Updated Forum Rules and Proposed Forum Changes
By
afocks,
Posted on: 2011-09-22 18:22 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
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Indeed. I propose something easy like |
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
While I certainly appreciate your viewpoint:
What if we provided guidelines so that posts were easily identifiable within each forum? I don't particularly view it as pigeonholing, simply as...well...simplifying. There's a rather large amount of forums to sift through here on our boards, and to a new, or even veteran player who hasn't spent time on the forums, it's a bit confusing. Forums should be easy to understand at a glance. |
Blasters
Brutes
Controllers
Corrupters
Defenders
Dominators
Kheldians
Masterminds
Scrappers
Soldiers of Arachnos
Stalkers
Tankers
Anyone confused by that probably shouldn't be allowed to use a computer
Grouping them behind parent forums only adds an extra layer of complication (really what you're doing is splitting Archetypes & Powers General Discussion into 5 or so different parent "playstyle" forums, which are pretty arbitrary)
Do what you want with the rest of the forums, but leave the bit I find interesting and useful as-is, it works well currently.
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I was a new member a little over a year ago, and I found nothing confusing about the AT portion of this forum. it was the player help/city life forums that I found redundant
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
While I certainly appreciate your viewpoint:
What if we provided guidelines so that posts were easily identifiable within each forum? I don't particularly view it as pigeonholing, simply as...well...simplifying. There's a rather large amount of forums to sift through here on our boards, and to a new, or even veteran player who hasn't spent time on the forums, it's a bit confusing. Forums should be easy to understand at a glance. |
Well, I would like to ring in on my new user experience with respect to the forums, since I started using it last month.
First, I agree that the organization is a bit confusing. It was a bit tough (but not impossible) to find the right spot to post player suggestions. I would suggest that that particular area be brought up to the top of the forums with its own area, so folks can clearly see where you would post ideas and feedback.
I also think that Premiums should get limited access to the forum. Perhaps something like suggestions, tech support, etc. The rest can be restricted to VIP. It's important to hear from those players that are returning from prior play IMO.
Some very good suggestions all around. Here's my take (based on several others, but I'm copying stuff from Zombie Man's).
News, Events & Announcements
- Announcements
- Announcement discussion
- Player events
- Calendar
- Paragon digest
- Live Servers: Bug Reports
- Technical and Computer Issue (Mac, Linux, Windows)
- Suggestions & Ideas
- Test Server: Bug Reports and Discussion
- Beta Server: Bug Reports and Discussion
- Player Questions
- Player vs Player
- Inventions and Auction House
- Mission Architect
- Base Construction
- Player Guides
- City of Heroes Freedom general discussion
- Roleplaying
- Fan Creations [Audio, video, images and stories]
- Comic & Hero/Villain Culture
- Forum Games
Servers - leave as is
A lot of the reasons for such changes have been discussed elsewhere. One thing I'd like to add because I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere is that I don't feel there's need for a distinction between rednames, i.e., community vs. dev digests. The weight I give any of these redname posts doesn't differs, and the total volume of both digests together will create doesn't look like a problem, so I think it makes sense to merge them.
Edit:
I decided that it would be worth adding my personal impressions, as a player who hasn't frequented the forums much over the last two years or so, and just started using them seriously since I started playing again for the beta.
The thing about the redname posts is one of my impressions. I always open these two digests together. Oh, and I just remembered that initially I didn't open "community digest", because I had no idea a digest of what that was.
Finding the suggestions forum took some time initially, and frankly even at the second or third time.
The main problem with the AT forums is that they're in the middle, and you need to get past them for general discussion, which is a much more desired destination. Moving them after that section would solve the problem.
Otherwise I found the AT forums helpful as is, and would hate to have them changed. I typically decide that I want to try a certain AT, then go to look for guides for it. Or if I play an AT I sometimes want to participate in that forum. Any level of indirection would complicate things.
Never understood why "annoucements" and "announcement discussion" are separated, i.e., at the start and end of the category, instead of one near the other.
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Originally Posted by General_CoH
Some very good suggestions all around. Here's my take (based on several others, but I'm copying stuff from Zombie Man's).
