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Disciple of Nagash

Oldblood
Staff member
Feb 12, 2008
27,732
So, one of the first suggestions I'm going to make is do we need to look at our forum sections? My thoughts are a high-level are:

  • From previous experience, when there is less traffic, smaller forums with less sections seem to work better (and then expand as traffic increases)
  • The Forum should be focused on vampires firstly, so:
    • Soulblight Gravelords for AoS
    • Vampire Counts for WHFB (all versions)
  • Secondly, support for other death factions:
    • All other Death Battletomes for AoS
    • Tomb Kings for WHFB maybe?
  • Should we re-order the sections which have more traffic (i.e. Dark Arts) to be seen first?
I'm opening this up to everyone who would like to be involved and contribute!
 
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Irisado

Ancient Vampire Lord | Siphoner of Spammers
Staff member
True Blood
May 22, 2010
718
Nottingham, UK
I would not reorder the sections. I think that just cutting down on the number of different boards is sufficient. There are too many of them at the moment. The structure that you have outlined seems sensible to me.
 
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Disciple of Nagash

Oldblood
Staff member
Feb 12, 2008
27,732
The question is should the changes be like

  • Master's Chambers - as is now, welcome, announcements, off topic etc
  • Vampire Section (name TBC)
    • Soulblight Gravelords
    • Vampire Counts
  • Non-Vamp
    • Death Alliance
    • Tomb Kings
    • Other
  • Dark Arts
  • Fluff
 

Malochai

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Aug 4, 2010
3,072
England
Something along the lines you’ve suggested would probably work; trying to reduce the sections would help concentrate attentions.

Looking at the users / 24 hour, we’re not generating the traffic to justify so many subsections on the front page; they’re going to stay very empty on that level.
 

The Sun King

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Aug 22, 2012
4,989
Copenhagen
Hi guys - I heard DoN's summons and here I am, back in the saddle. As I wrote to DoN - I completely agree with the cutting down on the forum, it got way too big. I know I'm probably too radically with the downsizing but I feel that we should just have 1 army building and tactics forum instead of subdividing it into factions. Let's be honest, the most traffic will probably be in regards to Gravelords and Death Grand Alliance so the odd "other death faction thread" is fine in that same forum IMO.
 

Disciple of Nagash

Oldblood
Staff member
Feb 12, 2008
27,732
I was just about to reply to your email! Great to have you back :D

So I have been working on what the updated forum could look like this morning, let me know what you guys think:

- The Master's Chamber (as it is now, already merged some stuff)

- The Realm of Shyish
--
Soulblight Gravelords: All general convos, topics and rule queries on SGB for AoS
-- Vampire Counts: - All general convos and rules queries topics on VC in WHFB
-- Alliance of Death - All other AoS Death Factions general convo
-- To War!: Amy lists and battle reports for both SBG & VC - enable prefix selection (SBG/VC)

- Dark Arts
--
Dying to Help
-- The Dead Shall Walk (Merge Dead Shall Walk and Unholy Masterpieces)
-- Undertakers Auction

- Chronicles of Death
-- Liber Mortis (Merge Liber Mortis and Tales from the Crypt)
-- Theatre de Vampyre

That leaves just some "other" such as other armies etc, which we could lump together in area?
 
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Irisado

Ancient Vampire Lord | Siphoner of Spammers
Staff member
True Blood
May 22, 2010
718
Nottingham, UK
I think that this proposed structure looks very good. One change that I would suggest is not putting army lists and battle reports together, as that is an awkward combination. I would suggest that army lists be posted in the appropriate board for the army and gaming system in question, alongside general conversation and rules questions. There is no need to separate army lists, in view of the low traffic that we currently have.
 

Malochai

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Aug 4, 2010
3,072
England
@Irisado Whilst I agree downsizing the number of boards is a good thing, is there going to be enough traffic for battle reports to be their own section?

Would it work to split To War! into two sub-sections, one for battle reports and the other for army lists?

You don’t want to be drilling too deep down for each section, true, but having a section that could be pretty empty isn’t much good either. Whilst the low traffic may not see it benefit from now, we don’t want to be in a place where, should the traffic increase, we have to drastically re-organise again.

Other than that, I think the rationalisation @Disciple of Nagash has proposed make sense
 

Disciple of Nagash

Oldblood
Staff member
Feb 12, 2008
27,732
I think it's going to be a balancing act. Historically army lists were one of the busiest sections with people spamming lists for feedback. I think at the moment we should merge battle reports with them, and then if that's not working we can always update again
 

The Sun King

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Aug 22, 2012
4,989
Copenhagen
I agree with Voltaire - us old timers get the flavorful forum names, but I think it confuses newcomers. Suggestion: We can switch them around so that the flavoful description is the subtitle and the main title is plain and descriptive. That way we don't lose the flavor of the forum but make navigation way easier.
 
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TMS

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Nov 26, 2008
4,662
Sweden
I don't think there's an issue with what we have right now, really. Every section spells its function out in bold text right there, clearly visible. I seem to remember a time where we only had the fluff names and nothing else, there we had a case of confusion going on.

