Community Rep thread of the week!

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

Hey I had an interesting idea that might help encourage some better posting around here.

I thought it would be cool if each week (or maybe each month) each of the community reps like Bayohne, Rukkiri, Fernehalwes etc, could choose a thread that they liked the most and give special recognition to the person who wrote the OP (maybe a lodestone history entry?)

This would encourage people to try to write more meaningful and constructive posts, and would also help us to get to know the personalities of each of the reps a bit better by seeing the kinds of threads they like to read (I know it's your job but I'm sure you enjoy reading some of the posts!?)

Also think this would help encourage people to post things in other forums besides general chat, because I know community reps read threads in all the forums and they might find good topics in those forums that most people overlook. If reps highlight these good threads people might start to look in these forums more knowing that there is better quality posts there.

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

I see where you're coming from in that suggestion, but I think it may give the impression of favoritism.

For better or for worse (depending on how ya look at it), they may also be reading the forums on other popular FF11 and FF14 fan sites. Ideally, the forums would have folks posting in the thread most relevant to the suggestion instead of using General Discussion.

The impression that I think a lot of forum folk have is: other forums such as Classes-Culinarian or Gameplay-Company do not get checked often, by players, reps, or moderators. And if these individuals do not post in a place where everyone congregates, such as General Discussion or Feedback/Suggestions, their post will go overlooked by the populace and have no discussion, feedback, likes, etc.

General Discussion has become Ul'dah. A similar issue in-game, where people begin to see Ul'dah as the hub for trade and party formations. Limsa Lominsa and Gridania are functioning towns, but it feels like no one is going to see your retainer or party shouts there.

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

Something that's helped me find discussions happening outside of general discussion is the magical "New Posts" button at the top of the forum navigation bar. This shows all the most recent posts across all forums. So whenever you click it you will see something that has just been posted.

This ensures that all the topics you are looking at are either new, or active. Coincidentally a lot of the topics here are ones that have been posted in general discussion, probably for the reason you described. However I think if more people browsed the forums using the "New Posts" button like I do, they'd realise that the section of the forums you post in is irrelevant as far as viewership goes.

The feature is a double-edged sword though, because the same property that makes it convenient can also be a nuisance as threads can quickly fall off the first page, since it bumps the most recent posts in the entire forums.

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

Oh definitely. I think most people never think about the New Posts button. A lot of the more casual forum go'ers also seem to stop posting on a topic once it disappears from the Hot Topics or SE-Posted lists too. I wonder if a rep advertised the New Posts button if more folks would see it.

or making a slightly controversial topic entitled "New Posts [bait goes here]".

It may be worth it if the former doesn't happen :-)

/conspiracy