The forums can be streamlined.

[Avalanche]

I appreciate my original post sounded demanding / entitled to some. This is a suggestion of improvements in my eyes and I accept they are not perfect and other members can have different ideas which may compliment the ultimate goal of improving the forums to get more views on threads that are important for the life of mod.

Over the decade (wow everyone, we've been going for so long!) the forum has been growing and new sections have kept being added. Currently a lot of sub forums are very prominent when they are no longer used. The forums needs to be streamlined so new users can digest information more easily and the rest of us can find what is needed quicker.

Current forum layout - https://ibb.co/hBGYqz

My suggestions - https://ibb.co/cmRoOK

Now I know the below change notes are quite hard to interpret. It's very wordy. I suggest you open both image urls and put them side by side and go down each simultaneously.

Change notes:

1. Relocate "LFG: Looking For Group" under Welcome!

2. Relocate "Events & Competitions" from "General Discussions" and put it under "Newcomers Section". It'll be very visible for all. I appreciate the Events & Competitions name doesnt' sound relevant to just Newcommers. The ultimate goal is to make the Events section at the top of the forum. Put it in the Newcommers section, give it it's own section or rename the Newcommers section.

Or you could put it above Stories & Biographies. That'll at least be better than hidden within General Discussions.

3. Remove "Server Events" under Discovery HQ. It doesn't do anything??

4. Remove "Faction Rules" sub-forum. The It isn't a subforum being used except for the "Faction Review and Feedback" sub-sub-forum which should be placed on the homepage instead.

5. Relocate "RP Stories Feedback Forum" under "General Discussions" to "Stories & Biographies". They're about the same stuff so put the feedback within the forum.

6. Put "Livestreamers Lair" and "Freelancer Forum" under "Community Games". I don't know why they were deemed important enough to be on the homepage.

[Occam Razor]

1. Remove "LFG: Looking For Group". It has no replies on any threads. It hasn't worked and is a waste of homepage real estate.

The LFG-section of the forum is not supposed to have replies, and that does not mean it has not worked. People post what they are looking for there, and those who are interested contact them via PM or other means of communication.

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"Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it."
René Descartes

[Avalanche]

1. Remove "LFG: Looking For Group". It has no replies on any threads. It hasn't worked and is a waste of homepage real estate.

The LFG-section of the forum is not supposed to have replies, and that does not mean it has not worked. People post what they are looking for there, and those who are interested contact them via PM or other means of communication.

Noted. Edited my suggestion. Cheers

[Thyrzul]

3. Remove "Server Events" under Discovery HQ. It doesn't do anything??

It does.

4. Remove "Faction Rules" sub-forum. The It isn't a subforum being used except for the "Faction Review and Feedback" sub-sub-forum which should be placed on the homepage instead.

It does a bit more than that.

2. Relocate "Events & Competitions" from "General Discussions" and put it under "Newcomers Section". It'll be very visible for all. I appreciate the Events & Competitions name doesnt' sound relevant to just Newcommers. The ultimate goal is to make the Events section at the top of the forum. Put it in the Newcommers section, give it it's own section or rename the Newcommers section.

Or you could put it above Stories & Biographies. That'll at least be better than hidden within General Discussions.

It doesn't have relevance to Newcomer specifically, it is relevant to everyone. It is not an RP section either, thus it has nothing to do above Stories & Biographies. If anything, relocate it to the Server Events section, even though that's primarily meant for staff use.

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[Avalanche]

3. Remove "Server Events" under Discovery HQ. It doesn't do anything??

It does.

The only subforum within it is "Events Archive" that's being used. It's at the near-top of the forum and no one visits it regularly. Remove it or relocate it within something else.

4. Remove "Faction Rules" sub-forum. The It isn't a subforum being used except for the "Faction Review and Feedback" sub-sub-forum which should be placed on the homepage instead.

It does a bit more than that.

Does it? From my screen the only thing used within it is the "Faction Review and Feedback" section. Put the "Faction Review and Feedback" it on the front page so it'll be seen / used more. You can then put the "Admin Feedback Thread" section within the "Faction Review and Feedback" section

2. Relocate "Events & Competitions" from "General Discussions" and put it under "Newcomers Section". It'll be very visible for all. I appreciate the Events & Competitions name doesnt' sound relevant to just Newcommers. The ultimate goal is to make the Events section at the top of the forum. Put it in the Newcommers section, give it it's own section or rename the Newcommers section.

