TankSpot Forum Updates

With Mists of Pandaria on the horizon, it's time to start tidying things up around TankSpot. Part of that means giving the forums some much-needed tuning. One of the biggest bits of negative feedback we receive here is that the forums aren't exactly intuitive -- it can be difficult to figure out exactly where your post belongs, and difficult to find the kind of discussion you're looking for. That also has the effect of stifling discussion when your post doesn't get as much visibility as it should.

So, we've been brainstorming a bit, and sometime in the near future (ideally this week) we'll be rolling up our sleeves and getting to work on a forum-wide streamlining. But before we get cracking, we'd like to hear your feedback! Here's what we've got in mind, and why:

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Forums being MERGED:

One of the biggest issues we face right now is that discussion on certain topics can be somewhat spread out. For example, if I'm looking for discussion on Protection Warrior tanking in Dragon Soul, there's upwards of 6 different forums I could potentially find that in. Having multiple forums on similar topics is okay in moderation, but it's a bit excessive around here. So we're going to start off by merging a few forums together:

• Theory & Mechanics Discussion and Gear & Enchanting Discussion will become Tanking Discussion. Any threads that are still active but not relevant to tanking will be moved to the appropriate DPS or Healing forums.

The current setup here is a bit confusing. A topic about Ret Paladin BiS gearing should go in the DPS forum, but it also seems like it could belong in Gear & Enchanting Discussion (after all, it's a discussion about gear). It also seems a bit odd that a site called "TankSpot" would have a specific place to discuss DPS and Healing, but not a specific place to discuss Tanking. So we're going to merge those two forums together to create a place that's clearly marked for tanking discussion.

• Guild Relations Podcast, Guild General, and Raid Leadership & Management will become Guild & Raid Management Discussion.

This is pretty much just forum bloat. The Guild Relations podcast hasn't been a thing in ages, so it doesn't really need its own forum anymore. Guild Leadership and Raid Leadership, although slightly different topics, are still very closely related to the point that they should be able to get along just fine in the same forum.

On top of these changes, we'll also be moving a few forums around to try to keep similar topics more consolidated. Part of the reason Guild General and Raid Leadership & Management haven't been getting much discussion is they're buried away down at the bottom of the page. Things are just generally disorganized, and we'll be cleaning that up a bit.

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Forums being LOCKED and ARCHIVED:

We have several forums that are no longer particularly relevant and are unlikely to see any new discussion, but are still good to keep around (even if just for nostalgia purposes). These forums will be placed in their own separate subheader called "The TankSpot Archives", which will be placed near the bottom of the forums listing and locked (so that no new posts or replies can be made).

• All of the current forums under the heading "Tankspot Strategy" will be merged into "Cataclysm Raiding" and "Cataclysm General", locked, and archived.
• Mists of Pandaria Discussion will be renamed Mists of Pandaria Beta Discussion, locked, and archived.

These should be relatively straightforward. The beta environment is very different from live, so we'd like to see those discussions start fresh. Note that these forums will not be archived until MoP release is imminent, to avoid cutting off discussion too early.

• Tankspot's Critical Guides & Articles Library will be locked and archived. Any up to date and relevant guides will be moved to the appropriate Tanking, DPS, and Healing forums.

Our "Critical" guides and articles haven't been critical for quite some time. It's time to put these to rest. For the time being, guides and articles will belong in their appropriate Tanking, DPS, and Healing forum. We may end up giving guides and articles their own place again, but it will probably be as an offshoot of the Tanking/DPS/Healing forums and not as its own separate thing.

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Forums being DELETED:

The only forums being flat-out removed are the international discussion forums (the Spanish, German, and Korean forums). One glance at them should probably tell you why... they're just not being used. Furthermore, we don't have the resources to properly support non-English speaking communities on TankSpot. We'd rather see those players visit another site that can better serve them than give them a half-assed experience here.

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NEW forums being ADDED:

• Tankspot Strategy -> Mists of Pandaria Raids
• Tankspot Strategy -> Mists of Pandaria 5-Mans & Challenge Modes
• Tankspot Strategy -> Mists of Pandaria General Strategy (quests, achievements, pet battles, scenarios, etc)

This is a bit loose at the moment and we very well may end up adjusting how this works, but we'd like to avoid ending up with 5 different forums for strategy, most of which are dead by the time the expansion ends (the last post in the T11 forum was almost a year ago, for example). The challenge lies in figuring out how many forums are necessary. We'll be keeping a close eye on the Strategy forums and responding to community needs. Maybe, for example, we start getting a whole bunch of discussion about scenarios. At that point we can consider either opening up a new forum for scenarios, or folding it in with 5-mans and challenge modes, or perhaps something else entirely. We'll have to play that by ear a bit, but this should be a decent starting point.

We'll also be adding a new forum specifically for our authors (the helpful fellows with the green names) to work on new articles and guides, get help from each other, and generally just discuss things related to authorship. In fact, we're working on a few new things to help our authors out a bit more (and encourage new authors!). I'll have more details on that in another update soon.

