I think our problems go far beyond HYO, but for all intents and purposes, it's a fair starting point.
If no one else is going to come out and say it, I will: I was happy to see the notice that this section was being closed down, if only for two reasons:
1) I get tired of seeing nothing but new posts in the HYO section when I look down at the bottom of the page; I want to know what real discussions are going on
2) It eliminates a major draw to this site for trolls
Yes, it is true. Trolls have been well known to flock to this site simply to start their own shows without any permission whatsoever and then get all pissy and hijack random threads with nonsense just for the sake of being a nuisance. Will getting rid of HYO solve this? Possibly to some degree. But as I (and I know at least a few of the mods) have suggested, moderators
need the power to ban users. It would be the quickest and most effective way to take care of trolls. The thing about trolls: they're always going to be around. You can't stop them from cropping up and inflicting their damage. They can be exterminated, though, and having more people around with the ability to do so will significantly reduce their impact. So, this solution will take care of at least the latter of your gripes. As far as your first gripe goes, I don't even pay attention to the most recent posts. It's often crowded with crap I don't care about, so I just go directly to the sections I most often look at and see what's new from there whenever the Plinko chip turns pink (really neat feature, btw). It's not as convenient, but I don't think the "most recent" issue is worth eliminating HYO over.
The idea of shutting the section down is and was my idea, for a reason that isn't public yet, but I will say it more or less invalidates some of your (and Teddy's) points. Obviously, it's not known yet, so I'd never hold that against anyone's validity of points, because it's fair to say so otherwise. Thrasher and I discussed this on Facebook the other day. As I understand it, the decision isn't likely to be reversed, despite the notice; this likely is the last show for this section/site.
First off, my comments weren't directed at any person in particular, so no hard feelings towards you or Thrasher
I am curious to hear your thoughts on this, possibly through PM, if you don't want to state them for everyone to see. I think I might have an idea of what you mean now that I think of it, but I won't get into that here.
My personal thoughts on HYO...
I admit, when I joined the site and saw the HYO section, I was one of those who immediately wanted to jump in and start a show. And after a brief period of time (a month or two?), I hosted my first show. I thought it went well, and I proceeded to host another. And then another -- which ended up being cancelled about midway through because of...well, life getting in the way. I haven't hosted a show since, because again, well, life. I would love to host another show again some day. In fact, I have some templates already made up for my next show. I'm just waiting for a good time when life won't get in the way, possibly in December when I'm on break from school, although the way things are looking around here, that show won't be happening.
We have some quality hosts. We also have some hosts who host for the sake of hosting, and it shows. We have quality participants. We also have those who participate because they have absolutely nothing else to contribute to this site. Lately, it does seem like we're getting much more of the latter in both camps. Whether that's on Jordanar for not attempting to generate more interest in the section or just our quality members not interested in hosting is up for debate. Probably a bit of both.
The lack of interest in HYO these days is odd. A sign that G-R.net as a whole is going the way of the dodo? Again, that's debatable (and deserving of its own discussion, quite possibly). We are in the middle of summer with no new episodes of
Price airing, so from a historical standpoint, there isn't as much activity going on as there would be otherwise. I will say that I'm not noticing as much activity on the site as there was at this time two years ago when I joined, so possibly people really do just don't care anymore, whether it be about HYO or just the site as a whole.
The concept of HYO is really cool. We get to be Bob Barker/Drew Carey. We get to use our own prizes. We get to play our own games. And in that sense, we also get to be Roger Dobkowitz/Mike Richards. Members sign up for the shows, and once enough people have signed up, the show begins. If you have a host with good computer graphical skills, their shows utilize graphics to make it seem much more realistic. No computer simulation game can quite compare to the overall experience, and to me, all of that is what makes the section so neat. It's a shame that there doesn't seem to be as much interest lately in playing, especially among our quality members, but I hardly see that in particular as a reason to ditch the entire section.
(Reading through some of the recent comments that were posted after I typed all of the above...)
Originally the plan was to shut down the Host Your Own situation because Jordanar18 resigned due to lack of time and lack of interest I believe. Last night, I offered to take it over to Seth in an email over other things.
It's a shame Jordanar doesn't want to moderate the section anymore, but hey, life happens. I would have liked for this decision to have been made public, however. I realize certain things go on behind the scenes that not everyone necessarily needs to be made aware of, but this was a pretty significant one. I understand if it was because of the decision to shut down HYO, but again, I feel like the forum should have had a chance to weigh in (which I suppose is what we're doing here, although not under as pleasant of circumstances).
There is still life I think in HYO, but I think it's more on not just who is hosting, but participation. When I did my 1st one earlier this year, I got 27 people participating and Jordanar was so excited. I want to see more participation in forms of people participating not just hosting. I know people don't have time to commit to host, but every little bit helps.
You are an example of a quality host, which HYO needs more of. Take note, future hosts (assuming there will be future hosts).