Or you could put it above Stories & Biographies. That'll at least be better than hidden within General Discussions.

It doesn't have relevance to Newcomer specifically, it is relevant to everyone. It is not an RP section either, thus it has nothing to do above Stories & Biographies. If anything, relocate it to the Server Events section, even though that's primarily meant for staff use.

Help & Support sub-forum has relevance to new and old players but it's still within the Newcommer section.

The Player Owned Bases section of the RP sub-forum is filled with OORP threads... Irregardless, the Events sub-forum is best suited below Help & Support. You could rename "Newcommer's Section" to "Welcome to Discovery" + rename "Welcome!" to "Introduce yourself". Then, the "Help & Support" and "Events" sub-forums would go nicely at the top

[SnakThree]

My simple and elegant suggestion would be to move Faction Feedback Threads into each factions' subforum. This would be much easier to find it. We get rid of one subforum and make those threads more accessible.

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[Karlotta]

Agreed with the OP, but there are many more things that can be improved by sticking to simple layout principles:

-The words "Discovery 24/7 RP" were spammed all over the page in nearly every single entry, forcing people to read the same useless words over and over and over again when looking for something.

-Cluttered with even more totally useless information like number of posts

-Repetitive descriptions made long by useless words

-Titles for subforums too small (and cluttered with "Discovery 24/7 RP") making the sub-sections confusing. If its impossible to make the fonts larger in the subsection titles at least make it all caps and only the really relevant words.

I've mentioned this multiple times over the years, wasting hours of my life explaining things that anyone with even a small amount of common sense should have been able to figure out on their own, but to no avail. So here are some pictures as examples, for those who aren't able to understand even the most basic and obvious rules of layout (yes, I'm extremely frustrated and annoyed):

How it is:


How it should be:

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How it is:


How it should be:

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How it is:


How it should be:

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How it is:


How it should be:

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User was banned for: https://discoverygc.com/forums/showthrea...tid=200950
Time left: (Permanent)

[Sol]

Events and Competitions should be a subforum of Server Events, maybe named as 'Player Events and Competitions'. Discovery HQ seems to have the potential to be converted to where the high priority stuff you need to see easily could be posted, except the Site and Board Feedback which is not worth putting so close to the top.

Though the title of Discovery HQ is not very helpful. If the section's name changed to something along the lines of "Important Notices", people would know it's a place worth keeping an eye out.

[Thyrzul]

3. Remove "Server Events" under Discovery HQ. It doesn't do anything??

It does.

The only subforum within it is "Events Archive" that's being used. It's at the near-top of the forum and no one visits it regularly. Remove it or relocate it within something else.

The entire subforum is being used. Active events are in the main sections, Event Archive gets filled because events tend to end after a while, then they get archived. The section is visited when there is something new. If you see no action there, it's because there is no server event ongoing at the time or there is no change regarding the active ones, and that's more related to staff activity and conduct than forum layout. That section is good as is, does have a purpose and serves it well, even if you can't seem to notice it.

4. Remove "Faction Rules" sub-forum. The It isn't a subforum being used except for the "Faction Review and Feedback" sub-sub-forum which should be placed on the homepage instead.

It does a bit more than that.

Does it? From my screen the only thing used within it is the "Faction Review and Feedback" section. Put the "Faction Review and Feedback" it on the front page so it'll be seen / used more. You can then put the "Admin Feedback Thread" section within the "Faction Review and Feedback" section

And where would you put the Faction Section Moderation thread, or all the other announcements, for which the section has been used?

2. Relocate "Events & Competitions" from "General Discussions" and put it under "Newcomers Section". It'll be very visible for all. I appreciate the Events & Competitions name doesnt' sound relevant to just Newcommers. The ultimate goal is to make the Events section at the top of the forum. Put it in the Newcommers section, give it it's own section or rename the Newcommers section.

Or you could put it above Stories & Biographies. That'll at least be better than hidden within General Discussions.

It doesn't have relevance to Newcomer specifically, it is relevant to everyone. It is not an RP section either, thus it has nothing to do above Stories & Biographies. If anything, relocate it to the Server Events section, even though that's primarily meant for staff use.

Help & Support sub-forum has relevance to new and old players but it's still within the Newcommer section.

