State of the Forums

[ionfish]

The State of the Forums

Hard as it may be for some to believe, the staff care what you think about how these forums are run, about the atmosphere and the attitude of everyone involved, and about how we can improve things. This thread is for you, the members, to express your thoughts on the general state of these forums. Say what's good, what's working, what you like about this place. Say what's bad, what's failing, what makes you consider leaving.

To keep this thread productive and genuinely helpful, there are going to have to be a few ground rules. Posts that don't follow these rules will, I'm afraid, simply be deleted.


Thread rules

1) Keep the forum rules (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=5710) in mind. Don't attack other users or members of staff; don't troll; don't spam.

2) There will be no discussion. You may post your views, but don't comment on other people's posts.

3) There will be no responses to the points raised in the thread until afterwards. What happens next is explained below.


What happens next

This thread will remain open for one week. At the end of that time it will be locked, and reviewed by the staff. After an appropriate interval (i.e., when I have the time) a response thread will be posted in Forum Issues (and announced elsewhere in the forum) detailing any changes in forum policy that have been made as a result of the thread, and why. It will also provide explanations for why some things aren't done - even if the suggested changes are quite popular. However, doubtless people will raise an awful lot of questions, so please don't be disappointed if we don't address your particular query.


We welcome suggestions regarding forum policy. Forum Issues (http://forums.relicnews.com/forumdisplay.php?f=4) will be open for you to post your grievances and concerns in once this thread closes.

[naradaman]

Nothing comes to mind instantly. This is one helluva forum.

[Sword_Monkey]

Well the Mods for all of the forums I frequent (Boardwars, Back and Fluff, General Discussions, Studio, General Tabletop) do a stirling job, sometimes I wonder who half of the board moderators are as not all make themselves seen, but names like SvedishFish and Langy and Rusty are known beyond their allocated areas, and all for the right reasons.

The ratio of Senior Members seems to be heavily fixed around the Studio, one was sighted in the Boardwars area a while ago but was never seen again. I don't really know why that is, certainly there are outstanding members of the community that need to be looked into **cough** Moofreaky and his Close Combat Challenges in general tabletop **cough**.

The RelicWiki is coming along nicely, but thats not much to do with the state of the forum.

The place isn't stagnating at all, I see new members everyday, and no doubt Dark Crusade will bring in a new wave. That pretty much shows the forum is doing its job well if it is still growing.

I also want to comment on threads like the Userbar thread, the Directed Writing Workshop, and other countless communal threads, I think they are the best Relic has to offer, really useful, and something I have seen little of elsewhere. If anything I would love to see more of them.

Keep up the good work people!

[Starblade]

Everything seems to be running smoothly at the moment, and the only requests I have involve bringing back the shoutbox, and, even though I recall hearing that it's an impossible due to how the forum works or what not, fixing the Homeworld skin.

[theBlind]

Mostly everything is fine. In fact, this is the single most enjoyable forum I visit.


But there is a big "but" - Forum Issues is no longer open to discussion. The reasons for this are not as important as the message it says: "Normal members opinions are nothing to us. They are in fact so unimportant, they may not even be expressed."

Unfortunately, that fits in very well with the recent art tread. The thing quickly turned into a discussion about admins abusing their rights. While I disagree there, the fact that it did turn into that discussion that fast _clearly_ shows that there is a (repressed) issue.

To make matters much worse, the tread was not only closed but stickied as well. Closing a discussion about abuse of privileges is just about as much evidence as anyone can ever give.
Making that evidence a sticky is a loud and clear "Not only do we not care about what you feel, we also like rubbing it into your face that we don't".
All in all, very bad style.


Poor Riess only wanted to present his (well done and very fitting) art, so I want to sincerely apoligise to him for using the crosspost to his tread as an example. I'm sorry.

[Nurizeko]

This thread is a problem for me, if you will bear with me.

basically dont become to worried about what we, the masses think, as its been been shown to be fact and truth, the bickering wants and needs of the forum masses end up degrading a forum, I've been on another forum and they got too involved with the petty thoughts of their forum goers, and it ended up just ruining the experience for me, I want strong leadership, I want mods that recognise my attraction to rebellion and rivalry, I want them as they are now, generally fair and all round good, but above the petty feelings of their masses, and smacking me in place when I'm getting out of line.

Basically I think you guys got it right as it is, I think caring about others opinions on the running of your forum too much could cause problems.

Basically its okay to ask the regulars and stuff what we think now and then, but dont start making a habit of entertaining every complaint and opinion of the regular masses, we honestly dont know whats best for ourselves!. :lol:

I tried to think of another suggestion, maybe for a sub forum or something but nothing comes to mind.

[admiral_the]

more senior members...

[Brian]

Forum issues imo should be opened up to members again, I cant even really understand why normal members should not be able to post there, just creates more of a feeling that senior members get too much special treatment.

[Unk]

The Good

The community has grown beyond discussion of relic games. We have a thriving general discussion, studio and tech board complete with SCIENCE!. We have a pleasantly anarchic IRC channel as well, although that is not strictly part of the forums.

I think this is mainly down to the number of moderators and the quality of moderating. I have been on much bigger boards with less than half the number of moderators on here and the results were a little unpleasant to say the least.

In that respect it is just a case of "carry on with the good work".

The Bad

I would like to see some relaxation on personal threads. I know that 99% of them simply don't merit any further discussion past the first post; the last thing we need is a few hundred "lol my gairlfrend dump0red me" threads in General Discussions, but why not allow them if there is scope for discussion?

However, I do understand that whether or not a thread merits discussion can be highly subjective and may just be a pain in the ass for the moderators.

I've also noticed that Tanis is a little wild. Mainly misplaced requests, bad splling and grammar suck much. Not too bad really, but perhaps if the mods were a little harder on misposting/spelling it would be a little better.

The Ugly

I would like to see a few more original post icons in the studio. The ones we have now look a bit pixellated to say the least and not really that distinctive. Might also be an idea for a community contest of some sort.

[Da_Fish]

The Good
Excellent forum in terms of how it's run. I remember Balance issues during patch 1.3 and it was one hole of a place to start a thread in. Now it's much better than it used to be. No advertising and no massive amounts of "Relic sucks lol" in DoW Strategy section anymore. Also it's fairly well rounded, it isn't all about games. There are forums for quite a lot of topics.

The Bad
Not a lot of things on this forums that would make me jump ship. Stuff that would can't be helped as usually it's not the forum's fault but the poster's. It's just that damn good.

[Zepherian]

..the forums are fine.

:coffee:

[Question]

Cant say much, except that i would like the old DoW forums layout back.

Previously all the other forums(strategy, technical, etc) was "beneath" the DoW GD. So you could bookmark the GD and then go to any sub forum you wanted.

Now, if you were reading the GD, and wanted to pop over to strategy, you had to go back to the DoW forum listing, then go to strategy. The extra page involved just complicates things, and slows down navigation.

[PULSTAR]

I've only been a member of these forums for a brief time, I've been quite impressed with what I've seen during my stay here. At first, I was surprised to find such a vibrant community built on what I had considered a dead game. (Not being a DoW player, any and all of my comments are concerning the Homeworld series.)


I consider myself lucky to have found a forum where there's a large enough userbase for continued, lively discussion on a variety of topics, as well as providing a home for the prodigous talent I've seen in the Studio. On top of that, these boards have one of the highest ratios of moderators/admins to users that I've seen online. I know, given the amount of idiocy I've seen running about the Internet, that our mods/admins must spend a lot of effort to keep this place at its current high quality. I'll take strict mods over idiocy any day.

On the downside, however, there's... (no, wait, I'll think of it... uhmm... hang on...) OK, I give up. I can't really find anything wrong with the RB forums, and I'm a pretty picky sort. They're just that good. However, I second Starblade's wish that the Homeworld skin get fixed, if it's possible.

