Input on Changing the Forum Structure

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Endless Flight

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So I think it's time to take a look at how the Pub is structured and see if we want to change a few things here. One of the things I would consider doing is expanding the roleplaying game section and giving a separate forum for kickstarters, bundles, etc. I would also consider adding a forum for reviews written by members here. The Xenforo software allows for articles to be written by members and this would work for reviews. This forum would look a bit different from the others. I know several folks have asked for these two in the past.

I see the new structure looking like this:
Roleplaying Games
General Discussion
Crowdfunding/Bundle Discussion
Reviews
Development

Then we would have a separate category for Board Games, and it would follow a similar set-up above.

The rest of the forums would look pretty similar to what we have now, unless anybody wants separate forums for certain media.

Any thoughts?
 
Agree with T The Butcher. I generally think forums have a tendency to over-fragment. Go take a look at Dragonsfoot, for instance. 27 forums and they probably get about 4 posts a day outside of the General discussion. The Pub really has the right level of traffic per subforum right now and changing that would only be detrimental.
 
Yeah, with more traffic maybe it's pretty good now. In the future we could have one forum for each flame war: piracy, orc babies, BRP editions, other forums we love or hate, moderation policy, Tristram Evans and so on...
Don't forget best of @Dunarest !!!
 
Hmm. What if instead of just reviews, that bit could also house other articles of various sorts? IDK, just spit balling. I know on some other sites I've written for that articles drove page count to some extent. Like columns that come out on a regular basis or something, although then you need writers,,,
 
Hmm. What if instead of just reviews, that bit could also house other articles of various sorts? IDK, just spit balling. I know on some other sites I've written for that articles drove page count to some extent. Like columns that come out on a regular basis or something, although then you need writers,,,

I mean, it could be any kind of article.
 
Yeah, with more traffic maybe it's pretty good now. In the future we could have one forum for each flame war: piracy, orc babies, BRP editions, other forums we love or hate, moderation policy, Tristram Evans and so on...

lol, yep we can have one forum that's just titled "Why you don't like Tristram Evans as a moderator"
 
Actually, a format I used on a Fantasy Hoops site back in the day site that might actually kill here at the Pub is what I call the Statler and Waldorf approach. You get two regulars to have a back and forth conversation about something current, within the boundaries of the format, and publish it as an article. It's great for reviews too (it's what the Fear of a Black Dragon podcast does, if you've ever given that a listen). Rotating participants takes some of the pressure off too.
 
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So to maybe be more specific about the SaW approach is that the back and forth is done privately over PM or email, or the phone, and the results are then honed, added to, and polished into an article. Otherwise it's just a series of forum posts.
 
I agree about Crowdfunding being broken out from Roleplaying games. We get a lot of board game campaigns or geek-related film or artbooks in there.
I think adding a crowdfunding/bundles/other sales subforum is a natural direction to go in. Maybe it could pull double duty as a buy/sell/trade forum? Not sure how much of that goes on around here.
Actually, a format I used on a Fantasy Hoops site back in the day site that might actually kill here at the Pub is what I call the Statler and Waldorf approach. You get two regulars to have a back and forth conversation about something current, within the boundaries of the format, and publish it as an article. It's great for reviews too (it's what the Fear of a Black Dragon podcast does, if you've ever given that a listen). Rotating participants takes some of the pressure off too.
KaRTAS uses this format, too.
Hah. Actually I have thought about doing an article series. Something between a design journal, fancy shit I've seen lately, games I've played, and pop-culture funnies. I know, super-specific, right?
I think those are called blogs. :tongue:
 
The thing I really like about how the forums are here is that it feels like we're in the same community. On another, differently coloured forum, I felt that the topic fragmentation also created smaller fiefdoms for users and mods. And considering that the Pub has a much smaller user base, I think it might feel like screaming into the void.
 
Yes, I do like the homey feel here.

I always wondered why forum owners created like 50 sub-forums right off the bat for just about every topic. A sure way to make it appear dead.
 
I've been wondering if we really need the separate design forum...

Splitting the crowdfunding thread might be nice, but not if there will be more sticky threads, the sticky thread already take up too much screen real estate.
 
I think a single Crowdfunding forum would be great, I’ve said that before.

I‘m not sure about Design and Development. On the one hand, you don’t want to ghettoize game design, the people posting there want all the eyeballs they can get. On the other hand, that would speed up the main forum more, and someone‘s design post will probably get knocked off the first page by a competing memes thread. :devil:
 
nah. i think it's fine.
 
I've been wondering if we really need the separate design forum...

Splitting the crowdfunding thread might be nice, but not if there will be more sticky threads, the sticky thread already take up too much screen real estate.
These days I post design stuff in the main forum because not many folks actually read the design forum. There really isn't a great deal of traffic in it, and it would be better off merged back into the main forum. Maybe if there's a lot of design traffic later on, it could get split out.

I see something similar in other sites that have a separate design forum. Maybe it's just convention, but I think it's actually a bit counterproductive to separate them unless the main forum is busy enough that the design threads start getting lost in the traffic.
 
These days I post design stuff in the main forum because not many folks actually read the design forum. There really isn't a great deal of traffic in it, and it would be better off merged back into the main forum. Maybe if there's a lot of design traffic later on, it could get split out.

I see something similar in other sites that have a separate design forum. Maybe it's just convention, but I think it's actually a bit counterproductive to separate them unless the main forum is busy enough that the design threads start getting lost in the traffic.
The counter to that is if you put it in the main forum everyone will. I can see scenarios where I would only want people who truly care about design commenting.
 
I also like the Pub's current layout. I don't post a lot, and I generally stick to Roleplaying Games Site and Community areas with an occasional look at Design and Development. The idea for an area for reviews isn't a bad idea, but I guess you need to have regular reviews or it becomes dead weight.
 
Perhaps if we had a pool of regular reviewers we could get advanved copies of stuff to review...
 
I don't think we should combine reviews with other kinds of articles. When I want to browse reviews, I don't want to see articles, and vice versa.

I think crowfunding/promotions, reviews, and articles should be separate, but I'd rather see reviews and promotions lumpted together than reviews and articles.
 
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