Hey gang!
I know our forums are already rather large, but I was thinking that what we could us is a sort of intro area for new players.
First, we'd have the link to find new players in your area. (If such a thing is possible. I don't see linked forums- just the forums and subforums.)
Next, I'd like to move the Rules Q&A to this new area, since most people come in for a quick Q&A. Pretty much what the forum is for- the actual in depth rules discussions take place elsewhere on the boards anyways.
I'm a bit hesitant on this next idea- (You guys know me, I don't like duplicate boards.) Having a "welcoming" area. I don't think it should be an off topic area more than "Hi, I'm new", nor should it replace D&D General. It's more of "what do I need to get started?" and welcome to the community.
Thoughts?
the forum is bloated as it is. one more or one less forum will not change anything about that - and it will probably not be easier for new people to find that forum than it is to find anything else. I'm here for 3 years or so - and I have trouble navigating these forums, as they seem to lack the overall concept. (that's equally true for the D&D part as well as the entire forums-structure)
what i really hoped for was that this forums-restart would get rid of many useless forums and parts, but instead they kept the entire structure as-is. it would also help A LOT if some of those useless splittings would be removed, like: "running eberron" vs. "eberron lore" or "character builder feedback" vs. "character builder technical issues" vs. "technical discussion. or you even have three (3!) FR forums.
what could also work would be a structure that is a bit more deep - IF it allows you to hide the subforums from the front page.
example:
DDI
-Magazines
--Dragon Article Discussion
--Dragon Errata
--Dungeon Article Discussion
--Dungeon Errata
-Character Builder
-Adventure Tools
--Monster Builder
--...
-Announcements [probably read-only]
-General Discussions and Feedback
The worst thing for "newbies" to have are choices that seem similar, or even are similar. Heck, I don't know where to post various things in this structure, and by now I certainly should be able to. That there are no visible descriptions on the forums mainpage certainly does not help.
For once I agree with whitebaron. I don't think we need more forums. First, we should jettison the Legacy forums to an archive somewhere. Character Development and WaPtD should really be merged. The two Campaign Workshop forums can be merged too.
It'd be a help if someone would even sort out the order of the forums listing.
Wizards Community stuff is hidden in the middle of the list, instead of at the top as you'd expect.
None of the subforum listings are in any sort of order... to use the D&D Worlds grouping as an example, the listings of forum topics in order are for Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Other Worlds, Forgotten Realms, Forgotten Realms, and finally Eberron, all mashed into a single hard to read block.
I'd suggest sorting out what's already here into some sort of order before adding more groups to make it easier for newbies.
I agree with whitebaron as well, regarding the sentiment of not needing new forums. The problem with a new member forum is that new members don't know to use it. Unless a new account was automatically filtered there, they would not find it.
Change the size limit for pics to match the actual size of the forums.
Back when the new forum launched we had a bar at the right that ate up some of the size and the limit matched the post size. But after the bat was removed the post size increased and the pic limit stayed the same.
Come to think of it, the posts are off center meaning that I have to move the bar at the bottom to center it. It would be nice to fix it so I do not have to do that.
Here's a list that has been going around.
I want spoiler blocks back.
I want the mouseover thread previews back.
I want a default of single-spaced posts back.
I want the awesome, varied, non-generic smileys back.
I want the 'most recent post' to be specific to forum, not category.
I want to lose the burning pink eyesores on every thread I've ever glanced at.
I want to be able to look back at previous posts in the thread while I'm writing my reply.
I want edited posts to indicate that they were edited and when to prevent confusion and chicanery.
I want to be able to set a background that doesn't just sit behind the blinding white I'm trying to get rid of.
I want a thread subscription page that isn't hidden in preferences and tells me when subscribed threads have new content.
It'd be a help if someone would even sort out the order of the forums listing.
This should be the top priority. The organization is a total mess at the moment. And the presentation method doesn't help, small text and jumbled subforums seperated by commas. It's unintuitive to use even for someone who had extensive experience with what subforums existed prior to the move.
Yes, I'm aware of the issues with the forum setup, which is why I was wondering if it would be helpful to start the forum list for new players.
If you guys don't think we need an area for new players, that's fine. I'm just putting the feelers out.
Having a 'new players' zone, would be fine, I think- but I'd like to see such a thing be more involved then just adding a forum. Maybe the forum software sends them an invite to the 'new members' group, maybe the first place it directs them after they register is the new members forum- but something needs to be done to get them there. Having people say "Hi, I'm such and such, and what and what." would probably help delurk a lot of new players as well as letting people meet the rest of the community in a friendly setting.
In short, if you're going to do it, do it- and do it well.
I think we should ask whether or not current traffic levels necessitate something like this. This place is dead compared to where it was last year or even before the update. 4e General, for instance, would see 80 or so users on at a time before. Now it's about 20. Do we really have enough people coming here to warrant a section devoted to them?
