Meh, I'm happy here. We seem to do fine with the current structure, granted im a new guy on the block. I think this layout is better for a tight-knit community that visits regularly, which is probably the sort of community you were aiming to foster anyhow?
This is just my personal opinion. I LOVE the site. however, one page for forums posts is pretty messy. For example if someone wanted to get some advice or ask a specific question, it just gets buried under more relevant or popular topics. I think if the site had actual categories with forums and sub-forums it would help with confusion. I personally find it really really hard to look for a specific topic I was looking for just to find it buried.
This is just my opinion.
If you did get rid of the "One Page" add-on. and build categories, just take it slow and light.
Example of categories to start off with.
Category and Forum: Barrens Announcements
Category: General Discussion
└Forum: Introductions
└Forum: General Discussion
└Forum: Off-topic
Category: World of Warcraft Classic
└Forum: General Classic Discussion
└Forum: Classic Realms (When released)
└Forum: Classic Guilds -> Subforum NA/EU
└Forum: Classic Guides -> Redirect Link to Classic guides page, just how it is now.
└Forum: Classic Classes
└Forum: Looking For Group
└Forum: Quest help
Category: Barrens.Chat Feedback
└Forum: Feedback -> Redirect page leading to the current ideas/feedback page.
This is a small organized structure and of course you can and will edit it as you see fit.
teebling
As I said, I love this website and the people here. it's just frustrating at times trying to find a topic really quick without using the search function that will spit out other topics containing the same words.
Hope I didn't come off as an asshat or anything.
Much love, Knoxtane.
I personally feel this is one of the best designed forum sites I have ever been on. The focused nature of the forum is perfect for a smaller, closer community.
I'm not sure he understands what a forum is - It's unbelievable to think but even in 2019 we have people who struggle to grasp very simple concepts.
If anything the forum doesn't need to be touched right now as it is, once Classic is actually released it would make sense to maybe think about diversifying which can easily build off the preexisting backbone of realm based subs.
I like the idea of a "front end" forum. But as others have mentioned, it would be nice if posts were categorized.
All forum categories show up at the front end but if I'm looking for something specific, like dungeon discussion, I'd like a list somewhere to filter out all forum topics to that specific category.
My only complaint is that it shouldnt mess up the text formatting when you hit enter.. And as you get more traffic, you'll need sub-catagories.
I feel the current format fits the current level of traffic, as you said.
Don't add subforums, the place isn't big enough and they aren't needed anyway. That guy is just an idiot being an idiot, which is what reddit mostly is.
Especially on classicwow, most people are new or from retail and since they watched their favorite internet celebrity talk about the game they think they know everything there is to know about it and will downvote you if you call them out on it even with proof.
I was confused at first to be honest, but I like the focused aspect of this forum as others have said. For a smaller community I think it's good that people see the community being active. With different categories we might just end up with people being too spread out, some categories very rarely being used, and a looming feeling of inactivity even though there are dozens of active members.
It's also in the spirit of the real Barrens chat :)
I know it's hard to do, but as somebody who produces stuff: art, games, programs, forums, anything, please refrain yourself from seeking opinions, especially outside your creation. Internet, and Reddit in particular, is full of self-entitled jerks who have never created anything but are first to criticize in the most obnoxious ways. Not every Reddit user is like that though, so please don't burn me.
In my opinion, it's a great idea that there's just one big forum. If it was split in 30 various categories I might miss some threads that would be interesting to me. Sometimes I find myself reading threads that at first didn't seem interesting to me at all. When it comes to wording, it was plain simple to me from the get go. It might be a generation thing - I'm used to clicking stuff and seeing where it gets me, whereas this new generation wants everything served on silver platter, preferably immidiately.
whereas this new generation wants everything served on silver platter, preferably immidiately.
Retail WoW?
I don't understand how people can be confused by a format like this. There's literally nothing more than a single well-formatted page containing all the threads. There's absolutely no effort required to navigate. Clear as crystal.
It does break the convention of what many people are used to, but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I was also a little confused about the forum button when I first joined, but I was also very confused how reddit worked when I first joined there. People will learn. This is better design (for now) than burying posts in a bunch of different subforms.
I don't understand how people can be confused by a format like this. There's literally nothing more than a single well-formatted page containing all the threads. There's absolutely no effort required to navigate. Clear as crystal.
Can we please quit with this elitist attitude, not singling you out specifically but there is a lot of generalist going around in this thread about 'different generations' and 'everyone on reddit' etc. Teebling asked for legitimate feedback and we should be able to discuss this without dealing in absolutes and knee-jerk reactions - thats what I thought separated this forum from all those other places.
To your point. There are obviously multiple pages. The speed-running thread has occasionally fallen off the first one that's one of the best and coolest threads on here and it can get lost among the more short-term threads. Even a few sub categories would probably fix that solution. It's not that its difficult, its just that possibly some organisation could benefit the forum as a whole.
I still remain in the camp that the current design is sufficient, but if traffic and population increase, it would be prudent to be prepared.
I think this thread itself makes my point: Even people in this thread, regulars to the forum, do not know that there are subforums/categories, and believe that the 'main' forum is the only one about. The dude had a point, and contrary to what everyone else in this thread is claiming, he wasn't an 'asshole' or anything about it.
He was giving valuable feedback, and he's getting shit on for it. Not cool.