News, Events & Announcements
Servers - leave as is A lot of the reasons for such changes have been discussed elsewhere. One thing I'd like to add because I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere is that I don't feel there's need for a distinction between rednames, i.e., community vs. dev digests. The weight I give any of these redname posts doesn't differs, and the total volume of both digests together will create doesn't look like a problem, so I think it makes sense to merge them. |
Good, but I would suggest calling feedback "Feedback and Suggestions".
Have to toss in another strong vote against merging the AT forums. There's way too much crossover in the roles for that to avoid confusion. For example, I would consider corrupter support, but you called it ranged damage.
AT forums are working fine, and you know what you get when you go to the forum.
I think blizzard tried something like this, but then had to re-add all the class forums again. I just think it would be a total mess.
An example would be posting in support "Which controller would be better for this?" and having a chunk of the forum bombard you with the merits of defenders. There's no need for the added confusion.
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Other than possibly consolidating multiple stickies into one to or related into stickies, I have no real suggestions to offer to help with the forum bloat. Perhaps consolidate some of the little used categories. |
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
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. |
But, I can say, I'd be against merging the the ATs into roles. It won't cut down on the volume of information within, just make fewer headings, thus making things harder to find, while lending some semblance of official sanction to one play style for a given AT (and thus also giving some semblance of official discouragement to other styles).
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger View Post This was intentional as some users felt it infringed upon privacy. |
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Originally Posted by Kheldarn
They think THAT infringes upon privace? They must not use Facebook, then...
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So, what's to stop them from removing their birthday? Or choosing not to display it? Those ARE options right there in the CP... I say bring 'em back, and make an announcement that if you don't want the info to be known, to go Control Panel > Edit Your Details, and in the second section, either click the Clear button to remove Date Of Birth, or set it to one of the 4 display options. Ta-da! Privacy Issue resolved!
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I like ZombieMan's and General_CoH's list. I do NOT like the idea of merging archtype forums... that's too technical. Issues of appropiate triage of information seekers is best started in general ways: main page of COH in discussing AT and in the UI under play-styles when we make a new toon. Here you can explicitly tell newcommers the spectrum of melee combat or how the dynamics of support/ranged damage trade-offs, then in a last blurb: "For a wealth of information on this, our dedicated VIP's have posted many topics on the boards. See the forum about the archtype best for you! (or something).
The forums are too technical now, to merge them for "simplicity" would be the worst case of "not seeing the forest for the trees."
Miss Arc #147491: Rise of Bedlam
AKA Iron Smoke @Champion Server
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What could be simpler than a forum for each AT?|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
Forums should be easy to understand at a glance.
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I don't find the new suggested categories clear or easy to understand.
This is a song about a super hero named Tony. Its called Tony's theme.
Jagged Reged: 23/01/04
Id like to add that I would not be against an archetype forum area change, as long as the individual powers continue to be represented.
If you wish to further separate them by categorizing them as say Ranged, Melee, Support, Pet control I think that would work. Be easier to find the ones you are interested in that way, since the names of the powers are not always obvious in definition.
Essentially, though, I think focus has to be made on a "Feedback and Suggestions" area that has a full section of the forum.
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They could put all melee archetypes under a "Melee" area. I don't think that's a bad thing, as long as the original areas continue to exist.
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Originally Posted by Jagged
What could be simpler than a forum for each AT?
I don't find the new suggested categories clear or easy to understand. |
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I like ZM's list with the exception that the AT forum should be higher with servers at the bottom.
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
News, Events & Announcements
Development
Feedback
Player to Player Help and Discussion
For Fun
Archetypes - Leave as-is |
Sorry, one more post.
A few more suggestions.
1) You should have the ability to stay logged in by default for a certain period of time.
2) Clicking on my name other than in actual threads should give me the ability to see all of my posts. I shouldn't have to do a search or subscribe.
3) Players should be encouraged to post pictures of each market item, like the costume sets. Right now it seems it is a grey area, and I think official support should come out in favor of this kind of thing. This could promote market purchases...I would have already purchased a few costume sets if I knew what they looked like.
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If it has to change I think this will be a good way to go.
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Originally Posted by Xanatos
Alright. No more snarky. Do this.
