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

[Scorpio Twins]

Ratttking

Dr.Ruthless

siskataya

Fall Forum Clean-Up

Hello everyone,

October is already here, and Fall is definitely in the air! It's a time for colorful leaves, big squishy sweaters, hot chocolate, and... Fall Cleaning!

We've heard from a LOT of our members over this past year, and one of the most common suggestions is that you'd like us to clean up the forums a bit. Many of you have told us that you feel the forums often feel cluttered - that it can be overwhelming for both new and old users alike to try and navigate through the maze of forums to find a discussion you want. Some of you also expressed that some of the forums have little activity, and that posts there could be made in other locations which are more active. You've also suggested renaming some forums, and merging other forums. After hearing your feedback, we think you are right, and it's time for an overhaul!

So, starting in a few weeks, we'll be doing a Fall Forum Clean-Up. This project will include removing underused or inactive forums, combining forums with common interests into one location, perhaps relocating some forums to new sections of the site, possibly renaming some forums to better reflect the community that inhabits that forum, creating new forums that people have requested - all sorts of things!

Below is our current list of changes that will most likely be coming down the clean-up pipe. This list may grow, but for now, these are the changes we plan to implement. We wanted to give you all a heads up before making the changes so that you were informed ahead of time this was coming, had time to process the changes, and to provide your feedback.

• 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.
  
• Rename the Ragnarok forum to MMO and change rules to allow discussion of all non-Gaia MMOs in the 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)
  
• Merging various forums which are so similar that having more than one forum for discussion is not ideal (e.g. Merging Gaia Towns and Gaia Homes forums)
  
• Making Avatar Talk a top level forum and combining the individual Arenas Forums into one general Arenas Talk forum.
  
• Closing down the Spring Cleaning forum and moving any highly-active threads to a new home, most likely the Petitions forum. We want to keep these active threads as they contain awesome user suggestions, and we'd still like to try and get to finishing more of these requests as we have time.
  
• 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.
  
• Closing the Sponsored Offers forum and updating the FAQ/Help Center with information on how to get help with offers.
  
• Cleaning up and re-posting forum rule stickies- these need refreshing, so we'll be updating these.
  

That is all for now! If we have any additional changes, we'll post them in this thread. As well, if you have any feedback on the proposed changes, or wish to suggest changes of your own, please feel free to post your ideas in this thread. We'll be following the discussion, and will take any good and well-formed ideas into consideration.

Take care and Happy Fall!
Sisky

This will solely be Forum edits / removal and not threads?

I have several very old ooc / roleplaying and backup information threads floating about that I would desperately like to hold on to. If there's a possibility of them being deleted for inactivity or old post dates; I will surely do all I can to hold onto that information considering it's the only current copy I have in the last several years.

Why not just make new posts in them?

because it gives you the error message "this is an old and (something) thread. why not make a new one?" or something stupid like that. I think you should be allowed to necro your own thread if it is still pertinent or if you want to bring back up the discussion etc or its long running and you went on haitus a bit and wanted to pick it back up.

anyway on the cleanup.. just group everything together in categories that make sense, list them in the order they make sense (the info category should go first, the gaia community/avatars/games -all the site features- category second and so on) and merge similar forums of course as you said,

and about the Lolita fashion thing.. just put it under Fashion Discussion..

[Raine Dragon]

raspberry gateaux

wonderfinch

This is actually a really interesting idea and I quite like it :O

I joined Gaia in '04 but left the site for several years around '07 and I'm only just now returning... and I think it would have been really nice to have a "Welcome Back!" forum to post in, as I just wound up muddling around by myself since all my friends were long gone.

I think, at the very least, a unified archive of site changes, plot lines, and updates in condensed form would be really nice. You miss a lot being gone and it's very hard to catch up. Especially if you've been gone for a year or more, changes that seem major to you have become natural to everyone else.

Ty for your support! ♥
When returning users create their threads in GCD, they usually get downvoted and crabbed at until the thread is moved, and while I totally understand why people get cranky at them, it's not a super nice thing to come back to, nor is being thrust right into the throes of the Chatterbox.

That's another thing too! Those returning always mention how everyone they used to know left. A Welcome Back forum would give the old users common ground to make new friends on~

I think a unified archive is a fantastic idea, and would love one as well! However, when directed toward the announcement archives, I've seen a lot of returning users say they'd rather be told about changes than read about them. Perhaps that attitude would diminish with a unified log of changes, but since we've got a plain old "Welcome to Gaia" forum, I'd still like to see one for the "old newbies". c;

I like the idea of a welcome back forum too! I've been majorly lurking in the Q&A trying to piece together things after a long hiatus (ugh. Being a grown up is a pain) and there are totally things where I just don't have a clue what someone is talking about, but don't seem important enough to clog up the Q&A with.

Plus there was a moment of overwhelming-want-to-hug-everyone-who's-name-I-know because most of my friends aren't around. I'm not eager to fill up my friend's list, but it would be fun to meet people in the same situation. xd

[koi19]

will hot topics directory get a sweep? There are a lot of sub-forums....

