Incoming wall of text (You've been warned)
I was a big advocate for the Cube Lists forum. That was where I stayed when I joined this forum, mainly just doing drafts on cubetutor and explaining my findings in decent length posts afterwards. After a while it just becomes tedious.
Most of the problems I have noticed have already been mentioned above, but I am going to reiterate them from my own perspective and give examples where I can.
The Problems with Cube Lists Forum
1. Time Investment for 'Constructive' Posts
This has become the main issue for me. I want to help people where I can, but for me to feel what is a decent reply (and what people may be expecting), is a couple of drafts, some suggestions of cuts (overpowered/not thematical) and some possible adds they forgot. This takes me like a solid 30 minutes to do. Some times I have nothing better to do and feel like helping out, so I pump one out for the newest list to make them feel like we care about their contribution (I mean they did just but up their baby to the slaughter).
Like an example would be
ColonelSanders cube. I like the idea, he's been a regular on Cube Talk and I want to help out, but geez, all custom cards? It is going to take me like an hour just to digest what the cards do let alone if they are too strong for the environment, what archetypes there are and sooo many things. I can't just do a small post saying, 'that card looks too strong', that isn't me and probably isn't what the cube owner wants in the discussion.
While I am being all negative about time consumption, this part I don't really mind, but it leads to the next couple of reasons that make the time investment not really worthwhile.
2. Lack of Response to Such Posts
So when you spend a decent amount of time on something you hope to get a reply or be appreciated. Otherwise what was the point? I couldn't actually find any examples of a cube that had been abandoned after a post by a regular which was nice. The main issue I find most irritating is that they just disregard your advice.
I like to think sometimes it can be like inception, you plant the seed in their subconscious that these cards/archetypes won't work, but like 80% of the time it doesn't matter what you say, people are stuck in their ways.
Heck, I'm even guilty of this. But I did eventually heed the advice, albeit never using the cube since.
Here is an example of one I did not to long ago. Note that I had already lost 20 minutes of work on that post due to a computer error. I get a reply saying thanks, but then goes to rebut everything I said and takes nothing away. I mean
Autumn's Veil... How can you defend that card? Why do I need to reiterate myself on it again?
No one has posted since then, and I can understand why. I know I want to help them out of traps (like
Masterwork of Ingenuity + 5 equipment in the cube), but then it will just be defended again 'this one time a guy got double Bonesplitter) and I'll just be slamming my head against the keyboard again. I'll pass on the head trauma thanks.
3. Vague/Long list of Critiques Wanted
Then we come to my other pet peeve. Sure you've taken the time to write a long post of cards that you think might be good for you to run, why do I have to suffer through a list of cards and pick them for you? Why can't you just add the ones you want and give your reasoning? At least then I can explain if your reasoning is off (not enough support) and then we can go on a to and fro as to what to add instead, that is fine.
I went a bit
off the rails in one post because of this. Then Grillo came to help me out until Sigh dropped a decent post (which I still don't think he has considered/implemented).
So to fix these I think the freshening up the Cube Academy could be a solution, but It doesn't actively solve any of these three issues. There is nothing that can be done about problem 2. it is just human nature and if people can't accept change there is nothing we can do about it. Problem 3 could be lessened by the Cube Academy, or a refresh of the sticky post in the Cube Lists forum. All they need to do is to ask the right questions, which those two sources should help them obtain.
The main issue is problem 1. This might be a personal battle for me to accept a short post is better than nothing. Having another source to direct people to ask questions that can be answered without a 30 minute post could also mitigate the problem. I wouldn't mind instigating a 'draft swap', where if they want people to give them some draft data, they must first draft one of our cubes, so they understand our environments and our views on things instead of being brainlocked into their own powermax format. Too be honest that is all I can really think of at this point. If I come up with any other solutions I will be sure to post them.
That isn't to say that the thread is dying a horrible death and no one wants to post there. There is too much expectation and ignorance going on and we just need a way to clean it up, but there is a silver lining. The cube list thread does have some gold and a reason to stick around.
The Best Things in the Cube Lists Forum
1. Draft Day Write Ups
This is my personal favourite thing about the cube lists thread. Seeing the environment in action, your thoughts on your environment and what could be improved. It is like a personal story for every draft and they are great to read. Personal favourites are:
Shamizy's Cube, a decent amount of deck lists, lots of thoughts about the night, always a great read. I based my
own draft reports off of these.
Alphez's Cube, nice succinct writeups with enthusiasm but realistic expectations of his new format (Please post another soon!)
Modin's Cube, this is something that is really needed for fantasy drafts as cubetutor can't do them justice. Lots of lists, lots of thoughts, everything I want.
These are just the ones I thought of off the top of my head, but there are a lot more where they came from. They may take a while to write, but I appreciate everyone who does.
2. Own Personal Blog
This sort of bounces off of the first point, but in your cube list thread you can pretty much post whatever you want. The best person for this is generally Safra, who goes off the wall on various topics. I really like her
prerelease and
GP writeups she did.
The other main thing people like to talk about is changes in their cube. These are also pretty inciteful mainly as to what didn't work or what you want to try rather than 'this card is new and I should put it in'.
RavebornMuse is great at these. The amount of text they pour onto the screen to explain their changes or just spout random nonsense is great. It is almost like shit-posting but actually has some purpose. I am all up for that.
Plus it is YOUR cube thread. If you put in the Cube Talk forum it might feel like another thread instead of your own thread and people might be less inclined to post stuff like this. Just my opinion, as it probably doesn't matter where they live though.
3. Communal Cubes
Sure, these could go in the Cube Talk Forum, but they would just die if there wasn't a person in charge of it to keep things moving. The main ones were The
4 At A Time Cube and the
Penny Pincher Cube. Both for different reasons.
The 4 at a time cube was just a fun little community experiment to see how interesting a cube could be if we threw in whatever we wanted (It wasn't actually that bad. The Penny Cube, there was a lot of back and forth between Grillo and the community on each iteration of the design that made it the solid fortress of an environment it has become.
While there hasn't been one of these cubes for a while the sense of us all working toward a design was refreshing to see and if anyone has a fresh idea they want fleshed out, if the Cube List Forum is gone it might have trouble getting to completion (considering how off topic half the Cube Talk threads go).
I don't like pointing fingers, but I think it needed to be done in this case. I don't want people to think we are ignoring them and their cubes, it is just a lot harder to give advice than you think (especially when people don't take it, you start to lose hope). The forum will bounce back eventually, but I think we can try out a couple of things so when it does get more movement it won't peter off as heavily as it did these last couple of months.
Kind Regards and Salutations!
-Kirblinx.
