Is Build Forum a failure?

This is a real question. Prior to using the build forum I would post my builds in the specific archetype forum and get replies 80% time, usually multiple within a day. When ipost builds to the build forum I see replies 1/3 of the time, sometimes none, even if the question sits a week. Therefore I conclude either 1) The forum is not working as designed 2) The re are a lot less people visiting the forums or 3) People in general have become much less interested in builds since the build forum started.

As further evidence I see a ton of questions posted in this forum with 0 replies.

I think you should slot more for accuracy and recharge. Which Alpha are you planning on?

The basic idea of the Build Forum wasn't bad. Maybe in a new game community without the set behaviors of CoH, it might have worked better. But CoH's community has had 7 years of organic growth and several years of time in which it ALREADY had worked out an appropriate posting protocol for mids builds ITSELF. You want help/advice about a build for a given AT? Go to the forum for that AT and post!

Now, if you post for "Help me with my SoA" in the build forum, it gets buried under 10 "Help me with my tank" 8 "help me with my defender" 13 "help me with my troller" 3-4 Warshade discussions and a host of "What about THIS for a farmer?" posts. As such responses are down and response times go way up.

All because a few people griping to Zwillinger were to stupid and lazy to actually ask about an AT build in that AT's particular forum or inquire about current practices for said activity.

Is the build form a failure? Yeah. A truly, utterly and miserably one. And an utter mess to boot.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

As a "repository" of builds, this forum "works" reasonably well for the task.

As a "discussion" area for builds it is all but worthless.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

Did they ever declare a winner for the ICE/TA contest ?

If the devs can't take an interest in their own builds on this forum what makes you think the players will ?

First off I'm glad you posted this instead of me. I was thinking the same exact thing. But was going to post a much more sarcastic thread which would have been ugly.

Secondly I did see your AR Device post but I refused to post an help in this forum for anyone regardless on principal. But as you can see I did reply to your question in the Blasters forum.

The story given was ridiculous. Zwig, incognito asked a new player where to post about getting help on a build and the person did not know..

Did Zwig know where the bathroom was the first time he walked into the office ? I would imagine no. It doesn't mean the whole building needs to be restructured just so he can find the bathroom from any place in the building.

The only posting you get out of me on these forums is exactly this. Me saying what a bad idea this is. Waste of time, money and resources.

I tried to sort through it, but got too busy. I would suggest that there would have been a better way of doing this, that the idea is not a failure, just the lackluster execution. I would recommend that they should have posted two stickies in each of the AT forums. Build Exemplar thread (for buildbrags) and Build Help thread (for referencing build help threads).

The way it is, I understand why it went under, even though I tried to help it survive.

I have to agree...this just doesn't appear to work very well. Now I will have to commit a faux pas by cross-posting to an actual AT forum. For those who may actually see it, sorry in advance. Just pretend you didn't see it in this forum...shouldn't be hard to do.

I think there is a bit of 2) and 3) going on. Builds aren't as critical to performance as they once were.

I think that it had potential, but it never gained the necessary popularity it needed to be terribly useful. I liked the idea that someone who was familiar with... let's say broadsword for an example, would be able to more capable of giving advice to Scrappers, Brutes, and Stalkers, rather than stick to one AT thread and unintentionally ignore the others.

For example, I remember people who where not Scrappers would randomly wander into the Scrapper forum with a Brute build they needed help on, just because they knew the Scrapper community at that time was good with numbers. Back then a general "Build" forum seemed like a good idea to me.

As I've mentioned before, I think the Build Workshop Forum divides focus. Instead of looking and/or asking in the specific AT forum you now have two areas to peruse. On top of that, if you feel you can help a specific AT, like Defenders, you have to "rummage" through the thread to find Defender questions. (Just like an accountant rummaging through a box of unsorted receipts. ) Of course they could always create sub-forums and sort the builds by specific ATs... but then we're right back to where the forums were before the Build Workshop was created.

The addition of the Build Forum has also created some confusion in those seeking requests. Quite often people have mentioned, in their posts, of being unsure if the AT forums or the Build Workshop were "the right place to ask for help". I can see why.

In the meantime, I'm waiting to see who will be starting the third Developer's "Build Challenge" in the continuing attempt to draw attention here. (and how soon we will be seeing that thread.)

Yep.

I avoid this forum most of the time for several of the reasons stated.

I can give a lot of useful advice in building Scrappers and Tanks (and by extension Brutes and Stalkers), but I'm useless in building Controllers and my Defender knowledge is hit and miss.

I don't have much time to post, since I usually do so while I'm at work. I'd rather go to the AT forums and help someone with their build than come here and dig through piles of builds in search of someone to help.

A failure?

I don't know if I'd call something that's unnecessary, redundant and inefficient, which sees more use in theory than it does in practice, a forum whose threads only ever gather even a handful of comments when they're posts specifically regarding the forum itself and not the forum's actual purpose, a "failure."

"Misadventure" is so much more evocative, after all.

I hated this forum when it was created and made my thoughts heard at the time.

I've tried to have an open mind to see if it did have some benefits I didn't see in the beginning.

Still, today I hate this forum. It was created to solve a problem that didn't exist and still doesn't.

I largely ignore the goings on in this forum, unless something randomly happens to catch my eye from the higher level A&P forum, like this thread did. Given that so many posts are of the "help me build a ss/fire brute farmer" (or whatever farmer) rarely does that happen.

I only post builds that I'm seeking feedback for in the relevant AT subforum.

If the Build Workshop were made All Access, it might be useful for Free and Premium players to come to for advice on their characters, since they can't post in the AT sections.

I don't think this forum was ever a good idea. But zillions of people said that back when it was created, too. It just goes against tradition and logic to separate builds from the class forums.

To be honest, it could have been implemented as a pseudoforum and it would have served its purpose. It could just have been a set of links to the correct AT forums with newbie-friendly names, i.e. we could still have had a subforum called 'builds', so newbies could find the -- supposedly illusive -- build forum and just have contained within it a link to every AT subforum with an appropriate heading e.g. 'Brute builds'. This would have served the purpose of showing newer players where to post their builds for their given AT without creating a totally unnecessary and player-base-splitting subforum.

The vets could go on posting as they always had, and new players could be quickly pointed to where the vets post. Now we just have a situation where no-one's sure where they should really be posting, and most vets just ignore this subforum.