Improve the forum

[Zephyr]

Looking at the forum yesterday evening I saw that the last post on any subject was over 4 hours old which is not healthy for an active forum. .   As has been said here, the majority of posts are done by a small number of people plus one offs (eg name changes, bans, how do I…).   And most posts are standalone comments;  there is little discussion.   If that were to change that would be an improvement.

Threads die when no one posts as they drop out of Today’s Posts.   You have to be aware of a thread (like I was with this one) or look to see if there is one.   If no posts are made then the person hosting the thread could keep it alive by posting themselves for a brief period.   That could make the forum more interesting;  more active or at least more visible threads.

Apart from that how can forum be improved?   And I think it needs to be:  it seems a lot less interesting than it used to be.

The site says there were 102 users active in the past 15 minutes, 95 who were guests and here is where there seems room for improvement.   If I log in I see Today’s Posts but if I don’t, i.e. as a guest, I don’t.   So guests have to search for things:  can’t see why they cannot be allowed to see Today’s Posts.   They might wish then to join and comment.

It is suggested that many players are unaware of forum:  I was, probably for its first six months.   But when I came to site I went straight to my AV log-in.   Now the first screen also includes forum and update log as options so not sure if this is as true as it once was.

There are already a number of people viewing forum:  it just needs to be made more attractive to them to join and participate.

[Cath]

(10-22-2017, 06:16 PM)Zephyr Wrote: There are already a number of people viewing forum:  it just needs to be made more attractive to them to join and participate.

How can I do that?

[JohnSins]

This might bring some new eyes to the forum and give me a break from checking my friends list everytime a person needs a mod, or asks for their location: 
A thread where the mods can “clock in” or just say they are online at the moment, and post their location for people to reach them for help. When they are offline, they “clock out.” This makes the process of finding and/or knowing if a mod is online without bothering others. This would definitely improve game play as well as bring in some traffic to forum

[Vrook]

Well, regarding your idea John.

I think it will be a lot much easier, if, once a mod logs on, some sort of server announcement is made. The kind Vadim does for updates. So, for example, let's say:

"Mod logged on Big Bang, Lagoon Beach"

So, everyone would know where to find the mod, without wandering aimlessly and asking in PM's or in world chat.

And the same could be done for the forum.

[Zephyr]

(10-23-2017, 12:45 PM)Cath Wrote:

(10-22-2017, 06:16 PM)Zephyr Wrote: There are already a number of people viewing forum:  it just needs to be made more attractive to them to join and participate.

How can I do that?

Hi Cath,
I made some suggestions above.   The only one forum can implement is to make Today’s Posts available to those not logged in.   It would then be slightly easier for guests to see what was being talked about and I can’t see any downside.

The main thing is for members to make the forum better as I outlined.

Lady_Alexa suggested chat channels.   TBH I am not sure what she means (my fault) but it sounds good if it allows guests to post something without registering.   I can see why forum would want people to be registered normally but many guests aren’t going to bother for 1 comment they want to make.

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(10-23-2017, 06:00 PM)Vrook Wrote: Well, regarding your idea John.

I think it will be a lot much easier, if, once a mod logs on, some sort of server announcement is made. The kind Vadim does for updates. So, for example, let's say:

"Mod logged on Big Bang, Lagoon Beach"

So, everyone would know where to find the mod, without wandering aimlessly and asking in PM's or in world chat.

And the same could be done for the forum.

How well would it work in practice?

If you are not on when it is announced you will miss it and will Mod be inundated with people?   Some of whom will no doubt then get annoyed that they have not been replied to.   And if Mod wants to move, people will be annoyed that he/she is not where it was said.

This is weird:  reply to Vrook was separate to reply to Cath but site has combined, twice

[Willy_for_Boobies]

System combines posts from one person as long as no other post from another person follows ;-))
(Maybe it separates these posts from the same user if a certain timespan lays between these posts)