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Given the news ... should we have a 4E-forum, to keep General, well, general?
__________________ "The Soul of D&D?It's rolling a natural 20 when you're down to 3 hit points and the cleric's on the floor and you're staring that sunnavabitch bugbear right in his bloodshot eye and holding the line just long enough to let the wizard unleash a fireball at the guards who are on their way, because they're all that stands between you, the Foozle and Glory." - WizarDru
My spider sense is telling me ENWorld 2 may have been delayed for certain reasons relating to 4E's release. I could be way off though.
__________________ Apparently Reagan never played RPGs ...but he liked to watch.
Spoiler:
Participants in the Pentagon simulations were sometimes of very high rank, including members of Congress and White House insiders as well as senior military officers. The identity of many of the participants remains secret even today. It is a tradition in US simulations (and those run by many other nations) that participants are guaranteed anonymity. The main reason for this is that occasionally they may take on a role or express an opinion that is at odds with their professional or public stance (for example portraying a fundamentalist terrorist or advocating hawkish military action), and thus could harm their reputation or career if their in-game persona became widely known.
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...former US president Ronald Reagan was a keen visitor to simulations conducted in the 1980s, but as an observer only. An official explained: "No president should ever disclose his hand, not even in a war game". Para,6
In all seriousness we should probably have a community-wide discussion about the future of EN World. What we do and don't want 4E to do to us. I personally want it to revitalize us. I don't want it creating edition wars and bitter grognards.
Though I'm not personally interested in switching editions, it's not because I begrudge anyone a new edition. I look forward to the excitement and discussion the new edition with generate. I know our skilled moderators will do a great job of leading by example. And it may be that some re-organization of the forums might help channel the good vibes without "ghetto-izing" either edition.
And it may be that some re-organization of the forums might help channel the good vibes without "ghetto-izing" either edition.
Looking at all the threads in general, I think WotC might have had the right idea with their forum. Set up a forum and create threads to cover certain topics in a metafashion (beyond those already started).
One the initial rush slows down, decide how the community wants to handle it.
__________________ David A. Blizzard
"The only constant I am sure of is this accelerating rate of change" - Downside Up by Peter Gabriel
How about a limiting the number of 4e threads in general. Right now, everyone is creating their own 4e thread rather than replying to one of the existing ones.
How about a limiting the number of 4e threads in general.
I don't believe we can do so fairly at this moment in time.
Before, when all was complete and utter speculation, it would be fair to limit in that manner. But now, when there is reality, there's a whole lot of different things that people can and should be able to talk about. Remember that speculation about a new edition was the cornerstone upon which this place was built - squashing such now would be against our principles.
I will make a pass a little later on, and perhaps merge some of the various threads when they overlap a lot.
I'd like to think EN World can handle 4E discussion just as it has handled older D&D editions and non-D&D d20.
But I thikn for the coming news & hype over the next year, it might be best to have a 4E-specific forum for all the news posts. Heck, we might consider a 4E, 3.XE, and O/1E/2E fourm to support everyone, while keeping General discussion "General" -- as in applicable to all editions, or cross-edition.
I'm with EN on the new edition, but I want EN World to remain vibrant and relevant to the D&D community. 'Cause otherwise I'd have to hang out on the WOTC forums ... and that tis a silly place.
__________________ "The Soul of D&D?It's rolling a natural 20 when you're down to 3 hit points and the cleric's on the floor and you're staring that sunnavabitch bugbear right in his bloodshot eye and holding the line just long enough to let the wizard unleash a fireball at the guards who are on their way, because they're all that stands between you, the Foozle and Glory." - WizarDru
I don't want it creating edition wars and bitter grognards.
Haven't both been around ever since there were multiple editions?
IMHO traffic patterns will emerge, and we can react to them once they do. I suspect it'll never be so bad here that we have to do what WotC did with the fixed number of threads, though I think their move was smart (for them and their community, which is significantly different from our community).
Cheers, -- N
__________________
Brevity is the soul of wit, so trim your sig or look dumb.
But I thikn for the coming news & hype over the next year, it might be best to have a 4E-specific forum for all the news posts. Heck, we might consider a 4E, 3.XE, and O/1E/2E fourm to support everyone, while keeping General discussion "General" -- as in applicable to all editions, or cross-edition.
Ditto. Right now, I cannot the the rest of the RPG General forum anymore, due to 4E. It deserves it own forum, until the dust has settled or the 4E PHB is out. Then everything can be merged back and become normal again!
There could be a temporary DnD forum until the 4e thread craze dies down. I think I counted three non-4e threads on the General Discussion page. Something has to be done, if only for a bit.
This IS a dominating topic that desrves to drown out the general RPG discussion.
Just because you don't like a topic doesn't mean it should be squelched.
Sometimes, you have to just let the 800-lb. gorilla sit on you a little.
It'd be nice if you could filter by multiple categories instead of just one.
Or is there already a way to do that, & I just don't know it?
__________________ (^_^)
Anything I type is only my opinion unless explicitly stated otherwise, which should go without saying. Please assume that I've left out a smiley after every sentence. Thank you.
I'm personally against a new forum for 4E. General has always been the primary discussion point for... well, general D&D stuff. Threads for every other edition go there, 4E shouldn't be an exception. I think this is especially true since I believe the amount of 4E threads will taper off a fair bit. Also, creating a seperate forum goes entirely against what is on the front page - not creating edition wars and division within the community.
That said, I do think General will need more moderating in the coming months. I don't know if it's possible for the mods to have deputies, but that could perhaps be one solution. Also, I think a big announcement (not stickied ) about trying to keep 4E threads consolidated might help alleviate some of it as well.
I'm personally against a new forum for 4E. General has always been the primary discussion point for... well, general D&D stuff.
You are correct, but (there's always a but)...
right now, it is really annoying to try to carry on a conversation in general that isn't about 4e, because 4e threads bump everything else out of the way. If there is enough sustained traffic on 4e, that may continue, which would be very bad. If General becomes de facto 4e forum, then something will need to be done to give folks who don't want to discuss 4e somewhere to do it.
A big burst on the topic for GenCon is not worrisome, but we will be watching the longer-term pattern, and we'll design a solution to fit the need.
(edit: threads merged)
Last edited by Umbran; 17th August 2007 at 03:15 PM..
Well, I'm just glad to be able to get EN World to load again this morning.
Last night from about 6 pm to 8 pm, EN World (which was understandably sluggish all day yesterday) wouldn't load, Wizards had a "Service Unavailable" for their big announcement at the end of the countdown, and RPGNet started to get sluggish as well like EN World was all day at around this time too.
This morning everything seems to be back to normal around here, so the proliferation of 4e threads isn't as much of a nuisance anymore. And now people have some confirmed facts to talk about today.
I did notice that the "I have Monte Cook's World of Darkness Ask Away" thread impressively held its own yesterday on the front page of general, as did, surprisingly, "why does D&D have bears?".
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) about trying to keep 4E threads consolidated might help alleviate some of it as well.
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