Keep up the great work, guys!

EDIT: One other thing I noticed. These forums have fairly robust built-in safeguards to keep them running smoothly. For example, there's a protection against accidental double-posting, a limit on searches to cut down on server load, and others. Yet more reasons why the RB are definitely some of the best-run out there.

[Bonnet]

Bring dmille back. :cry:

Otherwise these boards are a baston of order in an insane internet.

[SquidDNA]

I would just like to remind people to take this thread seriously. So "Bring dmille back" or "MORE CHEESE! LOL" aren't really helpful and obscure what we're trying to hear, here.

[p0seidon]

Ok, one of the few problems I have with this forum is:

The forum issues, because this might create a feeling for newcomers that senior members are ''elitists''.
Wich isn't a very good thing, so I would like that the forum issues get's re-opened for normal members so they can participate in the discussions made by other board members (only creating a thread isn't enough sometimes) because I sometimes see a thread there, on wich I would love to make a comment, but I can't because I am not a ''senior''.

So this is my problem: There is a form of elitists created with the senior members system.

And please.. bring back the post-count.. this was for many people a form of .. 'Bigness'.

[Aussiemoo]

If it's not broken, don't fix it
These forums are great for reasoned and intellectual discussion, I love 'em.

When the DoW forums first opened up, they had divisions for each race, which I felt gave an added comraderie and exciting tension to playing the game, and then going back to "camp" and sharing experiences to come up with new strategies. Although I recognize that this caused camps of whiners to run riot as well as open animosity between the races, I wish a little bit of the old excitement could enter the strategy forums again. maybe there could be an option to designate a thread as an "ork thread" or "eldar thread" marked with a little icon. Either way, it just feels as if the lockdown/disinfect no-tolerance attitude from the balance issues has spilled over into the strategy area.

[BeserkWraithlor]

This forum is one of the best I have seen, but it does have problems.

The Senior members get most of the attention and normal members are left out. Once a member gets that "senior member" badge, they feel like they can post off topic and say whatever they please. The forum issues, which can only be posted by Senior members is a rather flawed idea in my opinion. Most Senior Members don't stay on topic like normal members, because they feel more "elite" than others. Although this community has many great people, I think ranking others from "Members" and "seniors" is not the best thing to do.

Thats my only problem in the forums.

[Incarnate]

I think you should add a link at the top of the page(in the bar with the search button etc)to the archives, as i personally find the archives great, and generally more useful in my experience than the search function. No graphics, just text. It makes it great for finding things relatively quickly, as the seach has a habit of bringing piles of threads that are irrelevant up. It also makes for an interesting read when you stumble across threads you never knew existed.
Its something simple to implement, but adds more functionality to this great site. Keep up the good work.

[skills]

I think the forums are well managed and organised on the sections i visit (dow modding forums :p) only thing I noticed was the picking of Senior Members most I agree with but some I can see why they have been chosen although it isnt really a big thing and I dont care to much so yer these forums rock

[Merturk_NB]

RSS Buttons on individual forums and threads.

Regular members should be able to post in FI. There have been a few threads there that I had a legitimate issue/post for.

[Rusty]

The Good:

Awesome forums. Awesome mods. Awesome discussions.

The Bad:

I have no problems with the senior member thats, at all. Though i'm left in the dark why some 'senior members' joined two years later then me.

I'm not talking about that it's 'unfair' or something, just that i'm in the dark on how you members choose them. Maybey then it would seem more obvious to me on how you guys choose :P.


Good job guys,
<3 Mods!

-Rusty

[Aesaar]

There is practically nothing that needs to be changed in these forums. The only thing that I can think of has already been said: Allowing regular members to post in the Forum Issues forum.

[Red Fox]

Nothing that i can find so far other than the Forum issues.

My personal thing is that indeed most of the Senior members come from the Studio and all the other problems listed above. I know a senior member is someone who has shown out in preticular in the community but some people can simply draw a few pictures and stand out from the rest. Not to flame the artist because i indeed love their work but they can destinguish themselves quiet easily therefore putting them on a high spot when the Mods and Admins vote for new senior members.

[matthew5276]

*****BAD*****

Dont like picture signatures, they are too brught and colour ful, sigs shoiuld display a link ro two or a humerour statement or prehaps a quote. Not big pics.

The URL, hard to remeber and if I;m ever on a computer that isnt mine I can never remeber the address, prehaps www.relicforums.com would be better? (Not sure of what cna be done about this, but hey)

*****GOOD*****

Frequent posting is good from all members, but no spamming which is good,almsot all posts seem to have content.

Mods seem to do their jobs well.

Matt.

[mailpup]

Although I am now a Senior Member, I still think Forum Issues should be open to regular members. When it was originally restricted to Senior Members, it was said to be not necessarily a permanent restriction. Spam posts can be handled the same as in other forums. I realize that unlike other forums here, Forum Issues has no moderators assigned. But maybe a couple could be persuaded to watch the really stupid stuff. If there are reservations about changing the policy, perhaps a trial period could be used. If it doesn't work, you could always go back.

Edit: Any member may start and post in their own thread but I meant to say anyone else should be able to post in that thread too. Well, I think everyone knows what I meant. :)

[Control Monkey]

I haven't been a member of these forums for that long (a few months), and I only read the DOW forums, but I feel that the moderating is the best on any forum I've ever been on.

The mods apply the forum rules pretty consistantly, and the rules are pretty good in keeping all kinds of unsavoury internet types away.

Simply put, due to the mods and the forum posting guidelines, dickheads are not welcome here. This creates a great atmosphere, where people genuinely want to help each other out, and want to discuss issues in an intelligent and civilised fashion.

[Sir Plasma]

First off, there are certain valued members of the TT community here that have made large contributions or aid to the forums and its members. Four that stand out from even this wonderful group are Dooks Dizzo, Moofreaky, Eventhorizon and Piccolo. Many of us in this lil' corner of Relic agree that these 4 should be elevated to senior member status.
Also, the Forum Issues should not become open to regular members, as it would grow more spam then a forty-acre pig farm overnight.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

I don't think there's anything wrong with the forums, particularly.

I demand a quote button!

I also wish accounts didnt expire after a certain time. I kinda wish I had my old join date. O well.

[Retroboy]

There's been no need to significantly kitbash these fora for some time. The irritants are minor compared to the excellence of the current status, and an overhaul of any significant scope is unnecessary, as is opening this potential Pandora's box of a thread. If things weren't sufficiently close to as good as they can get, you'd have heard about it already in Forum Issues, even if not everyone can post replies there. And anyone that doesn't think you care about the community hasn't been here long enough.

-- Retro

[Trizzdog]

Yeah, my only beef with the forums is that I can't post in the FI (unless you finally feel like making a senior member too... ;)) and the link organization in the DoW forums could be a little better, oh and a couple of stickies in there need to be updated too.
Other than that, this forum is extreamly well maintained and staffed and I hope it stays that way.

[Chrysophylax]

I only have a suggestion: a guideline for the studio.

Perhaps, on big thread's such as riess's (not counting the _ spam threads), one could have the OP put up the thumbnails or something to all his art in the thread, so one isn't forced to search for a particular something on page 6 or another one in page 10. The post where the art was originally posted would retain it, so one knows when to begin the discussion for it. IMHO it makes threads easier to read and understand.

Example: *thumbnail* something describing it, found on post #123.

This may be construed as lazyness of my part to read every post in the thread, but that isn't so.

