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Atreyu
Feb 14th, 2010, 03:09:21 AM
Or is a PM to an admin more appropriate? :)

EDIT:

Current list of suggestions made so far - this will be added/changed as more ideas are brought forward and resolved:
<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> </style> <strike>Merge Retro RP forum into SW RP forum (proposed by Atreyu)</strike> - COMPLETED
<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> </style> <strike>Move RP forums out of sub-forum onto the main forums page (proposed by Atreyu)</strike> - COMPLETED
<meta http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.2 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> </style> <strike>Remove Collecting forum and merge threads into other forums (proposed by Atreyu)</strike> - COMPLETED

<meta http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.2 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> </style> <strike>Rename SW Boxoffice & Other Media as simply Boxoffice & Other Media (proposed by Captain Untouchable)</strike> - COMPLETED

<meta http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.2 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> </style> <strike>Merge all non-RP forums into one big mega forum (proposed by Captain Untouchable)</strike> - FAILED
Remove SW Amalgam forum and merge threads into other forums (proposed by Dasquian Belargic) - currently under vote in General Discussion
<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> </style> <strike>Remove Communications forum (proposed by Atreyu)</strike>- WITHDRAWN
Deciding what to do with Portal News (proposed by Yog/Atreyu) - still ongoing
<meta http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.2 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> </style> <strike>Rename 'General Discussion' with a more SW-like name (proposed by Atreyu)</strike> - FAILED

Reorganising main forums page (proposed by Atreyu) - in favour (nearing consensus pending what forums will remain)
Add a new 'sports' forum (proposed by s'Ilancy) - in favour
<meta http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.2 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> </style> <strike>Replace all 'general' forum names with more SW-like sounding names (proposed by Atreyu)</strike> - FAILED

LATEST UPDATE: updating for latest poll results and admin actions

Dasquian Belargic
Feb 14th, 2010, 04:15:50 AM
Feel free to make suggestions here

Atreyu
Feb 14th, 2010, 06:34:59 AM
Okay then. :)

My first query was regarding the future of the retro roleplaying (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=405) forum. The 10th anniversary has been and gone, and aside for the odd post here and there over the last few months the forum has been sitting fairly dormant since March last year. Just wondering what plans are there (if any) for it? My suggestion was going to be, in the absence of any pre-existing plans, to simply re-tag all the retro threads with the 'Retro' tag, merge them into the SW RPing forum, then simply delete the (now empty) retro forum so we have one less dead forum floating around.

My 2nd query is of a more general nature, whether anybody would be open to looking at all the forums we have and see if we would to revise/add/delete/merge anything. The last time we did this was ... 2005/2006 I think (?), and we made a number of changes then (to remember what it used to look like just click the link to ClassicFans (http://www.sw-fans.net/archive/forum/)).

Two ideas of my own off the bat:
1. Determining the future of the Collecting forum (which has pretty much died to the extent that threads over 4 years old are visible on Page 1 :cry) - possibly merging with the BO & Media forum.
2. Pushing the RPing forums back onto the main forum list (a fairly late idea - I only really thought of this recently when a friend remarked that at first glance SW-Fans looked like a general SW site and you wouldn't know RPing was the predominant activity since it's hidden down the bottom and hiding in sub-forums).

Interested to know if anyone else has ideas (or not).

Dasquian Belargic
Feb 14th, 2010, 06:38:47 AM
I think retagging and merging the Retro forum was originally the idea, and I agree that now would be a good time to shuffle all those threads over. If there are no objections, I'll get started on that later today.

Merging collecting into the BO Media forum also would make sense.

As for putting the RPing forums back on the front page... I have no objections to that either, but I'll let other staff and posters weigh in first :)

Good suggestions allround, IMO.

Atreyu
Feb 14th, 2010, 06:59:58 AM
Yay someone likes my ideas. :eee

If people were willing to go with my 2nd query/proposal I'd also go further and even propose revising the entire main forum page order, however that would be dependent on any changes (if any) we make to the forums listed in the first place.

Captain Untouchable
Feb 14th, 2010, 08:02:17 AM
Just to make sure I understand you correctly... you're effectively suggesting that we have Star Wars Roleplaying / General Roleplaying / Roleplaying Discussion showing up on the main page, above "Roleplaying Groups"? That's a bloody good idea.

