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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Michael R. Proteau" data-source="post: 4238758" data-attributes="member: 31935">Honestly I think the general forum is misnamed and possibly redundant. It's not really a general forum, it's a leftover forum. Genral implies any topic is ok, but that is not the case. 4E has to go in one place, rules in another, media in another, OGL games in another, etc. etc. Plus there is already an off-topic forum, so realistically what is left to go in the general forum? What is boils down to is that it is a D&D non 4E non rules forum. That's not really general is it? It should refelct that name, because otherwise it is a catchall forum for what doesn't belong in other specific forums, a role which off topic already fills, so it is really either misnamed (if a D&D forum) or redundant (if a catch-all/leftover forum).  It is also a bit off putting to someone coming to EN World the first time. General forums on many sites are the first place you explore ot give you a sense of what the discussion on the site is about, but it can't do that because so much of th conversation is shunted over to other niche forums. It also leads to newcomers posting something in the general forum that belongs somehwere else and getting chided for it, leaving a bad first impression of the site from the experience. If you are going ot have a general forum it should be a general interest forum that allows for posts on a variety of topics, and for that reason I voted that the OGL forum be merged with the General Forum. However, if you are reorganizing, a complete rethinking and renaming of forums might be in order too. A general D&D or better yet a fantasy gaming forum that deals woith fantasy games without necessarily being game or system specific. Don't label it as just general, but put the parameters of what it actually is in the forum title. Then have a separate 4E D&D forum and a 3.x/OGL forum since the adherents of the two systems seem to be setting themselves on different sides of an argument and having so much trouble getting along with one another. Discussion in each of these should not be limited to only crunch/rules or only fluff, but a single forum (for each system) for all aspects of the game and that particular system. Have tags within each forum so posters can label threads as rules specific, campaign specific,  fluff specific, adventure sepcific, product specific, etc. Move off topic and media forums closer to the top so newcomers can see these and know they exist, giving someone a better grasp of the forum landscape at initial glance when coming to the site. These should cover most of the general interest forums of gamers coming to a gaming forum.Then have the more niche specific forums, publishers, press releases, job opportunities, story hours, marketplace, etc.  Encourage the use of thread tools, reminding posters to subscribe to threads they are interested in making it easier for them to follow these threads even if they move off the front page quickly due to higher volume in these threads. Maybe move it form being a drag down menu option to having a new tab to go with submit reply and preview post. Add 2 options (sumit and subscribe to thread as one option and subscribe to thread as a second, so those who want to post can subscribe with a single click, and those reading/lurking can subscribe with a single click as well. Just some random thoughts in response ot the question, though I suppose technically it should go in the meta forum.</blockquote>

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