Freddy and I think it is time we start talking about the future layout of the Talk boards on our forum.  Right now we have two demonstrations:
1. Talk boards by popular mansions
2. Talk boards by builders.

As we see it we have 4 choices:
1. As above
2. As above
3. Talk boards about every mansion
4. Only THE "Talk" board and no other talk boards.

All of the above have their "pros and cons".  I will discuss them in reverse order:

4. Pros: The category "Custom mansions" will not get cluttered, but
Cons: The "Talk" board will.  With many different threads abou the same mansion making it very difficult for people to find appropriate posts.

3. Pros and cons reversed from number 4 and THE "Talk" board will be more or less meaningless.

2. We have now around 20 builders so if we use this approach the "Custom mansions" category will get very cluttered and THE "Talk" board will be more or less meaningless.

1. This is what we admins think is the best approach.  When I last changed the separate boards for popular mansions some mansions that had a lot of traffic much earlier were excluded.  If we had made the decision to try this in, say, July or August, then some of those mansions would have gotten their own board.
Of course the "Hall of fame" clould include mansions like DoD, ACO and perhaps one or two more that got a lot of traffic after they were published.  It is easy to do that.
If we decide to pursue this approach our suggestions for rules are:
a) The mansion gets a lot of talk traffic.  The definition of "a lot of traffic" is open to discussion.
b) When the traffic subsides all threads will be moved back to "Talk" and the separate board will be removed.  This happens after 3 months of no traffic.
c) The mansion will become a part of the "Hall of fame".

We would like to see other people's opinions on this matter before we make any decision.

What about this approach:

Wait until a certain designer has "caused" a certain amount of traffic for his mansions. This might happen after he has created his 2nd or 3rd mansion....or.... maybe even if his very first mansion caused many discussions, right after his first.

Once designer X, say, has "accumulated" for example  3 threads for his mansion A, 1 for his mansion B and 2 for his 3rd mansion C, you could create a new category Talk / Designer X, with the 3 sub-categories "Mansion A', 'Mansion B' and 'Mansion C'.

That can stay forever and will be expanded with a new sub-category once he has made a new mansion that again has caused some traffic.

Anther designer, let's call him Y, has so far only made one mansion, for which until now exists only one thread. We will leave this thread in the normal TALK category until this designer has "accumulated" more post traffic, either by creating new mansions or thru new discussions about his 1st one.

This is somewhat similar to what Freddy has suggested a while back, and I think it's the best compromise between making the orig. TALk category not too cluttered and making it obsolete (on the other hand), and also making it easy to find - say - all discussions having to do with designer W's mansion F, should a user come looking for it.

With this method all a user needs to do is:

- he needs to know (or look up) which designer created the mansion he wants to find infos about
- next he has to check if that designer already has a catgeory of his own.
- If YES, he only has to open that and locate the subcategory "Mansion F"
- If NO, he only has to open the regular TALK category and locate the thread(s) concerning "Mansion F"

I find this approach far better than giving individual categories to individual MANSIONS, which will result in far too many categories.


Just my 2 (euro-) cents......  ;)

Well, a euro is more valuable than Canadian currency so this is not probably worth much, but...

As a regular player, and one who doesn't design mansions, I have to confess that the name of the designer is not something I generally want or need to know, to the extent that this kind of search would require. If I need help with a mansion it is logical to be able to look it up by the mansion name.

...just my .175 cents worth.

I understand your position....BUT:

1.  Finding out which designer created a certain mansion is very easy: You can look it up in the "Downloads" section, under "Downloads sorted by mansion-name".

2.  Plus, we have the "SEARCH" functionality on the top right of every forum page. This could be a shortcut to providing that information. Just fill in the resp. mansion's name and chances are high you will find a post that tells you the designer's name instantly. (Or maybe not.... I never tried it  :D   ;D)

3.  Sooner or later you will know it anyway.... Like, I'm sure you know Freddy made "Midnight, Mazes and Monsters", don't you ?

