Time to amend the Off-Topic status?

[LordShiva]

There's a front page?

[Lancer]

Yes actually. It's some sort of fancy window dressing that directs people to the OT.

[Colon™]

Hi Lancer!

[Lancer]

Howdy Colon!

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Lancer
Yes actually. It's some sort of fancy window dressing that directs people to the OT.

We have missed you sir

[Locutus]

Re: Homepage Update: Phase 1.1

Originally posted by DanQ
1) "Subscribed Forums" listing removed due to potential 'whitespace' issue.

Well, I guess if you want me to discontinue using the front page that's one way of going about it... But having to weed through the forest of links at the start and bottom of every forum page to get to the non-forum sections of the site doesn't exactly make it more accessible...

[DanQ]

Re: Homepage Update: Phase 1.1

Originally posted by Locutus
Well, I guess if you want me to discontinue using the front page that's one way of going about it...

That's ultimately your choice, of course, but a bit extreme in my view: again, if you click on the "Subscribed Forums" link on the homepage once logged in it will take you to your Control Panel which lists your subscribed forums in part.

-------
Dan; Apolyton CS

[Locutus]

I can get there from the main forum page as it well, but it's one more click and one more link on a page of many. The good thing of the home page was that it was one page with all the important stuff right there, one click away. Now I have to visit two pages, which are only connected through small link burried by tons of other information and links. That defeats the purpose of having everything on one page.


Hey, it's your site, you can organise stuff any way you like, but you and Markos both seem to have a knack for making things as hard to navigate as possible.

[DanQ]

Homepage Update: Phase 1.1a

Originally posted by Locutus
I can get there from the main forum page as it well, but it's one more click and one more link on a page of many. The good thing of the home page was that it was one page with all the important stuff right there, one click away. Now I have to visit two pages, which are only connected through small link burried by tons of other information and links. That defeats the purpose of having everything on one page.

It boils down to trade-offs, of course; really, no matter what changes are made to the homepage whitespace can very well be 'a fact' once someone logs in depending upon how many of X and Y then have. In retrospect, addressing the whitespace issue by "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" was not the way to go: the listing is back once logged in.

Hey, it's your site, you can organise stuff any way you like, but you and Markos both seem to have a knack for making things as hard to navigate as possible.

I disagree. All along with these changes to the homepage here I have been trying to make things easier to navigate, and believe I have been almost entirely successfull. Here, though, again I'm certain I overcompensated trying to take suggestions and requests from consideration to reality.

Hopefully, we've at least reached an equilibrium where the negatives equal the positives and cancel each other out.

--------
Dan; Apolyton CS

[Lancer]

Yes Dan, very nicely done. However there's still the heartbreaking and dramatic ...erm... drama caused by the breakup of the OT and Stories & Diplomacy. As some wise soul once mentioned they are like two young lovers torn from their embrase by a harsh headmistress. These two forums yearn to be in each others arms once again before the flower of their youth is gone and the bloom off the rose.

Splitting the forums killed S&D and detracted from the comraderie of the OT.

Oh and,...Thanks Gramps!

[Maniac]

Re: Homepage Update: Phase 1.1a

Originally posted by DanQ
the listing is back once logged in.

Thanks!

[LordShiva]

Lancer's back.

Do stay a while this time

[Lancer]

LordShiva, I'll just hang out in the Poly forum once in a while. No point in my making threads in the OT, they tend to vanish. Instead I post mostly at MZO these days.

Oh and...

[Sirotnikov]

I think that the strategy of creating more and more "neiche" forums is infact killing participation.


There was a time when the OTF was so crawling with stuff, that it had to be split, to deal with the huge pressure. Today - the OTF / Other Games / Diplomacy /history community is not big enough to have 4 different forums.

I like history very much, just like I love stories and diplomacy and other games besides civ IV.
However - I can't be bothered to visit X threads each time.I mean - heck, the reason I spent so much time in the OTF, was because I could find discussions about a wide variety of stuff that interested me, all in one page - and I knew that I could discuss them all with the same people that I liked.

People come to the OTF to vent from Civ IV, and to hang around in a community. I want to discuss news, history, jokes, other games, stories and what not - all in the same place. That's what I liked about the OTF so much - very different and unique threads - all in one place. The connection? All written by people (most of whom) I liked.

Now theoretically - I have to spend 20% of my time in the other games forum, 20% of my time in history, 20% in diplomacy. The result is that I do neither of these - so the other forums "lose" content, because I don't see them. It also means that the OTF "loses" content, because I know that I'm not supposed to post anthing games or history related there, because its got its own forum.


The OTF should not be a whole different community with different forums for "games" "history" "news" "music" and what not. Each "forums" like that, MUST have a flourishing and dedicated community to make it "work" as a forum. We simply don't have enough dedicated people to make those work.

What we have is Civ fans, who sometimes want to discuss other things with their Civ friends... Than only requires one large forum. The Off Topic. Any more subdividing (jokes/music/middle east forums) and the OTF dies....


I also happen to think that the main sections of the site are too devided, and welcome any step that has been taken, and will be taken to join those.

[Lancer]

The doom of our age is upon us.