Forum reorganization (give your feedback)

[Kariudo]

SQ had suggested some changes back in February. Long story short, I started working on it last week. I used SQ's proposal as a starting point, and went from there. After getting feedback from GQ, our mods, and SQ, this is what we propose:

• Anime Music Videos
  • General AMV
    • Recommended AMVs
    • AMV Scene Suggestions (renaming AMV Suggestions)
  • AMV Announcements
  • AMV Contests
  • Org Supported Contests
    • (sub-category) Active Contests
    • Quickening
    • OrgEditor 2
    • (sub-category) Contest Archives
    • OrgEditor 1
    • (sub-category) VCAs
      etc...
  • Opinion Exchange
  • Multi-Editor Projects

• Anime
  • General Anime
    • Anime Screencaps
  • Anime Series Discussion
  • Anime Conventions (merging Convention Exchange into Anime Conventions)

• Editing & Technology
  • General Video & Audio Help
    • Footage Help (Combining Avisynth & Capture/Rip)
    • Video Hardware Discussion (renaming Video Hardware Help)
    • (sub-category)Video Software Help
    • Adobe software
    • Sony Vegas
    • WMM
    • Mac Software
  • Compression, Encoding, and Converting
  • Special Effects

• Website
  • General Discussion
    • General Music
  • Site Help & Feedback (combining Site Help & Site Feedback)
    • Org Redesign
  • Moderator Drop Box

Now, before we make these changes, I want to get feedback from you. If you have questions about the forum proposal, please ask them. If you have suggestions for better forum names, or for changing a part of the proposed layout, post away!

In addition to that, there's a few questions I have for all of you:

-Two forums, Heads Up! and Audio Help, are targeted for removal. We can merge all threads into their new homes (General Discussion, and General Video & Audio Help respectively), or just the currently active threads. The "Other ICs" forum is also being considered for removal since it's had zero activity in the year since its creation. Which option sounds better?

-Seeing as Anime Screencaps has about 2 active threads, we'd like to move them into General Anime and make Screencaps more of an archive. Alternatively, we can remove Screencaps from view (moving a few more of the once popular threads into General Anime). Which would you prefer?

-The structure of Org Supported Contests and AMV Contests makes it so that they could easily be merged. Is this something you would like to see? If so, any suggestions for what name to use for the merged forum?

I'd like to keep things moving along here, so I'll give everyone one week (until June 5th) to weigh in. If we need more time to get things finalized, we'll take more time, but don't count on it. If you have something to say, say it now or forever hold your pizza.

[gotegenks]

section for tutorials under editing and technology?

[BasharOfTheAges]

I'd say:
* Merge Heads Up! and Audio Help into where they belong including all old threads. It's cleaner.
* Nuke "Other ICs" - nothing of value is lost.
* No opinion on the screencaps forum - never had any reason to be there.
* I'd like to see AMV Contests and Org Supported Contests stay separate. The latter are more "events" than "contests." Maybe the name should suggest that too? Either way, keeping convention-based contests in a uniquely identifiable position of their own (at the top level) is good for promoting the site at cons.

Also, putting Recommended AMVs in a sub-forum the first time effectively killed it. I can see the perceived benefit of putting it back there (nothing to lose at this point - taking it back out didn't help), but don't be surprised if the same thing doesn't happen to AMV Suggestions now too.

I'm not sure if you have the data on hand, but look at the forum activity numbers on any category after you moved it to a sub-level when it used to be on the top and see if you don't notice the sharp drop-offs independent of general forum activity decline. I'm not saying all these ideas don't make sense from a logical point of view - they certainly do seem very logically structured - but stupid users have historically posted less in hierarchically demoted forums.

[Niotex]

Special Effects needs to be renamed to Visual Effects.

Sub-forum specific mods would also be a welcome addition. Tho I'm not sure if that would be up for debate in this case.

[I Fight For The Users]

Flatten the hierarchy.

There is no need for "General [X]". Seriously, what kind of category name is "General"? You might as well just call it "Other" or "Uncategorized". Move "General [X]" into X.
There is no need to separate video software help by program; people tend to include a popular name of the program in their post title.
Merge Org Redesign into the top-level Website forum, and grant me the ability to sticky selected threads in that subforum.

[Ileia]

Same as Bashar, I agree that AMV Contests and Org-Supported Contests should stay separate, and the Other IC forum can go. Everything else looks fine to me.

It might be a good idea to put a notice up on the main site about this thread to give more members a chance to weigh-in (especially given the time limit).

[CodeZTM]

-Two forums, Heads Up! and Audio Help, are targeted for removal. We can merge all threads into their new homes (General Discussion, and General Video & Audio Help respectively), or just the currently active threads. The "Other ICs" forum is also being considered for removal since it's had zero activity in the year since its creation. Which option sounds better?