Couple of ancillary suggestions to go along with that -

- Rename "Star Wars Box Office & Other Media" to just "Box Office & Other Media". It's more non-Star Wars than it is Star Wars, and we do have the Amalgam thread for the specifically Star Wars stuff.

- Merge all the non-Roleplay forums into one blob. We'll only have five or six left; and that way, the predominant waiting of visible forums will be towards the Roleplay side of things.

Kelly Perris
Feb 14th, 2010, 10:25:32 AM
I like these suggestions so far. :thumbup

Lilaena De'Ville
Feb 14th, 2010, 03:01:29 PM
Collecting being moved might warrant a "collecting" topic tag, for the odd thread that might come up, and for tagging the old ones?

Atreyu
Feb 14th, 2010, 03:58:49 PM
Just to make sure I understand you correctly... you're effectively suggesting that we have Star Wars Roleplaying / General Roleplaying / Roleplaying Discussion showing up on the main page, above "Roleplaying Groups"? That's a bloody good idea.
Yes, that's exactly what I mean. :)


Rename "Star Wars Box Office & Other Media" to just "Box Office & Other Media". It's more non-Star Wars than it is Star Wars, and we do have the Amalgam thread for the specifically Star Wars stuff.
I agree with this suggestion - I was going to suggest this myself if people were keen with invetigating a revision of all the forums we have here. :D


Merge all the non-Roleplay forums into one blob. We'll only have five or six left; and that way, the predominant waiting of visible forums will be towards the Roleplay side of things.<etc>
Wow, I thought I had some drastic ideas up my sleave but I think you've beaten me on that one. :cool:</etc>

I can see pros and cons with this:
Pros:
+ All non-RP traffic confined to a single forum, which would be a lot busier rather than have it all spread out over 5-6 separate forums.
+ Will put RPing front-and-centre as the main focus of the board (which it is in reality).
Cons:
- Can get a bit confusing having everything non-RP related in a single forum (as you'll have topics ranging from general, boxoffice, arts, gaming etc all in one area).
- Not everyone here roleplays; some visit only a particular forum or 2 (boxoffice in particular due to it's history with SW-Fans) - merging everything into one forum might risk alienating and pushing away these posters.
- Merging everything risks losing discussions on those topics - for example 'gaming' was barely talked about here until 'General Gaming' was added as a forum and people began to talk about stuff related to that. So if you were to merge forums like Boxoffice, Gaming, Arts etc together those discussions might decline.

(in case someone here retorts "but you're proposing getting rid of Collecting!" I'd qualify that suggestion by making the point that forum has pretty much given up the ghost so it's worthwhile investigating the removal/merge of it)

I think I'd be a bit wary of merging everything together at this stage - probably a bit too drastic. But I'd be interested in what others had to say. :)


Collecting being moved might warrant a "collecting" topic tag, for the odd thread that might come up, and for tagging the old ones?
That'd be a good idea. :thumbup

<etc></etc>

Atreyu
Feb 14th, 2010, 04:30:37 PM
BTW, I have posted threads linking to this discussion in Boxoffice (link (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=20487)), General Discussion (link (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=20488)), and RP Planning (link (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=20489)) to get more posters to way in on this discussion. :cool:

(I posted in those 3 forums to ensure we got the attention of a majority of people here, since I know there are some that stick to a particular area of SW-Fans)

Dasquian Belargic
Feb 14th, 2010, 05:37:53 PM
Is a collecting topic tag really necessary, given how little collecting is discussed at present? All of the collecting topics can be covered by existing tags anyway, as they currently are.

I would prefer to keep the Box Office forum seperate to Gaming and General discussion, but there's no reason why the Star Wars Amalgam forum couldn't be merged into the other discussion forums IMO. We discuss Star Wars stuff in those other forums already anyway.


How about something like:

- Box Office
- Gaming
- General Discussion

- Artists Forum
- SW RP
- Gen RP
- RP Discussion

- RPing Factions

Atreyu
Feb 14th, 2010, 05:57:45 PM
I think, in keeping with the fact we are a SW site, we should ideally have our SW-related forums near the top of the main page if possible.

