I realize it says Beta when you enter the boards, and that it functions very differently from the forums. But are you replacing the Forums in favor of the Boards? And when could we expect that? At least, in what phase of developping the Boards can we start to expect it's full release?
Pendragon10 votesHopefully. We generally think the forums as they sit are in a pretty bad state. They're much more difficult to moderate, they pose a security risk, they're much harder to build on/improve, and they don't scale very well.
I think the people who really like the forums over the boards have some pretty legitimate criticisms about some of the fundamentals of the boards. Some of which are objective and some of which are just preferential.
We have some upcoming improvements that we believe address many of the criticisms that forum-goers have and so when we roll those out we're going to take another shot at getting feedback.
At the same time - I like the culture of civil discourse and collaboration here, I like the more aggressive approach to moderation and I like having a tighter-knit community so as we expand we're going to do our best to preserve what we think is strong on this side of the house.
Edit: to the people downvoting - it would be very helpful to also hear the rationale. As we've said a bunch of times - the burden is on us to build something that's worth so it's fair to expect that if we can't deliver on that then we're going to make the transition.
GenoXx2 votesBut you have more sub categories in the forums than you have in Boards. Anything Else just falls in Misc. Including lore. In which lore should already have its own category with in boards.
Pendragon8 votesAdding boards is simple technically. It's literally 30-seconds of work to do. The harder part is the structure of how it's managed and moderated, rules, etc.
We certainly couldn't transition people off the forums unless there was a comparable board for each displaced group over here.
Right now the boards we've included are optimized for the ability to manage - more than comprehensiveness
GenoXx1 votesEither way, I wouldn't want you to t take away something like lore discussion, and feel obligated to make a board for it because I said it. Its clear you ddnt want lore to be major in the boards so lets keep the forums the way they are. I'm not up for you "retconning" that too
Daen2 votesWe generally think the forums as they sit are in a pretty bad state. They're much more difficult to moderate, they pose a security risk, they're much harder to build on/improve, and they don't scale very well.
True story.
I like having a tighter-knit community
This seems to contradict the idea of player-created boards a bit. It's very difficult to have a tight-knit community if players are able to fragment into tiny groups.
A system like that doesn't have one tight-knit community with multiple segments. It has multiple different communities.
Pendragon6 votesMany tight knit communities! All of the things that people actually like about the forums are really great things for small-close communities with a strong shared sense of identity and behaviors. Once you get to a certain size though individuals start losing the ability to form community-like relationships and start to form follower/followee etc.
Here are some interesting things to read http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2004/03/the_dunbar_numb.html http://internetandstuff.com/post/943073336/group-size-and-level-of-contribution-in-online http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Size_of_groups,_organizations,_and_communities#Characteristics_of_larger_groups
Daen1 votesAre there plans to have a central structure, a backbone so to speak? Going by data points and psychological principles is all well and good, but I would be willing to bet there is a non-insignificant number of people that feels the size of GD (tens of thousands of posts per day) is fine for conversation.
I think that both huge conversations and more intimate settings like the current Boards have their place. I'm just concerned that the freedom to create new boards might remove that sort of global "we are one" kind of feeling that players can have on the current forums or on centralized forums in general.
I might be in the minority here. Hell, maybe I'm super biased and don't even realize it. Either way, thanks for listening to me ramble on about something that hasn't even happened yet. I have a lot of faith in you guys delivering a great experience, and I look forward to the future of the platform!
Pendragon2 votesFor sure. I'd imagine we'll see all sizes of boards big and small
dialMARK4acti0n1 votesThank you for the response and I totally agree! But, it's a lot of work I imagine...
Declined1 votesI have a very specific problem with these new boards.
I've spent quite a while creating an extensive guide and posting it on the EUNE forums, but a large portion of the fancy mumbo jumbo I use, cannot be replicated here, nor are the boards currently suited to allow for such content.
This is the guide in question. http://forums.eune.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=723240
I've been advised to post it outside of the boards/forums by a significant amount of prominent individuals, yet I feel it belongs to Riot somehow, as I am merely some random player trying to help people improve and understand how subjects work in conjunction with each other.
Sir ArmaMalum4 votesThere have been a few red comments on this, the summary is that it won't replace vBulletin forums for a while. Their objective is to improve the Boards enough that people will switch over of their own volition and NOT suddenly shutting off vBulletin and forcing people over to the Boards. But yes, the purpose of the Boards is to eventually replace the older forums.
I know that doesn't give any hardnumbers or dev cycle checkpoints to look out for, but I will also say that if they're even thinking about shutting down vBulletin there will be plenty of warning.
Konanni861 votesI shudder at the thought of VBulletin being closed without warning. The mass of GD would flood here and it'd be a nightmare for Tamat, Pendragon, and the mod team to deal with.
Sir ArmaMalum2 votesReason #3217 of why a sudden shut-off like that would be a very bad idea, lol.
Daen1 votesare you replacing the Forums in favor of the Boards?
I don't think the Forums will ever be fully replaced unless there is such a small minority of the playerbase using that platform that it becomes worthless by its own accord. As an example; if there are 50 players using GD, there's pretty much no conceivable reason to keep it around any more because it no longer facilitates conversation.
in what phase of developping the Boards can we start to expect it's full release?
I might be wrong here, but my assumption is that it will continue to stay a beta until they have implemented the features they consider to be "core". Examples might be subscriptions, creation of new boards, private messaging, etc.