[NicolBolas_Alara]

MHHornfreak

Hope it works out.

I absolutely love your avatar, sir.

[u33176617]

Raine Dragon

I like the idea of a welcome back forum too! I've been majorly lurking in the Q&A trying to piece together things after a long hiatus (ugh. Being a grown up is a pain) and there are totally things where I just don't have a clue what someone is talking about, but don't seem important enough to clog up the Q&A with.

Plus there was a moment of overwhelming-want-to-hug-everyone-who's-name-I-know because most of my friends aren't around. I'm not eager to fill up my friend's list, but it would be fun to meet people in the same situation. xd

Heh, I know that feeling. It really does help to chat with those in the same predicament. 3nodding
And don't be afraid to make a big long thread of all your questions in Q&A if you can't find your answers~

[Kinky Pixie Stick]

Teh HollyWood Massacre

Quote:

Merge the CB + GD.
It's the same these days anyways.

No. emotion_donotwant

Anyway, I was nervous when I first saw this, but after reading the list of changes it sounds like the staff actually has some good ideas put together.

Just as long as threads don't somehow get lost/deleted in the overhaul it sounds cool. Maybe you should make a Community Announcement too though, not just a "dev alert".

Community Announcements emotion_facepalm

[Norse Battle Cats]

I think that there needs to be a "Recruiting" part in Barton Town.

It would make searching for people SO much easier because NO ONE checks the OOC area for that kind of stuff.

[wonderfinch]

Scorpio Twins

and about the Lolita fashion thing.. just put it under Fashion Discussion..

It is under Fashion Discussion but it doesn't quite fit there and it's very difficult to provide resources, answer questions, and carry on basic discussions when everything is lumped together under one thread. It's like telling the GD to have all their discussions in one thread- it's illogical and very inconvenient.

[Atakirna]

maybe make a way for us to move our own threads too? i like apprivoise's idea of being able to delete our own threads. that would be wonderful! biggrin

[lovelylovablerose]

yes please dont delete old threads without asking . they may have something on there or been inactive because of work/no internet

[eluzabeth]

wonderfinch

raspberry gateaux

Yay clean-up! Is there any chance you guys would consider a Welcome Back subforum for users returning to the site after a hiatus? GCD gets like a thread a day from older users who just want to say hello and be told what's happened in the time they were gone. These threads usually don't meet the criteria for GCD, but users who've just returned tend to look there first, and find it helpful to chat with others who've been away. They love to exchange remarks about how much the site has changed, and the threads become impossible for other hiatus'd members to find once sent to the Chatterbox.

I dunno if anyone else has suggested it in this thread, but I know it'd be really helpful to anyone returning, and would greatly please those who hang around the GCD. <3

This is actually a really interesting idea and I quite like it :O

I joined Gaia in '04 but left the site for several years around '07 and I'm only just now returning... and I think it would have been really nice to have a "Welcome Back!" forum to post in, as I just wound up muddling around by myself since all my friends were long gone.

I think, at the very least, a unified archive of site changes, plot lines, and updates in condensed form would be really nice. You miss a lot being gone and it's very hard to catch up. Especially if you've been gone for a year or more, changes that seem major to you have become natural to everyone else.

I think these are both really great ideas *v* and it would be such a welcome addition (to me at least huhuhu)
i've never left, so the catch-up threads kinda bug me xd
(i know, if you don't like it don't look at it! but still ;x; )


offtopic but the captcha was "i like people" rofl
PFFT GAIA YOU WISH

[dizziedobsession]

I'd really like to know what all "underused sub-forums" will be deleted so there's no surprises later. And I'm also curious if you'll be moving any posts made in those such forums to ones of a broader nature. I hate to see when Gaia deletes users posts without their knowledge. I'm a bit OCD and I wouldn't want something of mine deleted without first having some way to back up the memory of it.

On another note-- Are you going to be adding new rules to the GD when it's redone? I know it's a huge complain for some people. IMO the LD has gotten a little out of hand lately as well. Any update on that?

What other forums have people suggested you add? You didn't mention any here. Can we make new suggestions if we don't see them here and feel they could be sustainable?

[Elynai]

What about the In The Queue forum?
It was made in February 2011 and never once used.
Can it either be removed or, even better, actually used?
It was a great idea to keep us informed, but never got implemented (yes, I am still a little annoyed about that sweatdrop )

[bluecherry]

"Making Avatar Talk a top level forum"
^^^ Do not want. D: I think that will get us spammed a lot more.

Also, I strongly disagree with letting people delete their old threads. For the neat freaks, maybe just let them remove links on their "my threads" page if they don't want to see those threads anymore without changing anything about the thread itself.

[Aeronn]

Many of those sound like good changes. I've been confused about what goes where in the Picture Post forum, and I've had threads moved multiple times for things that weren't specifically outlined in the forum rule stickies.

It seems like it would be good to have more distinction between ED/GD/CB. Like if you want to discuss an idea thoughtfully, but don't want to have to put up a wall of text and citations, and the GD is full of silliness.