OFFICIAL: Upcoming Tip.it Forum Changes

[RAHK]

 

- Help boards - 100% yes

 

- Clues board - 100% yes

 

- RuneScape Classic boards - No experience there, but sounds great

 

 

 

NEW RuneScape category - 100% yes

 

 

 

 

 

The best idea that isn't obvious (i.e. clues board) is definitely the f2p/p2p merge. I think that there should be a Board for current updates, etc. and a board for general discussion. The update board should be essentially empty except during new updates. The general board should have all of the basically off topic threads that pertain to runescape.

 

 

 

Either way, a change would be beneficial.

[Xewleer]

I don't really have an opinion on what you do, justplease, don't touch the Varrock library :pray:

 

 

 

Anway...

 

 

 

I don't think most of it is an issue...

 

 

 

(It will probabely be an issue if the Varrock Library...)

[Macmaster92]

[hide=The Sith quote]

A poster misunderstood what I meant about active participants in the General board(s). I wasn't insinuating that high post count means your opinion matters more - rather, I was encouraging people who DO participate on Gen P2P/F2P to post their comments about their experiences. Everyone is a "poster" in my book - and being active means you browse the boards at least weekly; replying to threads is not required.

 

 

 

Please consider a few things re: general boards:

 

 

 

- Descriptive titles. What's to stop people from adding a [F2P] tag to their topic title if they wish to differentiate themselves from the P2Pers?

 

- General F2P's activity. The board pales in comparison to the P2P board. Look at the threads per page - General F2P has some from Monday

 

(almost Sunday); P2P has some from late Tuesday (yesterday). Merging them won't cause this influx of threads, pushing aside the P2P threads.

 

- Regarding activity and locks. Again, both P2P and General both have locked threads. Merging the boards would increase activity and move the locks past page one, leaving only discussion-worthy threads on the main page. The fact that the threads aren't moving that quickly on either board really shows that the merge won't be as drastic of a change as people think.

 

 

 

Combining the boards will NOT lose the thriving threads that people are talking about. The whole idea of having one board where the activity is much higher than any place else is the fact that users and their responses keep the interesting threads that people like reading alive. The forum is fast paced but at the same time, the topics people enjoy are always visible. General P2P can afford to have General F2P's topics added to it--and still maintain a healthy level of activity with the popular/interesting threads staying visible.

 

 

 

I find that there are interesting topics in both boards that could go either way, as they deal with RuneScape (not members, not free). Combining the boards would also improve POST QUALITY. Those complaining about quality on either board. Lack of new things to post about may be a factor. But I think it's the fact that the boards are moving slower than they ever have before. Even the slowest board on ScapeBoard (a long time ago) had posts 24 hours old spilling onto page two. The staff has split up the index so much that people are noticing the crappy threads more than they ever have before. This is probably the strongest reason to merge the boards - to keep quality at a maximum.

 

 

 

I'm not sure I understand how it would be harder to sift through discussions. Look at the topic titles and decide what topics you think are interesting. Right now, you can take a look at the first page in under ten minutes and know all the threads. With the addition of more activity to a single board, you'll be more likely to find new, exciting threads posted when you come back. This is not to say General P2P/F2P does not have interesting threads on them currently. But it will be more likely that you will see MORE interesting threads posted on a daily basis rather than simply skimming P2P for that one thread you want to see replies on.

 

 

 

Keep your mind open and focus on what would actually change the community. Maybe this setup isn't the ideal one - that's fine. But keep in mind that a lot of admins/staff have been at Tip.it for many years now - we wouldn't recommend changes if we didn't think it would improve the overall nature of the community. And while a lot of our previous updates may not have gotten rave reviews to start, they were certainly appreciated as time went on and the changes' usefulness came to light. It's our job to think for the future and what would serve the community best.

[/hide]

 

 

 

Well i agree you should merge general and general p2p because you can see too many of those "what's your favorite skill" kind of posts which is annoying so there is a need to merge the forum but you can't say all the forum people want/would want to read and discuss will remain because even now sometimes a good topic is lost.

 

 

 

So yes, no solution is perfect but that's the closest to perfect you can find (i think...) but i wouldn't say high quality threads/intresting threads will be on for as much as it desrves.

 

 

 

And sometimes a good topic is not even noticed for example because of a bad title. You think you would enter a topic with the title "NEW WAY TO STOP AUTOERS!!!", well some of you probably will but that title is too common and usualy will not be populer while a topic with the title "The Secrets of Lumbridge" will be more attractive and even if not as intresting as the first one it will still have more people reading it and thus, more people posting and discussing.

 

 

 

To sum up, you can't say high quality topics will be on for as much as they might deserve but merging f2p and p2p forums will be a better solution to avoid "if you could have any RS item in real life..." kind of topics.

 

 

 

I can see what you mean. I created a topic about a month ago the was tittled "summer fun. Or is it?" Now i know i could have picked a diffrent tittle. Since i didn't creat a "good" tittle nobody noticed that my thread was for your goals for this summer. So then someone else created one and now it has 13+ pages and has been a hot topic.

