Clean up the Dojo

3kul · Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 8:39 am Post subject: Clean up the Dojo

I know it's been said before, but will we ever get rid of some of those oh-so-rarely used sections of this site? Even if we just remove them from sight that would be fine, but having such a crowded front page seems like such a waste if I'm just scrolling through and ignoring half of it.

Just to list some of the worst offenders (in my opinion) to give you a bit of an idea of what I'm talking about here:
* Announcements - last post date: March 2007
This might seem like a strange one to pick on, but this could very easily be merged with the Bulletin Board, and it would hide the rather embarassing/depressing fact that nothing that has happened here over the past (almost) two years was worth making an official announcement about.
* The Underground Bunker - last post date: March 2008
Almost a year since anybody's touched this one, seems like we mightn't miss it that much.
* Meeting House - March 2007
It looks to me like most staff prefer to use Closed Doors. The two sections serve an identical purpose, it's just that the public can only see one of them (the one that hasn't been used in almost 2 years Razz

)
* The Olympic Complex as a whole (5 sections) - Feb - Apr 2007
Archive the threads that we feel are worth saving and get rid of the rest of this. If you don't feel that we should be deleting the Olympic Complex, can you tell me when the next Olympics are being held? Confused

* The Pumpkin Patch Gate - Mar 2008 & The Pumpkin Patch - May 2007
The Gate is full of everybody's profiles and public discussion, the Patch itself has the one and only intro post ever made for what looked to be some truly great RP stuff. With a rumoured launch date of Christmas '07 it almost seems cruel to leave this up... It's like the mule's already starved to death and yet we've still got the carrot dangling right in front of his nose Sad

There are some others I'd complain about, but most of them are privately owned and hidden, so I think I'd be one of the few to complain about them or notice any real difference if they were removed.

As this is the suggestion box, the poll is purely to guage public opinion, and can't really be expected to do very much. But if you do decide to vote and pick any option aside from 'Remove them all' or 'Leave them be', please elaborate for us so that we know exactly which section/s of Blackstar you want to see removed or spared.

Swix · Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 5:42 am Post subject:

I'm not sure about completely removing the Olympics, I'd be more in favour of having it restricted to just one section through which you could go and see the rest as it takes up a large part of the front page (though I'm not sure if that's even possible).

I'd also add getting rid of The Sanctuary, since the last post was in April '07, by me. I know it's owned by Father Mac but I haven't seen or heard from him for so long (or any other Flock members for that matter) I doubt there's much point in keeping that section there.

drlupinmario · Guest

We need to really just face the music and recruit more people here, or else this place will fall apart.

Coolpikaaa · Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:01 pm Post subject:

I agree with DLM there.

More people really would solve most of our problems.

-coolpikaaa

drlupinmario · Guest

Ja, Although I myself dont see the need for the pumpkin patch. Is it supposed to be for some kind of epic RP that just never happend?

I have been trying to advertise for this site with marginal sucess. Can we start a think tank program?

3kul · Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 5:12 am Post subject:

alakin1 · Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 9:31 am Post subject:

I agree with Swix, get rid of the all, including the Sanctuary, but keep the Olympics, bundled into one forum if possible.

Cirrial · Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 10:12 am Post subject:

Zerrer · Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 11:22 am Post subject:

Cirr is right; I could not have said it more perfectly.

Danikat · Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 3:22 pm Post subject:

I think it's a good idea to keep the Meeting House. It's not used often because most things can either be a full public discussion in the Suggestion Box or completely private, but sometimes it is useful to be able to do both - keep the actual topic restricted to moderators but let everyone know it's going on. If anything I'd say what we need to do is encorage moderators and admins to use the Meeting House more often, keep the Closed Doors for things that genuinely need to be private, which is actually pretty rare.

Other than that I pretty much agree. I think the Olympic Complex and esspecially the Pumpkin Patch should be kept, but minimised somehow so they don't take up so much space, the rest could be merged into other sections.

3kul · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 6:33 pm Post subject:

Intyalle · Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:28 pm Post subject:

I agree. There are a lot of other forums that seem to be much in disuse too, but they all seem to come under privately owned. Maybe we could hide them so that they're still there for those who want to see them, but not there increasing the number of board to intimidate new possible recruits?

Swix · Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 6:31 pm Post subject:

Yeah, you're right. Ah well, it was just bugging me that's all Razz

. Mmm, Intyalle has a good point there too, maybe hiding them would be a better idea? At least hiding them until someone signs in, that way they won't clog the board up

GBE · Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 11:12 pm Post subject:

I agree that the forums do need a bit of a tidy up - but rather than leaving it all to DP, perhaps we could get some kind of improved moderatership - so, after a finalized collective idea of what exactly is being put where etc - the moderators themselves could then in fact do the tidying up.

This would take some stress perhaps away from DP leaving him more time to do his thing.... Surprised

The original GBE

Danikat · Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:21 am Post subject:

I think hiding the privately owned or specialist sections could be one of the best ideas posted so far, partially because it wouldn't actually involve deleting anything.

A lot of the sections just tell you that you need to be a member of the relevant group in order to read them anyway, so having them visable to everyone on the main page really serves no purpose. Instead they could be hidden as the Closed Doors or the Pokemon Fans sections are until you join the group. An additional benefit is that it might make RP'ing here look much simpler by not instantly confronting new members with the idea of lots of different factions with their own history and relationships. Instead they can discover new groups naturally as they RP or otherwise participate in Blackstar and then the specific sections become visable when they join groups relevant to them.

Of course this isn't as much of a solution for current forum members who might already be part of several groups, but it would mean you see only the sections relevant to you, and if you don't think it's relevant you can always leave the group. (It wouldn't do anything at all for holders of the Orb of Clear Viewing, but if you've spent all that money I'd imagine the last thing you want to do is hide sections again.)