Forum Facelift

I'll second the idea of making the forums read-only without a login. This would allow "No Payment Info on File" residents to benefit from the forums yet keep them as drama-free as possible(at least in the technical and Content Creation forums). Oh, and a skinning forum would be great, too.

Sit down, breathe slowly....

I was going to add another one.

"Make a few special sections of the forum for paying residents only" - thus adding value to the Premium account.

I don't know how "taking it in-world" would even work. There are many topics of interest to me currently going on, I only post to those to which I might have a positive or constructive input to. Otherwise, I just read the postings of others.

But I don't have the forum page constantly open. I may come back hours later to catch up on the threads I'm watching. How would that happen "in-world"?

The very nature of the forum invites discussion and thoughtful exchange of ideas (well, most of the time anyway), while the blog tends to be mostly a one-way street with a dead-end.

I very much agree with the need for moderation here. I, too, would like to see the general discussion forum restarted so that Resident Answers may return to its intended purpose.

While it is nice that other forums exist outside, this is the Second Life site and it is where I spend my Second Life time together with being in-world. And, sometimes, it is just not convenient to get in-world. But I can still get to the forum.

And, please do get the BBCODE working.

Totally... And, we need our SL fix when the grid is down. (>_<

I say "me too" for all the people asking for all that other stuff. Especially for BBCode to come back. All those linkie URLs bork the window sizing it it would be cool to actually be able to follow one without copy-paste. (^_^)

I will reiterate my suggestion from previous threads to actually re-order the forums so that the content creation areas come before the discussion/general questions area. Many people's eyes stop traveling down the page because Resident Answers is the first relevant forum they see when they have questions. Put the content forums first and they will pick up more of the building/texturing/scripting/animation questions before they hit RA.

And yes, a General Discussion forum is necessary, so that people have a place to be a community, not just a substitute for Lindens providing answers.

That would have the side-effect of having the forums archived and indexed by search engines though.

Having "Second Life (choice derogatory word here)" in a closed official forum is one thing, having it show up on a Google search is another. I also personally like the fact that the forums aren't indexed, although that's probably a minority perk .

As stated above, give everyone at least read only access to the forums but make them login and/or at least have payment info on file to post. Bring in resident mods (I'm still interested), get more involved discussions on development, lsl, etc... back on the forums from the JIRA where they don't always belong.

One way to do it would be to still make people login to access the forums (thus stopping bots and those without accounts) to view but just removing the need payment info on file to read restriction.

Thanks everyone - I'm glad to see that generally there's still interest in making the forums an important part of community communication. Keep the ideas coming.

The forums are quite useful to many of us. Every day, I peruse the new products announcements as my primary method of finding out what's new to spend those $L burning holes in my pocket. I also announce all my new products in the forums. It's great free advertising for us.

Having a place to ask for help on technical aspects from other residents is also very helpful. And remember, when we can get our answers there, we don't bother people in world, or even, shudder, LL Help.

And yes, it's a great place to bitch and complain, especially when SL is acting up. I believe LL is overlooking a valuable service the forums provide for us: It gives us the fantasy that LL actually listens to us and cares what we say. We all know LL doesn't really, but they should at least keep up the pretext they listen, and what better way than to have forum topics for us to vent our frustrations at inventory losses, down times, inability to login, etc. It costs them nothing to have a flame section so we can vent, and be given the false hope it's listened too. Removing this just reinforces the gulf between the residents and LL management.

Is the cake for those of us who give suggestions? It's so delicious and moist.


On a serious note though, thanks for reading them

Ditto that.
It also reflects bad on those posting here when things go ugly. People associated with ridiculous forums oftem look ridiculous to outsiders looking in. Well I guess it's a good thing the general public cannot see these. So um...carry on.

May I suggest that three new forums be opened.

1. General SL discussion
2. Off-Topic
3. Resident Suggestions

And may I suggest that “Resident Answers” be changed to
“Linden Answers” and have real Lindens helping new people or people with questions.

I find it hard to believe that that forum cannot have actual company support 24/7 for people. A Technical Support fourm with actual Linden personal 24/7 would also make sense.

All the other forums need actual moderation, i.e, moving threads to appropriate forum, moderating arguments and specific personal attacks or mob mentality, while at the same time allowing criticism of aspects of SL or LL that are intended as contructive criticism.

The "Tips" (e.g. Texture Tips, Scripting Tips, etc.) I have found singularly helpful, quick and friendly. I can't imagine them being successfully maintained somewhere else. Please keep them as they are.

Some of the forums are invaluable as source documents for people working contracting and for people who are making or manufacturing things in SL.
Scripting, Building, Animations, Textures, Products wanted, Work offers are invaluable.
Maybe we should open the Forums on a read only basis to all non premium members and let Premium members have update rights.
Please do not kill the forums, they are the goose that often lays the golden egg for me.

More Dramas!!!

Qualifications:
I have been in SL since Nov 2007

I run several forums in RL.

I have never met or talked to a "Linden" in the game or forums.


Suggestions:

I would like to interact with the Lindens more and not via trouble tickets.

Avid forum users like features, smilies and larger avatars.

Some control over signatures. I am guilty myself. I feel a signature photo shouldn't be more than 200 pixels tall. Some are huge with multiple photos.

We need a general forum.

In the RA section once a question is answered satisfactorly it should be locked. I am guilty of adding posts just to drive the topic. A general area would make the RA section more controlled.

Allow posting replies to new products area. I would like to get feed back on my builds and products in SL.

A moderator there would prevent the same 25 or 30 items from being on top all the time by locking the thread or use auto pruning after the post is 5 days old.

