Should we rearrange the forum by game?

[obesebear]

So, we had a thought to rearrange the forum so that each game FF7, FF8, and FF9 each had their own board.  Within each board would be the typical graphical, audio, gameplay boards (each of which would also have a child board for releases.)

It's definitely going to take a bit of time to implement, but is this even something people would want or find helpful?  General and Completely Unrelated and Troubleshooting would remain independent.
We would also need to have a catch all forum for the occasional FFX or Xenogears project. I figure all FF7 compilation stuff would fall within FF7.

Just trying to make the forum more user friendly.

[Koby]

I'm fine either way, but I voted yes.

[nfitc1]

It's six of one and half a dozen of another the way it is now. We have dedicated boards for project types which are subdivided into games. You're suggesting boards for games subdivided into project types. I've thought we need to further divide the subboards into release, WIP and actual support of each of these categories. That way all releases can be found in one place not cluttered by people asking questions or WIP projects. I like the flow of the idea that you've got pictured

Code: [Select]

FFVII
|-> Graphics
|      |-> Release
|      |-> WIP
|      |-> Support
|-> Audio
...

I'm voting yes for this.

[obesebear]

I like it

It's six of one and half a dozen of another the way it is now. We have dedicated boards for project types which are subdivided into games. You're suggesting boards for games subdivided into project types. I've thought we need to further divide the subboards into release, WIP and actual support of each of these categories. That way all releases can be found in one place not cluttered by people asking questions or WIP projects. I like the flow of the idea that you've got pictured

Code: [Select]

FFVII
|-> Graphics
|      |-> Release
|      |-> WIP
|      |-> Support
|-> Audio
...

I'm voting yes for this.

I like it

[sl1982]

This makes the most sense to me honestly

It's six of one and half a dozen of another the way it is now. We have dedicated boards for project types which are subdivided into games. You're suggesting boards for games subdivided into project types. I've thought we need to further divide the subboards into release, WIP and actual support of each of these categories. That way all releases can be found in one place not cluttered by people asking questions or WIP projects. I like the flow of the idea that you've got pictured

Code: [Select]

FFVII
|-> Graphics
|      |-> Release
|      |-> WIP
|      |-> Support
|-> Audio
...

I'm voting yes for this.

[Tsuna]

That's the way we did ours, it's worked well so far anyway. Worth a shot.

[UpRisen]

I agree with the proposed layout. Qhimm can be a little tricky to navigate for people unfamiliar and a new layout will help alot.

[orichalcon]

i do think the proposed layout is better

but i think more importantly you need to take the general discussion of final fantasy and move it to the top of the FF section, and then take the completely unrelated section at the bottom and rename it to something like 'general discussion' and also move it to the VERY top, this needs to be done to at least attempt to drive new membership

some people won't like this and will say the modding site should focus on modding discussion but as a community you are either growing or dying and IMO this place needs some fresh blood

most of the modders here are on larger projects anyway with 1 or 2 threads they just update periodically, where else will the reading material to keep people checking come from?

[sl1982]

i do think the proposed layout is better

but i think more importantly you need to take the general discussion of final fantasy and move it to the top of the FF section, and then take the completely unrelated section at the bottom and rename it to something like 'general discussion' and also move it to the VERY top, this needs to be done to at least attempt to drive new membership

some people won't like this and will say the modding site should focus on modding discussion but as a community you are either growing or dying and IMO this place needs some fresh blood

most of the modders here are on larger projects anyway with 1 or 2 threads they just update periodically, where else will the reading material to keep people checking come from?

I really dont think that non topic discussion should be the forefront of our forums. There are plenty of other places for that.

[obesebear]

So, all 20 votes are in favor.  I'll begin working on it this weekend unless someone beats me to it

[soldier3rdclass]

but i think more importantly you need to take the general discussion of final fantasy and move it to the top of the FF section, and then take the completely unrelated section at the bottom and rename it to something like 'general discussion' and also move it to the VERY top, this needs to be done to at least attempt to drive new membership

I like it, cause then its more than just of list of mods and modding stuff. People need and want to engage with each other. I do like the breakdown by game idea tho.

