Shaking things up a bit

[orudge]

In order to better reflect the popularity and the reality of the TT world these days, I've reordered the forum categories a bit. Previously, we had General / Transport Tycoon / Graphics / TTDPatch / OpenTTD / Locomotion / others. I've now switched it to General / OpenTTD / Graphics / Transport Tycoon / TTDPatch / Locomotion / others. If anybody is especially offended, or has a better idea of what to do, please let me know what you think by posting here.

Hopefully this may at least minimise OpenTTD posts in the general TT forums!

[FooBar]

That explains why I couldn't find the OpenTTD section at first

Anyways, I think it's a good idea, this new order of things.

[ChillCore]

Hopefully this may at least minimise OpenTTD posts in the general TT forums!

+1 for the change.


While you are shaking, would you mind shaking just a little more please?
Forgive me for abusing this topic but instead of bumping the old thread I thought it was better to link to it.
http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=50836

[Pilot]

So thats why I couldn't find everything where it normally is at first I thought. What the ....? Where is everything? lol.
Got used to it already though.

[JamieLei]

Yeah - I always wondered why TTDPatch was above OpenTTD all this time...!

[orudge]

While you are shaking, would you mind shaking just a little more please?
Forgive me for abusing this topic but instead of bumping the old thread I thought it was better to link to it.
http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=50836

Well, go on, then.

Yeah - I always wondered why TTDPatch was above OpenTTD all this time...!

Mainly because OpenTTD was the "new kid on the block", and I'm reluctant to change things, I suppose! We have made some small changes over the years - introducing the separate NewGRF forums was probably the biggest one, and I decided that it was about time that OpenTTD, as by far the most popular game discussed on the forums, was moved up a bit today! Probably should have happened a while ago, but ah well.

[ChillCore]

Thank you very much for moving the AI section up.

[Purno]

I guess most of it makes sense, but I'm wondering about the Screenshots & Scenarios forum. It now sunk down below OpenTTD, while I suspect it's still very popular (even though it's categorized under Transport Tycoon), additionally, I find the screenshot forum just in between OpenTTD and TTDpatch forums a bit silly.

The rest seems to make sense and just needs a bit "getting used to"

[michael blunck]

I've now switched it to General / OpenTTD / Graphics / Transport Tycoon / TTDPatch / Locomotion / others [...]
I decided that it was about time that OpenTTD, as by far the most popular game discussed on the forums, was moved up a bit today!

If that´s really the guideline, the TTDPatch section would have to be moved in front of "Transport Tycoon". And how about Locomotion?

[edit]

Code: Select all

Number of posts:

OTTD        16209
Locomotion  5465
TTDPatch    4583
TTD         4009
agmtt       3409
graphics    2923
screenshots 1007
TE          525
Simutrans   202
..

[/edit]

regards
Michael

[Purno]

Indeed, how much are the Transport Tycoon forums still used (apart from the Screenshot forum)? Is it still used enough to deserve it's own lots of forums, instead of combining them all into one forum (with subforums perhaps)? I don't really know as I don't visit those forums myself, but I don't expect a lot going on there. Got any data on that Owen? (like the amount of posts each month perhaps?)

[orudge]

If that´s really the guideline, the TTDPatch section would have to be moved in front of "Transport Tycoon". And how about Locomotion?

At first, I did put the TTDPatch section above Transport Tycoon. However, weirdy pointed out that the Screenshot and Scenario forums are these days more active than the TTDPatch forums, which would appear to indeed be true. So I decided to swap them over. Admittedly, the other forums in that category aren't busy at all, and the TTDPatch forums 'ought' to be ahead of them, but apart from splitting the screenshots and scenarios forums into their own standalone category, there's not a great deal I can do there.

With regards to Locomotion, in terms of the activity there these days compared with the activity in the TTDPatch forums, it should probably be ahead of TTDPatch as well. I left Locomotion where it is for now, though, although if people think it may be a good idea, I can swap those around too.

I don't have specific "activity" figures for the forums, but a quick glance at the viewforum pages for each of the TTDPatch forums shows at best a dozen or so topics that have been posted to this year in each forum, whereas the Locomotion forums have at least a full page each of updated topics from this year. I could get actual post numbers for this year for each forum, I guess.

