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Totally Guy
2011-03-16, 10:00 AM
If you haven't noticed The Giant's sticky at the top of the RP forum page it says that this RP and Homebrew sections of the site are going to be reorganised in some way.

I wonder how.

I hope it'll be a good change. :smallbiggrin:

Speculation, speculation...

arguskos
2011-03-16, 10:11 AM
My theory is that subforums are going to be introduced.

Homebrew is being affected as well, and that's what I'm really interested in, honestly. I'm hoping for a subforum there for campaign settings (we have a surprisingly large number of them).

Cartigan
2011-03-16, 10:45 AM
Subforums are sorely needed.

The Rose Dragon
2011-03-16, 12:24 PM
I hope D&D-related things are made into subforums. That would be a wonderful idea (one which some of us have been pushing for for ages, but still).

Totally Guy
2011-03-16, 12:27 PM
I hope D&D-related things are made into subforums. That would be a wonderful idea (one which some of us have been pushing for for ages, but still).

That'd be a really great move. I hope that's what happens.

It would ruin the April fools day joke I had planned though...

Zeofar
2011-03-16, 12:36 PM
I hope D&D-related things are made into subforums. That would be a wonderful idea (one which some of us have been pushing for for ages, but still).

Considering the plethora of D&D-related threads around here, It'd make more sense to make a subforum for everything else or give every system its own subforum(s) rather than single out D&D simply because more people talk about it. Still won't stop most things in a "general" forum (if extant) being discussed from a D&D-centric point of view, which is why making Exalted/Warhammer/Shadowrun subforums is a good idea in any case.

One also needs to consider the possibility of subforums based on more general topics like build advice, GM advice, etc. That seems kinda odd though.

The Rose Dragon
2011-03-16, 12:39 PM
Considering the plethora of D&D-related threads around here, It'd make more sense to make a subforum for everything else or give every system its own subforum(s) rather than single out D&D simply because more people talk about it.

D&D is a subset of RPGs. Subforums are a subset of other forums. Therefore, D&D forum should be a subforum of the larger forum.

Curmudgeon
2011-03-16, 12:46 PM
D&D is a subset of RPGs. Subforums are a subset of other forums. Therefore, D&D forum should be a subforum of the larger forum.
The problem with that view is that RPGs as a general concept are both subsequent and subordinate to D&D. From both historical and market share perspectives, everything else should be in D&D sub-fora.

Zeofar
2011-03-16, 12:46 PM
D&D is a subset of RPGs. Subforums are a subset of other forums. Therefore, D&D forum should be a subforum of the larger forum.

Sure, but your verbiage implied that D&D should be the only system with its own subforum. Though somewhat counter-intuitive in terms of creation, it would be far easier to manage a forum (at least, this forum) designed with the assumption "people will talk about D&D, and there will probably be more discussion of it than other systems" rather than "People talking about D&D takes up a lot of room, so they should do it someplace else." The former assumption would lead one to make a forum specifically for D&D or subforums for other topics, while the latter would likely result in endless "Wrong forum, move it" reports. In the first case, the dearth (and I would indeed call it a dearth) of threads on other topics and reasonably small number of cross-forum misposting would make for a smaller workload for the moderators. In short? For the most part, I trust people who play other systems more than D&D players to post their threads in the right place, if for no other reason than the incentive of relevant responses.

Dusk Eclipse
2011-03-16, 01:21 PM
I think dividing the forum in sub forums might be a better idea than by system

For example you could have something similar to the BG forums

There is one for GM'ing advice, one for general advice, one for min/maxing, one for homebrew and so on.

This might help to avoid the inevitable discussion between roll-players and role-players*. I for example, dislike when someone post a thread about making a viable and powerful character build and someone buts in and says "you should take this because it better fluff-wise, and to hell with optimization" when someone specifically asked for optimizing opinions. I also dislike when the opposite happens.


*note this is just to use a term as a distinction; I have no intention to use it as a derogatory term and I have no intention to offend anyone. If you are offended by this I am sorry.

valadil
2011-03-16, 01:25 PM
Instead of subforum by system I vote for subforum by topic. Roleplaying Games stays as it is, but we get some sub-fora for 'edition wars,' 'monks are awesome,' and 'DMPCs are always evil.'

Oracle_Hunter
2011-03-16, 01:29 PM
The problem with that view is that RPGs as a general concept are both subsequent and subordinate to D&D. From both historical and market share perspectives, everything else should be in D&D sub-fora.
That's a silly way to run a railroad :smalltongue:

If you're going to make sub-fora at all, you're doing it to better manage the topics in the main forum. Since this is "an all-purpose board for discussions of any and all role-playing games" it would make more sense to isolate specific topics that dominate the otherwise "general" nature of this here forum. A cursory look at the first page will show that "D&D" dominates the discussion - often pushing to the margins topics which are of a more "general" nature.

