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Thread Tags / Prefixes

  • 28-01-2019 11:59am
    #1
    Baggly
    Registered Users Posts: 35,024 ✭✭✭✭


    We are trialing the use of prefixes for the threads in the forum.

    2018 was a very busy year and 2019 is looking to be even busier, so we are keen to make sure the various different threads for the various different games are easily distinguished by type.

    It is hoped this will help old, current and new forum members to find the right thread for whatever it is they would want to do!

    The current list of tags / prefixes available are:

    Game Sign ups OPEN

    Game Sign ups CLOSED

    Game feedback

    General Game Discussion

    Off topic

    Awards

    Game Tools & Resources

    Events

    Announcements

    Game Thread


    Any of the above can be applied when creating a new thread. Sully and i will do our best to get through applying a tag to each of the already set up threads that are still active. For the period of the trial, adding a tag to a thread will be mandatory. If you feel there is a tag that should be available, you may ask here for it to be added, and the forum mods will take it into consideration.

    There is no pressure to make sure you have the right tag - if you choose a tag that doesnt quite reflect the rest of the threads used for that tag, a forum mod can / will change it.

    A lot of the tags are self explanatory, but if you have a question about them or anything else with regards to this activity, please ask away here.


Comments

  • #2
    sKeith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,404 ✭✭✭✭sKeith


    What is the duration of the trial?

    Where do I find the button to not show the tags?


  • #3
    Baggly
    Registered Users Posts: 35,024 ✭✭✭✭Baggly


    Duration will depend on feedback.

    I'm not sure. I'll ask.


  • #4
    duffman13
    Registered Users Posts: 8,946 ✭✭✭duffman13


    Pter wrote: »
    Duration will depend on feedback.

    I'm not sure. I'll ask.

    Some quick feedback, thread titles are already long and the tags make them longer and I find difficult to read.

    Going forward it should look better but at the moment for example we've got

    [GAME SIGN UP] I'm a celebrity get me out of here Werewolf sign up thread Feb Game

    The above tags on all the threads and stickies make it difficult to read but as I said once everyone starts using the titles it should look a bit more streamlined

    Edit: Also every tag has Game in the title ie "GAME Resources and Tools" it might be an idea to drop the game part possibly? We are in forum games and Sign up - Open/ Closed is fairly self explanatory to without the game part.

    It may not be clear but I dont long thread titles :D


  • #5
    Baggly
    Registered Users Posts: 35,024 ✭✭✭✭Baggly


    Yeah I'll talk to game mods and see if they mind me removing duplication. Ie where it says 'sign up' twice.


  • #6
    Baggly
    Registered Users Posts: 35,024 ✭✭✭✭Baggly


    duffman13 wrote:
    Edit: Also every tag has Game in the title ie "GAME Resources and Tools" it might be an idea to drop the game part possibly? We are in forum games and Sign up - Open/ Closed is fairly self explanatory to without the game part.


    That's an interesting point. I'll take a look at that.


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  • #7
    Necro
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,993 Mod ✭✭✭✭Necro


    I'm happy enough to give it a go, although I know in politics they use it and it looks a bit tacky if I'm honest.

    Agree with duffers on the duplication at the moment.

    As far as I'm aware there isn't a way to hide the tags though? Open to correction on that of course.

    Do we really have that many stickies in Forum Games? I didn't realise there were that many! It's almost half the page!


  • #8
    Baggly
    Registered Users Posts: 35,024 ✭✭✭✭Baggly


    Necro wrote:
    Do we really have that many stickies in Forum Games? I didn't realise there were that many! It's almost half the page!

    This is part of what I'd hope the tags might address. The charter should really be the only sticky.

    Also the main forum is heavily dominated by WW threads. So I'm hoping that this will help people find the non ww threads as well.

    Mutiple sign up threads hasn't really been an excessive issue before now, but we had 3 ww games and a RPG game all open for sign ups last week. If people do visit the forum to look around (which very much happened during the recent vanilla game) it would be good for them to see what each thread is for (more easily than they previously did).

    Some of the ww tools will prob have to go into the ww sub forum anyway.


  • #9
    Necro
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,993 Mod ✭✭✭✭Necro


    WW Wiki, the game schedule and stats should be in the WW sub-forum anyways imo.