I think we should ask whether or not current traffic levels necessitate something like this. This place is dead compared to where it was last year or even before the update. 4e General, for instance, would see 80 or so users on at a time before. Now it's about 20. Do we really have enough people coming here to warrant a section devoted to them?
I've noticed a recent drop in traffic too, and would have the same concerns. However, it would be helpful if we knew the source of the dropoff. For example, if the drop was post-migration to the new forums (which is the way it feels to me), then we need to change them in a way to draw back old users before we worry about new users. If the dropoff is a lack of a constant influx of new users (something which could easily happen as 4e starts aging), then a new players section becomes more critical.
I've noticed a recent drop in traffic too, and would have the same concerns. However, it would be helpful if we knew the source of the dropoff. For example, if the drop was post-migration to the new forums (which is the way it feels to me), then we need to change them in a way to draw back old users before we worry about new users. If the dropoff is a lack of a constant influx of new users (something which could easily happen as 4e starts aging), then a new players section becomes more critical.
Good point. I actually feel it has more to do with the new forums than a lack of new people myself. I've seen a couple of new faces around (though they vanish soon after they appear) but have noticed a fair amount of missing faces, too. And people seem to be dropping more and more frequently or, at the very least, posting less often. In any event, not knowing for certain where this decrease in members is coming from, it's difficult to come up with a solution.
IMAO, this new forum needs a way to jump from, say, the Off Topic Tavern to Prevous Editions General without being ruted through the Dungeons and Dragons main page.
Next, I'd like to move the Rules Q&A to this new area, since most people come in for a quick Q&A. Pretty much what the forum is for- the actual in depth rules discussions take place elsewhere on the boards anyways.
Following up on this, I still think we need an area for in-depth rules questions that aren't covered by the traditional categories of specific classes. It'll be more important if we meld Q&A into a new players section.
One potential idea to prevent an indept rules discussion area from becoming flooded with repeat questions (which we see a lot of in Q&A) would be sticky threads for each topic, with a request page for new topics. Downside to that of course is it would take a lot of management. Advantage is it would be easy for experienced players to provide a link to an indepth discussion when providing a quick Q&A answer. {This is an extension of my prior discussion on moving multipage threads from Q&A.)
I may be crazy, but I think the solution to confusing and muddled site formatting isn't to create a new area to get new users up to speed. The solution is to fix your formatting so that the site is actually easy and pleasurable to use for both new and old users.
Bring back enough of the community that has gone missing since the site upgrade that the 4e General Discussion forum doesn't regularly have posts from two or even three days ago on the front page and then talk about new stuff.
"I think we should ask whether or not current traffic levels necessitate something like this. This place is dead compared to where it was last year or even before the update. 4e General, for instance, would see 80 or so users on at a time before. Now it's about 20. Do we really have enough people coming here to warrant a section devoted to them?" -Zombie Babies
"I've noticed a recent drop in traffic too, and would have the same concerns. However, it would be helpful if we knew the source of the dropoff. For example, if the drop was post-migration to the new forums (which is the way it feels to me), then we need to change them in a way to draw back old users before we worry about new users. If the dropoff is a lack of a constant influx of new users (something which could easily happen as 4e starts aging), then a new players section becomes more critical."- Fitz Night Eyes
Long-time lurker, occasional poster here. I think I can offer some insight here because I am one of the forum users in question.
I used to visit these forums multiple times EVERY day. I'd even check them from my iPhone at work, but I stopped coming here regularly after the migration to the new forums.
Why?
The forums are harder to read now. That's it. The blindingly bright background and incredibly small font just make it hard on the eyes. The default width is greater than the 1024 of my monitor, causing me to need to scroll over to read anything.
For some reason, the pages take MUCH longer to load now. This isn't so much a problem on a PC, but on the iPhone, it has rendered this page effectively useless.
The alphabetical listing of forums is not as intuitive as the previous arrangement.
These things may seem minor to you, but keep me away from the forums most of the time. Maybe I'm not the only (former) forumite who feels this way.
Hence, perhaps merging Character Development, Campaign Workshop, and (some of) WaPtD? into a single forum that's broadly intended for story discussion (setting, character, campaign, etc) would be helpful, since these forums often deal with similar/overlapping issues as it is.
WaPtD?, WaDMtD?, and a good chunk of the posting in several D&D Fundamentals forums are broadly about "Running/Playing the Game" issues; a single forum for that might also be a good merge.
That would result in the consolidation of several forums, at least.
I think WaPtD and Char Dev could be merged with littl eissue. Both could use increased traffic.
The Realmslore board gets ok traffic. The only thing really getting any activity in the FR General Forum right now is The FR Trivia Challenge.