Hey guys,
I was hoping to start a discussion about what might help out to make the site more usable and encourage substantive discussion. Specifically, I want to focus on how we can shape our usage of the site, rather than things that can be done with the software, or some other change to the technology, and instead focus on using what is already there.
A couple things I think would help with this include, first, trying to use, and standardize the tags a little bit more, as they are a good way to focus on things we like. It also allows for easier usage in general for anyone.
Secondly, I think trying to centralize some discussion around similar archetypes, as opposed to making a new thread for every version of every deck that changes slightly. Something that can be helpful for new players to vintage is a sense of the history of an archetype, this is helped in some ways by being able to read through previous iterations of decks. I think the way the site is being utilized right now, you have a bunch of long time vintage players swooping into newly made threads and dispensing their "obvious" knowledge, that doesn't make sense to the new players because they don't have the context necessary in the format. I think if we start to build up some threads on deck archetypes, with changes logged historically, rather than as new threads, we can help curb this problem.
Maybe these are bad ideas, but I feel like themanadrain restart came with a lot of hope from long time users, and this new interface has a lot of promise, but we haven't yet lived up to that. If we want this to be THE destination for vintage discussion and content, especially for new players, we need to work on building up some community norms that will help facilitate that.