Gauging interest in a new IF forum [now open at intfic.com!]

I’m talking about this forum, where we’ve seen an administrator step down and at least one member leave over concerns about censorship and/or harassment; where a civil thread was locked after a member of this public forum began quoting it in a different public forum, in front of an audience some members associate with harassment; and where a post in the “links to comp reviews” thread was deleted, not because of any inherently objectionable content, but because of fears that linking to reviews in that place or by those people would lead to harassment.

Whether or not the fears are overblown, they’re having consequences.

I assume you’re referring to either 8chan or Twitter, neither of which are very good places to have a discussion IMO.

Where else would people recruit for another forum except here? They post recruitment messages on Twitter or Facebook and no one will notice.

They could submit a comp game called “Hey Everyone Come Check Out My Website”, but it’s too late for this year.

Interactive fiction meets nonfiction ARG. I like it.

Now all I can think about is how to make this happen.

I see a compelling narrative about a desperate web developer trying to get some page views or get fired. A wacky parser puzzler about baking cupcakes to enter CupcakeComp last minute. A commentary on how comp culture encourages participation from authors looking for exposure and a platform to speak from. A meta element with an actual website by the actual author who wants page views.

It has Xyzzys written all over it.

I personally can’t get enough if discussion, so I’ll read it anywhere.

I don’t really have a problem with recruiting here, after all, we recruited for this site on RAIF. But links are better than PMs.

Agreed. I don’t think we need another forum, but, as i-f grows the chances that everyone involved will get along with everyone else shrinks. So, shrug, make another forum and if there’s a need for it it will flourish on its own.

OK! The forum is now open to the public at intfic.com.

vaporware said: EDIT: The forum is now open to the public: https://www.intfic.com
Well, I’m a member of the public, and it sure as hell ain’t open to me. Will you support Opera Mini, please? I am using the latest version, after all.

Opera Mini is an unusual case. Unfortunately it doesn’t support Android 2.3 either.

Discourse provides a rich client-side experience, but unfortunately that means that if you aren’t using a recent, full-featured browser with JavaScript enabled, the best you can get is a simple read-only view.

Oh, forget it, the site’s been broken anyway.
From Discourse’s FAQ page: We automatically switch to a mobile layout for small screen devices.
IMHO, mobile sites should be optional, not forced on users.

Incorrect on both counts. Opera Mini is hardly ‘an unusual case’ given how many people use it, and Opera Mini does support Android 2.3. I mean sure, Opera Mini 7.x might not, but since when has that ever stopped people sideloading an older version? This is Android we’re talking about, after all, not iPhone or Windows Phone.

Many mobile browsers let you request the desktop version of a page.

In fairness, 7% is kind of a small share.

I think Dannii meant Discourse doesn’t support Android 2.3 (they say it requires 4.1).

Opera Mini is a very unusual browser, because it uses a server to preprocess every page for it. How many other Javascript heavy pages work in it?

Which is how it saves people from going over their ‘Fair’ Usage limits, which is why we love it.
@ vaporware: I would rather have the full site served than rely on a little clicky that may not even work. Soundcloud taught me that.