Thought I remembered this feature...
TappedOut forum
Posted on June 24, 2014, 11:15 a.m. by MagicalHacker
Hey all,
I thought I remembered this feature and it's gone now OR I had a neat idea that hasn't been implemented (I don't remember if it was integrated on this site).
Could the forum topics have sub-topics that are in multiple categories? For example, when I go to deck help, what if I only want to see the Modern decks, or just one format for deck help, could that be made? (Additionally, the format forum could have a link to that sub-forum for those looking for deck help on that forum.) This kind of idea could be used for a variety of forums: What will be the economics of the recently spoiled blank? (Economics + Spoilers) How will this spoiled card affect modern? (Spoilers + Modern) Why does the sliver land spoiled in M15 have slivers of the old body type rather than the new? (Spoilers + Lore) And the previously mentioned, can you help my pauper deck? (Pauper + Deck Help)
In my opinion, I think the following organization would be ideal:
Deck Help (Make posters choose a format for this option, for the rest of the groups, allow the sub-forums to be optional)
* Standard *
* Modern *
* Legacy *
* Commander (EDH) *
* Limited *
* Pauper *
* Online Magic *
* Other*
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation
* Economics *
* Lore *
* Standard *
* Modern *
* Legacy *
* Commander (EDH) *
* Limited *
* Pauper *
* Online Magic *
Economics
* (Spoilers sub forum) *
Lore
* (Spoilers sub forum) *
Standard
* (Deck Help sub forum) *
* (Spoilers sub forum) *
Modern
* (Deck Help sub forum) *
* (Spoilers sub forum) *
Legacy
* (Deck Help sub forum) *
* (Spoilers sub forum) *
Commander (EDH)
* (Deck Help sub forum) *
* (Spoilers sub forum) *
Limited
* (Deck Help sub forum) *
* (Spoilers sub forum) *
Pauper
* (Deck Help sub forum) *
* (Spoilers sub forum) *
Online Magic
* (Deck Help sub forum) *
* (Spoilers sub forum) *
TappedOut
General
Traders
Challenges and Articles
Custom Cards
The Blind Eternities
Thanks for reading this long post, and I hope I was clear enough in both the areas of what the problem is and what my suggested solution is.
MagicalHacker says... #3
Well, its not all the forums, check the outline I wrote, it's mainly deck help and spoilers that get the subforums. Those subforums are then linked to in their respective overlapping forum.
June 24, 2014 12:41 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #4
The feature has never existed here. I'm an opponent of unnecessary subdivision. Many of the forums work without splitting them into lots of subforums by format.
June 24, 2014 12:59 p.m.
themindbullet says... #5
People actually do have commander cubes and they draft commander decks, it's very time consuming but it sounds really cool!
June 24, 2014 1:03 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #6
Epochalyptik, I know that it may seem like unnecessary subdivision, and to some extent you are right. Except for the deck help subdivision, I can agree that the remaining sections could be unnecessary.
However, the deck help forum is cluttered with deck help requests from all formats and it seems more like a garbage can for those posts rather than a file drawer for those who want to go to the standard deck help subforum and help people with their standard decks instead having to scavenge through all the deck help posts, including the modern, legacy, commander, limited, etc. until they find the standard deck help posts.
I understand if they rest are rejected, but the deck help forum really does need the subdivision.
June 24, 2014 1:14 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #7
Additionally, another option is to remove the deck help forum completely and just make a deck help subforum under each format...
That would also reduce the redundacy that would have been fixed by putting a link in each format to its respective deck help forum...
June 24, 2014 1:15 p.m.
I am definitely in favor of the Deck Help subdivision, not sure about the rest and maybe it could just be
Standard
Modern
Legacy
Vintage
Commander
Other (please specify specific format)
June 24, 2014 2:09 p.m.
I honestly like the divisions as they are. I like the fact that deck help is near the top, where new users want to put stuff anyway (and new users often start off as members asking for deck help / feedback).
