Do We Really Want a Thread For Every Event?

[donley2]

The recent Osaka and Doha meets (and single threads for every event) has got me wondering. Do we really want a single thread for every event? I am obviously not in charge but would be interested in what some of the regular's think. I tend to agree that a single thread for a Grand Prix level meet as good as Doha is probably not the best. But is 18-20 different threads really desirable? Would something like Men Sprints, Womens Sprints, Mens Distance, Womens Distance, Mens Field, Womens Field work better. Clearly interest levels for the various events are not equal. Just thinking out loud (so to speak).

[Powell]

I thought it made sense for Doha, but not for Osaka - most of the threads for that one have just one or two posts in them.

[Dave]

I personally like having a thread for each event. It is a pleasant way to discuss events that may not get the attention the marquee events will.

[Half Miler]

I'm with Dave on this one.

I personally find it more difficult to wade through a thread with 100+ posts than to browse multiple threads with fewer posts.

[tandfman]

I thought it made sense for Doha, but not for Osaka - most of the threads for that one have just one or two posts in them.

One of the reasons for that was that Osaka happened when most of us in the US were asleep, whereas Doha happened during the day and those of us who were not working could actually watch it videostreamed. And that's why I agree that it made sense for Doha but not for Osaka. (Another reason for the difference in thread lengths was that the fields and the marks were much better in Doha than in Osaka.)

[Seeksreal]

I like the separate threads as it helps make the discussions easier to follow and you don't have to weed through unrelated posts to continue a particular discussion. The threads with little interest fades to the second page pretty quickly anyway and relevant (as well as some irrelevant) topics seem to make their way back to the front page...

[pela2]

I personally like having a thread for each event. It is a pleasant way to discuss events that may not get the attention the marquee events will.

dito!

please name the threads "better" :?


Some is so bad you can´t sleep at night.....

[bad hammy]

I like the multi-thread format for big meets.

[imaginative]

Interesting, I actually contemplated starting a poll on this subject
yesterday...

IMO, the decision should be made based on the expected amount of discussion.
There is not much point in having individual threads with < 5 posts for every
event, but equally bad mixing twenty topics of > 20 posts each in one thread.

A simple heuristic could be: Big championships (including e.g. the NCAA and the
European Indoors) have one thread per subject. Minor meets have one thread
in toto. For larger meets the events that are likely to attract attention
(e.g. 100m) are given their own threads, the rest (e.g. women's discus) share
one thread. (Exactly what event belongs where will obviously be a matter of
judgement, and will vary depending on participants, recent developments, etc.)
Should a ``common thread'' event turn out to generate a lot of posts, it can be
split of into its own topic after the fact.

[lonewolf]

I like seperate threads for each event so you can go directly to the events that interest you without wading through all sorts of jperfecty good chaff that someone wants to see but not me.

[26mi235]

For very major meets, threads for each event make sense. However, even for meets like Doha and Osaka, it seems over much. However, the alternative is not going to one thread but one for shot/JT/HT/Discus, one for HJ/PV/LJ/TJ; one for Sprints, one for hurdles, one for middle distance, one for distance. Alternatively, these could be made more narrow (LJ, TJ) but include men and women.

[tandfman]

As I suggested earlier, I agree with Powell. I think it made sense and worked well for Doha, but not for Osaka.

[LopenUupunut]

I think it makes sense to have separate threads for every event, even for meets like Osaka. In my experience the separate event threads create many more replies than one single thread, indicating they either create more interest or perhaps simply are a more comfortable posting environment. To take just one example, look at Osaka '09 with its separate threads and compare with Osaka '08 with a single thread. The difference in total number of replies is huge. Of course this year had a slightly better field, and heaps better conditions, but that doesn't explain half of it. My guess is that if we'd had a single thread it would have had two or three general posts near the top, and then degraded into a duplicate of our current Wariner 44.69 thread.

[LopenUupunut]

To take that point further, perhaps if last year we'd had an "Osaka 2008: Zhang Very Convincing In wHT" thread, T&FN would have put her on the formchart she certainly belonged on, and life in the prediction games would have been just that bit simpler. :wink:

[EPelle]

Doha was because gh requested it. I also like it that way... it helps tremendously when attempting to wade through a meet where I have little to no time to actually watch it unfold.

(I wish the same could be done with "24" -- a thread I can't open until the end of this season, as we are several episodes behind... wishful thinking).