Big changes a'coming! Merging the D&D forums

[Derulbaskul]

Why doesn't Next have its own forum?

It's the new thing. It's polarising (just as 4E was when it was announced). It's also something where there are new snippets of news and/or rumours from time to time so it is well-suited to having its own forum.

 

[Lwaxy]

Because the idea is to merge them all, not to single anything out anymore.

If people haven't learned not to edition war from 4e, they'll probably never learn anyway.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

I'm sceptical of the change; I'm rather of the opinion that diminished traffic is a result of the fragmentation of the fan base, as opposed to any particular forum format. The site doesn't feel like it used to in the heydey of 3.5 unity, but it never again will. Some thoughts which echo previous posters, FWIW:

1) I would exclude 5e/Next threads from the merger until the edition is actually released, and have a dedicated forum for speculative discussion. I suspect that when 5e is actually available, it will necessitate a reshuffle of forums in any case.

2) A tool which allowed the exclusion of certain tags would be much more useul (to me, at least) than one which collects a particular tag: that way I can ignore - say 4e and 5e threads - and read anything else I want.

3) Correct tagging will require continual and pro-active intervention in threads on the part of the mods to enforce.

4) Large, clear, bold tags would be better than edition-specific logos.

5) Has a comparison of site traffic volume and flow been made to the existence/absence of the "jump to" window which is currently no longer available? Although a small thing, this single tool is the thing I miss most.

6) Has a comparison of site traffic volume and flow been made to the relative speed of the boards? I know that when they're slow, I tend to avoid the site more.

7) I'm nervous that when site functionality is poor, that the tags will be sacrificed in order to increase speed.

Morrus, this is your site, of course; but when you write "we" in the OP do you in fact mean "I?"

 

[N'raac]

A lot of forum posts are on character builds, rules questions, etc. These are pretty edition/system specific. Unless the tags are used, knowing which system is under discussion will be tough. If every thread needs a tag so the poster knows whether this is even something he wants to consider reading, that seems to me an indication separate forums would be preferable.

I'm not sure which forums are considered lower traffic - at some point a "prior/other editions" forum will be preferable to a dozen forums with very minor traffic. I don't find the few forums I visit are short on posts, and I can see myself quitting the site (and cancelling my subscription) if I have to spend a ton of time weeding through posts that are (to me, at least) irrelevant.

 

[Lwaxy]

4) Large, clear, bold tags would be better than edition-specific logos.

This is most likely going to happen - it was my main worry about the change, as I have a hard time with my visual issues to distinguish the prefixes as they are now. It is easy enough to swap icons.

 

[Walking Dad]

...
7) I'm nervous that when site functionality is poor, that the tags will be sacrificed in order to increase speed.

...

This! It already happened once and was very confusing on the PBP board, where all games are in the same sub forum. Before the tags, all just mentioned the system/edition in the thread title. With the tags most didn't bother anymore and then they were gone... just like the blogs...

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm not too worried about the Next forums, since they're actually pretty circular and insular -- like the people said, if you check the example, there's newer posts from other forums than the first page of Next.

If you ARE worried about Next dominating the discussion, though, you should probably create new threads about your own games. Post about the new Pathfinder supplement, or whatever Goodman Games has put out, or how much better Hold Person was when it was just "Mass Charm Person" instead of paralysis back in 1974. Be pro-active. The best way to hold onto the things you love is to continue to include them in your life.

I'd even strategically post them just after WotC releases a new playtest. Lord knows I don't want to look at a forum full of 20 different people all giving their opinion on how whatever minor mechanical change WotC implemented this time around is going to ruin the game forever. Gimmie some variety in those circumstances!

And us mods will be more sensitive toward edition warriors, general obnoxiousness, and repeat topics because of this. We'll have more eyes on one space, then!

 

[Scotley]

I am very much in favor of the change. I have long accessed the forums though the 'today's posts' quick link in order to see all the threads together rather than separated out.

For those who feel they simply must only view content for 'their' game, would it be possible to allow folks to sort the forum by thread tags as suggested by others? I don't know enough about how such things work, but would it be possible to label or tag posts for a specific system and then sort in some way?

Just trying to make the naysayers happy.

 

[gamerprinter]

Geez, that's too bad. In order to avoid any edition warring, I've done my absolute best in avoiding any thread/forum that does not pertain to general RPG or Pathfinder - those are the only forums I post anything, ever. I have no interest in regressing to 3.5, and avoid 4e like the plague. D&D Next? I don't even want to hear about it.

And currently it's a pain to try to climb through a hundred threads to find the one I want, posted in or looking to follow up. To take what's difficult to find now in separated forums and be forced to search through 4 times as many threads to find what I'm looking for... this may force me to stop visiting ENWorld.

It's your ball, so you do what you want with it, but not a fan of your chosen direction.

 

[Lwaxy]

You could just click on the PF tag and see nothing else. Very simple