Category: Player Archetypes Parent Forum: Melee -Sub-Forum: Scrapper (Melee Damage/Damage Mitigation) --Desc: Special Skill: Criticals -Sub-Forum: Stalker (Melee Damage/Damage Mitigation) --Desc: Special Skill: Assassination -Sub-Forum: Brute (Melee Damage/Damage Mitigation) --Desc: Special Skill: Fury -Sub-Forum: Tank (Damage Mitigation/Melee Damage) --Desc: Special Skill: Gauntlet Parent Forum: Ranged -Sub-Forum: Blaster (High Ranged Damage) --Desc: Special Skill: Defiance -Sub-Forum: Corruptor (Ranged Damage/Support) --Desc: Special Skill: Scourge -Sub-Forum: Defender (Support/Ranged Damage) --Desc: Special Skill: Vigilance -Sub-Forum: Dominator (Control/Ranged Damage) --Desc: Special Skill: Domination Parent Forum: Unlockable -Sub-Forum: Controllers (Control/Support) --Desc: Special Skill: Containment -Sub-Forum: Masterminds (Pets/Support) --Desc: Special Skill: Bodyguard -Sub-Forum: Arachnos (Villain Epic Archetype) --Desc: Special Skill: [insert lore hype] -Sub-Forum: Kheldians (Hero Epic Archetype) --Desc: Special Skill: [insert lore hype] |
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Statistics -> show all posts?|
Originally Posted by quickfire
2) Clicking on my name other than in actual threads should give me the ability to see all of my posts. I shouldn't have to do a search or subscribe.
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That works pretty good.
50)Sinergy X/(50)Mika.
(50)MaceX/(50)Encore
Sign the petition, dont let CoH go down! SIGN!
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(1) If they knew how to fix it they would. The devs are annoyed by this, too.|
Originally Posted by quickfire
Sorry, one more post.
A few more suggestions. 1) You should have the ability to stay logged in by default for a certain period of time. 2) Clicking on my name other than in actual threads should give me the ability to see all of my posts. I shouldn't have to do a search or subscribe. 3) Players should be encouraged to post pictures of each market item, like the costume sets. Right now it seems it is a grey area, and I think official support should come out in favor of this kind of thing. This could promote market purchases...I would have already purchased a few costume sets if I knew what they looked like. |
(2) You can go to your control panel by clicking your name, then the Statistics tab. There you can find your posts. It's a couple more steps but not a big deal, IMO.
(3) It's possible to see them from the character creator or costume editor, but I agree that having photos would be great. Another game has an in game preview of how the item in the market looks on your character, and I bought one thanks to that which I wouldn't have otherwise.
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Then by all means, continue to keep doing absolutely nothing about it. Seriously, whether it is mechanical or not, this problem has been hilariously ignored for more than a year. Clearly, Paragon Studios could give a rat's *** about this issue.|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
This has nothing to do with the Paragon Team.
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Originally Posted by Zyphoid
I also think a new board dedicated to the store and items in the store would be great.
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I will say, though, that I hate the fact that dev/mod communication is sprinkled across News, then Events, and Announcement Discussion, or even Developers' Corner. As far as I'm concerned, for the love of god, just put that into one spot: Official News and Discussion. There, at least I've ended up with a net change of 0. :/Quote:
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Originally Posted by Smersh
Can we have some clarification on what 'T for Teen' means in regard to the Comic and Hero/Villain Culture board?
Does that mean a total ban on all discussions of R-rated and TV-M rated material? |
You'd do better to enforce yourselves, than to make stricter rules. Just follow the rules you already have.
There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.
RE: Merging Announcement and Discussion (of Announcements)
It's my understanding that these are two separate forums so that:
- People can browse announcements without having to download lengthy discussion threads; and,
- If the forum database needs to be trimmed, you can delete the discussion while leaving the history of important announcements.
RE: Merging Community and Developer Digests
The reason they're two separate forums is because players asked for it! When you want to follow the important Dev-posts for information regarding the game, you don't want to have to sift through the many more post from Community Reps on topics like server downtimes or announcement of one-time player events.
