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In a nutshell, we don't know.
That should clear up everyone's questions, right? Good ...
As a development team and as a company, we know that the forums are extremely important to some of you, and we know that some of you have put a lot (!!!!) of effort into building up the community here, especially those who have written the more creative poetic stuff. C'mon, how many of you have > 5,000 posts, raise your hands. That amount of effort is *staggering*. Seriously, I think the highest post count I've seen was ~8400? Over 2.5 years, that'd be like 10 posts EVERY DAY since AG2 launched.
The effort of migrating that much data from AG2 to AG3 is almost as staggering, since the guy who wrote the AG2 forum software didn't make it terribly efficient, and the way we're linking accounts, etc., between the two systems might cause problems. Trying to migrate it to AG3 will be a pretty big job, and it will probably fall in my lap since I'm sorta the database guru around here, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's up to me whether I want to do it or not. If Dan says do it, I do it.
Whether we start over, and wipe everything, and build a new forum engine, or implement someone else's forum software, remains to be discussed internally because it's not a critical feature for us yet. That doesn't mean it's not important to us, it just means we have to get core features working like, y'know, logging in.
Will we migrate old posts into the new forum software? It depends whether we can find an easy way to make the old forum data compatible. Nothing's *impossible* but it's also not practical for us to spend development time (read: dollars) for us to spend a big amount of effort trying to sort stuff out so it's all perfect and pristine.
If we start over with forum posts, will we archive the old forums? Again, nothing's impossible, but I can't answer that right now.
What will happen to your armor points for forum posts? Well, since armor points are also up in the air regarding the same sort of "wipe vs migrate" discussions, I can't answer that question right now either.
Please direct people asking about the future of AG2 forums to this thread if they start asking questions in other forums/threads. I'll post updates to this thread as I have more information.
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Delete the forums! No forums for AG3!
*cue baaaaw*
That might actually keep me from abusing my internet connection in exam times.
Either way, end discussionslashargumentslashbutIdidn'tsaythatIsaidsomethingelseentirely, shall we? It's a little tiresome to look at, and it seems to have been out-debated anyway.
Guys, the idea of auto-locking threads or deleting old threads has been discussed enough. Arguing over it won't solve anything.
Right now, I'm leaning towards vBulletin as a forum engine, but it may not be my decision to make.
Do you guys happen to have any idea on what threads are going to be included? Like right now there is The Tavern, World Events, Forum Games, ETC... Are these still going to stay or are they possibly going to be replaced with something else?
We'll probably keep all of the existing forums, or possibly rearrange them into proper forum/sub-forum relationships.
I have a suggestion for how the forums should look.
Armor Games section:
- Rename Support and Suggestions Armor Games where you can talk about anything relating to Armor Games AND put suggestions in there.
- Leave Newcomers the same.
- Create a Technical Support sub-forum. Those types of threads would be better in there rather than people putting them in The Tavern, as from what I've seen not many people in The Tavern can offer technical support. The Technical Support sub-forum will be for your computer problems and for things broken on the website.
It'll be Armor Games, Newcomers Forum, and Technical Support.
Gaming section:
- Create a reviews sub-forum where people can post their reviews of flash games.
It'll be Video Games, Game Walkthroughs, Game Reviews, Flash Games, and Forum Games.
Game Creation or The Forge section:
- If this section is created (that's just a name I suggest for it), then the sub-forums that should be in there include; Programming Help, Collaborations, API or Armor Game APIs, and somewhere where developers can post their unfinished flash games and receive feedback on them.
It'll be Programming Help, Collaborations, API or Armor Game APIs, and Flash Game Testing (best name I could come up with on the spot).
The Courtyard section:
- Move the AMW sub-forum to this section so it will be with the WEPR, Popular Media, and The Tavern. There's really no point in dedicating a section of the forums for one sub-forum, so it might as well be moved there.
That's from thinking that you guys will create a Game Creation or simply create those sub-forums about game creation and put them in The Forge. But the AMW shouldn't belong there if it's solely for games since it won't stick with them.
It'll be World Events, Politics, Religion, Etc., Popular Media, The Tavern, and Art, Music, and Writing.
So from this, the sections would include; Armor Games, Gaming, Game Creation or The Forge, and The Courtyard. And with this, there is a total of thirteen sub-forums.
Oh, I miscounted. It'll be sixteen sub-forums, not thirteen.
