Suggestions and Concerns

[binarymelon]

is it normal to click the thread title and it goes to the first page? usually you would want to read the new stuff. this would make the forums easier to navigate on tablets and phones.

Clicking the "NEW" icon will bring you to the first new post.

[BasiliskFang]

thats true i suppose

[thetrooper27]

Just please don't shut down the forum, and I hope everyone sticks around for awhile.  I even wish some old members would reemerge, like Onslaught or HotRod.  More guys to chat with.  I haven't been so hooked on the internet since MySpace and Facebook swept the land.  I literally stay signed in as much as I can, just so I can click new replies when I wake up, or while I do chores, or whatever.  I've really enjoyed going through my cards, and discovering that there are cool fellas to talk to about something I like as much as OP.

[steve2275]

this a pretty cool place

[Onslaught]

New rules forum layout is absurd, there's no way I'm clicking through 3000 subforums one at a time to see if each section has a new question

[Palatinus]

New rules forum layout is absurd, there's no way I'm clicking through 3000 subforums one at a time to see if each section has a new question

It's a good thing the top level forum reports new posts in the child forums.

[Onslaught]

That doesn't even address what I said.

If the designer of an interface has to argue with the end user about how to utilize it, guess which one is usually in the wrong?

[Jack]

There's no need to separate the Rules into so many sub-forums.

I've seen this done on some forums, some better than others.

[thetrooper27]

I <3 the Palatinus OverPower Forum.

[halcyon1234]

New rules forum layout is absurd, there's no way I'm clicking through 3000 subforums one at a time to see if each section has a new question

It's a good thing the top level forum reports new posts in the child forums.

I have to throw my hat into the "less usable" ring. Every subforum right now shows "new". Either there's been dozens of new rules questions in the last 24 hours, or it's just bugging out because I haven't read through each and every thread in existence.

"Mark as Read" doesn't hit subforums. So my only choice is to go through 20+ sub forums and click "read". I'm not really willing to do that.

I see the "pro" in having the divide. It better categorizes the questions. Fair enough.

But the "con"s seems to outweigh:

1) If someone wants to brows through all the rules questions-- say a new user-- they are going to be faced with an insurmountable task.  Reading through all the subforums will become a chore. Best way to turn off users is to present something they want to do as a chore.

1a) This is going to massively increase the site's bandwidth due to tonnes of extra pageloads.

2) If someone does find the one question they want, they won't "see" the rest of the questions. That doesn't encourage them to read other threads and get interested in the forum. It doesn't encourage them to participate.

3) It discourages new posts.  For someone to ask a question, they must first figure out which category it goes in.  See above "chore".  While topic catagorization is a good thing, it is a forum management task. Someone wanting to ask a question just wants to ask a question, not help maintain the forum.

3a) This assumes that they even know which category it goes under.  Where does "Can the event that lets level 1 power cards avoid any attack avoid Longshot's One In A Million" go? Power cards? Events? Specials? Meta-rules?

3b) Which will lead to further discouraging users the first time someone is lambasted for posting in the wrong subforum.

4) As I've demonstrated above, it punishes long-time users who have not read through every post, and now have a sea of "New" tags to deal with.

And finally, even if the pro of catagorization outweighed the cons, you need to look at volume of posts. We're a relatively small community. There are so few questions actually asked that sorting them thusly was never really an issue to begin with.  The small benefits of categorization don't pay out.

My suggestion would be that if catagorization is desired, to rollback the subforum change, and instead go with a "tag" approach. 

Pro:
1) You can tag posts with multiple tags (Event, Power Card, Special, Meta-Rule), which resolves the "where do I post" issue
2) The tags are expandable without resorting to more subforums
3) Since they are meta-data, they lend themselves better to searching/sorting/reporting
4) A post can be tagged post-facto if the topic changes, or it wasn't tagged by the OP (properly or at all)

Con:
1) You will need to tag all archival posts. Presumably you already did this to move posts into subforums, so it effectively doubles your work.
2) Tags will need to be maintained. Most posters honestly won't care about the tags (see "Chore"), leaving the work to the forum administrators.

To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't even bother with tags. I've never seen them used effectively on a forum. And between the built-in Search, and using Google search with site:beenhereandthere.com, there is no problem actually finding data.

So while I commend you, Palatinus, for putting in some work to improve the forum, I think that it might not have fired as planned. No big deal. We've all thrown that second strength power card at Colossus. =)

[Nate Grey]

I think its funny they are called Child Boards.  Like they are G rated or something.

[Onslaught]

April 1 has come and gone, time to change the rules forum back to something that is actually usable.

[cyber0820]

Is there a way to leave feedback or a review for trades made with members? I know I could just leave one in the trades/purchase section but is their a way to make it attach to a member for other people to see? I am doing several trades with members & plan on leaving positive feedback via posting it but thought maybe a sub tab on their profile for it?

[drdeath25]

i think a year or two ago on here someone was working on a "good traders list", if im not mistaken. but never found out what happened to it or if it every got updated.

theres always ebay feedback to get a guys track record. Back in the day when overpower was young Gary Martin Jr's website had a huge list of good traders he had done business with. I think its still probably archived somewhre. but hasent been updated in 10 years, so it would be out of date (Even though I am on the list of good traders on his site ;-)

[cyber0820]

Ebay is a good place to start & frankly I'm really glad this forum is up. So I'm not complaining or asking the admin to spend more to expand.  I just thought maybe since like me, new to the forum, that traders feedback would be cool.

I know that trying to find honest people can be a difficult thing. I found this forum in 02' when I got out of the Army & started collecting again but didn't know if trading cards cross country... In some cases different countries would lead to me getting hosed. So I didn't join. Wish I would have,  probably cost me ten times the coin in the big picture buying the cards I have off eBay.

It's always a risk, even ebay. But I'm also a firm believer in acknowledging honesty & dependability so I thought I throw out the idea after not seeing a similar question. Posting a topic in the trading folder will work but wanted to ask.