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Post by fundinstrongarm on Sept 13, 2008 8:56:18 GMT -5
I appreciate the threads on this board being thorough but I think you could combine several of them so it's easier to navigate. I think you're oversaturated with specific forums.
Suggestions: -Combine the Gaming Forums with the corresponding Reviews Forums.
-Move the General Gaming Discussion Forum to the top of it's section.
-Have the Movie, Pint by Pint and Parchment & Ink Forums be sub-forums in the Non-Gaming Talk Forum. Eliminate Poll Forum but allow them in the appropriate gaming/other forums.
-All 4 Events Forums could probably be combined into just 1.
-The Playtest and Beta Forum could probably get eliminated with the appropriate threads moved to it's corresponding Gaming Forum.
Anyways, take it or leave it. I'm glad these boards are here and appreciate the work done in maintaining them.
Anyone else with any thoughts? Are the forums just fine as is? Dan
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Sept 14, 2008 9:40:50 GMT -5
Thanks for the suggestions.
I've done this once already since the board started up almost 4 years ago. The individual boards were nice when we were getting 25 new posts a day, and we have a variety of active memebers who were into different things. At the time there was a group of Video Gamers, a group of Wargamers and a group of LARPers who posted regularly and only checked and posted in those specific sections, and didn't care to read or see anything else. Along with them were people checking multiple areas and the roleplayers. I think it worked then, but now that the place is near empty of regular posters (wish I knew why and or where everyone went), I think you may be right, and it may be time to combine again.
Some of the boards, like the movie reviews and Pint by Pint were set up for one time regular posters, who no longer seem to post anymore, so I have been considering offing them anyway. Playtest and beta was added when a couple local groups were actively involved playtesting a few games: Carry, Cornerstone and the Swing (RPGs) and a couple of us were Trailing MMOs, but I haven't heard of anyone playtesting anything lately, so that's probably worth ditching as well.
I'll hold off a bit on any changes to see if anyone else has an opinion though..Maybe give it until the end of the month. Though as usual, I have a feeling we won't get any more comments.
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Post by fundinstrongarm on Sept 14, 2008 23:25:14 GMT -5
I had no idea this place used to be so busy! I understand why you had most of the forums now. Well, I'm not sure how useful it is to prune but it does seem like a few things might need it.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Sept 15, 2008 10:02:03 GMT -5
I only wish I knew what made people quit checking here.
We had a group of regular video gamers who were all from a guild in Guild Wars that used to post here daily. I know at least one of them got sucked into Lineage II (Wyrdsmith), but no clue what really happened to the rest.
For about half a year the Nero LARP group was here actively trying to recruit people. They actually set up our first event at the Kildare house as a meet and greet. I know they tried to launch a Windsor chapter, but I think that failed (which would be why they left I think). Another two LARP groups started up and were posting. I see the one located in Kitchener which sometimes has events close to here is still posting on Live Journal but never here.
We had a lot of activity from 93 Games Studios when they were trying to launch a new edition of The Swing RPG, but then the writer got taken on to write a new edition of Twilight 2000 and pretty much disappeared.
Damooseneo was on about every two days pimping his games from eye level entertainment, including offering free copies of one of the games for any WGR members. I think the fact that he had few takers caused him to disappeared too.
Mekelzon and another U of W student were regular posters, who used to show up to WGR events as well. I think what happened there is they started up a local Vampire Group and didn't see a need for the place anymore once they had their game.
A group of gamers from WAR/Immortal Realms (A local gaming club that meets on Sunday nights, but is invite only) used to post here and show up to events. What seemed to happen with that group is we introduced them to some new games (most notably Settlers of Catan and Shadows Over Camelot), and they just took these games and went and bought copies and then returned to their own smaller group never to be seen from again. I've noticed since that their forum has been deleted, so no clue what those guys are up to. I'll admit missing hanging out with some of that crowd.
Probably our most regular poster was Thardon Blackfist. He used to top me in post counts. I at least know what happened to him, and her name is Kyra (his daughter, who should be about 2 now). He used to run a 3-D animation board on here that got pruned the last time I eliminated categories.
Devon was a regular poster here, even taking over for me and keeping the place active while I was off sick for a few weeks. I know he's running a D&D game now and is still just as heavy into WoW so I assume that's what keeps him away.
I'm sure there were others I am forgetting too. Some of the stuff is still there in the older threads deep on the higher page count boards, but some of it was lost when I consolidated stuff last time. I'll have to make the same call again if and when I eliminate/combine some boards. Move the posts to the new board, or delete them entirely.
I would love to get this place back up to the level of activity it had back in the day, I'm just not sure what to do about it. I'm glad to see that at least someone is willing to offer suggestions and try to improve and keep the place going.
