The only boost that truly matters imo is a boost in battling/voting. If this were a site where battling takes place in the forums, then I would more likely agree to your point. But the forums are mostly gossip/non-battle related threads. Just look at which forum is the most popular---General Talk. If I were a guest or prospective member, I would be coming here to battle, not to chit-chat, and I would be looking at the battle arenas to guage how active the site is. The forums are just an extra to LetsBeef, not the main activity. The main thing we have to focus on is boosting activity in the battle arenas.

your point of not everybody coming for same level of involvement is valid.

saying people wont see dead forum and run away cause you might not is not logical considering theres no good argument for keeping the chats in first place if you yourself saying no reason for chatting to exist bro.

I didn't say there's no reason for chat to exist....just saying it's not the main activity of the site, and I include the forums along with IM and chatbox in that statement. I do believe that, like myself, more people than not---discover LetsBeef from looking for a place to consume or post battle raps, rather than looking for a place to chat. Sure, we could 'look' a little more active by having a few more General Talk conversations that could otherwise have taken place on the chatbox or IM. In reality, we wouldn't be more active. We would only have shifted the same gossipy convos from one medium to another. I'm suggesting we actually figure out a way to BE more active where it matters---in the battling arenas. If you don't disagree with me about most people coming here initially to battle, you actually think that by making the forums 'look' a little more active, most people who actually come here with the intention of engaging in battle raps are going to see all the gossipy forum threads and think "Man, this place is popping. I should stick around and drop battles, even though what they mostly seem to be doing is general chit-chatting"?

i dont disagree that theres bigger things to focus on, when my engine misfiring i still put air in the tires though.

i think its weird you so confident about how people gain their first impression of this place i cant say same, im sure it varies?

still not hearing good argument why chat should stay, just hearing my idea not as effective as you would want.. okay i accept that i meng what suggestion you got for the engine misfires?

I'm not necessarily arguing that we should keep the IM and chatbox. I just fail to see the sense of replacing them with the forums because the forums are essentially the same thing to me as IM/chatbox---another medium for people to hold convos (or gossip). However, you guys seem to moslty agree that IM and chatbox should go, and because of that, I think the owners should listen to you. Maybe we can try it for a provisional period and try to measure any increases in the stats @Student brought up. The best case scenario for me would be an increase in battling /voting, but I doubt this will lead to that. Whatever. Let's give it a shot.

im thiking that impersonal way you look at this site in terms of just come here battle and no socializing is scary in terms of future of this place, if thats the way this place posed to be yall gonna die at the hands of shit like battle app, what you describe already exists in more convenient to access forms. i think value of the way this site setup is its easy to form a sort of community and thats how you keep people around imo. just throwing thoughts out there to try to help meng would love to see this place flourish. yeah i liked battling here back in day but i wouldnt have been as active if i didnt have a handful of cats cracking me up and inspiring me daily. just my 2 pennies.

---------- Post added at 11:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:38 AM ----------

also a lot to be said about experienced cats helping guide the rooks, my spit game was way wacker before cats like spree floyd and illy pointed out where i was lacking, that type of shit makes people stick around imo.

While battling should be the main priority of the site, the community is also really important. I dont think any member of the loyal userbase LB has created over the years posted 5 opens then logged off only to repeat that process a day later. What gets people hooked on here are interaction (shit talking on forums especially), representing a crew (and shit talking with other crews via forums). Besides, the site has so many more tools than just battling and they all play a key role.

Looking at the recent battles and battles closing soon is an indicator to new members that battles are happening. They decide to sign up...then what? Just battling can get boring.. quick.The only issue right now is the lack of battles in the hotlist. If you are against closing the chat at least force people to vote to unlock it, afterall, five votes for a battle to hotlist isn't something hard to obtain. LB is easy to get addicted to everyone can second that. What are we getting new members addicted to though? Getting sniped by Bnas and Macc?

This isn't a direct message to NOBLE as you ain't opposed to the idea. Just throwing my thoughts out there so that the owners can potentially see

@OSKAR
It is a fact that community interaction and battling are the two sides of the scale that really keep this site alive, as even when we didn't have a single person at the helm of this place it stayed alive for YEARS via the community alone. The problem right now however is that this sense of interaction and community has dominated the userbase to the point that we just have a bunch of yesteryear members who turn letsbeef into facebook. This isn't an attempt to break down our sense of community, but to focus it into one place. The elimination of the forums won't exclude anything other than battling, it'll in fact hone non-battling activity into a smaller more focused point. Everybody will feel like taking a break every now and then, but if someone isn't not a fucking emcee anymore and hasn't been in years why the hell are they still here?


What this thread is suggesting makes sense, it's the reason why having 100 different subsections to the forums gives the look of inactivity, because if you just had three forums (TEXT/AUDIO/GENERAL) and cut all the bullshit there would be less clutter and look more alive. It's like having a huge mausoleum with a team of three janitors, when we could just downsize (i.e. what this thread is suggesting) and *actually* build up from there

That's what I am saying..'Loyal' members are indeed turning this site into facebook and would rather spend their time talking in the chatbox. My point is, since the chatbox is not available for guests, direct this talking into the forums to make the site look active in the eyes of visitors who are considering to sign up.

Shieet, I must've mistook your post then my apologies. Seems to be fairly unanimous here, hope X catches wind and we can hear his thoughts on this soon.