Evolution of this forum question

[FunGuyFromYuggoth]

First off I wanted to thank the founder of this board (aka Trifletraxor or "Mr. T"), Jason, and everybody else here for contributing to the board. This is a terrific resource.

As BRP slowly grows, I was wondering if there was a thought about the evolution of this forum to include genre specific sub-forums and similar forums that deal with mechanics (Combat, Movement, Skills, etc.)?

[Shaira]

At a rough guess I'd say this will probably happen naturally. For example, we would probably see an "Interplanetary" sub-forum pretty quickly, a "Rome" one, and so on. It would definitely make sense.

Cheers,

Sarah

[Jason D]

As long as it occurs naturally, I'm certainly in favor of sub-boards.

Right now I think there's not enough out there, content-wise, to make sense of splitting up the boards, but in another half-year or so I can see a point in sub-boards for the various monographs and other products, with a main section for the core rules, and another for general discussion and whatnot.

[Guest Vile Traveller]

I don't know, I could see a use for an "SF BRP" section ...

[Trifletraxor]

As BRP slowly grows, I was wondering if there was a thought about the evolution of this forum to include genre specific sub-forums and similar forums that deal with mechanics (Combat, Movement, Skills, etc.)?

At a rough guess I'd say this will probably happen naturally. For example, we would probably see an "Interplanetary" sub-forum pretty quickly, a "Rome" one, and so on. It would definitely make sense.

Right now I think there's not enough out there, content-wise, to make sense of splitting up the boards, but in another half-year or so I can see a point in sub-boards for the various monographs and other products, with a main section for the core rules, and another for general discussion and whatnot.

I find the question about subforums to be a difficult one. Personally, I prefer one main forum (and would actually like to get rid of the subforums we have now). We tried with a "rules" forum and a "settings" forum (plus some others) some time ago, but most posts ended up in the rules forum and the settings forum remained vacant. Most posts will end up in whatever is considered the main forum. I also like to be able to link directly to the forum, and not to a page showing the different forums. It also takes longer time to read through when the posts are scattered in different forums. On the other hand, I know that a lot of people like to have different forums, and it's the will of the users that will lead the evolution of this page.

There is another option here too. I have not explored the new functions of the upgraded version of the forum software, but there is now the possibility to form "social groups" (like facebook...), and I also heard it's possible to form private forums for these social groups with some add-on software. That could be a viable option if each setting got its own social group & forum.

I'm open to suggestions.

SGL.

[Shaira]

Hi Sverre,

I think for now things are going just fine. We have a rules forum, and a more generic forum with appropriate sub-forums for non-rules discussions. As yet there's only Ashes to Ashes out as a setting; as we get more settings, the traffic about them will probably start appearing. If and when it does, you can hive off the posts to new fora if they get too numerous, which gives you a pretty organic way of deciding if you need one.

The only thing I'd say is not to nest things too much. Category > Forum is about as deep as you'd want to go. Category being "RULES", "SETTINGS", "GENERAL", Forum being "ASHES TO ASHES", "ROME", "INTERPLANETARY". The individual settings forums can create subfora as needed (I could imagine INTERPLANETARY MARS, INTERPLANETARY VENUS, INTERPLANETARY RULES, for example), but a visitor to the forums needs to be able to see the top-level breakdown on a single page and think "right, I want to read up on Interplanetary - ah! I click that!". So not too much nesting.

I personally think it would be nice as we go forwards to keep all BRP-related forums at least linked together some way, and possibly even all together on this forum in separate spaces if it's practical. Whether or not that would generate a lot of overhead with backups, data integrity, etc, or not I don't know. But a one-stop shop would make a great deal of sense and would create a lot of cross-pollination.

I'd treat it case-by-case. IMHO it's going along nicely. :thumb:

Cheers,

Sarah

[FunGuyFromYuggoth]

Thanks for the response(s). The board is fine right now. I was just wondering what the future might hold. :cool:

[NickMiddleton]

Thanks for the response(s). The board is fine right now. I was just wondering what the future might hold. :cool:

Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.

Nick