Barbelith Underground > Policy & Help > Reinventing The Spectacle

Generally my concern is that a greater degree of work should be done generally around analysing the specifics and clarity of what any potential new forum would do and how it would fit into the structure of the site as a whole. The naming issue is pertinent because it points to other problems - related problems - in the way the potential forum is handled.

In general, the Spectacle has operated as a repository for genre-based descriptions of things. The Art, Fashion and Design forum is based around mostly non-narrative visual aesthetics, but of course it's a vaguely artificial grouping and a vaguely artificial distinction that - to an extent - bleeds into all the others, just as Music bleeds into Film, TV & Theatre on the basis of music shows/live shows/documentaries and just as Comic Books bleed into Books or Film, TV & Theatre.

The nature of a well constructed site that is easy to navigate and understand is that unnecessary complexity is kept to a minimum. Given that the Spectacle groups things in such a genre-based way, it's going to make the most sense for any other forum within it to be of the same quality/type. That way, each forum's description and remit enforces all the other forums' descriptions and remit by contextualising it within a comprehensible group (good practice: John, Paul, George, Ringo / bad practice John, Paul, Ringo, Henry - the latter grouping doesn't lose 1/4 of its meaning, it loses much more). If we're going to break that rule we have to do so stridently and obviously - either visually making it distinct from that which surrounds it, or heavily flagging that it is not of the same type as the other fora within that group. So flagging it as "General" or "Theory" or something and pulling it out of alphabetical order (and maybe formatting it in a slightly distinct pattern) would be the most appropriate way of handling it within the Spectacle clump. It still worries me a little.

On the other hand there is a case for having a comparable forum within the Revolution, although bear in mind that this means a sizeable dislocation from the rest of the fora that carry information about art, theatre etc. That worries me a little too, to be honest. Probably moreso.

So in a nutshell the issues so far:

1) The forum must be grouped appropriately to fit into the larger structure of the site without undermining any of the informational support that the structure of the site affords;
2) The forum must be kept in some way visually or textually distinct from fora that it does not resemble in type or quality;
3) The function of the forum must be clearly communicable or well grouped so as to distinguish it from the other fora that it might find itself in competition with;
4) The name of the forum should be sufficiently distinct from other fora and convey its remit clearly and without creating additional confusion;
5) There should be evidence of demand for said forum and it should include or afford the possibility of conversations that couldn't be had elsewhere.

At the moment, I'm unconvinced by the plans proposed, all of which have significant positive aspects but also significant problems - while on the other hand I am completely clear that there does seem to be a need for further investigation around this stuff. The concern about no place for certain kinds of threads is totally reasonable.