Title, you decide

I have a few thoughts on the current state of the fourms, I thought I would make it a main topic header so I dont get moderated for it .

I can already see the effect of the recent changes, I believe its crushed most of the toxic problems we have been having in current threads and the fourm in general. I aslo think this is a much more welcoming for the new folks coming online from a few prospectives including making it easier to find information.

The contrast I forsee this hampering some of the debates we have had over systems and issues and other than Berek the dev interactions i.e. chris and starr are less. Many of the threads and yea some hotly debated threads have brought along change that has been benifical to the game. The flip side to the above is less thread debating allows them to focus on game building and thats no small consideration.

I wonder if we would benifit from a fourm dedicated to "Hot topics" just a couple at a time and once the topics are fleshed out then they can be moved and dumped some place. A system like this they can move in topics they want us to pound on and once its done they pop in a new topic this gives us a spot to effect change and our opions and possibly have better more focused dev interactions.

 

Really?
In my opinion this only seperated the uncreative trolls from their smart counterparts ;-)
I still don't get why the forum was changed at all. Can't see a big difference so far tbh.

 

Ive seen it, its been a smart move. Also adding berek has been a good addition and probably some intentional shift to free up the dev team to focus more on game building.

 

Fair enough, I can agree on that!

 

Good point, I love the hot topics idea.

 

I've been gone for a while due to the heavy-handed moderation on the forums (and other fun things). That was some months back, maybe a year or so. What's changed since then or, rather, what changes are you talking about? Could you link me to a changelog?

I like the idea of hosting a less-moderated sub/forum. Also, has 'toxic' has become the new 'it'? ("Suffice to say is one of the words the Knights of Ni! cannot hear!") Do we now have yet another cumbersome set of 'bad words' to work around?

 

The moderation has increased, but its not a bad thing. Many threads became hate threads, or people turned them into thier own non related threads. I see these changes as a positive for new players. berek has a post above that breaks it down in a nut shell.

As far as a bad word list, as you can imagine there alot of people on this fourm words that some people find offensive are common place to others, communicating can be a complicated at times.

Welcome back though.

 

I don't think 'toxic' is bad. It's a fairly common term to describe negative posts that invite further negative posting on forums. Using another word would just be calling a black kettle pitch, or a red rose scarlet.. or crimson.

I'm not sure why the new forum structure has 'crushed the toxic problems'. Again, I don't think the phrase is bad, I just don't know how forum restructure affected these problems, and I'd love to learn more about it! If the new design has limited our ability to discuss hotly debated topics, I'm confused how that is as well. Why do we need a special thread for that? We can 'hotly debate' any topic in the forums, as long as we stay on topic, right?

 

I've read the changes, and I'm not very fond of them (nor do I understand how they help what's being addressed) -- specifically, the inability to create multiple threads on the same topic. It's not a huge beef, because it'd likely be easy to remedy. I suppose that I don't see much of a benefit in bottlenecking opinions in a single, cluttered thread. That strikes me as a bandaid fix. Also, the lack of transparency is odd. If 'issue A' has 5 different popular opinions floating about in a thread, whose responsibility is it to make sure that they all get exposure?

As is, the threads just become something like 20, 30, 40 pages long, and it's up to the user to sift through all of the posts. Separate threads lighten the load significantly, but they clutter the forums. I don't see the efficiency in compiling everything into a single thread without a hyperlink index to the various ideas in the OP (or, worse, simply deleting the related threads), and I'm confused as to how this new effort benefits anyone.

Even if there were a developing 'Sir Arthur's Round Table of Contents' as the thread progressed, who is responsible for maintaining that? Were it me in the place of an OP, I probably wouldn't bother because it'd take too much time.

 

Excellent: ive noticed in the last week there seams to be less anger and im associating that to the fourm changes hence my conclusion. Its early yet but its a trend even though a short one.

The "hot topics" idea when the devs has a topic they want feedback on they can drop it here. As contribitors to the game we have an oportuninty to respond to current dev thinkings instead of going willie nilly in every thread.

 

I've done some cleaning in here already. Please keep the thread on topic and do not allow it to degrade. Obviously the thread is going to be a hot topic in and of itself but be respectful if you must debate. Have conversation rather than argument.

 

Thanks sir, its an important conversation and id hate to see it derailed.

 

Things seem heavy handed right now I think as a temporary measure to get some of the threads reorganized and get the community moving past some very recent controversy... Some forums being shuffled around and whatnot and words like "toxic" being tossed around is just what's happening right now; things should loosen up soon enough - it's all just being policed in a way that's inline with how Portalarium wants their forums presented and used.

 

+1

 

People seem to be poking around for things to argue about... I cite for example the thread on the use of the word "Month". I see this as a sign of progress.

 

I see a couple of huge differences. Moving the General Discussions forum to the top makes the entire experience here more inviting - the fewer clicks it takes to get to a destination the better - putting the catch-all in the front and at the top alleviates much of the confusion new folks may experience while they're familiarizing themselves with the forum's structure. And the addition of the New Player Welcome section is just awesome. Some of the thread crushing is weird, but it is what it is.

 

@Mystic , @Ultima Codex ,@Berek ...
~Portalarium Producer Hot Topics~
I believe our community could greatly prosper, with a thread who's topics our Portalarium Staff actually would like us to comment on. These could be "weekly topics", where one of our moderators posts a topic, and then leaves it open for a week (or whatever), then places other topics of the next week up for comments. Such topics could also be posted within other threads by players, yet with the main feedback "Moderator Hot Topic Thread", this could prove to be very useful in guiding the commentary to a more useful Portalarium purpose.

In such a way, then our producers of coming content could see some rhetoric that may come of some use to them and their works before beginning such, set in stone things... "as I know our Portalarium hates to ever have to do things twice"

It also sets the tone of that week within our forum's groups and encourages our forums members to stay tuned into our forums conversations.
Controlling or helping guide the narrative also sets a better welcoming mat for new player ideas, suggestions and comments.
We need to give back to Portalarium "what they want", because we want that as well.
~Time Lord~

 

Your a brillaint man! Focused conversations that keeps us involed where we feel like can can contribute to a subject. And hits on subjects they might want to see how the crowds mood is i.e. crowns, events what ever.

A focused area will be easy to watch and give/recieve feedback on. Instead of the devs spending hours trying to gather this stuff Berek or who ever could drop a hot topic into this fourm once its pounded a bit put it back and lock it.

 

I hereby retract my first post.
My third Post is waiting for Moderation (which is totally ok!). So something very important changed. Thumbs up!

 

Its new and recent but I feel the winds of change.