    Most if not all of those that use those threads have access 95% of the time.

    In fact yeah most of them could be moved to the sub-forum imo anyways.


  • #10
    Banjo
    Registered Users Posts: 10,485 ✭✭✭✭Banjo


    Edit : Skip to the next post! It solves all my problems.
    duffman13 wrote: »
    Edit: Also every tag has Game in the title ie "GAME Resources and Tools" it might be an idea to drop the game part possibly? We are in forum games and Sign up - Open/ Closed is fairly self explanatory to without the game part.

    Yeah, on that front the F Bomb is very difficult to see, because it blends in with all the Game Discussion and Game Feedback tags. Games should stick out - this is Forum Games.

    A colour change for Game Thread might be needed - Open and Closed Signups stick out a mile in red and green. Pick a loud colour for Game Thread so a live non-WW/RP/Codenames game commands attention. Having it the same colour as feedback and discussion makes it an anonymous tag.

    WW Wiki - should the link to that be rolled into the first post of either the WW schedule or What is Werewolf and then let the thread itself naturally drop off until it's needed again?

    Is it a lot of effort to set up additional tags? If dropping Game from the front of the title isn't a goer, would there be a benefit to splitting Game Signup O/C into WW Signup, RP Signup and Game Signup - possibly with Game Signup getting a colour other than green so newer game types - F Bomb, Blockbusters, that kind of thing - stand out? #nondedicatedsubgamesmatter.

    [Game tools and resources] is redundant if all those tags are stickies. Far better to tag them by the relevant game type so it's less homogeneous at the top of the page and easier to find what you want.

    This looks kind of cluttered on mobile. Might take some getting used to.


  • #11
    sKeith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,404 ✭✭✭✭sKeith


    Necro wrote: »
    I'm happy enough to give it a go, although I know in politics they use it and it looks a bit tacky if I'm honest.

    Agree with duffers on the duplication at the moment.

    As far as I'm aware there isn't a way to hide the tags though? Open to correction on that of course.

    Do we really have that many stickies in Forum Games? I didn't realise there were that many! It's almost half the page!


    If they can't be hid, and we have to live with them for the duration of the trial, then we need to make them the very best they can be.


    The differing lengths of the tags makes the page much harder to read when viewing the pages unfiltered.


    Multiple ways to fix that, I believe the best is not available to us, that would be to have the tags in a column of their own,
    next best way would be to have all tags the same length, then the start of the thread titles are all right under each other, and easier to read.


    Game Sign ups OPEN
    SIGNUP


    Game Sign ups CLOSED
    SIGNUP



    Game feedback
    General Game Discussion
    Off topic
    DISCUS


    Awards
    AWARDS



    Game Tools & Resources
    TOOLS+

    Events
    EVENTS


    Mod announcements
    NOTICE



    Game Thread
    +GAME+


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  • #12
    Baggly
    Registered Users Posts: 35,024 ✭✭✭✭Baggly


    Thats an interesting way of looking at it sKeith.

    Id be willing to explore that further, but i think there is value in having the Open and closed sign up threads differentiated.

    I also think its easier to stretch all to 6 characters rather than cutting discuss to discus.

    Im not sure the tags as you have them there dont make the impact lower on some users but in such a way that negates their usefullness to other users.

    Ill have a think on it!


  • #13
    Baggly
    Registered Users Posts: 35,024 ✭✭✭✭Baggly


    Update: I have moved the bulk of the WW tools & resources into the WW sub forum.


  • #14
    Necro
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,993 Mod ✭✭✭✭Necro


    Right place for them imo. Clears up a lot of space and when there's a dedicated WW Forum it makes sense to have all of the WW related stuff in the one place.


  • #15
    sKeith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,404 ✭✭✭✭sKeith


    Quick suggestion, tell me where to go if ya want....

    9 skicktys in ww is a bit nuts. my opinion, i know.

    can we have 1 stickie thread, 'useful threads' with links and descriptions to all other currently stickied threads.

    Edit: I can do one up today, if you want to preview it before committing to a okay or bugger off.


  • #16
    Baggly
    Registered Users Posts: 35,024 ✭✭✭✭Baggly


    sKeith wrote: »
    Quick suggestion, tell me where to go if ya want....

