Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

At the moment, with all of the Kickstarters going around - when projects get moved out of the N&R forums they just seem to be dumped wherever whichever moderator of the moment sees fit. This gives us the rather silly situation where Shadows of Brimstone (A miniatures-based boardgame like Warhammer Quest) and Mercs (more boardgame than Miniatures Game) end up in Misc Miniatures Games while Arcadia Quest, Myth (made by the same people as Mercs, and closer to Brimstone) are in Boardgames, RPGs and Card Games. Journey: Wrath of Demons is in... I think it was Boardgames, but I'm not sure. I can't find it anymore, and the Search function can't find it either.

Secret Weapon Tablescapes (terrain - boards) is in Dakka Discussions (WTF?) as is Games & Gears Battle Boards - while Battle Systems Terrain (including boards and other stuff) is in Misc Miniatures Games, along with Raging Heroes. neither of those two have games attached, though. One is terrain and the other is just a non-IG range of figures. RH might, one day, maybe, but then one day I might be Prime Minister. Someone else (a Dakka member, possibly a DCM) and his crew made a KS for battle mats as well. It got moved post-KS. No idea which forum it's in now. Might be Discussions, but I'm not sure and can't find it, either.

Stonehaven Miniatures paper terrain is still in N&R, as are their Dwarven Adventurers.


Note - I'm not asking for a KS-only forum. I'm asking if we could have the post-KS moving of these threads tightened up a bit, and better defined. I don't blame the mods, since they're clearly just moving them where they best think, but I can't think of a single reason why Secret Weapon Tablescapes should be in Dakka Discussions, or why a boardgame like Shadows of Brimstone should be in Misc Miniatures while Journey or Zombicide are in the regular boardgame forum.

Maybe a bit of a clean-up. Work out and define where things like Terrain and table surface KS (and products) go properly. Define where Boardgames that use miniatures go properly.

It was easy in the old days, when it was just GW, PP and maybe BF with a few outliers. But as we're in a New (Golden?) Age of small producers and games and boardgame miniatures crossover - with little of this stuff being produced by GW (which made it easier), it makes sense to get the forums cleaned up a little and sorted out.

I was thinking about these classifications the other day.

The situation is definitely more of a mess with the huge number of Kickstarters and the different game types like original MERCS, a tabletop game like 40K, MERCS Recon, a minis game played on a gridded board like Space Hulk, and then pure boardgames such as OGRE or Talisman that can also be played with models. Then there are variations on map based games, gridded map games, and pure boardgames like Carcassone.

The first step would be to come up with a useful classification that contains all the various types of games in the minimum number of distinct categories. Then we can look at slotting individual titles into the right places.

I moved Battle Systems Terrain and Raging Heroes to Dakka Discussions. We decided that KS for terrain or game-independent miniatures go there some time ago. I also moved Brimstone and Mercs to Board Games, et al. KK makes a strong point about the overlap between board games and miniatures games. I'm not sure we will get this down to an exact science.

Was wondering what had happened to the RH thread. For a moment there I thought that RH had asked the mods to make it disappear.

I'm all for cleaning up the forums, but maybe give a heads-up a wee bit in advance next time? A lot of people will now probably think that the thread has been deleted or lost to the bytes of time.

 BrookM wrote:
Was wondering what had happened to the RH thread. For a moment there I thought that RH had asked the mods to make it disappear.

I'm all for cleaning up the forums, but maybe give a heads-up a wee bit in advance next time? A lot of people will now probably think that the thread has been deleted or lost to the bytes of time.

If you check your subscribed threads would it not redirect you automatically?

Perhaps a Misc Miniatures and Hobby-related goods type forum where the discussion of game-agnostic figures, table mats, terrain pieces, stencils, "which paints do XYZ?" etc type threads can go. There would certainly be enough traffic, and it would allow Misc Miniatures Games to be used for actual Gamesi, and Discussions to be used for all of the not-quite-news stuff that it already is.

