after getting a general approval from the forum this thread has been changed to a petition used to send to FFG to (politely) ask for forum catagories

a very regular user of this forum i, as well as others, know that it gets the most traffic of all the LOTR LCG forums, therefore i think it is in its best interests to keep it as user-friendly as possible

these are the updated catagories which the forum has so far voted for:

General topics

Rules and FAQ

Player content (custom scenarios/tournaments/deckss etc)

these arent final, but i think they are the best so far,

also personally i think we should have some sort of general discussion area and new player introductions -or use the off topic for that, but if you have any strong feelings for/against them please post so we know

update: due to several member opinions i think what most people think we should do is keep the catagories to a minumum so that we can find posts asap, therefore i have made a thread where you can vote for which cats you think best

ok so please sign this thread to add to the petition

i will update names here as we get them

1.richsabre

2. juicebox

3.muemakan

4.durinIII

5.zjb12

6.shiv@n

7.grudunza

8.ninjawa

9.ichaos1985

10.hendersondayton

11.pericles

12.cordeirooo

13.budgernaut

14. angus lee

15.memetix

16.candacis

I can do nothing but agreed with you !

I'm french and I mainly read the forum for rulings and news so it kinds of bugs me to see sooooooooo many threads about tournaments (which are good threads but really not relevant for me...) and to see that the unofficial FAQ thread is always lost in any other page...

Hope some admin will put good order in it soon...

There is something similar here: http://www.cardgamedb.com/forums/index.php?/forum/17-lord-of-the-rings-lcg/

Also, the admin there are more active, so it's easier to make 'minor' changes than here.

I agree with you Rich. The forum page just has too much different stuff going on at the same time. Categories (albeit very general ones like you mentioned) are a good idea.

I think the main issue is the first page limit rather than categories and sub-forums. If that first page was 3 or 4 times longer, it would be much easier to look up the last week's worth of posts rather than having a first page than can barely hold the last 24 hours.

SiCK_Boy said:

good point, and going back to my dislke of catagories, a result i would prefer

I think something like this would be fantastic!

I like what you've got. Similarly, I could imagine:

Rules & FAQ's

News

Tournaments

Gaming Reports

Custom Cards & Scenarios

Off-Topic

richsabre, what do you mean by "variants/player content"?

juicebox said:

just the same as your custom part

ps in the time it took for this reply to load i made an omlet and a coffee......oh dear oh dear oh dear

We could also have a Quests forum, with a subforum for each quest.

That would make it easy to find quest-specific advice, FAQs, play-throughs, reviews, variant suggestions, etc.

It would also make it easier for people to avoid getting "spoiled" by info about quests they haven't tried yet.

What appeals to me about this idea is that as we progress through the quests, we progress through the forums, sharing advice and ideas with other players who are focusing on the same areas of the game.

So, what is our recourse as a community toward seeing something like this become implemented.

i.e. How do we make this happen?

juicebox said:

ok- first dont shoot me.....but a forum petition? hahahaha

That would be this thread then eh? lol I think it would be great to get some sub forums going. I don't come on here as much any more as I did as it's just so bogged down in the latest 'tournament' etc post. Good threads for people interested but not for those like me.

spirit said:

yes or we could always have 3 catagories

BOROMIR

PIPPIN

BILBO

and you post in those relavent- nah im joking that would get confusing

i do think its important that we have a corner where theme guys like me and others can hang out and competative guys like glaurung and tourament masters like juice and zjb(sorry forgot your username hah) can hang, and of course a place for everything in between

ps

actually i find petitions a little snobby and demanding

how about one of us emails a mod and just plain out asks for catagories?

thats if the rest of the forum wants it

which we'd only know by a petition

ive gotten myself into a cycle

must stop

must stop

pps i just wanted to point out how happy i am that this forum isnt really moderated....man ive just had my hatreds of control freak mods re-ignited elsewhere....free speech for all etc etc

see thats the beauty of this forum- you can go off topic as much as you like and not get called a troll- a scatter brain guy like me wouldnt survive if it changed....and i have no idea why im discussing this with myself.....anywhoo back on topic!!