So going by Dasquian's forum list, I'd propose the following arrangement:

- Operations & News

- SW Roleplaying
- General Roleplaying
- Roleplaying Discussion

- Roleplaying Groups

- General Discussion
- Boxoffice & Media
- General Gaming
- Starving Artists

My only concern with this arrangement is the Roleplaying Groups - having a big list of groups in the middle would look a bit tacky. Maybe we could have all the groups made as sub-forums under a single 'Roleplaying Groups' main forum? (in which case, rather than a separate category it could go just under the other roleplaying forums)

Dasquian Belargic
Feb 14th, 2010, 06:00:25 PM
I'd rather not push Gen Discussion, etc to the bottom of the forum listing. If nothing else, they actually get more activity than the individual RPing groups forums.

I played with the layout of the RPing forums themselves already, so you should see a difference for the way they're set out on the main forum listing.

Tear
Feb 14th, 2010, 06:09:37 PM
I'd rather not push Gen Discussion, etc to the bottom of the forum listing. If nothing else, they actually get more activity than the individual RPing groups forums.

I played with the layout of the RPing forums themselves already, so you should see a difference for the way they're set out on the main forum listing.

I liked Dasq's arrangement. Its simplified version of what we have now.

Atreyu
Feb 14th, 2010, 06:14:40 PM
General Discussion certainly does - the other 'General' forums though, not so much.

Maybe we could retitle General Discussion into something more SW-like, and put it up the top?

I don't think we should list our forums in rank of popularity though - indeed by far the vast majority of message boards I've visited online have their most heavily populated forums near the bottom (no surprise, as this is usually where you find 'General Discussion' etc type forums located which always get the most traffic)

Dasquian Belargic
Feb 14th, 2010, 06:18:19 PM
Like you said, I'm just wary of putting the RPing Factions in the middle of the other two categories, because it's such a bulk of forums. I don't really want to make them sub-forums either, because they are already full of sub-forums themselves... and without them on the main page, the forum listing is going to look a little sparse.

As for renaming forums.. if anyone has suggestions for new names, fire em off. Can't promise they will be renamed but there's no harm in hearing peoples ideas :)

Sudoku
Feb 14th, 2010, 06:19:06 PM
SomethingAwful has it's general forum right at the top. It's really popular. ;)

Atreyu
Feb 14th, 2010, 06:27:21 PM
TFN has it's general forum in the middle - it's also really popular. :p

I think we had a list of possible alternative names for a general discussion forum way back whenever (like, 2001-2002):

Cantina
Anchorhead
Tosche Station
Echo Base
Rendezvous Point (this ended up being used by the then-GJO)
Docking Bay 94

... pretty much any SW location which would indicate a gathering of people was the overriding theme.


I don't really want to make them sub-forums either, because they are already full of sub-forums themselves... and without them on the main page, the forum listing is going to look a little sparse. That's fair enough - I agree if you want to keep all the groups listed on the main page then my proposal won't really look right.

How's this for a compromise?

- Operations & News

- General Discussion (aka. Anchorhead, Cantina, Docking Bay 94, whatever ...)
- Boxoffice & Media
- General Gaming
- Starving Artists

- SW Roleplaying
- General Roleplaying
- Roleplaying Discussion

- Roleplaying Groups

Yog
Feb 14th, 2010, 07:07:37 PM
Operations & News should probably not be at the top (a forum with only 955 posts), but other than, it looks good. I'd personally put Operations & News at the bottom. Your other ideas are good as as well. I like Anchorhead as a name for General Discussion. You could have poll for choosing the most popular SW sounding name.

Edit - actually, scratch that, you might as well put it in the general category, thus you get 3 main categories:

General
- General Discussion (aka. Anchorhead, Cantina, Docking Bay 94, whatever ...)
- Boxoffice & Media
- General Gaming
- Starving Artists
- Operations & News

Roleplaying
- SW Roleplaying
- General Roleplaying
- Roleplaying Discussion
- Roleplaying Archives

Roleplaying Factions
- The Hive
- The Jedi Enclave
- Empire/Rebellion
- Dark Mosaic

Atreyu
Feb 14th, 2010, 07:22:53 PM
I thought it would be better on top, because otherwise it's be stuck way down the bottom under all the RP groups and get forgotten about.

Having said that though, do we even need Operations & News?

