Nation Threads and Their Role in the Forums: A Critique

[Angelus]

I can see the positives and negatives of the nation threads. Just speaking from my experiences with the Xbox thread though, I truly believe the positives have been far outweighing the negatives to date. The reasons for which have already been explained by several others.

Personally, I probably would have left the site if it wasn't for Xbox Empire, and that's not because I can't handle negativity or people with bad attitudes trolling Xbox news on other threads nonstop or anything like that. Hell there's very little anyone can say online that phases me in the slightests. That's not what puts you off, it can be annoying of course but it doesn't turn you away from the site, what turns you away (from any community) is the feeling that there's nobody (or barely anyone) that you actually share interests with.

If there's nobody around for me to actually have any discussions with on the things I care about, because everyone posting on the subject is just there to tell everyone how much they really just want MS to go take a hike and leave Sony to a gaming monopoly or whatever (just one example).....well then you and me simply have nothing to talk about. When that kind of atmosphere encompasses a majority of the community, which just so happened to be the case shortly after I joined the site, well then what is my possible interest in sticking around? Just to go bump heads with everyone I run into? No thanks

I love a heated debate as much as anyone, and if I see something that rubs me the wrong way, you can be damn sure I'll have a go at you, but if that at any point becomes all there is then it's obvious I'm in the wrong place.

The Xbox Empire thread fixed that. It's brought in new members, encourages good healthy discussion (including differing opinions on various subjects) by people who actually have a genuine interest in whatever the topic is, and I think the new users they attract feel more confident posting outside them too because the most prominent members of the Empire thread don't shy away from conversation elsewhere.

Also, while it is true they are hard to follow if you don't read them daily, I don't think it's in any way this insular community some might believe where it's hard to just jump in now and again to strike up a convo if you so choose. I personally sometimes don't post there for weeks at a time, but when I do have something to say there I just go and I do it, and regardless of whether I'm doing it to argue with someone, poke fun at them, discuss news, or whatever I never get any kind of "yo you ain't a regular bitch, fuck off" attitude.

So ya, ideally you wouldn't need them, and perhaps they can be toned down/scaled back where we're at now, but I think that if you're someone who cares about this site and the diversity of it's user base then you should be glad they sprang up, because if they hadn't this site would have been significantly poorer for it.