Additionally, there is a fair amount of lore associated with D&D that bridges the various editions. While this is also true for other major RPGs (e.g. Shadowrun, WoD) the sheer volume of D&D traffic argues for it to be singled out.

Of course, I doubt The Giant et al are curious to hear about my rationale, but sometimes a good argument is its own point (http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2006-07-19) :smallcool:

EDIT: Valadil also makes a cogent point regarding sub-forum. Personally, I'd like to see a sub-forum for "topics I don't want to read" but that hardly seems manageable, now does it? :smalltongue:

Anxe
2011-03-16, 01:32 PM
Any other ideas besides subforums?

Another_Poet
2011-03-16, 01:37 PM
I have no idea but based on previous changes (generally very minor and logical) it will be just fine. I trust the Giant and our mods/admins a lot, because of how professional & thoughtful they have always been.

valadil
2011-03-16, 01:38 PM
EDIT: Valadil also makes a cogent point regarding sub-forum. Personally, I'd like to see a sub-forum for "topics I don't want to read" but that hardly seems manageable, now does it? :smalltongue:

The problem with "topics I don't want to read" is that they're topics that frequently come up because somebody didn't want to look through last week's topic to see if it was a repeat. Those posters probably wouldn't check for the right sub-forum either.

What I would find interesting would be a way to selectively aggregate sub-fora. For instance if the RPGs section had the topics I mentioned above, plus 'GMing for newbs,' 'I hate my players,' and 'technology for gaming,' I'd love to have those merged into the RPGs section whenever I browsed it. Something tells me that would take a software upgrade though, and since they aren't taking all the boards down I doubt that's happening.

Actually here's a thought. Could a few select boards be migrating to another server for performance reasons? I have no idea if that's an option with these boards, but it seems possible.

Xefas
2011-03-16, 01:39 PM
Any other ideas besides subforums?

It could always just be something minor and behind-the-scenes that we'll never notice because it just makes stuff easier for moderating/administrating.

Oracle_Hunter
2011-03-16, 01:42 PM
Any other ideas besides subforums?
Digital Cookies.

Now, instead of having to post a .jpeg of a cookie, we will have a button that says "give a cookie." Press it, and that forumite will receive a digital cookie in their messages.

Ooo! Or the forum could just teleport real cookies to our keyboards! Of course, that would make it more obvious when you're surfing the forums at work :smalltongue:

Kiero
2011-03-16, 01:45 PM
Considering the plethora of D&D-related threads around here, It'd make more sense to make a subforum for everything else or give every system its own subforum(s) rather than single out D&D simply because more people talk about it. Still won't stop most things in a "general" forum (if extant) being discussed from a D&D-centric point of view, which is why making Exalted/Warhammer/Shadowrun subforums is a good idea in any case.

One also needs to consider the possibility of subforums based on more general topics like build advice, GM advice, etc. That seems kinda odd though.

Giving every system a subforum makes no sense whatsover given the amount of traffic they'd get. A D&D/D20 forum and an "everything non-D&D/D20" forum would be the best way to do it, IMO.

valadil
2011-03-16, 01:56 PM
Giving every system a subforum makes no sense whatsover given the amount of traffic they'd get. A D&D/D20 forum and an "everything non-D&D/D20" forum would be the best way to do it, IMO.

My vote would be for tags. Let the users supply a label for whatever system they wanted. All posts would show up in the same forum, but with a label indicating the system. Of course I've been spending a bit of time at http://rpg.stackexchange.com and think more sites could learn a thing or two from Stack Exchange.

Totally Guy
2011-03-17, 10:06 AM
I like it!

Comet
2011-03-17, 10:18 AM
I like it, too. A whole lot.

Kiero
2011-03-17, 12:04 PM
My vote would be for tags. Let the users supply a label for whatever system they wanted. All posts would show up in the same forum, but with a label indicating the system. Of course I've been spending a bit of time at http://rpg.stackexchange.com and think more sites could learn a thing or two from Stack Exchange.

Which would do nothing to fix the issue before where anything that isn't D&D disappears off the front page in minutes.

People don't find threads by searching tags or the like, they find them by looking at the first page.

Tyndmyr
2011-03-17, 12:20 PM
Giving every system a subforum makes no sense whatsover given the amount of traffic they'd get. A D&D/D20 forum and an "everything non-D&D/D20" forum would be the best way to do it, IMO.

Hell, a 3.5 and a non-3.5 forum would work. At least half the stuff posted is 3.5 specific.

Right now, I'm mostly just annoyed that after refreshing, I now have to scroll to get to the new threads.

valadil
2011-03-17, 12:35 PM
Which would do nothing to fix the issue before where anything that isn't D&D disappears off the front page in minutes.

People don't find threads by searching tags or the like, they find them by looking at the first page.

Who said anything about fixing problems? I just want shiny new features. Then when the new features break, the admins will have technical problems to fix. Everyone wins!