Omnibus Threads (New Content Handling)

StDoodle

Minion
On more than one occasion, the "New Content" threads have gotten out of hand. Once upon a time, before the major revamps to quests / locations and holey-crappery complicated new items, this was so rarely an issue as to be unworthy of notice.

That is no longer the case.

Now, let me preface this with saying that I have no idea how complicated it would be to implement, but I think the best solution would likely involve making it easy to create sub-forums in the bug-tracking sub-forum. Then, each little "chunk" could more easily have a thread that could be quickly closed when its particulars were addressed, for easier progress-tracking and great justice.

But I'd love to hear anyone else's thoughts on the matter (especially those who have an idea of the technical merits of this, or other possible, solutions).
 

Theraze

Active member
Just seems like if we throw out a ton of little sub-forums, we'd have exactly the same issue as now except we'd need to shuffle through 50 sub-folders to try to find the right one for an issue. For example, Level 9 quest changes... would all changes tied into that go into the same sub-forum, or would equippable items go somewhere, consumables to another forum, changes to the old Level 9 to another forum, etc... and what happens to the forums after we believe everything is implemented? Does it languish forever pushing the 'general' changes down, or does it get hidden/locked? If it gets locked, what happens when someone finds a new item that needs to be implemented? What about that missing choiceadv in the Giant Castle? It's probably not that Jick screwed up, as someone said. It's just we're not creative enough to find it... yet.

If this gets implemented well, it could be great. I think it would really need to be either/or though, where either everything is in a sub-folder or nothing is. And if everything does get moved to sub-folders, the question would be whether placing items in the right folder is the responsibility of the OP or of minions to sort things out properly.
 

lostcalpolydude

Developer
Staff member
I think the big threads work well enough. The threads get closed after stuff is basically done, and then smaller threads are made for anything that was missed. Making and removing subforums, moving topics around, making sure all the permissions are right, that seems like a lot more work than simply changing the label from New Content to New Content - Implemented.
 

roippi

Developer
Might be cool if minions and up could make subfora. Unfortunately I don't think vBulletin will let us mix forums in with threads, which is what we'd really want. So I'm guessing all the subfora would get stuck at the top, even when we're done with them.

Also I personally don't think the omnibus thread thing is too big of a deal. Minions/devs should feel free to unilaterally close threads and new ones can be created ad lib. We can even lock them if we want to encourage that sort of thing.
 

Catch-22

Active member
Sort of on topic, I think it'd be nice if we had something like bugzilla or trac for keeping track of bugs, but on the other hand it's also just going to be another thing that somebody has to manage in their free time.
 

fewyn

Administrator
Staff member
I've tried setting up BugZilla/Trac in the past and they are way more trouble than they are worth especially with a project this small.
 

Theraze

Active member
Any chance we can just get the omnibus threads closed when they get officially implemented? Then people don't keep nattering away and re-opening it forever.
 

Bale

Minion
Now, let me preface this with saying that I have no idea how complicated it would be to implement, but I think the best solution would likely involve making it easy to create sub-forums in the bug-tracking sub-forum. Then, each little "chunk" could more easily have a thread that could be quickly closed when its particulars were addressed, for easier progress-tracking and great justice.

No. No. No. No. No! I do feel strongly, so let me explain.

I used to be a leading moderator on a large forum that required that sort of organization. It got well over a thousand posts every day so we bloody well had to be organized. Rules mattered because otherwise there would be chaos. Eventually I quit because it wasn't fun anymore.

This is a tiny forum with only a dozen regular posters. Our "problem" is small and easily manageable without anyone needing to consider a "correct" way to do things.. If at any time a minion decides that an omnibus thread contains too much detail, they can split or close it and the problem simply vanishes. I used to spend more effort every day just moving threads between different fora than I expend on these omnibus threads in a whole month.

I really like that we don't need rules here, just guidelines.


Just seems like if we throw out a ton of little sub-forums, we'd have exactly the same issue as now except we'd need to shuffle through 50 sub-folders to try to find the right one for an issue.

This. I've been there. When you have a hundred threads in each tiny sub-forum it is worth doing. When you have less than a dozen you start to realize that it's just plain silly to have those sub-forums. Been there and done that. I even got to the stage when we realized that even for our forum we were making too many sub-forums and had to become more selective about which ones to create.


Might be cool if minions and up could make subfora. Unfortunately I don't think vBulletin will let us mix forums in with threads, which is what we'd really want. So I'm guessing all the subfora would get stuck at the top, even when we're done with them.

They stay at the top. It isn't hard to make new subfora if Minion status is upgraded to allow that. I just don't think our forum needs us to have that much power.


Any chance we can just get the omnibus threads closed when they get officially implemented? Then people don't keep nattering away and re-opening it forever.

There's rarely a problem after they are marked implemented. A couple of times I've split the necro into its own thread. I'd rather not close them because sometimes there is some reason to still post in them when something I though implemented there still has issues.
 
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