So we all love GBAtemp, but why specifically? What makes GBAtemp different than other discussion forums, or university forums if you've ever done those before? What could be done better?
Here are some potential talking points, but feel free to post whatever.
- what do you get out of posting? responding?
- what makes you keep coming back? news? developments? interactions?
- what makes this community so great or what makes others so un-desirable?
- how could a university discussion forum do to be more like GBAtemp?
I don't know what you mean by university forums.
But if you mean forums put up by universities for their students to use, they are usually lacking in functionality, they do not inspire any freedom in the behavior of users, they are very closed and limited and they end up feeling like a clumsy tool you use to interact with university staff and colleagues because it is imposed instead of practical. I have attended some universities, they all had "forums", they all were subpar and it felt like they restricted you.
Regarding the potential talking points:
- what do you get out of posting? responding?
It is like a drug, I feel bored, I respond or start conversation, I get replies, endorphins are released: it works /s
(true story / addictive)
- what makes you keep coming back? news? developments? interactions?
Mostly interactions / the community. News and developments play a role, but not in a daily basis.
- what makes this community so great or what makes others so un-desirable?
The community for once. The behavior of the staff also that enables it: there is a lot of freedom, I would say it is borderline anarchy but still falls on the safe side, there is drama but it is limited, it does not reach anarchy.
I would say others may be undesirable when there is either too much restriction, too much chaos, or some kind of (way too biased) "order".
- how could a university discussion forum do to be more like GBAtemp?
By not being a university forum I guess. The core idea of being somewhat closed/restricted to a group of persons that make part of the institution, as well as having a omnipresent authority figure (the institution) that makes you think twice before speaking up in a really free way ruin them.
...there you have it, one more sample for your research.