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Improving Boards: A Few Drastic Ideas and One I Think We Need

y0r1ck·2/24/2019, 11:39:45 PM·25 votes·11,939 views

Does anyone else realize what a unique position this is? I get goosebumps. I mean, this an online forum for one of the largest online gaming communities, and there is room for improvement. The precedents Riot, moderators, and members of this community set could have consequences that last for decades.

Jeez. I do not. Envy. Moderators. I appreciate what you do here. I appreciate you love this game and this community enough to donate your time to us. Seriously. Thank you. You guys and girls are fucking important for a lot of people.

#Gameplay Rules Create some new rules for gameplay. All posts related to balance must be one of two types of posts. A balance post must be either a suggestion, or feedback, or some combination of both. Titles must clearly indicate which type of post it is; [SUGGESTION], [FEEDBACK], [FEEDBACK, SUGGESTION]. Here's the kicker, titles must clearly indicate what the post is about.

Oh... but... what do we do with the clickbait NaCl posts that don't offer feedback or suggestions?

#Grumble Gorge Make a place for people to shit, maybe they'll stop using the street. Create a megathread in gameplay for venting. I understand that this idea has been discussed within the moderation team, but I think a holistic approach to improving boards includes such a megathread. Most of us agree that many posts in gameplay are unproductive venting posts disguised as balance complaints. Give these poor posts a home, a grumble gorge. What exactly does this Grumble Gorge look like?

Grumble Gorge is a safe space. It is a place where people can laugh at how stupid each others teammates can be, and a place where people can cuss out their toxic (unnamed) teammate from last game, and a place where people can call something bullshit op without being laughed at, and a place where people can cry about dragon RNG. It is strictly for venting about what happens in your own game, and commenting on what happened in others' games. All boards rules apply. though like GD they are slightly relaxed here.

{quoted}

One suggestion i'd like to make for Grumble Gorge, if it's ever made, is that the posters' names are made anonymous on specifically that board alone. Thusly nobody coming in to be like "hur dur you can't complain about ___ you're not at LEAST a platinum player or above, git gud" the idea of a place to just shout frustrations out, hear what others have to think on the topic of said frustration, and get some catharsis out of knowing you got that pent up frustration off your chest without being prosecuted by those weird kind of people who gatekeep opinions based on player level and rank. To the same merit, everyone there has the same freedom.

-AA AetherArising

#Champion Selection 143 champions are in this game. Create a megathread for each champion. It's like a champion subreddit, but on LOL official forums. An active community member is in charge of curating one thread. For example, I could create the yorick megathread and maintain it myself with moderator powers in that thread only (I don't necessarily want to, just an example).

{quoted}

instead of just one megathread i would prefer a whole selection of the boards like how we have "gameplay" and "esports" there could be a "champions" that opens up a list and you click whoever and you can post there and look at other posts under that champion category.

#QOL Improvements for Users and Mods There are a few things that could improve the user experience on this website. I'm just going to list them rapid fire. Direct messaging. Subscribing to threads/people. Blocking people (would just block DMs). A useable search function. Saving unfinished posts/DMs. Moving posts. Nicknames. Public/private/group posts. Club tags. Club threads.

#Step 1 Whether any of these suggestions are good or not, this one is important. Create a megathread called "Improving Boards." Here mods, rioters, and community members will work together to create and implement improvements for boards. There's a vast schism between the three groups, seeing members mingling and cooperating might help ease tensions and build bridges.

That's all I got for now. Obviously none of these ideas are fully fleshed out, but that's not my job. All of these ideas have pros/cons. I'm willing to discuss them and other ideas. It's more work for the mod team, devs, and community but I don't see a way around that.

64 Comments

ModThe Djinn2/24/2019, 11:49:46 PM16 votes

{quoted}Create some new rules for gameplay.

We're actively discussing this, and hope to have ideas to share for feedback soon!

Make a place for people to shit, maybe they'll stop using the street. Create a megathread in gameplay for venting.

This one is a perennial topic, definitely. It has some definite upsides and some definite downsides.

143 champions are in this game. Create a megathread for each champion. It's like a champion subreddit, but on LOL official forums. An active community member is in charge of curating one thread.

