Forum Feedback & Suggestions!

[Keelhaul]

Hi All,

I'm no forums expert, so if you're one of the first to arrive here, any particular forums or categories you'd like me to create or problems you're having please post here and I'll get on it ASAP.

-Keel

[Marrra]

Regarding forum layout and design:
It's really hard to tell the boundaries of posts in a thread - could you brighten the borders? They kinda just blend into one another at the moment.

Also: Perhaps move General Discussion to the top?

[Elvine]

Either a section or thread for people to introduce themselves would be nice and helpful to get to know one another.

If you need help let me know, I'm quite familiar with phpbb forums.

[Keelhaul]

Working on colors now to break up the issue Marra mentioned. Nearly there... and yes! Who IS you is a great idea thanks Elvine!

-Keel

[Marrra]

Either a section or thread for people to introduce themselves would be nice and helpful to get to know one another.

It's kinda why I started the 'Hi there!!" thread ^_^. You can sticky it if you want to, or even move or delete it if you find a better way/place for hellos and such.

[Keelhaul]

Moved!

[Elvine]

I see you have sections for class weapon transmogs, are you planning on doing armor as well?

Also, just throwing the idea out there. Would it be better to keep it expanded sub forums or consolidate the front page to be less scrolling for people?
Like show the sub forum categories under the main one.


Suggestions / Ideas / Feedback section about the forums.

[Marrra]

Would it be better to keep it expanded sub forums or consolidate the front page to be less scrolling for people?
Like show the sub forum categories under the main one.


Suggestions / Ideas / Feedback section about the forums.

Honestly, I like it expanded - then I can see at a glance from the home page which forum has posts in it that I might want to read. Keeping that forum at the bottom of the list is best though, as people won't need to scroll past it to get to other forums. The other forums are all at the top, so it's easy to see.

Just my 2c.

[Elvine]

Would it be better to keep it expanded sub forums or consolidate the front page to be less scrolling for people?
Like show the sub forum categories under the main one.


Suggestions / Ideas / Feedback section about the forums.

Honestly, I like it expanded - then I can see at a glance from the home page which forum has posts in it that I might want to read. Keeping that forum at the bottom of the list is best though, as people won't need to scroll past it to get to other forums. The other forums are all at the top, so it's easy to see.

Just my 2c.

Either way is cool, I'm just throwing out suggestions. If he adds the same layout for armors that's just a lot to be seeing on the index page.

edit* seems to be issues with double quotes whiting out

[Marrra]

edit* seems to be issues with double quotes whiting out

Noticed that >_< I try not to double quote anyway, since some sites really don't handle it well.

More suggestions/questions:

• Could we perhaps have a Forum FAQ (I know there's a FAQ but that's more about the technical bits of the forum, not specific to us) explaining things like forum ranks (like the Grunt, Captain and such below avatars) and what they mean - how/if you get to them, that stuff. Oh, and thanks for shrinking the icons for those Felt like the sidebar with that stuff was bigger than some posts >_< Oh, and what the 'Humour' section of the profile is supposed to be for >.>
  
• Would we like to use the Getting to know you forum for things like locations/meetups? Like having a North American, European, Asia, Australia, South America, etc thread/subforum. People might like to get together, in game or out. Would also be interesting seeing how our community is spread ^_^. We could keep a sticky thread in each with a list of users from that location.
  
• I know many guild hosting forums and such have the ability to link items from Wowhead so they show on hover - is there any way to make that work here? Does anyone know if there is coding that supports it in phpBB? Might be handy - since we'll be linking items a lot here.
  

Much easier to differentiate posts now, Keelhaul - thanks!

[Elvine]

Yes, there is a script for wowhead tooltips, but I don't know how much access does he have to the html/css of the site.

Code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.wowhead.com/widgets/power.js"></script>

Add that to anywhere in the code of the site.

Also, question did you want us to make a separate thread for our introductions or just limit it to 1 long running thread?
my 2c would be a thread for each person so we don't end up with 50+ page introduction thread. If that is your intention there wouldn't been a need to have it's own category, just make it a sticky within the General section.

Is this phpbb2 or phpbb3?
Did you want us to make 1 thread only (Personal Shop) and update our wares in the Cross-Realm section or create new threads when we obtain new items?

[Marrra]

Another suggestion (you're going to get so sick of me):

With having the class specific weapon threads - perhaps instead make it just a class specific thread? Like the hunter one already being discussed started more as an armour talk than weapon talk, and the two intermingle so easily. I think it would just be much easier keeping it class based in total, not weapon/armour based. Especially when the topic encompasses both - what do you do? Where do you put it? Consolidating will lessen headaches ^_^

Also: for people asking for suggestions on mogging, it really helps if we know what class/gender, since they all look soooo different in things. Perhaps a standard sticky post of Forum Guidelines on each class subforum (or just one on the main forum, linked to the Forum FAQ) stating that anyone looking for advice should tell people in their first post what race/gender they are to help people help them.

[Elvine]

Another suggestion (you're going to get so sick of me):

With having the class specific weapon threads - perhaps instead make it just a class specific thread? Like the hunter one already being discussed started more as an armour talk than weapon talk, and the two intermingle so easily. I think it would just be much easier keeping it class based in total, not weapon/armour based. Especially when the topic encompasses both - what do you do? Where do you put it? Consolidating will lessen headaches ^_^

Issue of making it class based is people might miss out on something that looks good for their class because it's under another section. It's a very gray area to separate into sections. A Paladin might like to use a polearm that Hunters use most of the time.

