I think we should leave the current setup like the way it is. Dividing the forums up in several section will make many people miss many things. People usually don't have time to check each thread, let alone browse 3-4 different forums. I also think the current layout of the forum is the reason for great traffic. As an example, HowardForums has broken its "Rogers" section to include an iPhone section. Now although I am currently on Rogers and using iPhone, I am ONLY checking the iPhone section lately which makes me miss many great deals that are posted under Rogers section. I would really hate to have the same experience here.
I agree, Arn. I didn't think either of those suggestions was particularly good. I was hoping, though, that something better would emerge if we started throwing options out there. How to break things up without being arbitrary and making the resulting sections be useful? The $64,000 question...
Apologies for speaking out of turn, but I think the concern from the admin point of view is that people might be missing many threads because the traffic is so heavy in the existing forum. As I mentioned previously, the challenge is to balance that concern with yours (that people won't visit the new forum areas as much).
To be honest, I agree about the game section been too busy now- I have given up trying to keep up with all the threads there. But if we are going to have an 'older games' section it ought to be named something different, as 1 or 2 weeks is hardly old (I think someone else mentioned this too). If people see 'older games' in the forum list, they may not bother, which means developers sales dropping due to lack of attention in the forum (and yes, I am thinking of myself when my own app gets released- why shouldn't I?). Also, from a mods perspective, how much work is this going to be, constantly moving threads posted in the wrong section just because a game came out longer than a week before etc? I can see a headache coming on! Perhaps just stick to Coming Soon and Out Now.
Or maybe: 1) Coming Soon 2) New Releases 3) Games This avoids calling the older releases "old". Perhaps it is possible to make these changes easier for the admins/mods by having any threads started say 1 week ago automatically moving into the games forum a week after they started, and so on?
I like it. It has a "clean" feeling to it. If 2 weeks is too short to be in the new release section, what about after 1 month? 1 month under new release is fair....no? Of course, from the admin/mods perspective, the challenge is to keep up with the dates of when things should get moved...
What happens if there is a huge update to a game ? For example, the new version of Stitch'em Words is expected to have so many new features that it SHOULD actually be released as a new game. So would it go in "New Releases" or "Games" ? If it goes under "Games", most devs will lose much motivation to bring out new features to the games already released as we all can expect 5:1 ratio for New Release:Games section in terms of user participitation and it would hardly make any sense to work on features if you are not even going to get exposure.
Yes, that's the point I made. I can see most viewers just keeping an eye on the new release section and ignoring the older (for want of a better word) game section most of the time, which is concerning from a devs point of view. Although this isn't the only forum for iPhone games, I know- but it is regarded by many as the best. Of course updates still show up on AppShopper etc too, so devs don't purely rely on forums for publicity.
Perhaps a separate forum for (upcoming/new/newly updated) might be a reasonable way to go. In any event I think a system of that nature should depend on posters to make threads in the right forum and not require mods to move things about. Thus I think a thread should be created in the appropriate spot and should remain there as long as people want to discuss it, rather than having it moved to a different forum after an arbitrary length of time.
A section to talk about games that aren't out yet would be a good idea I believe but to split the game section for games that are out still sounds bad.
Is there a way to make the forum page show more threads? They currently are 20 long.. When I've been away from TA for a while, I open each page in a new tab in Safari (Safari 4 now) and so I'll look at maybe the most recent 3 or 4 pages, but yeah anything older isn't likely to be brought up... If it was split up, I think it would cut down on people spamming the same thread over and over... Good ideas though!
I really think something needs to be done fast one thread i recently started about the game crayon ball sunk faster than an anchor, looking at the Games Forum all the posts on the front page are all whiten the last hour and some games have multiple threads devoted to them, I don't have a problem with that just that it takes away from other game threads being on the front page, with the current system. I hope that you took my suggestion to heart about splitting it up because old and new I just don't think would work. I thought it should be by Upcoming Games, Games Out, Game Suggestions, and Games on Sale. Thanks
Game recomendations forum Games released Un-released games no sperate promo or anything just add those to and clutter goes WAY down
Hmm.. I think that the forums are fine. My suggestion for it would be to split it like... -Game Talk -Game Updates -Strategies I was thinking what people thought about a Senior Members only section, that way those who are really bugged by the Junior Members posts, they can just have a different section to look at. Idk, just trying to add more ideas.
OK, how about.. Games Upcoming/Updates Game Talk -->Promo codes -->Strategies LOL, it's too much for my brain. I'll leave it up to everyone else and I'll pitch in a vote.
