Topic Classification |
| Not all topics are the same. The investigators of Webboard Mechanics have narrowed the variety of topics down to seven general categories: |
Declaratory:
These are the most common form of topic at creation; they are just a statement, such as a link to a news story, a summary of a person's day, or any other such topics.
These topics often metamorphose into another, or they just fall off the page, overwhelmed by other, more important topics, lost to the mists of time.
The behavior of these topics also depends on the nature of the board and topic; on Just Chat, they may become a full-fledged debate, or on Banter and Brawl, they are more likely to stay as such, or metamorphose into Discussions or Chats.
Subclasses:
News story (comme Just Chat): These inevitably lead to Debates of whatever the topic of the news story happens to be.
News story (random): These are likely to either be forgotten swiftly, or become Discussions.
State of day: These invoke a discussion, and sympathy depending on the state of day. They may evolve into Debates. These topics are often forgotten.
Announcement: The most straightforward of any topic, these invoke a discussion, and may evolve into Debates. These topics are often forgotten. |
Debate:
These aren't extremely common at creation, but a debate is the most likely topic for another to metamorphose into. These are topics where a person states an opinion, and then others argue or otherwise attack that opinion, while some that agree with the starter and the starter himself continue to defend his opinion or attack others' arguments. The amount of posts that a debate topic will recieve is inversely proportional to the intelligence of the starter of the debate or the debaters within; more intelligent debaters may make fewer posts, yet longer posts, covering more points of discussion. Over time, the Debate may look long like a poll, game or discussion, but that depends on the commitment of the debaters.
These topics may appear to follow xtal's First Law, but they do not; they almost always die off within a few pages.
Subclasses:
Political
Religious
Theoretical
Inflamatory: These are Debates corrupted by Ad Hominem arguments. |
Interrogative:
These are polls or surveys, such as the straightforward "what is your favorite color" or the more abstract "what are the last five songs you played in iTunes". These may metamorphose into debates, through one person criticizing another's choice, then that person defending his, or they may metamorphose into into Discussions or Chats.
Topics begging your photograph or desktop picture or any other such topic, although more abstract, fall under this category. As well, any begging for information or advice also falls under this class of topic.
These topics often follow xtal's First Law.
Subclasses:
Poll
Survey
Begging information
Inflamatory: These are polls or surveys corrupted by Ad Hominem attacks. |
Chat:
These are where you talk for the sake of talking. These topics exist literally everywhere, and mostly in regions which either do not know about IRC or instant messaging or do not have a dedicated IRC channel anywhere. On lower forums, any topic is likely to metamorphose into the chat form.
These topics sometimes follow xtal's First Law.
Subclasses:
Inflamatory: These are chats corrupted with Ad Hominem attacks. |
Discussion:
This is a much higher form of the Chat topic; in Discussions, you actually adhere to a predefined topic of conversation.
Again, anything may metamorphose into them, but they are more likely to exist where there is an IRC channel to dump the testosterone, estrogen and the real-life rudimentary conversation-ness of chats.
In a community which allows for such an IRC channel to exist, the IRC channel may also contain more Discussions than Chats.
These topics sometimes follow xtal's First Law.
Subclasses:
Inflamatory: These are discussions corrupted with Ad Hominem attacks. |
Dynamic Game:
These topics can range from the slightly asinine game topics such as This or That (where you post two statements separated by or, and then people choose one and post their own this or that) or the One-Upping Game (where you post one statement and people try to one-up that), to run-on story topics where you post fragments ranging from individual words to complete sentences to paragraphs to complete chapters, to the complex role-playing game where participants may compete with each other for some abstract goal in the story.
Games are the least likely to evolve, but they may become Debates or Inflamatory topics through the fact that there is often a stigma against many these topics.
These topics usually follow xtal's First Law.
Subclasses:
Asinine Game
Run-on story (individual words)
Run-on story (sentence fragments)
Run-on story (paragraphs)
Run-on story (chapters)
Role-playing game |
Static Game:
These are games where the nature of the topic isn't modified by each post. The nature always remains stationary. The most common form of this is the Trivia game, where the initial poster gives one or several questions to ask, and and following posters try to answer those questions.
These topics usually follow xtal's First Law until all of the questions are answered. | |
