A Final Solution to the Proving Grounds Problem

[Syaoran Li]

I'd go with Option 2.

Proving Grounds was an idea that was a good concept in theory but was horribly executed and I think it ended up doing a lot more harm than good.

Usagi Kou has recently been confirmed to be active once more, going from Web 1.0 lolcow to Web 2.0 horrorcow and she'd be perfect for a Beauty Parlor thread, but her thread in Proving Grounds got locked because of formatting issues with the OP and I think that thread is a prime example of Proving Grounds being a failure.

If a thread shows potential, it will grow organically as long as there's material worth discussing and if the lolcow turns out to be a boring nothingburger, then the thread will die out eventually and languish in obscurity.

The really crappy threads that are obvious personal army requests will get deleted, of course.

 

[Big Nasty]

Option 2.

Proving Grounds may be the reason why the last major person of interest was Yaniv, and that was over a year ago.

 

[Christ Cried]

This might be a stupid point, but I've noticed many great threads only become great once the cow in question takes notice of it and starts engaging. That is less likely to happen if the thread is gated. Option 2 seems good.

 

[Pina Colada]

Both aren't bad options, but I'm leaning towards the second one. Just focus on the threads with more activity, but aren't centered on weéning or off-topic debates.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

I voted option 2. To be frank, the standards are absurdly high.

A while back I wanted to make a thread on Bam Margera because the guy's been in a huge downward spiral that's both funny and sad to watch. The only thread that kept up with it was that A&H thread about the Jackass crew but I thought it needed its own thread.

At the same time though, the sheer effort that would have to go into it like all the archived material and basically explain Bam's life up until that point killed the drive I had to make the thread. I have time to shitpost but I don't really have the time to make a writing project that might not even take off.

I get the reasoning for it since a shitty OP can easily kill an interesting topic and there are a lot of spergs out there who wouldn't think twice about making personal army threads, but in practice I think it prevents people from really exploring interesting lolcows because in some cases there just isn't much to say.

 

[Critically Correct]

I’m making it work you newb

 

[mindlessobserver]

I am leaning towards keeping PG, however, have some clearly defined rules for a post there. These new hypothetical rules don't have to be super strict, but it also needs to be more then just a screenshot and a link to a social media account of some kind.
Basically some info on the person in question, and a basic argument on why said person is a lolcow should be enough to "prove" the thread and move it to the appropriate area of the site.
This can be followed up with some sort of inactivity timer. If a newly moved thread is not getting traction, it can be moved to an archive dump.

The 5 Ws are IMO the gold standard for anything you write about, not just a kiwifarms thread.

Who
What
When
Where
Why

All good threads should answer each.

Who is this person?
What do they do?
When have they done or are going to do it?
Where are they doing it?
Why should anyone else care?

You dont need a crap ton of materials or archives to answer each. Just enough to establish things.

 

[xX_rAcE_wAr_420_Xx]

It's probably a more efficient use of moderator effort to just monitor newer / slower threads and make sure they're not total garbage. Plenty of OPs start out with less information, but after a while the thread amasses a ton of stuff - as long as the OP gets updated enough, it's totally golden.

Also, having arbitrary and autistic rules for starting threads is Reddit-tier.

 

[FramerGirl420]

I vote option two. When I go cruising for new cows I ignore PG entirely. Those threads either stagnate immediately or are just full of ppl debating over where the OP is good or not. Just allow new threads and what is shit will die on its own and those that are interesting will grow on their own.
PG was a good idea in theory but in practice it’s a failure.

 

[Ruin]

Can someone explain to me why a site that thrives on user generated needs garbage like this at all? Even on Turbo shitholes like Something Awful and Resetera users can make threads on the main site without mod approval.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

>imagine if any one or two people were responsible for deciding what would be a valid topic here. It would immediately, necessarily rule out about 98% of the content of the site.

I'd like to make a suggestion. Take Op away from the masses and turn new threads into a mod thing.

How does that help a few users making the choice?

>PG is the problem
>Not A&H

Stay mad deep thot.

 

[Unog]

This was because we had an issue of shit OPs posting threads on trannies who would then immediately DFE because someone would tip them off to the new thread before we had any chance to archive everything.

My problem with #2 is how do you fix this potential problem without PG?

Also I vote for @zyclonPD 's idea, I think it sounds pretty neat.

 

[Ghostse]

Rather then nuking proving grounds, perhaps turn it less into a development hell and more into an entry forum. All new threads go in and after 48 hours a mod will move it to the relevant forum or delete it if it's objectively terrible. Make the standards more realistic as well. If a thread doesnt have enough material to sustain itself it will fall to the bottom of the forum and be forgotten about anyway.

