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Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:52 am
by pheonixstorm
As I am always on the look out for new and interesting toys for the forums there are some new gizmos I will be installing over the next few weeks. But before I do there are some changes I will be making to the current forums we all work and play in.

Certain ranks will disappear and rank images will be reworked.
Forums will be better organized. This includes merging forums so they will have appropriate subforums such as the art/content forums.
Mass mailing ALL users about the beta 2 release. Maybe it will generate some renewed interest and get the word out that we refuse to die.
Permission tweaks for remaining user groups/forums (possible).
And any other suggestion I get in this thread.

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:07 am
by Hicks
Mass email sounds good to try and get people back in, maybe add a few videos/screenshots of log0's work. I am waiting for the ability to land on planets and walk around, that will really have me interested

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:56 pm
by pheonixstorm
Need some addtional ideas.

Made a few changes so far, but not sure if I should merge the features and tool forums into the developer focus forum. Changes to content development are set (ideas for forum renaming are welcome).

Just trying to keep like ideas in the same place and keep people from scrolling so much in general.

*EDIT*
Also, for select forums I am thinking about using the forums auto-prune feature. First forum to get it will be the compiling errors forum as I don't really think we need posts from 2008 or older there (most of those issues should have been fixed by now anyway). Thoughts?

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:28 pm
by klauss
Auto-prune would only be warranted if we had a huge volume of posts, but I don't think it is the case.

Keeping a history of what happened is nice if at all possible.

About the merging... remember they were split a long time ago to help people focus on what they're interested in. You should have that decision in mind when merging back.

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:41 pm
by pheonixstorm
Merge might not have been the most descriptive way to go about it.. By merge, I am only doing the same thing I did with the mod forums. If you look at the privateer forum, there was originally 5 of them, not they are all consolidated into one forum with 4 sub-forums. I am doing the same with the others. Content development now has the vetting, sound and music, etc. Everything content related under one roof. The developer focus and the rest i'm not so sure about. Feature requests can go with anything VS related. Tools and utilities the same way. Its just a matter of finding a clean and user friendly navigation of the forums. Both as individuals and as entire package. Some forums may never see any posts because people just don't want to scroll down or didn't know there was more to read if they DID scroll down.

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:54 pm
by klauss
In that sense, yes, it could be a good idea to gather everything dev-related in one place, as well as everything assistance-related (ie: bugs, help), and content-related (art and concept), as devs will go to the dev area, artists to the content area, etc...

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:57 pm
by travists
Linking back to the main page has been discussed. Another forum I use that makes use of phpBB has a "Jumpgate" section on the board index page that links to the main page, sponsors, a listing of links, etc. I'll share the page if anyone wants to see how it looks...

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:27 pm
by klauss
Yes, linking back would be nice. I've clicked more than once on the VS logo thinking it would send me to the main page. How wrong I was.

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:00 am
by pheonixstorm
The last mod update on the forums I tried adding in a homepage link at the top but for whatever reason the auto installer return a few errors and I was in a rush to get everything uploaded so I could get some sleep. As such.. it was forgotten :(

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:15 pm
by pheonixstorm
Quick update to this. I will adding a new inactive group for all the old members in the admin and moderator sections that are no longer around. Just some general housekeeping so that only active admins show up in the list.

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2012 1:22 pm
by alex444
Hi,
I suggest to use the following method i think this is helpful for you.
EDIT
To select forums I am thinking about using the forums auto-prune feature. First forum to get it will be the compiling errors forum as I don't really think we need posts from 2008 or older there .

Read protected forums - why?

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 9:57 pm
by Rabiator
I've noticed that some forums in engine development need special privileges to read, and I wonder why.

Limits on writing I could understand, if there is too much noise from the peanut gallery. But if one has to earn the right to read the discussions, it looks like Vega Strike does not want to be an open source project anymore. What were the reasons for this?

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 11:17 pm
by klauss
Which forum exactly?

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 11:26 pm
by Rabiator
The subforums "Coding", "Scripting" and "Data" under "Engine development". If I try to read any of those, I get "You do not have the required permissions to read topics within this forum." :?

