Recategorizing the Forums

[SniperCT]

I feel like a lot of the forums could be recategorized.

For example, move several to sub forums under gameplay discussion (basically everything but character creation and development as that one already has subforums)

Community and Social could also probably be consolidated into a few with sub forums.

I understand that SSG is working on completely new forums so this may not be necessary but I do hope they're a little less messy with fewer categories.

[Cordovan]

You are speaking my language! I am personally not at all a fan of long categories of forums and subforums, never have been, but I recognize I am an outlier in this and the LOTRO community has repeatedly stated its preference for granular categorization. I would like to consolidate the number of sub-forums under our future forums. If it were entirely up to me based on personal preference (and thankfully for many here it isn't), I'd have maybe six forums tops.

[maartena]

@Cordovan, any update re: the new forum launch?

[TesalionLortus]

You are speaking my language! I am personally not at all a fan of long categories of forums and subforums, never have been, but I recognize I am an outlier in this and the LOTRO community has repeatedly stated its preference for granular categorization. I would like to consolidate the number of sub-forums under our future forums. If it were entirely up to me based on personal preference (and thankfully for many here it isn't), I'd have maybe six forums tops.

My observation: that's a bad idea in practice, Cord. Why? Because having too few subforums/categories will lead to oversaturation of negativity in every forum category. For years I wasn't active here because whenever I checked there was ALWAYS a negative thread trending under the main forum (the game is dead! in maintenance mod! Turbine/SSG is bad! They did again! We're treated like trash! The game has nothing to offer! Change stat X or mechanic Y or I quit yada yada yada! ) so that wasn't very appealing and then again, the other categories are many and pretty scattered that they seem mostly dead to an "outsider" who isn't here more often and hasn't learnt about the usual places where the good, quality stuff may be found - rather than just angry angst. I'm here after all, mainly because being such a long-term player convinced me to be here. But overall...

Yeah, the forum could use a category revamp but not the way you framed it (with six forum tops :P). Personally I would merge some of the less active stuff into one (such as community subforums maybe?) and gave exposure to some more useful categories such as Adventures in Middle-earth (but maybe expand it to state that it includes more stuff than just "quests, deeds etc" so more like the landscape discussion, lore stuff, story discussion, all that stuff about the game world and its stories). We could also use something like a "technical game design discussion" "game asset discussion" or something like that, could include discussion/questions/info about in-game music by Bill Champagne and others throughout the years, graphical game assets, voice actor discussion/impression, all that stuff (that currently has no meaningful category where it could be put!). Then, once you have more meaningful "quality" categories/subsections like the ones I suggested (where all the good, potential quality stuff that isn't just angst would end up in), make sure they are somewhere visible, just below the General Discussion & Feedback, so even if THAT main section is taken over by negativity, any 'outsider' will immediately see some passionate discussions about actual game, it's world, story, game assets, housing category, other stuff right below so they don't need to look for it. This could make the forum look a bit more attractive/less angsty. Because right now, well... it is what it is and we all know what it is :P

[SniperCT]

You are speaking my language! I am personally not at all a fan of long categories of forums and subforums, never have been, but I recognize I am an outlier in this and the LOTRO community has repeatedly stated its preference for granular categorization. I would like to consolidate the number of sub-forums under our future forums. If it were entirely up to me based on personal preference (and thankfully for many here it isn't), I'd have maybe six forums tops.

I just like things very neat and tidy! And frankly so many of those forums are kind of dead.

My observation: that's a bad idea in practice, Cord. Why? Because having too few subforums/categories will lead to oversaturation of negativity in every forum category. For years I wasn't active here because whenever I checked there was ALWAYS a negative thread trending under the main forum (the game is dead! in maintenance mod! Turbine/SSG is bad! They did again! We're treated like trash! The game has nothing to offer! Change stat X or mechanic Y or I quit yada yada yada! ) so that wasn't very appealing and then again, the other categories are many and pretty scattered that they seem mostly dead to an "outsider" who isn't here more often and hasn't learnt about the usual places where the good, quality stuff may be found - rather than just angry angst. I'm here after all, mainly because being such a long-term player convinced me to be here. But overall...

Yeah, the forum could use a category revamp but not the way you framed it (with six forum tops :P). Personally I would merge some of the less active stuff into one (such as community subforums maybe?) and gave exposure to some more useful categories such as Adventures in Middle-earth (but maybe expand it to state that it includes more stuff than just "quests, deeds etc" so more like the landscape discussion, lore stuff, story discussion, all that stuff about the game world and its stories). We could also use something like a "technical game design discussion" "game asset discussion" or something like that, could include discussion/questions/info about in-game music by Bill Champagne and others throughout the years, graphical game assets, voice actor discussion/impression, all that stuff (that currently has no meaningful category where it could be put!). Then, once you have more meaningful "quality" categories/subsections like the ones I suggested (where all the good, potential quality stuff that isn't just angst would end up in), make sure they are somewhere visible, just below the General Discussion & Feedback, so even if THAT main section is taken over by negativity, any 'outsider' will immediately see some passionate discussions about actual game, it's world, story, game assets, housing category, other stuff right below so they don't need to look for it. This could make the forum look a bit more attractive/less angsty. Because right now, well... it is what it is and we all know what it is :P

That's why I suggest making the existing ones subforums. Nothing is lost, they still exist for people to make threads in, it just looks nicer on the front page.

