Re: Total War: Eras section re-organisation
Hi Axalon, thank you for the feedback.
On Medieval & Shogun separation:
When I made a proposal to the rest of Staff about this, I did suggest we could have a totally separate Shogun section set up in much the same way. We considered this and agreed that the interest in Shogun is minimal and that a separate section could not be justified. It was also decided that the orphaned Shogun: Total War sub-forum was unnecessary. It contained a total of 93 threads, and only 6 of these were active post-2012. I speculate that part of the reason for this is that the sub-forum is tucked away and not seen and the game not thought about. I believe that the new setup using [Medieval] and [Shogun] prefixes in the General Discussion forum is preferable. My hope and expectation is that with the fact that prefixes have been applied to all recent, applicable threads will put the thought about creating more threads in the back of people's minds.
Members may not apply prefixes on their own, indeed, and that is where Staff/Moderation/I come in. As part of our day-to-day moderation activities, another moderator or I can and will easily apply prefixes to all threads. There are also only 23 pages total in the Medieval/Shogun General Discussion section, and believe me when I say I will personally go through and apply prefixes and relocate threads to the various sub-fora as necessary. Because I have too much time on my hands and am a perfectionist, this won't take me long.
Personally, I fail to see why a "border" between the two titles is necessary, nor how removing it decreases organisation or diminishes the exposure of Shogun.
On the Multiplayer sub-forum:
Staff actually agreed to delete this forum, but as the one bringing forward the proposed changes I changed my mind at the last minute, instead opting to rename the dead "Field of B@ttle" forum to the more sensible title it has now, in keeping with a recent, smaller change applied to all other titles' which had their dedicated Multiplayer sub-forums restored from an "all Multiplayer" section that was created (but always omitted Medieval & Shogun). Indeed, there isn't much demand on TWC for non-Hotseat Multiplayer at all, and that forum can still easily be removed later on if its fortunes do not improve thanks to the rename and reorganisation. At least now, it is at least clearer what that forum is for.
On Strategies, Guides & Battle Planning:
I flatly disagree with the idea of creating a stickied index of Guides. Such threads exist/existed in other parts and proved useless. They end up being ugly walls of text which are hard to read, hard to navigate and do not allow any useful discussion to take place. I have just cleaned out the forum of left over threads from prior to the reorganisation, and as I continue to sorting of threads in the General Discussion forum mentioned above, I'm sure I will find more useful threads relating specifically to how to play the games (particularly since STW and MTW are different to newer titles) to put in there. Give it a chance, please.
On the ordering of sub-forums:
I agree that the ordering can be improved, and this is easy to change. I'll PM Hex about this now.