[TyrealMathias]

Perhaps the ability to mess around with the interface a bit more? example: put the Quick Reply box near the top of a thread view, instead of the bottom. stuff like that. Nothing wrong with that way it is now, but it's the only thing I could come up with *feels a stupid obligation to contribute, even if the contribution is useless!* :-D

[fneep]

I think that general members need to be able to post in FI. I also think that the link to Adeptus needs to go back into the DOW area. No one seems to know where it is if you say "go to Adeptus Modificatus and discuss it there..."

[[Vertigo]]

Letting members post replies in Forum Issues would be a good start.

[broadaxe]

'let's talk about it' and less of 'we're the mods so we can do whatever we like/this is how we do things, if you don't like it, leave' attitude

I agree with slashco. I just post an opinion about a game that didn't hurt anyone and then the thread got locked.

[Slashco]

Less heavy-handed moderation. More of a "let's talk about it" and less "we're the mods so we can do anything we like/this is how we do things around here, if you don't like it, leave" type of attitude. As has been mentioned, Forum Issues should be more accessible. If possible, allow (tasteful) custom avatars for all members. Restricting them to seniors only is elitist and creates a gap. That's about it...

[Popsumpot]

I personally find the size of the Avatars are a little on the large side. All the colours seem to make my eyes tired, and I feel if we shrinked these avatar images a little, it might help with people like me who dislike an array of colours flying around.

This would also save alot of space, due to the number of short posts around, the length of the avartars are greater than the chunks of texts, making many posts "longer". I am not suggesting killin goff the Avatars, merely making them smaller.

This forum is definitly better than all of the other forums I have been to, and I must say it's due to the pressure put on all AOL typers and general assistance to help members with lesser English abilities to help them be more understandable. This have made discussions a pleasure to read and enjoyable.

Thanks Team Relic!

[[Vertigo]]

I agree with Popsumpot on the srinking of Avatars.

[Trizzdog]

I personally like the size of current avatars, but I think a compromise would be best. Perhaps have a skin that resizes the avatars instead...

[SquidDNA]

Less discussion, more original thought. Please read the thread guidelines. Thank you.

[Dorkdav]

I miss posting in forum issues. A place where I can argue with the mods and not get in trouble.

I also wonder if regulars in the Dawn of War sections are promoted to senior membership that often. Considering that most of the old school don't seem to play the game and usually stick to the general discussion sections.

[Lone Canadian]

I would like to be known for somthing. And I too wonder about the DoW/WA forums, as well as the outfit and Company of Heros. What is it like there. Do they even venture forth into the other forums. (GD, Studio)

Maybe cross-forum realtions could be improved. Make the GD more "welcomeing" and let everyone know where all here under one banner. That being All things Relic! And a few other things.

[M.L.]

I would like to suggest something practical. Something that would really help me out as an everyday casual visitor to the forums would be having less stickies on the forums. Many forums here have stickies approaching 10 on one sub-forum. This gives me "sticky fatigue" and I grow weary of slogging through the sticky topics that are simply outdated, no longer relevant, or interesting compared to the one or two things that might warrant a sticky and garner more attention from the community as a whole.

Thanks for the opportunity to offer input.

[MetalDragoon83]

I really agree with everybody else, The forums Rock like a can of awsome-sauce with botchulism.

Though the Forum Issues are not entirly closed to the general public, you can start a thread there and post in that one thread, but you cant give any sugestions that might be good unless you PM a senior member/mod/admin. I mean you could be losing out on a good suggestion, one that might be expanded on and improved into something great. Granted something like that happening is like really kinda low, its there.

You could institute something like Veteran Members, they been here for a while have no warnings and can post in the FI. Just a thought.

Also what about the Relic Forums RPG? What ever happened to that?:p

[hiddensmoke]

I tend to lean on agree-ance with the opening of the forum Issues slightly. Like suggested just above adding another rank like "veteran" members maybe a good idea. Possibly branching the gap between Senior members and newbies. And it would further seperate the forum members into 3 catorgories (I'm not sure if this is good or bad) like a social class structure, Senior (upper), Veteran or Regular (middle), and Newbie/lurker/guy who shows up occasionally (lower), with of course the mod's and admin's on top of everything using heavy handed moderation (I believe heavy handed-ness is a good thing). Still though I like it.

Otherwise I think the forums couldn't be in a better state.

[Netsurfer733]

I still think they lock too many threads :(

Maybe mods should start chiming in and give a warning for topics that 'stray off the beaten path' or what not!

[Iamme]

I feel that occaisonally the mods/admins make slightly self-biased or conveniencing decisions for little reason. A more noticable warning system or some method of user feedback would be good, too.

Anyways, Relic forums rock!

[Angelic Warrior]

I think that the Forums here are the pinnacle of forum creation. Nothing really needs to be changed, and I really have no suggestions on what should be done, however the opening of F.I. seems to be popular.

I do however think that the idea to make a Veteran/Regular status for members could be a good idea.

That's all, great Job with the Forums everyone

[CTQ]

I would like to see a "Locked threads" type sub-forum where all those threads that are locked after 1 or 2 posts for breaking the rules or being duplicate threads etc are dumped to keep the forums where they originally reside cleaner.

The alternative is to delete those threads but I understand the reasons why threads that are locked are not deleted which is why I propose the above.

Other than that, forums are great imo.

[Sir Plasma]

Keep the main Forum Issues closed, as they would Spam Up [TM] rapidly, but possibly shrink the avatars and open the Karos Graveyard to the general public so we can all have a hoot at the Banned Ones. I dig the Veteran Members I dea, and a custom title, but not avatar, would be nice.
Wonderful forums, thanks to admins and mods who make it possible!

/me dares not ask about bringing back the post count

[LoCo]

Oh yay. Another chance to talk and not be heard. I know I'm not a big part of the community, but just what exactly does one have to do to be a Senior member? Talk to people? I do that all the time. Be known? I think I'm fairly well known with the writers here. Be here a while? Does four years count?

I'm growing tired of repeating myself, and perhaps that is your plan. Be that as it may, I wish to voice, once again, my views on the merger of the art and writing forums. It was a bad move. Since it happened, I've noticed a rather large drop in stories, and by way of that, a larger still drop in good writing. A lot of the writers have moved to forums where the normal reply is more than "That's good." "That sucked" (And my favorite) "lol". Where they get adivce and help with their writing.

The writing forum used to have replies that helped, because people who went there, went there for the writing. Now the only readers are those waiting for the art to load in a different page. The place stinks of "mech", which has within it the creative spark of a damp cave mushroom. I can only see so many big iron suits before they get old.

The worst part is that I didn't even know it was happening till it was too late. I logged on one day and couldn't find the writing forum. After looking around and asking questions, I was told it moved and merged with the art. I tried to like it, I'm still trying. But I never could find the same feel. Pictures post so fast, drawings come and go from one day and are old the very next day. The writing forum was slow, steady. You went there to read things. Now it's all about who can get the most replies, even if they hold about as much value as a broken tea cup. It doesn't matter anymore if the writing is good.

Many will say "it's no big loss" or "we never wanted you, you wanted us" when I tell them that I left shortly after the merger. For a few months I didn't post, I wrote stories and posted them in other forums, kept some to let them grow, and discarded still others. After a time I felt like I needed what the writing forum had given me, so I came back to see if I could find it again. But I didn't. It was gone.

The people who hang around in the studio seem to only want things that are silly, or "internet funny" from things they read. Gone are the stories that were worked on, commented on and edited untill they were as good as they could get. All that's left is a bunch of open books, dictionaries emptied of their words and scattered accross the floor.

And the sad thing? It's gone forever. Even if you were to split them up again now, you wouldn't be able to get it back to the way it was.

