Idea

[Beskar]

I will remind everybody here that this place is called “Totalwar.Org” – not “Mafia.Org”, not “Tavern.Org” or “Whatever.Org”.

Such a layout makes sense, it is also still true to what this place was supposed to be all about - Total war games, ALL individual TW-games on equal terms – and it has “just” 8 sections (9 with a non-TW-games section included) – and, still all the fleeting “non-scrolling” people who supposedly can not be bothered do get their pampering as well. Furthermore - all TW-games, gamers & modders do get proper and deserved justice in a place called “TotalWar.Org”. Everybody are happy…

But having sections in remote locations which are actually active is very bad web design. When you are in a shop, you advertise the things people like, and you backstage those you don't particularly want on full display as they are not needed. If no one wants to pay attention to certain sections which receive no traffic at all, then what is the point of having it in stock?

The lifeblood of the community is in fact the community. For a successful site, you need to deal with the community.

Paradox does it really well by having the community sections receive as much attention or more than the pure game sections. Also, they have the benefit of catering for lots of games, so there is far more game orientation too.

The layout should reflect this more, rather than have some of the most active sections lost in dark corners and others containing an isolated clique as no one can find it or knows of its existence. I propose a far more simpler one, which will give a big impression that the site is actually far more active and will in turn, bring in far more activity.


Total War
- Shogun 2
- - Single Player
- - - [Guides]
- - Multiplayer
- - Mods
- - - [Hosted Mods]
- Empire and Napoleon
- - Single Player
- - - [Guides]
- - Multiplayer
- - Mods
- - - [Hosted Mods]
- Medieval 2
- - Single Player
- - - [Guides]
- - Multiplayer
- - Mods
- - - [Hosted Mods]
- Rome
- - Single Player
- - - [Guides]
- - Multiplayer
- - Mods
- - - [Hosted Mods]
- Medieval
- - Single Player
- - - [Guides]
- - Multiplayer
- - Mods
- - - [Hosted Mods]
- Shogun
- - Single Player
- - - [Guides]
- - Multiplayer
- - Mods
- - - [Hosted Mods]

Community
- Entrance Hall
- Front Room
-- General
-- Arena
-- Mead hall
- Back Room
-- Discussion
-- Monastery
- Game Room (Has full forum for itself like now)
-- Game Assembly Headquarters (for mafia, chapter house and others)
-- Throne Room
-- Chapter House
- Apothecary
-- Hardware / Software
-- Tech Support
- Watchtower
-- Announcements
-- Wine Cellar (Backroom WT)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

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[Subsection of Subsection]

Not only this deals with "Basically the same thing, but different name" of some of the sections, but it always allows sections to be associated more with the areas which are close and similar to it. Gameroom players, Throne Room and Chapter House could intermingle far more significantly, increasing the player threshold.

The Entrance Hall is located right next to the Frontroom, which allows new people to easily slip into mainstream forum.

The total war specific sections are at the top, which allows people who want to just jump into them, to just jump into them. Also, the way it is structured now takes up significantly far less real-estate for the web surfer.

If a forum was basically just "Total War.org", why don't we just delete all the sections bar the total war ones? I can pretty much guarantee a significant drop of the current forum population. A forum is more than a subject, it is a community, and losing this focus just destroys the essence of the forum and takes away from the Org, all that is great.