Recent Topics

[eternalwhitemoon]

Hi!

Just a quick suggestion: I love the Recent Forum Posts part at the top of the main page and use it to peruse the site frequently. However, I've run into a bit of a problem, and I'm sure many others have as well. I click on a link that interests me, read the OP, start replying...and then don't notice it's in X forum that's completely irrelevant to me and changes my response, if it's even appropriate to respond at all.

I don't think the time stamp of the forum post is really necessary, so why not replace it with the forum it's placed under? Or add a third column? For instance:

Do you remember the promises that were made for Cataclysm? 01:28 PM

becomes

Do you remember the promises that were made for Cataclysm? [PVP] 01:28 PM

or just:

Do you remember the promises that were made for Cataclysm? [PVP]

Another example:

Remove Dual Wield Skill 01:29 PM becomes
Remove Dual Wield Skill [Death Knight]

This would eliminate a lot of off-topic posting and overall make it easier on mods. (Remember the WoG nerf discussion thread? Yeah, that was totally in the PVP forums, but over half the responses were from a PVE standpoint. Also, "Help my DPS!" threads where the first response is 'What's your class?" when it's posted in the class's forum, but because it's in X class forum the OP is not specific about the class. >.>)

The only problem I could see would be regards to the sizing, and there are two ways around it that I see:

1) Shorten the total title length. Some titles are overly lengthy anyway and I think we should encourage concise titles, but that's just me.

2) Create short versions of the forum name for this feature. Dungeons and Raids becomes Dungeons/Raids (or maybe simply PVE), General Off-Topic becomes General OT, Death Knight becomes DK, etc.

There is technically a third option to make the Recent Forum Posts area wider, which would also make titles easier to read, but I assume it's set up at those dimensions for a specific reason (probably advertising space).

[Sunshine]

I agree; it's difficult to see and the timestamps are probably not very useful in that case. Our goal was to put board icons, but I'm not sure what happened to that idea... I'll check up on it.

[eternalwhitemoon]

Icons! Why didn't I think of that?! Saves space, looks good, AND is a concise way to determine the forum. You can even have mouseover/hover text that states the full name so that people who are new to the icon system can simply hover over it to see the forum.

[Sunshine]

The hardest thing with icons is finding the best ones to represent each forum. Class forum ones are easy, but finding something to represent the others (general forum, RP forum, off-topic forums, etc.) is a bit more difficult. Hopefully we can figure something out, though!

[eternalwhitemoon]

I could totally figure something out.

General Discussions, if you won't get e-murdered for it, just the WoW icon.

Role Playing could be a book.

Raids and Dungeons a sword.

Achievements the little number icon with the leafy things.

PVP...well that one needs some thinking. Maybe a sad face, because PVP makes me sad. (I jest. PVP does make me sad, but it would make me sadder to see a sad face as the PVP icon.)

Professions could be the alchemy vial. (This guy.)

Interface could just be an [edit] Cogwheel, because Treeston said so and I think he's cool.

General Off-Topic could be that question mark you see in the Macros section when it's going to copy whatever ability you macro.

Fun Stuff is a party hat. Duh!

Computer obviously a monitor.

Video Games a generic console controller.

Sports soccer ball?

Cinema / TV Shows / Music / Books old-school cinema reel.

Suggestions and Feedback could just be a talking face. (You know, like those generic business Contact Us type icons.)

News a newspaper.

Guides Submission Rare and Uncommon could be Guides in blue for Rare and Guides in green for Uncommon. (Or if that's not icon-y enough, just G in blue or green, respectively. :P )

[Deleted]

I'll take my avatar for I&M. Or cogwheel icon thing.

[eternalwhitemoon]

Cogwheel would be better. Don't want to squish that poor Tauren face to unrecognizability D:

[Arcilux]

I agree it would be a good idea, but how can you read the OP and not realize what forum it belongs in? Unless its something like a topic of SoC and the OP is "sucks amirite?" you might not know if it is referring to seed of corruption for warlocks or the old seal of command for paladins, but usually if you read the original post you should know whether or not your reply is relevent, and even if the OP isn't enough information, you should read existing replies before replying yourself.

Now, as to whether or not you even want to read the forum post, then I could understand, but as for replying, you should have knowledge of what is going on before replying. Still, a good idea, and one I am looking forward to being implemented.

[eternalwhitemoon]

I agree it would be a good idea, but how can you read the OP and not realize what forum it belongs in? Unless its something like a topic of SoC and the OP is "sucks amirite?" you might not know if it is referring to seed of corruption for warlocks or the old seal of command for paladins, but usually if you read the original post you should know whether or not your reply is relevent, and even if the OP isn't enough information, you should read existing replies before replying yourself.

Now, as to whether or not you even want to read the forum post, then I could understand, but as for replying, you should have knowledge of what is going on before replying. Still, a good idea, and one I am looking forward to being implemented.

It's in cases where like I stated above:
"Do you remember the promises that were made for Cataclysm?" went on about how healers were supposed to OOM and how epics were going to be epic and so on, things that could equally apply to PVE and PVP. However, it was in the PVP forums, and the OP didn't specify that he was talking about PVP because of it, but people were just seeing it from the front page and replying. Because it was on the front page, there were a dozen-odd entries of PVE comments about the subject before the OP was like " I'm talking about PVP".

Also the topic "What refuses to drop for your raid?" which was in the Shaman forums, and the OP didn't mention that he was addressing Shamans specifically because of it, so everyone who clicked from the front page replied, Shaman or not. Fortunately, the OP was happy to share in other classes' frustrations.

TL;DR Because people actually put things in the correct forum from time to time, they don't feel the need to be very specific in the title or the OP (which is understandable), leading to confusion or misunderstanding for people that don't read the navigation tag and just read the title/OP.

[coldbear]

I am cold and I support this.

[Deleted]

Soon™. Promise.

[eternalwhitemoon]

Soon™. Promise.

Yay!

Let me know if I need to dig out any image files for use with this, or make them.