 

 

 

Sometimes good topics get destroyed because of the constant " whats your highest hit!?" topics. I guess we just have to roll with the punches.

[Kaphias]

(meant to say "flava0falcon's quote", but the thing wouldnt work...)

 

[hide]

 

thanks for that flava, nice to see a good flaming

 

 

 

personally, i am proud that i can manage to reduce something by making it bigger \ if you make a forum which only f2p topics are allowed, then surely there would be less junk on it

 

 

 

it was just a thought anyway...

 

 

 

and if the f2p does have very few posts, it wouyld mean those good ones which get kicked off by all the junk on general currently would be seen.

 

basically i though the 3rd forum (general everything) could be the deposit of the junk, and have (mostly) decent stuff on the other two

 

its just that i think merging the forums would simply mean merging the junk as well, so yes it would end up being survival of the fittest as a mod said, but there would still be many good gems that get kicked down by a large number of junk/ more popular posts

 

Umm...Firstly i did not flame I explained why I think your idea is not good. Secondly"few posts" mean ALMOST none! None means no one will ever want to be there which means even less people will post threads there and it will be some sort of almost empty forum. And one last thing, combining the junk also means combining the good stuff and since junk is annoying and usualy not populer (as in not many people post there) it will be pushed to the 2nd/3rd page within minutes.

 

[/hide]

 

 

 

okay you win, i guess i was wrong...

 

 

 

the 'flaming' bit wasn't serious anyways, didnt point that out. sorry.

 

 

 

readin the_tallest1's quote at the top of the page i realise that the combined forums would not move as fast as previously thought...

 

and clearly the main discussions are about p2p anyway

 

 

 

my final revised suggestion, with no more arguements (i hope), would be a f2p sticky or something, or a subforum with stickied f2p topics on it. i KNOW there are some interesting f2p things out there, such as the highscore thing (is that still going?) and i would thing that some f2p peeps would want to at least have some way of posting without the clearly overwhelming p2p topics...

 

Well, here I am to argue. One of the main reasons that we want to bring the two boards together is for moderation reasons. We are getting lots of posts in the P2P forum that should go in the F2P forum because the P2P forum is busier than F2P. And people want their posts to be seen, so they put it in the busier forum instead of the correct one. They do this because the two forums are so alike, which just back up the fact that they should be moved together.

[-Devoted12-]

 

Well, here I am to argue. One of the main reasons that we want to bring the two boards together is for moderation reasons. We are getting lots of posts in the P2P forum that should go in the F2P forum because the P2P forum is busier than F2P. And people want their posts to be seen, so they put it in the busier forum instead of the correct one. They do this because the two forums are so alike, which just back up the fact that they should be moved together.

 

 

 

I totally agree with you! Like stated in my first post, user of the forums would put in their title "DON'T MOVE TO F2P." Why would they do this? Because in P2P they know that their subject would get more attention. But, the problem with this is that the person posting the topic knows it's in the wrong forum. He knows it along with a lot of other people. This leads to moderators having to do work to move the topics to a different place when it really isn't necessary. By merging the two forums, this problem would be solved!

[eyehawk78]

How about making 'RuneScape News' a subforum of the new General forum? (possible rename 'RuneScape News' to 'RuneScape Updates'?)

 

I think it would make it a much more logical place to find and maybe it would stop the spammy locked topics we get when a 4-5 users try to post the new update thread.

 

Also the 'Hidden Updates' thread could get moved into the 'RuneScape Updates' subforum and assigned it own moderators to keep the 'Hidden Update' thread upto date and would be less work for the Moderators that currently have to deal with it?

[malo2]

How about making 'RuneScape News' a subforum of the new General forum? (possible rename 'RuneScape News' to 'RuneScape Updates'?)

 

I think it would make it a much more logical place to find and maybe it would stop the spammy locked topics we get when a 4-5 users try to post the new update thread.

 

Also the 'Hidden Updates' thread could get moved into the 'RuneScape Updates' subforum and assigned it own moderators to keep the 'Hidden Update' thread upto date and would be less work for the Moderators that currently have to deal with it?

that would be completely pointless. At least 40% of the non-spam discussion in the p2p forum is about recent updates. Making an updates forum would just make two quiet forums, which is the opposite of the goal of the tipit crew.

 

 

 

I generally like the whole merging idea, there isn't much i can think of that could be improved :-k

[silver24-7]

UNITE P2P and REGULAR !!!!!

 

Sorry for caps lol but yes, these definitely have to be united into one, the quality of topics has been degrading lately and sometimes I wander off to general board to find some decent topics because of P2P board's full of noobs with weird questions that shouldn't be there or repost topics that have been there a 100 times...

 

 

 

...Silver

[rareghoul1]

i think merging the general p2p and f2p boards is a good idea, but as some other people said, topics will be pushed back. so maybe you should extend the amount of topics that can be on one page. as for help and advice, so few people look at anything other than the main board that it's hard to get answers. so, they should be merged.

[Fredz]

 

 

 

...

 

Right now, it seems that General is not necessarily the place for F2P discussion but rather the dumping ground for introduction posts and general Tip.it discussion (without having to venture into Off-topic boards).