Speeding Through New DA Repeatables || Spreadsheet o' Enhancements || Zombie Skins: better skins for these forums || Guide to Guides
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Oh, no I think I may be misunderstood here--please, for the love of god, keep the dev and the mod feeds separate.
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
RE: Merging Community and Developer Digests
The reason they're two separate forums is because players asked for it! When you want to follow the important Dev-posts for information regarding the game, you don't want to have to sift through the many more post from Community Reps on topics like server downtimes or announcement of one-time player events. |
There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.
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Agreed.
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Originally Posted by Starcloud
DO NOT MERGE THE ARCHETYPE FORUMS. |
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Merging Announcements and News and Events with the News, Events & Announcement Discussion might help. Having a separate discussion thread seems redundant.|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
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. |
Calendar, while cute and helpful doesn't really fit on a forum. It has no threads, and no way to create any threads. I don't want it to go away, but maybe another place could be found for it?
Dev Digest and Community Digest could be merged into one big list of red name posts. It might also help to merge Developers' Corner into this.
Gameplay / Technical Issues & Bugs should have a sub forum for the most current issue Bug Report Forums.
Combine the two PVP sub forums into just one.
Regional forums, such as The European Lounge and Oceanic Lounge are not really necessary. We are one big City of X family, aren't we?
Comic and Hero/Vilian Culture, Roleplaying, Screenshots & Fan Creations, Forum Games. These should all be combined into just "Fun Stuff".
Last, I believe that we could do with a forum purge. Do we really need posts that go all the way back to the launch? How many dead accounts are there on the forum? While I know that many people wanted large colorful pictures in their sig, do they need to be so large? Sometimes the post text takes up less room than the sig all by itself. I wouldn't mind going back to text only sigs, and keep them to a single line, thank you very much!
Combine the News and Announcement forums with the Development forums... most times, its an overlap. Move any official Discussions topics to the Announcement and Discussion sub-header under News and Announcements (again; overlap). Same with the non-english Forums (at least the News, Announcements, Developments and Discussion areas); everything else could probably go into the appropriate Server sub-forums.
Move the PvP to the Player Help forums.
If you're serious about minimizing clicks... leave the AT Forums alone; otherwise just turn it into a sub-header under Player Help. Same with the Server Forums; either leave them as is or merge them uner the For Fun header.
IMO, the last thing you want to do is turn the Forums 'shivan' and leave anybody (new or vet) to the mercy of what passes for a search function here.
[While you're at it, you may want to consider adding in an Incarnate's section to the Player Help forums; with all the trees, branches, buds, trials, lead-up content, 'money' systems, conversions, etc - we should have had one etched in stone a long time ago]
Apparently, I play "City of Shakespeare"
*Arc #95278-Gathering the Four Winds -3 step arc; challenging - 5 Ratings/3 Stars (still working out the kinks)
*Arc #177826-Lights, Camera, Scream! - 3 step arc, camp horror; try out in 1st person POV - 35 Ratings/4 Stars
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I think the PvP forums could be tossed in their entirety. There hasn't been a productive post in there for years; it has become a hotbed for flame-wars and anti-game sentiments due to neglect. |
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
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. |
Suggestion: Remove the PvP forum and replace it with a forum dedicated to role-playing. Catering to role-players is a great way of building a healthy positive community.
I think the solution for new forumites and new players is "stick around, accept that COX is complicated yet rewarding, read a lot, get used to the way things work and learn a lot."
<snip>
But really, most of the existing forums need to be there. They're already as simplified as you can get without becoming muddled... if I want to know how Brute Electric Armor compares to the revised Energy Aura then I really don't want to wade through three pages of posts about Tanks or Scrappers. I'd much rather have to spin my scroll wheel for a second before clicking on a forum then wind up hunting through three times as many threads to find what I need.
I'm sure everybody at Paragon Studios wants everything to be all super-spiffy and mega-shiny for Freedom's release, but change just for the sake of change isn't a good idea.
"But it wasn't anything some purples and oranges and lots of screaming in fear couldn't handle." -- Werner
30 level 50's: 12 scrappers, 7 other random melee types, 11 blaster/blapper/support squishies, two accounts, and a TON of altitis since 4/28/04