Organization of forum

Organization of forum

Postby svenskmand » 10 Mar 2010, 00:05

As we are beginning to make more threads I thought we should organize them under larger categories, such as Wiki, Gameplay/Backstory, Modelling, etc. Can we do this somehow? Then we could move the current threads into the correct categories.
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby andrewbuck » 10 Mar 2010, 00:13

I'll look into it tonight, I'm not sure if its possible for me to do although I would think it is.

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Re: Organization of forum

Postby Bodsda » 10 Mar 2010, 00:43

andrewbuck {l Wrote}:I'll look into it tonight, I'm not sure if its possible for me to do although I would think it is.

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You would need the permissions to create sub forums. Im sure qubodup will be able to clarify if you can do this. If not I'm sure they could do it for us if we lay the structure out and then ask them.

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Re: Organization of forum

Postby svenskmand » 12 Mar 2010, 20:24

Here is my suggestions for top-level sub forums:
* Game rules and dynamics/Gameplay
* Backstory
* Wiki
* Sounds
* Music
* Gallery
* Textures
* Models
* Mapping
* Installation and upgrading
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby qubodup » 13 Mar 2010, 00:02

Everything is arrangeable. =) You (OD team) figure out what structure you want and we (admins) make it work. Then we discuss about details like what forums are displayed where (should subforums be visible on the index page for example)

I think http://forums.parpg.net/ and http://dungeonhack.sourceforge.net/forums http://forums.wz2100.net/ are good examples of forum structure.

"Installation and upgrading" seems like "Player's forum" or "Help for players"
What's "Gallery"? For the project's official screenshots?
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby svenskmand » 13 Mar 2010, 00:37

qubodup {l Wrote}:...
http://forums.parpg.net/
...

I like the structure of this forum, what do you others (OD team) think?
qubodup {l Wrote}:...
"Installation and upgrading" seems like "Player's forum" or "Help for players"
What's "Gallery"? For the project's official screenshots?

Heh had not even considered players yet :), but the gallery was meant as a showcase to show new stuff and attract more developers/players.
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby andrewbuck » 13 Mar 2010, 03:42

I think we should try to cut down the number of subsections (at least for now), for example sound effects and music could be combined. The parpg forum has thousands of posts so the number of subforums is justified, if we had their forum structure we would have subforums with 1 (or 0) threads in them (which really scares away newcomers). Other than that I am fine with pretty much any organizational scheme that everyone else comes up with.

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Re: Organization of forum

Postby qubodup » 13 Mar 2010, 11:32

andrewbuck {l Wrote}:I think we should try to cut down the number of subsections (at least for now), for example sound effects and music could be combined. The parpg forum has thousands of posts so the number of subforums is justified, if we had their forum structure we would have subforums with 1 (or 0) threads in them (which really scares away newcomers).

They started with 0-1 posts in their subforums as well. Having a "Sfx" subforum will clearly signal that you welcome those, who want to specialize or experiment with sfx.

The music + sfx = audio logic makes sense. I noticed that all "audio" forums have lots of music and nearly no sound threads (TIG, PARPG). I can't imagine whether or not having sfx/music separated would change that. (By the way, what's funny is that the UFO:AI Audio Subforum has only sfx threads stickied :)
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby svenskmand » 13 Mar 2010, 12:46

qubodup {l Wrote}:
andrewbuck {l Wrote}:I think we should try to cut down the number of subsections (at least for now), for example sound effects and music could be combined. The parpg forum has thousands of posts so the number of subforums is justified, if we had their forum structure we would have subforums with 1 (or 0) threads in them (which really scares away newcomers).

They started with 0-1 posts in their subforums as well. Having a "Sfx" subforum will clearly signal that you welcome those, who want to specialize or experiment with sfx.
...

I also think that it is better to have the music and sfx sub-forums than not to have them. Having them with 0 or 1 post will show that there is room for newcomers and that we need improvement in that part.
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby andrewbuck » 13 Mar 2010, 12:59

Ok, I guess that makes sense.

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Re: Organization of forum

Postby qubodup » 13 Mar 2010, 13:20

qubodup {l Wrote}:I can't imagine whether or not having sfx/music separated would change that.

I sounded ironic there, what I meant to say is that I really do not know if separating sfx and music threads into different forums will help anything. But I certainly do hope so.
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby svenskmand » 23 Mar 2010, 00:14

Is it possible to make polls? If so how is it done?
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby svenskmand » 23 Mar 2010, 00:21

svenskmand {l Wrote}:Here is my suggestions for top-level sub forums:
* Game rules and dynamics/Gameplay
* Backstory
* Wiki
* Sounds
* Music
* Gallery
* Textures
* Models
* Mapping
* Installation and upgrading

By the way what did you all think of this organization? Should it be changed? If so to what? Else I suggest that we get the forum subdivided as it is beginning to get crowded in there :S
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby qubodup » 23 Mar 2010, 18:43

svenskmand {l Wrote}:By the way what did you all think of this organization? Should it be changed? If so to what? Else I suggest that we get the forum subdivided as it is beginning to get crowded in there :S

I think
1. "Installation and upgrading" should be called "Player's forum" or "Help for players"
2. A forum is a horrible place for a gallery
3. "Backstory" might mean something different from what you mean. "Plot" or "Game Plot" instead?
4. "Game rules and dynamics/Gameplay" -> "Gameplay, dynamic & rules" sound better?
5. "Wiki" -> "Website" so it can include potential other software? or -> "Infrastructure" so it can include IRC and svn and so on? might be a confusing name though.