My issue is that I had no say in this. Neither did the other writers (That I know of). It just happened and we were told to like it or leave. (A lot of them left.) I tried to make myself heard. I said it was a bad idea as soon as I found out about it. The more I thought on it, the worse it sounded. I was right. The quality of writing is gone, the quality of comments has gone downhill (Which could have something to do with the quality of the writing going down.)

Then there is also some mods ideas of modding. Apparently only the police can tell people it's wrong to steal. Apparently only the law can tell others that they shouldn't attack others. Apparently only mods can say "I think it might be better if that had it's own thread." or "That's a little long, maybe you can start your own thread where you can get moer comments about it without being interupted by other peoples short stories."

It's an old bone to pick, but I dislike being told I have no say in how a community I am part of is run. If I can't walk down the road and tell someone to pick up the piece of paper they just dropped on the sidewalk and put it in the bin three steps away, then I'm moving to a town where helpful people aren't locked up by the law. It's not like I run around telling people how to walk, and just the right way to wave to a friend.

This isn't a rant, these are things I'd like to see improved. The studio can't be split again, it just wouldn't do anything, it's a broken egg. But maybe there can be some kind of discusion if this kind of thing is planned again. Maybe, just maybe the people that actually use the forum might not like what you have planned.

[Scar Weaver]

I believe there is a lot of condesention (sp) from "older" forum members towards "younger" members. This is an awesome forum that ranges in age groups and hence maturity levels. Have some patients. Carry on!!

[Pokey ork]

In my opinion these forums have absolutely nothing wrong with them. People here can have good discussions without spam or trolling and from what it seems bassicly all of the are mature and reasonable.

The mods are ridiculously good at upholding the rules of the forums, and iv never seen such good structure of a forum either. This forum has possibly been the only forum to have completely anhialated an attempted troll attack [from Battle.net forums, which is like comparing a shanty down back in the 1800's to a modern city,utter rubish].

PLEASE KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK EVERYONE!

[Nurizeko]

It would be nice not to get a siren PM slap across the face for linking to the rules when a newbie spam-post is made, but aside nothing to complain about.

Also it does seem odd only senior members up can post in forum issues.

Forum issues effect ALL members equally, having a senior tag or not doesnt make the effect any less or more important on folk here.

Keep up the good work.

[Sword_Monkey]

I know this isn't a discussion but I just want to reinforce Scar Weaver's point about the varying ages of the members.

I think it rocks!

What I mean is we are divided by rank here, not age, it is quite cool to have an immature conversation about the state of anime with a ten year old and a 30 year old at the same time. And then a mature one about Superman. (Or SCIENCE!)

And the Studio never looks down on the younger artists, they are always so positive in their criticism. One exception is Cap'n Plasma's narnia spoof, I still shiver in fright at its absurd crimes against humanity.

Also liking the more ranks idea, members, senior members, junior mods, senior mods, admin isn't really much as anything beyond being a member seems fairly unobtainable. it would be nice to have a target that can be reached and strived for.

[Grabnutz]

Sort out the mess with Forum issues and senior members, as as far as I could tell, it was always the mods and seniors who did the dirty in FI, not regulars.

Also, I would appreciate a "mark all topics as read" option, so that I don't get "new replies" all the time in threads I don't want to read or have already read.

Other than that, great forums, been here a year, love the place, keep it up :)

[Sevorak]

I don't think I can phrase my views any more eloquently than LoCo has, and since his perceptions somewhat mirror my own, you may see this post as somewhat redundant. However, I'd like to add my somewhat small and meagre voice to his argument; I've lurked these forums for years, since the days of Homeworld - in truth, though, I haven't watched or lurked that closely or intensely (or been truly interested in weaving my own tales and stories for long) so when he speaks of a place where writers could attain detailed, insightful and reasonable constructive criticism and views from those perhaps older (perhaps even younger; that's one of the beauties of this forum) and more learned than they are, I can only imagine as to what it would have been like.

But what I do know is that it sounds like something I, personally, would like to be a part of; writers, talented or no, simply don't tend to have that kind of jaw-dropping impact and potency as artists do - and the proportion of those that do is significantly greater among artists, I'd imagine - so perhaps the writers are somewhat overlooked. I may perhaps be wrong; as I've said, I didn't see much of the writing forum back when I was a lurker (though I certainly read and thoroughly enjoyed Naggarok's Children - an awesome read then, and it likely would be again, if I could scrape up the time to make such an undertaking) but from what LoCo's said and from what I see of the Studio forum, in which writers don't seem to get nearly as much recognition as artists do - nothing against the artists, of course; I enjoy their work as much as anyone else who frequents the Studio - things seem to look rather bleak for anyone who's seeking much criticism of his literary work.

The Writers Workshop threads certainly seem like a great place to get help and advice; but still, it's more of a challenge for writers and the like - to come up with a piece of writing to fit an idea; a creative challenge, in my eyes - rather than a place to seek true, detailed criticism and help for a piece of work you may have put pieces of your heart into writing. And I can't help but wonder whether splitting the Studio up again would be a right step; though I know that despite whatever arguments are raised in favour of this, it likely won't happen - and the admins undoubtedly have their reasons. Though they occasionally make mistakes - as everyone who has ever lived and breathed has done - the admins and moderators of this forum are fair, and generally do an incredible job of keeping the Relic Forums my most frequently visited website; and it's likely the same for a great number of other people, regardless of whether they state their opinions on this thread or not. A fresh, pristine new writers forum seems more than ever like nothing more than an errant dream - and I suspect it'll remain that way whatever happens.

And as a somewhat odd and perhaps not particularly welcome question I'd like to pose to anyone interested in providing an answer to a confused young writer - why's there so much general - if not hostility - then dislike, for the boardwars forum? I understand that it isn't particularly related to Relic or its games, and isn't a staple of forums like a General Discussions board or a Studio for talented people to display their work, but that doesn't seem like much of a reason for the level of distaste for it that seems to exist among the echelons of this board's staff. I find it full of interesting people, and great fun to frequent - indeed, it's the biggest reason why I keep coming back here - and I've never seen any real reason at all for it to recieve the amount of dislike and open disdain for it that there is. :( So my question is - from a long-time lurker and a simple boardwarrior to the imposing, titanic might of the administrators - why such dislike? I ask simply out of curiosity; though it's something that bugs me, simply because I don't know and can't quite divine an answer that satisfies me. So if one of you guys would be so kind as to put me out of my misery, I'd sincerely appreciate it.

Also, I'd just add my small voice to another argument - that of re-opening Forum Issues to the general members of the boards. :)

Finally, I'd like to give a hearty pat on the back to all the admins and moderators of this board - you guys do a terrific (if not quite perfect - but that, at least to me, makes me appreciate more the extreme effort you guys put into all this when I remember you're only human ;)) job of maintaining this place and retaining a general level of sanity. Whether I don't agree with every last one of your decisions or not, you don't ever seem to do anything for no reason, even if those reasons aren't always recieved particularly well by everyone else.

So... in short, keep it up. ^_^

[WingedKagouti]

I wouldn't mind seeing images in signatures go away completely. They are the reason I have signatures turned off, far too many cases of less than 20 words of post and several images worth of signature.

A review of what makes Senior Members "special", how they should be chosen and what perks/responsibilities they should have may be in order. The posts I've seen from the current batch are not any better or worse than those from an average member.

[Cleron]

I'd like to see custom avatars again. Size wise i find 140p is quite nice, but 100p is also quite common. With reasonable restrictions of the size of said avatars i see no reason why at the very least out side linked avatars can't be used again. All of these limits can be applied in the script so Moderators would only need to watch content.

Sig's so far are fine for me. They are nice, small & crisp compared to the massive "banners" that some other forums use.

