Recombining Forums

[Mr. Wilson]

I like Weem's setup, but IMHO I don't see why you couldn't fold plots and places back into the general RPG board.

 

[jonesy]

...snip...

I like your version, if you put CCG's together with Boardgames.

But what about the RPG Industry Forum?

 

[IronWolf]

I know you were looking for a more straight forward answer of whether or not to simply keep the forums as is, or merge them, but I could not help but submit my own idea of a re-organization of the forums (it just seemed fun).

Anyway, this is how I would do it for my own reading preference, understanding full well that I might be the only one to like it this way...

Asking for opinions is great though, and appreciated - I hope the feedback helps in some way

I wouldn't merge D&D 3rd edition with Pathfinder. For those of us that frequent those forums it is nice for each to have their own forum so we can know what rules we should be using when answering questions. There are enough subtle differences between the two systems that there is apt to be confusion if a poster posts a question but neglects to clarify which ruleset they are using - it will have an impact on the responses. By keeping it in different forums we know how to answer simply by knowing what forum the thread is in.

 

[IronWolf]

... but IMHO I don't see why you couldn't fold plots and places back into the general RPG board.

I think this could be a reasonable idea. Plots and Places is fairly edition indifferent and it could bring some good discussion to the General forum without flooding it with a massive number of posts.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

But what about the RPG Industry Forum?

In a weem-inspired arrangement, could go under Meta or under Gamer's Corner, IMO.

 

[weem]

I like Weem's setup, but IMHO I don't see why you couldn't fold plots and places back into the general RPG board.

I think that works, sure. See updated image below.

I like your version, if you put CCG's together with Boardgames.

Right, I just forgot to do that (didn't mean to get rid of it - they are together already which i think works). See updated image below.

But what about the RPG Industry Forum?

Yea, I forgot that one as I was going to do something different with it. See updated image below.

I wouldn't merge D&D 3rd edition with Pathfinder. For those of us that frequent those forums it is nice for each to have their own forum so we can know what rules we should be using when answering questions. There are enough subtle differences between the two systems that there is apt to be confusion if a poster posts a question but neglects to clarify which ruleset they are using - it will have an impact on the responses. By keeping it in different forums we know how to answer simply by knowing what forum the thread is in.

There are differences to be sure, though as you said, they are subtle. The goal here to merge items where it makes sense, and to only keep separate if the activity is high enough to warrant it, or if two things are fairly different.

Pathfinder and 3e are certainly similar enough to be merged (imo) and there simply is not a lot of activity in the PF forum - the first page shows threads up to 11 days ago (at the time of this post). In a merged forum such as this (PF and 3e), it would not take long for people to start appending "PF" or "3e" to the beginning of their messages when they want specific information on that system (see rpg.net). It might be that those kinds of options could be put into thread creation and chosen from a drop down - in the same fashion as adding a 'prefix' in the General RPG Discussion.

In fact, prefix options would be great in many of the forums - for example, in a "D&D 4th Edition" forum, prefix options of "Rules", "House Rules", "DM" etc would be nice.


Here is the updated layout with the 2 changes from above...

You will notice RPG Industry Forum is now Announcements. I love the idea of this because right now it's not a place to discuss the industry, as I feel the name implies. It is (or has become perhaps) a place to post promotional links or press releases. This is a good thing though. Those in the industry want to have places to do this - so EN World should offer it.

The thing is, other people want to do the same for their work who might not consider themselves "in the industry". I am a prime example of this. I want to post links to some things I do on my blog from time to time. And to be honest, I have done so there once or twice - but if it were simply "Announcements" it could have those kinds of things from industry people and non. It would be the obvious place for people to put those messages as opposed to putting them in General RPG, etc as happens occasionally now.

I would point to rpg.net's "Ads/Open Promo" for an example of such a forum. I post items there every once in a while.

 

[IronWolf]

There are differences to be sure, though as you said, they are subtle. The goal here to merge items where it makes sense, and to only keep separate if the activity is high enough to warrant it, or if two things are fairly different.

In saying subtle, I meant more that one has to be very aware that there are differences between a good number of spells, feats, creatures and mechanics. Merging the forums will cause more headache for those of us actively discussing either topic since everyone will have to clarify whether they are talking the PF version of the orc or the 3.x version of the orc. Or which version of power attack are we talking about? The PF version of the Destruction spell or the 3.x version of the Destruction spell.

Pathfinder and 3e are certainly similar enough to be merged (imo) and there simply is not a lot of activity in the PF forum - the first page shows threads up to 11 days ago (at the time of this post). In a merged forum such as this (PF and 3e), it would not take long for people to start appending "PF" or "3e" to the beginning of their messages when they want specific information on that system (see rpg.net). It might be that those kinds of options could be put into thread creation and chosen from a drop down - in the same fashion as adding a 'prefix' in the General RPG Discussion.

I disagree that they are similar enough to merge them, as someone that hangs out in both forums. The examples listed above barely scratch the surface and only focus on what I meant on the subtle differences. That doesn't cover the larger changes between systems.

Also, there are starting to be more people that are starting playing RPGs with Pathfinder as their first game. They have no interest in the 3.x versions or the nuances between systems. This shift is likely to continue over time as 3.x remains out of print for longer and Pathfinder's reputation continues to grow. Then there are the folks who have shifted completely to Pathfinder and simply have no interest in having threads shift further down in the forum by topics for a game system they have no interest in any longer.

Pathfinder and 3.x are at unusual times with the player base of these systems likely to continue to shift to favor Pathfinder more heavily. This seems a poor time to be merging forums for those two particular systems.

Just as folks don't see thread tags useful for segregating 4e discussion from 3e discussion I don't see them as being useful for segregating 3e discussion from 4e discussion.

 

[weem]

[MENTION=21076]IronWolf[/MENTION]

I see what you are saying. I'm not an expert on Pathfinder to be sure. I have played a lot of 3e, but Pathfinder is something I have been exploring slowly so I don't have the same insight as you.

It probably wouldn't be a big deal to separate that out as there was some good merging in other areas (in my layout) anyway.

Good feedback, thanks for the response


<edit>

In which case, I would probably prefer something like this...

Featured Discussions
- General RPG
- D&D 4th Edition
- D&D 3rd Edition and Earlier
- Pathfinder

</edit>

 

[IronWolf]

Good feedback, thanks for the response

No worries. Hopefully I didn't come across as too anti-change...

In which case, I would probably prefer something like this...

Featured Discussions
- General RPG
- D&D 4th Edition
- D&D 3rd Edition and Earlier
- Pathfinder

This looks good to me as well.

 

[weem]

For fun, I took a copy of the EN World forum index and modified it to match my layout. I even took the "Viewing" numbers that were currently on the boards and matched them up as well, including merging numbers where I have merged forums...

http://theweem.com/enw.html