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Suggestion for New Forum Structure


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This was sparked more about noticing the changelogs being under the suggestion forums, where they logically do not belong. Because the user rates for the forums are low, I think we should also simplify the structure and while making it easier and more intuitive to use.


Suggested new structure (would be happy to hear thoughts of it and possible improvements):


NEWS AND INFORMATION

- News & Information
- Events
- Archives

MINECRAFT

- General
- Creative
- PVE
- Minigames

COMMUNITY

- General
- Other Games

SUPPORT

- Ban Appeals -> Closed Ban Appeals
- Problems & Issues

STAFF

- Mod Chat


--


Notes about the suggested changes:

- Suggestion forum in itself would not be needed. Suggestions would go to the forum it concerns. So suggestion logs for P and C would go to their respective forums under Minecraft and general community suggestions to the Community General forum. Suggestions have been quite active though, so would like to hear how people would actually prefer this. If it was a separate forum, it could just be put under the community section.

- Community and server changelogs would go to the News & Information forum where they're easily found.

- Introduce Yourself isn't used at all and Ask Me Anything quite rarely. Topics like that could be included at the Community General, though if people like having them separate, they could just reamain at the Community section.

- Remove The Lounge totally and redistribute things.

- Archives would be under News and Information.

- Past Events wouldn't be needed, since they'd just also go into archives.

- Problems & Issues is a low use forum, but because people might want to have notifications up to be alerted when someone posts there, keeping it separate is probably good.

- Off-Topic not needed, since things there would just go to Community's General forum.

--

These are my suggestions for changes. I'd be interested in hearing ideas from others! Reorganizing the forums as such isn't such a big task, and it would be a quality of life improvement for everyone using it.

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The changelogs are kind of tucked away in a place people might not think to look. Moving those to a more prominent place could be good.

In general it does seem like we have quite a few boards that are used very little. Doing some condensing and reorganizing is something we could look into.

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Guest Former Staff

It's been good to see a recent change (February) of the forums to try out a slightly different layout with new forums but generally, they aren't used so it seems to make sense to reduce the forums and shift things around again. I do like that the entire community has a chance to give input this time around.

We've moved the P revision 20 Changelog to the community news forum so that it is easier to find for people (there is a redirect link in the old location for 30 days).
 

6 hours ago, Mumberthrax said:

the suggestions subforum exists because uservoice was not being used by head admins or users. throwing it out entirely is not advisable. keeping the suggestions consolidated is a good thing.

Speaking from P in particular, very few ideas are put onto the suggestions forums anymore compared with what we see elsewhere. The in-game suggestion box houses most suggestions so it seems that this tool has replaced the suggestion forums in the same way that the suggestion forums once replaced the uservoice.
 

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10 hours ago, Barlimore said:

Speaking from P in particular, very few ideas are put onto the suggestions forums anymore compared with what we see elsewhere. The in-game suggestion box houses most suggestions so it seems that this tool has replaced the suggestion forums in the same way that the suggestion forums once replaced the uservoice.
 

and why does the suggestion-box command exist in its current form? because it was posted on the suggestions forum. :P

I agree that the suggestions forum is under-utilized, and the suggestion-box command is not a cure-all. It's one tool in a set of feedback avenues for players if one wishes to make a quick suggestion or wish to remain pseudo-anonymous. It lacks transparency and accountability, and it lacks the opportunity for community dialogue and refinement of a suggestion, and the option to associate a poll (arguably it lacks space for more complicated ideas, but someone could theoretically include a pastebin link). While this could take place in the general discussion forums for each server, I still contend that it's wise to keep feedback and suggestion topics consolidated in some fashion. Maybe through some sort of aggregating forum which mirrors posts with a specific tag or something - i don't really know what the forum software is capable of.

But really, if the complaint is lack of activity here, it might be the same issue as in the past - people who *might* be inclined to post here don't know about it. Maybe amending /suggestion-box's text readout to the player to include information about this forum could be good. On C there's an alert about /suggestion-box, but I'm not sure if there's one about the suggestions subforum. Is the same true on P?

