Ok, so this isn't really all that "off-topic", but the OT Forum has always been the most popular, and it's easy to see new posts on it being that it's near the top nowadays.
I like our forum edit, in some ways. But agree, despite having all of our old posts back, it still needs work. LoneRanger basically did this whole thing on a whim, without telling any of the staff until after the damage was done. So we never really got a chance to give our input to him, and neither did you guys - teh fans.
So I'm asking you now, to make up for it. This "new" forum is very much a work in progress, so we're open to anything. Page deletion, page move, new pages, etc. Here are some of my ideas:
-- Deletion of the Marathon page. LoneRanger likes Marathon, we know that. But does a Halo related site really need an entire forum dedicated to it? I think not.
-- Deletion of the Bungie page. It's a stretch, but I think anything Bungie (rants, raves, etc.) can go under the Halo page. Not that we've had any Bungie discussion anyway..
-- Editing of names. The current batch are just way too vague and, to put it bluntly, strange. I think a more formal format is in order.
-- Having two Categories, and that's it. The Lounge, and Submissions. An easy-to-read, easy to jump in to format was what was planned for this forum overhaul, but it obviously never came to fruition.
-- Deletion of the Poems and Art page. If there's nothing about them on the site, why have them here? Poems can go under fan-fiction anyway, but it's not like we've had that many (read: any) submitted to us anyway.
Ideas? Thoughts? Ramblings? Your opinion matters, and I'd definitely like to hear from everyone! I know this forum problem has driven many away, but we're definitely looking to improve the forum for newcomers this time around. Make it easy to just hop in to as we become bigger and bigger.
I'm not really a regular in these forums so I'm just going to go from my experience. Many small sites make the mistake of creating a forum with 100 subcategories. Categories should be used and added when the activity rises to such an extent that the current categories can no longer handle them, i.e. threads being moved back to page 2, 3, 4 etc. too quickly so that people don't have a chance to see that they ever existed. A less active forum such as this one should in my opinion be fine with simply one or two categories/subforums.
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Michael "Fluffaluffer" Karlsson | Planet Halo Site Director
We can probably get rid of all the "Recreation" pages. That's due to the fact that we should probably put up stronger support for simply driving the submission system through E-mail.
We can get rid of "The Bungie Lore." That could very simply just be incorporated into either the Halo or Marathon pages.
Speaking of Marathon, I have mixed feelings over whether it should stay. We have a telling quote from Alex Seropian that supports it...
To wrap it up, Id be remiss in not asking this question just because you were in on the ground floor at Bungie. In a recent podcast either Retronauts or GFW Radio they discussed the possible connections between Halo and Marathon . Is there any connection besides some terminology?
Uh. [Silence] Maybe.
I think that if there are answers to be revealed, theyll be revealed this year.
But Bungie has repeatedly said that the two universes are completely unrelated, simply sharing naming structures and vague asthetic similarities.
How does this sound, for us? (Names are simply generalizitions)
* Halo * Off-Topic * The UNSCDF
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