Sadly we can't do thread-specific powers, but this is definitely an interesting idea worth considering.

Direct messaging. Subscribing to threads/people. Blocking people (would just block DMs). A useable search function. Saving unfinished posts/DMs. Moving posts. Nicknames. Public/private/group posts. Club tags. Club threads.

I'd love all of these. Most are beyond what moderation can do at this time though. I can pass some suggestions along, but I can't promise any action in terms of this sort of development.

Create a megathread called "Improving Boards." Here mods, rioters, and community members will work together to create and implement improvements for boards.

I'm definitely in favor of this, although I think we may be best served by taking a little time to put our thoughts together first. It's also important to keep in mind that, for all that we really like the boards, we have to be realistic about the amount of work that gets put into them from a development perspective. There's a lot of really good improvements that could be made here, but I understand why Riot may not necessarily want to put in the time -- every board improvement or change done means developers pulled off of other projects, and I can't fault them for focusing on other priorities at this point in time. Ideally we'd find a way to improve the boards to the point where it IS worth putting in that time and effort, and I think we need to find ways to do that without major technical improvements first.

R107 Games2/25/2019, 12:27:36 AM5 votes

Removing downvotes/votes should be the main priority, it's not even funny.

Votes on this forum only serve to create circle jerks/hive minds/echo chambers. If you disagree with someone then fucking reply to them and explain why instead of using a feature that effectively brings their post down or possibly make it "thresh hold".

On that topic I'm wondering why "thresh holds" still exist. It is evident that the intended purpose of thresh hold is instead used to hide someone's opinion.

Psychologically, seeing a large/decent amount of downvotes next to your post could discourage one from posting, as they could get the vibe that their opinion isn't worth value.

At least remove votes/downvotes for a month and see how it goes, because I'm confident that the voting feature is harming the growth and usefulness of the boards

mtothe6thpower2/24/2019, 11:49:04 PM3 votes

Well thought out ideas, and I particularly like the idea of mega threads for each Champ.

I don't think making a place specifically for complaining would be good because then you could get people who think they're making a solid case in gameplay that is just complaining, and then that gets removed which leads to more 'Why did my post get removed?' threads on here, and it clutters the board up. This is obviously a worse case scenario. Or also get the g+ issue where people don't make thread because they don't feel that they can articulate their ideas well enough to make a thread, which leads to stagnation.

Ale non è male2/25/2019, 4:00:04 PM3 votes

How to improve Boards? Easy answer

Relaunch Gameplay+ again, but this time curating and approving threads with criteria based on originality of the subjects and/or the high quality of the arguments, rather than do what they disposizione by prizing formatting and writing long essays...heck, if anything, succinctness and essentiality should be encouraged and wall of text heavily penalized in the evaluation of what threads are worthy to be approved if those explanations are redundant or not relevant to explain the subjects of the threads. Also, give mods/Herald/whatever they are called the power to move and "promote" regular Gameplay threads worthy of praise or with interesting discussion ongoing to the new Gameplay+ to have those sticking out for longer and catch people attention, and always keep that section alive

Boards does not need a special places/sections for people that want to keep using Boards like they are currently doing...the suggested vent section is a dumb idea because people would keep pushing what they think are Gameplay problems in Gameplay, so you are not going to stop those rant threads. Same for estabilishing new rules, as long as you follow the common netiquette practices, why create other complications? Boards need a place for people that do not like how Boards currently work or think are useless, where they partecipate and enjoy the kind of discussion that is currently drown out.

GreenKnight2/24/2019, 11:57:32 PM2 votes

There are a few things that could improve the user experience on this website. I'm just going to list them rapid fire. Direct messaging. Subscribing to threads/people. Blocking people (would just block DMs). A useable search function. Saving unfinished posts/DMs. Moving posts. Nicknames. Public/private/group posts. Club tags. Club threads.

This. This would be really awesome. I know they take resources to make them happen, but something like that would greatly improve communication between board users.

Warlord Rhinark2/25/2019, 7:09:05 AM2 votes

Great suggestions, though I have one question.

Whether any of these suggestions are good or not, this one is important. Create a megathread called "Improving Boards."

