Forum Management Suggestion

[Ptolemaios Soter]

I know, I'm probably contributing to the problem, but I have an idea to address the explosion of new threads for various questions/tips/concerns. This is inspired by the conversation over at http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...idable-correct, but it isn't pertinent to the OP so I wanted to post it elsewhere.

Kpagcha I think accurately said that he felt that questions posted to either the bugs or feedback/questions stickied threads don't get responded to. [This is not the dev team's fault and I don't believe anyone blames you guys for not being omniscient with endless time!]. I think most often folks are asking questions with the hope that another player will chime in, and when a dev answers the question it feels like a bonus - at least that's how I feel. The fact is though that those threads, 244 and 277 pages long respectively, are way too dense/long/busy to be easily searchable or to respond to easily. On the other hand, I've also noticed an explosion of new treads recently, many of which absurdly redundant.

So here's my suggestion. We currently have only 2 sub-forums: guides/tips and submods. What about changing the questions/feedback and bugs threads into a dedicated subforum for each (making 4 sub-forums total). Then either the devs could create and sticky common areas of concern and/or users could post threads on various subjects (e.g. Buildings and empire management, characters, unit balance, etc) where people could more easily navigate to the subject most closely representing their concern, and post their question/issue there. Each of those stickied threads would presumably have much lower traffic and would therefore be easier both for users to navigate in search of answers, and for devs/experienced players to chime in to answer questions. Even if the sticked treads don't get the amount of activity that's hoped for, at least it would divert the traffic from the main forum page, and leave this area for more general discussions (like "how obsolete were hoplites in the DEI timeframe"... that tread is simply beautiful), and it would be easier for the devs to simply move errant threats out of the way to the appropriate sub-forum if they don't follow the guidlines and are creating clutter.

Anyway, just a suggestion. Sorry for the new tread....

[hbghimself]

Good idea! However, you still need to get those „users“ to post in the correct subforum, else GS will be busy to shift threads even more.
From my POV it would be most beneficial if guys like kpagcha or other by now adapted DEI players, havinna bit of time to write a lot in this forum and learned a lot in the last months, could write some dedicated posts which could be summed up and stickied to such subforums. This way the teached knowledge does not get lost. Thid could be like the FAQ section or even more advanced: a Wiki?

[kpagcha]

This goes along the lines of what I had in mind. I like the suggestion of stickied threads in that subforum dedicated to different topics.

[ScipioTheGreat]

One of my favorite quotes is “be the change you want to see in the world” & this seems like another instance the phrase is quite fitting for. As the user stated above, putting together a new FAQ & standard explanations/answers to the many inquiries we receive day-by-day could be a better approach and help reduce the clutter. Hope you guys explore this idea

[Ptolemaios Soter]

One of my favorite quotes is “be the change you want to see in the world” & this seems like another instance the phrase is quite fitting for. As the user stated above, putting together a new FAQ & standard explanations/answers to the many inquiries we receive day-by-day could be a better approach and help reduce the clutter. Hope you guys explore this idea

Thats kind of my idea. If there’s a dedicated sub forum for questions/feedback and a separate one for bugs, I would be happy to start going through and posting common solutions/explanations. I’ve started being a little more active on the strategies sub forum writing guides to pikes, seiges... with common questions. I’d be very willing to help reduce the clutter and answer folks questions. I play on my desktop, but my computer shares a room with my 8 month old’s crib, so I have more free time than I have computer time. Happy to help, I’m just asked for a better structure to enable me to do so.

The problem right now is that if I go through answering people’s questions on the common subject on each new thread, I feel like I’m contributing to the problem with scattered information all over and feeding threads that the devs don’t want. And if I create a new thread with the answers, well that’s also more of the same problem.

[Jake Armitage]

good idea, let's see what the chiefs think about it

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

good idea, let's see what the chiefs think about it

Yep, sounds interesting but we'll have to discuss it internally first.

I'd have to say the main problem is probably that we're still using a Forum in 2019 ... I remember using them in 1995, kinda out dated now, maybe modernising a bit might be something to consider hehe

i can't see what would be better than a forum, sincerely. Twc structure is perfect imo.
a chat like discord/facebook/steam? please no

Well, I agree 100% with Jake. A Forum's structure is immensely better than a channel's. You can quote, bookmark, edit, restructure, add polls etc
The only think I usually favor Discord, is for quicker responses when needed.

