people and hard to find sources.

4. I find it frustrating that I can't filter out most of the non-wargaming/miniatures posts which don't interest me, because they appear on a diverse number of boards, some of which contain other useful information, and sometimes essential information, such as messages from Bill about site rules et al
.
5.. Just my personal opinion, but I think they detract from my overall enjoyment of The Miniatures Page. This, from your response, is not the opinion of most of the other members (so be it) They way I see it, the number of unrelated posts pushes the other posts down the page, scrolling them off the other end too fast.

6. Perhaps the said posts could have their own board, a 'Non Hobby Related' board, so that I, and people of a like mind (there are some, I know), could then filter them out. (possibly a Poll for this Bill).

7. I've made my point now, I think. That many of you don't agree with me is obvious, so I will now desist from making comments on such posts (except this one), unless I have something to contribute.

8. As an afterthought, perhaps posters in the 'for sale/wanted section' could possibly give an indication of where they are prepared to sell their items. I've lost count of the number of adds I've opened, only to be told 'sorry, you can't buy this'. All it would require is an abbreviated notation in brackets in the title of the post such as (US), (L48), (UK), (EUR), (WW-for world wide).

Thanks for your time in reading this.
regards
Paul F

Perhaps the said posts could have their own board, a 'Non Hobby Related' board, so that I, and people of a like mind (there are some, I know), could then filter them out. (possibly a Poll for this Bill).

It would help if you could identify which boards this is a problem on.

Paul

I have clicked in messages that I am not interested, mislead by the heading. It has took me around 2 seconds to realize that it wasn't what I was looking for and went back to my search.

Corollary: to me it is not a big deal, therefore it doesn't hamper in anyway my enjoyment of TMP.

Miniatures count? Bordgames? Wargames usingminiaures as counters? Chitd2s with silhouettes Compouter games? Chess? Go? Vendors?scrstchnuilys? Laser Ta,g?

This topic is of no interest to me.

I thought there was going to be cake……No?

It would appear from the replies I'm flagellating a deceased equine
@ Bill, its mostly the TMP Talk and Wargaming in General boards, neither of which I want to turn off, although Utter Drivel is a close contender, as it's stated description is that it is for 'wargames related' items. I can turn off the Poll Suggestions board, which I will do, to alleviate some of the problem. What did you think of point 8?
@ basileus66. See the second sentence of point 5.

@ Bill
Just checked the FAQ's re the forums.
Re the Forums it states: the Message Boards (for wargaming discussions only), TMP Plus (for non-wargaming topics)
Is this now defunct and in need of updating.?

Ive used the Utter Drivel Board for non-wargaming queries.

Grelber

basileus66 +1

@ basileus66. See the second sentence of point 5.

Indeed, and yet the search function is particularly useful for that situation. It could work better, though. I hope that in TMP 2.0 you can check which threads you have posted, to make easier to follow those debates you are interested in.

…So they can have the opportunity to be offended and feel important for having a cause, complaining and trying to force others to join their lockstep.

I agree that the top part of the FAQ needs updating.

TMP Talk and Utter Drivel are explicitly not about wargaming. Briefly (very) scanning WIG, I only found five of 100 posts in the last two months that weren't wargaming related, but were bleed-overs from other boards. And the title were pretty obvious, though, as you state, the one titled "Dentists" is about wargaming, so you can't always tell.

@ Mardaddy
I never said I was offended.
It's not a 'cause', it's an opinion.
I have never pressed the 'complaint' button to date.
If I wanted to complain I would do it openly.
I have not tried to 'force' anyone to do anything, merely stated my thoughts, and left them to draw their own conclusions.
Is thia what passes for 'free speech' in the 'land of the free'?

I'm sorry, did I address what I said to a particular member?

I was addressing the title of the OP in general terms.

'…So they can have the opportunity to be offended and feel important for having a cause, complaining and trying to force others to join their lockstep.'

That doesn't make any sense and seems more like a dig at others.

The quoted words suggests that clicking is of interest.

I suspect that the reasons why people end up clicking on links they have no interest in are varied. What I find harder to understand are those who merely post statements like 'yawn'.

TMP Talk and Utter Drivel are explicitly not about wargaming.

Well, TMP Talk is about TMP, so it is wargaming related.

Utter Drivel is, well, utter drivel.

Why not start a new topic, and ask which discussions which are on TMP Talk should not be there? As far as I am aware, everything on TMP Talk is relevant to TMP (or else the editors move it elsewhere).

And if you feel the Utter Drivel board needs reform, then start a topic to discuss that; if you think it needs to go away, then start a TMP Poll Suggestions topic to propose that.

As an afterthought, perhaps posters in the 'for sale/wanted section' could possibly give an indication of where they are prepared to sell their items. I've lost count of the number of adds I've opened, only to be told 'sorry, you can't buy this'. All it would require is an abbreviated notation in brackets in the title of the post such as (US), (L48), (UK), (EUR), (WW-for world wide).

This has been recommended in the past, but few people actually do it. Perhaps under TMP 4.0, we can give people a little more structure here.

Well, TMP Talk is about TMP, so it is wargaming related.

I disagree. TMP Talk is about TMP. TMP is not a wargame, it's a social media outlet.

FTR, I don't have any problem with the concept of the content on any of those boards. Nor do I think all boards on a [insert discussion focus here] site have to be all about [insert discussion focus here] all the time.

Whenever this topic comes up, I pull up and extract the stats and am reminded that 95%+ of the total TMP monthly posts are on wargaming specific boards. I find the same thing to be true about posts being on topic within the boards for the ones I frequent.

As in the example in my other post, WIG is about 95% wargaming posts for the last two months. I think that's a reasonable ability to stay on theme for social discussions. Obscenely high for the Internet.

I was just pointing out that complaining about non-wargaming posts on boards that are titled and described as not being directly about wargaming doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Especially when, by title alone, those boards can be easily skipped.

If your TMP experience is based on looking at ~1% of the wargaming topic boards (I certainly do. I am not necessarily interested nor could I keep up with all or most of them.) and 100% of the non-wargaming topic boards, you have to understand that that is a skewed view of TMP on the whole.