[cfoley]

To put my views in context, I spend most of my time in the Warhammer 40,000 Tabletop section. The reason I joined and continue to stay here is because this part of the forum seems to have a medium-sized member base (at least for a 40K forum) and the discussion moves at a pace that I can keep up with. I also like the way this section of the forum is organised. Many 40K forums have a sub forum for each race. Most of the time, this is overkill.

The moderating in this part of the forum is top notch. The team keeps things pleasant and they are all avid 40K hobbyists, though they specialise in different areas. It’s nice to see that they still take part in discussions despite having a job to do.

On the subject of moderation and forum rules, I like things the way they are. Most forums have rules forbidding flaming and trolling but these are rarely enforced. Here, I don’t feel that I have to defend myself, just my arguments and that’s the sort of forum that appeals to me. I like being able to read posts written in English (as opposed to txt, AOL or 1337) and the Tabletop moderators are very keen on enforcing this rule.

I also like the fact that the admins listen to their membership through Forum Issues and that sometimes suggestions are implemented. However, to prevent ordinary members from replying sends out the opposite message to them. Was reading their posts really such a great administrative burden?

One very small gripe that I have is with the larger avatars that have begun appearing on a few of the more eminent forum denizens’ profiles. Even these guys sometimes make short posts and these avatars mean more empty space on my screen for me to scroll through. I don’t want to turn Avatars off because I use them to help me recognise the poster quickly.

[Shuma]

Only issues are That Normal Members should be able to post in the Forum Issues Forum, and bring the Adeptus Modificatus Link again in the DoW general Discussion.

[Fatal1ty]

Imo the mods lock threads too much...

This site needs more experts in Dawn of War, they answer questions much better :D

[Cannon]

the forums are great, just 2 things:
-the time you have to wait to perform another search is too damn long... I understand it is there to cut down on server load, but I think it is way too much... maybe 30-45 seconds would be better. I mean... sometimes you make a mistake when typing the keywords... and you have to wait millions of years. It really discourages people to search for an answer before posting.
-custom avatars are a pain in the ass, I know, uploading and all that stuff... but what about allowing custom avatars linked form somewhere else? (with the standard size and kb limit of course).

(please promise you will never show user postcounts... that's spammer fuel)

other than that, these forums are perfect :D

[Aron_DeTomado]

I want Taiidan Admirals ionichthys idioticus smiley to be added to the existing list of simleys

[JAL-18]

An idea to cut down on the percieved imbalance of where senior members come from:

Put it in the guidelines somwhere that members are allowed to PM an Administrator, with suggestions on who they think deserves senior status? Something along the lines of


Senior Membership works on an advocacy system. The staff forum has a permanent thread where senior members can be nominated - and staff can nominate anyone they choose, for any reason at all. If you've been here for a while (a couple of years, for example), stay out of trouble and contribute to discussions, you are likely to be awarded with senior member status eventually. In addition, if you feel there is another poster that is deserving of Senior Member status, PM one of the Administrators (ceejayoz, Delphy, Dyntheos, ionfish, and Moe) with your suggestion and reasoning, i.e. "Member X should be a senior member because of Y and Z." While this doesn't guarantee the administration while follow your suggestion, it does provide them with helpful input from the community.

[jetfx]

The Good
Overall the forums are well laid out, handy interface, fair modding for the most part and the community is active and entertaining.

The Bad
There's grumbling about a class divide ever since the influx of a lot of new members and particularly since the position of senior member was given more publicity through its own set of rules. Although absolutely nothing changed about the office of senior member (no new benefits or losses), the rules (which simply explain what a senior member is) gave the perception that senior members have lots of unfair priveleges. Perhaps a better explanation of how a senior member is chosen beyond the vaguaries of "outstanding member of the community" might alleviate the grumbling. Also the creation of a middle (or regular member) class might do the same. Removing the class distinctions entirely is also an option, which I don't think is the best and not just becuase my self interest is at stake. Senior members are pillars of this community, and we provide guidance through example, because we know what the rules and etiquette are. The tags also let newcomers who the guiding members of the community are, it gives them a sense of the social structure without having to learn it by jumping in and posting.

This issue of class divide should be addressed somehow in the near future, because as the community grows so could the problem, moving from grumbling to open hostility to community breakdown.

Also the loss of a separate writing forum has been keenly felt. I remember the glory days of the Officer's Lounge, with lots of stories, many of them quite well written. I know it's years since its gone, but all the writing went with it. It's just visual art now.

Other than that, I would like the Homeworld skin fixed for Firefox, because I really miss it and I know many others do too.

Bring the glory days back too as well.

[Malik]

As a new member, I wouldn't know what to say.

But as a member of some other boards, I would not allow members to post in forum issues.

I know this means I wouldn't be able to post if I have an issue, but honestly who am I in the grand scheme of things.

From what I observe though, the process for becoming a senior member is greatly flawed. From ym own personal experience people I have interacted with are not senior members and it is rather puzzling to me. Unfortunately being a member of a club, I can tell you voting to see who should be a member can cause good people that are deserving of the title to be overlooked for somebody who is always in the moderators'/administrations' face. There are good people in here, that although may not always be in the spotlight, (or in my case choose to be in the spotlight, I like reading a lot of what is posted than trying to carry a thread myself.) that are great candidates for Senior membership. Therefore if you do decide to maintain the status quo pertaining to the privileges of Senior membership, the requirements should be a little more lax, but not to much.

[UnleasheDPr0]

Signatures....

i have this signature by here:

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/4782/chris2or.jpg

which i would like a friend to use, but he cant due to it bein 67kb.. i think it should be allowed because...

1. its not using the sites bandwidth to upload
2. u only see it one a page (to my knowledge)
3. its inside the the limits of size (not size of file)

4. if its due to page loading... nearly every tom dick and harry has dsl or highier.. not many have 56k's... (i live in the country and i have 1mb) :s - so i dont see the people's connection as a very big problem..

5. also isnt there an option so u can turn off seeing people signatures? - if so.. then 56k can do that.. if they complain about slow loading pages..

so tbh.. i think ur rule on signatures needs to be changed :D

[lustigj90]

i would like to see a few more non-american mods esspecially in places like technical help, so non-americans like me dont have to stay up till midnight to see a reply to their post.

[the_sidewinder]

The Good:


Most everything

The Bad:

Spellchecking should be required


---------------------------

UnleashedPro: there is no reason why that sig should be so big, I re-encoded it and it came in at less than 30K

http://sidewinder.hwcommunity.com/chris2or.jpg

[reki]

The only thing I can think of that hasn't been mentioned already is that I would like to see a revision of the reviews forums. I feel completely uninspired to post anything in them or to even read some long-winded, highly subjective & sterile evaluation that nobody can dispute, correct, or even agree with without writing another long-winded, highly subjective and sterile evaluation.

I think some of the reviews in there are quite silly and the person clearly hasn't understood what they were reviewing, but it stands as some kind of untouchable gospel, stickied forever for all to be advised by.

I would much prefer to see some kind of community rating poll system with a comments section, a little more like rotten tomatoes or IMDB. At the moment it's too heavily focused on a single individual's opinion which, unless the person were a respected critic, nobody really gives a hoot about.


Something like this hack might be interesting to look at: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=108514

Example page here: http://www.thevbgeek.com/forumdisplay.php?f=40

[n0z3k1ll3r]

I dislike the new Forum Issues setup. I think it's unwieldy, and it makes it look like most issues are things affecting only one member (as only the one normal member who posted a thread in the first place can actually post in it). The old setup was better IMO, for all its flaws.

Other than that good work all up.

[Homdax]

I have waited.
Waited for someone to pick up a few issues I myself was thinking about, or others that I can agree on.

I think most have been brought up. But I will not just write "This is a great Forum" since then this post would have little merit, so allow me to sum up the changes I seek:

- Forum Issues
Open it up again for all to post. I am perfectly aware of the spam risk, but I think the discussion benefits from it. In general.

