5 Reasons to Scrap GameSpot Unions

From the "Zelda and Off-Topic Union," to the "Soul Caliber and Off-Topic Union," to all of the other well-thought-out unions that thirteen-year-old kids come up with as soon as they reach level six; users of this site have been plagued with these spam factories for over a decade. Here is just some food for thought:

• There is no such thing as a free lunch. Every waste of space needs to be paid for, and these funds come from those lovely ads that we see every time we load the homepage, and these funds could be better used by hiring another staff member, adding more features, or even cutting down on those blessed advertisements.
• The majority of unions peter out within a month and become completely stagnant.
• Noone likes the disapointment of opening the old gamespot inbox to read one's messages only to find if full of union invites and send-all union messages.
• Gamespot has no desire to fix the issues with unions. Remember SentinelRV's movement to fix the union system half a decade ago? Did Gamespot even pretend to take action, even if to appease Sentinel and keep his invaluable HeadCrab Union on the site? If the staff is so apathetic to allow their largest and most active union to slip between their fingers, why even support the things?
• Every post dumped into a terminally ill union forum is a post that could have contributed to it's respective Game Forum, where people really go to find information about games. If you have a question about Skyward Sword, are you going to visit the "Zelda Alliance and Off-Topic Union,"or the Skyward Sword forum?

Just no.

Really what's the difference? The purpose of a forum is to share information and strike conversation between people that share similar interests. A union only takes this one step further with an extra layer of depth by adding a front page where articles in blog fashion can be posted.

Unions haven't been surfaced in the main navigation on this site for years, yet people still find a way to keep them alive. Perhaps it isn't the best idea that anyone can create a union. I do believe if this was a premium feature for paid membership gamespot would have much more luck with people not having to sift through dozens of crap unions. Also owners of the boards would be much more inclined to stick with their union since they are paying for the service.

Yes, unions have problems, but it really seems like a waste for them to neglect them further. As long as people still go to gamespot, there will always be demand for user created forums in some fashion. Might as well fix the system you already have than make a new one from scratch.

For those of you who actually read the entire original post; please refer to bullet number four. Despite obvious problems with simple potential fixes, the staff has taken no steps toward the remedy of said isssues, even in the wake of SentinelRV's reformation movement, and at the cost of one of the most profitable unions in the sites history (again, please refer to the fourth bullet). Because there is obviously no desire/possibility for a fix, then this broken toy must be replaced.

For those of you who actually read the entire original post; please refer to bullet number four. Despite obvious problems with simple potential fixes, the staff has taken no steps toward the remedy of said isssues, even in the wake of SentinelRV's reformation movement, and at the cost of one of the most profitable unions in the sites history (again, please refer to the fourth bullet). Because there is obviously no desire/possibility for a fix, then this broken toy must be replaced.

parduebenjamin

The Leader of the union never takes advantage of that option. In fact, the leader often goes awol and lets the union sit there with no leadership until it dies out.

If they got rid of unions then I would without a doubt stop using this website. Unions are what kept me coming here from when I was level 1 and are the only reason I still visit GS, especially after the new ToU which has made the main forums an altogether unpleasant environment. And I know plenty of people that are of a similar disposition.