I think the current list of categories balances too few vs too many subdivisions well. There are only a few that don't get new posts and no subdivisions that seem to be getting flooded / burying recent discussions of the day.
And frankly, I am happy to see all the offensive crap relegated to the blind eternities at the bottom where I can just ignore it and it does not give a bad first impression to non-members about what we are like here. Kudos to the team for a creative solution, there. A few dirtbags will not be harrassing the rest of us quite so easily - without the use of a banhammer, even. I am so happy with it, actually.
June 24, 2014 2:16 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #10
I would be more inclined to help out on standard decks posted in the Deck Help Forum if I didn't have to sift through modern and EDH decks to find them.
June 24, 2014 2:53 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #11
@MagicalHacker: DH has always been a garbage can. People post more in DH than any other forum. If people were smarter, they'd put some extra effort toward making descriptive posts. We wouldn't need subforums at all if people would name their threads "Appropriate land base for Standard Esper Control" instead of "help!111!11qdfs."
June 24, 2014 5:33 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #12
Now, I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job, but I honestly think if we have the opportunity to help both the person asking for help and the person that's wanting to help people with their decks, I don't see a reason why we shouldn't improve the site in that way. If clarity is the issue, and you think that people who are asking for deck help should be more clear on the help that they are looking for, then forcing them to choose a format could push them in the right direction into being more specific on what help they're looking for.
June 24, 2014 11:52 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #13
Out of all of the proposed subforum applications, only DH makes any sense. We don't need nine different subforums for SRS, and we don't need to cross-reference every forum in every other forum. That said, working subforums would be useful for some applications. There's actually a parent feature on forums in the admin interface, but it doesn't currently do anything.
My problem with it is that it means allocating dev time to a feature that really wouldn't need to exist if people just knew how to post properly. We have a lot of things on our to-do list, and I'd rather see a full visual rework of the forum page so people can navigate it more easily.
June 25, 2014 12:19 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #14
I completely agree with everything you just said, and if the deck help subdivision is integrated eventually, I will wait patiently for that feature.
That said, is there anything I can do with that to-do list? I'm not a tech person though so I've never had an ITEC class past digital media...
June 25, 2014 12:37 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #15
The List is a carefully guarded conspiracy plan. Only a select few know of its contents.
June 25, 2014 1:08 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #16
Lol, the funniest part is the fact that I don't know if you're joking. XD
June 25, 2014 10:37 a.m.
do they really need to be subs? couldn't they just be additional forums (Deck Help: EDH)
It makes me think that it would be cool to let people supress which forums appear for them on the forum page as well as the home page.
June 25, 2014 2 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #18
I agree. That would work too. Idk which is more efficient, but either way, the deck help posts would be more organized.
June 25, 2014 2:09 p.m.
one is easy and i can do in a day :P
one is annoying.
does anyone remember when tappedout had no forums and i refused to add them?
June 25, 2014 2:14 p.m.
I think that either would work, Sub-Forums or completely new forums with the user's ability to hide or suppress forums in things he/she doesn't want to see. I say, if you have time, do whichever is easier to implement.
June 25, 2014 2:23 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #21
I strongly oppose the idea of adding new top-level forums for format-specific DH. The forum page is already cluttered enough; throwing four or five more forums into it would only make it less navigable for users.
We could get by if the forum page were redesigned to show everything more clearly and easily. Perhaps we could list the forum names, then have an arrow or symbol to expand one of the listings to show the three most recently active threads. That would condense everything and allow us to show more actual forums on one screen.
June 25, 2014 2:41 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #25
Now that it is mentioned, making new DH forums for each format would completely clutter up the forum page. And also, I do think it can become less cluttered by removing the most recent posts until the forum is itself opened/expanded.
Hjaltrohir says... #2
It seems good but i am not sure you can have limited commander...
June 24, 2014 12:19 p.m.