proposal: forum organization

Ampharos

tag walls, punch fascists
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
random thought i had

create two new subforums underneath circus: Game Signups and Games

put all signup threads under game signups, all games under games

leave just the stickied threads on the main forum

reasoning: Pne of the biggest complaints circus gets is that people never know when game signups are happening, and the main CM thread index can get a bit cluttered with all the game threads and old signup threads. Official games alleviate this a bit with sitewide advertisement, but small games still have the issue. This would allow us to have a clear place to put signup threads so that players looking to play a game can look in one specific place rather than combing the forum for an unlocked signup thread that isn't done with (we'd also need to be more diligent with locking our signup threads!)

the game threads subforum is mainly just for symmetry's sake

opinions welcome. i know this isn't exactly a NECESSARY change but i think it could be a decent QoL improvement for non-regulars looking to get involved
 
reasoning: Pne of the biggest complaints circus gets is that people never know when game signups are happening, and the main CM thread index can get a bit cluttered with all the game threads and old signup threads
is this an actual complaint people have
 

Ampharos

tag walls, punch fascists
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
the latter is more my postulating. the "people never know when signups are happening" thing is legit
 

UncleSam

Leading this village
is a Forum Moderator Alumnus
UncleSam - Today at 5:29 PM
hmm
i wouldnt mind
moving signups somehow
but i want the main games to be with
the main forum
those are the key to the forum
the forum shouldnt look like
just a collection of stickies
Walrein - Today at 5:30 PM
yeah i'm not opposed to that
UncleSam - Today at 5:30 PM
from the outside
i do agree that
signups threads clutter things
in the aftermath
but
in terms of people not knowing when signups happen
idk how to improve that
Walrein - Today at 5:31 PM
hmm
second idea
not necessarily independent of the first
start a thread
mafia taglist
everyone who posts to signup for the list
gets tagged
when signups go up
UncleSam - Today at 5:31 PM
ya
i like that
 

Ampharos

tag walls, punch fascists
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
I mean if there was signups subforum you could watch it. I already do that for circus proper
counterpoint: could make separate taglists for separate gametypes. some people may want to get tagged for tabletop but not for mafia etc etc

also a lot of people don't know the "watch forum" button exists
 

Ampharos

tag walls, punch fascists
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
tagging zorbees LightWolf Da Letter El (shade weighed in over irc)

also, something i mentioned to shade (and rodan): this isn't to fix some crippling issue. this isn't some change i think is urgent. this is just something i think would be a positive change for the forum without being too too much trouble to implement
 

shade

be sharp, say nowt
is a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
before we do this, i think we need to consider what our problem actually is. the 'mailing list' of tags, whilst potentially nice, only seems to alert players who are already interested in circus to games. i would hazard a guess that the majority of interested parties in circus check the forum regularly enough for this mailing list to not really solve any problems. our main problem, in my opinion, is the lack of influx of new players joining mafia games and i do not think the aforementioned suggestion helps to solve that problem in its current iteration. i think the idea has potential, though, so maybe we could iron out some more details to solve this?

r.e forum organisation, i really think sign-ups should be on the first page as soon as you click on 'Circus Maximus'. having to delve deeper into a forum, however straightforward it is to decipher, does simply just add another hurdle to sign-ups for users. i think dedicated 'Sign-Ups' tags and potentially stickying all sign ups?
 

Ampharos

tag walls, punch fascists
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
stickying all signups just sounds like unnecessary bookkeeping. tagging them, while a slight improvement, doesn't really deal with the clutter

i'll think on it some more tomorrow. super tired atm
 
Maybe we should "learn" from one of the bigger forums.

How much tampering we can make to the general layouts and stuffs?
Do we have a coder to bugger lol
 

Haruno

Skadi :)
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Why don't you just do what SFP does and have a subscription system? So whenever sign ups go up (or when subs are needed) the people subbed will get a pm telling them or whatnot.
 

Ampharos

tag walls, punch fascists
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
new idea: instead of all signups, just a forum for archiving closed signups. that way if you see a signup thread on the main landing page you know it's still open

a. reduces clutter
b. sometimes it takes a while for closed signup threads to get locked and hosts aren't always the best at making it apparent that their threads are closed
 
Someone would have to log into the bot to make it and then they'd go to hell for having an alt with a practical purpose.
 

Andy Snype

Mr. Music
Other subforums have alt accounts. Tour directors made one for submitting teams. Having a generic bot that can mod without an immediate smod+ that is proficient enough in the CP if the bot messes up to undo changes might be where the challenge lies.
 

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