[obesebear]

Started a little tonight but the sleeping pills are kicking in.  I think all releases for FF7 have been moved to their forum, but WIP and Support are empty for now.
I'll knock out FF8 and FF9 tomorrow unless someone beats me to it.  Which will be so sad

[Sega Chief]

Here's my 2 cents. When I say Section I'm referring to the grey collapsible space in which sets of Orange links (Categories) appear. General train of thought is getting things organised to roughly how other forums tend to lay things out and getting certain categories into the right visibility (as in, when you click into the page the stuff the user should see first).
***

'Read this first!' Section: Should probably have a different name. Main, maybe.

Announcements should be at top; that's fine. '& Site Development' instead of 'and site development'. Announcements & News can also work as a name. This category should always be at the very top.

FAQs & Tutorials category should be removed from here and split into game-specific FAQ/Tutorial categories under the FF7, FF8, FF9 sections to keep things organised by game.

Archive should be right at the bottom of the home page; only long-time users or people rooting around looking for old ASM posts are going to be interested in this category. Could go in its own section, so long as it's right at the bottom and not taking visibility priority over anything else. Should not be in the top section.

Qhimm Wiki: This is probably fine in the top section, though it'll only be of real interest to assembly enthusiasts/modders rather than regular users. As it's a redirect, should appear below the other categories that lead into child boards so it's fine where it is.

Discord: Ditto, should always be in this top section as you will want new visitors to also use the Discord channel.


FF7,8,9 Section
I saw it mentioned that this is still WIP, but I'd suggest moving Other Mods below Gameplay as it's strange to have a Misc section appear above a specifically-titled category; Other Mods is a catch-all for ones that don't cleanly fit into the others. Audio > Graphics > Gameplay > Other > Tools (or Tools at the top as it is now) feels like a good order, as Tools is a different kettle of fish with a different user-base.

Troubleshooting and Scripting/Reverse Engineering categories should be added for each separate game with some of the more recent threads sorted in. But there are a lot of threads to sift through so it would be practical to stagger out a move (if one is made) over a longer course of time. But ideally these should be organised by game rather than as a mass away from their respective FF sections.

A section for Misc games might be prudent as we get posts about non-FF games occasionally but probably not with all the categories that the three FF game sections have.


Final Fantasy Forums Section
The four sections of mod types will need to be removed from here as duplicate sections will result in threads being posted in two different places.

General Discussion should move to the top section.

FF7NX/FF8NX Driver; this should be under Project Forums section as it doesn't cleanly fit in either FF7 or FF8. With this and the others moved, the FF Forums Section can be retired.


Off-Topic Forums
Only has Completely Unrelated, which should move up to top with General Discussion and appear above or below it (so long as they're together); this empty section should then be retired. It feels like Completely Unrelated  should have been called General Discussion, while the old General Discussion should have had a name like FF-Discussion or something. A compromise might be to rename General Discussion to FF-Discussion and keep Completely Unrelated's name; that way new users don't get confused as General Discussion implies 'discussion about general topics' (which is what Completely Unrelated is currently for) rather than specifically FF-topics.


Project Forums
This will be tricky to place. It should either go above or below the FF sections. An alternative is to make this section into a Category that appears in the top section, with each Project appearing listed inside it as a child-board (with the exception of 7th Heaven, more on that at bottom).

Another possibility is trying to place them within their respective FF Section categories as child-boards (Team Avalanche to a child-board of the FF7 Section's Graphics category for instance) though it'll be tricky to place projects that cover multiple games like the graphics drivers this way.

Whatever sorting is used, 7th Heaven should go to the top section as a category visible from the get-go because it's a fair bet that new users turning up to Qhimm are aware of 7th Heaven and/or intend to use it so having immediate visibility of it will be beneficial. It's also a huge sub-board and has a lot of activity. Not sure where it'd be placed; either above or below the two Discussion channels.

[obesebear]

The forums are going to be moved around quite a bit over the next few days, so don't take too much stock into how things currently look.  For instance, the Archives board is going to jump around a lot because it makes it easier for me to move things into it depending on what board I'm working on.

[Chrysalis]

late to the game here but I agree with the proposed idea.

[obesebear]

It's been brought to my attention that you may receive an email or message informing you your posts have been deleted.
Threads that are no longer relevant to the community (such as questions about why FF7Music isn't working) are being deleted.  Or threads with only 1 post.   If a thread contains useful information, even if it's only useful to an old program, they will be archived or moved to the new appropriate board.
You will see post counts drop, but post counts literally mean nothing unless you have less than 5.

If you have a thread you've made that you think may be in jeopardy, or just have to have it for whatever reason, go into it and make a new reply asking for it to be kept.