"Too Many Forums"

[Vekseid]

Is there any chance font size on the site could be turned into a user-side option? Because this new size is aggressively huge.

Understandable if that isn't feasible, but hopeful ask!

I've picked a value between SMF's and the HTML spec default for now.

But this is possible via a few means.

[Fantasy Red]

I came to ask a question about where a subforum was after seeing it the other day and I saw this! So now I rant... politely!

I find the non-story forums way too labyrinthine. I like that there's so many boards and so much chat but it'd be great to just have a long list of the boards so you don't have to keep going in and out of different layers when you're looking glass for stuff.

Ive been on the site for years and honestly, I find them very intimidating. So hard to navigate and some of the games played on some of the boards are hard to work out what's going on with them. Then there's contests, do they still run? There's 4 separate boards for ons and offs!
P
Maybe there should be a few less boards, organised into a more streamlined system. 

Site Stuff (sub boards - announcements, apologies, suggestions, questions etc)

Art, Literature & Politics (1 board, mix it up!)

Story Telling (all aspects, 1 board)

Socialising (sub boards for Life help, Ladies etc)

Games & Contests (with sub boards, maybe)

That's a vague idea.

There has to be a better way to organise it than how it is!

I'd leave the playbyplay forums alone. They make sense. 

[dragonsen]

I can understand having a One-Shot request thread, but not a one-shot story forum. The only difference between a one-shot and a solo is length of the story itself, in my opinion. The short one-shots I have written with my partners were posted in the regular forums to begin with, just in case they went from one-shot to something longer. If anything, I would move the Classifieds and Lottery to the RP Request forum. Having One Shots included in Solos eliminates the need for "I just read a thread that contained ____, and am seriously traumatized. It didn't have a content advisory warning. What gives?

Please understand that this forum, One Shot Stories, can be used by any member of Elliquiy, for any type of game. One shots here will run the gamut of the forums - Light, Bondage, NC, Extreme, and everything in between - and some may not be tagged or contain the content advisory warning.

The content advisory warning is not mandatory or required, although it is suggested as a courtesy. If you read something that you wish you hadn't, please be an adult about it - close the window and move on to a different story."

Also, I agree about the non-roleplaying forums. In a simple phrase, they are a complete morass. The few times I have looked at them and/or participated, I have deeply regretted it.

Having separate forums for Ons and Offs is redundant. I go to look at a person's ons and offs AFTER I have read their request thread(s) or they have contacted me about one of mine. At that point in time, I have already seen their profile and noted the banner stating what they are. Only then do I navigate to their Ons and Offs post by way of their signature link. Not once have I ever navigated to an On/Off thread by the forums. I recommend posting an Ons/Off link as part of the member profile, perhaps an icon next to Personal Message.

[SaintSicaire]

To throw in my own two cents here...

I do think, having the O/O-threads organized by gender does have some merit. I faintly remember someone mentioning somewhere, that they actually check out those first, to see how well they mesh with the writer and then check their requests/availability.
But maybe, bundling them together as sub-categories would be a good choice and somewhat de-clutter the main-page. And that overarching category could maybe house the worldbuilding and maybe the registries as well?

Speaking of the latter, having them in close proximity to the O/O-threads might ecourage especially new users to make use of them?

As for the one-shots, I'd agree. Just put them in their respective content-categories and pin the Classifieds in the request-forum. Especially if tags might be a thing lurking somewhere in the future, a simpe "One-Shot"-tag might suffice.

[Oniya]

To throw in my own two cents here...

I do think, having the O/O-threads organized by gender does have some merit. I faintly remember someone mentioning somewhere, that they actually check out those first, to see how well they mesh with the writer and then check their requests/availability. 

Most people do want to check out an O/O before initiating contact (whether that's sending that first PM, or replying to one).  The thing is that getting to that O/O thread is typically done through either a provided link (like in my signature, or in a request thread, or that just-received PM), or you have to look for it specifically.  In either event, the seeker usually has seen the other person around, and has access to hitting their profile.  (Viewing a member's posts 'by threads' is the best way to find their O/Os if they haven't provided a direct link somewhere - but providing a direct link is frequently recommended to people who are having trouble getting RP connections.)

It's rare, in my experience, for someone to browse the O/Os casually to look for partners.  There's usually a particular user they are trying to investigate for compatibility.

[RedPhoenix]

Agreed. I have reads hundreds of on/off pages, I have never gone browsing for one. It's either in someone's signature or they send me a link.

[Wistful Dream]

I guess I'm an odd sort, I actually use to go through those forums once a month to get an idea of new players on the forum and figure out if I wanted to approach them. I found ons and offs were more useful to me than idea threads since they often would give me an idea about someone's limits, which I really value knowledge of.

[Aethyrium]

Fwiw, the merging of all O/Os into a single forum wouldn't impact the ability to manually go in and scan them. They are extremely slow moving moving boards. If you took every O/O post made since September 1st as of right now, in all 4 boards, you'd still only have just over half the first page.

So if you were checking them that way, new stuff isn't getting buried and if you're clicking by link which is almost assuredly the more common method, board division isn't doing anything anyway. A single board for all of them is a fantastic consolidation imo.

[Rayne]

Combining them makes sense to me, they're so static once made and enough folks are happy to write with a mix of genders, so I don't see much need to break O/Os apart. 

[dragonsen]

If the goal is less forums:

"Consensual/Light" (merge light and Bdsm) and either merge non-con and extreme into "non-Consentual/Extreme" or have it be three categories: Consensual, non-Consentual, and Extreme. That lays out the general categories and what to expect without being too detailed or confusing when trying to decide where something should go.