    9 skicktys in ww is a bit nuts. my opinion, i know.

    can we have 1 stickie thread, 'useful threads' with links and descriptions to all other currently stickied threads.

    Edit: I can do one up today, if you want to preview it before committing to a okay or bugger off.

    I like it. Let's do it!


  • #17
    Necro
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,993 Mod ✭✭✭✭Necro


    Also think this is a good idea but maybe the schedule should be kept as a sticky would be my only suggestion. Handy to have at the top of the forum imo.


  • #18
    duffman13
    Registered Users Posts: 8,946 ✭✭✭duffman13


    Forum Games looks a lot better without the stickies already, I like it, feels nice and airy.

    I like Keiths idea too


  • #19
    Baggly
    Registered Users Posts: 35,024 ✭✭✭✭Baggly


    Necro wrote: »
    Also think this is a good idea but maybe the schedule should be kept as a sticky would be my only suggestion. Handy to have at the top of the forum imo.

    I agree - thats done.


  • #20
    sKeith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,404 ✭✭✭✭sKeith


    Necro wrote: »
    Also think this is a good idea but maybe the schedule should be kept as a sticky would be my only suggestion. Handy to have at the top of the forum imo.


    When I sorted the list, i put the mods schedule and the mods faq down the bottom!


    The player who are into modding will read further to find these things than the new players we want to attract into forum. I kept the charter as a sticky myself.


    https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=109283662#post109283662


    open to suggestions


  • #21
    Banjo
    Registered Users Posts: 10,485 ✭✭✭✭Banjo


    Do the tags have to appear in Bold? Currently the tags are more eye-catching than the thread titles themselves which doesn't seem right. It also takes a little longer to distinguish between threads you've read and ones you haven't.


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  • #22
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    The tags are awful tbh.


  • #23
    crosstownk
    Registered Users Posts: 12,863 ✭✭✭✭crosstownk


    Deleted User wrote: »
    The tags are awful tbh.

    I gotta agree with Mick on this. I'm not a fan of the tags at all on any forum. They make the whole thing look too cluttered and busy.
    Untitled Image




  • #24
    Baggly
    Registered Users Posts: 35,024 ✭✭✭✭Baggly


    Hmmm i think the game open and game closed tags are useful, but the rest are probably overkill now that we have moved the majority of the WW tools and sKeith has created the useful threads thread.

    Based on this and the feedback in this thread, im not opposed to removing all of the tags barring the above 2, which i think are useful for recruiting lurkers.

    If this turns out not to be the case and we dont see an upturn in new players, ill be happy to retire those as well.

    Thank you all for your feedback during the trial.


  • #25
    sKeith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,404 ✭✭✭✭sKeith


    Pter wrote: »
    Hmmm i think the game open and game closed tags are useful, but the rest are probably overkill now that we have moved the majority of the WW tools and sKeith has created the useful threads thread.

    Based on this and the feedback in this thread, im not opposed to removing all of the tags barring the above 2, which i think are useful for recruiting lurkers.

    If this turns out not to be the case and we dont see an upturn in new players, ill be happy to retire those as well.

    Thank you all for your feedback during the trial.


    With regard to [Sign ups CLOSED]


    As far as I can see, a big red flag, sign ups CLOSED serves no recruiting purpose. Can anybody explain to me the recruiting purpose of [Sign ups CLOSED]?


    The sign up threads is also a place where info about the games you are playing can be disseminated, and are threads I will follow to be aware of changes to status of game, but since these tags appeared i have missed a few notices and I can explain why.


    My phone does not beep or alert when i get notice from these threads, it just appears as a notification which gets dismissed as soon as i log into phone.
    But instead of [message from Fred's Fun times...] or [message from Attack of the ..], instead i've been getting [message from [Sign ups CLOS..] and the info goes lost and ignored.


    So, in summary,
    [Sign ups OPEN] I see how this is a recruiting tool,
    [Sign ups CLOSED] but I fail to see what value this tag adds.


    Please help me see the reason.


  • #26
    sKeith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,404 ✭✭✭✭sKeith


    I'd have no issues if they stay like this after the trial was over.


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