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With design on the new Dakka site currently under way, I thought I'd throw the net out and see what most people prefer when it comes to how the forums themselves are organized here at Dakka.

With future upgrades to the new Dakka site we will likely implement some very exciting forum organization ideas, but right off the bat we're going to keep the forums organized fairly similar to what you see now.

We won't be adding any sub-forums (so only one 'modeling' forum, for example) and all the forums will be found on a single page as they are now (no separate pages for different games for the time being).


The general forums (News & Rumors, Modeling, Dakka Discussions, etc) will be staying pretty much exactly the same as will the 40K and Fantasy forums -- all these areas get plenty of posts on a regular basis.

The real question comes with how to organize the forums for other games. I'm a firm believer in keeping/making Dakka into a site dedicated to the whole miniature hobby. While 40K/Fantasy is the main reason people come here, I want to make sure that discussion for other popular mini games is also well organized and accessible.

But I don't believe that suddenly making a bunch of extra forums for Flames or War will suddenly make people want to start coming to Dakka to discuss FoW. The discussion must be there before additional forums for a game will be created. Besides the Warmachine forum, most of the other smaller game forums here on Dakka are fairly dead. Hopefully the new forum software and positive changes we are making will entice people to come post in those forums, but we will just have to see about that.


So, with those principles in mind how would you prefer your 'other' games forums be organized, by game title or by genre?


OPTION A:  by game title


Example:


OTHER GAMES
Warmachine forum
Flames of War forum
AT-43 forum
Starship Troopers forum
Battlefleet Gothic forum
Babylon 5: A Call to Arms forum
GW Classics forum
Miscellaneous Miniature Games forum


Pros:

• Very easy to identify the game you are looking for and find posts pertaining to it.
• Games that have their own dedicated forum seem 'highlighted' more than games that don't have their own dedicated forum and may therefore help drive activity to those games (although this concept certainly hasn't been working much lately).

Cons:

• The more games that get an individual forum, the more overall forums the site has and the more cluttered and hard to find the forum you are looking for becomes.
  
• If interest in a particular game starts to dwindle, the forum itself will likely become obsolete and unused.
• A whole bunch of games are lumped together into a couple of categories (GW Classics and Misc Games) which means finding posts for particular games in those forums can sometimes be difficult (although the new Dakka will support many more threads per page than the current forum).
• This organization requires more Admin attention as new popular games need to get their own forum while games that have dwindled in popularity have to have their forum deleted and the old posts moved into an existing forum.

OPTION B:  by genre
each forum wold have a small description by it letting you know what particular games tend to fall into that category.


Example:


OTHER GAMES
Warmachine forum (popular enough to warrant its own forum)
Sci-Fi Infantry Games forum (AT-43, Starship Troopers, etc)
Historical Games forum (any historical game including Flames of War)
Skirmish Games forum (including Necromunda, Mordheim, Space Hulk, etc)
Small Scale Games forum (Epic, Warmaster, etc)
Spaceship / Naval Battles forum (Babylon 5, Man O' War, etc)
Large Scale Games forum (Inquisitor)
Miscellaneous Miniature Games forum (any game not covered, like Blood Bowl)


Pros:

• Overall this structure can handle more games while having fewer actual forums. Less forums on a page means they are individually easier to spot and access.
• No matter how many new games are released, this forum structure can handle it without adding extra forums. This means less work for the administration as forums wouldn't need to be created or deleted very often.
  
• Having multiple games in a single forum increases the chance that any particular forum will be used even if one game covered by the forum starts to dwindle in popularity.
• Really popular games (like Warmachine) can still be given their own forum if activity warrants it.

Cons:

• A whole bunch of games are lumped together into each forum, which means finding posts for particular games in those forums can sometimes be difficult (although the new Dakka will support many more threads per page than the current forum).
• With almost all games lumped into group categories, individual games may not be properly 'highlighted' by this system and users may just choose to go to other sites to discuss their particular game instead.

So let me know what you think between these two options, or if you have an entirely better idea instead!

The more I think about it, the more I think we're better off having fewer sub-boards. While Dakka has always been (primarily) a 40k board and should probably reflect that, the other forums should be more compacted. Maybe not as compact as '40k' 'everything else' but fewer than option one, as above.

Incidentally, what might help either way is having a REALLY good, fast, easy to use search function. When I'm at the forums at The Miniatures Page, for example, I can search a subject pretty quickly. Now, it shows thread topics rather than single references in a discussion, but that does make for a faster search.

So, you're basically more in favor of 'option B'?

We are definitely working on a very robust search feature and while it may not make the initial launch (most likely we'll just have a basic search as Dakka does now), rest assured it will eventually get added.


I am most certainly with you and perhaps we will get to a position one day where we can have a single 'tactics' forum (for example) and all the different games would have their own tag. You could then view all games in the tactics forum or you could sort you could only see the 40K threads or the Warmachine threads, etc.