Incidentally, couldn't completed tales go into a subforum in the section they were originally in? Keeps them in the private area and makes it so the titles don't have to be labeled when they're moved by Staff.

I agree that Completed Stories should be a sub-forum of where they originated. This would eliminate those that start to read a story only to find that there was a missed tag that has them reaching for the brain bleach.

[Oniya]

For what it's worth, if an RP isn't tagged when Staff is asked to shift it, we tag it at that point.  If you see any that aren't tagged, please message a link to a Staffer, and we'll try to sort it properly.

[Vekseid]

I am going to go with prefixes and setting that up properly is going to be next after Bookmarks are done. They should function a lot better than subforums in most cases, and am holding off on merges until I got what I want with them.

Have been dealing with some unexpected issues workwise, but should be back on track for next week.

[Geraint]

Fwiw, the merging of all O/Os into a single forum wouldn't impact the ability to manually go in and scan them. They are extremely slow moving moving boards. If you took every O/O post made since September 1st as of right now, in all 4 boards, you'd still only have just over half the first page.

So if you were checking them that way, new stuff isn't getting buried and if you're clicking by link which is almost assuredly the more common method, board division isn't doing anything anyway. A single board for all of them is a fantastic consolidation imo.

I have a different perspective on this.

If one is ONLY looking for NEW  OOs and gender does not matter it seems reasonable combine.

But the vast majority of OOs are not new and many do not have any links pointing to them.  We have 160 Pages  of OOs.  and a whole lot of OOs  are not even titled as OOs, which makes searching difficult.

What would make sense to me if we go to just one OOs board would be to also give us back the old OOs grid which was blocked off a few years back and never got replaced.

It had it's deficiencies but it did identify kinks and many other specific preferences in a consistent fashion

like:
Ladies who only wrote with ladies
Lords who only wrote with Lords
Ladies who only wrote as men   
Lords who only wrote as women
and so forth

and could easily be made to identify
Those who played only groups
Those who only played offsite
Those who only played discord
etc

And they were readily searchable

Often now, I find myself searching a member's "topics started" backwards from the start in hopes of finding an OOs topic.


I realize that others will see it differently, but that's my two bits.

[dragonsen]

I have a different perspective on this.

If one is ONLY looking for NEW  OOs and gender does not matter it seems reasonable combine.

But the vast majority of OOs are not new and many do not have any links pointing to them.  We have 160 Pages  of OOs.  and a whole lot of OOs  are not even titled as OOs, which makes searching difficult.

What would make sense to me if we go to just one OOs board would be to also give us back the old OOs grid which was blocked off a few years back and never got replaced.

It had it's deficiencies but it did identify kinks and many other specific preferences in a consistent fashion

like:
Ladies who only wrote with ladies
Lords who only wrote with Lords
Ladies who only wrote as men   
Lords who only wrote as women
and so forth

and could easily be made to identify
Those who played only groups
Those who only played offsite
Those who only played discord
etc

And they were readily searchable

Often now, I find myself searching a member's "topics started" backwards from the start in hopes of finding an OOs topic.


I realize that others will see it differently, but that's my two bits.

I certainly miss the old O/O checklist. I strongly vote in favor of bringing it back.

[Sara Nilsson]

Often now, I find myself searching a member's "topics started" backwards from the start in hopes of finding an OOs topic.

Why not just use the search, pick their name and narrow to only the on/off forums? Surely that will narrow it down much faster?

[RedPhoenix]

I think that’s what tagging threads would accomplish? Unless I misunderstood all that.

[dragonsen]

Why not just use the search, pick their name and narrow to only the on/off forums? Surely that will narrow it down much faster?

This is assuming you are searching for a particular member. When I did random searches of Ons/Offs, I was looking for anyone that had a certain set of kinks. Not everyone spells words correctly or uses the same word for a particular kink which breaks the thread search you recommend.

[Sara Nilsson]

This is assuming you are searching for a particular member. When I did random searches of Ons/Offs, I was looking for anyone that had a certain set of kinks. Not everyone spells words correctly or uses the same word for a particular kink which breaks the thread search you recommend.

Well I was more replying specifically to Geraints way of doing it. yes in your case it wouldn't work.

[Geraint]

Why not just use the search, pick their name and narrow to only the on/off forums? Surely that will narrow it down much faster?

I have not been able to make search work for that particular task, no matter how I set it up.  Can you? 

[Sara Nilsson]

I have not been able to make search work for that particular task, no matter how I set it up.  Can you? 

yupp.

I normally un-tick all but the on/off forums (using the toggle at the very bottom click it twice), pick the user I want to look at, and in the search query box pick something like "on" as it is likely to be a word that is in the text.

[Geraint]

I think that’s what tagging threads would accomplish? Unless I misunderstood all that.

I have no doubt that tags can accomplish that for the four on/off sections
 
But to get the amount of information that that the previous matrix provided would probably need something more like 100 tags.

yupp.

I normally un-tick all but the on/off forums (using the toggle at the very bottom click it twice), pick the user I want to look at, and in the search query box pick something like "on" as it is likely to be a word that is in the text.

Actually I do all of that, but it won't accept either the word on or on off  as a search term.

Thanks,  I shall try it as you do next time.     

[Sara Nilsson]

gives me



with only the on/off Ladies ticked.

[Geraint]

gives me



with only the on/off Ladies ticked.

OK I finally figured it out; I was pushing the wrong search button.

All other things being the same ... It only seems to work if I push the button at the bottom right corner of page where the forums can be crossed out of view.  It doesn't work if .any of the buttons above the four OOs sections or the search button on the first page of the forum are pushed.

That's good to know; thanks Sara

[Sara Nilsson]

Glad you got it sorted :)

[Visna]

Just to make sure - will the merging of exotic/human keep all threads intact still?