The Player Owned Bases section of the RP sub-forum is filled with OORP threads... Irregardless, the Events sub-forum is best suited below Help & Support. You could rename "Newcommer's Section" to "Welcome to Discovery" + rename "Welcome!" to "Introduce yourself". Then, the "Help & Support" and "Events" sub-forums would go nicely at the top

Good finding. Move Help & Support to Discovery HQ, move Player Owned Bases to Discovery RP 24/7 Hub. Events and Competitions can still be a subsection of Server Events, also in Discovery HQ.

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[Avalanche]

3. Remove "Server Events" under Discovery HQ. It doesn't do anything??

It does.

The only subforum within it is "Events Archive" that's being used. It's at the near-top of the forum and no one visits it regularly. Remove it or relocate it within something else.

The entire subforum is being used. Active events are in the main sections, Event Archive gets filled because events tend to end after a while, then they get archived. The section is visited when there is something new. If you see no action there, it's because there is no server event ongoing at the time or there is no change regarding the active ones, and that's more related to staff activity and conduct than forum layout. That section is good as is, does have a purpose and serves it well, even if you can't seem to notice it.

The "Server Events" subforum includes:

Sub-subforum titled "Uncharted Kusari" - - Last used March (Inactive)
Sub-subforum titled "Event Archive" - - Last used 10 days ago (Active)

Pinned thread titled "Event Plan" - - Last used January (Inactive)
+
Normal threads x2 - - Both last used 3 months ago (unknown).

The normal threads x2 that may or may not still be active in-server events, put them into the actual "Events & Competitions" subforum. The "Event Archive" sub-subforum should also go to the "Events & Competitions" subforum.

Just make events all in one place and remove subforums that aren't used anymore. Don't make it harder for people to find what they want.

4. Remove "Faction Rules" sub-forum. The It isn't a subforum being used except for the "Faction Review and Feedback" sub-sub-forum which should be placed on the homepage instead.

It does a bit more than that.

Does it? From my screen the only thing used within it is the "Faction Review and Feedback" section. Put the "Faction Review and Feedback" it on the front page so it'll be seen / used more. You can then put the "Admin Feedback Thread" section within the "Faction Review and Feedback" section

And where would you put the Faction Section Moderation thread, or all the other announcements, for which the section has been used?

Again, to say the same as above - Most of the sub-subforums are inactive. "Faction Activity" sub-subforum was last used in 2016. Get rid of it.

Admin Feedback thread - It's literally a thread that's been put as a sub-subforum (why?). Make it a pinned thread somewhere.

The normal threads within the "Faction Rules" subforum overall haven't been used since April.

So, I propose you take the only active sub-subforum within the entire subforum which is "Faction Review and Feedback" as the main, homepage subforum. Then make the Admin Feedback thread as a pinned post within it.

2. Relocate "Events & Competitions" from "General Discussions" and put it under "Newcomers Section". It'll be very visible for all. I appreciate the Events & Competitions name doesnt' sound relevant to just Newcommers. The ultimate goal is to make the Events section at the top of the forum. Put it in the Newcommers section, give it it's own section or rename the Newcommers section.

Or you could put it above Stories & Biographies. That'll at least be better than hidden within General Discussions.

It doesn't have relevance to Newcomer specifically, it is relevant to everyone. It is not an RP section either, thus it has nothing to do above Stories & Biographies. If anything, relocate it to the Server Events section, even though that's primarily meant for staff use.

Help & Support sub-forum has relevance to new and old players but it's still within the Newcommer section.

The Player Owned Bases section of the RP sub-forum is filled with OORP threads... Irregardless, the Events sub-forum is best suited below Help & Support. You could rename "Newcommer's Section" to "Welcome to Discovery" + rename "Welcome!" to "Introduce yourself". Then, the "Help & Support" and "Events" sub-forums would go nicely at the top

Good finding. Move Help & Support to Discovery HQ, move Player Owned Bases to Discovery RP 24/7 Hub. Events and Competitions can still be a subsection of Server Events, also in Discovery HQ.

Whatever, just a lot of rearranging needs to be done IF the powers that be wish to have a more logical forum layout. The better the layout is, the more people will understand its contents and find what they are interested in. Could mean more players join the community too.

Overall this forum has so much visual noise on the homepage and a lot is redundant and inactive. Get rid of old stuff and rearrange.