Wednesday 10 June 2015

All Change - No Change

I've opened a discussion on facebook about whether NoBoG should consider moving venue and or time based on the fact that the Ribs of Beef has reduced its table space, and is also holding a fortnightly darts event.

If you dont' have facebook setup, then here is a copy of what I posted there.



So I am going to throw this out there for everyone to comment on, discuss and wade in with opinions and ideas. If you know NoBoGians who aren't on facebook or follow the NoBoG fb ( and I know there are plenty that don't ), then give them a poke about adding in their opinions. Spread the word. Leave comments either on here, via the blog, on twitter, or just sending a message privately or emailing if you don't want your opinions public.

This evening as... it turned out the Ribs of Beef held their first darts evening - surprise ! - and had the front half of the pub reserved. 

Whilst I already mentioned that splitting site to Take 5 would probably be the solution, I am now questioning whether that's actually the best idea and wondering if there are other options - say leaving the Ribs entirely to find somewhere else or changing evening.

There are lots of things to consider with this, pros and cons, and of course as NoBoG is nothing more than the NoBoGians who attend ( and some virtual lurkers ! ) it seems sensible to get everyones opinions and ideas.
 
This topic has come up before but never got very far - The Ribs has mostly panned out well for NoBoG - we have split site to Take 5 before, and seemed to be a reasonable compromise, but in light of this issue coming up again, I am opening this up for debate.
 
Other sites ? Other times ? Comments please !

Whilst everyones opinion is welcome, I would say that if you are a NoBoG visitor in person then please chip in over and above our lurkers who don't attend ( and therefore possibly don't have a "dog in this race" - but maybe changing site and times would change facts for some that attend now, and some that don't ).

On a purely personal note I have to say that I was unimpressed with how this went down at the Ribs this evening and the absolute chaos that it caused - particularly impacting some newcomers who must have wondered WTF was going on. Of course as ever NoBoG being a great bunch of people, Fletch and Martin stepped into the breach to take a group to Take 5 - very appreciated thanks guys - and eventually mostly everyone got sorted out. But it wasn't easy. At all. It would have been nice to know beforehand.

4 comments:

andy said...

As a very rare attender, my comments are worth little, but I would suggest the Leopard pub as an alternative secondary venue. It's quite big, has a lot of tables, is well lit and clean, and they have a few board games on the shelves so might be open to have 3 or 4 tables going. Prob is 10 minutes from the Ribs? Maybe a touch less.

Unknown said...

Well, as a recovering alcoholic and an old man who nearly tripped over the wooden bar drilled into the floor for the darts guys I am going to 'suggest' that we face facts and say Tuesdays should be at Athena Games which is a freaking HUGE venue now, are our local FLGS, is set up for gaming AND sells games as well as a range of refreshing soft drinks and snacks.

However...NO BEER.

andy said...

Whatever the decision is, it's going to not be ideal for someone. I think if you wind up at Athena, you'll find that a few people stop going, or maybe just keep going to the Ribs :-)

Bork said...

I had a chat with Jamie this afternoon at Athena, and he was very friendly and has a great venue to offer. It's a possibility on the table.

I appreciate people might still go to the Ribs, but tbh, I think the people saying that were not there to witness the chaos that was caused. Having people leave, have a bad experience and just go home gets to the fundamental heart of what a gaming group is about - the people. If you are giving people a bad experience you're not going anywhere but down.

Keeping on going to the Ribs is just going to be an ongoing headache - if someone else would like the job of kicking people out or telling them to get lost, then that's great. It's easy for people to wash their hands of it and say, well, I got a game, I'm ok. I often get to sort people out, particularly the newcomers, I can see when bad things impact their experience. Poor Chris just turned around and went home, and two newcomers had a stressy experience and just left, and there was also a lot of chaos around people not playing just going to watch because of space and a few more newcomers utterly lost and bewildered by it all. Not mincing words it was crap.

This has been an issue for sometime and we've quietly been silently turning the people who want a less cramped environment away. I know half a dozen vets that are put off that it's too busy / cramped.