The Communications forum is pretty much only ever used to request name changes once every now and then, and Portal News is only there for the entrance page (so we can pretty much shove it anywhere - it's not intended to be used as a discussion forum). On the off chance someone does have a suggestion half the time its gets posted in one of the main forums anyway.

Maybe we can get rid of Communications, and push Portal News to the very bottom?

(I do think however if we keep Communications it's better on top than on the bottom - at the very bottom it's just going to be forgotten about).

EDIT: just saw Yog's edit - maybe although I think it still gets lost in the shuffle amongst the other forums (which again is probably why it barely gets used these days).

Yog
Feb 14th, 2010, 07:33:32 PM
It's mainly used for moderation / admin requests though (such as changing character name). I guess news is what the main portal (http://www.sw-fans.net/) is for. But no one ever posts news. And announcements are shown up as stickies in the forums anyway. v:)v

Atreyu
Feb 14th, 2010, 07:39:34 PM
Hmmm, maybe people can just PM their requests, or if need be use the main discussion forum?

Gets rid of another barely used forum. Come to think of it, I've seen a number of sites that operate fine without a communications (or equivalent) forum.

Regarding Portal News, yes it's linked to the news feed on the main page. As for lack of news posts, I actually raised that issue about a year ago (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=19268) - maybe it needs another look (my proposal then was to simply have the news feed linked directly to our SW Roleplaying forum - that way you are always ensured of posts every day, and since we're a primarily SW site it fits the theme)

Yog
Feb 14th, 2010, 07:54:14 PM
The way I see, it there are only two ways to solve the news issue.

1. You need some really active people posting them (those don't grow on trees). If I were a correspondent, I would probably only post non RP and non SW stuff, so I would probably not be a good candidate.

or

2. Get some sort of an automated feed of what's going on at the forums (like you suggested).



Edit: on the note of #2, there is a recent thread box on the portal, but I am guessing that's not exactly what you have in mind.

Atreyu
Feb 14th, 2010, 08:02:49 PM
Edit: on the note of #2, there is a recent thread box on the portal, but I am guessing that's not exactly what you have in mind. Not really, my idea a year ago was to have the actual News item be drawn directly from the SW RP forum - I made this suggestion on the memory of when we first moved to vB back in 2001 where Nup and Ogre had it linked to that forum as a temporary measure.

(in other words, where the News is, it would show the 1st post of the most recently created RP thread - thereby ensuring that there would be a new item at least every couple of days as people continue to post new RP threads)

Having said that, our portal news was last updated in mid-January, which isn't really that long ago, and has more or less seen regular updates every 1-2 months. I guess it's a question of how often it needs to be updated and whether that update schedule is still too slow.

Yog
Feb 14th, 2010, 08:10:02 PM
I guess your idea about RP thread thing on portal is better than news updates every month or so..

Personally, I think in order for a news portal to be useful, there should be updates every few days or so, rather than months. That is why I never look at the portal, just the main forum index. :p

Dasquian Belargic
Feb 15th, 2010, 01:43:47 AM
With regard to the news portal... what kind of news would you want to see on the front page? Real world news, or RPing related news? If it's the former, I wouldn't say that's really the focus of our forums. The latter... I'm not sure there is enough 'news' to generate something every few days. Currently, we have a few wonderful members contributing content as and when they can, but unless someone volunteers to post news on a much more regular basis, I can't see it happening.

I don't think that really reflects badly on us, though. The portal does show that there is activity every day, within the forums themselves.

What about, for example, if we incorporated something to do with the Wiki into the Operations/News forum?

Atreyu
Feb 15th, 2010, 04:54:07 AM
That's a possible idea. Again it really depends how often we expect it 'should' be updated - backtracking through all the old News posts it seems Dakota kept up fairly well up until around August last year, then dropped off a bit until starting again in December and into January (though nothing yet for February).

Anyways, this discussion seems to veer every which way depending on the latest suggestion. So I've edited my original post with a (hopefully) easy-to-follow summary of all the ideas that have been presented so far including original author plus the reaction (so far) to them. :) I'm hoping we can get some more input into the suggestions made here, plus even some other ideas that we may not have considered yet.

