Would it be possible for the mods to place a RPG edition/system selection for threads

[newbDM]

I know that for some it is not so important, but I skip many a thread due to not wanting to have figure out what D&D edition a thread poster is talking about based on reading his entire thread.

Usually when a poster is talking about a non-D&D system it is a rarer occurrence, so they are usually better about it, but it still happens (which makes it even more confusing).


Also, having to type the edition or system in the thread heading takes up valuable space, which you are already limited on as is. For example, I am mostly a D&D 3.5 player, so typing [3.5] automatically kills off five characters for my possible OP title.

...
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After typing up my last paragraph, I decided to find a character counter online to see exactly how many characters a header on this forum is allowed. If you copy and paste my OP header into the counter, you will see that you get a max of 85 characters.

http://www.javascriptkit.com/script/script2/charcount.shtml

So just typing [3.5] takes 5 characters out of your 85 maximum.


Plus, having to type these each time you make a thread takes time, gets repetitive, and gets slightly annoying. If you had something like the smiles you can place in the OP on these forums (like the question mark this thread has. see right below your posting page), or possibly edition smiles/images (like the D20 logo) added to said list, it would make things a lot quicker, and not eat up your header space (I doubt making gif or BMP smiles is too difficult in Photoshop, and again you can just use things like the d20 logo.).

I personally believe this would be especially useful in the Homebrew board.


What are your thoughts on this? Is this something others would want?

[Kroy]

Ya, I agree. It's extremely annoying when you read a whole thread, then realize you spent 15 minutes reading 4th ed.

[newbDM]

Ya, I agree. It's extremely annoying when you read a whole thread, then realize you spent 15 minutes reading 4th ed.

Agreed.

And I am not saying 4.0 is bad. It is just not my thing, so I would not have any helpful input for the OP, since I know nearly zip about it's mechanics (I have never even touched a 4.0 rulebook). And for other systems like Star Wars, I again have no knowledge of the system, and would not be able to help with much more than simple fluff/plot ideas.

[RTGoodman]

This has been discussed in the Board/Site Issues sub-forum, which is where this type of thread belongs. I'll see if I can dig that one up.

Basically, in my opinion, it shouldn't be necessary to overhaul the forum just to add that small feature. Really, adding a 4-5 character tag ISN'T a big deal, and if your thread titles are more than 80 characters, well, you should consider shortening them. :smalltongue: Of course, there's still the problem of not everyone USING self-imposed game tags, but for the most part I find that it's not that big of a problem.

EDIT: I found a couple of threads on the edition (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82938) tags (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83329) topic, but none with any input from the Mods. Either way, I still think posters just adding their own tags works fine. I mean, if it's an obscure game then people are GOING to mention the name of it in the title, and if it's for D&D/SW/whatever it should be pretty clear in MOST cases as to what edition they're talking about based on the information in the OP.

[newbDM]

This has been discussed in the Board/Site Issues sub-forum, which is where this type of thread belongs. I'll see if I can dig that one up.

Basically, in my opinion, it shouldn't be necessary to overhaul the forum just to add that small feature. Really, adding a 4-5 character tag ISN'T a big deal, and if your thread titles are more than 80 characters, well, you should consider shortening them. :smalltongue: Of course, there's still the problem of not everyone USING self-imposed game tags, but for the most part I find that it's not that big of a problem.

Well, this thread's header was exactly 85 characters long, and I couldn't even fit a question mark at the end. Hence where I got the idea for just making new BMP/gif images for the already made list/box of smilies, since I ended up using those for the http://www.giantitp.com/forums/images/icons/icon5.gif, and I do not see how that would require an entire overhaul of the system.

Plus, I always felt we needed a few more gif/smilie options here (I got used to the bigger collection over at the WotC forums...).

[RTGoodman]

Well, this thread's header was exactly 85 characters long, and I couldn't even fit a question mark at the end.

Yeah, but you could have just had a title that said "RPG System/Edition Tags" or something like that, which is considerably shorter than the limit.


Hence where I got the idea for just making new BMP/gif images for the already made list/box of smilies, since I ended up using those for the http://www.giantitp.com/forums/images/icons/icon5.gif, and I do not see how that would require an entire overhaul of the system.

