Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[SirPenguin]

My 2 cents.

Having run and been apart of many forums in my time, I'd say you should keep the following in mind when migrating (which, obviously, I'm for. There's not reason not to.)

-Avatars should never be distracting. Limit their size (file size and dimensions)

-Ditto with sig images. In fact, fuck those. No sig images.

-Push the forum to sell the product. Might seem backwards, but if people become attached to the community, then they'll be much more likely to help test out the game.

-Less forums about wider subjects = better conversation flow. Keep sticky topics with information, mainly pointing to the Wiki.

[MaxVance]

[PvK]

How about avatars, but only from official DF symbols. Dibs on the blue dwarf head...

[Wood Gnome]

if there's an option to turn off annoying bits and sigs that take up half a screen, i want it!  i come here to discuss the game, not to see pics of your kitten, your motorcycle or an ad for some other unrelated "thing" (grumble, grumble).  how many pages shorter and easier to wade through would the epic "future of the fortress" threads have been without extensive sigs and quotes?

DF is a game of very little visuals and much immagination, and in following that i would vote for no avatars as well or that handy-sounding option to turn them off.

i'd also like to learn how to keep track of the threads i've been following/posting to... i can never remember from one coffee cup (rotating shift worker) to the next what the name of the thread was that i'm looking for, but that's just me  

[Mikademus]

Basically everyone are in happy consensus that avatars and signatures should be modest and displaying them should be a per-user option. *Bangs gavel* Let's move on.

I would suggest that a tags-plugin be included from the start. That is, posts can be tagged by their creators. (Tag-clouds, on the other hand, I find relatively unnecessary. This would help enormously, especially in the suggestions sub-forum.

[MaxVance]

Tagging posts? What's the point of that, anyway? It isn't like posts are hard to read and comprehend.

[Mikademus]

quote:Originally posted by MaxVance:
<STRONG>Tagging posts? What's the point of that, anyway? It isn't like posts are hard to read and comprehend.</STRONG>

You obviously do not spend much time in the suggestions forum or you would immediately see the benefit of tagging posts. Tags are extrememly useful when locating related posts, searching, collating ideas etc. We have thousands of posts about stone management. Not all of these are in threads about stone management. And some continue discussions from other threads. By (optionally) tagging threads you add another dimension to the thread and forum structure. Try it out in some other fora and you'll see how good they can be (f.i. in thedailywft, a programming forum, posts are often tagged "java", "c++" or "microsoft" regardless of what thread they're in).

[ May 27, 2008: Message edited by: Mikademus ]

[Dasleah]

Agreed. Some sort of tagging would be great, especially for the Suggestions forum, but also for the Modding forum. Of course, we'd be getting a far faster and more efficient search engine anyway, but it'd be great if tags generated RSS feeds as well.

Man, I'm an RSS junkie.

[Markham]

One thing I liked about this forum was the lack of signature images, which I feel don't fit the mood of this forum.  Avatars, however, would be a good thing to have.  160x200/128x160 avatars would be fine, a good way for people to be creative without flooding the message space with unrelated images.  Restriction to a pre-made gallery of avatars would be okay, if people could submit additions to the gallery up for review.

I know PHPBB2.0 was easily modifiable, having heavily modified my own with my own additions, 3.0 might have the same aspect.  However, I've never used the alternative.  There's enough people here who want to help voluntarily, so whatever you choose, there's bound to be someone who could keep things running without any need to worry.

A Dwarven user name generator would be cool.  

[ May 27, 2008: Message edited by: Markham ]

[qwertyuiopas]

I think that the current forum look is fantastic (especially in the armok 1 section)

Pictures should be limited or nonexistant for avatars and/or signatures.

Maybe to get a custom avatar you must win a contest or donate  
That way, The Great And Holy Toady One will have lots of time to work on Dwarf Fortress.

