Heads Up on Searching

[ZEE]

Originally posted by Solver
Civgroups... you're being pretty vague here. While they do tend to get lost in the overall clutter, here it's hard for me to see confusion. On the basic level, a civgroup is just a group that posters can join to get identified as members... doesn't sound too difficult. It isn't even anything particularly unusual.

it just seems very cliquish and alienates n00bs even more. Layout issue, also, as for about 2 years when i first joined i had no idea what they even were. A (EASY TO FIND) CivGroups page dedicated to completely explaining it would be a great start.

As for taking the server offline, we do not need to do it. As it has been said, we have a test version of vB3 up and running anyway, and of course that's where we mess with things and experiment. We'll need to take the forums offline to complete the upgrade, but that will be the final stage of it and wouldn't last too long. We have nothing to gain by making the forums go offline now.

I must have missed that earlier point. I certainly hope it is at least idiot-proof in its design. I cannot stress enough how this is EXTREMELY important.

[Lancer]

Originally posted by Locutus
So, in other words, you want to us to stop having any fun, work our asses off doing exactly what you tell us to do and then report back to you on our every move. And you'll do... what exactly in return?

Well said.

I wish you luck Locutus.

A big thing imo that would really help would be very easy compared to alot of the stuff you do. Condense down the forums.

Take the history forum for example. People wanted it split off because history threads fell in the OT. Who considered that splitting it off wounded the busy OT? Well some of us did, but forums were split off. There used to be a thriving S&D community as part of the OT, but that's all gone. Every time they split a forum they get farther from the critical mass that made this place a success. Bring that back. How many Civ IV forums do we have? More than we have posters it seems. Become the first friggin mod or admin that L I S T E N S to the *****ing because there's a reason this site is disolving! ...and there are R E A S O N S for the *****ing.

It wasn't broke and they fixed it real good.

They w o u l d NOT l i s t e n. The proof that the *****ing through the years was right is in the sad state of the site. I bring up that sad state to try to make someone listen, not to make things worse.

One other thing. Ditch the mods that are over the OT but don't use it and put in people who do because we're the ones who care about it. I'll mod the OT if you want, but they'll never let it happen, makes too much sense. That and truthfully they made an admin out of the person who treated good people horribly and drove them off because bad people treated him so...or whatever reason I don't know nor care. I'd find a few good folks that post in the OT and care about the people there and see if they would help. There, a volunteer for you, one who will be ignored, or perhaps ridiculed. I've gotten used to that here though things are better now. Likely just ignored these days.

Why do I still bother to get worked up about this stuff??? I should be more at peace.

So, more *****ing for you, sorry.

Btw the Santa smileys are cool.

[Solver]

Originally posted by AAHZ
it just seems very cliquish and alienates n00bs even more. Layout issue, also, as for about 2 years when i first joined i had no idea what they even were. A (EASY TO FIND) CivGroups page dedicated to completely explaining it would be a great start.

In its current implementation, civgroups are slightly confusing because it's difficult to find info on them. Hopefully that will improve along with the rest of the layout - basically, we want to get rid of that huge mess of links at the top of pages, and that should make a lot of info easier to find. I disagree about alienating anyone, though. Based on, say, tri-league, new members seem to be happily joining CGs.

I must have missed that earlier point. I certainly hope it is at least idiot-proof in its design. I cannot stress enough how this is EXTREMELY important.

I'm yet to see anything that is completely idiot-proof But at least our vB3 forum is a standard forum, like the rest of them out there, and that's very important.

[Solver]

Uh Lancer, have you seen this? It's a pretty big shakeup of the forums we're planning.

And really, we are willing to listen. Yes, it sometimes gets annoying to hear all the complaining. But we are listening to those people who provide feedback instead of bit*hing - which is a big difference. Clearly, some people are going to whine about any decision we make... and in the end, there aren't too many people providing good constructive criticism. But it is welcome when provided.

[EPW]

Apolyton has no unique content for Civ4, if you want a mod you go to civfanatics. Civfanatics has in depth strategy discussions, active multiplayer community, very active general forums, an in depth civ4 tech forum, the "hall of fame" game features, and active democracy games as well. Other than polycast, there's little reason for a civ4 player to chose Apolyton over civfanatics.

[Solver]

"No unique content" would be exaggerating, but certainly our Civ4 content isn't that great. We have active demogames and other features, though with lower activity than CFC. The real difference is in modding, the CFC modding community is extremely strong, ours not only isn't now but actually never took off in the first place.

[Lancer]

I'll check out the link Solver, and thanks for listening. Btw I edited my post but I don't think it took. I had to rehit the edit before I could see the edited post.

[EPW]

Originally posted by Solver
"No unique content" would be exaggerating, but certainly our Civ4 content isn't that great. We have active demogames and other features, though with lower activity than CFC. The real difference is in modding, the CFC modding community is extremely strong, ours not only isn't now but actually never took off in the first place.

Yes, that's what I meant. I came here originally for the CTP2 content which is nonexistent at civfanatics. I know you and Locutus actually worked on BTS, that might be a draw if you advertised it.

[Solver]

Hardly. CFC is likewise full of people who worked on BtS (and vanilla, for that matter). If you look at the development of the game, both sites really were of more or less equal importance. In fact, a couple of much smaller sites (such as realmsbeyond) has a huge influence that at least equals that of Apolyton or CFC.