Hypothetical forum reorganization: what does it look like?

[Forlorn Drifter]

As far as dealing with threads that become "outdated", I think allowing them to be pushed farther back is enough. For example, the Sim City Prototype thread would be pushed farther down/out of the first page over time, assuming enough new threads were coming through (the goal we hope to achieve). Similarly, with modern games becoming retro, by the time something such as PS4 becomes "retro", the first 5 pages of the modern forum (at least) should no longer hold PS4 threads, so I think rearranging the threads at that point is just creating work for no reason.

Of course, I don't have to make mod decisions, so I could be completely wrong.

[Nemoide]

I want to bump this thread because IMO as time goes by it just becomes more glaringly obvious that this forum has way too many subforums! I previously suggested we go down to 8 subforums but now I really think we ought to take a machete to the different categories and have only four:
Retro Gaming (at least 10 years old)
Modern Gaming (less than ten years old)
Genera/Off-topic
Buy/Sell/Trade

Together Retro could be a sticky thread in the Retro Gaming forum. Hardware discussion can be General. Game Deals that aren't between forum members can be in General. Hardware like Analogue Pocket could be under Retro Gaming while the Playdate could be Modern Gaming.

As things stand, I think our excess of subforums hides topics from users who don't think to check them, intimidates people from making threads that might be in the wrong section. We are absolutely not so busy that we need so many different sections. I know there was a lot of concern about losing forum history by getting rid of older sections, but I'd rather these forums be a welcoming place for retro game discussion than some musty museum where we can point to mostly defunct threads from years ago and say "here's where we used to post about platformers"

[o.pwuaioc]

I want to bump this thread because IMO as time goes by it just becomes more glaringly obvious that this forum has way too many subforums! I previously suggested we go down to 8 subforums but now I really think we ought to take a machete to the different categories and have only four:
Retro Gaming (at least 10 years old)
Modern Gaming (less than ten years old)
Genera/Off-topic
Buy/Sell/Trade

Together Retro could be a sticky thread in the Retro Gaming forum. Hardware discussion can be General. Game Deals that aren't between forum members can be in General. Hardware like Analogue Pocket could be under Retro Gaming while the Playdate could be Modern Gaming.

As things stand, I think our excess of subforums hides topics from users who don't think to check them, intimidates people from making threads that might be in the wrong section. We are absolutely not so busy that we need so many different sections. I know there was a lot of concern about losing forum history by getting rid of older sections, but I'd rather these forums be a welcoming place for retro game discussion than some musty museum where we can point to mostly defunct threads from years ago and say "here's where we used to post about platformers"

100% agree with the sentiment, but instead of a constantly moving line that defines retro or modern, I'd go with a very hard line. Pre-2000s gaming vs. 2000s+ gaming, or something like that. Or maybe 5th gen and below vs. 6th gen and above.

[marurun]

In that case, it would probably be best not to use the terms “retro” and “modern”.

Otherwise I think I do largely agree with the sentiment at this point. I do wish we had something like a tagging system with pre-made tags, so you could tag posts by system or genre (or both)

[o.pwuaioc]

In that case, it would probably be best not to use the terms “retro” and “modern”.

Otherwise I think I do largely agree with the sentiment at this point. I do wish we had something like a tagging system with pre-made tags, so you could tag posts by system or genre (or both)

The forum software itself is a bit dated. We could upgrade to whatever AtariAge uses to get fancy bells and whistles, though the site has a fraction of their traffic, so I'm not sure it's worth the investment.

And I'd definitely be in favor of chucking the retro title. "Classic gaming" vs. "Modern gaming" is a better bifurcation.

[Anapan]

I think a simple software upgrade (I say simple, but I would be willing to pay a software dev to fix problems) would be pleasant for searches.
I have always liked the specifics the forums allowed, but since the tables have aged it does seem necessary to turn them toward conciseness.
The attendance can't be helped, but this is still a very important cache of information.
The functionality must be kept.
lol I'm high I helped none but at least I took part and summarized some well-known facts...
gonna eat another mushroom...

[Ziggy]

I love you, Anapan.

[Jagosaurus]

I don't really think sub-forums are the root cause. Go take a look at Atari Age forums. They have probably 4x the # of sub-forums compared to RB. They have 122 active members online as I type this + 800 guest.

AA somehow managing to thrive in the reddit & Discord age. Maybe because Al (owner) helps pulish homebrew games and has an active store? Drives community to site perhaps.

[marurun]

Didn’t AtariAge get sold to that company that has the skeevy grading/auction scam?

[stickem]

I don't really think sub-forums are the root cause. Go take a look at Atari Age forums. They have probably 4x the # of sub-forums compared to RB. They have 122 active members online as I type this + 800 guest.

AA somehow managing to thrive in the reddit & Discord age. Maybe because Al (owner) helps pulish homebrew games and has an active store? Drives community to site perhaps.

I'm sure their store helps traffic a shit ton. You got all the people involved with those games as members, all the retro youtubers, most atari people are older and not switching boards because it's the "in" thing, plus atari is a specific topic where this is whatever retro.