Dude, Wheres My Thread? - Simple Guide To Forum Topics

[Vyndree]

We've had the same problems pretty much since the start. People don't know where to post and cant be arsed to search. I believe keyclone and I both made suggestions for re-structuring in the staff forum a while ago, I'd advise the admins re-check that thread, because the suggestions made were pretty fucking awesome tbh

I've always been in favour of an Elitist-Jerks style of moderation here. It works, plain and simple.

Certain mods are in favor of reorganization, certain mods enjoy the additional jabber. I think the concern here is a balance between conversation and reference material -- while it would be great to be organized like the wiki, we DO actually have a wiki already and we don't want to nip budding conversations.

Neither are really more wrong or right -- but we did try reorganizing the Software/Hardware forums and it was accepted about 50/50 as voted by the forum community. In the end, we removed it.

[Knobley]

We don't have to pay to post here - whatever you guys want to do is fine with me.

This.

If anyone is dissatisfied with how the forums are being run, go start your own damn forum.

For my part, I appreciate effort and work that goes into making this place both interesting to visit for chat, and a storehouse of great info.

Knobley

[Yo-Yo Freak]

In summation: The forums are fine. Stop bitching.

/Internet high five

hit the nail on the head. i could not agree more.

these forums are the picture of perfection (well, mostly anyway) and i wouldn't do anything to change them! like another had said, we don't "pay to post" here so why should you keep bitching about what this forum is or isn't? its great and there is nothing more to be said. just about everything you need can be found with a quick search and scan of posts. if by some miracle you CAN'T fine what you are looking for, then you just have to post what you are thinking and you will be lifted up or shot down. either way the community will eventually, or atleast hopefully, reply to your post and answer your question. thus putting an end to your wandering mind, at least for a little while heh

~YYF

[Skuggomann]

So.. where does the CP end up then?

[Sam DeathWalker]

Hey you should have a hardware marketplace sub forum (like that person selling the X-keys), people have stuffs and things change so they might like to sell others their stuffs, and others might like to buy second hand items cheaper.

[Jheusse]

I'm an admin on a sports site and have dealt with this sort of thing a couple times over the years.

People are lazy in general, on my other forum I also see a lot of people who have a fetish for starting threads, something about seeing their name in lights.

I personally feel that the chatter is more a sign of a lively forum, even though many of the same questions and topics come up on a regular basis. To some extent it's unavoidable, but a couple suggestions might help.

1- A relatively up-to-date FAQ, with a label of "updated through" right up front. People will often check the FAQ, hit one or two links, get a dead link, think to themselves "screw that, I'm special" and pop up a new thread.

2- The Wiki and stickies in general don't get updated often enough, or it's hard to pick out the "ohmigod this is brilliant!" portions from the dross that's just a placeholder. Add in a function like a lot of sites like amazon use that say "was this article/post helpful to you?" The Rate this thread functionality already does that, I'd recommend rewording the label, moving it to the top of the thread and upsizing it to make it stand out.

Think about it, when you go to curse or amazon or a lot of places, you often sort by how other people have rated things. Since this isn't WoW General we shouldn't see too much of the punitive juvenile crap. Then you set a threshold of after X ratings with an average of blah or higher a flag is attached to notify that it needs to be moved to the wiki or does it automatically.

This rating tendency will take some effort for the community to train themselves to use and support it, and the forum software likely allows searching or ordering search results on rating basis.

3- While I have been a little guilty of "write my own thread" syndrome on occasion, I think one more productive approach to handling those repeat threads is to post a reply comment linking to the past thread. This is especially useful for stuff like the Hydra and FTL variants, or Falkor's quest acceptance work, because if the person gets off their butt and follows the link, they can work their way through a web of information and pick up a LOT of other links and information in the process. Constant cross referencing is the key, so someone can always find their way through the maze.

[Jheusse]

Yep. Happens alla time. I always considered those folks good entertainment targets for mockery, or you threaten to bounce them entirely. Eventually they realize they're not a beautiful snowflake and you wouldn't not enjoy bouncing them.

Moderator goal is to be Deputy Dawg with his feet on his desk, "moderating" by benign neglect. Pity it doesn't work that way unless you occasionally smack some toolbag's face in, and the regulars help set the tone that that ain't cool.

Remember, a temper tantrum can be a lot of fun if you have absolutely no reason to put up with it.

[Oswyn]

We don't have to pay to post here - whatever you guys want to do is fine with me.

This.

If anyone is dissatisfied with how the forums are being run, go start your own damn forum.

For my part, I appreciate effort and work that goes into making this place both interesting to visit for chat, and a storehouse of great info.

Knobley

Feedback is crucial for this forum. To have people shut up would result in never improving.

[Knobley]

Feedback is crucial for this forum. To have people shut up would result in never improving

Oh sure it's crucial... this place simply couldn't function with out a bunch of QQing about how things are being handled.