Yog
Feb 15th, 2010, 05:56:14 AM
I like the idea of integrating the Wiki. :thumbup


With regard to the news portal... what kind of news would you want to see on the front page? Real world news, or RPing related news?
I was thinking more like community news, such as LD's movie polls, Burning Nerd updates, Box office / NFL pickem contest, "post a pic of yourself", stuff like that.

Dasquian Belargic
Feb 15th, 2010, 12:39:10 PM
Integrating the wiki, and a lot of other ideas, are based around two factors as far as I see it.

1) Participation. As has been mentioned, Dakota Gue has been writing us wonderful updates now and then - but this is a purely voluntary thing, that she does as and when she has the inspiration to do so. I know that others have expressed interest in writing 'news' for the Portal, whether that be IC articles like Dakota's, or something else entirely - but as always, it is down to the posters themselves exactly what kind of content they provide, and when. If you personally would like to contribute to something like this, by all means let the staff know :)

2) Technology. Is it possible to make the forum do what we want it to? Are there existing hacks and whatnot that will allow us to integrate various aspects of the forum into the portal? Ogre is the most knowledgeable in this respect, so any ideas we dream up would have to be ultimately vetted through the Big Green One.



The other points you have mentioned Atreyu, I will save commenting on for now. I'd like to hear more from the rest of the forums :)

Tear
Feb 15th, 2010, 12:50:27 PM
That's a possible idea. Again it really depends how often we expect it 'should' be updated - backtracking through all the old News posts it seems Dakota kept up fairly well up until around August last year, then dropped off a bit until starting again in December and into January (though nothing yet for February).


Dakota's being doing an amazing job of it. Especially since it was never asked of her in the first place. She just stepped up to the plate and filled the role.

If you want more or expect more frequent updates I suggest filling that role by providing the content.



I was thinking more like community news, such as LD's movie polls, Burning Nerd updates, Box office / NFL pickem contest, "post a pic of yourself", stuff like that.

I could see a bi-weekly summary post of those community events you mentioned. Like the most "hot topics" on the boards from each forum, like gaming or RP discussion:

ie: check out the Bioshock 2 thread or the new Sith order planning thread.

Again this would need to be actively done by someone in the community and done diligently enough not to just spam garbage over the portal. Because, lets be honest here, these forums can be slow at times and posting empty updates just for the sake of updates might shove something like the dakota reports(which takes time and effort to create) down into oblivion for no one to see.

Atreyu
Feb 15th, 2010, 03:27:00 PM
Again this would need to be actively done by someone in the community and done diligently enough not to just spam garbage over the portal. This. More stuff on the portal is great, but it has to be relevant and of interest.

::thinks::

Maybe we can do something as simple as keep and eye out for threads of interest (such as Tear's examples) and simply copy the initial first post, create a new thread within the portal news plus a direct link to the original discussion?



Forming a new Jedi Order (posted in RP Discussion)
It has now come time for all Jedi to form and blah blah blah blah ... (rest of post)

::Poster copies initial post::

::reposts in News Portal::

Forming a new Jedi Order
It has now come time for all Jedi to form and blah blah blah blah ... (rest of post)
To follow this discussion click here



Would that work?

My next question would be what's the requirements to post in the News forum? (I assume not everyone can just go and create a new thread when they feel like it)

Dasquian Belargic
Feb 15th, 2010, 03:33:23 PM
Threads posted to the Frontpage News forum currently require moderator approval. So, I believe anyone could post a thread in there but a moderator would have to approve it before it appeared on the portal.

Atreyu
Feb 15th, 2010, 03:35:06 PM
That would work quite alright then. :)

Atreyu
Feb 16th, 2010, 06:47:51 PM
Just read s'Il's idea for a sports forum in the Collecting poll thread - I've made my comments there.

However, it's brought up another idea. S'Il has suggested naming the sports forum Coruscant Sports Bar or The Player's Lounge or something along those lines.

My idea - could we do this with our other 'general' forums too? I've already made the suggestion of renaming 'General Discussion' to something a bit more SW-like. Could we also do this with forums like General Gaming as well? (I dunno, maybe 'Play Free or Die Hard' ... ok maybe that's lame but you get my point :p). Maybe even Boxoffice & Other Media can get similar treatment?