I like the idea. I also like the idea of a Scenarios category. It's too easy to lose track of interesting threads when Real Life interferes with consistent LOTR forum diving

what id also like to see is ranks.....i love ranks! you can have alot of *very nerdy* fun with that

I'm for forum subcategories, too. I really like this suggestion:

Rules & FAQ's

News

Tournaments

Gaming Reports

Custom Cards & Scenarios

Off-Topic

BUT.. I think with subcategories we all have to try very hard to open threads in the right subforum OR it actually has to be monitored by a forum moderator.

IF they would only grant 1 subcategory I vote for:

- Rules/FAQ

Candacis said:

as previously stated i would rather not push the forum in the way of mods......really really rather not

i have never agreed with the patronisation (a word?) of forum moderators....not saying all are like this, but ive yet to find a forum as free and easy as here

i think it wouldnt need to be anyways, we already have catagories, well 1. but if they were really obvious ones people would get the idea

If there was an option to move old threads to the new categories, that would be excellent as well.

richsabre, are you familiar with how to update your original post (in this thread)?

(If not, let me know, and I can give you a quick rundown.)

I ask because I think you should turn this thread into the official petition. You could update the initial post title (to include something about "sign the petition") and keep a running list of names in the original post of people who sign in agreement that we need forum categories. I hear your hesitancy around "petitions" - maybe it could be called an official request (or something), but I think readers may be more familiar with the concept of a petition (so it might be more expedient). Also, I think it is an incredibly reasonable request. We are not asking for the moon. This site, in spite of its limitations, continues to be the LOTR LCG forum that gets the most action. It would be great (for all involved, FFG included) for the user-friendlyness of the place to receive this small upgrade.

My humble opinion.

juicebox said:

hi juicebox

no ive tried to figure how to change it but dont actually know how

and yes i think turning this thread is the best way

also i would need some sort of indication about how many/what type of catagories are generally wanted

personally i think your listed ones are good, but somone mentioned quest sub catagories, which im not sure about, do we think this is watering down the mix too much? i dont want to convert the forum into a place where you have to click on 20 pages to get to your destination

also i think if we had more general catagories everything would pretty much have its place and be seen more

richsabre said:

I agree with you. I like my list too, and I think Scenario specific categories are too narrow and would create confusion about where to make posts that apply to the game in a more broad sense. So, I think we go ahead and make the proposal for the general categories. I'm normally not this "executive" in making decisions, but these thoughts come from participating in other forums over time. Also, future change is always an option. This would just be a much improved next step in developing the site as it is currently. My thoughts... if anyone has some remarkably different ideas, please don't hesitate to post. This is all very worth the discussion in my opinion and will be a significant investment in the future quality of these forums.

To update you post:

1) The next time you post to this thread, immediately afterwards, return to page 1.

2) There will be an Edit option up in the top right hand corner of your original post.

3) Click on the Edit option.

4) Cut and past the URL from the "edit your post" page and save that somewhere else (a Word document or whatever). (Then in the future, you just past that specific URL back in your browser when you want to return to the page to make another edit.)

5) Once the page is open for editing, you can update the title of the thread and the content in your original post.

Feel free to PM me if you run into any other questions. Wait, are we friend on here yet? We should be friends.

ok on it now...............................

updated and added our 2 names

richsabre said:

Awesome. Nice work.

Might I suggest adding numbers by our names? Not a big deal right now, but that wouldl help keep an accurate count of how many signatures are on the list as it grows over time. That way, at a glance, it can be seen how many names are on the list. When it gets to a significant number, I think you or I (or everyone on the list) can be encouraged to message the good folks at FFG with a link to this thread and our specific request for forum categories.

juicebox said:

will do- assuming we get other names! i think this post justifys some shamless bumping seeing as thats sort of why we're doing all this