Since the move, mods have been quite heavy handed with moving/burying topics. Compromise, have an “Everything” section that displays all topics in Announcements, General, Suggestions, Bugs. So, regardless of where things get moved, a link to them is mirrored there.
Is there any chance the tab at the top marked “Activity” could show the threads that had the most recent posts, regardless of where they are located?
For example, I will often check @Brigby 's comments section of his page to see what threads he has posted in regardless of which subforum they are in. If we had something similar for posters across the forums, I think it would get a lot of use.
I doubt too many people use the “Activity” tab now, but if it showed the most recent threads, it wouldn’t matter to me which subforum things got placed in.
I agree with almost everything STOPTHIS said, but this piece in particular has been driving me nuts on the new forum. Is there a way to turn this off? I’ll navigate to the page of the discussion I want to view all by myself, thank you very much.
I come to forums for both reference and discussions.
Reference materials typically have less activity and benefit from sticky posts in properly categorized subforums… like announcements, game mechanics, character data, event data, reward data etc… breaking them out into any manner of organization will work IMO.
Discussions are rapidly changing, constantly being created and becoming obsolete. Keeping all of these types of posts in the same subforum allows for the discussion use case of the forums… splitting active discussions based on topic as if they were reference materials would destroy the whole idea of having a discussion… “Active” members refer only to this type of use case, you don’t even need an account to find massive value in the reference use case mentioned above…
Best of luck with the re-org.
Shouldn’t this post be in “suggestions and feedback” since it is requesting feedback on how to structure/moderate the forums?
I suspect that the reason it isn’t is because the OP, Brigby, wants more people to view and discuss it. Oh the Irony…
Everyone posts their threads in General Discussion because they actually want their threads to be read, liked and commented upon. The only reason to post elsewhere is if.. you don’t want your threads to be seen?
I had a post moved to off topic because it was only about the forum. It promptly died.
Like others have said, stop moving posts for flimsy reasons. If someone posts a random thought on page 4 that is not a reason to move it. It looks like common sense is thrown out in some cases.
Rule of thumb in software design - adjust your product to how the users use it. Not how you want them to use it. Forcing users to use a product in ways they do not wish to is an easy way to kill a product.
That said, what about an easy to access aggregate page that lists the current most popular topics from different sub-sections?
Simple is good. Just look above. That is nice. Personally I don’t have a problem with a more complex and very robust subcategory system. I assume people will learn fairly quickly.
I think there is more problem with the lack of confidence that people will be heard. That they are being dismissed. That their posts are being treated differently than that of other players or moderators. Could a propose change resolve that?
I have the General section bookmarked. Pretty much anything that doesn’t show up here goes unnoticed by me.
Now, you don’t have to cater to me. But you have the information.
Seems to me like all this forum reorganizing is a reaction to vaulting. None of what is happening now seemed to be a problem until that mechanic and BH dropped, which brought about a lot more site traffic.
Everything here lately just seems like a big excuse to silence discontent on the official game website to give the appearance that everything is fine and working as intended.
*not a critique on the above mentioned just pointing out a causality.
To be fair, i like this. If i am reading a thread on my phone at lunch, and then log on my laptop later on at night, it picks up right where i left off.
I agree with Spudgutter. I use the forum in just about the same way and have really come to enjoy this feature.
Fun fact, by the way, that simplified forum list was copied from another video game forums - a little title called World of Warcraft that some people here might have heard about. They also have a series of subforums for each character class, which doesn’t really translate to MPQ so I left them out, but there you go.
Mainly what smkspy said. Let GD be the Wild West, minus direct attacks on people. Rule the sub forums with an iron fist. Best of both worlds.
Hi Everyone. Thanks so much for the feedback!
From what I gathered so far, it seems like at the core of forum usage, players want one designated area where they can see all of the most recent/popular discussions and let the sub-forums be very focused sources of information.
(Disclaimer: I am not a web designer/developer, so the following comment is purely hypothetical, as I’m uncertain of technical capabilities)
Since the Recent Discussions section essentially aggregates all threads ever created, what if General Discussion was replaced by an MPQ Recent Discussions? Players would still need to post in the appropriate sub-forum to begin with, but their thread will be guaranteed visible on the MPQ Recent Discussions section. Clicking on the thread in that section would redirect players to the appropriate sub-forum. (Duration of front-page visibility on the Recent Discussions section would be determined by activity of the thread, just like any other forum section)
This way there will always be forum organization, however it ensures that even posts located in the least visited sections will still get their fair share of the spotlight.
What are everyone’s thoughts?
so then… I just put my thread in whatever sub forum I want? Where does my “how long has everyone been playing” poll/question go?
@Jaedenkaal You would still want to post in the appropriate sub-forum, lest I or a moderator move it to the correct location, however a thread would theoretically be listed in the MPQ Recent Discussions page as a new/popular discussion and be visible to everyone, regardless of where it originated from.
(It would act like a news feed of sorts.)
There would probably be an MPQ Off-Topic created where you could post that kind of a poll.
If General Discussion goes away, at all, the forums will die. General Discussion is not a “catch all” for things that don’t have a home elsewhere. It is the first stop for ALL discussion. The purposes of other forums are to collect certain topics and pull them away from General so they do not dominate the conversations by filling the front page. It is the foundation, the hub, and other categories are spokes or branches off of that hub. You cannot get rid of the hub and hope for things to survive.
however it ensures that even posts located in the least visited sections will still get their fair share of the spotlight.
It’s our spotlight, not yours. WE get to decide what goes in the spotlight by how WE use the forums. If you keep pointing the spotlight at things people don’t want, you are not filling their needs, and they will leave.
You encourage growth in the tree by trimming back dead limbs, and by pinching off dead buds when you want new blooms. Some limbs won’t get as much sunlight as others, and they will naturally produce fewer leaves as well, because that’s what plants do.
Just so the metaphor is clear, the current moderation direction seems to be to pump all effort into the dead limbs, which isn’t going to work.
Are you suggesting that this isn’t the most desired outcome?