Perhaps Sticky Heads Up in General Discussion, then we can expand it to more than just anime, software, ect and go into video games and whatnot. Audio help's merging sounds good. Lose the Other ICs. Never used. <_<

-Seeing as Anime Screencaps has about 2 active threads, we'd like to move them into General Anime and make Screencaps more of an archive. Alternatively, we can remove Screencaps from view (moving a few more of the once popular threads into General Anime). Which would you prefer?

Yeah, ditch SCreencaps and move the active threads into General Anime. I'd love to see the "Desktop Wallpaper / Avatar" threads put back in there though.

-The structure of Org Supported Contests and AMV Contests makes it so that they could easily be merged. Is this something you would like to see? If so, any suggestions for what name to use for the merged forum?

Nuuuuu. Personally it's nice to have subforums for the Org Contests, because they're not the same as the convention contests all in AMV Contests. There's a big difference.

______________________

Introduction subforum in general AMV?

/dodges incoming discussion

[gotegenks]

could we get a separate section for contests whose deadlines have passed and are just waiting on results? or would that take too much moderation...

introduction category that includes the thread towards the top? that suggestions been said before but i figure it might as well be represented while we're on the subject.

how about moving general music out of general discussion and just having em called "Off Topic" and like, music discussion or something.

separating online contests/ics and convention contests? then you could definitely do away with org supported cons as those are all online so you could just sticky them if they need to be highlighted or put a link on the index page like we do now.

move opinion exchange to right under amv announcements, as the two go hand in hand somewhat and some people don't enter conventions or contests at all so it makes sense to me to have those before contest stuff.

what is moderator drop box even for that site feedback doesn't cover? honest quesiton.

[BasharOfTheAges]

what is moderator drop box even for that site feedback doesn't cover? honest quesiton.

I'd have to guess public shaming of someone where they can't be talked back to... Otherwise the combination of the help forums and the "report post" button on any post would do the job just fine.

[Kariudo]

section for tutorials under editing and technology?

I have a feeling this has been suggested before...I think it was this thread. I think Zarx makes a good point there. For now, let's just put tutorials in their respective sub-forums (or what will be General Video & Audio Help). If there's enough interest (and enough people) posting tutorials, we'll look at making it into its own sub/forum.

Also, putting Recommended AMVs in a sub-forum the first time effectively killed it. I can see the perceived benefit of putting it back there (nothing to lose at this point - taking it back out didn't help), but don't be surprised if the same thing doesn't happen to AMV Suggestions now too.

I'm not sure if you have the data on hand, but look at the forum activity numbers on any category after you moved it to a sub-level when it used to be on the top and see if you don't notice the sharp drop-offs independent of general forum activity decline. I'm not saying all these ideas don't make sense from a logical point of view - they certainly do seem very logically structured - but stupid users have historically posted less in hierarchically demoted forums.

It wouldn't come as a surprise if AMV Suggestions dies off after this, but perhaps having more than one subforum in General AMV, and it being fairly active (at least in terms of topic creation) will help it.

Special Effects needs to be renamed to Visual Effects.

Easy enough, is there anything in the forum description that should be changed as well (aside from replacing sfx with vfx in that one spot in the description)?

Sub-forum specific mods would also be a welcome addition. Tho I'm not sure if that would be up for debate in this case.

I think there's general support for this amongst the mods, but the details still need to be worked out. I'll see that we'll start talking about it before next week.

Flatten the hierarchy.

Why?
That's how the current layout is, save for Org Supported Contests and Video Editing Software. Part of the goal here is to clean up the board index, another part is to keep things visible, yet another is to group things logically. Flattening would run counter to at least one of those goals.

There is no need for "General [X]". Seriously, what kind of category name is "General"? You might as well just call it "Other" or "Uncategorized". Move "General [X]" into X.

It'd be a general name . If we change to "General [X]" into X, we'd have X appear twice in some locations (Category - Anime, Forum - Anime...same with AMVs when no contests are running) which comes across as tacky. I believe the "General" prefix is a meaningful separator for General AMVs, General Anime, and General Discussion. General Video & Audio Help is debatable, and I could see General Music being changed to Music Discussion. Anyone else care to comment on this?

There is no need to separate video software help by program; people tend to include a popular name of the program in their post title.

I count on people following naming conventions as much as I count on people reading stickies before posting. I believe there's still value in maintaining the visual separation. It cuts down on the scanning that people experienced with a particular program have to do when looking for a thread they can help in. It also makes a clear delineation for new(er) members looking for help.

Merge Org Redesign into the top-level Website forum, and grant me the ability to sticky selected threads in that subforum.

Why merge them? The sub-forum is achieving its goal in my eyes.