Forum Redundancy

[Klandri]

Why bother keeping the Specific game forums? They're basically only support forums. There is almost nothing else there. Take a look at TW's front page for example:



5/20 threads are actually discussing the game and they've got a whopping 12 replies all in all. The last one being almost 2 weeks ago. In the Red Alert 3 forum things are a bit better. 7/20 posts are not tech support related or general whining with the last reply being 5 days ago. Things are even worse in the older games. They are almost entirely inactive tech support forums.

And it's not like the General Discussion is that active either. The thread I'm bumping off the first page is more than a month old and it got locked immediately. So I suggest removing the specific game sections and moving them to the general discussion. Keeping the Modding/Mapping sections of each game because they are too technical and changing the general game discussions into support forums. Or something like that. It's sad seeing the General discussion being so inactive and the other forums practically dead.

So what do you guys think? And EA_Cire, it would be most appreciated if you could comment whether this would be possible.

Edit: To clarify I don't mean the Generals 2 forum. It's the most active forum as it is. And also: 2100th post, YAY!

[Commander32]

well, maybe you can just move all those topics to their respective places.

People do in fact are not aware about that, so its just needs to be enforced more so there is more organization around here.

[=LEVIATHEN=]

I like the specific game sections; it helps keep the different discussions nice and organized.
I don't know about you, but I'm specifically interested in the conversations that show up in the General Discussion and such. I don't want to have everything else all jumbled up with it, so that I have to scrounge around to find what interests me.

Besides, there's no way to make us more active unless EA_CIRE sets up some sort of activity (maybe another poll).

[Kyang]

The whole structure of most modern internet forums is archaic. There shouldn't be such specific sections as everyone only uses a few anyway. Threads should be labeled with subject tags, and organized dynamically per user preference like music collections and photos are now. Page buttons shouldn't be so darn tiny, and most of all shouldn't be scrolling with the page. They should be fixed targets like those fixed navigation buttons on websites.

Some forums have alert panels right on the page that alert viewers to new posts, and action buttons to take the user directly to them. This should be standard on all of them.

I'm not sure why there is a differentiation between quick and "advanced" replies. The concept of so called "Advanced" replies should be discarded, all their capabilities merged into "quick" replies, and the user presented with one unified response method with a live preview. Essentially WYSIWYG, no more BB code being shown to users.

Posting and quoting is still a linear affair when such conversations should be handled like they were in Google's now defunct "Wave" project.


There's so many advancements to ease of use in websites now, yet browsing a forum is still a click-scroll experience almost exactly the same as the first websites. It's ridiculous.

[Klandri]

well, maybe you can just move all those topics to their respective places.

People do in fact are not aware about that, so its just needs to be enforced more so there is more organization around here.

Do you mean from the General discussion to the game forums or from the game forums to the support forums?

I like the specific game sections; it helps keep the different discussions nice and organized.
I don't know about you, but I'm specifically interested in the conversations that show up in the General Discussion and such. I don't want to have everything else all jumbled up with it, so that I have to scrounge around to find what interests me.

Besides, there's no way to make us more active unless EA_CIRE sets up some sort of activity (maybe another poll).

I agree. I like having it organized but at what costs? Maybe set up a specific forum for all the games? As opposed to General discussion. And it won't make us more active but it will create the illusion of more activity which works too.

[=LEVIATHEN=]

I agree. I like having it organized but at what costs? Maybe set up a specific forum for all the games? As opposed to General discussion. And it won't make us more active but it will create the illusion of more activity which works too.

That's a much better idea. It makes more sense, jumbled still though it will be, to put all of the games in one forum section. Maybe they should be separated into subforums though.

[Commander32]

I like the specific game sections; it helps keep the different discussions nice and organized.
I don't know about you, but I'm specifically interested in the conversations that show up in the General Discussion and such. I don't want to have everything else all jumbled up with it, so that I have to scrounge around to find what interests me.

Besides, there's no way to make us more active unless EA_CIRE sets up some sort of activity (maybe another poll).

agreed, its fine as it is, we just need to make things here more tidy and make sure people post in the right places.

[CrazyGDIfan123`]

The whole structure of most modern internet forums is archaic. There shouldn't be such specific sections as everyone only uses a few anyway. Threads should be labeled with subject tags, and organized dynamically per user preference like music collections and photos are now. Page buttons shouldn't be so darn tiny, and most of all shouldn't be scrolling with the page. They should be fixed targets like those fixed navigation buttons on websites.

Some forums have alert panels right on the page that alert viewers to new posts, and action buttons to take the user directly to them. This should be standard on all of them.

I'm not sure why there is a differentiation between quick and "advanced" replies. The concept of so called "Advanced" replies should be discarded, all their capabilities merged into "quick" replies, and the user presented with one unified response method with a live preview. Essentially WYSIWYG, no more BB code being shown to users.

Posting and quoting is still a linear affair when such conversations should be handled like they were in Google's now defunct "Wave" project.


There's so many advancements to ease of use in websites now, yet browsing a forum is still a click-scroll experience almost exactly the same as the first websites. It's ridiculous.

every one of your posts is an asset to the internet, kyanges







inb4 EDIT:nevermind.

[hellodean]

it makes sense to seperate them into the different games if your looking for a specific thing then you have narrowed it down that way.

i only use the "new posts" button at top left and i see everything
i dont see the need to put it together really. because like i say,

[Kyang]

i only use the "new posts" button at top left and i see everything

This is exactly what I do. I dragged the "new posts" link into my bookmarks bar. Clicking that instantly gives me the latest search of new posts. Any time I decide to browse these forums, from anywhere else on the web, it's one single click to reach the latest. Skip all that browsing and checking and bookmarking individual threads or any of that garbage.