Forum Organization

Strider

In Retrospect
Joined
Jan 7, 2002
Messages
8,984
Okay, we really need to make a standard for what goes where and make it to where everyone knows that standard (or can atleast find out fairly easily).

So, what type (or style) threads go into each sub-forum?

We also need to discuss what threads need to be stickied, and while were at it.. I think it's about time to retire those "poll registry, discussion registry, etc." stickies also. They are hardly ever used anymore, and have lost there orginal purpose.
 
I'll start with the easiest:

Polls Forum
All polls. Any thread with a poll goes there. Any thread without goes in one of the following forums:

Citizens Forum
All discussion and roleplay about the game. Strategy, citizens groups, military plans, build queue discussion. It all goes here.

Government Forum
Forum for all elected and appointed officials to post their term threads in for comments relating to a particular office. Nothing else.

Main (Game of Democracy VII) Forum
Official threads. These are the threads that should only be in this forum:
  • Turnchat Threads
  • Newcomer FAQ / Demogame Description Thread
  • Constitution Thread
  • Turnchat Schedule Thread / Summary Thread (with links to saves from completed turnchats)
  • Screenshots Thread (for users to post screenshots of anything from the save)
  • Elections/Nominations
  • Needed Things
  • Judicial Log
  • Absence Registry
  • Citizen Registry
All threads in red should be stickied.


And yes, get rid of the poll registry, discussion registry stickies. Just subscribe to the forum.

I think that RPG should be entertwined with discussion in the citizen's forum, or take place in citizen group threads, or in their own threads. There wasn't enough activity in the RPG forum this game. The roleplay should be stuff relating to the game (ie; fireworks upon researching Gunpowder), not the 'bank, land, gold' stuff from DG3 or whatever.
 
The setup we have right now looks fine. Polls in Polls forum, Discussions in Citizens forum, and Officials threads in Government forum. and get rid of the "registry threads". they are pretty much useless.

Regarding the stickies, I'd be willing to run the Information Office. I would like to have it stickied and have it link to all the Government threads. I would also include all information regarding the DemoGame, so people can know what's going on easily.
 
greekguy said:
The setup we have right now looks fine. Polls in Polls forum, Discussions in Citizens forum, and Officials threads in Government forum. and get rid of the "registry threads". they are pretty much useless.

Regarding the stickies, I'd be willing to run the Information Office. I would like to have it stickied and have it link to all the Government threads. I would also include all information regarding the DemoGame, so people can know what's going on easily.
I think each elected official should run information for their own area, its alot easier instead of having 1 person doing everything... also officials who don't post any info can be CCed if we have a law requiring it
 
Or people can just get CivAssist II and look at all the info they desire...without logging on to the forums and searching through threads. We don't need a law for info, thanks to ainwood.
 
Ginger_Ale said:
Or people can just get CivAssist II and look at all the info they desire...without logging on to the forums and searching through threads. We don't need a law for info, thanks to ainwood.
Citizens shouldn't have to use a utility to find information about the game, elected officials should be responsible in their department, this game I didn't know a thing after the game after term 2, cause I didn't look at the save after term 2... I could have used civ assist 2, but its still not as good as looking at the save
 
Is it harder to open a save in CA2 or C3C if you have it, or look through 7+ threads scrounging for info from the latest save (which people might not update for a few days after the turnchat)?
 
Polls Forum
  • All polls. Any thread with a poll goes there.
  • Thread detailing 'Polling Standards'

Citizens Forum
  • Discussion Threads
  • Roleplay threads (if we decide not to keep the RPG forum)
  • Constitutional Threads
  • Citizen Groups
  • Information Department (if we have one)
  • Turnchat Instruction threads (I'll explain this in alittle bit)


Government Forum
  • Government Threads (President, Leader, Governor, etc. offices)
  • City Threads
  • Government Thread Registry (will explain this later also)
  • Judiciary Threads (including the Judicial Log)
  • Turnchat Summary (with links to saves from completed turnchats)

Main (Game of Democracy VII) Forum:
  • Citizen Registry
    [*]Needed Things
  • Elections/Nominations/Debates
  • Constitution
  • Screenshot threads
  • Welcome/FAQ threads

Okay, explaining my reasoning for wanting to stick the turnchat instruction threads inside of the Citizen Forum. The way I see it, almost no one (except during elections) looks into the main DG forum. The turnchat instruction threads go unnoticed by almost everyone (well I hardly ever notice them) except those that post instructions.