Unfortunately, that idea is not going to come immediately (if ever). Instead we have to start out of the gate with something similar to what we have now. So looking at the forums we have now how do we properly organize them so people have a place to dicuss non-Warhammer games without making the whole site a cluttered mess?

The two options I gave above are my front runners.

I vote Option B. Keep it more generic so that people can be introduced to stuff they may not have known existed.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

I'd say a little of A and a little of B. Give the more popular games their own forums and go genre with the others. Perhaps even add in a seperate forum for pre-painted games like the Star Wars ones and Heroclix?

I'm not bothered about this issue, either option works for me.

I'm in favor of Option B, as I think that the streamlined interface will be easier to maintain and navigate.  If a particular game becomes popular enough, you could always create a new forum later. 

Although under option A, you listed "If interest in a particular game starts to dwindle, the forum itself will likely become obsolete and unused." as a Con; I see it as a Pro.  The OTers can always get the most out of underutilized forums.

This is outside the question but I'd like the main forums to be:
News and Rumors
General Discussion
Modeling

Rather than discussion buried under stuff like Survivor Games and campaigns.

And I'd like Survivor to be renamed something like 'fun stuff' for games, chain stories and the like.

As for the question at hand, option B. Games have come and gone a lot in the last few years so I think there's more sense in going by genre.

Dakka Dakka (40k forums):

News and Rumors
Painting and Modeling
General Discussion

40k

Army Lists
Tactics
You Make Da Call
Battle Reports
Fluff

Fantasy

Army Lists
Tactics
You Make Da Call
Battle Reports
Fluff

Other Dakka
Warmachine and Hordes
Science fiction miniatures
Fantasy miniatures
Historical Miniatures
Skirmish
Small scale

Off da hook Dakka
Off Topic
Stupid stuff (Survivor, Chain Stories)
Rants

Malfred's organisation looks pretty good.

A lot of us are into other games than just 40K / GW and we go to other forums (TMP, etc) to get it. Dakka should play to its strengths.

Apologies if this is a faux pas, but for those other games that Dakka doesn't focus on, could we have links to forums for them, and perhaps even have links to other 40k and Fantasy boards that cater to areas of the hobby that we don't?  You know, being polite about it (yes, they'll suspect it's a trick, but it won't be).  It may be a more subtle way of helping to direct people who don't quite fit here to an environment where they do fit in better.

While I think Dakka should definitely play to its strengths, which currently is 40k (and to a lesser extent, Fantasy Battles), I think that we ought to continue to promote other games and encourage the community here.  I think it would be great if Dakka eventually became a sort of "one stop shop" for wargaming, including GW, Specialist Games, PP, historicals, etc.

I think simply shuffling off the people who are interested in "other games" to other websites limits Dakka's growth and expansion, and I hope we all can agree that that's not something we want to do.

Not that I think it would be bad to give the thumbs up to other forums, I think that has its place - I just don't think we should be advocating the idea that "We don't talk about X game here, so go to X website instead!", and instead try to encourage people to discuss the stuff here too.  While I think we should encourage other good gaming forums, too much promotion to other sites would just lead to more and more potential members going to other sites, and Dakka would just turn into a strictly 40k board with a bit of Fantasy, and I don't think that's really what we want at this point (at least I hope it isn't.)  Dakka has so much more potential than that.

I also think that we ought to organize the other games categorically at first (i.e. Sci-fi, Fantasty, Historical), but put up a dedicated forum as soon as any games grow popular enough to warrant it.

Tschüss!
-Hordini

I vote for option B. I also think that the search engine should be tweaked to exclude survivor threads, as they can ruin the search results.

Posted By malfred on 08/27/2007 10:49 AM
Dakka Dakka (40k forums):

News and Rumors
Painting and Modeling
General Discussion

40k

Army Lists
Tactics
You Make Da Call
Battle Reports
Fluff

Fantasy

Army Lists
Tactics
You Make Da Call
Battle Reports
Fluff

Other Dakka
Warmachine and Hordes
Science fiction miniatures
Fantasy miniatures
Historical Miniatures
Skirmish
Small scale

Off da hook Dakka
Off Topic
Stupid stuff (Survivor, Chain Stories)
Rants

In a word: "Perfection!"

Use this! Use this now! Its how Dakka should have been since its second incarnation (given enough time to find out what was the most frequently used forums were). Those three have always been the most popular.

So Basically, option B, but done just like how Malfred has layed it out.

Actually, on seeing this, disregard what I posted about a LOTR forum in the other thread. It would fit nicely into fantasy games. Or skirmish games.
I like plan B.

I'm just getting vocal again, but I've been coming to Dakka for years and the main reason I come here is I have the easiest time finding the info I want. I wouldn't change it very much if at all, personally.

I'd go for B, but I'd also like to have threads 'tagged' for the game system, i.e. the thread author selects a tick box for the game system next to the title and I can either view the whole forum or choose to hide those posts that are tagged for a system I'm not interested in.

I agree with Hellfury (and malfred).

This could probably even be tested before the forum-software switch.