New Forum Structure

[Malcovent]

[To be filled - this thread will take a while, need to actually think of a structure to suggest]

Edit - thanks to tnm for finding this tool > https://xenforo.com/demo/ generate some concepts guys!

 

[tnm]

I know you haven't got initial plans posted, but here would be my layout:

• Staff Forums
  • Administrator Forums
  • Server Administrator Forums
  • Moderator Forums
  • Server Specific Forums
    • [Insert Server Name here]

Fairly similar to what we have now, although I've never reason the reason for putting individual staff forums outside of the general staff forums. If we require more than 3 rank forums (presuming Malcovent's planned ranks are used) then I'd probably say separate the two to prevent cluttering.

• Community
  • News & Announcements - All front page news, meeting recaps and such will be listed here. To be honest, I don't really feel the Announcements main forum was used at all
  • Discussion - Contains all discussions, suggestions and anything related to the whole community
  • Introductions / Departures - Perhaps a better name that what we have currently, although it sounds a little too much like an airport's information board

As you can see I'd remove the rules section and instead move it to a forum page, (we could link it in the forum list) and merge News and Announcements- perhaps put subcategories in there such as Front Page News and Meeting Recaps?

• Minecraft
  • [Insert Server Name here]
    • News and Announcements - All specific announcements for the server would go here, if it's important enough it could be duplicated and posted in the front page news
    • Applications - We could possibly merge staff applications and map submissions, depending on which servers we keep
    • Decided Pile - How we have it currently
  • General Minecraft - Basically move it from the main forum to Minecraft.
• Garry's Mod Servers - Much like the minecraft section; would contain specific server information (I doubt we'd have more than 1 server for each other game)
• Other - Basically what we have now, for threads that don't really fit in any other subforums.]

Realistically we need something that fits all games, present and future, is easy to navigate and can be used easily.

EDIT: had some time, http://4cc5cad9715256d8.demo-xenforo.com/142/index.php for a working demo (lasts 2 days I believe)

 

[Malcovent]

Spoiler

Look the liberty of capturing your page. Good tool, would like to see more suggestions using it.

 

[superstein]

This is a great basic layout so far. I'd like to do some fun stuff to the Other section, we can really spice it up and do some cool things. This is likely a space where community feedback will be important, some new kinds of subforums could allow for certain parts of the community to thrive with a place to discuss.

Anything above that looks good though. Nice and clear, no clutter, more streamlined.

 

[superstein]

Got a PM regarding a subforum for Roleplaying. The person interested said they wanted it because if they had a few moderators they could better organize it, and have a better space for more threads, organization and all sorts of stuff. I personally think it wouldn't be a bad idea, other opinions?

 

[JtTorso]

superstein I'm not particularly fond of the idea myself, from observing roleplayers on BB I can say it's always gathered a younger audience and I feel that in the future when we expand to different games, the community will lend itself to a much older sort of individuals. I also know a handful of people who currently are regulars here that do not like roleplaying and I feel like it might turn into an argument, I mean League of Legends can't even so much as be uttered and one side that is for or against or both has to say something obnoxious.

And on the other hand we already have forum games like mafia, which are practically already roleplaying (I've never played mafia, if you can't tell) and pretty much goes under the radar of those who dislike it since the purpose of games like mafia are to be self contained only to (I think) PMs and the forum in which it was created.

 

[Prizyms]

forum games like mafia, which are practically already roleplaying

Mafia is supposed to be a psychological game, but given the way this community plays it sometimes...

I think you might be confusing it with Survivor, which pretty much is 99% roleplaying and would probably be moved to said subforum rather than being in Forum Games.

 

[JtTorso]

Mafia is supposed to be a psychological game, but given the way this community plays it sometimes...

I think you might be confusing it with Survivor, which pretty much is 99% roleplaying and would probably be moved to said subforum rather than being in Forum Games.

A lot of those lengthy forum games tend to blend together for me, I know a lot goes on so I usually don't check in on them.

 

[superstein]

A subforum for Survivor/RP games would basically be what it is. I think you may be mixing it up with the other kind of BB roleplay JtTorso and this is much more organized than that, from my knowledge at least. I say we try it, it's simply a place where those forum games can organize themselves a bit better.

Outside of that, tnm's demo looks like it should be our basic structure. Upon presentation to the public, we can ask for any ideas for other subforums, but it's nothing too urgent. Marking as Approved for now, but if anyone has any other ideas, shoot.

 

[superstein]

We should create subforums for certain games.

How about,
TF2
Cs:GO
LoL
Hearthstone?
DOTA?

Any other ideas that would be worth creating an actual subforum for?