[Eddi]

but apart from splitting the screenshots and scenarios forums into their own standalone category, there's not a great deal I can do there.

i would be in favour of splitting off here, screenshots and savegames is already a sub-sub-forum, it could be moved up a bit in the hierarchy, to be equal to the Transport Tycoon section, and thus split off. it could also then get a "link/redirect" in the openttd/ttdpatch sections, like the graphics forum

[orudge]

OK, so statistics showing the number of posts since 01/01/2011 00:00 UTC:

Code: Select all

TTDPatch section:

General       129
Problems       77
Suggestions    29

= 235 posts

Locomotion section:

General       658
Problems      539
Beginners     227
Scenarios     436
Graphics     2291

= 4,151 posts

Transport Tycoon section:

General       197
TTO            21
TTD            77
Problems       52
Screenshots  3110
Scenarios     418

= 347 posts (excluding screenshots/scenarios)
= 3,875 posts total

So, even excluding the scenarios and screenshots forums, the Transport Tycoon section has actually been more active than the TTDPatch section. (How many of those posts were misplaced OpenTTD posts is perhaps another matter, to be fair.) By rights, the Locomotion section should be above both of those categories, but I would kind of prefer to keep all the TT forums together.

[Purno]

but apart from splitting the screenshots and scenarios forums into their own standalone category, there's not a great deal I can do there.

i would be in favour of splitting off here, screenshots and savegames is already a sub-sub-forum, it could be moved up a bit in the hierarchy, to be equal to the Transport Tycoon section, and thus split off.

I think the screenshot forum is indeed active enough to deserve it's own forum, more than a lot of the other forums already on the main index page (like most of the Transport Tycoon and Transport Empire categories). And perhaps we could even make a combined screenshot forum for the other games as well (like LoMo?). And considering most screenshots posted are from OpenTTD, can't it be put in that category? I'd be surprised if a few TTDpatch shots are bothering the OpenTTD users

I think the current location doesn't justify the popularity of the screenshot forum, but I can see you have troubles finding a fitting location, so I'm just thinking along mentioning options.

it could also then get a "link/redirect" in the openttd/ttdpatch sections, like the graphics forum

I'm not too fond of those link/redirect sections; they increase the size of the index unnecessarily, but I imagine they're useful as temporary redirects to give people some time to get used to the new location of the forums. I wouldn't like to keep them though, personally.

[orudge]

For completeness, statistics of the other forums:

Code: Select all

Read These First:

News            234
FAQ/Help Centre   4

= 238

General:

Suggestions     301
Transport      2533
Off-Topic      8083
Forum Games    9549

= 20,466

OpenTTD:

General        4144
Problems       2599
Suggestions    1965
AI              788
Development    3344

= 12,840

Graphics:

Release        1393
Development    8626
Technical      1017
32-bit          434

= 11,470

Transport Empire:

General          35
Development       2
Coding            2
Graphics          2

= 41

Other Games:

Simutrans        14
Transport Giant   6
3DTT             40
Zugspiel          1

= 61

What I potentially could do is create a "Scenarios and Saved Games" category, or at least split those two subforums into top-level forums in the Transport Tycoon section. At the same time, I may consider moving all the non-General TE forums into the General TE forum, and moving that into the Other Games forum - should the project come to life a bit more, the category can always be reinstated.

[Eddi]

it could also then get a "link/redirect" in the openttd/ttdpatch sections, like the graphics forum

I'm not too fond of those link/redirect sections; they increase the size of the index unnecessarily, but I imagine they're useful as temporary redirects to give people some time to get used to the new location of the forums. I wouldn't like to keep them though, personally.

the point of these redirects is that when someone enters through http://forum.openttd.org he will not get any forum sections outside the OpenTTD section, so these people would completely miss the screenshots/scenarios section of the forum.

[orudge]

Maybe now that the OpenTTD forums are at the top of the page, the OpenTTD forum redirect can be changed to redirect to the home page?

[Purno]

What I potentially could do is create a "Scenarios and Saved Games" category, or at least split those two subforums into top-level forums in the Transport Tycoon section.

I think a "Scenarios and Saved Games" category (is that going to include screenshots?) is the most interesting category for people who only play the games, but don't develop them. Personally I'm tempted to add this right below the General category.

[orudge]

Sorry, yes, it'd be "Transport Tycoon Screenshots, Scenarios and Saved Games" (since, of course, it wouldn't be for Locomotion games). It would likely go either underneath OpenTTD, or underneath Graphics Development, I guess.

[Purno]

It would likely go either underneath OpenTTD, or underneath Graphics Development, I guess.

Because it has less posts? Not sure the postcount is a good measurement for a screenshot forum which many people just read without posting. Is it any trouble asking for stats based upon viewcounts?

But apart from you and me stating our POVs, would be nice to see what others think