Doesn't "Discuss the Boards" already serve this purpose?

YambrinZ2/25/2019, 7:15:00 AM2 votes

The best improvement is to lock out low elo players from the gameplay section.

AetherArising2/25/2019, 8:39:04 AM2 votes

These sound like good ideas

One suggestion i'd like to make for Grumble Gorge, if it's ever made, is that the posters' names are made anonymous on specifically that board alone. Thusly nobody coming in to be like "hur dur you can't complain about ___ you're not at LEAST a platinum player or above, git gud" the idea of a place to just shout frustrations out, hear what others have to think on the topic of said frustration, and get some catharsis out of knowing you got that pent up frustration off your chest without being prosecuted by those weird kind of people who gatekeep opinions based on player level and rank. To the same merit, everyone there has the same freedom.

all the QoL improvements really should get implamented soon too, those are long overdue :P

-AA

TeCoolMage2/25/2019, 8:50:33 AM2 votes

Honestly I think the way to go is to ditch the reddit format and go for a hybrid between reddit and forums, + make something similar to gameplay+ (or gameplay with updated rules to be a sort of gameplay+ environment) the default board for discussion. Sadly I'm pretty sure that it would require changes that are out of reach for the community team

this is what I'd do:

sort by controversial is the default sorting, not best or new. Votes remain as opinion based because people can't be trusted to do it by quality basically. But encourage upvoting things you don't agree with but want to see discussion on

Gameplay threads are only composed of titles that are questions, or are filled with data and statistics that the discussion will be based around This is so that if someone wants something discussed they can just throw something out without making a gameplay+ wall of text. Some people want to only write and some people want to only ask. Of course the asker can create their own comment. These are judged by Gameplay standards mostly except no clickbait. (this part is important - a lot of gameplay+'s problems were that it was out of the way, and even if you did find it you could be intimidated by the environment which asked for top quality)

Then, any top level comments are like submissions (sort of like what subreddits such as photoshop battle do) and there's a pinned comment for shorter comments on the title/content. People will make what would be the body of a gameplay+ thread on their first comment but use the question as a sort of writing prompt. These are judged by Gameplay+ standards

replies are the comments, mostly judged by gameplay standards but not adding anything is discouraged and downvoted

Add a different button next to report that acts as a commend, it's for post quality and it should be treated with the same amount of "don't do this unless you mean it" sort of feeling as an outright report.

From there, literally everything you just said. Except maybe instead of a megathread for each champion, there can be a return to subforums within subforums.

I think going full reddit for boards was a huge mistake. But I think some parts are good and should be retained as well

Jaspers2/25/2019, 9:55:56 AM2 votes

This is an idea I had to help Rioters to communicate with us without fear of being hounded with 'unban me' or 'nerf Yasuo'. Make it so they have the option to turn off being quoted or replied too. This will allow them to come here, comment without the fear of their inbox being spammed with stuff unrelated to the topic or majorly negative replies (although they'd still get up or down voted).

I mean, we can be dicks but we have good points too and maybe a lot of Rioters don't comment because even if the point is good, a dick will ruin it.

SUPERSATANA2/25/2019, 12:45:30 PM2 votes

Punish the ones that insult Riot. Mature criticism is ok, "RIOT IS SHIT, NO WONDER THIS GAME IS DEAD!1!" is not. I REALLY fail to understand how anyone can think that insulting other players is bad, insulting who is working on Riot is totally fine.

Handy Sandy 2/25/2019, 1:03:18 PM2 votes

143 champions are in this game. Create a megathread for each champion. It's like a champion subreddit, but on LOL official forums. An active community member is in charge of curating one thread. For example, I could create the yorick megathread and maintain it myself with moderator powers in that thread only (I don't necessarily want to, just an example).

instead of just one megathread i would prefer a whole selection of the boards like how we have "gameplay" and "esports" there could be a "champions" that opens up a list and you click whoever and you can post there and look at other posts under that champion category.

spirit cooking2/24/2019, 11:59:53 PM2 votes

Id like to see a limit on replies, unless its your thread. Its sad when someone takes over someone elses discussion.