I agree that consolidation is key though. Personally it's a turn off to come to board index with lots of scrolling and showing tons of sub forums.

I'd suggest separating by armor type and weapon type. ie plate, mail, leather & 1h sword, bows, polearms

[Marrra]

Issue of making it class based is people might miss out on something that looks good for their class because it's under another section. It's a very gray area to separate into sections. A Paladin might like to use a polearm that Hunters use most of the time.

I agree that consolidation is key though. Personally it's a turn off to come to board index with lots of scrolling and showing tons of sub forums.

True, but how are people likely to be using the forums? We could make it class based, with people posting their threads of things like 'I have this and this, what would work best with ...?' as that is easily identifiable as a class thing. Then there's the guides on the armour/weapons that classes can use - a sticky thread on each sub forum that can use that particular item (whether a double post in each class area, or a link to a page with the information, that kind of thing) might work.

[Dibface]

Another suggestion (you're going to get so sick of me):

With having the class specific weapon threads - perhaps instead make it just a class specific thread? Like the hunter one already being discussed started more as an armour talk than weapon talk, and the two intermingle so easily. I think it would just be much easier keeping it class based in total, not weapon/armour based. Especially when the topic encompasses both - what do you do? Where do you put it? Consolidating will lessen headaches ^_^

Issue of making it class based is people might miss out on something that looks good for their class because it's under another section. It's a very gray area to separate into sections. A Paladin might like to use a polearm that Hunters use most of the time.

I agree that consolidation is key though. Personally it's a turn off to come to board index with lots of scrolling and showing tons of sub forums.

I'd suggest separating by armor type and weapon type. ie plate, mail, leather & 1h sword, bows, polearms

Would it be possible to have all three? As in, a general section for classes, a section for armor types, and general weapons sections? Obviously there's a lot of weapon types, but maybe it could be condensed? So for example, Str Two-handers, Str/Agi one-handers, Caster weapons, etc. That kind of thing.

[Elvine]

Would it be possible to have all three? As in, a general section for classes, a section for armor types, and general weapons sections? Obviously there's a lot of weapon types, but maybe it could be condensed? So for example, Str Two-handers, Str/Agi one-handers, Caster weapons, etc. That kind of thing.

Hmm, Str and Agi talk? We're here for transmog silly stats shouldn't matter.

[Dibface]

Would it be possible to have all three? As in, a general section for classes, a section for armor types, and general weapons sections? Obviously there's a lot of weapon types, but maybe it could be condensed? So for example, Str Two-handers, Str/Agi one-handers, Caster weapons, etc. That kind of thing.

Hmm, Str and Agi talk? We're here for transmog silly stats shouldn't matter.

Str and Agi as opposed to Int. Caster weapons are distinctly different from Agi and Str one-handers. I really only put that there to make that distinction, instead of just "One-handers"

[Keelhaul]

For now I'm going to simply try and harbor good content, so rather than 14 threads not being used perhaps we begin with general class threads and let this grow organically. It doesn't have to be perfect right out of the gate. The trick is to identify what players are coming here for and wrap the thread structure around THAT. So ask yourselves why you came here, be honest about it, and it will lead you to what the thread structure should be. It may not be the class thread at all, it might be the WoW factor, it might be weapons only or it might be the community. Each of those would dictate different flavored threads. This is how you build good content, focus on what the audience is looking for.

I'll address the BoE marketplace thread as well once I have my head wrapped around it a bit more.

[Keelhaul]

Is this phpbb2 or phpbb3?
Did you want us to make 1 thread only (Personal Shop) and update our wares in the Cross-Realm section or create new threads when we obtain new items?

phpbb3

[Bjorn9486]

Is it possible to change the quote button such that the "u" isn't tied up in the circle and it gets kinda lost. Maybe make the circle go through the empty space between letters like the "New Topic" and "Post Reply" button.

[Elvine]

Is it possible to change the quote button such that the "u" isn't tied up in the circle and it gets kinda lost. Maybe make the circle go through the empty space between letters like the "New Topic" and "Post Reply" button.

I'm pretty sure it's the theme he picked. I don't know if he has access to the ccs/html code to even edit the image, I could be wrong though.

[Kremti]

OK, another suggestion...

A big, giant, clear button on the front page of the forum to get to http://deazeroth.blogspot.com

-K

[Keelhaul]

Wow, these are good.

I do have access to the button images and such, have slowly been converting them from an existing theme. Still have yet to produce new Quote/New Post/Edit etc. buttons, but should be able to get to it later this evening. It's weird, the back end interface is pretty intricate with loads of options but I see nothing where I can simply edit the HTML. I'm going to have lunch with Elvine this Friday though and we'll take a look at it over some TAPAS!

Would LOVE to get a link back to deazeroth.com, not sure just yet how to integrate it. There are about twenty pages on the back end each with about 10-20 options so finding the right location to do it has been slow. Will keep looking though because right now these are separate from the main site, bleh. That said they're free and I was able to just build them myself.

[Kremti]

Yeah, I'd love to have a big links at the top of the every page, to get to "DEAzetoth Home" and "DEAzeroth Forum Home". Makes navigating easier.

-K

[Marrra]

Yeah, I'd love to have a big links at the top of the every page, to get to "DEAzetoth Home" and "DEAzeroth Forum Home". Makes navigating easier.

-K

Forum home is easy - top and bottom of each forum/thread you visit has a link to Home.

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