Your Opinions re RailWorks forum layout ?

[bigvern]

Bit of a bump... Obviously the suggestion didn't go anywhere and we still have the situation where most things are discussed in General, the vapourware folk (including me occasionally ) say I'm building x, y and z in the Route forum with the remainder largely neglected, apart from perhaps the scenario section. It really could do with a tidy up...

[growler37]

Hi
Can we Please! Please! have a section to post questions like,what specs are needed for RW,whats the best GFX card, What CPU, will this run RW,Hey! look at my spec!,Core temps,oh! what a big SATA i have,This is my Rig(whatever a rig is?)my sound card is bigger than your sound card! and other dross that seems to clutter up the forums day after day
"takes a deep breath" can we have a techie section please, then i can avoid it like the plague
With sincere thanks
Kev

[Easilyconfused]

This got off the agenda for a while but needs picking up again. Matt will have to do some construction work here to tidy it up.

[SquidvT]

Make a Technical help forum.

It can be a nightmare trying to find a certian thread that about a certain fix. Also all the posts about "what pc do i need to run RWs) should go in there.

[transadelaide]

Make a Technical help forum.

It can be a nightmare trying to find a certian thread that about a certain fix. Also all the posts about "what pc do i need to run RWs) should go in there.

I agree.

I would also support combining the Help For Beginners and Steam Help forums. A significant number of the new threads posted in the Help forum is related to learning how to use Steam, and a significant number of the new threads posted in the Steam Help forum aren't about Steam issues, and then there are the people who can't work out what's going on so they post in both (and General Discussion for good measure) and have one of their threads closed.

Naming this community support forum something other than Help for Beginners might make people a little more open to posting there without feeling it makes them look like a clueless newbie.

[nobkins]

All the feedback is gratefully received but I would like to make a quick point.

This thread was bumped (quite rightfully) by ihavenonamenoreallyidont after he requested on a different thread that the sub-forums be reduced. That is certainly a valid view point but as you can see we have a good few people who have posted this evening asking for additional sub forums to help organise things (again a very valid point of view).

Keep the ideas coming etc but please don't forget the saying:

You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you can't please all of the people all of the time?

We do our best but some of you may end up not getting what you think is best

[rivimey]

For what it's worth, I'm in favour of some change (see my post of April 2011, which I still agree with).

I agree that there are too many sub-forums;
I agree that a new Technical Help sub-forum would probably be valuable;

Would anyone like to suggest existing forums which they think could reasonably be merged, or if there are very good reasons why a new sub-forum is needed? Please give reasons!

So far I have seen:

New: Technical Help
New:
Merge: Building Rolling Stock, Scenic Items, Cab View Creation
Merge: Screenshots, Videos
Merge: Help For Beginners, Steam Help (& not named Help For Beginners)

There have also been calls to group forums together, notably a proposal to split forums into Creating and Running/Using, and Torabald suggested a complete revamp. Some of those to be merged could be Grouped instead.


Regards
Ruth

[FoggyMorning]

I still think having separate forums for Screenshots and Videos is a minor extravagance. Screenshots has relatively few active threads and Videos has relatively few regular contributors of videos, so I don't think anything would get lost in the shuffle by consolidating the two.

Another possibility could be to make Building Rolling Stock, Cab View Creation & Scenic Item Creation sub-forums of the 3D Modelling forum; again I think this just tidies up the top level of the Railworks area a bit and groups three logically related areas together a bit more clearly.

A more clearly defined Technical Queries forum would also be a good idea I think, whether that be by creation of a new forum or by adopting transadelaide's suggestion of consolidating & renaming the Help for Beginners and Steam Help forums

[transadelaide]

I still think having separate forums for Screenshots and Videos is a minor extravagance. Screenshots has relatively few active threads and Videos has relatively few regular contributors of videos, so I don't think anything would get lost in the shuffle by consolidating the two.

