I used to care about this because I really do think it would be nice to have a place to talk about legitimate things. I stopped caring because the GMs were entirely uncooperative and did their usual song and dance- the robot. It goes like this:

Human: "Could you ask the developers if they've read this information about the shard bombs? I theorize that they overlooked it (and are continuing to overlook it) due to the influx of stupidity and misinformation regarding the shard bombs. I worked out all of the math and am wondering if it's a bug or not."

GM-Bot: "Greetings,

I'm not sure if that's a bug with the game or not, but if you think that you've discovered a bug in the game you can press F2 to submit a bug request. If it is indeed a bug the developers will look into it. Thanks!"

-----

And this standardized procedure works for dodging any question or issue posed-

GM-Bot: Hi!

Please submit a complaint using the in-game complaint system - you can do that by typing /complain Name. Thanks!

GM-Bot: "Greetings,

That type of posts could be considered spam, and it could lead to a forum suspension or ban yes."

GM-Bot: "For now we have determined that forum games and such things are appropriate for Gremlin Chatter."

Yes, but how have you determined this? Is there any way I can try to talk you into having a separate sub-forum or have you actually look into what I'm asking? Have you even bothered to talk to anyone else or consider me? Can I- No you cannot, because the ticket is now locked and you're stuck with a robotic response. Have a nice day and remember to press F2 to vent your frustration into the garbage on your way out.

So no. I don't care any more. It isn't worth caring. Just stop. You're like the picture of spiderman saying "I've found exactly one [care]. It is my gift to you." And it's painful to watch because I know what's going to happen next. It's like watching the same bad movie for the fourth time.

Forum Game: Which of the above GM responses was copy/pasted from a legitimate support ticket and which wasn't?

"There's just too little room for actual discussions there as the place just gets flooded..."

Although I don't have any interest in forum games... I'm going to have to disagree with you there.

Gremlin chatter isn't as bad as you make it seem in terms of spamminess.
The front page is currently moving with about a 3-week range on the front page.

Compared to the wiki edits subforum which is closer to 2 months range for the front page.
General discussion is 1-3 days length for its front page.
Bazaar is a handful of hours for its front page.

I remember that thread (I'm guessing because I mentioned anime, people stopped posting). Hexzyle mentioned "Akame ga Kiru" and that was something I could type about (not talk cause well, ya know XD).

You also mentioned (in the thread that was linked) that you had a program that you are working on (I wish I could do programming, but everyone leans differently). That's great! (I'm still trying to wrap my head around information security)

About the thread moving thing, you wouldn't know who moved it though (you aren't behind them watching, are you)? o.o And even if this thread is posted in gremlin chatter, you can be certain I would post there (forum trolls have to know when a topic is actually considered serious and has the posters thoughts in it).

@Krakob

You are complaining about a subforum being flooded when frankly it is the second slowest subforum to have discussions. Such a fast paced disaster. You're looking at almost 2 months worth of no posts before you would have to recover the thread from being hidden behind the dreaded 2nd page of the subforum.

Are the "discussions" more forum games than actual discussions? Yes. I think the larger issue is that there are too many forums spread around the internet with better moderated and informed communities on niche topics that players are interested in talking about and havent particularly shared anything that would give that notion in game/on forums.

There simply isnt enough draw for players to open up in chat in this community... and I don't think flooding or bad moderation is the reason.

Skepticraven is correct in saying that the demand just isn't there, but there are clearly enough forum games (as opposed to actual discussions) to warrant making a sub-forum for them, even if that sub forum is within gremlin chatter. The point being that we need a place to discuss off-topic things, and that having the off-topic discussion forum filled with spam is detrimental to discussing the off topic things.

I'm always happy to derail threads in the General Discussion because not enough traffic occurs in GD nor GC.

I would think that an insightful thread in GC would consist of peoples views on topics dealing with something they are interested in. Example thread could be discussing a topic about favorite snacks (there might've been a topic on this), but a thread can only go on for so long. Do you mean you wish to see more of these type of threads again?

