Lot's of General in General

[Michael Morris]

I know we're all still getting used to categories, but I've noticed a lot of threads using "General" as their category in the general forum. Now, I'm inclined to think it's because there aren't enough categories, or not enough of the right categories. So can anyone come up with additional categories for General?

 

[cybertalus]

I'm snowed out of work today and bored, so I went through the first three pages of General Discussion and came up with categories/descriptions for threads which were tagged General.

Recommend Product / Help Me Decide Which Product to Buy
Player / Character Conflict Advice
Miscategorized
Hard to Categorize (General is probably the correct category for these)
GM Day
OGL/OGC Questions
Would this type of product sell/appeal to you?
Buying habits
Gaming Tools/Accessories: Computers, etc.
Sheets/Forms
Player Behavior: Use/Abuse/Overuse of Rules
Game Design Philosophy
Product Discussion
D&D / d20 on the Net
Crossing D&D with other games
Character creation / development
DM Behavior: Campaign Restarts
Campaigns
History
Character archetype in a setting it doesn't traditionally appear in
Encounters
Gaming setup
Ceramic DM
Monsters
Background/in-game music
Gamer Behavior
Retailers
Contests / Giveaways
Dice

Obviously some of these are too long to be used as category names, but I couldn't think of a shorter way to express what the thread was about.

 

[Morrus]

Well, we don't want so many that there are as many categories as thread titles on a given page. At that point, the category is redundant.

 

[the Jester]

How about:

Campaigns
Characters
Players
My Group
My DM

 

[der_kluge]

Is there a plots & places category?

 

[barsoomcore]

I'm still trying to figure out how these tags are useful. I mean, it's the General forum, right? Shouldn't we expect a lot of General posts there?

 

[Darkness]

I'd suggest the following:

General
Colonel
Major
Captain

Maybe a few more.

 

[cybertalus]

I'm still trying to figure out how these tags are useful. I mean, it's the General forum, right? Shouldn't we expect a lot of General posts there?

For me they're a time-saver. I spend most of my work day driving, so surfing ENWorld isn't really possible. As a result when I check the boards at home after work it usually takes me from 45 to 90 minutes to get through the boards. The topic tags make it easier for me to avoid threads which don't interest me, thus cutting down the time it takes to get through the boards.

From my perspective the more tags and the more specific they are the better. In fact if I could Ignore threads with certain tags that'd be awesome.

 

[Knight Otu]

I admit I've not checked which threads most of these description refer to, but in the interest of avoiding too narrow categories, I'd suggest:

Recommend Product / Help Me Decide Which Product to Buy
Would this type of product sell/appeal to you?
Product Discussion

These three could be named Product Discussion

Player / Character Conflict Advice
Player Behavior: Use/Abuse/Overuse of Rules
DM Behavior: Campaign Restarts
Gamer Behavior

Group Dynamics?

Buying habits
GM Day
D&D / d20 on the Net

These might stay in General

OGL/OGC Questions
Game Design Philosophy

Design?

Gaming Tools/Accessories: Computers, etc.
Sheets/Forms
Dice
Gaming setup
Background/in-game music

Gaming Tools

Character creation / development

Characters?

Campaigns
Character archetype in a setting it doesn't traditionally appear in
Crossing D&D with other games

Could possibly use the Settings category.

History

Either Setting, or General (for Alsih2o's threads)

Encounters
Monsters

Might possibly use the Adventures category

Ceramic DM
Contests / Giveaways

Contests?
(Yeah, ok, Ceramic DM is a bit different)

Retailers

 

[barsoomcore]

I'm confused. What's the difference between being able to filter a board based on topic setting and having multiple boards with separate topics? Aren't those the same thing? If we're getting so much traffic on General that we need to start divvying it up by topic, why aren't we just creating new boards for those topics?

Alternatively, why don't we just have one board and topics for all threads?

Can somebody explain the probably very obvious thing I'm missing?