Is it time to re-integrate the specific games sub-forums?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm a relative newbie, having been into RPGs and on EN World for less than two years, but I think the current system works well. I primarily play 4e, and I imagine that discussions about rules and builds for 4e characters and campaigns would be annoying to people who don't play the game.

Look at the main RPG forum. People tag the games they're interested in -- the first page has threads tagged with Pathfinder and AD&D, and no one who doesn't play those games (or is interested in those games, probably more accurately) are fooled into thinking they're something other than what they are.

The existing 4E tags could be used to the same effect.

 

[Umbran]

They could be used that way, but I don't think it would function as well for everyone as you might think.

In the General forum, there's a whole host of topics and games being discussed, each in a small number of threads. A merging of the specific game forums would be the opposite - a small number of games, each being discussed in a large number of threads. In terms of usability, the two cases are rather different.

Even if the warring weren't an issue, I'm not sure I would recommend a merge.

One partial solution for the multiple thread issue - report the threads in question, and recommend they be moved to general and merged. That's something any of the moderators could do, if we agree that the threads are not game-specific. I've moved threads before for just that reason.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Seems to me if you simply took the 4e, 3e, and general forums and put them together it would be a big mess and very difficult to sift through. You have to have some organization.

I would have set up a general "fluff" forum and crunch forums for various specific games, which frankly is basically the current arrangement, if people didn't post general topics in nongeneral game forums, which as mentioned is fixable.

I don't know that the animosity is the only or best reason for separating the forums.

 

[Pentius]

I like current set-up. I think mixing the Edition War sides would just cause predictable in-fighting, and the mods aren't our moms(even my mom would smack me for edition warring, probably, though). As it stands, I like that even if things get a bit hot in a general thread, I can go browse 4e forums and not think about it, or browse legacy/PF forums and feel better knowing that when differences aren't being actively discussed, we deal with the same stuff.

 

[Plane Sailing]

One partial solution for the multiple thread issue - report the threads in question, and recommend they be moved to general and merged. That's something any of the moderators could do, if we agree that the threads are not game-specific. I've moved threads before for just that reason.

I was going to suggest this very thing. We often merge threads which are talking about the same topic, but more often we don't notice that such duplicated conversations are going on.

Reporting isn't only for spam and 'bad people'. Use it to bring to our attention threads which could be merged and we'll certainly look at it and check whether it is appropriate.

Cheers

 

[Morrus]

I was going to suggest this very thing. We often merge threads which are talking about the same topic, but more often we don't notice that such duplicated conversations are going on.

Reporting isn't only for spam and 'bad people'. Use it to bring to our attention threads which could be merged and we'll certainly look at it and check whether it is appropriate.

Cheers

I think that's an excellent idea.

The thing that prompted this thread was a topic which was being discussed under the news item and in a couple of different forums. I agree I'd like to see one decent discussion rather than several fragmented discussions.

When merging threads, I'm pretty sure that a redirect is left in place, too, which helps.

I'd like to propose merging forum threads into equivalent news discussion threads, assuming the redirect works. We can't do it the other way round, of course; can't have news items on the front page being a redirect. The biggest potential issue I see there is that if the thread was started before the news item was posted, the first post in the thread would replace the new item; which is not ideal.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Until the more kneejerk of the Edition Warriors stop being buttheads -- and presumably, they were buttheads before there were Edition Wars, so little chance of that -- I guess merging sounds like the right way to go.

Thanks.

 

[Umbran]

When merging threads, I'm pretty sure that a redirect is left in place, too, which helps.

When merging or moving threads, we have the option to leave a permanent redirect, one that expires after a specified time, or none at all.

 

[Morrus]

When merging or moving threads, we have the option to leave a permanent redirect, one that expires after a specified time, or none at all.

The expiring one is buggy IIRC.

The problem is we can only merge a thread with a corresponding news thread if the news item was posted first. Otherwise the resultant first post will end up being the news item. So it's of limited use, unfortunately.

The only way round that problem that I can think of is to close already-created forum threads with a request and link to continue conversation in the news item thread, but that strikes me as kludgy and heavy handed.

 

[Umbran]

So, we may not be able to turn it into a single discussion - the news items themselves are simply a separate beast.

We can still take non-edition-specific threads in the rest of the forums, merge them, and move them to General when they come up. You may still have some separate discussion associated with the news item, but would I be correct to guess that the volume there is much lower than that seen in the related forum threads?