[SUGGESTION] Idea: Forum cleanup?

In all honesty, the forums are rather..... cluttered/ambiguous. I propose that we combine some forum sections and truncate some older posts into an archive to clean up the usability of the forums.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Lay it out for me, what do you think should be done to improve the forums? I'll collect the ideas and update this post to generate a plan later on.

Can you explain what you mean by "truncate some older posts"? Just un-stickying them?

I agree that it's a little messy currently, but I'll wait to see a plan that actually improves the structure before agreeing that a change is needed.

The two things that I find weird is the separation between map submission and map review, and the separation of help, config and server admin. But the latter still makes more sense to me than keeping everything uncategorized into a bigger forum, and I can't judge the mapping section because I'm not really using it at all.

We can of course have subforums (see Whackity and its four subs) and there is also the option for "categories" although I forgot what that is (note that WW's "Category" is not a category.)

EDIT: I've been living in the past for a while apparently. We had two mapping forums in Nexuiz, didn't we?

well, truncate older posts as in--- archive posts which are no longer really constructive or relevant, or just threads which have no chance of being active anymore. An example would be: http://forums.xonotic.org/showthread.php?tid=3226 -- If the thread is archived, it can still be searched for and information can still be found by people who need it, but it gets rid of the clutter in old forum posts.

Another example in general is the majority of my older balance idea posts (or even the ones before that), they're no longer relevant or useful as i've already picked the ideas out of them.


As for the map submissions, no, you are correct-- right now, map discussion IS split up into two forum sections. Some maps are posted in the "Editing and concept art" section right now, because "map reviews" is classified as to ONLY BE ALLOWED TO CONTAIN FINISHED MAPS.... but no one follows this. It would be far better to simplify the whole thing, and create one big "map discussion" section.

If it helps

Community
Xonotic - News, 54 threads
Xonotic - General, 423 threads
Xonotic - Community Contests, 33 threads
Xonotic - Tournaments, 57 threads
Xonotic - Clan Discussion, 64 threads
Oh Hey, I'm new, I'd like to Introduce myself (ohiniltim), 305 threads
Off Topic, 451 threads


Planning
Xonotic Polls, 5 threads
Xonotic Planning, 1 thread


Creating & Contributing
Xonotic - Suggestion box, 528 threads
Xonotic - Development, 262 threads
Xonotic - Editing and Concept Art, 1,353 threads
Xonotic - Map Releases & Reviews, 186 threads


Support
Xonotic - Help & Troubleshooting, 360 threads
Xonotic - Configuration Tips, 50 threads
Xonotic - Server Administration, 80 threads
Xonotic - Bug Report, 3 threads


The Outside
Whackity Wicktown [SOLVED], 280 threads


These won't be missed
Planning / Xonotic Polls
Planning / Xonotic Planning
Support / Xonotic - Bug Report

Add a new section for Game Servers (server details, map lists, contact info etc)

should clean it all up for sure , but would take alot of work no?

music section would be cool too , but start over , except for the official submission thread

?


t

:^

I always suggested to merge Community Contest and Tournaments section.

actually ... some maps end up in the development section too ...

No, we do not need a cleen up. Wait...
Hear are the things we should change:..

Xontic Planning and Polls are totaly obsolate, they are not being used and i think they can be removed.

Community contests and Urnaments can be merged, I think.

Help an Trouble shooting and Bug reports can be merged.

WW is a big collection of rubish (for most parts, id say 98% is), but Suppose it was planed as a landfill, so...

Contribution section is messy ineed, and should be reworked.
I suggest this layout: Ideas, Mapping, Art Coding, Sound. Is mightn't be perfect but it seems better then what we have now.

I think we need a TODO section somewhere.

---

P.S. where are maps supposed to be?

A draft.

Xonotic Community
News, 54 threads
General, 423 threads
Community Contests, 33 threads
Tournaments, 57 threads
Oh Hey, I'm new, I'd like to Introduce myself (ohiniltim), 305 threads
Suggestion *B*ox, 528 threads
Off Topic, 451 threads
Game Servers (new)


Support
Help *and* Troubleshooting, 360 threads
Configuration Tips, 50 threads
Server Administration, 80 threads


Maps and Map *M*aking
Map Releases *and* Reviews, 186 threads
Mapping Help (new)
Map Ideas and Suggestions (new)


Clans
Clan Discussion, 64 threads
Clan Foo
Clan Bar


Creating *and* Contributing
Development, 262 threads
Editing, Concept Art, *Sounds etc*1,353 threads


The Outside
Whackity Wicktown [SOLVED], 280 threads

Who is going to moderate the new forums?

What is clan bar and foo?

What is clan bar and foo?

They're names of hypothetical clans. Some clans may want a place to chat and organise, I'm sure it must be possible to restrict forum access to certain members.

A clan leader will contact one of the admins with a request for a new sub-forum, maybe [TCOP] and supply a list of users who are members. The admin can then create the aforementioned subforum with the clans name and then restrict its access to the listed forum users.

Alternatively they could just use Facebook and like (or whatever) each others ramblings.

A: Clan stuff should stay in "Community" forum section.

B: I think clans can manage with just one forum sub-section, we also do not have the resources to manage such a request system. Even in most commercial games, there are simply not large enough clans to warrant private sub-sections like that. Start your own forum if you REALLY need it that badly.

C: Clans should only use this forum (or their own) if they have special clan things to talk about, otherwise they should just use the rest of the forums so other people can be in on the discussions too. Private clan forums are useless in that respect, they just segregate the community...

Also, I can't imagine that clans would appreciate having people external to them watch over and moderate their private section.

My suggestion's is kinda minor.

To send a notification if quoted, I have trouble keeping up if people respond to me and it is not my thread. But that is really not too related

Change the Creating and Contributing a bit:
-Suggestion Box
-Development
-Editing and Concept art
-Game Addon's Discussion
---Reviews
---Discussion
---Looking for
-Game Addon's/Mods/Extensions
---Maps
---Converted Quake Maps
---(Maybe) Nexuiz Maps
---Menu Themes
---HUDS


Remember having less content is not cleaning up. Organizing is

I agree with Chooksta.
Please remember the audio section for music and sound effects stuff.