Major forum changes

Well I think this is one of the best forums on the internet, that's why I'm here.

 

I think the driving force behind that suggestion is people want to know when someone communicates about the game in an official capacity in an easy to browse place that doesn't require them to read every thread or stalk profiles. That's why the suggestion for a dev tracker or dev notifier pops up. They want an easy way to filter out posts so they can get to pertinent information on the development of the game.

It's a common feature in game communities like Guild Wars 2 official forums, Bnet forums, and League of Legend's redtracker. Sure there's off topic chatter that appears in those trackers but people use them to find official communication from the devs about the game.

 

Alright, here are my endorsements and random musings, in no particular order:

#1. I strongly agree with those that said the FAQ forum should be removed. We even have an "ask us anything" thread stickied on the general board, along with a few other bits of information with their own threads. We should really just have a FAQ sticky. It's very, very redundant and has caused a rather large amount of clutter.

#2. Speaking of clutter, the rules about "beta when?!" and "beta not soon enough!" threads should be made a lot more clear. They should be kept where we keep all the other rules and not at the bottom of the official beta thread. That, or we shouldn't have them at all. We're asked to keep all discussion to one thread, but this rarely happens in practice. We've even rewarded that behavior a few times in recent memory.

#3. I would strongly suggest merging duplicate threads rather than locking.

#4. Thread necromancy and bumping. We need an official policy differentiating the two.

I think when it relates to a discussion that is still relevant today, then it's entirely alright to the point it should be encouraged. However, when it's done to a discussion that is no longer relevant, or maliciously, that's different. I've seen threads with VERY outdated information bumped to the front page. For example, release date information from 2012. I've seen it happen, and bringing something like that back from the dead is an openly hostile gesture.

Mens rea should certainly be a factor regardless.

Late edit:

#5. When the beta comes out, we need a board specifically for mods.

 

I would like a search function similar to the normal forum in the suggestion voting section.

 

It would be nice if there was an index of all Dev posts somewhere. It would make it a lot easier to verify the "X said this" statements, which would also make it easier keep up to date on what the latest questions answered are.

 

The other Chucklefish games having their own "space" separate from the Starbound one I would appreciate. The Fan Works forums (Fan Fiction, Fan Art, Fan Videos) have sorta been pushed into a corner as a result of the change so many months ago.

The hub idea mentioned a few months back might work for this -- having an area from which to access each forum, and that forum having all its own space. The Off Topic sections would still have to be unified somehow, though.

 

So about that whole...complaints board thing.

Would these be all things which people have grievances with? Or only the ones which are grumbling and whining without much real criticism? The actual constructive could still go in the same place they went before, no? The 'complaints' board would really just be a place for all the people who feel slighted for general reasons to post their rage.

For the people with cohesive, calm suggestions, they could just be kept in the same place.

Now, in order for this to work, a person or ten would have to read every new thread, and then decide whether or not it was conductive or not. I'm not sure if it's really that good of an idea (because of the work involved, like I just said), but if people or the staff were willing to put their time into it, the result might be better for everyone.

or not I'm just a crazy Merc

 

Maybe not things you like, and not alerts either. Just maybe a little green dot or something beside topics on the forum that have had a staff comment on. Check out the path of exile forums to see what I mean. It's a great feature.

 

Or it could just be for developers...

 

I wouldn't go this direction precisely, but yes. To expound upon what has been suggested within this thread, my opinion is that it may be best to simply organize a seperate feedback board once beta arrives. It would hypothetically be divided in to several sections: AI and NPCs, aesthetics, bug reports, items and blocks, quests, and world generation. Unless I've overlooked something, complaints and constructive criticism would fall under these categories. It is my humble belief we DO NOT need an entire board devoted to "AMG BETA IS NOT OUT I WILL NOW PROCEED TO VENT".

 

I volunteer

 

Aaaaaaand anope.

Volunteering for a position of power is the first way to not get it.

Unless I've been lied to all along.

 

So on the topic of getting more MODS, Maybe a forum/thread for people to apply to become a mod on here.......maybe if they have been a good resident here on the forums you might consider them as a MOD and having an application for it would speed up that process.

Hope this makes sense I was kinda tired when writing this hehe.

 

I'm going to state first that if any forum changes has any influence on potentially slowing down the development of the game, then I'm actually okay with the way forums currently are. There's room for improvement sure, but these forums really aren't that bad. And with that..

I'm against a complaints forum mainly because:

A: It's not going to prevent people from complaining on the general forums or elsewhere anyway which leads to...
B: Puts more work on the moderators that feel the need to constantly move complaint threads to the complaint forums when people don't complain there. Also...
C: A feedback/suggestion forum essentially already accomplishes what a complaint forum would and in a more positive manner.

That being said, many decent suggestions have been made.

• A 'Staff member has posted in this thread' icon next to threads where staff members have posted would be useful. It would help people join in on topics they know are being addressed by members of the staff and many major gaming forums have such a feature. IE: League of Legends, Blizzard games etc.
• An offshoot of that suggestion is a 'next/previous staff member post' button that instantly takes you to the next or previous post made by a staff member within a thread. Again, used by many larger gaming companies to help people join in on topics addressed by staff members.
• I think creators of a thread having the option to either lock or delete their own threads would be useful. Most thread creators that request their thread be locked usually manage to get it by contacting a moderator. Cutting out the middle man would help lighten the load.
• A dev tracker so we can follow threads and posts by our favorite developers I think is a solid idea. Tiy yourself for example are rarely seen on the forums so a notice for people that want to participate in discussions you're currently active in may like to be notified of that.

Ultimately though, I don't really see any changes that need to be done to the forums. The forums fulfill their role quite nicely and even with the suggestions I just posted, there's just not a lot of benefit to be had to facilitate much better discussion than what we're already currently capable of. That's just my 2 cents. Perhaps once the game is in our hands, my thoughts on that may change. For example, individual forums for each race, a quests forum, a guild/clan forum, a servers forum for people to advertise their personal servers and invite others to join etc. None of that is really necessary yet but it would be an improvement once the game is in a playable state.

My advice, leave it as is until the game's out, then use your best judgement on what you'd think would make the forums better.

 

IDK, they did have a whole thread asking people who'd be interested in being a mod. Not really sure where that went though.

 

This sounds like a really good idea ( has my vote ).....

 

huh.

 

I'm fairly sure that while Tiy would be the one making the decision, the changes would ultimately be implemented by the administrators, not by the development staff.

 

• Blizzard uses a neat dev tracker system on their websites. Any thread where admins have posted in gets a little mark next to it (example). Each post from an admin also has a button which links to the next post by an admin in the same thread. On top of that, there's a little area at the top of the forum that shows the most recent admin posts (example). That would be pretty useful.

• There's also quite a lot of stickies- perhaps you could clean that up a bit? You might be able to create a single sticky that links to all the existing ones.

• And finally, there's the organization of forums could be improved once the beta begins. While it wouldn't work as well now, I imagine it would be much better to have forums for specific categories (Quest/Story Forum, Buildings/Creations Forum, Guides/Tips Forum, etc.... Plus the existing general & suggestion forums, of course).