What can we do to make our new primary chatroom as interesting as our old primary chatroom Mos Eisley?

Question

I remember sitting hours in front of Mos Eisley and I used to love chatting in it. And then, Shog9 nuked it. Fine. Not a big deal. People are still same. This is what I thought.

But, no. I don't enjoy our new chatroom "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe". I can't sit here even for 5 minutes.

Other users are also experiencing the same: Resigning as Mos Eisley room owner

Why is it different? Why is the new chatroom boring? And, what can we do to make the situation better?

Answer 1

Do it yourself

I'll start off with this quote:

Be the change you want to see in the world.
_{-Commonly attributed to Gandhi.}

Honestly, if you want to make TREU interesting, then all you have to do is: try it yourself. Make the place be the way that you want it to be.

The community is not here to make an interesting place for you, ready for you to pop-in and have an interesting discussion. You are also part of this community and are responsible for its success.

So the next time you pop-in and think "ahh, I wish there was a discussion about X", then go ahead and start that discussion.

What even is the problem?

Why do you feel that it's "boring", not interesting and that you "don't enjoy it"? Rather than tell us a vague problem, and expect us to solve it for you, take a minute to analyse how or why you feel that way. Talking it out loud to yourself can help you understand what the problem you're facing is.

Effort, it takes effort

Having said that, I can tell you that to get a community going, it takes effort. Sometimes more, sometimes less. But trying is the only thing you can do.

This may be the reason that you might be finding TREU a "boring" place, people may just not want to or can't expend any effort there to get a discussion going.

At time of writing, TREU has:

• 87 posts per day
• 867 posts per week
• 93 all time users

That's not much, but it's not too bad either; it's kindling enough to get a good fire going, if stoked enough. So, the problem isn't necessarily the numbers, it's the amount of engagement, or lack thereof.

In closing

Give it a go, try (or don't try; do). And if you find that it just isn't the place you want it to be, then move on, try something else.

Answer 2

Something that I've noticed about the new room (and I was only in Mos for like a week before it hit the fan) is that it seems quieter. I think there are a few reasons for this:

• Old regulars got banned or left. This is unavoidable, there were things happening that should not be happening here.

• Old regulars who stuck around got scared. For a few days after Mos went down, basically anything referring to it was thrown in the Trash by a legion of mods. Which sort of makes sense, but made things difficult for everyone. I think we're at a point now where that's mostly cleared up, so it shouldn't be as much of an issue any more (and let us hope we never have to worry about it again).

• It's summer. On Worldbuilding at least, there's a dip in activity during the summertime. Not much can be done about this.

I'd say the main thing that should be done to make Restaurant a more interesting place is just for people to step up and talk more. I try not to because I tend to talk too much (I have the most posts by a wide margin on Factory Floor), and I don't feel like I've earned my place in the room yet, but as far as I know most people don't care about these things.

So if you're in the room, and waiting for someone else to speak up and entertain you, maybe it's just your turn to get the conversation started. Sometimes you'll be speaking to a void, but other times maybe you'll start something that people will come back for.

Answer 3

I don't know what you're talking about.

I am a regular member of The Restaurant, and was a regular of Mos. And let me say that I very much prefer The Restaurant.

• It's not a hassle to keep from inappropriate discussion

  In Mos, the conversation was always turning to stuff not exactly SFW, or that everyone was comfortable with. The Restaurant doesn't have these problems. It's actually pleasant to sit in there now - most of the bad behavior is gone. And, from both a chatter and moderator viewpoint - that's a good thing.

• There is interesting stuff in The Restaurant

  While people are not always chatting - they weren't in Mos either - we do have some stuff including there, like the Daily Floof. And, personally, I find it much more pleasant and enjoyable to argue over what constitutes a proper floof than whether or not certain topics are acceptable for chat - and since the people who liked to discuss things like that are no longer in the chat, those kinds of conversations that sparked the arguments on what was acceptable for chat don't happen in The Restaurant.

I'm also going to see if I can get a chatbot somewhere ;)