Forums on phpbb can have descriptions, so perhaps you'd like to consider writing some for the forums you decide on in the end :)
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby svenskmand » 23 Mar 2010, 19:51

Then how about this, we make two top categories, "Developers" and "Players", and they contain these sub-categories, which then contain posts:
Developers
* Game rules and dynamics/Gameplay
* Game plot
* Website
* Sounds
* Music
* Textures
* Models
* Mapping
Players
* Installation and upgrading
* Gallery (we avoid this category as there is also a gallery on the wiki/website)
What do you think?
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby charlie » 23 Mar 2010, 22:12

Overbaking it. Why does textures need it's own forum? How many are you going to get submitted?

I think you are looking at 3 forums:
General discussion & help
Art, media & other contributions
Development & planning

For the current level of activity that will be more than enough.
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby svenskmand » 23 Mar 2010, 22:17

Well is it not easier to make the sub-forums now, and let them be filled in as time goes. As opposed to letting people making a lot of threads and then have to clean up the mess later?

charlie {l Wrote}:Overbaking it. Why does textures need it's own forum? How many are you going to get submitted?

I think you are looking at 3 forums:
General discussion & help
Art, media & other contributions
Development & planning

For the current level of activity that will be more than enough.

With these categories, what should be used for players of the game then? That is non-developers?
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby charlie » 23 Mar 2010, 22:59

General discussion & help
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby Bodsda » 23 Mar 2010, 23:10

I will have to side with Charlie on this one. I think organization is a good idea, I think over organization is a very bad idea. It is extremely frustrating to have to dig down (no pun intended) through the forum to get to your thread.

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Re: Organization of forum

Postby svenskmand » 24 Mar 2010, 00:45

Hmmm, I do not know :S

But then let us get it partitioned then. Right now I think it is a bit messy.

Then how about this:

Artwork/Game Content
- Models, textures, sound, music, mapping, ...
Game-play
- Game plot/back-story, game dynamics, game-play ideas, ...
Administration
- Wiki, forum, website, and other misc. organization tools
Troubleshooting
- Installation, upgrading and compiling problems

The lines below each sub-forum is a description of the sub-forum.
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby Bodsda » 24 Mar 2010, 01:04

svenskmand {l Wrote}:Hmmm, I do not know :S

But then let us get it partitioned then. Right now I think it is a bit messy.

Then how about this:

Artwork/Game Content
- Models, textures, sound, music, mapping, ...
Game-play
- Game plot/back-story, game dynamics, game-play ideas, ...
Administration
- Wiki, forum, website, and other misc. organization tools
Troubleshooting
- Installation, upgrading and compiling problems

The lines below each sub-forum is a description of the sub-forum.


I dont think troubleshooting needs its own forum. There is no place there for development. Perhaps swap Troubleshooting for dev and put troubleshooting as a thread in dev or gameplay

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Re: Organization of forum

Postby svenskmand » 24 Mar 2010, 01:36

Development should be Artwork/Game Content and Game-play, because content and game-logic is what comprises the game. Troubleshooting was for non-developers, that is normal players that have problems with something.
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby qubodup » 24 Mar 2010, 11:56

Currently, STK and Syntensity have "general/dev" and "art/contribution". A many-subforums for OD would be an experiment, to see if this system will be better for specialists.

My idea was to have only "OpenDungeons" on the forum index page (like it is now) and by clicking on it, one would see the (many) subforums.

Anyways, I'm in favor of the many-subforums structure, because I'm curious how it will work out :) the few-forums (2) structure definitely is standard and works.
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby Skorpio » 24 Mar 2010, 15:25

I tend towards two or three sub-forums, too. As Bodsda mentioned, searching in several forums to find a specific thread can be very annoying.
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Re: Organization of forum

Postby svenskmand » 24 Mar 2010, 15:33

I do not quite get the argument, which some of you are giving, that one would have to search a lot to find a specific thread. Because if you have many sub-forums, then you find the one for the specific category you are looking for. With few sub-forums, there will first of all be many more threads in them, and they would contain much more mixed content, and then one would have to search lot.

qubodup {l Wrote}:Currently, STK and Syntensity have "general/dev" and "art/contribution". A many-subforums for OD would be an experiment, to see if this system will be better for specialists.

My idea was to have only "OpenDungeons" on the forum index page (like it is now) and by clicking on it, one would see the (many) subforums.

Anyways, I'm in favor of the many-subforums structure, because I'm curious how it will work out :) the few-forums (2) structure definitely is standard and works.

Lets go for the experiment :)
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