[corsair831]

I'd have to say the main problem is probably that we're still using a Forum in 2019 ... I remember using them in 1995, kinda out dated now, maybe modernising a bit might be something to consider hehe

[Jake Armitage]

I'd have to say the main problem is probably that we're still using a Forum in 2019 ... I remember using them in 1995, kinda out dated now, maybe modernising a bit might be something to consider hehe

i can't see what would be better than a forum, sincerely. Twc structure is perfect imo.
a chat like discord/facebook/steam? please no

[corsair831]

I'm too old for Discord, but Reddit I have always found to be a very good vessel for communities of around DeI's size. I used to be very active in the Civilization 5 mod No Quitters, and it was used to great effect there.

It's possibly to do with the layout of the forum as well; i know this sounds silly, but the forum just looks dated, and i really don't think that's a small thing; i think that it has a big impact on the mindset of people using it. When you're typing something up here (even myself who uses this quite a lot and knows it's not at all even vaguely dead), just looking at the layout etc of the forum; i don't know, it just looks like it should be dead if that makes any sense, hah (purely because it's a very old-style forum)

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

I'd have to say the main problem is probably that we're still using a Forum in 2019 ... I remember using them in 1995, kinda out dated now, maybe modernising a bit might be something to consider hehe

I'm too old for Discord, but Reddit I have always found to be a very good vessel for communities of around DeI's size. I used to be very active in the Civilization 5 mod No Quitters, and it was used to great effect there.

It's possibly to do with the layout of the forum as well; i know this sounds silly, but the forum just looks dated, and i really don't think that's a small thing; i think that it has a big impact on the mindset of people using it. When you're typing something up here (even myself who uses this quite a lot and knows it's not at all even vaguely dead), just looking at the layout etc of the forum; i don't know, it just looks like it should be dead if that makes any sense, hah (purely because it's a very old-style forum)

Well, I generally avoid Reddit like Cancer, due to the age gap with most users etc. I very much prefer working in our Forums, but each to his own I guess.

[kpagcha]

I think the way reddit organizes topics and comments is fantastic. If what you fear is the community, then you shouldn't, because it would basically be all of us, just in a different format.

In any case, with the issue at hand, I think the original suggestion would work just fine. No need to migrate to a different community, at least for the moment, and especially since this one is already pretty developed. Although I do concede the forum format is and looks pretty outdated.

[Dresden]

The issue is that most posters will still use the main forum. The ones who currently don't use the proper threads will certainly not use the proper subforums. The problem with subforums is that they are heavily underused by the average visitor. Many people come here and still don't see our guides or previews, which are sticky threads. They still post questions answered there. This will become even worse if we try to subdivide the community further into subforums unfortunately. Its the same reason that gameplay guides and lets play posts die off in their subforum. The larger population (not veteran TWC users/posters) don't go there.

I do want to have a wiki/guide/mod summary at some point. It may have to be community driven because of the mammoth task.

[LysanderOfSparta]

The issue is that most posters will still use the main forum. The ones who currently don't use the proper threads will certainly not use the proper subforums. The problem with subforums is that they are heavily underused by the average visitor. Many people come here and still don't see our guides or previews, which are sticky threads. They still post questions answered there. This will become even worse if we try to subdivide the community further into subforums unfortunately. Its the same reason that gameplay guides and lets play posts die off in their subforum. The larger population (not veteran TWC users/posters) don't go there.

I do want to have a wiki/guide/mod summary at some point. It may have to be community driven because of the mammoth task.

I can help with anything that requires a bit of writing/editing. I'm part of a writing community, and I help users edit their work sometimes. You know where to find me.

[kpagcha]

The issue is that most posters will still use the main forum. The ones who currently don't use the proper threads will certainly not use the proper subforums. The problem with subforums is that they are heavily underused by the average visitor. Many people come here and still don't see our guides or previews, which are sticky threads. They still post questions answered there. This will become even worse if we try to subdivide the community further into subforums unfortunately. Its the same reason that gameplay guides and lets play posts die off in their subforum. The larger population (not veteran TWC users/posters) don't go there.

The questions thread already has that issue, so creating a questions subforum wouldn't create a new problem, in my opinion.