Forum structure discussion

[charlie]

I don't like this solution. Project showcase just isn't visible enough. This isn't just a forum for developers. The purpose is to serve the FOSS game community. (Perhaps I am wrong here and the only person who thinks this.) People who want to solicit feedback on their projects just are not going to get much if it is barely visible. That tiny link is barely visible.

Those tiny links are ok for hosted projects because they will include direct links to their forums anyway.

I am strongly in favour of a 'Project Showcase & Collaboration' forum that is highly visible (top of everything ideally, top of it's section next best) so that there is a stand out focal point for people to come and check out active projects or post about their pride and joy.

[Sindwiller]

The purpose is to serve the FOSS game community. (Perhaps I am wrong here and the only person who thinks this.) People who want to solicit feedback on their projects just are not going to get much if it is barely visible. That tiny link is barely visible.

No, you are not alone! We'll fight together, side by side! Seriously though, I highly favour this solution:

I am strongly in favour of a 'Project Showcase & Collaboration' forum that is highly visible (top of everything ideally, top of it's section next best) so that there is a stand out focal point for people to come and check out active projects or post about their pride and joy.

[qubodup]

Your points seem valid to me. The structure now is:

Project Showcase & Collaboration (one thread per project)
FreeGameDev
General
Hosted Projects (STK, Steve's, OpenDungeons)

[charlie]

There is another thing bothering me.

There are updates in the Libregamewiki forum. It shows there are updates in the 'FreeGameDev & Friends' forum, which Libregamewiki is a child of. There are no updates in the FGD&F forum itself, so I'm clicking on that just to see there is nothing to read, multiple times now. Yes, I could just go in and mark all Libregamewiki threads as read, but this is just going to be a repeat excercise and it'll get annoying to have to do that every time there is a Libregamewiki message.

[charlie]

Just to illustrate the point:

1. Looks like there's some new messages!

2. No, there wasn't. Sad Charlie.

[qubodup]

What would you suggest? We can
1) Turn the FGD&Friends Forum-category into a only-category and create a "FreeGameDevForums" forum in it (and consequentially the same for FreeGamer, Planet, Wiki... or just a general "FreeGameDev" forum and move the messages there.
2) Move LGW Forum into the "Hosted Projects" category
3) Create a new only-category for FGD/etc forums and put the LGW forum there

I only like solution 1

A forum is something that contains threads/topics, a category is something that contains forums and a forum-category is something that does both.

[charlie]

I'd go with something similar to your #1 suggestion.

A FreeGameDev & Friends category with:
1. Forum feedback
2. Blog, wiki, planet
3. Libregamewiki

I'd move the 'introduce yourself' thread to the General forum.

[qubodup]

1. Forum feedback
2. Blog, wiki, planet
3. Libregamewiki

I applied your suggestion but picked a more general name for the second forum: "FreeGameDev Projects". Do you like the structure?

[Sindwiller]

Huh, now I'd suppose that, because it's all heavily stacked, people won't notice those forums in particular.

[Sindwiller]

See, nobodoy actually checks this forum anymore

[charlie]

We do.

[charlie]

I updated the description for Project Showcase & Collaboration, since "Project showcase, collaboration, and updates" seemed mostly redundant and people seemed to be missing the point of it too (posting in the introduction thread then asking where to post for help).

[qubodup]

I updated the description for Project Showcase & Collaboration, since "Project showcase, collaboration, and updates" seemed mostly redundant and people seemed to be missing the point of it too (posting in the introduction thread then asking where to post for help).

lololol I did the same for the same reason! (I changed "Show off" to "Introduce") I didn´t realize the description was changed.

I don't think descriptions matter too much though, the title should be more obvious...

[charlie]

The title is fine; accurate and concise. Just people somehow miss it, perhaps not quite getting the meaning of collaboration.

[qubodup]

One idea: "Showcase" -> "Presentation"

The logic for this is the same as for "Show off" -> "Introduce": "show" is not similar in non-english languages, while "presentation" is nearly the same in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian and probably many more.