FYI: Fall Forum Clean-up- Changes to forums - UPDATED

[dizziedobsession]

I had an idea a few pages back but I want to expand on it. I suggested some sort of "Education" thread but can't recall if I made suggestions for it. Basically, I thought of it having a few subforums but now upon looking I see that some exist in other places. I guess it's possible a forum could be made and the other subforums could be moved or copied, however!

Personally I would like to see come out of this would be a History forum and a forum for discussion of nonprofit/fundraising efforts/work/organizations. I just feel like my suggestions would coordinate collectively under one common forum instead of scattered throughout various major forums (ie Gaia Online and Gaia Community).

Examples of subforums to an Education, Research(?) & Schooling(?) forum include but are not limited to:

•Back to School (currently a Hot Topic)
•Higher Education (ex: College/University/Majors/Minors discussion, Living on campus/roommates, Greek Life, etc)
•Parenting & Teaching
•Business & Economics
•Science & Nature (including Astronomy, Chemistry, Biology, etc)
•Past & Present Technology
•History & Social Studies (Both US & World History/Social Studies)
•Psychology & Sociology
•Languages (English and others)
•Nonprofit Work/Organizations.
(Writing/Literature and Visual/Performing Arts could also be included, but seem secluded already in the Art Discussion forum).

Forums would have to be kept/(re)moved depending on how much they end up being used.

In the main forum could be a "Helpful Links" or FAQ sticky for research, studying/study tips, brainstorming, tricks for test taking, how to handle group projects, etc. Of course, these could be discussed under the main forum as well (whatever it's name may be) if more preferred. More minor subjects such as geography and math (ie all those "like if the answer is 41, comment if it's 0!" posts on FB) could be discussed in the main forum as well.

[Sher!ock]

Can the Avatar Talk informational sticky get updated to help clear up some of the misconceptions about the forum?

I feel like a lot of people go there just for rates,
but they expect something really casual
and aren't prepared to handle real, honest criticism (even if it's respectful and well-intended),
so they end up leaving all huffy
and go rant to their home forums about how mean the AT is.

I guess they probably wouldn't read the stickies anyway,
but people seem to have the wrong idea
about what the AT is all about.
I'm expecting this to become more of a problem
when the forum is made a full forum instead of a subforum.
So some kind of note to inform people about what to expect in the forum.

People also seem to think the AT only likes this or that kind of avatar
(I've heard recently that the AT only likes avatars with a theme, for instance),
which is also not really true.
Maybe a note on that, too.

I'm not sure if people realize there's more to the AT than rates either...
Contests, games, discussions...



Anyway, thanks in advance for cleaning up the forums.
They really do need it.

[Miss-dark8607]

siskataya

Fall Forum Clean-Up

• Renaming Picture Post and shadowing Art Freebies, Art Shops, Art Auctions, and Art Contests as sub-forums of Picture Post. Note: This does NOT mean they are moving from Mini-Shops to Picture Post, but that these will also be accessible as sub-forums in the Picture Post forum.
  
  
• Closing down TV Anime and Anime/Series/Movies forums and allow all anime discussion in the main forum.
  
• Removing underused sub-forums from all main forum listings. (e.g. some of the underused sub-forums in Health and Fitness)
  
• Renaming General Discussion and creating a new sub-forum for casual discussion for those GD forum goers who have requested a space to have more lengthy discussion than what is currently offered in the GD main forum.
  
• Cleaning up and re-posting forum rule stickies- these need refreshing, so we'll be updating these.
  

Totally smiled wildly reading these. If its not too much trouble can you add Independent and obscure movie and TV forum to that list as even with many of attempts to work on the sticky people just don't get it and its a really shame as its always, always clogged to death with mainstream stuff. Not trying to sound like a hipster or anything but sometimes it would be nice to talk about docs or foreign movies. So as such maybe we can replace that and add Doc talk and Foreign/Indie films?

Thanks Sisk

[Miss-dark8607]

dizziedobsession

I had an idea a few pages back but I want to expand on it. I suggested some sort of "Education" thread but can't recall if I made suggestions for it. Basically, I thought of it having a few subforums but now upon looking I see that some exist in other places. I guess it's possible a forum could be made and the other subforums could be moved or copied, however!

Personally I would like to see come out of this would be a History forum and a forum for discussion of nonprofit/fundraising efforts/work/organizations. I just feel like my suggestions would coordinate collectively under one common forum instead of scattered throughout various major forums (ie Gaia Online and Gaia Community).