And after all, wouldn't it be the better solution to ask the users to make that (small) extra step if it prevents us from having forum categories that are too cluttered ?

Or the name of the designer could be included in the 'comments' box of the Mansion file. It could simplify their ordering within the Custom Mansions folder, too.

I think your idea is well-thought out, AquaMat. It's just that it has been my experience that once one little inconvenience is justified, there is a tendency to continue in that vein until suddenly there are a number of tiny inconveniences that add up to one big inefficiency.

If the priority is ease-of-use for the users, then perhaps the following suggestions may be helpful (bearing in mind that I know nothing about organizing a forum and don't wish to create additional work for those kind enough to volunteer as administrators):

The home page could be divided into three main areas with subfolders: (simplified here initially by ACTION; 1. Inform, 2. Discuss, 3. Download.)

1. About the Forum
Subfolders: Posting rules, Administrators, Forum design, Members

2. Talk
Subfolders: Original Mansions, Custom Mansions, Designing, Off-topic, News

3. Download
Subfolders: Original Mansions, Custom Mansions, Test Mansions, Updates

Leaving in, at the bottom, the "Forum Statistics" and "Users Online".

Currently there are three folders on the main page that could possibly be combined : "Forums Messages", "Layout of the Boards", and "Forums Issues". Also, "Your First Post" and "Rules for Posts" perhaps could be combined. Perhaps if we can find an efficient way to organize everything else, the Mansions could be left in their own folders by Mansion name, since that is the most efficient way to find mansion-specific information. There are currently a couple of Talk folders indicated by Designer, that could be changed to their Mansion name for consistency.

I understand that Designers want recognition for all their hard work; I just don't think that it should be the means to get information about specific mansions.

Scout wrote on 15.10.2007 at 02:32:33:

2. Talk Subfolders: Original Mansions, Custom Mansions, Designing, Off-topic, News

Thats a nice idea... do you mean that each of these subfolders will go to more folders for each individual mansion subfolder? Is that possible? That would be much better, instead of that e.g Talk / Volcanis, Talk / Pirate invasion, etc...


Scout wrote on 15.10.2007 at 02:32:33:

3. Download Subfolders: Original Mansions,...

Who needs to download the original mansions?? They're already in the game!

Just to make it clear:

It is only possible to have categories with boards within.  So we have two levels:

1. Categories

       2. Boards

Sorry Brell. When I offer a differing opinion I tend to try to make the opinion more welcome by also including alternative suggestions. It's a habit from years of business, where one often encounters a surplus of opinion but fewer actionable ideas :o)

I didn't realize that the limitations of the forum had already been posted elsewhere. Didn't mean to step on any toes.

You didn't step on anybody's toes, Scout.  It is nice to have your opinions on this matter.  Frankly, I am disappointed in that so few of our users have commented on this matter.  Perhaps they don't care so much about the look of our boards.

Story so far.

We listened very carefully to all replies on MMF, but also by email, concerning the boards about the custom mansions. Especially I like to thank Scout, for calling my attention to the fact that using the names of the designers was not the most terrific idea. Although we have 3 lists that link the mansions with their designers and vice versa, using mansionnames is far more logic for the forumnames.

For the time being we will have 7 boards:
- Talk
- Talk / Catacombs
- and a Talk / ... for the 5 latest released or updated custom mansions.

Why not use a combined approach ?

By labelling categories with both, the designer's name and his mansion's names we'd have the best of both worlds:  More clarity and less categories PLUS nobody would need to learn who designed which mansions....!!

It could read like this:

TALK / Joe Averagedesigner:  Monster Hut / MuhMuh Mansion / House of Horror

Within Joe's main category we would have sub-categories (or threads) for each of Joe Averagedesigner's mansions.

Whattaya think ?  :)

Uhh... when is all this going to happen? Will the forums be off for awhile?

BTW: That's a good idea, AquaMat.