Forum Structure Changes Coming on June 30th

**Grimwell** · 06/27/2008 11:04:06

Hey there folks! We are going to make a few changes to the EQII forums structure next Monday, and I want to give you a quick heads up on those changes, and the reasoning behind them, and then get your feedback.

Before I roll out the changes, let’s talk about why they are being made. It’s actually very easy to sum that up with just one word: Communication. Good message boards are a conduit for communication. People who want to talk have clearly identified locations to initiate and participate in conversations; and people who want to lurk about and read can find the right sub-forums for their needs in rapid fashion.

Right now the EQII message boards are a bit bloated. We have a LOT of sub-forums, and many of them cross over into each other in terms of utility. In some cases this is because we have not provided a clear space for certain conversations, and in others it’s because we have provided so many potential spaces that nobody is exactly sure where their post best fits in. They typically jump up to a generic forum and begin with “I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this but…”

With that in mind, the plan is to add boards where they are needed, or remove them where the clutter causes confusion. In a few cases “remove” actually means “merge with another board that serves a similar function.” So don’t fear that I’m about to embark on a frenzy of deletion.

Our goal here is to better serve the needs of the community, and the needs of the development team. If you can’t find information you are looking for quickly, neither can the designers, artists, and engineers working on EQII. These changes are intended to streamline the path to the information you want, and to provide that same benefit to the development team.

The changes will roll out next Monday, the 30th of June. Please keep in mind that we’re going to make these changes next week, and then we’re going to monitor the results for a while and possibly make more to ensure that the desired goal of having a better conduit for communication is served.

Now then, what’s changing?

New Support Forum Structure
The Technical Support forums are getting an overhaul that will make it easier for you to find a spot to post when you have a technical support issue. This will also make it easier for our Technical Support folks to identify and answer your needs by topic. Currently there’s just one message board for all Technical Support issues. On Monday the following structure will be created:

Performance Support (Video, Sound, Crashing Issues, etc.)
Connection Support (Launchpad, Network, Router, Installation Issues, etc.)
Account Related Support (Billing, Password, Subscription Issues, etc.)
Voice Chat Support (for the built in VOIP system currently on Test)
General Tech Support Issus (Anything not Already Covered)

As you can see, that will provide a few more boards for you when you need assistance. We hope this will reduce any confusion concerning tech issues, and allow people to focus on resolutions.

Forums That Will Merge
The following message boards are going to be merged into single boards to prevent duplication of effort, and better serve the conversations that take place on them.

Combat Discussion & Gameplay Discussion –> Combat and General Gameplay Discussion
Non-Gameplay Discussion & Forum Games –> Non-Gameplay Discussion & Fun and Games Forum
Tips and Tricks & The Newbie Yard –> Tips, Tricks, and New Player Questions

With each of these changes, the end result is a natural fit that eliminates a few forums that serve a single or similar purpose. This serves our overall goal by reducing the number of places to consider when making a post, or looking for specific information.

A Better Solution for Class Discussion
One of the key needs we are trying to answer for the development team with these changes is focused feedback on class discussions. Currently we have a full set of class forums, and then a set of sub-forums under general gameplay to discuss the systems that each class leans on to function. In order to better focus the discussion and feedback, and help the developers find the information they are often looking for, we are going to archive the following boards:

Spells, Abilities, Combat Arts
Achievements

The goal is not to stop conversations on these gameplay elements, but to focus the class specific feedback given in those forums to the class forums. This way when a designer is working on a specific class, they can venture into that specific class forum and find, read, participate in, or initiate conversations that are specific to feedback on that class; and not have to sort through a mountain of posts and forums to get it.

I anticipate that this will worry some of you because the class forums are often viewed as a “No man’s land” in terms of how frequently they are viewed by SOE folks. All that I ask is that you give it a shot and see how it goes. On our end, we know that this implies that we will be actively scanning the class forums for feedback, and while we can’t always post, we will do our level best to meet up with that implication.

To be clear: Not every post in a class forum will get a developer answer. Truthfully, the vast majority of them won’t, but this change and refocus on the class boards will make it easier for the team to find what they need, when they need it.

For now, that’s the entirety of the changes. Please hold off on doom and gloom replies until we make the changes on the 30th, and let’s see how they work out. Your feedback is welcome in this thread, as well as your ideas for other ways we could improve the forum structure for everyone involved. Please remember that not every suggestion can or will be used, but I will be reading and clarifying when and where I can until we make the changes.

One last note: I will not delete any of the message boards on Monday. The ones marked for archival will be locked to stop new posts and continued threads, but they will remain visible for a week. This will enable folks who want to capture data to do so in a reasonable time frame.

We will also move threads from the locked forums to more appropriate locations on request after the lock is set. So you do not have to fear that a favorite thread will be deleted and gone forever on Monday. The changes will happen, but I’ll keep the data handy just in case!