Tibbsy wrote:
If you check your subscribed threads would it not redirect you automatically?

Yes. It's a pretty awesome feature, whether you prune it down to threads you are actively following or use it as a place to keep track of updates on long-running threads.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Azazelx wrote:
Perhaps a Misc Miniatures and Hobby-related goods type forum

Dakka Discussions is meant to include miniatures topics not related to a particular game. It's for terrain, generic miniatures, etc. Discussion of hobby paraphenalia (e.g., paints, flock, tools, brushes) all goes in P&M.

 Manchu wrote:

 Azazelx wrote:
Perhaps a Misc Miniatures and Hobby-related goods type forum

Dakka Discussions is meant to include miniatures topics not related to a particular game. It's for terrain, generic miniatures, etc. Discussion of hobby paraphenalia (e.g., paints, flock, tools, brushes) all goes in P&M.

Sure, but is (was?) "meant for" and "is used for" are two different things entirely sometimes. Discussion about actual models like Raging Heroes models or Secret Weapon tablescapes feel really out of place when the main discussion is of meta-topics like "Wayland Games - any good?", "how do you feel being neglected as a girl in the hobby?", "Discuss GW's share price", "Chapterhouse court case thread" and three hundred other "discuss GW's various business practices" threads. If Attack Wing felt out of place in the X-Wing forum, then actual discussion of toy soldiers feels way more out of place in DD. It also feels like there's never been more third-party, non-game-affiliated stuff to discuss in the non-historical segment of our hobby. (and there's a few threads in N&R that don't really belong there anymore, either - either from closed KS that have been buried that could have lived in a slower forum (Stonehaven miniatures, et al) and also things like Dreamforge Games which hasn't been about non-KS N&R for about 2 years now. Unless you count an overly-excited discussion about some background elements in box art for a KS product in lieu of anything substantial to talk about in terms of New Releases or KS fulfilment as "news"...

With this in mind, I'd request that the mods have a discussion about it in their own forums, because actual Miniature talk about specific figures seems uncomfortably out of place in there right now next to talk about the Chapterhouse case and GW's share price threads in what was obviously the "catch-all other stuff" forum that has grown into it's own thing.

 BrookM wrote:
Was wondering what had happened to the RH thread. For a moment there I thought that RH had asked the mods to make it disappear.

I'm all for cleaning up the forums, but maybe give a heads-up a wee bit in advance next time? A lot of people will now probably think that the thread has been deleted or lost to the bytes of time.

There is a feature to move a thread and leave a redirector thread in the original forum. The problem with is that you normally move a thread to get it out of a forum as much as to put it into another one. Moderators normally make a post in the mobile thread saying they are going to move it but that is no help if it moves before you read that post.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Back on topic, BoardGameGeek has a fairly in depth classification for types of games.

This is a good point, Azazel. But I think the solution, like Manchu just did, is to put More of these topics in Dakka Discussions, not less.

I.e:

New miniature games (with rules!) should go in Miscellaneous Games
Gaming aids/accessories or miniatures without a new game should go in Dakka Discussions
Board Games should go in Board Games!

I think Kingdom Death has a board but is more of a new miniatures game, as is Alien vs Predator... So obviously some grey area there, but I think Arcadia Quest is clearly more of a board game.

Feel free to PM any of us if you think a thread is out of place! I'll try to leave a "moved thread" symbol from now on if a thread has to be moved again, so people have some time to find the thread in its original forum (even though it will drop down the page rather than move up as it's posted in, unless you go to the forum it has been moved to).

I've never had a problem with finding stuff in my subscribed threads, I'll be sure to comment on something that I don't want to lose but then I've got a relatively low daily post count.

How about a 'Finished kickstarters' sticky at the top of the news and rumours page?
It could be organised by category, genre, alphabetically, chronologically or whatever and simply link to the new location of the thread.