EDIT: borrowing Yog's proposed forum layout from earlier, it could look something like this:

General
- Anchorhead / Tosche Station / Cantina / whatever SW name we come up with
- Boxoffice & Media (can't think of a name - what was the name for the opera thing Palpatine and Anakin saw in Ep. 3? ... EDIT: it was the Galaxies Opera House)
- Coruscant Sports Bar
- Play Free or Die Hard
- Starving Artists Apartment
- Operations & News

Roleplaying
- SW Roleplaying
- General Roleplaying
- Roleplaying Discussion
- Roleplaying Archives

Roleplaying Factions
- The Hive
- The Jedi Enclave
- Empire/Rebellion
- Dark Mosaic

Lilaena De'Ville
Feb 16th, 2010, 06:52:33 PM
I suggested the renaming thing a few years ago and the other admins shot it down. I am in favor of it though. :)

Atreyu
Feb 16th, 2010, 06:54:52 PM
Why do I have the feeling I was one of those admins? :o

Lilaena De'Ville
Feb 16th, 2010, 07:20:54 PM
You weren't. :mneh It was after your time. I don't think we were admins at the same time. ;)

Atreyu
Feb 16th, 2010, 10:46:50 PM
Oh good :: phew :: :D

Done a bit more tinkering with suggested forum names. I think we might be able to get a full SW-name theme happening with pretty much all of them, which would suit us as a SW site.

Here's my latest list:

General
- Anchorhead / Tosche Station / Cantina / etc (General Discussion)
- Galaxies Opera House (Boxoffice & Other Media) **
- Coruscant Sports Bar (Sports)
- The Trench Run (General Gaming) ***
- Starving Artists Apartment (same)
- Operations & News (same)

Roleplaying
- SW Roleplaying
- General Roleplaying
- Roleplaying Discussion

Roleplaying Groups
- The Jedi Enclave
- Empire/Rebellion
- The Hive
- Dark Mosaic
- Roleplaying Archives



**Galaxies Opera House - from Ep 3 where Palpatine and Anakin met (and Palpatine told him about Darth Plagueis
***The Trench Run - there's an iPhone SW game called this, plus was a level in the Rebel Assault games

Dasquian Belargic
Feb 17th, 2010, 01:48:15 AM
I've put up a topic in Gen Disc to take suggestions on what to name the forum, since Big Green has given that the go-ahead.

Adding a sports forum seems like a neat idea :)

Atreyu
Feb 17th, 2010, 04:53:40 AM
Bit late now, but I would have thought it'd be better to first see if my proposed 'SW-theme' naming for all the general forums was a goer first, as that would dictate what naming we would want to use.

Oh well. :)

Atreyu
Feb 18th, 2010, 05:31:39 AM
Just updated the original post. :)

Few things of interest - after some initial suggestions there seems to have been a bit of a pile on of 'No' answers on renaming of General Discussion. The topic still hasn't finished yet but I think it's looking clear it's a no go. In addition, some people jump started the gun on the other general forums and this has also attracted negative feedback (so far).

So overall it looks doubtful suggestions #9 and #12 will be going ahead. Oh well. :)

Moving on, do we want to raise the question on SW Amalgam's future? We should also put to a vote whether we want a sports forum or not. Also, do we need to vote of removing the 'SW' in SW Boxoffice & Other Media, or should the admins just do it? (indeed going back to what I mentioned earlier there seems to be little interest in keeping 'Star Warsy' like names for the forums as a whole)

I don't think we need to vote on the forum layout - this will be naturally dictated by what forums we have remaining after all these suggestions are looked at. If someone really has an issue with how things look afterward they can raise the issue then.

Finally, I've withdrawn my suggestion regarding Communications - it was merely an offhand idea related to the discussion here but considering no one else has even commented on it I'm not bothered in pursuing it.

TheHolo.Net
Feb 18th, 2010, 09:11:35 AM
I have yet to contribute so I will with something very non-complicated and non-committal.

I am willing to make any changes as decided by the community. :D

Crusader
Feb 18th, 2010, 10:05:04 AM
This is a tough thing in my opinion:
1. The SW forum is dead since we are not waiting for any big movies and we are not having vivid discussions about this awesome TV show a lot more people should check out (OK I said it... you can start throwing rocks at me now but the Clone Wars is the best peace of SW since 1997 because it cares about the OT)

End of Rant

The point is it is not really necessary to exist on its own if it does not get weekly attention(I mean real attention and not a SW related cartoon picture!).

