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The Off Topic
I think that the experiment of creating a different history and sports forums has proved to be the wrong way.
As it is, the history forum has like, 4 posts per day, and the sports forum is more active, but does not justify its own thing, IMO. There's a limit to how much you can slice into targetted sections, when the target audiene is small.
The OT itself has become much slower, with fewer posts and active posters. Looking at forums with less than 10 active threads is not exciting in any way. It certainly feels "below" the poly standard.
What is worse is that many fun and interesting OT posters have limited their reading to subforums, and are now much less frequently drawn to participate in the OT.
People come to the OT because it's varied. You can talk about politics, news, sports, history, tech stuff and plain old nonsense - and its fun (more or less) because of the people.
I say that we reunite the OT back into a large include-all community. In its current size, the OT can not support 2 subforums. I would even go as far as to include the "Other Games" forum as well. It is not as different in content from the OT.
Other Forums
Nation States, Paradox Games, as well as the Stories / Diplomacy forums don't really justify themselves, but I realize that some of them must have their own subforums to exist. So they should be moved as subforums of the OT.
The Civilization General forum is a bad idea IMO. Most discussion about Civ V probably happens in the Civ IV forum as it is. Instead, the Civilization (non-windows), civ 1 forum, and all the different Alternative Civilizations forums should be united in a single "Civilization Series / Alternative Civs" forum.
Civ IV section
Besides that - I also think that similar reform might be needed in the Civ IV forum.
Unite the current help and stories forums back into the general forum. No justification for sub threads.
The AU and HOF Tournaments should be united into strategy. same reason. Make the strategy and creation forums, new sub-forums of the general forum. Cancel the Civ IV multiplaying sub-forums.
I realize that most of these forums were useful at the time, but they are no longer. Right now, they just contribute to the site looking like a thread graveyard.
So how would it all look?
1) the new OT:
Off Topic (includng other games, history sports)
- Stories and Diplo
- Nation States
2) The new Civ-General:
Civilization Games / Alternative Civs / Civilization 1
3) The new Civ IV:
Civilization IV - General / Help
- Strategy / Apolyton University
- Creation and Modpacks
- Creation: Civ IV Alpha Centaury
Civilization IV Multiplaying / MP Tournaments / PBEM
Civ4 Democracy Game
Civ4 Warlords Team DG
Civ4 SPDG The Atlantians
I think that the experiment of creating a different history and sports forums has proved to be the wrong way.
As it is, the history forum has like, 4 posts per day, and the sports forum is more active, but does not justify its own thing, IMO. There's a limit to how much you can slice into targetted sections, when the target audiene is small.
The OT itself has become much slower, with fewer posts and active posters. Looking at forums with less than 10 active threads is not exciting in any way. It certainly feels "below" the poly standard.
What is worse is that many fun and interesting OT posters have limited their reading to subforums, and are now much less frequently drawn to participate in the OT.
People come to the OT because it's varied. You can talk about politics, news, sports, history, tech stuff and plain old nonsense - and its fun (more or less) because of the people.
I say that we reunite the OT back into a large include-all community. In its current size, the OT can not support 2 subforums. I would even go as far as to include the "Other Games" forum as well. It is not as different in content from the OT.
Other Forums
Nation States, Paradox Games, as well as the Stories / Diplomacy forums don't really justify themselves, but I realize that some of them must have their own subforums to exist. So they should be moved as subforums of the OT.
The Civilization General forum is a bad idea IMO. Most discussion about Civ V probably happens in the Civ IV forum as it is. Instead, the Civilization (non-windows), civ 1 forum, and all the different Alternative Civilizations forums should be united in a single "Civilization Series / Alternative Civs" forum.
Civ IV section
Besides that - I also think that similar reform might be needed in the Civ IV forum.
Unite the current help and stories forums back into the general forum. No justification for sub threads.
The AU and HOF Tournaments should be united into strategy. same reason. Make the strategy and creation forums, new sub-forums of the general forum. Cancel the Civ IV multiplaying sub-forums.
I realize that most of these forums were useful at the time, but they are no longer. Right now, they just contribute to the site looking like a thread graveyard.
So how would it all look?
1) the new OT:
Off Topic (includng other games, history sports)
- Stories and Diplo
- Nation States
2) The new Civ-General:
Civilization Games / Alternative Civs / Civilization 1
3) The new Civ IV:
Civilization IV - General / Help
- Strategy / Apolyton University
- Creation and Modpacks
- Creation: Civ IV Alpha Centaury
Civilization IV Multiplaying / MP Tournaments / PBEM
Civ4 Democracy Game
Civ4 Warlords Team DG
Civ4 SPDG The Atlantians
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