These are great examples of what I mean:





You could for example make it look like this:

-Lotro General Discussion-

Lotro General Discussion and Feedback - Subforums of Player Suggestions and Store Feedback

New Player Questions

-Lotro Game Discussion-

Gameplay Discussion - Subforums of Adventuring, Epic Battles/Instances/etc, Legendary Items, War-steeds, Crafting and Housing)

Character Creation and Development - No Changes

Monster Play - No Changes

-Community and Social-

Community - Subforums of Kinships, PLayer Events, Guides and FAQs, Halls of Fame, Real Life Player Events, Off Topic

Creative Endeavors - Subforums of Roleplaying, Music System, UI, Cosmetics and Appearances

JRR Tolkien - No changes

Content Creators and Community Sites - No Changes

Real Life Player Events

I'd leave servers and support areas unchanged, personally, except to move Anor and Ithil to historical servers.

[TesalionLortus]

I just like things very neat and tidy! And frankly so many of those forums are kind of dead.



That's why I suggest making the existing ones subforums. Nothing is lost, they still exist for people to make threads in, it just looks nicer on the front page.

These are great examples of what I mean:

In general, yeah, rather than be merged/removed some of them may be put like this, under subforum pages. Still, this doesn't solve what I mentioned, you would still have the mess/angst of General discussion (and LOTRO Store too, since it's a lot of angst sometimes too) oversaturate anything from Player Suggestions on the main page (with the latest thread overview), for example, and some of the player suggestion threads are actually more interesting than hundreds of pages under General... so nice to have them more exposed, like they currently are. But then also reorganize/rename/add some of the things, like I mentioned, so it's better organized, with places for stuff that we currently don't have any special places for, and with stuff ending up where it's supposed to and possibly being filrted out of the "trending angst" :P

[SniperCT]

In general, yeah, rather than be merged/removed some of them may be put like this, under subforum pages. Still, this doesn't solve what I mentioned, you would still have the mess/angst of General discussion (and LOTRO Store too, since it's a lot of angst sometimes too) oversaturate anything from Player Suggestions on the main page (with the latest thread overview), for example, and some of the player suggestion threads are actually more interesting than hundreds of pages under General... so nice to have them more exposed, like they currently are. But then also reorganize/rename/add some of the things, like I mentioned, so it's better organized, with places for stuff that we currently don't have any special places for, and with stuff ending up where it's supposed to and possibly being filrted out of the "trending angst" :P

Maybe one or two less consolidated then lol

[Cordovan]

I just like things very neat and tidy! And frankly so many of those forums are kind of dead.



That's why I suggest making the existing ones subforums. Nothing is lost, they still exist for people to make threads in, it just looks nicer on the front page.

These are great examples of what I mean:





You could for example make it look like this:

-Lotro General Discussion-

Lotro General Discussion and Feedback - Subforums of Player Suggestions and Store Feedback

New Player Questions

-Lotro Game Discussion-

Gameplay Discussion - Subforums of Adventuring, Epic Battles/Instances/etc, Legendary Items, War-steeds, Crafting and Housing)

Character Creation and Development - No Changes

Monster Play - No Changes

-Community and Social-

Community - Subforums of Kinships, PLayer Events, Guides and FAQs, Halls of Fame, Real Life Player Events, Off Topic

Creative Endeavors - Subforums of Roleplaying, Music System, UI, Cosmetics and Appearances

JRR Tolkien - No changes

Content Creators and Community Sites - No Changes

Real Life Player Events

I'd leave servers and support areas unchanged, personally, except to move Anor and Ithil to historical servers.

I like your idea! I have found that putting subforums in that kind of display tends to make them invisible, which is ultimately why we have the expanded version we have now. It's definitely worth considering something like this for our next forums, currently no ETA to announce.

[SniperCT]

I like your idea! I have found that putting subforums in that kind of display tends to make them invisible, which is ultimately why we have the expanded version we have now. It's definitely worth considering something like this for our next forums, currently no ETA to announce.

Maybe if the subforums were a bit more obvious? Like in a tree format with a bit a line leading to them.

[Dulco_Brandywine]

You could for example make it look like this:

-Lotro General Discussion-

Lotro General Discussion and Feedback - Subforums of Player Suggestions and Store Feedback

New Player Questions

-Lotro Game Discussion-

Gameplay Discussion - Subforums of Adventuring, Epic Battles/Instances/etc, Legendary Items, War-steeds, Crafting and Housing)

Character Creation and Development - No Changes

Monster Play - No Changes

-Community and Social-

Community - Subforums of Kinships, PLayer Events, Guides and FAQs, Halls of Fame, Real Life Player Events, Off Topic

Creative Endeavors - Subforums of Roleplaying, Music System, UI, Cosmetics and Appearances

JRR Tolkien - No changes

Content Creators and Community Sites - No Changes

Real Life Player Events

I'd leave servers and support areas unchanged, personally, except to move Anor and Ithil to historical servers.

love this idea.