I was going to suggest the same thing. PG stays as a solid waste filter for new threads. Mods have 48 hours to nuke the cringiest of the personal army threads, and the rest auto-approve where the userbase can decide if they are worth discussion.

 

[beautiful person]

I like the idea of PG as kind of a hidden drafting forum, where you can start the work on an OP and archiving (and maybe get help from more experienced users), without the cow seeing and deleting everything. But I'm not sure of the ettiquette of posting a half-finished OP there, and it feels like if I don't have all the "automatic failure" requirements filled before posting, that it would get rejected before I'm actually done. So the pressure to get the OP "right" the first time is still there, and makes the effort seem more hassle than it's worth.

 

[Superman93]

I completely disagree with Zed and Ride having narrow standards and @Burning Fanatic can attest to this because he too also frequently watches for good new threads. Faggots complaining about 'muh gatekeeping' are just upset because they refuse to put any effort into creating a proper OP. Just look at this recent example:

https://kiwifarms.st/threads/kevin-davies-alexander-whiteoak.63765/

No archives, the way the title is formatted is dogshit and he doesn't even try to make the post funny. I think PG is a good idea filtering out shit threads.

Another thing thats great about PG is that is makes people think twice about rather a thread should continue to be created or not. It also distinguishes this website from other shit lolcow observing forums/sites because content is properly curated.


The new threads people have been creating are just shit. Pure and Simple and people need to get better.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

No, seriously. Could someone please explain how making new threads even less likely to be made by giving only mods the ability to make them will cause an explosion of new content that doesn't get kneecapped early?

 

[Samoyed]

PG is bad. kill it. if I wanted to write a whole paper I'd do it somewhere else. Just let people post threads and let the shitty ones die.

 

[Pissmaster]

I voted option 2. To be frank, the standards are absurdly high.

A while back I wanted to make a thread on Bam Margera because the guy's been in a huge downward spiral that's both funny and sad to watch. The only thread that kept up with it was that A&H thread about the Jackass crew but I thought it needed its own thread.

At the same time though, the sheer effort that would have to go into it like all the archived material and basically explain Bam's life up until that point killed the drive I had to make the thread. I have time to shitpost but I don't really have the time to make a writing project that might not even take off.

I get the reasoning for it since a shitty OP can easily kill an interesting topic and there are a lot of spergs out there who wouldn't think twice about making personal army threads, but in practice I think it prevents people from really exploring interesting lolcows because in some cases there just isn't much to say.

I like the idea of PG as kind of a hidden drafting forum, where you can start the work on an OP and archiving (and maybe get help from more experienced users), without the cow seeing and deleting everything. But I'm not sure of the ettiquette of posting a half-finished OP there, and it feels like if I don't have all the "automatic failure" requirements filled before posting, that it would get rejected before I'm actually done. So the pressure to get the OP "right" the first time is still there, and makes the effort seem more hassle than it's worth.

Yeah, basically these. I've got a guy locked and loaded who hasn't even been mentioned on the farms that's perfect for a thread, but he's a schizo/horrorcow and I really don't want to gaze too deep into that abyss. I really don't wanna watch hours and hours of videos from this guy screaming his lunacy into his camera in order to find enough intimate details to post a thread.

I'd love to just post "here's this guy and here's what I've found, look at what he's been up to" instead, and if he piques anyone's interest, they're welcome to keep the thread going.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

Yeah, basically these. I've got a guy locked and loaded who hasn't even been mentioned on the farms that's perfect for a thread, but he's a schizo/horrorcow and I really don't want to gaze too deep into that abyss. I really don't wanna watch hours and hours of videos from this guy screaming his lunacy into his camera in order to find enough intimate details to post a thread.

I'd love to just post "here's this guy and here's what I've found, look at what he's been up to" instead, and if he piques anyone's interest, they're welcome to keep the thread going.

Right, I agree that it's sometimes nice to have that time for the bomb to gain speed before it hits but at the same time there's threads in PG that have been there for months that are in better shape than some of the live threads. There's going to be shitty threads, you can't escape that, but the idea of making it some kind of Democratic effort to build threads just sounds like herding fucking cats.

The spicethreads must flow and we prune as needed.

 

[Yaniv’s Hairy Balls]

I personally like the idea of hyper autistics. When You have a forum it usually doesn’t do well with out good and consistent moderation, but they’d have to know the difference between that and over moderation.

I’m far from a senior member, but I’m a long time lurker who’s willing to put forth some effort if someone can point me in the right direction. To be honest, I’m probably not one you’d want moderating an entire board (I’ve never modded and I’m really new to the site) but I’ll chip in where I can. I enjoy the site and will help foster good content.