[Neonivek]

quote: Are you kidding? There is a massive need for stickies. There are a lot of questions that get repeatedly asked, again and again and again and again. One or two stickies would cut down a lot on Forum spam. Just look at the Suggestions Forum - how many suggestions do you see repeated week after week, month after month

How many stickies would we need? ENDLESS NUMBERS!!! Look at the Top 3 suggestion post... even that doesn't list all the repeat suggestions and it even skips out explaining them too. (which would be essential for a "Already suggested" Sticky). Heck Toady even has pages and pages of development information and it still doesn't stop repeats, and that is right at the top of the page.

Because of the SHEER quantity of them... No one will read them. Problem unsolved.

Edit Addition: MY GOODNESS MAX... You just created something so annoying yet so to the point I am divided between asking Toady to remove it simply because it is too annoying... Or keeping it there because it can't really be argued against too easily.

[ May 27, 2008: Message edited by: Neonivek ]

[Dasleah]

quote:Originally posted by Neonivek:
<STRONG>

How many stickies would we need? ENDLESS NUMBERS!!! Look at the Top 3 suggestion post... even that doesn't list all the repeat suggestions and it even skips out explaining them too. (which would be essential for a "Already suggested" Sticky). Heck Toady even has pages and pages of development information and it still doesn't stop repeats, and that is right at the top of the page.

Because of the SHEER quantity of them... No one will read them. Problem unsolved.
[ May 27, 2008: Message edited by: Neonivek ]</STRONG>

Suggestions Forum: One sticky. "Commonly Suggested Suggestions". Therein, links and commonly asked suggestions, perhaps with a short pros-and-cons of each one, and if you really want to go overboard, a short synopsis of the points raised in each linked thread. You have the Moderator for the Suggestions forum be the only one that can reply / edit to that thread. Prefrably a grumpy old bastard who'll refuse to even look at "plz stikcy me!" threads on principle alone.

I don't know what kind of forums you frequent that sticky every useful thread. The best ones get added to a links sticky at the top, and once their usefulness has expired, moved to the forum's archives.

[Red Jackard]

quote:Originally posted by Mikademus:
<STRONG>I would suggest that a tags-plugin be included from the start. That is, posts can be tagged by their creators. (Tag-clouds, on the other hand, I find relatively unnecessary. This would help enormously, especially in the suggestions sub-forum.</STRONG>

A good suggestion! Tagging can be very useful - for example, you could tag a post with 'tileset' that you were working on.

[Neonivek]

Ehh my point are that Stickies would help the problem but they would be leagues from fixing it. So I feel that when people say "The forums NEEDS stickies" that it is a blatant exageration.

The boards I frequent already have huge FAQs that are stickied, pictures, and videos that all would answer anyone's questions. However as a whole very few people ever if use these resources. In fact people would ask the same question while it is on the same page. A problem also comes from when people wonder if information is updated or accurate or even if it applies to their version of the question.

Afterall... Toady already has his own version of a sticky at the top of both the Bug and Suggestion forum... but that doesn't stop repeats... and at least half those repeats most likely fit under those categories. You also have a whole Wiki dedicated to Dwarf Fortress

At most it would cut it down by 20%... Then the "Check the Sticky Trolls" would be the REAL people who cut down the percent by trolling people into leaving the forums and increase elitism by 60%, which isn't a lot since this forum has the least Elitists out of any ASCII game EVER!, because the Elite "Read the Sticky" (though this board has been pretty good since I havn't seen many "Use Search Trolls").

Edit Addition: Maybe 50% drop would be best case scenario

[ May 28, 2008: Message edited by: Neonivek ]

[ May 28, 2008: Message edited by: Neonivek ]

[Red Jackard]

quote:Originally posted by Neonivek:
<STRONG>At most it would cut it down by 20%... Then the "Check the Sticky Trolls" would be the REAL people who cut down the percent by trolling people into leaving the forums and increase elitism by 60%, which isn't a lot since this forum has the least Elitists out of any ASCII game EVER!, because the Elite "Read the Sticky" (though this board has been pretty good since I havn't seen many "Use Search Trolls").</STRONG>

Wow.

That's uhh.... some outlook you have there.