Topic

Gaaaah, the forums

I don't much read the forums any longer, which means I am not as good a beta tester as I once was and maybe even being sort of hypocritical when I post something myself. We can have the discussion of what turns me away from the forums over a drink sometime; the "gaaaah" captures my sentiment. But given that I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in despising the forums of late, I have two suggestions for additional fora:

1. An announcements forum. Staff often post important information in the regular posts, and often not even as the initial post in a thread. I'm sure not going to see it if "important information" is buried in a long thread.

2. An "off topic"/ NotAboutGlitch forum. People post a number of things that have nothing to do with Glitch... well except the very important reason that they have friends here, or would like to have friends here, and want to start a conversation about something specifically with Glitchkins, but not specifically about Glitch.

When we started with the forums, I thought their purpose was for beta testing conversations, and I think that's officially the primary role. But looking toward the future, forums are, of course, a great way to build community. So probably there should be lots of them that are not about the game development at all. And that might be something you might want to debug, an initial set of forums for "the real game", etc.

Posted 17 months ago by clare Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • I think many folks are with you, clare, I know I am.  But with the introduction of more than two forums, don't we also need moderators queued up too, if for no other reason, to move stuff around to the right places?  

    I would think that is the biggest delay in creating additional forums right now. 
    Posted 17 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Growing pains! We are embiggening!

    I agree that at some point, moderation would help. But adding a forum that only staff can post to would (one hopes!) not require moderation, and adding a "not about Glitch" forum would allow people the possibility of posting in a more appropriate place, even if they don't do it.

    Or so I'm thinking. :-)
    Posted 17 months ago by clare Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1. even if it's only eventually :) It would also help if we have forum type-specific searches!
    Posted 17 months ago by Millie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I've been gathering info on this already, @clare.
    Check out this link HERE
    Posted 17 months ago by Fokian Fool Subscriber! | Permalink
  • We are definitely approaching (if not ready) for some organization (but I also get not wanting to do it til launch... when there is an idea of moving all alpha/beta posts to an archived section).
    Possible forum areas:
    General
    Groups/Buisnesses/Etc
    Ideas
    Bugs
    Off-Topic
    I believe they just revamped searches.

    As to info, that gets tricky. What is "important" information? Sometimes stuff in threads is just an aside addressing an specific issue. Clare, is there a specific thing you can point to?
    Posted 17 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think you posted those suggestion before somewhere, @Lord Bacon-o. I was hoping to find them again. Thanks. I was going to do something in the back end to add those.
    Posted 17 months ago by Fokian Fool Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Did I? I always forget what the heck I've posted or just though about posting.
    Posted 17 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It might have been you or someone else. As I said I need to track it down again.
    Posted 17 months ago by Fokian Fool Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "Staff often post important information in the regular posts"

    Yeah, actually more than an "announcements forum", what would be handy is a tweeter-like stream of those staff posts in a single page, and with a link to the original thread.
    Posted 17 months ago by Lemo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yeeeah - looking at general forums just now made me head over here to bump my own 'time for off-topic forum!' post but found this instead. Yowza...
    Posted 17 months ago by katlazam Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I too have been turned off the forums. What would be handy would be a "Staff posted here" bit on the thread so you know they placed input. I like LBO's forum plan it looks good.
    Posted 16 months ago by Ani Laurel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • (It doesn't help when some people can't keep to to forum categories we already have. Sigh.)
    Posted 16 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ^ LBO, some volunteer mods to help with enforcing category definitions would help with that one.  No deletion powers necessary, just ability to move, comment, and flag the questionable things for TS staff attention?
    Posted 16 months ago by Lelu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm trying to gather the forum improvement ideas in this thread HERE. The core project that is suggested as the OP may not get going yet, but it this will help to get the ideas more in one place. Right now they are spread out all over the place and getting pushed down. I'm keeping the about post bumped unless a staff member does the courtesy of pinning it. :)
    Posted 16 months ago by Fokian Fool Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Lelu, that is a good idea! Ultimately we can only wait to see what the devs have in mind for the forums as we transition to launch-ready status. Undoubtedly they have been thinking about this, and hopefully we will hear more soon about the official plans. :)
    Posted 16 months ago by katlazam Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It IS a good idea. :)
    Posted 16 months ago by Fokian Fool Subscriber! | Permalink