Merge Collecting and Replica Props?

[TheHolo.Net]

** Davwj edit: Split from other thread. **

Maybe we should also consider merging Replica Props and Collecting if neither forum picks up in posting neaer the release of Ep II?

[Champion of the Force]

You mean something like Collecting & Replica Props?

Wouldn't bother me - looks like we're not going to lose a forum afterall since most posters want the current discussion forum left as is but renamed as 'Miscellaneous' or something for people to test sigs etc.

[Jedi Master Carr]

That would work IMO and the same with Collecting and the props forum, are there any diehards that might contest, I guess we would have to ask Jedieb when he comes back from his holiday break.

[Champion of the Force]

I managed to catch up with Jeseth's thread in Replica Props. Hez had an interesting comment to make:

http://www.swforums.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11449

This is what concerns me the most - the new RPF expects us to link to them as they do us and if we remove the replica props forum here w'ere going to have to find another way to link to them (that they like).

I don't like what Hez suggests though - using the forum title to link directly to another forum is bad IMHO since a casual browser may get whisked away to another place without knowing what's going on. I know the roleplaying groups all do it but for a place like this I'd rather try and avoid the practice.

As for the merge, well after a bit of thought we could probably get away with just calling the united forum plain old Collecting. Replica Props would probably come underneath that type of name and wouldn't need its own special title in the forum name.

Besides, we may want to avoid having multiple forums with the names of 'Topic 1 & Topic 2' since it may look as though we're attempting to over generalise the place. :\

[TheHolo.Net]

We could do the merge as you suggest and still leave a link to the forum in the description, just changing the wording of it some.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Works for me, do you think we will have a problem from any of the posters though, or is the traffic such that it probably wouldn't even be noticed.

[Champion of the Force]

Well there won't be any problems from the propsters - they've all left for the new RPF.

I can't see any collectors complaining either (considering there's only, like, 3 of them) but maybe QuiGonJ or someone might make a comment regarding it. :: shrugs ::

I can't see any problems if we just merge the 2 and call the united forum Collecting. It's the linking to the new RPF that's going to be tricky. If we do put it in the description it'll probably need its own explanation as well of where the link leads to - we can't do it like we do it now since we've got the collecting description as well to think about. :\

[TheHolo.Net]

We could make a Category that goes right underneath the Star Wars section that links, Categories can also have descriptions, which a banner type link could be included in, though with the category centering we have set in most styles(scratch that I have an idea how to defeat that for a single category).

There is another idea of the table for a way to link to them, but it would probably take almost as much real estate as having the forum, though not quite if we didn't include a banner and only had a small description for it.

[Champion of the Force]

Do you mean something like the RPF does to link to us?

It could work - provided that every 2nd person doesn't ask for their forums to be linked as well. |I

[TheHolo.Net]

Yeah, we can probably do it like they have it.

[TheHolo.Net]

I have merged the forums and created a link for the Replica Props board, including an image like they have (though the image is only in some of our styles [most of them]).

The link to their forum has been added to the Special Features section and includes a brief description of their forums stolen and modified slightly from their own forum description.

[Jedieb]

Sorry I'm so late to the party. I was actually going to speak against merging the two. I'm one of the few posters that visits the collecting forum on a regular basis. It's a different beast from Replica Props. The Collecting section was nowhere near as popular as Props in it's heyday. You've got two very different groups of posters. I would think that the RP posters would overwhelm the collecting posters.

But if the Replica Props posters are being redirected anyway then there sholdn't be a problem.

[TheHolo.Net]

The RPF people have moved on to their own board, thus the reason for the merge and link to their forums.

[Champion of the Force]

I think the RPF link may be better served if it was in its own little section rather than in between Who's Online and the stats where it can easily be missed.

I honestly didn't even notice it until I read this thread (and I've been regularly looking at the who's online section yet still missed it).

We could probably put in links to the RPG database and SW.com and make a specific 'Links' section.

[TheHolo.Net]

I originally did do the link as a category one and it looked bad. I was unable to do it where it had the link on one side and the image on the other because Forum names and descriptions have character limits, and it was hard to modify specifically for each style to fit in properly, thus my decision to put it in the special features. It also looked odd in some styles just because it was a lone category sitting at either the bottom, or under the Star Wars section, right above the roleplaying section.

I would prefer not to add any other links lest we end up with people requesting to have links to their pages or forums all the time and it gets out of hand. :x

[Hez]

Sorry I missed this, I don't check in anywhere near as regular as I used to. :b

Link looks ok where it is, although I would have just suggested a flat out deletion rather than merging the two forums. I suppose it gives some reference material for anyone who comes here and doesn't see the link though, so thats cool. :)

[Champion of the Force]

it was hard to modify specifically for each style to fit in properly, thus my decision to put it in the special features.
Failing that then, can it be placed underneath the Forum Statistics rather than in between online and stats? It's easy to miss and even when noticed looks a little odd in its current position.

Alternatively, could we just put in a link at the top/bottom of the board like we've done for all the Star Wars styles with their links?

[TheHolo.Net]

I can place it underneath the stats section easily enough. But the alternative solution you suggest would not be quite as easy. Not “all” of our styles have links at the top and bottom similar to our “star Wars” styles and the Star Wars styles would be a little difficult to modify to include a link.