Swapping places between titles and subtitles might still be worth a try. Difficult to say how it'll look before you see it.
 

Belladamma Voltaire

Vyrkos Primogen
True Blood
Aug 15, 2007
2,829
Manchester, UK
What's your thoughts behind that @Belladonna Voltaire? We've always had fun names, you can see the description what each section is for, and the metadata covers it for search engines?

My thought process is that we live in the age of TL:DR and people don't actively want to be stuck guessing what they need to look at for their stuff. I just work on the assumption that anyone on the internet has the attention span of a small child though.
 

Disciple of Nagash

Oldblood
Staff member
Feb 12, 2008
27,732
Ok, I'm happy to give it a go, but we'll need to have good clear forum names. I was also thinking last night, do we really need separate sections for the rest of the Death factions in AoS? Lots of people will love the other undead, and I can't see a reason why we have to be restrictive to vampires (although definitely a main focus)


So update forum list would look like:

- The Master's Chamber
-- Announcements & Support
-- Introductions
-- Off-Topic

- The Realm of Shyish
-- Age of Sigmar: Death Alliance General Chat & Rules
-- Warhammer Fantasy: Vampire Counts General Chat & Rules
-- Army Lists & Battle Reports

- Dark Arts
-- Painting: Questions, Advice and Guides
-- Painting Logs and Showcases
-- Sell & Trade

- Chronicles of Death
-- Lore Discussions & Timeline
-- Fanfiction
-- Roleplays

- Other Realms
-- Other gaming systems

I've kept the main section fluffy names as I don't think they detract, but think the rest of it works. Thoughts?
 

Irisado

Ancient Vampire Lord | Siphoner of Spammers
Staff member
True Blood
May 22, 2010
718
Nottingham, UK
I still don't think that army lists being in the same board as battle reports works or is intuitive, so I refer back to my previous comments about incorporating army lists into the general chat and rules sections. Other than that, it looks very good to me.
 

Unas the slayer

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 1, 2017
1,863
Northern Italy
So, one of the first suggestions I'm going to make is do we need to look at our forum sections? My thoughts are a high-level are:

  • From previous experience, when there is less traffic, smaller forums with less sections seem to work better (and then expand as traffic increases)
  • The Forum should be focused on vampires firstly, so:
    • Soulblight Gravelords for AoS
    • Vampire Counts for WHFB (all versions)
  • Secondly, support for other death factions:
    • All other Death Battletomes for AoS
    • Tomb Kings for WHFB maybe?
  • Should we re-order the sections which have more traffic (i.e. Dark Arts) to be seen first?
I'm opening this up to everyone who would like to be involved and contribute!

I do believe that, with the 3.0 edition incoming, it would be a neat idea to have a updated Tactica for not only Soulblight, but for every Death faction in AoS.

we could also open a dedicated thread for Battle Reports, including a omnicomprehensive reference to videoBatReps.
for example:

 

The Sun King

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Aug 22, 2012
4,989
Copenhagen
I have taken a closer look at the Realm of Shyish forum and I think we should fold army lists and battlereports into the Alliance Death subforum. It is a big unintuitive that the two is separated.
 

Disciple of Nagash

Oldblood
Staff member
Feb 12, 2008
27,732
Are you guys thinking of these sections as subforums then? i.e.

Alliance of Death
-- Army Lists
-- Battle Reports
 

The Sun King

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Aug 22, 2012
4,989
Copenhagen
I think basically there just needs to be two Shyish forums, onde for AoS and one for WHFB. If then, people get really active with specific types of posts (like army lists and battlereports) we can then make a separate subforum as needed.

Btw. Damn it feels good to be back in the saddle with you DoN!
 

Disciple of Nagash

Oldblood
Staff member
Feb 12, 2008
27,732
I am worried that it's going to become a bit of a jumbled mess, if we even get a reasonable increase in traffic, as the sections will have all in one:

- General chat
- Rules
- Tactics
- Army Lists (people use to post a lot of these)
- Batreps

For AoS, this will be multiplied by 4 armies (Souldblight Gravelords, Flesh eater Courts, Nighthaunt & Ossiarch Bonereapers). We need to avoid new threads quickly disappearing off to page two if we increase traffic as people don't reply to them.

If you guys feel strongly enough about it though we can give it a go?
 

The Sun King

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Aug 22, 2012
4,989
Copenhagen
We can keep it as it is but I feel that it is a bit unintuitive that you have two main forums "new Death" and "old vampire Counts" and then on the side of that you have the armylists and batreps. But we dont have to change it right away.
 

Gederas

Grave Guard
Jun 15, 2021
208
Rhode Island
Another recommendation I'd put forward is with the panting forums, the Painting Logs and Showcases forums should be separate, if only for ease of access in finding them.

So, ironically, going back to "The Dead Shall Walk" (painting/converting forum) and "Unholy Masterpieces" (Showcase forum) would be better, as that's actually how most other sites I've seen do them. Because as of now, it's kiiiiiiind of a pain to find the showcase threads now that they're mixed in with the normal Plogs


Opinion me, feel free to disregard if needed 😆
 
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