Well, I think you snuck that part in on me during an edit, since I started typing my last message right when Sirek first posted, which was well before your last edit of the OP. :smalltongue: That might actually be okay, since there really aren't any other uses for the icons, but I know similar stuff hasn't gone through in the past (adding a button on the Edit Post screen that makes spoilers, adding new smilies I think, etc.).


Plus, I always felt we needed a few more gif/smilie options here (I got used to the bigger collection over at the WotC forums...).

Well, I'll agree on that - I particularly hate not having the :deadhorse: (http://www.myth-weavers.com/images/smilies/orcs/deadhorse.gif) smiley from the Myth-Weavers forums. I'd use that all the time around here with all the edition wars threads, all the monk threads, and probably several others.

...On second thought, it's probably good we don't have that particular one. :smallamused:

[Zeful]

You can use other smileies, just treat them like any other image. http://www.myth-weavers.com/images/smilies/orcs/deadhorse.gif See?

[Rad]

Personally I have, and had for a long time, the idea that there should be a separate subforum for 3.x, 4e and everything else. There are several issues:
first, as you mentioned, it is not fun to read a whole post and not know about what mechanics they are talking about. I skipped many threads because I didn't want to check that.
Second, tagscan be great but not everybody is ever going to use them, so you'll always have unidentified threads.
Third, all the non-D&D conversation is made almost impossible by the speed with which such threads age. An Exalted or GURPS thread could reach page 2 way before all the potentially interested people read it.
What I would do would be make three subforums of the Gaming forum, titled D&D 4e, D&D 3.x and Other Editions/RPGs. General discussions can stay in the main forum, edition-picky people can just only read what they want to read about and players of other games get a usable place to discuss stuff.
Just my 2cp.

[newbDM]

Personally I have, and had for a long time, the idea that there should be a separate subforum for 3.x, 4e and everything else. There are several issues:
first, as you mentioned, it is not fun to read a whole post and not know about what mechanics they are talking about. I skipped many threads because I didn't want to check that.
Second, tagscan be great but not everybody is ever going to use them, so you'll always have unidentified threads.
Third, all the non-D&D conversation is made almost impossible by the speed with which such threads age. An Exalted or GURPS thread could reach page 2 way before all the potentially interested people read it.
What I would do would be make three subforums of the Gaming forum, titled D&D 4e, D&D 3.x and Other Editions/RPGs. General discussions can stay in the main forum, edition-picky people can just only read what they want to read about and players of other games get a usable place to discuss stuff.
Just my 2cp.

I personally like that idea. Plus, I think even the 3.5 threads age a bit quickly. And when they each page 3 it is considered necromancy. :smallfrown:

The only problem I see, which I feel will keep it from ever happening, is that it would require new forums, new mods, and space (aka money) from the Giant for them.

However, I personally feel that if said subforums are created, then they can just scrap the homebrew forum and merge it with the specific edition/system forums. The homebrew forum really suffers from these same issues, although it is comparatively slower. Slow enough that said threads could fit well into the three subforums you suggested.


This all brings back memories of the disaster WotC did on their forums (which led to me eventually finding my way here). Although I'd say it was more flat-out 3.5 persecution. :smallfrown:

[RPGuru1331]

Is it that difficult to tell 3.5 apart from 4.0? I'll grant there are similarities, but it's not nearly worth the effort of making changes to coding (Or adding a subforum), particularly not when, to myself at least, edition tends to be blatantly obvious from OP.

[Kurald Galain]

Technically, it would be easy to add a pull-down to posting a new thread, something that goes:

What is your topic about:
*D&D3
*D&D4
*Other RPGs
*Anecdotes
*Monks

It's even easy to let each user select in their profile that they do not want to see threads related to foo.


Then again, on this forum you're not allowed to respond to any thread that's over a certain age (necromancy, you know). This restriction is far easier to enforce with two lines of PHP code, than by having the mods lock the topic each time such necromancy occurs. And yet the PTB have chosen the latter. So I don't think any changes are going to happen, really.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Pointless and unnecessary. It's obviously and entirely impossible to include every RPG system in a list. Just put the game/edition in the thread title.

[Eloel]

*Monks


Pure, distilled WIN.