Other forums are at least readable to me. Except in this one, I have not tried to post recently.

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 11:59 pm
by klauss
Check now

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 10:26 am
by Rabiator
Now it works, thank you :)

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 10:20 pm
by Deus Siddis
Also you can't start a new topic in Content Development and you can't apply forum attachments in Engine Development.

Also... there are way to many forums and sub forums. :?

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 9:43 am
by pheonixstorm
There are actually fewer overall forums than there used to be.

The sub forums shouldn't be an issue though as they are there to make finding certain things easier (if they ever get used). I have been working on consolidating some of the forums into sub-forums or eliminating them entirely if they really serve no purpose. Its ongoing though.

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 4:57 pm
by Deus Siddis
Yeah there were always far too many. There's always been so many forums to have to comb through, most not that active anyway. And then so many of vaguely redundant forum subjects you can never be sure which one to post in. For example this post could belong here, or it could belong in Website Support & Discussion or it could go in Administrivia.

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 7:45 am
by pheonixstorm
I have made a few changes to the main forum structure by moving a few forums around and moving some upper level forums/categories in sub-forums based on relevance.

Let me know if there are any new issues popping up

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 9:31 pm
by Deus Siddis
'Tis an improvement.

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 10:14 pm
by pheonixstorm
Also a work in progress.. much cleaner than it was before i started. Any suggestions on other moves/deletions?

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 6:59 pm
by Deus Siddis
I'd merge User Help, Compiling Problems [paste config.log] and Contributor Help & Internal How-Tos with each other.

Merge Website Support & Discussion and Administrivia (and moderators too) with each other.

Merge Gameplay Tactics and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Commerce Center.

Merge graveyard(readonly) and General Announcements.

Under Engine Development, merge Scripting with either Coding or Data.

Under Content Development, merge Content Vetting into it's parent, merge Modding Engine Room into General Modding and merge Vega Strike Canon and Authoring.

Delete Vega Strike MMORPG. An MMO isn't a realistic development goal, that's why the original devs finally broke off to work on Sirikata.


To be clear what I mean when I say merge, is to move all the posts from one into another and then delete it. Not make one forum a child or sub forum of the other but turn two forums into a unified one with no subs.

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:31 pm
by klauss
Deus Siddis wrote:I'd merge User Help, Compiling Problems [paste config.log] and Contributor Help & Internal How-Tos with each other.
I'd leave contributor help separate. I tend to give "user help" posts lower priority (when I'm short in time), because there are lots of others that can answer equally well there, and because I have a vested interest in helping contributors.
Deus Siddis wrote:Merge graveyard(readonly) and General Announcements.
What? No... graveyard is graveyard. Announcements aren't dead.
Deus Siddis wrote:Under Engine Development, merge Scripting with either Coding or Data.
The distinction makes sense, or would, if we had enough traffic. But since it's veeery low traffic now... I dunno.
Deus Siddis wrote:Delete Vega Strike MMORPG. An MMO isn't a realistic development goal, that's why the original devs finally broke off to work on Sirikata.
Which is an MMO. VS doesn't even aspire to be MMO. At the very least it should be renamed (to Vega Strike Online).

Re: Upcoming forum changes.

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:58 pm
by Deus Siddis
klauss wrote: I'd leave contributor help separate. I tend to give "user help" posts lower priority (when I'm short in time), because there are lots of others that can answer equally well there, and because I have a vested interest in helping contributors.
The trouble is it is not mutually exclusive with the myriad development forums. If I have a question or problem with units.csv for example, will I post it in the contributor help forum or the data forum? More likely the latter because it seems more relevant.
What? No... graveyard is graveyard. Announcements aren't dead.
They are dead, read that forum's description: "The final resting place for announcements. After an announcement has become outdated it will be moved here."

And then look inside... "I see dead announcements." [/cliche]
The distinction makes sense, or would, if we had enough traffic. But since it's veeery low traffic now... I dunno.
Exactly, it's a waste of time combing through so many empty forums every time you come here.