- Review Forum
With no discussion it becomes a one way communication with little objective purpose and I did not choose to make a thread in GD of my reviews since I did not feel they had a wide enough scope or could bring in hords of commenters. Allowing a few comments would be nice, at the Review Forum. Again, spam potential acknowledged.

- Web Design Forum
Since the merger of three forums into The Studio only two categories thrive, writings and graphics. I miss the web-design only Forum, even if we recently had a few dedicated threads in The Studio. It was always the first place I checked in the old days. Web Design is of course a mix of writing, coding and graphical design but getting information and asking questions about these on a web dedicated approach is a bit special.

- Appointment of Junior Moderators via Election
If Staff considers another Junior Moderator is required in some Forum, they might ask for volunteers in a sticky at that Forum for a few days, then submit it to a Public Vote, where Administrator always have the right to Veto the Vote Result.
Elections might trigger the interest in what is required by a Junior Moderator to do a good job and the Community might spam less in a Forum where the Junior Moderator has been elected by themselves. This elected appointment would be a trial for a limited period of time.
---

These are my "issues" and ideas.

This Forum will cope perfectly ignoring them, but some might somehow inspire new actions.

To all the Guys and Dolls locking and deleting: :salute:

[naradaman]

- Web Design Forum
Since the merger of three forums into The Studio only two categories thrive, writings and graphics. I miss the web-design only Forum, even if we recently had a few dedicated threads in The Studio. It was always the first place I checked in the old days. Web Design is of course a mix of writing, coding and graphical design but getting information and asking questions about these on a web dedicated approach is a bit special. I'd just like to second this. I know those kinds of threads pop up in the studio, but when I venture in there I'm lucky to see one on the the first two pages. I feel a dedicated sub forum would stimulate more posting about this topic, I would definately participate. There's probably heaps of prospective posters around here who never post in the studio.

[tyrion]

Generally speaking I see very little to complain about. I only tend to frequent Back and fluff and sometimes the painting forum so can't comment about what goes on elsewhere.

I would suggest though that a little more flexibility should be allowed for people going "off topic" Conversations are by definition organic things that naturally evolve and develop in unexpected ways, perhaps this is something that could be valued a little more rather than discoureged as who knows what unexpected gems could show up?

[LynX]

Here's my contribution to this thread, from the perspective of having been a registered member for two years and another one year if you count in 'lurking'.

The good:
I like these forums because it is well-run and well-moderated for the most part (being a mod on another forum, i know just how hard a job it is), especially compared to other forums so kudos to the staff.

Also, many people here (at least in GD) are mature and can hold a decent and intelligent discussion unlike many "discussion" forums out there.

That being said, it has it's share of problems like any other healthy forum, some of which I will outline below.

The bad:
- Spotty enforcement and insufficient clarification of certain forum rules that allow "exploits", in a manner of speaking.

Forum rules should apply to all members regardless of status, titles or seniority.

- Vaguely defined criteria for senior members. There are several members who've met 2 or more of those conditions in addition to having been around for more than a year but aren't acknowledged at all, which I find is rather strange.

Though I myself am indifferent to things like that (admittedly, already having them on another forum may play a role in that), 'normal' members feel there's a inequality with the current system.

- Also, I urge that the Forum Issues be reopened for all members to post, as it lets people settle their issues without clogging up the main page.

- Combining of the Writing and Art threads has not helped the forums to become more organised.

Yes, story-writing and graphic arts are both creative work, but there is a clear distinction between the two as one is more visual while the other is more... mental.

As humans a visual creatures first and foremost, graphics provide instant and vivid gratification.

For stories/literature, however, time and effort must be invested before one can appreciate it.

By combining both, it naturally makes the literature receive less attention, because the first thing people usually do is check out the graphic art.

So I suggest making subforums for both again, if for no other reason than organisation's sake as literature interspersed with graphical art feels rather disconcerting.


Further Clarification of Rules.
This is to address the ambigous wording of signature rules in particular that allow loopholes in their interpretation.




5 lines of text ONLY
If you use a picture in your sig, then your text limit is 3 lines MAX
No all bold or "color is neat so I'll use it a lot" type sigs
- I have noticed several members, both normal and senior ones having more than 3 lines of text despite having a picture in their sig.
Or multiple pictures for that matter.
Userbars, unless i'm mistaken, count as pictures.

- Spaces between text should also count as one line, right?
Or is it ok to place a break in between 5 lines of text?

- Also, are coloured text in sigs banned completely, or just multicolored sig text?
I am asking this to clarify the situation because I was PMed by a moderator, telling me to remove the colour (red) from it, and I did despite the rules implying that its fine as long as its not multicoloured.

Thanks for your time, and I appreciate your efforts in improving the forums.

[Ruzdreg]

Alls I can really comments on is not beeing able to reply to threads in the "forum issues" section.

Many times I have clicked reply to a thread only to remember that I'm not allowed to post in there.

[Kasmapalities]

Mods need to stop locking topics, a topic today was locked because of 'lack of discussion' how stupid is that. Its getting rediculous around here. Can someone please loosen the tyrannical iron fist grip a little thanks

[rockdeity]

I think the moderators are overactive. Every other thread I click on is locked because someone is posting old information, or expressing opinions about something, or my personal favorite, too many emoticons. Moderators should just relax and let fans get excited. Try checking some other game forums and notice that mods only get involved when something gets out of hand. My two cents.

I'll qualify that I have only checked out the DoW and more recently the CoH forums. Maybe things are different in the other forums.

[A7X]

well, i personally think that the old forum layout was the best, each GAME having forum section. It was easier to navigate between fluff forums, DoW forums and DoW mod forums.

but thats just me being lazy :D

apart from that, keep vigilant! people need to learn not moderators need to soften

[Afoxi]

IMO, this is the best forum i've ever come across on the web. The mods are in total control yet they're not dictators. (unlike other boards where mods ban for the fun of it and also some where mods are too afraid to take action)

The strict forums rules and guidelines are intimidating at first, but I think they make boards better in the long run, and when you start getting used to it, you realise it's not that bad.

I also like the non-game boards. Alot. :D

What's bad? No idea. Maybe the animated sig rule, but i think most of us can live without that.

Other than that - Can it be hacked so that a person's sig appears in the last post of the page instead of their first post? I think it makes more sense, but that's me.

[Atomic Chicken]

I think the board is good, maintained by a devoted staff of ass kicking moderators who don't tolerate stupid and senior members who deserve their titles.

A merit based forum is usually a good forum, these forums are an ideal example.

An example of a stupid forum just full of stupid is gaiaonline, just go there yourself and you'll understand why I appreciate the hamfisted apporach of the mods here.

[Langy]

I absolutely love this place.

The only real suggestions for improvement I can make are to alter the Reviews area along the lines of what Reki said and to somehow split the Studio up into Art, Web-design, and Writing again. I like having them all in the same place, but maybe there could be a hack to only show 'writing' posts or 'art' posts (by using the thread icons to signify what's what, of course).

Oh, and I still don't like the signature hack. I'm perfectly fine with limiting the size of sigs and everything, and only showing them once per page, but do we really need to *increase* the size of them if they aren't big enough? All that white space is mildly annoying:/ Luckily, it's not really noticeable at all for the most part unless I'm looking for problems to pick at, so it's not a big deal.

[AridMonk]

I have frequented many a forum in my time, but, everytime, i keep on coming back here. A forum where Mods and Admins actually post on the forums, rather than just sit back and lock everything that moves, where folks are recognised and actually remembered for things they may have done, or what has gone on before. I may have only been here 9 months, but i absolutely adore the place. PEOPLE ACTUALLY USE GRAMMAR HERE!! And when they dont, they get told off!!