Last Thought: I'm still of the opinion we have a ton of Lurkers. People who come here and read the news but don't bother joining and don't bother posting. In general gamers are reclusive types who don't speak out much unless in their own group, I think this holds true online as well as in life. The fact that we get approx 200 guest hits a days with only maybe 5-10 spam posts a week to me means people are checking the place out, they just aren't adding anything. That's one of the main reasons I still continue to post news and reviews when I can find the time.
EDIT: wow, sorry for the long post, and thanks for reading this far anyone who did. As you can tell I think about this quite a bit.
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Post by PandoraGreen on Sept 15, 2008 12:56:24 GMT -5
Personally I like that the reviews are separate from the other discussion, though possibly you could combine it all into one review area.
I agree that you could have the Movie, Pint by Pint and Parchment & Ink forums be sub-forums in the Non-Gaming Talk Forum.
I also agree that you should eliminate the Poll Forum, but allow polls within the appropriate gaming/other forums.
I like the way the events forums is currently divided. I suppose not entirely necessary, but works for me.
And I think you should keep the playtest and beta forums, as they have proved useful in the past and who know what will come up in the future.
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Post by ghostwes on Sept 15, 2008 13:34:02 GMT -5
Wow, that's a lot of AWOL people.
I suppose people up and leaving town is a big part of it, though I still make sure to check the forum a few times per week.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Sept 29, 2008 12:58:24 GMT -5
<bump>
I haven't heard anyone else's opinion, so unless I hear something in the next two days I will start work on consolidating some of the boards.
Unfortunatley this means that a lot of old messages are going to show up as new, since moving an item resets it's edited date. I may be able to minimize this by moving everything to a new board, instead of moving things between two existing boards.
I did talk to some people IRL who mainly mentioned they want the video game separated from the non-video games, and how they prefer the reviews also broken up. I've taken what Fundin said combined with what other people have said and come up with this which I think addresses everything.
I'm currenting thinking the new layout will look like this:
Forum Rules and Announcements
Roleplaying Discussions (will include Live Action) Board Card and Tabletop Gaming Discussions Video and Computer Gaming Discussions (remove MMO sub board) Playtest and Beta LFG/LFM Looking for Group, Looking for Members
Roleplaying Reviews Board Card and Tabletop Reviews Video and Computer Gaming Reviews
Local Events Non-Local Events Online Events
Non Gaming Talk (combining everything there, with polls deleted) Trading Post.
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Post by ghostwes on Sept 29, 2008 20:17:26 GMT -5
To be honest, I only ever read this forum by clicking on the "last 20 posts" button. So much easier...
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 2, 2008 9:35:36 GMT -5
I've started working on some of the changes.
Please let me know if anyone sees any issues or problems.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 3, 2008 11:55:57 GMT -5
All done.
The layout changes are complete. Thankfully the board now sorts all threads by date, so you don't get all the stuff I moved first. Unfortunately, for some reason the last message in each section shows the last one I moved, so for some threads this will be messed up until something new is posted.
The last 30 posts still works fine and only shows new posts and not moves.
As mentioned, if you have any problems or issues, please let me know. Also any future suggestions will be welcomed.
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Post by fundinstrongarm on Oct 3, 2008 15:36:21 GMT -5
While not everything I would do, I like it much better. All the forums now fit on one screen wihtout having to scroll as much. Good job.
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Post by PandoraGreen on Oct 5, 2008 6:10:19 GMT -5
I noticed something odd. Several of the sections are now showing very old posts as their most recent.
For example it says the most recent post in the Trading Post section is from 2006, when it's actually from 2008.
I wonder if there's a way to change this? As it looks like the forum overall is much less active then it actually is.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 5, 2008 7:15:01 GMT -5
That's what I meant by:
Once someone posts even one thing in each section, this issue will go away. I considered posting something myself in each thread, but ran out of free time to do this after moving anything.
@fundin: Thanks. I also think it looks quite a bit better. I've also considered moving the "recently played games" to the bottom so that more boards so up before the fold. At my monitor settings, it cuts off before the reviews. I think if I moved it everything may fit before the fold.
Now what we need is what we always seem to need, more active members.
EDIT: one other thing that does this is when Spammers post. When I delete the messages, whatever thread it was in still shows as most recent.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 10, 2008 7:19:11 GMT -5
Have to say, I'm not sure the forum change was a good thing. Since then the place has been deader then ever. One of the problems may be that people had specific threads bookmarked and now their URL has changed, plus I've noticed that some of the google searches now lead to dead links.
I don't know if this is actually the cause or if the place is just going through a slump yet again. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make this place even slightly more active, I would love ot hear them.
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Post by PandoraGreen on Oct 10, 2008 13:14:34 GMT -5
It's simple. I'm just too busy playing Lord of the Rings online to be on the forum. ;D ;D
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