I understand that you want GC to be split, but I also think that some people don't really want to share their views of a topic (whether it be that they have nothing to type at the moment and the thread getting pushed back to the "oh, I have to actually exert effort and move the mouse to go to page 2" page or they are afraid of criticism.

I'd love to head on over the Gremlin Chatter more than I currently do, but whenever I am over there I remember how not interesting it is. All I really see are people being all "omg i'm so random" with that raises spork copypasta. I don't really want to read that, it's just not interesting.

I'm all for a forum games section of the forums called "The Arcade". It would allow the Gremlin Chatter to be the "discussion" forum where I can post my favorite music, hype for other games, share an experience, or share my knowledge. Forum games could be moved to the arcade and they could keep just doing what they do.
I shouldn't have to think twice to where I should post a "what other games do you play?" thread, especially if I want serious responses. As of right now, General Discussion would be the better bet, even though it's more suited for Gremlin Chatter.

I'm okay with making the Gremlin Chatter section slower if it means every post on the front page will be meaningful. Heck, I might start regularly posting there in that case. As of right now, I only pop in there whenever someone else sends me a link to something, or I run out of things to read while being bored at work.

I actually agree with this personally.

Also Krakob, you missed this discussion.

It's a discussion that's silly at times, but a discussion non the less.

See I avoid Gremlin Chatter because of the forum games. It sounds like Krakob does the same. We want to post discussions there, and we want to be there, but it's just so full of unneeded junk it's hard to start a discussion without someone butting in and assuming that since we're in gremlin chatter they can just make joke posts.

If gremlin chatter becomes a slow zone, you'll still have your forum games all in one place, they just won't be knocking real discussions off the front page. I can't be the only one who is lazy and doesn't like to look past the front page of any subforum.
Essentially, it would make both Gremlin Chatter and those forum games be their own place. If I want lighthearted "fun", I can look to the forum games, but if I want thoughtful discussion, I want to be able to find it without digging through the mess that is currently gremlin chatter, only to have it buried in a few hours because someone posted a single number to another thread, decided they wanted to make a thread about eating people, or things of that sort.

It's better to have many subforums move slowly than it is to have few subforums move quickly, but be cluttered with things that are just not all that fun or interesting. Imagine if General Discussion was filled with Lockdown posts or suggestions? It's not as easy to discuss the game when people are constantly posting to a tournament that doesn't matter to you and knocking your threads off the front page, or conversing about controversial ideas in a suggestion doing the same.

I'm all for a new subforum to split the forum games from the non-SK discussion. Likewise, I'm also all for more non-SK related discussion threads. Similar to Krakob, I have had ideas for discussion threads I wanted to post, but I have not created them for several reasons. One reason is that the previous non-SK related threads I made generated zero replies. I have not been too keen on posting another discussion thread in GC given the rather poor track record of discussion threads in GC.

I'm really glad Pi made "Tea Time" though. While there are roleplay elements to the thread, it has allowed us to have some short yet nice and entertaining discussions. We can easily switch between silly fun and any discussion we want since that was the purpose of the thread.

Anyways, yes, I would like to see more discussions--even they are topics I am not really interested in or comfortable posting in (for whatever reason). So if anyone wants to post discussions in GC, I will definitely read them if I have time. And if the topics interest me enough, I'll try to join the conversation.

If I might- Krakob has already discussed why we cannot forsee whether or not people would use an off topic discussions forum that was separate from forum games, and such a place is typically one of the standard sub-forums on any forum.

As I said before and you mentioned in your post, it comes down to whether or not there are enough threads to justify a new sub-forum being created. The lockdown forum mentioned is one such example of this happening- there were enough posts being made in general discussions to warrant a new sub forum. I would like to think that the number of forum games vs other off topic threads is quite clearly "high enough" at this point.

You're clearly capable of seeing this- why do you differ?

There is one logic flaw with that comment... Lockdown and suggestions each have their own subforum.

And once upon a time, there was no coliseum forum. Take a minute and step outside what we currently have using the wonderful powers of imagination, like I asked viewers to do in my post.