<3

But, of course, there are some problems, as there is with everything.

1. The new forums layout.

I dont like it very much. Now i have to trail through forum after forum looking for another forum. I know this was implemented to clean the place up, but, in the process, it became hard to navigate.

And thats it.

On the subject of Forum Issues, leave it closed to Senior Members and higher. If you have a solution for the problem, PM him/her direct, instead of posting it. Senior Members have been around for long enough, or have the knowledge required to deal with it. If opened, youll get the enivitable " i duno LOL " replies. Leave it closed.

And on Senior Members and us regulars being segregated, I dont think thats the case. The little strip and a custom avatar is just to show that they have contributed something worthwhile to the forums, or that they have been here a long time, and are now respected members of the fora. If you feel put out by it, then work harder and post better replies, and the powers that be may just make you one too.

All in all, the Mods, Admins and other staffers try and maintain the Forums for you to enjoy. And a damn fine job they do too.

[Khornight]

I only ever look at the DoW bits, so my opinions only really count for there.

I prefered the old forum format particularly the different sections for the differant races. Most players have favoured race, and so spend extra time ignoring all the threads not about their favoured race. Also added to the feeling of talking to people who knew what they were talking about.

A bit more relaxed about sigs and avatars. Why not allow custom (self hosted) avatars if you can put uncensored images in your sig? And if there are size limits becuase of bandwidth, why are senoir members allowed bigger avatars?

Which brings me on to the elitism... it seems that some have suggested adding an extra level of heirachy (vets) will help... I would like to suggest instead Acolytes or new members: only after a certain time period and post count (say 2-6 months and oh, i don't know, 100 posts?) do you qualify to be a normal member.

Acolytes aren't allowed to post in the FI, have avatars or sigs. And on a warning from a mod will have their time served/post counts reset! (only senior mods/admins should be able to do this?)

That way you know you can trust all full members to follow what they are told my the mods/admins.

It took me a while to get used to the enforcement of rules here, but I've got to say, this is now the forum I compare all other forums I visit too... no-where is there a better forum. I don't say that lightly. :salute: :salute: :salute:

[malcolio]

Great forum, and I know my two points have already been suggested, but...


I don't think I joined early enough to see the Writers Forum, but as a student doing a Creative Writing Degree I'd love to be able to post in a forum that is solely for writing. :) I know from experience that having a forum for just one topic can boast the amount of threads about the topic by quite a bit.

A quote button would be great!


Other then that I think everything is fine as is. I couldn't care less who is or isn't a Senior Member, and I really don't mind not being able to post in Forum Issues.

[Mogolov]

Excellent forum, keep up the good work. The mods are probably the best mods I've encountered on t'internet.


And because of the hard work from the mods, I've found this wonderful place of "sanity" on an otherwise frustrating and annoying internet.

This is the place I come to get away from the idiots and I wouldnt change anything on relicnews.

Thats my 2 pence...

[FerociousBeast]

Instead of locking threads due to evil and/or off-topic posters, I believe a more effective moderating strategy would be the deletion of unconstructive posts (individual rather than entire threads) and banning offenders from threads. Too many valuable threads have been locked because of the actions of a handful of bad posters.

Therefore I am in favor of selective punishment and weeding rather than collective punishment.

Of course unnecessary or illegal threads should be locked as usual to provide an example.

Overall, I would like to say these boards have been well moderated as long as I have been here, so good job :)

[naradaman]

Now that it's been mentioned, I've begun noticing all the whitespace in most posts, especialy from those members with longer avatars.

I think it would be a damn good idea to cut down on redundant things like the contact details underneath the avatar. They don't need to be shown with every post, they could be shown once per page or completely restricted to the profiles.

I know that avatars are a visual aid in identifying posters, but maybe an option could be added so that those don't take much notice of them could restrict them to once per page like what has been done with sigs.

[severijn]

I would still like to see the FI be opened for everyone. My reason is more of a practical one...often an issue concerns multiple users...e.g.: a member complaining about a fight between him, piccolo and a mod. In this case, it would seem logical that piccolo could say something for his defense.

Other example: sometimes an issue concerns everyone on the forum, like when people decide to change certain rules and guiddelines, or certain functions(like the quote button that used to be here). In such a case, people should be able to express their sentiment considering the change, especially when the one starting the thread is doing a lousy job defending what many members want to remain.

For this reason, and the others named through the thread and in the topic I made once in the FI itself, I politely suggest it to be reopened to the general public. It was made to improve their forum experience afterall....

Another issue is that many senior members are breaking the rules...including all those that have avatars from riess. Either scale the avatar or change the rules concerning that. Do note though that if you do the latter one, more normal members WILL complain about the elitism and absolutism of the senior members, moderators and admins. Ofcourse you could solve that problem by giving some normal members the illusion of power, but that would be pure evil.

Finally, I'd like to say that I disagree with sidewinder. Making a spellchecker necessary is obstructive and gives the signal that the members are considered to be analphabetic imbeciles or not mature enough to do it on their own.

Other than these issues, all is fine.

[~DeathJester~]

I reckon it would be a nice feature if we could all have custom avatars, restricted size however, so our profiles are more personalized and less DoW general. Whilst all here play DoW, well I'm assuming so, some may feel that custom avatars should be open to all so the avatar options are less....constricting. Other than that, I think the forums are pretty good!

[Sir Plasma]

Not everyone here plays DoW; well I don't :p
And I was recently over at Warseer forums and noticed they have a system that ranks people in groupings such as Scout, Battle Brother, Sergeant, all the way up to Chapter Master according to what they've done for the forums and how long they've been there. I think forum members who've been around a while should at least get a nice little Veteran Member title or siggy badge [not like the Senior Member+ badge in the upper corner, but something for the signature or avatar add-on.

[Shuma]

Yeah, this forums is missiong custom ranks, maybe it could be cuztomized for each secrion of the forum? like in DoW section you have somethin like Marine, Termie, but in HW2 Forums you have something like pilot, capitan, something like that.

[offmega]

F I N E

[Lestaki]

Personally, I too would like to see the return of member posting in forum issues, for the reasons many have stated. I would prefer to see the spam tackled head-on through specific bans from FI rather than punishing about 98% of all members. Other than that, this place is as many others have also said before more an excellent forum, with very good moderation overall. Keep up the good (unpaid) work! ;)

[Mad Onion]

I like the forums the way they are; spam threads get locked quick and (usually) with good reason. No need to change anything. One of the best forums I have ever joined (granted it's one of the only ones :p).

[Corsix]

I am happy with the forums as they are, although I'm tempted to say open up FI a bit.

[Skuijs]

That it becomes not so serieus :)

[Sanctum]

Personally, even though I haven't been here since the start, or I haven't posted/would post often in the Forum Issues area.. I will say it shouldn't be restricted to the Senior Members. Yes, they've been entrusted because they know what they're doing/contributed something/I don't know, but that doesn't mean regular memebers don't have anything intelligent to add or anything to help with in the Forum Issues. Open it up. Otherwise I'm fond of the Forums. Oh, bring back the 'Quote' thing.

[Emberstrife]

The main forums list should have links to the Balance Issues and Battle Archives sub-forums as well - that would make it somewhat easier to see whether they have any new posts or not, and enable visiting them right away skipping the Strategy forum, which would be more comfortable. The DoW technical assistance sub-link could be removed, as the actualy TA forums are just three boards down on the main list...

The Dawn of War boards would somewhat benefit from having post icons of the game's races and the three DoW games - not only would this help see that the thread is a discussion of a specific race's tactics/changes/balance issues, a general question/idea about a specific DoW game or speculation about the upcoming expansion, it would also make the thread list a bit prettier.

