Org Issues and Improvements

[Rahwana]

and the shogun skins is somewhat too heavy to load compared to the guild skin

[TinCow]

and the shogun skins is somewhat too heavy to load compared to the guild skin

Yes, I agree. Looking at the style, it uses a lot of images instead of simple colors, and some of the image files are rather large. That's probably slowing it down. I'll go in and optimize the images and see if that can speed it up without losing visual quality.

[Kagemusha]

........

[TinCow]

Ok, I converted the images to jpg from png and did a TINY amount of compression on them (2% on the background and about 10% on the rest). That's cut the total file sizes down to about 1/4 their previous size without any quality difference I can tell. That should improve it at least a bit.

[PershsNhpios]

This is very minor, and perhaps unnecessary, but the first issue which springs to mind in using the forums (Especially as a new member).

Is there a reason why forums such as the MTW Singleplayer need to include an empty, unused 'Singleplayer' forum with the 'Main Hall' (Which is the real singleplayer forum) as a sub-forum to that?

Surely, new members will not all realise that the Main Hall (And I use the MTW fora as an example, this setup is also elsewhere) is the Singleplayer discussion, but this can't this be remedied with a subtitle or annotation (e.g. 'Main Hall - Singleplayer')?

I realise that other fora such as ETW and NTW are merged equals and so require this system, but new members clicking on MTW Singleplayer are currently met with the vast, empty void, and must search for the more obscure 'Main Hall' title beyond this.

It's all about convenience and first impressions - and titles such as the Main Hall lead members (Especially those dedicated to one area) to become a family of their own within the Org. It shouldn't be known that there is just a Singleplayer MTW discussion on the Org, people should rather acknowledge 'The Main Hall of the Org' as a sanctuary of our favourite passtime.

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I am also completely against the idea of removing AARs to an AAR sub-forum or separate forum.

I would rather see AAR sub-forums dedicated to each game, but I strongly disapprove of the current wash of different, stagnant and unsorted AARs in that dedicated forum.

AARs are one of the most invigorating parts of membership participation - the most attempted, the most unique and enthusiastic. They have revived the Main Hall many times and they will often be all that remains of some otherwise dead fora. See the EB forum for an example of this - that area still thrives because it has an AAR sub-forum all on it's own.

AARs should be kept close to the source - as close as possible.

[Zim]

I always thought EB having its own aar forum was kind of a bad thing. Such a marvelous mod (in general and for AARs) but the stories that could have been a showcase for it were buried in the mod forum where they'd be hard to find for anyone that didn't already play it...

Paradox forums have separate AR forums for each game, and it works very well when you're interested in one in particular (or learning about a new one). But they also have a very high volume of new stories. I wonder if it might not be even worse having a dozen AAR forums with one or two stories each (at least one of which is defunct) than just one forum with a dozen stories.

[gollum]

Dear org staff:
Glenn is absolutely right. Keep the AARs as close to the source as possible. What he describes has been true not only for EB and teh Main Hall, but also for the Sword Dojo that was experiencing various revivals over time due to the AARs that were contagious in both getting the interest back to fans of the game and to others to try their hand at an AAR. I'm pretty sure that similar things apply for RTW, M2 and Empire.

The org instituted the TreasAARy in late 2009 if memory serves. Till then there was no specialised AARs forum for quite a while. I know because, among other people, i asked for it back in early 2009.

Once the TreasAARy was set up, an array of popular AARs was moved from the Sword Dojo to the treasAARy, and, nearly on the spot, both died out - the sword dojo and the treasAARy - a check mate move.

Having a specilised AARs forum forevery AAR is a good idea if that had caught on and if the forum has enthusiastic en masse SPers to write AARs. Those are NOT the cases for the org at this point in time.

Community building in the respective subfora needs to be given priority - let people in the respective sub-fora organise their stuff as they think is best and have a flexible approach, and in that context, having AARs in subfora as well as the treasAARY is the best way forward. Trying to force everything to the treasAARy will not work imo, and there is considerable evidence from past experiences to this.

I would insist in particular leaving the EB people to organise their community as they see fit rather than trying to "fit them" to general org organisational schemes. Comparing the paradox forums is apples and penciles; org conditions are not even remotely related to what the paradox fanbase and games are. Paradox games have a very specific context and attract a very specific fanbase. The org and its members are far more pluralistic than that in their relationship they have to TW. Its best to play on ALL of org strengths rather than standardise which is a good move when you have a large mass of people interested in the same thing.

Regards

[TinCow]

This is very minor, and perhaps unnecessary, but the first issue which springs to mind in using the forums (Especially as a new member).

Is there a reason why forums such as the MTW Singleplayer need to include an empty, unused 'Singleplayer' forum with the 'Main Hall' (Which is the real singleplayer forum) as a sub-forum to that?

Surely, new members will not all realise that the Main Hall (And I use the MTW fora as an example, this setup is also elsewhere) is the Singleplayer discussion, but this can't this be remedied with a subtitle or annotation (e.g. 'Main Hall - Singleplayer')?

I realise that other fora such as ETW and NTW are merged equals and so require this system, but new members clicking on MTW Singleplayer are currently met with the vast, empty void, and must search for the more obscure 'Main Hall' title beyond this.

It's all about convenience and first impressions - and titles such as the Main Hall lead members (Especially those dedicated to one area) to become a family of their own within the Org. It shouldn't be known that there is just a Singleplayer MTW discussion on the Org, people should rather acknowledge 'The Main Hall of the Org' as a sanctuary of our favourite passtime.

I would also like to see these "Single Player" and "Multiplayer" forums done away with as they make those forums much less visible and are actually to all intents and purposes quite pointless.

Implemented

[caravel]

Implemented

A huge improvement, very well done.