I personally like phpBB forums. (free) Of course switching software would cause loss of the history of this forum.

Thanks for your time.

"CX"

I totally agree that the forums aren't for everyone. The nice thing about forums is that to visit them is completely voluntary.

I will repost what I wrote in the blog comments, cause here is where I should have put it.

Looking forward to the facelift!

I hope you decide to keep a place where residents can ask newbie questions. Being completely new to both SL and computers, I would have been lost if it weren’t for the immediate help and suggestions I got in the RA section. I’d like to think I helped a few in return.

It’s not always easy at first to get help inworld when you aren’t exactly familiar with the terminology. You’re not even sure what it is you need help with…
Lurking in a forum where questions are answered almost instantaneously is the preferred way for many. Heck, some people are just shy at first.

We don’t all learn using the same methods. Some are more visual (Torley videos!), some ‘get’ technical terms right away, others prefer using Voice, or inworld classes. Some enjoy using a variety of those, depending on the subject. Unless it costs a lot, why not have as many alternate ways of reaching/helping people. How can ‘more’ choices be a bad thing? There should be a place for everyone.

If it’s at all possible, please consider keeping an area where residents help other residents. For others and I, RA has been the preferred place to go when problems needed immediate solving, (I guess I’m impatient, lol)

Thank you

I was on a forum once that allowed the person who started the thread to go back and delete it once there answer was given. So that could help in the RA section with overloaded threads. I also would strive for a GD area. Just imo.

A list of things that can be implemented to help revilitalize the forums...

**FIX THE PHP/BBC CODE**(That should have been done years ago...)
*update the vBulletin software*(So that it works...)

-Larger selection selection of expressions(more smiley faces)
-A more attractive, graphical, and friendlier user interface
-A larger inbox than the 70 message limit
-Ability to rate threads/a way to show their popularity
-More participation by lindens (Would it hurt if a linden responded once a day?)
-Better backlinking to the forums.
-Have a custom avatar profile picture.
-Longer signature.

Highly suggested features
-An official Script Library where scripts would get public apporval and then archived and never be deleted.
-Better backlinking to the forums (most people don't know of the SL Forums)
-You don't have to sign in to view the forums.

I would highly suggest that LL take a look at the slx forums (slexchange.com)as a good example.

Ty Robin Linden for mentioning me on the blog today.

You get enough Dramas elsewhere!

I'm in favor of a lot of these suggestions, but I really want to emphasize adding a General Discussion area. I very much enjoy answering questions and helping other people out, but it's been getting more and more difficult to actually track those threads since Strife left and RA has basically turned into GD. Human nature being what it is, we definitely need an area to communicate, play, and maybe even argue without it interfering in assisting each other...it's going to continue to spill into other areas otherwise.

Mods should have the ability to merge posts as well as locking, moving, etc. We often have three or four posts on the same topic pop up in a short period of time and it would simplify things a great deal if they could be merged. (I think Strife and Cybin said they couldn't, or were discouraged from doing so...I can't recall exactly.)

Ah, and I believe it was Bradley Bracken who suggested that threads without activity within the past 30/60/90/whatever days automatically get locked to prevent excessive necroposting.

OMG Please do not discontinue the forums. I have found so much good help and explanation here. As a newbie, they were invaluable. And now I find many solutions thru the forums.

Well, some ver good points have been made so far, let's put them together with a few of my own:

I think the forums need to be LINKED with the SL system:
- When forum messages are responded to, avatars who want updates should get in world notification by way of an icon in SL. In fact, reading and responding to the forums should be allowable in the internal web browser, allowing a seamless connection.

- Forum PM systems could allow a private 'mail' system between avatars. This allows you to send more extensive messages to offline people when needed. This could be paid for with token linden fees, either on a monthly or per message basis. I'm thinking premium members could get it for free, and basic members pay per message. Pay per message could easilly slow spam issues.

- It would be nice if groups could get forums for a monthly maintence fee. It would also be a good idea to only allow it with groups that have a minimal membership. Perhaps 100 avatars? The servers for 'group forums' would have to be built to scale with groups and thier needs, much as mainland servers do. This means the group itself would need to pay for them. I advise a fee that can either be applied to ALL members of the group, or just the owner. This fee not only pays for the server, but for repair and bandwidth.


Again, The idea of a forum is totally differant than chat: Chat is meant for conversations between avatars at a paticular moment in time. Forums are for posting more elaborate discussions over time, with the ability to review previous parts easilly and make informed responses.

The forums ARE needed, since it is known fact some people work better in forums than chat, since they have more time to think out thier ideas and put them into print.

Now, of course, all of this will take hardware and software, and WOULD be a significant undertaking. It's obviously possible, since MMOs with much higher numbers of people have in-game mail.

Now, as to if people want such systems put into place? They probably have not even considered it. It is the nature of SL residents to ignore what they do not have, until they have it. After they do have it, they can't live without it.

Thoughts?

Firstly, the most things I've learned about SL, I've learned from reading the forums.

Sure, there are other resources, but none so easily searchable and up to date. The knowledgebase and wiki are sorely lacking, and Jira posts usually begin with "see this forum thread for more details and background"!

It would however, be nice for there to be a general discussion section simply to separate those threads from the answers/information type posts!

I have to agree that people like to think their comments are heard and understood. It's not always logical, but it _is_ human.

It's the first thing you learn when you work in the service industries - talk less, and listen more. Even when you think the customer is wrong, the fact that they didn't understand how the product (or service) works is a reflection on us, and it can teach us a lot about how to communicate better with our customers the next time around.

I don't agree that the Lindens don't 'care' though, but having the forums does give us that 'fantasy' as you put it.