2. Throw the SW out of the BO and other Media Forums because we don't talk about SW there either

3. If 1. and 2. is realized the non roleplaying people might lose the connection to SW that is suggested by the URL but time will tell if they really give a damn.

So the bottom line is: Are we mature enough to say that this is a place that started as a SW forum but has now become a community hub for people that like to discus movies, video games and life and occasionaly SW. And maybe some of these people do some SW related RP.

End of Rant 2

Lilaena De'Ville
Feb 18th, 2010, 12:33:14 PM
I think our Clone Wars cartoon discussion thread is in the Box Office forum - it should probably be moved if that's the case.

Dasquian Belargic
Feb 18th, 2010, 01:58:25 PM
I am in favour of the Star Wars forum being merged with others.

Atreyu
Feb 18th, 2010, 04:34:27 PM
3. If 1. and 2. is realized the non roleplaying people might lose the connection to SW that is suggested by the URL but time will tell if they really give a damn.

So the bottom line is: Are we mature enough to say that this is a place that started as a SW forum but has now become a community hub for people that like to discus movies, video games and life and occasionaly SW. And maybe some of these people do some SW related RP.

End of Rant 2 I see your point, and I am also concerned about the drop in the 'Star Warsiness' of the board if some of these changes are adopted. My proposed solution to alleviate this somewhat was a rename of all the general forums to a SW-theme but the vote so far suggests I'm in the minority on that idea. Again YMMV.

My original idea was at least to have our roleplaying forums locate at the top of the board (since we are, afterall, primarily a SW roleplaying site) so that visitors (and regulars) would see what our primary function is, however that idea didn't take off either.
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Just going back to the General Discussion rename discussion (blah what a tongue tie) I did a quick count up of the posts - there were 9 definite "No's" vs 7 posts that proposed new names (and by that extension I would assume means they support a rename). There were also a couple that suggested names but I'm not sure were supposed to be serious or not so didn't count them.

Is that enough to warrant a proper vote thread by poll, or should the suggestion just be abandoned completely?

(BTW if it does go to a poll I think you should let people vote for multiple choices - I know I like a couple of different names that I'd be happy with either)

Crusader
Feb 19th, 2010, 05:02:56 AM
I am not concerned about the drop of Star Warsiness on this forums actually I see it as a positiv development to a certain degree that is what I meant with becoming more mature.
My personal intrest in SW reached a real low after 2006 and my love for SW was kind of restored lately but it is not at the point where it used to be.
Changing the forums structure in order to make it more accessable and efficient is just a natural thing.

Atreyu
Feb 19th, 2010, 05:09:08 AM
I am not concerned about the drop of Star Warsiness on this forums actually I see it as a positiv development to a certain degree that is what I meant with becoming more mature.
Oh, sorry then :o. I completely misread your entire rant. ^_^;

I don't see the level of SW-iness this place has as a sign of our maturity however.

Liam Jinn
Feb 19th, 2010, 08:24:24 PM
Well for me, it's like I grew out of the "OMG Star Wars!" thing, and along the way found a place where I could discuss other things on the internet with people I like and grew up with. I like how there's non-Star Warsy forums, I feel like the board is grew up with me.

Not quite sure why you want to change things up in the first place, get bored?

See? I post sometimes! More beer!

Atreyu
Feb 22nd, 2010, 07:51:15 PM
Just updated the suggestions list again. Been a few things happening over the last couple of days, including the removal of Collecting and the dropping of 'SW' in the title of Boxoffice & Other Media.

Fair thee well Collecting forum, it was great having you over these last 11 years. :: salutes :: :cry

Poll on SW Amalgam still going for anyone reading this and hasn't voted yet. Those in favour of removal are (at present) 3 votes ahead, but it remains to be seen if that is enough of a majority to act or not.

Finally, an amusing mistake I've noticed: the main page has been slightly reorganised, but now the Starving Artists Apartment is located in the Roleplaying section??? O_o :huh :lol (of course, what's happened is that someone has simply renamed Creative > Roleplaying but left it as that not realising there's a non-RP forum still sitting in there :))