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I feel pretty confident that these changes will help quite a bit as our community continues to grow moving into the expansion. But like I said before, we'd love your feedback! Let us know what you think, and I'll try to respond to any questions or concerns you may have. :)

I think the place is great as is, but there is always room for improvement and it sounds like you guys have a solid grasp of what you would like to accomplish. I am looking forward to see your plans implemented.

I like that you're abolishing the theroy, ect. sections and moving all relevant articles into the healing/tanking/dps formus. In the past it has been somewhat dificult in certain cases to find information on a specific class just by searching the forums, which has lead to a lot of repetitive posting on the HALP forum. Idk how many times I had to explain the basiscs of CTC over the course of Cataclysm.

Lore are we getting more/faster boss guides? Specially for heroic modes?

Personally I was hoping for sub sections in the Tanking Discussion section for each class. Each class specific sub section would have their guide stickied for quick and easy reference.

Im not sure if the dps and healing sections would need class specific sub sections since it is Tankspot.

Just because this site is called tankspot does not mean it is a site for the dicussion of tanks. This is a World of Warcraft fan site for pretty much all things World of Warcraft.

I think regarding the class forums mentioned above, this idea is not so good. You either want 1 forum for each class, or 1 forum for each role, not both. On other WoW sites that I visit, the class discussion seems to work best. This is due to so many people using their Dual Specs now that it is a good idea to have all Paladin related stuff under 1 Paladin forum. It is better than having to visit a Tank Forum to discuss Paladin Tanking and a DPS forum to discuss DPS etc.

Also, this may just be me being blind, but an easy obvious way to edit posts would be good too.

Editing in the news section is not possible, if I recall. That would be why you don't see it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Krenian

Editing in the news section is not possible, if I recall. That would be why you don't see it.

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This is accurate.

Personally when I'm looking for specific info, let's say guardian stat weights, I'm not looking to sift through threads about the other 3 specs.

So, regarding class vs role forums. I feel role-specific forums make a lot more sense than class-specific for a few reasons. One is in numbers: 3 different forums vs 10. We're trying to reduce forum bloat, not add to it.

There's also an issue of organization. There are many more topics that spread across multiple classes in the same role than there are topics that spread across multiple specs of different roles in the same class. So for example, both Protection Warriors and Blood Death Knights might be interested in a discussion about flasking vs using dual elixirs. All healing classes would probably be interested in a discussion about properly rotating raid cooldowns. There's also a much higher chance of someone from another class being able to chime in with useful info: I play a Prot Paladin, not a Guardian Druid, but I still might have some good input on when it makes sense to stack stamina vs avoidance.

It's much harder to find topics that are interesting to multiple specs of the same class and ONLY that class (ie: something that would not be better off in a role-specific forum anyway). And although I do play a Paladin, I'm not likely to be much help at all in (or interested in reading) a Holy discussion. Essentially, there's much fewer "useless" topics for me if I'm hanging out with other tanks than if I'm hanging out with other Paladins.

In the event that there just turns out to be too much discussion for 3 forums to handle, we'll look into splitting things down further. That's something we'll take care of if and when it becomes an issue. We need to build the discussion first, then expand to accomodate it.

I'd assume relevant guides (the sort of thing that would have Guardian Druid stat weights) would also remain stickied in the newly-appropriate forums.

I'm also a supporter of class specific forums rather than role. I don't think this would cause much "bloating". Sure there would be more pages, but the organization that would come from it would better streamline it. I was thinking first, where would disc priests go if the forums are based on role? Granted, after thinking about it, it seems disc may be the exception, not the rule. I'll admit though, I have found myself researching more and more at other sites because of that type of organization. It's much easier to navigate a site when you can clearly see which way to go.

I like the idea of classes being a subgroup to roles. This way, it's easy to find the answers your looking for when researching a specific class, however you'll still have the role forum to allow members to converse with others of the same role, regardless of class. Sure, it's more pages and yes, more work, but I think the organization of it would be worth it.

Just my 2¢

There doesn't seem to be nearly enough traffic to justify class-specific forums. The decision to have a "tanking" forum seems good enough, there's a need to keep it simple with the current posts-per-day. I'm sure if there's a reason to further extrapolate, it can be observed and addressed later. None of these changes have to be "forever". If it doesn't work it doesn't work, but at least give it a go.

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Originally Posted by Syltraul

I was thinking first, where would disc priests go if the forums are based on role? Granted, after thinking about it, it seems disc may be the exception, not the rule.

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It's pretty straightforward:

Am I looking for/asking about something related to healing? Healing forums
Am I looking for/asking about something related to DPS? DPS forums
Am I looking for/asking about something related to tanking? Tanking forums

The biggest issue is that class forums don't properly cover everything. We'd still need tanking/dps/healing forums either way. So we're gonna try it out with just the role forums and see how it goes. If it doesn't work, cool, we'll figure something else out.

Also, it it comes that traffic becomes dastardly and we hear a lot of complaints, nothing stops us from adding the subforums afterwards.

It's just that, right now, there doesn't seem to be any worth in putting the forums in subclasses. That may change; and if it does, we can alter it to accomodate this. :)