Thread: Is it time for this?

In light of, um...recent events, I can't help but wonder if Turbine shouldn't reconsider their forum software. Even a complete non-techie like me can see that Vbulletin's system is flawed in more ways than one.

The website my kinship calls home recently ditched Vbulletin in favor of Xenforo which we're enjoying very much. I believe someone last night posted that Xenforo was developed by some former Vbulletin devs, in fact. Another site I am involved in (Note: I'm just a forum moderator and don't know much about the technical side of things; bear with me) uses IPB which is also great.

I understand a transition like this would be very complex and very expensive as well; after all, there are two other games involved here. But if it could be managed, it may go a long way to restoring this great community which I've loved from day one and wish to see continue to grow and thrive.

You can probably correctly guess my vote from my sig... as long as the ENTIRE community site is revamped.

Oh, without a doubt. MyLOTRO has been a mess for over a year now, and I haven't even attempted to use the Lorebook for a long, long time.

It won't be easy, but I'm hoping someone at Turbine might think it's worthwhile.

Yes it is! Fix this mess! (and welcome back Tanith--long time no see )

Thank you. I've been here, just distracted by work, helping some friends get a Diablo III site up and running, and the Portal games, of all things.

This little hobbit is not easily daunted!

I have honestly given up hope on anyone spending any time to work on this forum.


LOTRO site and forum=ostrich head in sand.

I agree the forum and lorebook are cumbersome but even doing the little maintenance jobs could make our lives happier.

For example, the minstrel class forum pages have a great guide prepared by Cloudie-wan on changes post ROI, with screenshots and explanations. There are dozens of requests to sticky it-but no, the stickies still date back to pre 2011 Minstrel skills and are utterly confusing for new and newly returned players. There isn't even a link in the minstrel resources sticky thread to this guide.

So, it is bumped to page 1 regularly, by the players because no one responsible for the maintenance of class threads apparently cares....................... or is it that it is really difficult to sticky a thread with max rep and usefulness?......... either way, something needs to be done about these fundamentals.

I just wish that when I click on open page in new tab, that page would actually open, rather than a new tab opening with the same page I am already one.

Originally Posted by Calta

I agree the forum and lorebook are cumbersome but even doing the little maintenance jobs could make our lives happier.

For example, the minstrel class forum pages have a great guide prepared by Cloudie-wan on changes post ROI, with screenshots and explanations. There are dozens of requests to sticky it-but no, the stickies still date back to pre 2011 Minstrel skills and are utterly confusing for new and newly returned players. There isn't even a link in the minstrel resources sticky thread to this guide.

So, it is bumped to page 1 regularly, by the players because no one responsible for the maintenance of class threads apparently cares....................... or is it that it is really difficult to sticky a thread with max rep and usefulness?......... either way, something needs to be done about these fundamentals.

Turbine will no longer sticky a thread and, as far as I know, doesn't do maintenance on any thread except perhaps for a few official Turbine threads.

Turbine's stance on forum performance and features is abysmal. I cannot believe I have a 4 1/2" border on each side of the forum page. It's 2011, almost 2012, not freaking 1997. And taking out the post history from the CP. Sad, just really sad.

Not to hijack this thread, but this game needs way more than new forums.

Originally Posted by Followthelight

Not to hijack this thread, but this game needs way more than new forums.

The folks like Duwis that work on the web features are not going to do anything for the game software. They may not have the correct skills to work on the game software.

Asking the web designers to work on the game software kind like asking folks in the body shop at a dealer to go up to the service department fix engines and stuff. Does not work very well. It is a management decision to have too few game designers and web designers for the required work load.

I do not see a switch different forum software in the workd. Turbine does not have the resouces to scrap what they got. Start over. They obviously do not have the resources to finish the web site functionality.There is no management interest in funding a "Complete the work" project.

I agree with you. If Turbine finds some more dollars to apply to an aspect of the game. I would like it applied to game content. I have a bad feeling, that any extra funds will go to new premium items being sold in the Lotro store. There is an easy Return On Investment (ROI) calculation for expense to revenue in store items.

Originally Posted by Yula_the_Mighty

I have a bad feeling, that any extra funds will go to new premium items being sold in the Lotro store. There is an easy Return On Investment (ROI) calculation for expense to revenue in store items.

... greetings to you, comrad Yula

... right, dont resist any longer ... come to us we also have cookies ... ^^

btw. I would have given you some rep, if your green stuff wouldn be long enough already
(if they would place the 'online status' line under the 'reputation line', it would somehow make more sense)

+1 this website/forum is utterly dreadful

All it would take is for some finance blockhead to realize how much potential revenue they are flushing down the toilet by providing a community service that is so sub-par it would be funny if it didn't affect our enjoyment of the game. I can't begin to imagine how many are put off by what they see here, and the lack of services available to players. Just look at the Lorebook. I take that as an insult, it's really that bad. Idea: sign a deal with and give exclusive rights to Curse, and give them a *complete* database dump of all items, NPCs and so on, and have them come up with a LotroHead for you. That'd be a good start. Just don't repeat the Bioware fiasco with them, e.g. give them beta dumps shock full of bad data. Only *live* data.

The "beta" state for the forum and the state of the Lorebook is a bad joke

At least give all of that to some Lotro-fans and let them do the job, they will be happy to do it for sure !
(It's a shame having to say that about an "official" site of such a big game from a big company).

I fear that it is too late for any of this. Before they updated the community site we had many more people coming to the general, Brandywine and class forums. Once they "upgraded" many, many forum goers quit logging on. When asked why they all gave the same reply: the site is too slow and buggy now. They actually chased many players away with these upgrades and no one seems to bother with the Lorebook which is a shame since it has plenty of potential to be a great tool.

Really though it's too late to save the forum population I'm afraid.