- Create a Technical Support sub-forum. Those types of threads would be better in there rather than people putting them in The Tavern, as from what I've seen not many people in The Tavern can offer technical support. The Technical Support sub-forum will be for your computer problems and for things broken on the website.
Why would people answer them there if they can't answer them in the tavern? It will just be an extra forum that people will confuse with programming or support and suggestion forums.
- Create a reviews sub-forum where people can post their reviews of flash games.
That's what game comments are for.
- If this section is created (that's just a name I suggest for it), then the sub-forums that should be in there include; Programming Help, Collaborations, API or Armor Game APIs, and somewhere where developers can post their unfinished flash games and receive feedback on them.
Well, most of these would only work if the programming forums decide to stop being the most unpopular on the site.
Why would people answer them there if they can't answer them in the tavern?
In The Tavern technical support threads get ignored because people can't answer them. If there's a sub-forum dedicated for them, they won't get pushed back and they will get eventually answered since people will be able to see them all well.
It will just be an extra forum that people will confuse with programming or support and suggestion forums.
I don't see how, it'll have an entirely different description.
That's what game comments are for.
They are, but game comments are usually ineffective for reviews since they get pushed back by smaller comments and people won't read the reviews.
Well, most of these would only work if the programming forums decide to stop being the most unpopular on the site.
Yep.
my idea that i had ties into the reputation system, i mentioned it on there, and i was told to put it on here aswell.
it's that when you like a forum thread, you could be rating the thread and not just the user basically giving reputation to a thread as a whole, not just a single message within the thread.
Thanks for the suggestions.
I'd probably rework them to something like:
Support Forums
- General support
- FAQ's
- Suggestion Box
- General Feedback
General Topics
- Newcomers
- Tavern
- WEPR
- Popular Media
- Art, Music and Writing
Video Game Discussions
- AG Game Discussions
- AG Game Walkthroughs
- Console and Other Video Games
- Forum Games: RPGs
- Forum Games: Other
Developer's Corner
- AGI Discussions
- Game Development Help
- General Programming Help
Eventually I see a need to include things like "AG Clan Recruiting" or some such.
i like the sub forums that you have, in developers corner should there not be a beta testing area?
Those look good, Cormyn. I just have a few questions.
General Feedback
Will you be able to talk about things relating to Armor Games here?
Video Game Discussions
Shouldn't it be General Gaming or just Gaming since there are flash games and forum games in there as well?
AG Game Discussions
Will this be strictly for discussions about flash games on AG? Or will you be able to talk about flash games on other websites as well?
in developers corner should there not be a beta testing area?
Well, that depends on how long it takes to build the actual Developer's Corner part of the web site. I imagine it'll be something where users can see which games are up for beta/feedback and opt in to participate. As such, I didn't list it in my forum layout idea (which was based on your feedback and GoM's feedback) until we know more about the dev part.
General Feedback
I imagine this forum would be more like "I hate the Rio site skin" kind of feedback about the site. The support forums will be heavily moderated so that FAQ's go into the FAQ area, etc. In fact, the FAQ forum might be read-only to regular users, and only Mods/Admins can build that up. FAQ's being asked outside of the FAQ forum will be moderated/deleted/etc at the discretion of the Moderators.
Video Game Discussions
I was going to call it "Console Game Discussion" at first, to give users a place to chat about Xbox vs Wii cs Playstation games etc. But that seemed too specific.
AG Game Discussions
This would be for games only on our site. I'm not sure how much chatter is in the Flash Games forum that's about Flash games NOT on AG. We'd probably limit this forum to one thread per game, or do like Kongregate does and have a sub forum for the biggest games (more than a million plays for example). Not sure yet.
it'll be something where users can see which games are up for beta/feedback and opt in to participate.
that sounds perfect actually, i would say that it would be an excellent addition to the site.
We'd probably limit this forum to one thread per game
only issue is that you can get people looking for different things to do with the same game, for instance: walkthroughs, general discussion, possibly tournaments within game, and foor colony at least an anti hack team. so perhaps 1 topic might not work.
Video Game Discussions
- AG Game Discussions
- AG Game Walkthroughs
- Console and Other Video Games
- Forum Games: RPGs
- Forum Games: Other
I do not see a thread for flash games outside of AG in the "Video Game Discussions" section. I'm sure plenty of users want to discuss such games and I think a forum for non-AG flash games should be added to that section.
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