There are too many categories in this new forum. Everything seems a bit too cluttered for me. Like, what’s the point of separating each gamemode with a new sub-category? Having one for 5v5, 3v3, brawl modes and then one specifically for heroes, builds and items seems redundant.
I feel like the Vg discussion category should have like… two of the ones that are currently there: The Salt Mine and the Game Moments one, along with a singular General category that covers all of 5v5, 3v3, brawl modes and Heroes, Builds and Items. UI and overall environment seems like it’d be a much better fit in the Dear SEMC category and I’m unsure about the Skins, Crafting and in-Game Reward System one.
The entire Help! category seems redundant since the vg discussion category and Forum Stuff category can be used for the same.
Thanks for the feedback - did you know if you want to view the subcategories all together you can - if you just go into the vg discussion category all the posts in the the subcategories are there at the bottom.
At the moment I’m seeing how the current framing goes - but having multiple categories has some useful features:
Makes it easier to find things (because of sorting)
Keeps currency of posts longer
Doesn’t mean that people just constantly post in just one forum (aka the problem of general in the old forums).
The Help! Category I want to keep around both to encourage people to ask questions, and because of the gamification features - if you answer questions there and get marked as the right answer you get badges…
Sure, I agree with your points, but some of these categories just seem redundant. The meta will obviously be discussed when talking about 5v5, 3v3 and brawl modes, hence A heroes, builds and items category seems weird. New players will post questions regarding the game in the VG discussions category, and it just seems intuitive that questions relating to the forums would go straight to Forum Stuff, hence making the Help! section redundant. UI and overall environment stuff would be things people would prefer to be seen by semc directly, hence it seems like a better idea to post such threads in the Dear SEMC category.
The whole separation of game modes by sub-category seems a bit odd to me, but it might work out in the long run
The thought is that meta, builds etc will shift from mode to mode and splitting them is a way to make that discussion less confusing.
However people still want to have discussions like:
“Krul is OP”
Or “Crit builds are the best WP builds”
So thats why those categories exist.
If we don’t have a general area then Help! I still think is helpful as an option.
Dear SEMC has a specific role as well - namely as a place where people who are writing directly to SEMC can write - but it doesn’t really make sense to clutter that up with discussions about or questions about the ui or aspects of the game outside of the game. So I am trying to minimise the content in there so that when someone from SEMC asks me about X I can say oh yeah there is a great post about that here and point them to that forum.
Which is not to say any of this is set in stone - instead it will evolve organically as use happens and people make suggestions and requests.
But, like you said, the meta changes between the different game modes, so this wouldn’t make much sense, would it? Unless it’s just meant to be a “General” category where all the game modes would be considered.
I still feel like the Help! category is redundant, but I guess you feel otherwise.
I can see what you mean by wanting to leave Dear SEMC as short as possible, but what else could actually be discussed in the UI & overall environment category besides things that we want SEMC to improve ie. Things we’d like SEMC to see?
This was my issue with the old forums as well. In time it may be nice to broaden the sub categories (a little, never too much), but especially now, it just adds to needless navigation.
Look at Reddit. The only sub categories they have are subreddits. They aren’t perfect and do suffer from that sparse separation, but still, I’d veer towards a spartan forum than one with 12 sub forums that each have one post in them.
Reddit is precisely what we want to avoid here. It has real and serious issues with immediacy effects, flooding and long term searchability and sustainability because of that one page structure of its.
In this forum there is a category structure but its up to you - you can completely ignore it - and use say latest, or new posts as your preferred way of setting up the home page and browsing the forums - you aren’t locked into my preference of categories - its an option.
We will see - if categories don’t get used then they will get collapsed and combined.
It may also be the case if/when we introduce tagging that will achieve some of the handy structural stuff that categories currently do, and we may then reduce the number.
I get pretty dizzy looking at all the categories, but yea, the new, latest, and unread tabs are just there, and are what I use to navigate through threads