 

 

 

...

 

 

 

 

Exactly. And dumping all that "bad stuff"(irrelevant to Runescape) over to general P2P would make quality sky dive.

 

 

 

Now. Let P2P be for serious Runescape discussion.

 

 

 

Then change F2P general to something like: "General Tip.it". It could be used for "Welcome I'm new" posts. "I'm quitting" Posts. "Times article" posts. "Funny screenshot posts", Other Tip.it-RS posts.

 

 

 

Then General P2P (Change name to something like "Runescape Discussion") could be used for serious Runescape discussion, and nothing else.

[Guy]

Perhaps a new usergroup, helper/helpmod? Maybe people who are on often can just be 'the ones' who mainly help around on the help board? And hide threads when the answer has been given/pm'd to the person?

 

 

 

~Guy

[Kaphias]

 

 

 

...

 

Right now, it seems that General is not necessarily the place for F2P discussion but rather the dumping ground for introduction posts and general Tip.it discussion (without having to venture into Off-topic boards).

 

 

 

...

 

 

 

 

Exactly. And dumping all that "bad stuff"(irrelevant to Runescape) over to general P2P would make quality sky dive.

 

 

 

Now. Let P2P be for serious Runescape discussion.

 

 

 

Then change F2P general to something like: "General Tip.it". It could be used for "Welcome I'm new" posts. "I'm quitting" Posts. "Times article" posts. "Funny screenshot posts", Other Tip.it-RS posts.

 

 

 

Then General P2P (Change name to something like "Runescape Discussion") could be used for serious Runescape discussion, and nothing else.

 

Once again, we come across this problem:

 

One of the main reasons that we want to bring the two boards together is for moderation reasons. We are getting lots of posts in the P2P forum that should go in the F2P forum because the P2P forum is busier than F2P. And people want their posts to be seen, so they put it in the busier forum instead of the correct one. They do this because the two forums are so alike, which just back up the fact that they should be moved together.

[War_Eagle777]

I agree with everthing except the General forums merging. Also the Clues forum could be changed into Skills and Traning Advice :-s

[O_M_G_Guasto]

Larger avatars would be nice.

[aoe325]

I like all of the ideas in the first post :) General actually is quite pityful at the moment, they never even get update posts nowadays, theres no activity at all there... Only long lasting thread and random polls...

[cowboy4160]

put in a search engine so people can search for diferent topics easyer and faster

[Chocobodude0]

The improvements you guys plan on making sound awesome and are gonna really help make the forum a better place, no doubt.

 

 

 

But, TBH, I'm not to sure about merging General and General P2P together. Looking for a forum thread would become more difficult, and it may become confusing for F2Pers because they won't know much about the majority of the P2P-based threads. It'll basically get really confusing, and could even lead to flaming between F2Pers and P2Pers.

[flava0falcon]

The improvements you guys plan on making sound awesome and are gonna really help make the forum a better place, no doubt.

 

 

 

But, TBH, I'm not to sure about merging General and General P2P together. Looking for a forum thread would become more difficult, and it may become confusing for F2Pers because they won't know much about the majority of the P2P-based threads. It'll basically get really confusing, and could even lead to flaming between F2Pers and P2Pers.

 

 

 

And at the moment there are absolutly NO wars between f2pers and p2pers not even flame wars! [/sarcasm]

[dsavi]

I think RS general is a good idea.

[Chocobodude0]

The improvements you guys plan on making sound awesome and are gonna really help make the forum a better place, no doubt.

 

 

 

But, TBH, I'm not to sure about merging General and General P2P together. Looking for a forum thread would become more difficult, and it may become confusing for F2Pers because they won't know much about the majority of the P2P-based threads. It'll basically get really confusing, and could even lead to flaming between F2Pers and P2Pers.

 

 

 

And at the moment there are absolutly NO wars between f2pers and p2pers not even flame wars! [/sarcasm]

 

 

 

Not that I've seen. I doubt there's been flame wars between F2Pers and P2Pers on Tip.It, and I don't think you have any proof there being any. :roll:

[flava0falcon]

The improvements you guys plan on making sound awesome and are gonna really help make the forum a better place, no doubt.

 

 

 

But, TBH, I'm not to sure about merging General and General P2P together. Looking for a forum thread would become more difficult, and it may become confusing for F2Pers because they won't know much about the majority of the P2P-based threads. It'll basically get really confusing, and could even lead to flaming between F2Pers and P2Pers.

 

 

 

And at the moment there are absolutly NO wars between f2pers and p2pers not even flame wars! [/sarcasm]

 

 

 

Not that I've seen. I doubt there's been flame wars between F2Pers and P2Pers on Tip.It, and I don't think you have any proof there being any. :roll:

It's not always flame war but some flame each other every once in a while everytime someone suggests something big for f2p...Just try it yourself go to bug & suggestions or to general and post a big update for f2p and you will see I am right...

[The_Sith]

Thank you to everyone who participated in the discussion. The changes discussed will be made later tonight along with a detail posting of what exactly was adjusted.

 

 

 

Cheers!