Updated Forum Rules and Proposed Forum Changes

Would also like to add that if a "simplification" needs an explanation then it's really not much of a simplification.

One favor,

Let's not allow this conversation to solely revolve around possibly consolidating AT forums.

We would like to see other suggestions for simplifying the current forum structure.

I am not a big fan of archetype merges, just because... well, there's a lot of stuff where dominator answers and troller answers are very very different. At the same time... It might not hurt to have some role-related forums.

Basically, I might have questions about a brute, whom I want to use both for tanking and for soloing. Those questions will not be well served by a tanking forum. But I might have some questions about aggro mechanics, which I care about on both a brute and a tanker. That might not be well served only by archetype-specific forums.

If you have to go one way or the other, I'd say stick with the archetype-specific forums and one general archetypes/powers forum. I can't immediately think of a good way to reduce the number of forums without making those forums less useful.

ETA:

Okay, other topics. Hmm. I don't like the player help vs. other subsets of stuff, I can never find things. I often miss stuff in CoH Life because it's on the other side of the AT forums. Also, because I only really have the one working natural language, I tend to use the "English" header as my forum link -- so I dont' see stuff that's in the top level adjacent to it, but that includes things like the beta forum threads.

There's a lot of forums here, but I'm not sure there are too many -- they're really mostly pretty useful forums which seem topically interesting. I can usually find a good forum to post in, and get interesting responses.

The simplest way for old and new would be my suggestion. Keep them exactly as they are but include in the forum title what that particular AT does. (See above post) Simple and only minimal effort and nothing to move.

On the one hand, I can see the reasoning behind it. Most of the individual AT forums are pretty slow compared to, say, Player Questions or City Life.

HOWEVER!

I think simply the fact that, in game, you have multiple ATs popping up under multiple categories, is reason enough to understand that merging certain ATs' forums just isn't going to work well. Furthermore, merging like ATs still isn't going to work. A Dual Blades/Willpower Stalker plays hella different from a Scrapper or Brute with the same sets. And similarly, a DB/WP Brute, isn't much like a WP/DB tank, either. Similarly, within just the Mastermind AT, and the various EATs, you have people playing as tanks, as support, or as big damage, depending a lot on which sets they use and their general style.

If you're dead set on merging the AT forums, I'd do a few broad categories based around playstyles rather than ATs, and then naming ATs that are "possible" examples, but not restricting them to a single spot. "Squishy damage", "Crowd Control" (Controllers, Dominators, Fortunatas, Masterminds) as just a couple examples. Not too different from the original proposition, but more focused on build style than AT, and as you can see, with certain forums open to multiple ATs. Even this way, you could still probably cut the number of forums in half, at least.

It's still not that great, but it's better than saying "Blasters and Corruptors over here", "Defenders, Controllers, and Dominators here", I think. You might have to repost a few of the sticky guide listings in multiple forums, but it'd make for more ease of discussion.

I also wouldn't really bother with a separate forum, honestly, with build help if you go this way.

I did look at the other forum subheadings (outside A & P), but I didn't see an obvious way to consolidate them given how little I visit most of them.

Gonna add my voice to those saying not to merge the AT forums. It's not as confusing as you seem to think, though adding the suggested (descriptors) wouldn't be a bad thing.

Meanwhile, I'm also going to say that you guys broke the CARP MELEE out of the Calendar. Birthdays are no longer there. Please, either bring back the Birthday listing, or bring back the old Cake icon by the username of someone having a Birthday.

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Biggest Troll on the forums? I'll give you a hint:

A couple of things:

- I'm heads down for the rest of the afternoon working on a Power Point presentation. I'll try to check this thread when I get some time tonight.

- Keep in mind, the above proposed forum changes are *just that* - Proposed. Nothing is set in stone and is part of the reason I brought this hear to discuss with the Community.

- When proposing changes, keep two things in mind:

1. Less is better: The less you have to scroll down the page, the fewer forums there are, the simpler it's going to be for a new user/someone unfamiliar with the forums.

2. Less clicks is better: Creating more parent/child forums isn't the solution. Things need to be one click away (Web Design 101 IMO).

3. The purpose of improvement is to grow our forum Community and to make the experience better for everyone, overall.

Thanks for keeping the discussion on track!

-Z

The one-click-away thing is why I have my links pointed to "English" rather than to "City of Heroes Forums".

Maybe make more use of vB's expand/collapse heading functionality, which I seem to recall it has some of?

Some ideas:

• Get rid of the recruitment and player events forums. People can post that sort of thing in the relevant server forum.
• A quick glance at the Mac forum shows that it is mainly tech support. Get rid of the Mac forum and let Mac users post their issues in the gameplay/technical issues and bugs forum. Sticky relevant Mac links.
• Get rid of everything in For Fun! except general discussions and suggestions. Create a new subforum in For Fun labeled Creative Works. Let the Euro and Oceanic players post their stuff in their relevant server, or in general discussions. Salt the earth where Forum Games once was.
• Consider deleting Player Guides. Most guides can go in either General Discussion or the relevant AT forum.
• Merge the server forums as follows: have a forum labeled Freedom, a forum labeled Virtue, a forum labeled Euro, and a forum labeled Other.*
  
  
  *Just kidding!

Can we just rename the Suggestions Forum 'jranger'?









What?

I think refining the AT forums would bring them in line with the way ATs are grouped in the avatar creation screen in the game.