Pathfinder 1E Why do you discuss Pathfinder on ENWorld instead of Paizo.com?

[pawsplay]

The Paizo forums, at least on the main page, is vertically arranged, which is a confusing way of organizing a set of fora. So even though ENW has a similar number of subfora, it's easy to jump right to what you want. I have trouble keeping track of posts on Paizo. If it's been more than a day, I tend to just abandon a thread. I've gotten better with practice but the Paizo fora are still rather difficult to use.

 

[Kzach]

Yeah, I'd argue we're too complex; it's probably intimidating for the new visitor.

In general, the less fragmented a set of forums are, the more useful they are.

I would say there's a certain critical failure point where the noise to sound ratio drowns out all usefulness of a larger forum.

Forum mitosis is a necessary part of the evolutionary cycle of a forum-based community. That is until it expands to the point where all conversation slows and cools and becomes dormant

 

[Nikosandros]

In general, the less fragmented a set of forums are, the more useful they are.

Very true. Fragmentation leads to confusion and difficulty in finding and following conversations.

 

[Belen]

Love Paizo products, but I would never used their boards. If they used vbulletin, then it would be a big draw; however, I find the current arrangement confusing and it makes it difficult to know where to post or find the types of posts you'd want to read.

 

[seankreynolds]

Gary just implemented a new thing for the Paizo boards.

All of the forums now have their subforums listed in a compact, horizontal format at the top of the page. So there's one line (and link) for the Paizo.com category, with a line of subforum links under it for Customer Service, Product Discussion, Website Feedback; then a line (and link) for the Paizo Publishing category, with a line of subforum links under that for Pathfinder, GameMastery, Planet Stories, Titanic Games, Necromancer Games, RPG Superstar, PAIZOCON, Older Products; and so on. And if those subforum links have daughter forums (like how Pathfinder has the PFRPG, Adventure Paths, Companions, and so on), clicking on that link takes you to a similar grouping of daughter links.

So those of you who were put off by the WALL OF TEXT and vertical structure of the Paizo boards, you know have a shorthand version at the top that should help you more easily browse to the section you're looking for.

Tell us what you want and we'll do our best to provide it, if it is feasible.

 

[pawsplay]

Awesome!

 

[Herremann the Wise]

...Tell us what you want and we'll do our best to provide it, if it is feasible.

Excellent work Sean! That makes it significantly easier to navigate between the forums. For myself, I jump between Customer Service, Pathfinder, Council of Thieves (and may I say some excellent work there on Bastards!!! [/tips hat], Beta Design Forums and even the Age of Worms forum so that one little addition just makes things that much easier. I suppose it's that whole multiple paths to a destination thing.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[thurgon]

I post on Paizo boards a lot. But recently, unless the browser on all three PCs I use went wonky all at once, the boards are a bloody mess. All the topics and threads seem to be running into each other. Doesn't stop me from posting there mind you, but I am a determined and relentless poster....by now I am fairly sure Jason and the rest have notice that much with my cleric posts.

 

[ruemere]

Gary just implemented a new thing for the Paizo boards.[...]
Tell us what you want and we'll do our best to provide it, if it is feasible.

It's a step in the right direction, it's still very confusing / big wall of text.
Do compare current structure with (slight rework of your current board structure, remove huge wall of text below it):

Paizo / Messageboards /
paizo.com 
	Customer Service, Product Discussion, Website Feedback 
Paizo Publishing 
	Pathfinder®, GameMastery®, Planet Stories®, Titanic Games™, Necromancer Games, RPG Superstar™, PAIZOCON, Older Products 
Paizo Community 
	Gaming, Arts & Entertainment, Word Games, Off-Topic Discussions

The former still produces an atrociously long document. The latter is a clean table of contents. It's not perfect (no descriptions, lack of number of new posts), but it's much easier to interact with.

Regarding missing AJAX buttons from Paizo boards:
BBCODE works better with point'n'click icons (just like those you have above your post when replying at ENWorld).

Regarding organization of content within threads:
It's still muddled. My previous post on this subject...

Examples of cleaner forum layouts (nevermind the old fashioned tables, compare the layout of the content):
phpBB • Community Home
vBulletin Community Forum - Powered by vBulletin

Regards,
Ruemere

 

[EricNoah]

My reasons basically have to do with EN World being my RPG home on the net. My only impression of the Pazio forums is that they were kind of awkward to navigate. I don't have a sense of what the community is like and how it might be different than here. That said ... if I had a rulesy question or feel like I needed an official answer, I would certainly head over there and poke about.