I’m not trying to be rude but you lost me here. I don’t understand what you’re trying so say other than something about positive topics (i think?) Get more traffic than controversial ones?
Agreed.
Yeah, and (on these forums at least) people tend to already segregate into groups based on hero choice. Its helpful to a tank discussion when dps and support mains join in. I think dividing the forums physically will divide us more metaphorically as well.
Sorry I meant reply to a disagreement.
These sub-forums will create a place for these people to discuss, and those curious to read, where they’re not fighting over visibility.
It probably makes it easier for them to ignore us ![:wink:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/wink.png?v=6" ":wink:")
Let me see if I have forwards:
You think that because controversial topics get more attention, people that say, post a “Junkrat is fine” topic, will be able to get enough traction to off-set the decrease of random browsers entering topics?
Hot? Cold?
If you post on the Mercy sub-forum, where a lot of Mercy mains are, “I don’t think Mercy needs buffs,” your thread will get near endless supplies of reasonings and discussion as to why they think otherwise. The fact that it’s a sub-forum on its own will deplete the random topics throughout the forum.
The problem I see with more “forums” is that means it becomes more difficult for moderators to lock down inappropriate content and more difficult for the community team to accumulate feedback. Also how would the culture change for all of us in the forums? Each of the current forums tends to have the following personality to them (based on my personal observations):
So what forums do I want to see added?
I hope I made sense of this. I will always be around to be an active community member regardless of the presentation of the forums, but I do wish we had dedicated places to express our desire to play the game, our creative endeavors, and passion of esports. Regardless of platform, I always pursue more ways to be active with the community.
I wouldn’t suggest adding more subforums, simply add the ability to add tags to new threads so we can sort and filter appropriately.
That certainly would help.
An off topic forum is needed
Bullseye then.
Thats not what I’m worried about. Despite how active I am, my approach to the topics is passive. A faucet of random topics allows me to have exponentially more variety in the threads I visit.
I’d probably never visit a soldier 76 topic they didn’t just “pop up.” I also probably wouldn’t know that HE CAN’T RELOAD WHILE SPRINTING. Lol this game is crazy.
I don’t quite know how moderation is assigned and how much moderation is required, depending on the traffic. How many moderators would be required to moderate a “Hero Discussion” forum and 30+ subforum? I’m assuming the traffic will be reduced per forum, so each sub-forum would be very slow by comparison. Also, based on this vague sense of traffic, how much effort would have to go into moderation?
I think communities would separate and reform naturally. You’d still have a social community in general, but the more feedback-based community would break off into any additional feedback-based forums.
The main issue is that there is a major influx of threads per minute, that visibility for any one thread has a very low chance. I don’t know if it’s easy to sort through all of the discussion thoroughly. Is this a problem for developers, who take our feedback into consideration?
If there was a main hero discussion forum, alongside many sub-forums, and that main forum got many different kinds of hero threads, would that suit your fancy? The way the forum is setup, both social and feedback threads tend to be mixed together. Would it ruin the experience if these were separated?
I think a big melting pot is best, but I could see that being a reasonable compromise, maybe.
I think there are some logistics to consider, like making sure the sections don’t make each other redundant and messy, like competitive discussion.
I also don’t like encouraging people to identify with their heroes already more than people do, its just provoking more tribalism. I’ve been through enough forum wars to know how divided this place can get.
I personally don’t have an issue planning the sections to where there isn’t any overlap or redundancy. Tribalism isn’t a bad thing unless you’re anti-one-trick, which, to be honest, shouldn’t be as controversial as it is. You can push a hero past the limits they were intended for; to assume otherwise is to assume you know more than the player. End of story.
Division is necessary for any form of disagreement -> discussion. Again, this is assuming people aren’t trolling, since they can be silenced/banned for doing so.
People already act like they only know one hero on the forums. They will be even more biased towards their heroes and against the ones that counter them. I don’t want people to think of themselves as “X mains,” i want them to move beyond that and think of themselves as “overwatch players.”
I don’t think we have a lack of either of those two things, if anything, we have too much.
It’s ok for people to invest into one hero, especially when they find that hero fun (and are effective with that hero in all situations). I don’t think people see themselves as not Overwatch players, even if they see themselves as “x mains”. So I don’t think you have to worry about that.
Forums are a good place to have disagreements, because discussion is both birthed by, and fixes disagreement. It’s a self-perpetual constructiveness, which is why forums are so important for any project. This is assuming there are no trolls.
I really don’t feel like getting into one-tricking, thats a topic for another discussion. I’m talking about the loyalty and lack of perspective that can happen when people are too busy thinking about one hero instead of all of them. I think dividing the forums into sections based on heroes encourages staying with like minded players and a avoiding real discussion.
The loyalty and lack of perspective can breed useful constructive discussion on the forums. Everyone who plays has an opportunity to have real discussion.
Or the forums can burn.
I’m happy with the way things are in that regard. I like some of your other ideas, like using more megathreads.
I honestly don’t see how a forum can burn from something it inherently seeks to extinguish.
At the speed in which new threads are created, it’s important to keep things clean, so that all voices can be heard.
At least make a separate Mercy section.