The Forum Issues should definetly not be as restricted as it currently is. The feeling of "elitism" is something absolutely unwanted in any community, esspecially in one as amazing as this. If you definetly need to have some "poster filter" on, adding a join date + certain postcount limit would allow regulars to voice their opinions, and hold off newbies that just want to tell the mods that they suck balls because they locked their awesome spam threads.

If users are the soul of a forum, then the moderators are it's heart. This forum has the friendliest and yet the most efficient mod team i've ever seen on any other board, which is one of the main factors that make me and many other people love these boards so much. But perhaps you guys could be a little softer when it comes to locking newbie threads, and give warning when you think a thread has strayed too far, rather than just hanging the lock on it? ;)

Off the suggestions bit, i really like how the forum is configured. Custom avatars often distract from the discussion, and can in oh-so-many cases be outright annoying, however, the fact that you can use only Relic avatars and there's such an amazing collection of them completely removes that issue, adding atmosphere to Relic game threads as well. The infamous carrot-on-a-stick for spammers known as the visible postcount and postcount-based user titles are avoided very well too, without going to the extreme and disabling the features altogether - you can still check a user's postcount in his profile, and to get a new title you must contribute to the forums in terms of quality, not quantity. The way the forum is tuned to user comfortability is simply amazing - Relicnews has definetly the best vB config i've ever seen!

(Pardon structural or gramatical errors in the above text, i'm not really good with the english language.)

[Kapp'n]

Relic forum is the best forum EVER !!!!!

Ps. Dont Change Anything :gnight:

[a1ph4riu5]

I don't understand why personal threads aren't allowed. It seems to me that an area of the forum where people can discuss their own lives would not be a bad thing, providing that the rules are adhered to. Considering the strictness of the moderators here, I doubt there would be much trouble in making sure that everyone is treated with respect.

Also, I often get the general impression of intellectual elitism from the moderating staff and "senior members". For example, spelling and grammar are afforded far too much importance. In my opinion, if a post is legible, there is no reason why the poster need "improve" his communication skills to any other standard. Language is a tool for communicating ideas, so if you understand a post, it has done it's job. Basically, I think more leeway could be given to those posters who are not difficult to understand, yet do still exhibit a "low" standard of spelling/grammar.

On the whole, I think these forums are very well run and it took me some thought to come up with any issues worth mentioning.

[Bonnet]

I would just like to make one point as to complaints about the ruling structures, and the establishment of especially the Forum Issues section as a moderated enviroment.

Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of war, where every man is enemy to every man, the same consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withal. In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Thomas Hobbs - The Leviathan

[Shuma]

Bring back the post count!, it's fun to see it.

[Decus]

First off let me begin by saying my views come basically from the DOW forums. I believe that the forums are in a good state.
Some may say it might be too strict but I'd rather have it the way it is. I admire some of the moderators who've tolerated some bad stuff. In the forums I used to post on if you disrespected a mod or a senior member that=ban.
Although there are things I would like to mention. First my view on the "elitism" is I think regulated well but at times I admit I see that some members feel unheard and ignored. At times when a new member posts sometimes only the new members reply. As my feelings on titles I think it's not a bad system my only suggestion (as some have mentioned) add some new ones like: "Regular Member". As for locking of threads most times I honestly feel it's justified but sometimes it's not. As mentioned previously maybe a system of warnings or even post deletions can help with that. As for locked threads personally i can't stand seeing so many of them cluttering the forums I personally would like to see them deleted. My view of avatars is a mixed bag. I like that it encourages others to participate more but I like seeing more individualism as well.
Well those are my views on the state of the forums. Overall I think the forums are regulated very well. Continue with the hard work and effort.

[CrossOfFire]

Enjoyable, been here awhile, argued enough to know I'll never make Senior Member.

Senior Member is a reward I think for not necessarily, contribution, but maybe favor, I'm not just saying that because I'm not one, I don't terribly care. I think more open ended discussions would be nice and debates, etc.

The Forum's good, but it's not perfect, I think sometimes there are too many Moderators lurking, I mean when I open up DOW Discussion, and what like 6 or 7 of the threads are locked out of a dozen? It's just, makes it easer to find better things to do.

I think the Moderators are good, alot of them put up with alot of crap and long hours, I've told a few that, but I understand why people assume Moderators are heavy handed, alot of the Moderators are just jaded to the B.S. that people post, in their defense, to hop on the other side of it, they've seen many discussions spin out of control, and become a head ache, etc.

It's also an enforcement position, so I can think of a moderator in particular who I thought it was a mistake to make a moderator. Not because he was a bad character, but because it kind of, hindered him, yea he'd accept it, good person, but it doesn't seem he enjoys being here anymore, when people see you posting in their thread and start wondering if they're going to get locked or not, it's hard to be part of a community. That's just how it is, facts of life. When you answer with the voice of finalty and lock people's thread, if you've got a heart about it and you're not just a pain in the ass, it's a grim and tedious task, sifting through thread after thread scanning font, not enjoying discussion, etc. EDIT: Especially when they're your friends and you're trying to be just and follow protocol, it's not something I'd see as enjoyable.

But anyway, I think some of the Senior Members do drift off, there's one in this very thread with a Sig too long, but I'm not a Moderator, so, I don't call people out. I was called out about it, and I corrected it, so should they, I don't care who they know.

[geekman]

This is actually my first post here, but I do log on once in a while, mainly to check the strategy forum since I like and play Eldar, but have plenty of problems playing them in 1v1 automatch games.

Anyway, one thing I've noticed is lots of swearing on the forums. I'm not saying I don't swear sometimes, I do, and I know this game is for an older audience, as the "M" rating obviously states, but it's just unpleasant to read posts with swearing in them, and it doesn't help the poster's "image" too much either. I wouldn't mind a language filter here, (or in multiplayer, for that mater) that almost all of the other forums I visit have.

[freak_storm]

Good forum. However, there are too many obsolete skickies in the Dawn of War section relating to old patches in the original game. Also, warnings for "off-topic" discussion is too harsh, because that is very subjective, and should not be grouped with obvious flaming and really bad behaviour.

[Grabnutz]

something that alot of people have been caught out with - polls
Can we have an option to edit a poll, or create one in an already existing thread (if you were the thread starter)?

[nyyti]

Overall this forum is the best I've ever seen, and the only one that I have checked every day for these 2 years I've been here.
Now I usually linger in TT/DoW discussions and can say you mods have done excellent job. Especially after every new DoW patch ;).
Good job.

[army0fdead]

I think you guys proved a long time ago that you rock at what you do and that you really care. Thank you.

I am not sure if this is feasible, but I would really like to see 2 seperate forums. 1 for DoW and 1 for WA. Considering that the two games are so seperated now and the gaming is so different, I only see fit for them to have 2 seperate forums.

Another thing would be nice is to have a counter to see howmany people are reading your posts. It's nice to know you're not just talking to yoruself. :)

Thank you again. Keep up the good work please.

Now as to what would make me leave. Killing DoW. If I stop playing the game, then with all due respect there would be no need for me to come back here. And considering that there are only 5 people on DoW right now...I'd say the funeral drum is playing loud and clear.

[Moe]

Copypasted over from Forum issues


Introduce thread rating systems for the Battle Archives forum. Allowing people to rate the quality of replays so that one can skim through the pages looking for the really good ones.

[ionfish]

Thanks to everyone who's contributed their thoughts. I'm locking the thread now so the issues can be discussed internally by the staff. Our response will be posted in Forum Issues and advertised across the forum so everyone can read it. Thanks again for participating.

[Moe]

Just to add that since you guys posted a lot of stuff, it might take us a few days to go through all of your posts and evaluate them, so don't expect a response within the next few hours. :)