Also, the main DG forum has far to many stickies, and adding the turnchat instruction thread to it doesn't really bring it out like it should. The citizens forum will have much less stickies, and the thread will be more noticeable there (so citizens can see the time, date, and instructions). When it's over.. unsticky it and close it.

Now, explaining the Government thread registry. We need to make a thread that lists all of the official government threads. It will be much easier to update than the poll/discussion registrys. We could just tack it on with one of the Judiciary's duties.

We also need to make alot of these threads 'link' to eachother. IE: The Welcome/Help thread will have a link to the Information thread inside of the Citizens Forum. The Information thread will have a link to the government registry, which then has all of the government threads linked to it.
 
Does anyone have any comments, or suggestions? I would like your input on some of this. :)
 
Yes, I agree with putting the turnchat threads in citizens forum, actually. Keep the main forum for more "formal" things like registration, absences, constitution, elections, etc. But while we are at it, wouldn't it also make more sense to put the screenshots thread and turnchat summary thread in citizens forum, too? Turnchat summaries don't have anything to do with government threads.
 
i agreem we can just do RPG in the citizens and goverment forums. RPG and the Demogame are not mutually execulsive, they are the same thing. we should always be RPGing
 
I'm going to take the role of dissenting opinion on this one. What was wrong with the existing organization, aside from the little-used registry stickies? I can't really find anything wrong with the organization per se. Sure, we have people who don't do a good job on their government threads, but polls and citizen discussions were just fine. As for RPG, I liked having "side games" like the PBEMs, Provo's short-lived stock market system, and the like in a separate forum, even if the role play isn't concentrated there. Just call it the "misc" forum instead.
 
I agree with DaveShack. RPG thread is not really an RPG only. The entire game is an RPG since we pretend to be an organized government ruling a nation. (we are really a chaotic bunch)

RPG should be done everywhere in the DemoGame but the thread titled "RPG" should be redefined as Miscellaneous or Other.
 
We should make a rule that says no utils what-so-ever.

Who ever heard of a bunch of people running around with clubs measuring how much culture they need for a culture win? :) (yeah, I know, old school)
 
Chieftess said:
We should make a rule that says no utils what-so-ever.

Who ever heard of a bunch of people running around with clubs measuring how much culture they need for a culture win? :) (yeah, I know, old school)

Too old school I think -- the utils are there to get information you can find out in other ways. ;) I distinctly remember you used to take a screenshot of the culture histograph, import it into a graphics program, and estimate the number of culture points of the other civs by counting pixels. Good players in the pre-utility world were good because they had the self discipline to look at every single city screen every turn -- now utilities bring the important things to our attention and make it easier to concentrate on strategy without as much worry we'll miss a seemingly trivial detail. Additionally, we do still have people who can't look at the save for various reasons, but can use the utility programs.

However, the suggestion is on the right track, at a higher level. What we need to do is hold our debates during the game in character instead of using a calculator. We have some evidence that number cruching is bad for participation.
 
I beleve the Turnchat Instruction threads should belong at the main page of the Demogame forum. Its much more easyer to sourt and search for them than in the citizens forum.
 
Consistent with other comments I've made in various discussions...

Should we consider having a "Game Mechanics" or similar subforum to hold discussions which are not in the spirit of talking as though we're inside the game, and at least try to hold all the government and citizen's forum discussions in terms of the in-game civ? For some examples, in-game talk would be about "production", "forced labor", "sneak attack" and the corresponding out-of-game talk would be about "shields", "pop rushing", and "ROP rape".
 
i dont like that way to devide it, because by the end of the game, the Game Mechanics subforum will just become the most important and the other will become this games RPG, also that will mean you have to look in lots of different places to find out infomation.
 
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