Agree 100% here. Doing that would also allow topical threads containing both videos and screenshots to be kept in one place only.

Another possibility could be to make Building Rolling Stock, Cab View Creation & Scenic Item Creation sub-forums of the 3D Modelling forum; again I think this just tidies up the top level of the Railworks area a bit and groups three logically related areas together a bit more clearly.

Not sure on making the Building Rolling Stock forum a sub-forum since there's so much more to it than just the modelling. It might work better in the long term as a top-level forum with cab views, sounds and physics sitting underneath it.

I like the sound of making things tidier, but I'm not sure that sub-forums (should that be fora? my spel chequer doesn't think so ) are a great idea because they aren't visible on the RW page. It would depend on how many people actually use that page, I know I don't regularly.

A more clearly defined Technical Queries forum would also be a good idea I think, whether that be by creation of a new forum or by adopting transadelaide's suggestion of consolidating & renaming the Help for Beginners and Steam Help forums

I think a dedicated tech forum would be a good thing, just as a way of keeping all the threads on that subject in the same place and easy to find answers, a bit like the FAQ in a way. Another way to look at it could be to say that the technical changes in recent times have replaced help with Steam as the largest single support issue.


I propose that the following shifts be made for now, with shifting of sub-forums a possibility later...

Merge - Screenshots and Videos. For reasons detailed above.

Merge and rename - Help For Beginners and Steam Help. For reasons detailed above, because there's a significant amount of overlap and not enough traffic that they need to be split. However, I do think it was a good decision to set them up that way initially though, considering that for the majority of RW users it was their first time using Steam.

[Rockdoc2174]

As a relative newcomer I haven't found the current structure too difficult to understand. One thing I would like, though I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't impossible, would be to have the ability to set a flag or flags in my profile for my simulator(s) so that when I do a search I only get relevant posts. It's a trivial point but I don't have any interest in other sims than the one I have.

Keith

[nobkins]

Hi Keith,

You can achieve the result you desire by visiting the advanced search page.

If you are inside a specific forum then the search box on the left a few inches down (rather than the one on the top right) will only search posts within that forum.

Not quite as easy as your suggestion but might help you if you don't already know what I have highlighted

Jim

[Rockdoc2174]

Jim, it was just a thought. I visit the site several times a day and always use the new posts 'button' at the top of the index screen - something I do at most sites I use. I may not be much interested in other sims than RW but I assume there will be interesting threads in other areas so my thought was to exclude some specific areas but retain the ability to see the general and RW areas from new posts. That said, it's no real trouble and occasionally reading an MSTS thread by mistake isn't going to ruin my day!

Keith

[nobkins]

I got you now Keith. Yes I use do the same thing with the "New Posts" option.

[ArjanS87]

Having a tech section on the forum would indeed be logical, since I see a lot of topics that could belong in here.

I also think it might be a a good idea to have a seperate sub-forum for (finished) routes.
That way you can get a bit of an overview what routes are being made and are already available and whether there are updates.
Ofcourse there is a Route Building sub-forum, but I see that more literally for topics about the building of routes (how-to topics).
Same can maybe apply to rolling stock, items and so on...

Just my 2 cents anyways

[TransportSteve]

Hmmm, personally, I can agree that some of the subforums could be merged, and a sort of PC-Laptop IT/Technical subsection be created, but, my main gripe is that when folks post a new thread (quite often in the General RW Discussion) they are very vague, as in titles like - I've got a problem!!! Well, that certainly doesn't help anyone as we don't know if the problem is with your computer, the tools in editor, a Steam website account issue, taking screenshots, or, installing reskins onto default stock, may we have a better understanding of everyone's queries and pleas for help if they are more concise with their postings, there's plenty of room for several words in the forum title field and that way the moderators can ensure it goes into the correct section and it's easier for a quick word search in the future, especially, when some of us get a similar problem and can find out how to resolve it without the need to start a new thread.

Cheerz. Transport Steve.