D&D 4E Time to spin out a 4E forum?

[Alaric_Prympax]

Here's another vote (yeah, I know this is not a democracy) for a 4e forum. Actually I was tempted to ask about this a few months ago (around May) when there were a lot of 4e threads concerning the release of 4e but I didn't then but I'm asking now. Time will tell if we need to in the future.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I "vote" for a 4e forum too, at least temporarily (until the number of threads in "general discussion" die down). I'm certainly not suggesting a permanent forum for after 4e comes out.

 

[Odhanan]

In all seriousness we should probably have a community-wide discussion about the future of EN World. What we do and don't want 4E to do to us. I personally want it to revitalize us. I don't want it creating edition wars and bitter grognards.

Though I'm not personally interested in switching editions, it's not because I begrudge anyone a new edition. I look forward to the excitement and discussion the new edition with generate. I know our skilled moderators will do a great job of leading by example. And it may be that some re-organization of the forums might help channel the good vibes without "ghetto-izing" either edition.

You summarize my thoughts exactly, Eric. "+1", as they say!

 

[Jim Hague]

A separate forum, absolutely.

And please, for the love of Mike, those who are posting in the myriad 4e threads need to ramp back on the 'wah, wah, 4e killed my dog, ate my mother...it's an MMO...I hate it!' talk. Criticism is one thing...but pointless whining? I realize this is the internet, but threads where people not so subtly use any excuse to bash something they know nothing about are already tiresome, and a headache for our overworked mods.

 

[Wik]

I like the idea of a seperate forum for 4e, as right now, it is all speculation.

Just before 4e news hit, I was having some really cool discussions on Dark Sun. Now that the news hit, I make a post about DS, and within minutes, it's knocked off the page.

I can understand 4e speculation, although I really don't want to take part in it (since it's really just saying "what if...?" and talking about something that is obviously going to change a lot in the next year).

I'm fine with leaving 4e in general, and then creating an "earlier editions" forum or something, where I can have my discussions, although I think knocking 4e to a speculation forum (if even temporarily) would work great.

But I don't think it'll tone down, at least too much. I think, as time goes on, speculation and commentaries are just going to increase.

And if ENWorld is just going to be 4e speculation for the next eight months, I don't know what I'd do.

 

[ShadowDenizen]

First off, thanks and kudos to the mods (esp. Dinkeldog & Umbran)! You've all been doing a great job keeping threads "on track" and (mostly) civil. I certainly don't envy you your position at this point!

To the matter at hand:
FWIW, I personally am in favor of a 4E forum as well. (I more or less agree with everything Wik just posted.)

Of course, it could be just a temporary spike in traffic with the initial announcement, but my sneaking suspicion is that the "4E talk/speculation" is here to stay.

While I'll look at 4E and assess it when it's released, I'm not really excited about it, and have no personal desire to discuss it ad nauseum until May.

After all, there's still other stuff I'm interested in reading/talking about!! (like hearing about Gen-Con in general, the ENnies, Necrlomancers "City of Brass", MC's "World of Darkness", 6 more issues of "Burning Sky", etc.)

 

[pawsplay]

It seems weird to divide off 4e stuff, when this site pretty much grew around the 3e announcements.

 

[Dinkeldog]

My guess... and it's only a guess ... is that a dedicated forum for 4e news gathering and rumormongering and theorizing will be a definite necessity, particularly for those attempting to gather and display such news on the site's news page. How much the 4e "section" would need to be subdivided is another issue -- maybe split 4e and D&D Insider/DI into two separate but related subforums? Just one man's initial thought...

I can't imagine DI requiring it's own forum. Can you really think of how many different topics that could come up for discussing one narrow-ish topic?

But it's going to require everyone getting back from GenCon before we can really talk about it. I like the 4E chatter for two reasons--first, it's giving me more threads here that I want to look at and follow than I can remember in years; and second, now we know it's happening, so there's actual purpose to it.

However, I want everyone to remember that the civility rules are not suspended in times of stress. If anything, they apply more strictly. There's been a broad warning. From this point forward, start to expect to get some time in the penalty box if you cannot hold civil discourse with others.

Discussion here is always welcome, of course, on the topic of how we would want to move forward.

 

[Umbran]

It seems weird to divide off 4e stuff, when this site pretty much grew around the 3e announcements.

Well, yeah, but at that time, there was nothing but 3e discussion going on. We have grown and broadened over the years.

 

[Piratecat]

Morrus, many of the mods, and I had this discussion at GenCon!

We agreed that at least for now, a 4e forum makes sense. We want to make sure that other cool stuff in General doesn't get drowned out. We're going to see a LOT of discussion on this in the coming months. Think about it; it's just like the launch of 3e, except we now have about 2500 people online all the time, where we used to max out at 200. There's going to be a lot of volume, and I'd like a place where all the discussion can be easily found.

We'll decide whether to keep it, or merge it back into Main, at some point in the future.