Examples of subforums to an Education, Research(?) & Schooling(?) forum include but are not limited to:

•Back to School (currently a Hot Topic)
•Higher Education (ex: College/University/Majors/Minors discussion, Living on campus/roommates, Greek Life, etc)
•Parenting & Teaching
•Business & Economics
•Science & Nature (including Astronomy, Chemistry, Biology, etc)
•Past & Present Technology
•History & Social Studies (Both US & World History/Social Studies)
•Psychology & Sociology
•Languages (English and others)
•Nonprofit Work/Organizations.
(Writing/Literature and Visual/Performing Arts could also be included, but seem secluded already in the Art Discussion forum).

Forums would have to be kept/(re)moved depending on how much they end up being used.

In the main forum could be a "Helpful Links" or FAQ sticky for research, studying/study tips, brainstorming, tricks for test taking, how to handle group projects, etc. Of course, these could be discussed under the main forum as well (whatever it's name may be) if more preferred. More minor subjects such as geography and math (ie all those "like if the answer is 41, comment if it's 0!" posts on FB) could be discussed in the main forum as well.

I really love the education forum idea. Well done. Totally have your back on this one as a fellow educator and student in ECE. wink

[shans]

Clean up is always good. I don't forum much, mainly guilds, so I'm not seeing any of this as a problem for me. :3 Keep up the great work gaia!! biggrin

(also, pst, cannot wait for HoC).

[siskataya]

Hey gang!

Ok, we have decided the changes we are going to make for this Fall Forum Clean-Up Project. We want to thank you all for your suggestions. Aside from that changes we had originally intended to implement, you've all come up with a bunch of neat suggestions - thanks for the ideas! While we cannot implement all the suggestions made, we appreciate your having suggested them, and will keep as possible options for future clean up projects.

As promised, I've made a spreadsheet for the community so you can see what we'll be doing, why we said yes or no to certain suggestions, and any suggestion alternatives we are planning on implementing. We hope to have this project started at the beginning of November 2012.

Finally, please remember that this will be an ongoing project, so we are always accepting new ideas and suggestions biggrin

Sisky


Fall Forum Clean-Up Project Spreadsheet can be found here: Fall Forum Clean-Up Spreadsheet - First Round of Changes

[Ysavvryl]

I just want to say, I love how you have the spreadsheet. All the notes are concise and reasonable, and any requests that were not applicable to this project were covered as being such. Couldn't get any clearer than that. biggrin

Would be nice to have a Dev notice of the spreadsheet being up too, since I came here out of curiosity on how this was going. Unless that is what you're doing, lol.

Thanks!

[dizziedobsession]

siskataya

Hey gang!

Ok, we have decided the changes we are going to make for this Fall Forum Clean-Up Project. We want to thank you all for your suggestions. Aside from that changes we had originally intended to implement, you've all come up with a bunch of neat suggestions - thanks for the ideas! While we cannot implement all the suggestions made, we appreciate your having suggested them, and will keep as possible options for future clean up projects.

As promised, I've made a spreadsheet for the community so you can see what we'll be doing, why we said yes or no to certain suggestions, and any suggestion alternatives we are planning on implementing. We hope to have this project started at the beginning of November 2012.

Finally, please remember that this will be an ongoing project, so we are always accepting new ideas and suggestions biggrin

Sisky


Fall Forum Clean-Up Project Spreadsheet can be found here: Fall Forum Clean-Up Spreadsheet - First Round of Changes

Thanks for the update.
I know one concern I've had and have seen others express is the sole deletion of threads in forums which are being moved/done away with. If we have a certain thread in a forum that is getting deleted, will our thread be deleted or moved?

When will the threads be deleted, in the case we need to save accordingly?
(For example, my grounding thread which is in a H&F Subforum set to be deleted, I believe)?

Just a more note/comment/querie about the "medical issues" forum. As with some forums, I see where some medical issues could be classified as LD or LI worthy, but at the same time I feel like others could still be worthy of their own "medical" forum (ie, how do I get rid of this wart!? is surely a "medical" question and not part of a lifestyle). I'd just like to leave that as an example because I feel like the rationale behind this idea got overlooked. It wasn't about keeping people from discussing their medical conditions that ARE part of a lifestyle, but moreso about discussing ones that are NOT part of a lifestyle. Sometimes I feel there is confusion in where to post...(Is this a life issue? Or a health and fitness issue?)

I know when the HF first came out this was a concern of mine (I believe you addressed and said it was fine to post in either), but it is still something that drives me nutty. I don't like guessing games or having to wonder who will give be more serious advice!

I know you won't be re-addressing this as it's on the "no" list, but would you please still consider clarifying in the LI and/or HF sticky something about posting for medical advice issues to prevent confusion on where to post? I believe it could help direct those who like to answer medical questions (maybe nursing students, for example) to one place too. (IMO: It should probably be in H&F over LI, but the user's discretion is still valid because some issues could probably still fit in either forum. I just feel that some guidance in the matter is better than no guidance at all.)

[siskataya]

dizziedobsession

siskataya

Hey gang!

