RTW or Colloseum subforum suggestion

[therother]

There have been a number of good points raised here; I can't say that I've wholly disagreed with any yet.

But, FWIW, here's my summary, loosely based on what's been suggested in the thread thus far.

I'll quickly sketch out a number of possible scenarios:

1. Leave things as they are, and use searches and unofficial threads to index research in the forums.
2. Have an official index thread pinned in the Colosseum, probably maintained by a Senior Member or above. This could have sections for game research, strategy, official patches, mods, and so on.
3. Create a 'normal' research forum. By this I mean that it would have much the same rules/moderating any other forum.
4. Create a more restricted forum, similar to the current guide forums, in that only moderators can create threads. They would do so by request from members (e.g. via PM or a request thread). Co-opting an idea voiced here, it would be incumbent on the starting member to eventually produce a concise summary of the contents of the thread to eventually replace the moderator's initial post once the topic has run its course. The thread would be locked once the summary is done. This would require only limit moderator involvement, as the thread would develop naturally until the end, when the user would send the post, complete with markups, to the moderator. As we expect the volume of the fourm to be quite low, I don't think it should be too much of a chore for a moderator who has an incliation towards research in any case.
5. Create a more draconian (obligatory historical reference) forum, where either: the moderator deletes/modifies any post not directly relevant to the topic at hand; or the Admin creates a user group specifically for the research forum (if this is even possible), and membership policed much more strictly than in the Guild proper, or even both. Obviously this would require a great deal of moderator involvement, not to mention it would be harder to setup up and administrate, especially the 2nd part.

If we are to get a research forum, I'd personally like to see something like 4, but that's just me.

I think Duke John has a point about a strategy forum. It might be useful to have a similar forum for strategy and tactics.

Assuming the plans that Duke John mentions about reducing the scope of the Entrance Hall go forward, are we going to get the RTW and MTW guide forums moved to under their respective game sections? If so, bearing in mind that the research is primarily intended for compilation into guides, could not the research forum become a sub-forum of the RTW guide forum?