Vote and discussion about the structure of this forum

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

I get several PMs about the structure of the competitions. People are concerned that the new subfora will attract less readers, voters, etc. I shall put this question to public discussion and vote.
I quote the exchange of thoughts (pros and cons) from the Q&A thread.

I disagree with the sectionising of this forum.

You see, if you sectionise it, people will stick to reading the AAR's in their section only. And not only that, but there is less of a competition for AAR's. Put them all in one forum, and people will make more updates cos they don't want their AAR to be lost. Not only that but it will make the forum seem more active.

Same goes for the Tale of the Week e.t.c. If it is on the main page, more people will read it.

Initially I wanted to keep all the stuff in one forum, too, but things just became too messy. Principally, the number of stickies was frightening and difficult to survey.

But let me also point out, that basically we run 3 different competitions at the same time, one for RTW AARs, one for M2TW, one for ToTW. If you consider, a competition needs 3 simultaneous threads (submission, vote, winner), you get 9 stickies + the 8 stickies of the main board, which adds up to 18 stickies. That's just too much to view at once.

Subfora are just one click away - that's 1-4 seconds, depending on your hardware. Yes, it may distract some viewers, but hey just look at ToTW 4 - it made a record with 8 contestants, but it was already fired up in the new subforum.

This structure is for the convenience mainly. I created stickied threads in all AAR subfora, and now they point to the respective subforum, RTW or M2TW. See this as an example:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=189494

The reason why I did this is because it will be much easier to locate the nomination thread, read the FAQ, thus nominate an AAR for those, who don't know the AAR Competitions yet.

And another note: this forum (as I see it) is starting to become the main AAR board from its humble beginnings. If we'd like to support this process, a proper structure is needed, which makes browsing easier. The RTW / M2TW partitioning seems quite reasonable, with eventually an ETW section coming forth.

So what do you think? Vote and discuss, please.

[Desperado †]

I voted 3rd, after long thinking. I think I moight of voted 1st, but like PW said too many stickies can be a problem.

I don't think people should mind too much if their AAR gets hidden - it encourages them to update it more ofter. I think what is important though is people should comment on other peoples AAR's (even if their bad, try to use constructive criticism), rather than just updating their own and leaving the forum (something I am often guilty of).

I'm glad this forum is so democratic though. Good work as always PW.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

I like the 2nd one, which is basically what it is like right now.

[Hesus de bodemloze]

voted for the second one it s a bether survey

[Musthavename]

Voted second. However, what I would like to see is all the AAR forums across the entire board "grouped". Just to view the Medieval AARS I want to, i have to visit several different subforums. Its also my belief a lot of people just read from one subforum, and thus never get to read certain AARs.

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

Voted second. However, what I would like to see is all the AAR forums across the entire board "grouped". Just to view the Medieval AARS I want to, i have to visit several different subforums. Its also my belief a lot of people just read from one subforum, and thus never get to read certain AARs.

Actually you just mentioned one of the original ideas why this forum was created for: the merger of all TWC AAR boards into one (the other being the competitions).
I think the time for this has finally arrived to reraise this issue, so if you'd support and help me in this case, I'll write up a proposal in the Q&S forum. But first give me the pros and cons of the merger.

[Desperado †]

Voted second. However, what I would like to see is all the AAR forums across the entire board "grouped". Just to view the Medieval AARS I want to, i have to visit several different subforums. Its also my belief a lot of people just read from one subforum, and thus never get to read certain AARs.

I agree with this. Power Wizard, the fate of a powerfull almighty AAR Forum Empire is in your hands....use it wisely.

[TheTrueGreek]

I voted 3 after much thought. And even if you do not get the men higher up to move all aars here, i have a feeling that this forum will eventually become it anyway

[Babagitta]

Voted for the 2nd one.
That structure makes the navigation clear and easy, specially for the new members. Also, it's forum-friendly and easier to manage all the areas.

[Musthavename]

Actually you just mentioned one of the original ideas why this forum was created for: the merger of all TWC AAR boards into one (the other being the competitions).
I think the time for this has finally arrived to reraise this issue, so if you'd support and help me in this case, I'll write up a proposal in the Q&A forum. But first give me the pros and cons of the merger.

Off the top of my head:

Pros:
-All AARs in one place, so all readers diverted to one place, meaning the AARs have a wider audience.
-Because they would all be in the same forum, people would want to update more to stay on the front page, thus increasing competition.
-All AARs in one place, so any reader who would normally forum skip only has to go to one forum.
-Since people would see the AAR competition no matter what when viewing an AAR, it would probably increase voting turnout.

Cons:
-Because of the competition to get on the front page, updates may be rushed, and we may see a negative trend in quality.
-Since all the AARs would be in one place, people may forget the better AARs that have long since gone, but still well worth a read. However, this could easily be solved by having a sticky with some "classic" AARs, or just reccomendations or past competition winners & the like.

I think theres also an option of having the AARs collated under one forum, but all under different subforums. Such as being separated into Rome & Medieval II, then separated into mods etc... This would probably still cause vanilla people to ignore the mods and mods to ignore vanilla though, however, it would be far easier to navigate, and if the collation earlier proposed was deemed to be too "cluttered", then this would be an obvious improvement over the present system with no extra clutter.

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

Off the top of my head:

Pros:
-All AARs in one place, so all readers diverted to one place, meaning the AARs have a wider audience.
-Because they would all be in the same forum, people would want to update more to stay on the front page, thus increasing competition.
-All AARs in one place, so any reader who would normally forum skip only has to go to one forum.
-Since people would see the AAR competition no matter what when viewing an AAR, it would probably increase voting turnout.

Thanks +rep, I will use this material in my proposal, if you don't mind.

Cons:
-Because of the competition to get on the front page, updates may be rushed, and we may see a negative trend in quality.
-Since all the AARs would be in one place, people may forget the better AARs that have long since gone, but still well worth a read. However, this could easily be solved by having a sticky with some "classic" AARs, or just reccomendations or past competition winners & the like.

About the first one: it will also urge AARtist to do regular updates.
About the second thought: you're right, that's what libraries are for: to commemorate the "best" AARs, f.e. Tweety's library (which is now edited by me). So this problem is solved, me thinks.

I think theres also an option of having the AARs collated under one forum, but all under different subforums. Such as being separated into Rome & Medieval II, then separated into mods etc... This would probably still cause vanilla people to ignore the mods and mods to ignore vanilla though, however, it would be far easier to navigate, and if the collation earlier proposed was deemed to be too "cluttered", then this would be an obvious improvement over the present system with no extra clutter.

This is also a good option.
Another option would be to offer an opt-out for mod leaders, so all of them could decide whether they want "their" AARs to be moved to the main index (which would be this forum), move their subforum to the main index, or leave the subforum where it is.

I will fire up that proposal today, be prepared.

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

The proposal to create a United AAR Board has been made in the Q&S forum.
If you'd support this idea, come over and say so.

Link to the proposal

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

With the united AAR board proposed this thread is a bit outdated, so I close it for now.
Please continue all discussion in the Questions & suggestions thread.