Ok, we have decided the changes we are going to make for this Fall Forum Clean-Up Project. We want to thank you all for your suggestions. Aside from that changes we had originally intended to implement, you've all come up with a bunch of neat suggestions - thanks for the ideas! While we cannot implement all the suggestions made, we appreciate your having suggested them, and will keep as possible options for future clean up projects.

As promised, I've made a spreadsheet for the community so you can see what we'll be doing, why we said yes or no to certain suggestions, and any suggestion alternatives we are planning on implementing. We hope to have this project started at the beginning of November 2012.

Finally, please remember that this will be an ongoing project, so we are always accepting new ideas and suggestions biggrin

Sisky


Fall Forum Clean-Up Project Spreadsheet can be found here: Fall Forum Clean-Up Spreadsheet - First Round of Changes

Thanks for the update.
I know one concern I've had and have seen others express is the sole deletion of threads in forums which are being moved/done away with. If we have a certain thread in a forum that is getting deleted, will our thread be deleted or moved?

When will the threads be deleted, in the case we need to save accordingly?
(For example, my grounding thread which is in a H&F Subforum set to be deleted, I believe)?

Just a more note/comment/querie about the "medical issues" forum. As with some forums, I see where some medical issues could be classified as LD or LI worthy, but at the same time I feel like others could still be worthy of their own "medical" forum (ie, how do I get rid of this wart!? is surely a "medical" question and not part of a lifestyle). I'd just like to leave that as an example because I feel like the rationale behind this idea got overlooked. It wasn't about keeping people from discussing their medical conditions that ARE part of a lifestyle, but moreso about discussing ones that are NOT part of a lifestyle. Sometimes I feel there is confusion in where to post...(Is this a life issue? Or a health and fitness issue?)

I know when the HF first came out this was a concern of mine (I believe you addressed and said it was fine to post in either), but it is still something that drives me nutty. I don't like guessing games or having to wonder who will give be more serious advice!

I know you won't be re-addressing this as it's on the "no" list, but would you please still consider clarifying in the LI and/or HF sticky something about posting for medical advice issues to prevent confusion on where to post? I believe it could help direct those who like to answer medical questions (maybe nursing students, for example) to one place too. (IMO: It should probably be in H&F over LI, but the user's discretion is still valid because some issues could probably still fit in either forum. I just feel that some guidance in the matter is better than no guidance at all.)

Actually, if we move forums to an Archived Forums forum, the content will still be visible - so the thread would be moved, but not deleted. You can go back and see what you wrote. And we can certainly consider adding information in the stickies regarding medical advice biggrin

[dizziedobsession]

siskataya

Actually, if we move forums to an Archived Forums forum, the content will still be visible - so the thread would be moved, but not deleted. You can go back and see what you wrote. And we can certainly consider adding information in the stickies regarding medical advice biggrin

Hmm, alright. It's good to know that it won't be deleted. I like the idea of people being able to post new suggestions to it, though, so I'll have to wait on the changes and see what's up from there.

About the medical stuff-- thanks a WHOLE lot. It has driven me nuts for eternity. Sorry to say more, but I came across a distinction in my head randomly the other day that I wanted to share too... It seems that Life Issues is or should be more geared towards mental/emotional issues and Health and Fitness is more for body-related issues. It may also be good to include wording about "body-related" in those new HF Rules & Guidelines (Ex: "questions about your body and/or non-emergency medical issues are welcome here..." wink . Sorry for my overactive brain. I'll zip my yapper now! Thanks again!

[Lamiroir]

About time you update Stickies in forums. LD only has a Rules and Guidelines thread but not Stickies, besides these rules are out of date and I think it's great you're updating rules in forums.
Thank you.

As a side suggestion [even though I know you've already created a list of changes], it'd be pretty neat if you created a Sticky with links that direct to support threads in LD. A lot of people come to LD to ask for support and sometimes it's hard to find the support thread and direct them to it, because it falls off the first page and stuff, so I think it'd be nice if you did that. Anyway thank you for the changes. emotion_bigheart

[Tsuki_Kirkland]

Loving the spreadsheet sisky, its clear and concise and It makes it much easier to understand what ’s planning to be done or what’s not going to happen.

[siskataya]

Hello everyone!

Just a heads up that I'm kicking off this project today! It will be ongoing until all the initial changes we said would happen are done. This could take a bit of time, especially things like re-doing forum stickies and rules, so thanks in advance for your patience! As always, please feel free to continue to post your ideas and suggestions, and we'll take them into consideration.

Thanks for all the great ideas so far, and we hope to continue to get your feedback for future improvement suggestions! biggrin

-Sisky

[Niccolo Ammaniti]

I LOVE YOU :C

Also, you should make a zOMG Exchange. c:

[HDMI]

HDMI

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Yay forum clean up today!

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HDMI