Update:
The Customer Service Announcements forum will be merged with the Official News and Announcements forum as well on Monday. This way there is one stop for everyone when we need to get an announcement out.

The General EverQuest II Discussion and EverQuest II Main Hall categories will also be merged into one larger category. This will not impact the forums in each category in any way not listed above, but it will cut down on the number of division bars displayed when you are scanning the forums.

**Powers**

What about issues that affect more than one class, Grim? Like, say, an issue with the "Evade" combat art that all scouts get. Where would that go under the new scheme? I'm sure you don't want it cross-posted to all six Scout fora in an attempt to make sure the right Devs see it...

Powers &8^]

**Tenamdar**

"Truthfully, the vast minority of them won’t"

Vast minority huh? Slightly mis-stated I think.. SMILEY

**Looker1010** · 06/26/2008 20:48:55

deleted

**walaruss**

where to post ideas/wishes for your development team ?

**Grimwell**

Powers wrote:

What about issues that affect more than one class, Grim? Like, say, an issue with the "Evade" combat art that all scouts get. Where would that go under the new scheme? I'm sure you don't want it cross-posted to all six Scout fora in an attempt to make sure the right Devs see it...

Powers &8^]

Posting it relative to your actual class would be fine. If a problem with an ability that more than one class shares is noted, when the designers to their magic they would look across the classes. It's also a great example of a post that may very well need to be bumped up to the general gameplay forum. Sometimes that is going to be the right answer. Case by case and all, but we won't ban someone from posting in the forums for guessing wrong with good intent.

Tenamdar wrote:

"Truthfully, the vast minority of them won’t"

Vast minority huh? Slightly mis-stated I think.. " />

Gah, good catch. You would think I didn't edit this at all before hand. SMILEY

walaruss wrote:

where to post ideas/wishes for your development team ?

That really depends on the idea or wish. If it's something class related, you would post it in the appropriate class forum. If it was for PvP or Tradeskills, or something of that nature, we have forums for that too. If it's just not right for one of the sub forums, posting it in the general gameplay would work.

It's always a judgment call when you want to post. The changes are there to help make some of it easier, as it's more clear where the devs are looking for class feedback, etc. You do your best and we will do ours!

**Tbiggs**

Heh, Your right about some class forums being no mans land SMILEY

-B-

**dawy**

I think a little bit of trimming here and there is always good on any forum SMILEY

**Mustang8259**

What will be happening to the lore boards? PLEASE tell me they will still have their own spot like they currently do, in the new setup, thanks!

**Liral**

Mustang8259 wrote:

What will be happening to the lore boards? PLEASE tell me they will still have their own spot like they currently do, in the new setup, thanks!

Everything that's not in his post will stay the same.

I like the changes.

**Grimwell**

Liral wrote:

Mustang8259 wrote:
What will be happening to the lore boards? PLEASE tell me they will still have their own spot like they currently do, in the new setup, thanks!

Everything that's not in his post will stay the same.

I like the changes.

Correct. Lore is not going to be touched. SMILEY

**Grimwell**

I've updated the original post in this thread to include the merger of the Customer Service Announcements forum with the Official News and Announcements forum. That will cut down the number of boards more, and give you guys just one place to look for the big announcements.

**Thoronve**

I am willing to go with the flow on this and most of this makes sense, although I'm slightly worried about the merge of Gameplay and Combat. Yes - combat is part of gameplay, but when I look at both boards I see discussions in Combat specifically about combat, right down to parses of weapons - and it can get pretty technical. Gameplay does tend to be a 'catch-all' about anything in the game, and I'd like to see Gameplay as a top level board, with sub-boards about specific areas of Gameplay - combat just being one of these.

For example, Tradeskilling is an aspect of gameplay and no-one in their right mind would advocate merging this with the 'Gameplay' board (and I know that's not what is being proposed - but it's a logical extension to the idea of merging Combat in with Gameplay in that it's also a gameplay topic)

Perhaps it should be something like:

Gameplay
Combat
Tradeskills
Quests
etc.

I'm sure you get the idea...

To summarise - I'd rather not see technical discussions about the crit rates on 'Gnobrins hammer of Doom' vs 'A Rusty knife' merged in with discussions on the guild recruiting tool....

-Thoronve-

**Grimwell**

You have a valid point, and it was something we really did consider before making the change. The decision was driven by our hope that by putting combat into the gameplay forum, we could give it more focus. Right now it serves as the dumping point for a lot of posts that could go elsewhere as it has no clear focus.

Making combat discussion the primary topic gives it a bit of focus, and (hopefully) reduces the number of posts in the forum that are better served by other sub forums that we are actively watching.

**Grimwell**

Another note added in up there.

The General Discussion and Main Hall categories will merge. It won't impact the sub-forums in any way not already listed, but it will get rid of one of your divider bars and make the footprint of the forums that much smaller.