Increased number of topic subjects that were previously left alone now being moved?

[Bahn]

I noticed there was a half page worth of topics on the first page that were moved out of general discussion to (I guess what they feel are) more "appropriate" forums. The problem is, the other forums tend to have way less activity compared to this one. Topics similar to the ones that were moved have been posted in General Discussion before and left alone, so I don't understand the sudden policy shift. Thankfully, when a topic gets moved, the an alias to topic is still available to click on in the General forum, but that topic doesn't get "bumped" to the top if the topic in the new location gets updated.

They were done in one chunk, so it makes me assume that they were all done by one person, whom I feel may be a bit too eager in wanting to clean up the forums (hey, I've been there myself).

The way these moves are being done, that could technically mean that almost every single topic in the General forum should be moved out of the General forum to a more appropriate area, but we know that's silly. IMO it also tends to "sweep" the topic under the rug, because most people go to this subforum to talk FFXIV, and I'm pretty sure there's a fair number of users ONLY go in this forum. Case in point: the hordes of goobue mount topics. I'd rather they were just closed and for users to be directed to another topic with a similar discussion going on (that is still in the General forum)

A number of topics were thrown into the "Gameplay > Other" section. When I think of "Other", I only see it as a second place for general discussion, so I'm a bit confused as to why there has been this sudden change of policy. The General forum is the most active and IMO is the best place to have productive (and sometimes not so productive) discussions on topics players want to discuss about; I've seen plenty of posts that are SUPPOSED to be in the "correct" subforum left in the General forum and grow into big threads where lots of discussion has been generated.

Of course, I'm not a forum mod, and I know being a forum mod can be a crazy job no matter what community it is. The issue here is we have a large population of people who tend to frequent one subforum, but not anywhere else. I'm at a loss as to how we can get people to use the other subforums more, but at this point there seems to be so many subforums that people just end up posting here, and honestly I still think the most productive discussion gets done in this subforum versus the others.

What do you think can be done to get more eyes looking at the other subforums?

[Mychael]

A few seconds ago I suggested stickies at the top:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-Correct-Place

And someone else suggested making an actual area called Game Feedback and Suggestions.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...stions-section.

And please don't be offended by my stupid thoughts, but I'm going to chuckle if they move this to Feedback and Suggestions (where it should technically be).

EDIT: Something else to consider is that now we have to check 5 pages to see all of the posts that we used to be able to follow on one page. It's kind of annoying. And no, I would not like to subscribe to every topic I reply to.

[Arcell]

What do you think can be done to get more eyes looking at the other subforums?

Reps could actually respond to threads in those sections, that would probably help. I've made threads about things in the appropriate forum that never got a response, the next day someone makes the same topic in General and it gets a response within hours. How messed up is that?

If reps answered threads in their respective forums and not in general you'd see more people post issues there.

[Masamune1004]

More people should use the "New Posts" button at the top of the page.

[Douten]

A matter of semantics, but I feel most of the stuff regarding XIV should be under Gameplay > Other. I was sorta surprised to see everything go into general, but nothing much I could do about it.

Community > General should be for topics that has some sort of 'community' aspect to it. For example the Goobbue screenshot thread where the community share with each other. Anything more general that's not XIV related. I.E. what movie/book/music does XIV player do, etc.

And Arcell is spot on with reps replying to thread in different forum to get more activity in. Of course forums where there's QQ/Troll will most likely have everyone's attention most of the time, it just can't be helped. I do believe we need more healthy discussion topic though. There's just too much QQ threads.

[Treach]

What do you think can be done to get more eyes looking at the other subforums?

POST. MORE. GOOBBUE.

[Answa]

Thread got moved. I lol'ed.

[Mychael]

And please don't be offended by my stupid thoughts, but I'm going to chuckle if they move this to Feedback and Suggestions (where it should technically be).

I just got my laugh for the day.

[Bayohne]

Hi Bahn,

It's a tough balancing act, as you mentioned, no matter what we do. If we move things, we get "why did you move this? It's a GENERAL discussion!" If we don't move threads, we get "why don't you use the other forums? This should be in xyz!" When it comes to "what are you doing to make the other forums more popular?" that is one of the reasons we move things and leave redirects. Maybe we can increase the time that redirects remain in place, instead of expiring to try and give a visual cue to the community that "oh right, there are other places for this." What we notice is that often times it's the community itself that chooses the General forum as the defacto place to go which leads to the under-utilization of the other forums that are there.

"But that's because there's no discussion taking place there." Which brings us back to moving threads to the other places when appropriate. I don't feel there's an exact science to it without appearing (whether true or not) to be overly heavy handed, and it's always going to be a process that evolves as the forum and community itself does.

As to the comment that we don't reply to topics in the other sections, I don't think that's true. We routinely check all parts of the forum to find discussion and comments. Often if we find something in General, that fits better elsewhere, we first move it and then respond to it try and encourage the use of the other sections. But it doesn't always work out. However, when there are hundreds of topics each day in the General forum, and we reply to some there, it will give the appearance that we only reply in General.

In the end, each user may have different opinions of each subject, so we try and keep all of that in mind when deciding what actions, if any, to take on a thread. We appreciate the feedback and suggestions and we'll continue to try to find a good balancing act when it comes to discussions in general (and in General Discussion). (P.S. Mychael was right, this was best meant for Feedback and Suggestions )

[Arcell]

I get what you're saying Bayohne and I don't mean to disrespect you or the other reps. However, you could teach the community to behave appropriately. Show them that they will only get answers to questions if the thread is in the right forum and they will eventually start posting in and checking the right forums. The behavior that has been taught since the forums have opened however is that you'll get a response faster or at all if you post in General.

You guys have gotten better about it though, but between like April and October there wasn't a single rep post in the Classes section as a whole. The Gameplay section has seen some consistent posting however nowhere near the level of posts in general, a lot of which would fit there.

Again not trying to be an ass here, I'm just pointing it out. Maybe I'm a little bitter since a few threads of mine went unanswered in the appropriate forums and saw answers quickly in general