Thoughts about having an SF or Science Fiction or SciFi prefix in "RPGs General" section?

[Eyes of Nine]

In this thread here:

Why are sci-fi scenarios so thin on the ground?

I still think there are a ton of adventures available. Mongoose Traveller has a lot of material published: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?keywords=traveller++mongoose&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=&affiliate_id=229540 Including a really massive pirate campaign...

www.enworld.org

It was brought up by @dragoner the idea of having some area that was specifically devoted to SF games.
I'm a fan of that - so just throwing the idea out there if that's something others are interested in?

I was thinking in the "RPGs General" section, have a prefix for SF. Could also have a prefix for other genres, like Horror, or Historical.

Just an idea, wonder if others would find that useful?

 

[schneeland]

Sounds like a neat idea. I'm currently starting to get a bit back into SciFi systems (Traveller specifically), so if there was an easier way to spot relevant posts, that would be helpful.

 

[Eltab]

I like SciFi as a tag.
See how much use it gets, or if it would increase the amount of Star Wars / Star Trek / Traveller / others discussion.
On a quick glance there doesn't seem to be enough traffic to support a dedicated sub-forum (alas).

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I like SciFi as a tag.
See how much use it gets, or if it would increase the amount of Star Wars / Star Trek / Traveller / others discussion.
On a quick glance there doesn't seem to be enough traffic to support a dedicated sub-forum (alas).

Yeah. Although maybe it's a chicken and egg situation...

 

[Umbran]

Yeah. Although maybe it's a chicken and egg situation...

Unlikely. The... 20 years or so the forums have existed have demonstrated that in general, sub-forums don't generate discussion. Unless the discussion on a topic is above a certain level (basically, the level where you simply cannot fail to see multiple threads on it on the first page of the General forum), then giving a thing a sub-forum will kill it.

 

[Lanefan]

Doesn't sound like they're asking for a whole sub-forum, just a new thread prefix.

Which leads me to a broader question: does the forum software allow or have provision for a user to 'write in' a thread prefix instead of just choosing from a list of presets? For example, if I wanted to start a thread comparing elements of 1e and 2e D&D, instead of having to use one of the '1e' or '2e' preset tags (it won't let me use more than one at once) could I write in '1e-2e' as a tag?

 

[Umbran]

Doesn't sound like they're asking for a whole sub-forum, just a new thread prefix.

I was responding to:
Eltab: "On a quick glance there doesn't seem to be enough traffic to support a dedicated sub-forum (alas). "
Eyes of Nine: "Yeah. Although maybe it's a chicken and egg situation... :

To which I am saying, no, sub-forums don't create discussion, there is no chicken-egg here.

Which leads me to a broader question: does the forum software allow or have provision for a user to 'write in' a thread prefix instead of just choosing from a list of presets?

I am sure some do. However, if we allow it,17 different people will each write in a different prefix for the same thing, and we will have a list of prefixes one-bazillion items long, and nobody can find the right prefix.

From professional experience, tag management can be a real user experience nightmare. You can do freeform tags in small groups of people, or medium groups if you can count on them to follow some basic tag-creation etiquette (like, say, in a workplace). In large, open groups, it will become intractable very quickly.

For example, if I wanted to start a thread comparing elements of 1e and 2e D&D, instead of having to use one of the '1e' or '2e' preset tags (it won't let me use more than one at once) could I write in '1e-2e' as a tag?

Note, then, that the item will likely not show up in filters on "1e", or on "2e", but only on "1e-2e". Tagging filters tend to be very specific.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I think maybe I have not defined the problem well enough before jumping to a solution. And maybe tags or prefixes or sub-forums are not the right solution to the problem, which I will now try to state.

Problem statement: Some folks like science fiction RPGs. (we'll leave the definition of what an SF RPG is out for now) They also like one or more things about EnWorld enough to participate here. They would like to replicate the "magic" of EnWorld's discussions about Fantasy RPGs, in particular the "world's most popular" RPG, to replicate that level or nearly that level to discuss SF RPGs. Currently those discussions are happening elsewhere - Reddit, Facebook, MeWe (?) other. EnWorld users would like those discussions to happen here.

That's one approach to the problem statement (as I wrote it, I thought of about 10 different dimensions to expand or adjust that statement, but it's good enough to get talking about).

I think it might be more instructive to align on a problem statement, and then the solution can follow...

 

[Lanefan]

I am sure some do. However, if we allow it,17 different people will each write in a different prefix for the same thing, and we will have a list of prefixes one-bazillion items long, and nobody can find the right prefix.

From professional experience, tag management can be a real user experience nightmare. You can do freeform tags in small groups of people, or medium groups if you can count on them to follow some basic tag-creation etiquette (like, say, in a workplace). In large, open groups, it will become intractable very quickly.

Note, then, that the item will likely not show up in filters on "1e", or on "2e", but only on "1e-2e". Tagging filters tend to be very specific.

Ah, gotcha. I was hoping that, using the '1e-2e' example, filtering for either '1e' or '2e' would pull it, as if it had both tags at once.

So, next question: does the forum software allow for - or can it be made to allow for - more than one tag on a thread? It would be very handy if, say, someone wanted to start a discussion on a 5e topic that would also have implications for other editions or even other games (e.g. resting rates or alignment or char-gen methods) if the thread could be tagged both '5e' AND 'General'.