Simplify?

[Motley]

First up I am a really big fan of this forum and the community it is supporting. It was really needed and @Ben I am so glad you stepped up the plate and did it.

One little niggle I am finding is that there are almost too many sub forums, having separate sections for each alliance, general and now WQ, means that I need to now click in lots of places when I am grabbing a few minutes to check in on the forums. Are they all necessary? especially with the way AoS is so open and many more people are interested in each grand alliance. It is very easy to add a subforum for each new thing and it could soon get a bit unwieldy.

Anyway just something to keep in mind.

Cheers,

Dan.

[Dez]

I don't think it's unweildy yet at all, I like the way it's separated. For instance, I'm not interested in Death or Order so I can just skip them. I know if I want to find out info or ask a question about Destruction, I can just go to that subsection and I'll get a specialized answer.

What can help you out Dan is using the Activity button in the upper right corner. That way you can just scroll through activity, and read where you'd like

Hope that helped.

[hobgoblinclub]

It does mean you've got to click on a few forums, but the fact that you're clicking, implies you're interested.  It saves those who aren't interested in certain things from trawling through superfluous stuff.  At least the Grand Alliance system means we only need four forums.  It makes a site like this possible!  Imagine having 16, or however many armies 8th Edition had!

@Motley We've discussed new forums and, you'll be pleased to know, we won't be getting flooded with new ones.  Warhammer Quest got its own because it's so closely related to AoS. The forum list should be relatively stable.

[polarbear]

I do almost all my browsing through the very useful Activity section, which basically acts as a comprehensive singular forum. In general, I agree that fewer subforums is better and makes the place look more active. I think subforums should only be turned to when the activity is so high you can't keep up with threads on the main forum. 

[Bowlzee]

7 hours ago, polarbear said:

I do almost all my browsing through the very useful Activity section, which basically acts as a comprehensive singular forum. In general, I agree that fewer subforums is better and makes the place look more active. I think subforums should only be turned to when the activity is so high you can't keep up with threads on the main forum. 

I only use the activity browser, but as a moderator I need to read almost everything, so it's different for me. The problem with only splitting a forum when it gets high activity, is that someone, probably @Ben, would have to go through that whole forum splitting each topic in to the right sub forum.

I think what we have right now is great. Remember it's barely a month old. When it's been going for a few years, you will be glad it's all separated, and new users can browse old topics in the factions they want etc.

[Chris Tomlin]

As someone with projects for all 4 Grand Alliances I actually quite like the separation at the moment.

I also think that in months and years to come it will be a complete necessity due to volume of posts. 

[cb_rex]

When I fist came across the site I must admit it seemed a bit more complicated than the other forums I'm on, but after a while you learn your way around it.  I think being able to tag things is a great way to help filter content for users and I would encourage people to do so where appropriate, I was just wondering if theres a list of tags as it can help to keep the tags simplified to try and avoid have several very similar ones for things.

The other thing we could do with is some guidelines on how to best use the different sections.  There's a blog section where you can have a blog for example but then I've noticed that some people have started blogs in the painting a modeling section, this concerns me slightly as I have to check 2 places for blogs.  Also I'm not sure the best way to use the gallery, it seems best to post completed minis in there, but if we want to have work in progress shots is it best to have these sorted into an album?  I think thats how you do it, but I just think it would be useful if there were some guidelines on how to use the forums, where what type of content goes where and how to correctly tag it.

[Shane]

I solely use the Unread Content button on both mobile and web views.

If you don't already use it I strongly recommend it.

 

 

[hobgoblinclub]

8 hours ago, cb_rex said:

The other thing we could do with is some guidelines on how to best use the different sections.  There's a blog section where you can have a blog for example but then I've noticed that some people have started blogs in the painting a modeling section, this concerns me slightly as I have to check 2 places for blogs.  

I've noticed this too.  Hobby blogs are disappearing under the general painting chat.  With everything else being so well organised, it seems pretty cluttered to have these in two places.  @Ben?

[Motley]

Wow I seem to have generated quite a conversation here! Thanks guys.

 

[Dangermouse425]

On 18/05/2016 at 8:31 PM, hobgoblinclub said:

I've noticed this too.  Hobby blogs are disappearing under the general painting chat.  With everything else being so well organised, it seems pretty cluttered to have these in two places.  @Ben?

Agreed. I posted by Orruk plog under the Destruction subforum before I noticed there was a blog section. But perhaps it should be in the Painting and Modelling section? Where is the best place for it?

[HobbyHammer]

On 18 May 2016 at 9:38 PM, Dez said:

What can help you out Dan is using the Activity button in the upper right corner. That way you can just scroll through activity, and read where you'd like

Hope that helped.

Thank you! Didn't even know this existed until now! 

[Leviathus]

On 19-5-2016 at 9:31 PM, hobgoblinclub said:

I've noticed this too.  Hobby blogs are disappearing under the general painting chat.  With everything else being so well organised, it seems pretty cluttered to have these in two places.  @Ben?

I used the Painting and Modelling section to run a WIP thread for my Death Army, but started a blog on the Blog section for my Seraphon to add more stuff like batreps, fluff and artwork. That is my solution, but honestly in the beginning I had no clue where to start an army blog. So, if that could be more clarified/simplified that'd be great!

[Dangermouse425]

2 hours ago, Leviathus said:

I used the Painting and Modelling section to run a WIP thread for my Death Army, but started a blog on the Blog section for my Seraphon to add more stuff like batreps, fluff and artwork. That is my solution, but honestly in the beginning I had no clue where to start an army blog. So, if that could be more clarified/simplified that'd be great!

I wanted to create a few plogs to share my various armies and I'd love to know where the "proper" place is. @Ben, any guidance?

[hobgoblinclub]

I'd maybe put all your stuff under one blog. Start different threads for different models/projects? That way you're corralling interest in your stuff to one place. You could always do a blog per army, but I'm just going to create a post per unit for my chaos stuff I think. Unless anyone has a better solution? 

[Ben]

I'm not 100% sure how to handle blogs yet.  

I was very close to closing off that section before launch and adding it in later once I was settled on a good way to bring it in.  

The Blogs and Articles sections are going to be big parts of the site in future but I need to figure out how to get them set up to be most user-friendly (to writers and readers).

I guess you can ask yourself,  Do you already have a blog elsewhere for you hobby stuff?  If yes, then probably forum posts will suffice. If no, then great, you have one here now! You can use forum posts to share the things that you are posting on your blog (similar to the way any external blog might do)

 

 

 

[Dez]

That's a good way to handle it, kinda what I was considering handling things. Post a full entry of what you've done in your blog, then put a pic and a link to your blog in the Painting and/or other spots. 

[Ben]

5 hours ago, Dangermouse425 said:

I wanted to create a few plogs to share my various armies and I'd love to know where the "proper" place is. @Ben, any guidance?

In your case I would suggest that a blog is the perfect place. 

You could do it like this.

 

Blog - Dangermouse425's Blog

Forum posts - check out my cool WiP.  Post pics, take part in discussions

Blog posts - heres my finished works of ****** army.

I think forum posts are best for 'current' discussions an date blog will be better for a lasting archive of all your stuff.  You also have a blog to refer people back to at a later date rather than trying to dig out an old forum post.  You could also post forum thread links in your blog.