Suggestion For A Different Approach

Alright, where do I begin?...

I've seen a lot of posts saying the same thing as this, but I have to start here. The difference is that I have a suggestion.

First off, Reddit is a flawed system.

Don't get me wrong. They accomplish exactly what they want to in that popular posts and topics garner as much attention as possible. That, however, is also the flaw. Their system relies on culling topics that aren't gathering much attention, and unfortunately a new topic isn't going to gather as much attention as quickly as an ongoing popular topic. This can very easily lead to things that should be addressed or things that are just as interesting as another post being ignored completely.

For a social site, this is fine. League of Legends isn't a community site. General Discussion is the best way to lay this out.

GD is a central hub of information. You'll find pieces of everything, from player made content to bug reports, to flaming, to complaints about gamestate and balance. Everyone that has something to say goes there, and forums are a strong system in this regard for one simple reason: Popular topics and unpopular/unseen topics can all be found on the front page, and can all be put there with a bump. Anyone looking for some kind of attention can get it.

I do agree that there should be changes, but I don't think this is the right direction.

If the goal is to create a 'tighter' community, or create more of a social network, you may be better off allowing the creation of 'groups.'

It's a pretty simple mechanic. Make player profiles slightly more customizable. Give them control over their avatars, allow ASCII signatures if images would be too much, and let players create bios/profiles about themselves.

Groups could function similar to the way they do on Facebook, allowing both private and public groups where players can request to join one or can only be invited to one, depending on the group's preference.

Each group, naturally, would have a vast difference in interests. You'd see groups interested in art, groups for teams, groups for strategy, etc.

The forums could be left more or less as they are, staying a separate identity from groups. Groups could be searched for based on name, players, or topic. The groups you're a part of could be found on your profile, and recommended groups based on interests/similarities could be found on the right hand side.

There's both a 'Forums' tab, and a 'Community' tab on the front page right now. Most of the things in the community tab could be turned into official 'groups' made by Riot, and the community tab could be renamed to whatever your infinitely more creative minds come up with that sounds better than 'groups'.

When you click the tab, you're taken to a page that shows different official Riot group updates, and a way to navigate to your personal group updates/interests.

If you really wanted to play with it, you could have members that 'represent' a certain group communicating with other groups which could in turn form events, debates, or other wonders.

I'm sure there's a lot that needs to be figured out with this and fleshed out, so feel free to drill holes where needed. I'll try to answer what I can.

Oh, and the best part of this? It would warrant deleting GD, allowing other forums to be used properly. It'd probably be a bad idea to delete it right off the bat, but it's definitely something that could be led in.