I think one reason why *I* in particular don't use the suggestion forums these days is frustration with my suggestions being ignored or dismissed for a year or so, only to be implemented without comment later on. Perhaps if the admins were historically more open to community ideas in general instead of sticks in the mud, the community would be less reticent.

Edited by Mumberthrax
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Guest Former Staff

Mumber: I don't have much to add to what you've typed above as I agree with all of your thoughts.

I do want to highlight one point that you've made in particular though about how the suggestion-box doesn't allow for a discussion. I very much dislike the suggestion-box for this reason as it prevents us having a dialogue with the other party which can result in a more productive conversation. We have frequently had to flat out decline suggestions from the suggestion box because of a lack of information or clarity.

That said, it's something we're keeping on P as it does provide a quick avenue for people to drop us a suggestion that we will respond to. When it comes to discussions that open up elsewhere, while there has historically been a period of mourning for a ridiculous amount of time, we aim to respond to all such topics and would be keen to see more discussions pop up that we can jump into.

 

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@Mumberthrax you bring up good points. I think the padmins are currently responding to all suggestion-box responses on the separate topic regularly. I do wish the creative server would have the same. Maybe a similar anonymous way to put up also general suggestions for the community. For the proposal I thought that the suggestions would simply be put in each respective server's or the community's general forum depending what it's about and have people add a "suggestion" flair to it, since we do have the flair system here. Then the suggestion-box log that the admins are regularly updating with posted questions and answers to them would be a sticky post in those forums. However I do see your point in having it as a separate forum. I think it could work either way.

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now that I've thought about this a little more, I think the real reason why I prefer it being consolidated is so that when an admin comes along who really does want to improve things and solicit community feedback, all the suggestions are in one place for them to slurp up and implement. I think the community ought to have an easy way to view that too. Maybe a tag/flair would be best if people/mods remember to use it, though i worry it will be out of sight, out of mind compared to having a subforum set aside specifically for it.

Other than the suggestions forum matter for which I'm not sure which way is best, I think your overall plan sounds like a good one, Zomise.

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  • 1 month later...

My apologies for not replying to this sooner. Things got kind of pushed to the side with the fundraiser going on. Now that all of that is taken care of we are looking to do a restructuring of the forums that generally follows what Zomise has laid out. One thing I was considering was moving the Support section to the second section from the top, so that people looking for help could find it easy. Does anyone have any other comments or suggestions as far as reorganizing the forums? 

As far as suggestions go, I think a suggestions flair could work. I actually just added one. It would be important to make sure that people use it, and that if they don't staff add it for them.

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Guest Former Staff

Moving support second from the top sounds like it's worth a try. My only question at this point is when will the forums be changing next, is there a deadline?

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6 hours ago, Trooprm32 said:

Oh look, something that I wanted to do when I was a HAdmin, but no one gave a shit, so it didn't happen.

 

Sorry to hear that Troop. I was told that it was suggested at some point in the spring, but since I wasn't present for months because of real life obligations, I didn't know about it then (and I guess a lot of people don't care one way or another). Did you have a draft for the forum structure back then, that could be still helpful or do you think this looks ok?

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 8/18/2017 at 6:37 PM, torteela said:

With the community meeting being pushed back I suddenly have more free time this weekend. I'm looking to enact these changes on Sunday.

Yeah.. about that... I honestly don't like the new cleaner look of the forum now.

Everything's too bright and in your face..

either make it more dark or change it bacc please.

:L

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4 hours ago, Abitcat said:

Yeah.. about that... I honestly don't like the new cleaner look of the forum now.

Everything's too bright and in your face..

either make it more dark or change it bacc please.

:L

That was from a recent forum version upgrade. By chance, would you happen to see a button at the very bottom (middle) of the forum named "Theme"? If so, you can change the forums to a darker theme for yourself. Nevermind, it seems that it shows the same forum skin for me regardless of theme.

Edited by Barlimore
Incorrect
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6 hours ago, Abitcat said:

Yeah.. about that... I honestly don't like the new cleaner look of the forum now.

Everything's too bright and in your face..

either make it more dark or change it bacc please.

:L

This was not from the forum restructuring as Barlimore said, but after @Deaygo updated the forum. The restructure did not touch the skin. You can try nicely asking for another skin from him.

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