"Imagine if General Discussion was filled with Lockdown posts or suggestions"

Using that wonderful power, tell me how fun it would be having your "arcade classes for birds" thread knocked off the front page because someone suggested dual wielding for the Nth time. How could we easily talk about predictions for when Black Kats are coming back when the thread is knocked back several pages by someone challenging one or two other players to a duel and trash talking each other?
I come to general discussion to discuss things about this game. I go to suggestions to read, critique, and post my suggestions for this game. I go to the treasure vault to post and view fan art. So why should I go to the off-topic discussion forum to play forum games? Why should the off-topic discussion forum be so filled with non-discussion material that I loathe visiting it when I'm seeking a discussion with the players of this game about things not related to the game?
We have a bunch of new subforum names to use. "The Arcade" is just my vote as it makes sense for little upbeat forum games. But maybe I want to talk about something sad that happened in my life and just need a stranger on the internet to say "there there... It's okay", and share an experience they've had to pull through something similar. I don't want to make those experiences flood over into the forum games either.
Let those who want to have fun have fun, and let those who want to legitimately make conversation make conversation. It's not like the forum games are going to disappear, they'll just have their own place.

EDIT: Oh hey, ninja'd by Eury. I'll write that off on my to-do list.
But yes, "The Arcade" would be a great name for the forum itself. For subtext, I'm not super sure... Maybe something along the lines of "A place to create, share, and play games with your fellow knights outside of the clockworks!"

The Arcade sounds like a great name to me. +1

I mentioned your thread on there as an example of a well-thought out and helpful thread that can spark discussion being booted off the front page because items that are not discussion related overtake it.

Again, using your imagination, let's say someone triple posted their thread, left shadow copies, and overall the page just moved quickly. Now your discussion about how to classify arcade gates is no longer on the front page where it is the most helpful and sparks the most discussion, and half of the items on that page that bumped your discussion away are all "I LIKE RAISINS", "the sky is yellow!", or perhaps another discussion like "What's your favorite NPC?".
This is what I'm getting at. Gremlin Chatter evolved from "Off-Topic discussion" to "be as random as possible or PLAY GAMES", and has thrown the original purpose out the window.

Looking at the content of Gremlin Chatter as of right now, 11 of the 25 topics on the front page are games. That's 44% of the front page. 8 of the 25 topics are "random" or have no discussion direction. That's 32% of front page topics. So now we have 76% of gremlin chatter not having discussions. The 8 "random" or "no direction" ones are okay honestly, but they aren't the discussions that we could be having.

In fact, I count 4 real discussions. Four. 4 out of 25. 16% of the front page.

Hopefully these numbers stand out to you, because I know you're a person of numbers. The sample is the current front page of the gremlin chatter forum as of 1:27PM PDT 3/11/2015.

Now with those numbers, imagine if 76% of general discussion wasn't a discussion? 76% of suggestions weren't suggestions? 76% of the arsenal wasn't about our game's gear?
This is why we need another subforum for forum games.

Trying to stay in the theme of Spiral Knights like the other subforums makes me feel "The Arcade" is the best option. However, for the sake of discussion and stuff, lemme try to throw out a few ideas:

The Arcade
Gremlin Workshop
Clockworks Terminal
Bechamel's Storage

Ehh, not much else is coming up. Thing is, only "The Arcade" is really clear just from looking at its name. Gremlin Workshop might be interpreted as fanfiction, Bachamel's Storage might be a sort of gallery (again, a thing for treasure vault), and Clockworks Terminal... Not sure what it really could be just from looking at it.

If anyone else does have any potential ideas I'm all ears. Or technically eyes because, you know, internet.

An arcade has appeared.

More significantly - An entire off-topic subsection has been branched off [that contains gremlin chatter and the arcade]

I can see myself getting confused in the future because of how much I'm used to GC being in the general subsection. Oh well, I guess I'll get used to it. :)

Also Eury, could you please move this thread and this thread to The Arcade? Thanks.

EDIT: Whoops, accidentally did the same link twice, it should be fixed now.

The Arcade it is! Pretty neat to see this accomplished so quickly.