How would residents STRUCTURE the forums?

Got it *S*

You threw me off by referring to open sourcers as 'smart people'. Clearly they're not as smart as we are ... after all, they do stuff they really COULD get paid for for free! What're they, crazy?

As opposed to us, who get much more approval and many more thanks by just sitting around entertaining ourselves, answering easy questions and making jokes!

along with the killer ideas here, and i may be sayign somethign thats been said already:
open it to all residents. premium and non, bring back General Discussion.

Ah, now I understand what you mean. That makes perfect sense.



For the love of God, NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I say they post in the correct forum or we jump all over them and harass them!!!

That's a good idea but it might confusing to newbies who might not know the distinction. I mean, like for my first 3 months, I only had the foggiest idea of what was actually happening, let alone a client/server difference.

Yes
Yes
Yes
and Yes!

Good ideas, all!

Haven't read your link yet, but in addition:

. I would also like to see the forums overseen by an involved Linden, for whom leading the forums is a regular part of their job. Should he or she decide to no longer do that job, another Linden would take over the job, and we would be told that the change has occured.

. I'd like to see that Linden work with a TEAM of resmods. Like around ten. Like other forums have. The Linden would also oversee the effectiveness - or overstepping of the bounds of - all resmods, and remove any that aren't working out; with a list being continually maintained of all potential volunteers for the positions.

EDIT: There are many, MANY people who would like to be resmods and would love to volunteer. However, I feel these should be chosen by a Linden, from ALL applicants, rather than by another resident.

. The ability for any resmod to be a resmod incognito, if desired (using an alt name, in other words).

. When a resmod (or Linden) stops being active, his/her name is dropped from the list at the bottom of the page (wherever that list is; I know it appears on one of these pages).

. Though as far as I know, it has never been utilized, I would like an official end to the rule that states that a suspension or ban on the forums means a suspension or ban in SL.

. I would also like to see the forums FIXED, so that links show up, and underlining, centering, bolding, all that, is possible again. Like other forums have.

coco

I vote for this one, too!

It could be an "SL General" forum, for discussing all matters SL. That would leave the Resident Answers forum strictly for questions, like those I sometimes have, like "How do I make a URL?"

coco

Oh! I have ALWAYS wanted this! There are all SORTS of business sorts of discussion, specific to the concerns of those residents who run businesses.

coco

On the one hand I'd be against creating the business sub groups (real estate, clothing, etc). I think it would create too many forums to navigate. However, "IF" LL would promote the forums as much as they should to residents as a place to come to for gaining knowledge and answers, and the forums received the expected increase in traffic it should as a result, then I think the business forums would be a good idea.

Seperating resident discussions from questions would be a bad idea.

There's lots of knowledgable people on the forums that aren't here to help. They're here because they're bored at work and wanting a giggle and to discuss crap. These types of people don't seek out questions to answer. But if they happen to see a question then they may take the time to answer it.

For example - I can script and I'm well aware that there's many people needing help in the 'Scripting Tips' forum, but I very rarely visit that forum. Now if I were to see somebody asking a scripting related question in Resident Answers then I would probably try and answer it.

Very few people visit the forum to be helpful.

If we really wanted to see how users would structure the forums one could bring back the group forums, and give the group forum moderators the ability to create sub-forums, and eliminate the requirement that forum groups be associated with inworld groups.

That's not a bad idea.

I don't mind a bit of messiness in the definition of which forum does what. Newspapers quite often have different sorts of topics in the same paper, and even on the same page. Readers don't mind. This forum in particular - does it really MATTER if it's called 'general' or whatever. It's a sort of common room, and people wander in, and some ask where the loo is and some want to know about teaspoons and some talk about relativity. It doesnt matter. If we think of institutions as organic, it helps to realise that they grow and change and find niches whatever the stated intention is.

The important thing is that whatever the structure, if a question is already answered down the corridor, or that's where the experts live, that can be helpfully passed on, in a friendly way.

I did forget to add a business forum in along with the content forums. Rather than a General Discussion I would suggest a "SL Discussion/Answers" with a moderation policy to pick off OT posts that don't belong there. No, I don't think we need an OT forum - we have the rest of the internet for that.

My experience has also been that too many sub-forums becomes a problem for users, most people will gravitate to the most popular forum because they want to tap into where the most people are hanging out. This is why both a General Discussion and an RA won't work - new people will drop their questions on the most popular forum by default just because that is human nature. When putting together a forum structure, I try to set it up for ease of NEWBIES who are right off the boat and needing an answer. Too many sub-forums just confuses them.

The Technical forum is buried too far down the list and needs to be right up front and center. The areas that are critical information for new users needs to be the easiest stuff to find. I had a friend start last week and pointed him towards the forums for information and he had a hard time finding the Texture forum because of the chaotic structure and that nothing is in alphabetical order - it's just all over the place with no thought process behind it.

Welcome to Second Life.

I would put the content creation forums ahead of the discussion forums, so people with substantive content questions can have their eyes drawn to those forums first.

Agreed. Information pertaining to the game itself should be first. I'd put general How do I ? and technical stuff first, as not everyone wil be a content creator or business owner. Next would come Content/Business/Land. Then Help wanted/new products/Advertising, etc
Followed by any Discussion or Show me Stuff Forums.

I would put the general how do I...? last because if that is the first forum seen, more people will gravitate to it before thinking to touch the other forums first. Technical questions should go first, then content creation, then the general how do I...?

Then to discussion forums.

I would put them all at the top.

Or maybe add a shuffle option. Umm...

Yes, a shuffle option would be nice..

One of the duties of the new resMods will be to move the most popular threads back and forth randomly among the forums. And the new forum stickies will be copied verbatim from Hyundai's Korean website.

Entropy'R'Us.
............

Thanks, all, for the input so far. Eager for any more ideas.

Same here and I'd put the Tech Answers right under the Resident Answers. I hate going ALLLLL the way down to the bottom to find it.

Given the current sad state of the forum, I think my old idea of merging the characters from all the users into one single stream of characters in the order they were typed has new merit.

/me pokes the bump button.

Anything happen on this? Is Robin still taking your calls??

Resident Litterbox?

Damn, you're good!!!

/salutes