Thread: Devs: Please sub-divided the Suggestion thread - it's a blackhole for good ideas

EDIT: Sorry about the incorrect usage of "sub-divided" in the thread name. Should read "sub-divide".

I have mentioned this before but will continue to re-visit the topic from time to time until 1) it happens or 2) we reach Mordor

Please, please, please sub-divide the Suggestion forum into some broad and general topics. As it stands, the Suggestion forum is a black-hole of good ideas. If things were sub-divided into general topics, conversations and topics would be easier to find for both community members and Devs. So, can we get some sub-divisions?

Community members...speak up if you agree.

There was a thread in this forum a year or two ago, where we tried to organize all the topics. I searched for it, but couldn't find it; maybe it got pruned. Those categories would have been a very good starting point for sub-forums.

In any case, some organization here would be nice.

/signed

And if we can have a "dead horse" section where the countless threads about world PvP and flying mounts go to die...

/double signed.

Being well-experienced in forums for community-driven suggestions I can tell you that it'll be regarded the same way sticky threads are...basically not at all.

People as a whole are always looking to find the path of least resistance and therefor they will almost always look for the quickest solution possible, in this case they'll post whatever forces the least resistance.

Stickies, and sub-divided forums as you suggest, are almost always overlooked and generally disregarded, perfect examples would be all over the Account Support area and the Lottery sub-forums where people continually ask the same question despite it being already answered in a sticky.

A sub-divided forum for what you're suggestion won't alleviate the 'black hole'-ness of the overall forum, it'll actually just create multiples of it. You're going to have people posting multiple times in each area, you're going to have people sticking to just posting in one category even if it's not the right one, etc etc.

I'd be all for what you suggest if only it'd work, but over 20 years on community boards tells me that it's something that will only exist in a pipe-dream.

Originally Posted by Belias_Lassiter

/signed

And if we can have a "dead horse" section where the countless threads about world PvP and flying mounts go to die...

Now, there's an idea. And the moderators could scan over the new suggestions every day and drop such threads right into the oubliette.

Originally Posted by DarkCntry

Being well-experienced in forums for community-driven suggestions I can tell you that it'll be regarded the same way sticky threads are...basically not at all.

It is interesting to watch how many threads are started in general. The moderators move them to the correct forum. Causing distress for the author. In some cases, the thread now gets completely ignored it on a narrow topic, inactive, ignored speciality forum.

One such example is the profession forums under crafting. Some of those forums never got post in September. It hardly worth having a sub forum when you are only getting 3 posts a month.

There's really not enough traffic in suggestions. Usually the entire days worth of threads is on the front page.

Hmmm... How about sub-divisions:

a. Good Suggestions

b. Bad Suggestions

c. Not Really Suggestions At All

d. Dead Horse Suggestions

I wonder where people would post new threads....

--W. H. Heydt

Old Used Programmer

Originally Posted by whheydt

Hmmm... How about sub-divisions:

a. Good Suggestions

b. Bad Suggestions

c. Not Really Suggestions At All

d. Dead Horse Suggestions

I wonder where people would post new threads....

--W. H. Heydt

Old Used Programmer

most would post on A. because let's face it even a bad suggestion the poster useally thinks is awesome, a good example (course this one would fall under dead horse) would be world PVP and flying mounts. the people who post those ideas are genuinely convinced they're needed to "save the game"

[QUOTE=whheydt;5687546I wonder where people would post new threads....

--W. H. Heydt

Old Used Programmer[/QUOTE]They would always go in A. The moderators would have to move some of them to b, c, or d. Each move would result in a complaint thread in general - Why did you move my good suggestion? Followed by lots of flame posts. A thread closure and infraction.

If they do not move the thread, you will see posts like - Please repost in B.

Hardly seems worth the effort of forum creation given the problems and extra work it would cause.

Maybe they should just have a moderator dedicated to the suggestions forum. That person could merge all the new threads about a topic into existing ones, so instead of 14 threads of "leveling is too fast", there'd be just one. Or "racial traits are broken" or "here's a new class that's been suggested 9 times before", or....

you get the idea

I note that a couple of posters understood my point...and why breaking up the Suggestions forums wouldn't really work.

--W. H. Heydt

Old Used Programmer

Originally Posted by Yula_the_Mighty

Hardly seems worth the effort of forum creation given the problems and extra work it would cause.

Indeed. We have enough problems with people posting in the wrong areas now. This certainly wouldnt help things.

I second this!

./thumbs WAY up

....Then you'd have the fight over who gets to decide which ideas are good ones, and which ones are lame, and which dead horse needs to go to the glue factory yet AGAIN, etc. ad nauseum...at least now they're all in one spot, instead of scattered all over the place...

...and it would end up being just like it is now, because naturally the person posting the suggestion, no matter * what * it is and how long they've been wearing that tinfoil hat, is certain that it's just what's needed to pull the game back from the brink of shutting down...

/unsigned

/Signed

I think sub-categorizing suggestion forums is a very good idea because not all suggestions interest every single player who seem to enjoy a different aspect of the game. Say for example I never even read PVP suggestions because I have absolutely no interest in PVP but that doesnt mean that somebody's valuable suggestion on that topic should move to the too old pages that no one ever looks up. Off the top of my head it could go like this:
1- Raiding- Skirmishes- Instances
2- Classes- traits- skills - virtues
3- Reputation - Vendors
4- Cosmetics - Housing - Mounts
5- Role-Play - Emotes
6- PVP
7- Lotro Store
8- Other

Now that is only off the top of my head to give you a general idea, maybe I forgot some of the aspects or maybe I did not put them in a desirable order but you get the idea

Originally Posted by Belias_Lassiter

And if we can have a "dead horse" section where the countless threads about world PvP and flying mounts go to die...

Well, but you know people wouldn't post there. They'd post in General or the top level of Suggestions, if it had sub-levels, and some poor hard-working CR would have to move them.

Otherwise, lovely idea.

Maybe we could have one stickied thread with a list of stuff people have already suggested? In hopes of minimzing repeats?

Originally Posted by Moln

Maybe we could have one stickied thread with a list of stuff people have already suggested? In hopes of minimzing repeats?

The people who either haven't yet realized that this game will never have open-world PvP or flying mounts, or else WANT those things so passionately that they refuse to realize it, will post where they darned well please, and while they *might* necro a sticky thread, it's likelier that they'll start a new one. There's a new flying mounts thread that's only a dozen or two posts long right now.

We just have to accept that it's human nature to keep asking for stuff they can't have.

"Human nature, Mr. Alnutt, is something we are put into this world to rise above."
-- The African Queen

/signed

Something like in this ideas forum( http://forum.en.grepolis.com/forumdisplay.php?8-Ideas )would be nice, with the rules explained here( http://forum.en.grepolis.com/showthr...Before-Posting ). With mods enforcing rules in this section, it would be a lot easier to read and understand.

These forums have far too many "subdivisions" as it is, and Suggestions is one that actually has about the "right" amount of traffic to justify its existence - maybe 6-10 new threads per day, on average. New ideas can routinely stay on the front page for a week, sometimes longer. Hardly a "black hole".

If they wanted to improve communications on the forums, they'd consolidate and get down to maybe 2-3 dozen, total. People don't know where to post in 100+ subforums, and because they're so spread out, tons of people will just post in General Discussions in the hope that someone might actually read whatever they're trying to say in there.

Khafar