Major change for forum categories / areas
Posted: 2008-12-08 17:53:44
With the new phpbb3 upgrade, we are finally capable to configure PMC Tactical forums to suit our needs.
Basically our forums expand into four different categories now, they are Armed Assault (ArmA), Armed Assault 2 (ArmA 2), Falcon 4 and Operation Flashpoint (OFP). Then we of course have the one basic PMC Tactical area which in fact you are reading right now.
Its mostly the case that Falcon 4 users aren't interested in ArmA discussion and ArmA users aren't interested in Falcon 4 discussions, so we should keep the forum as clean as possible that people only see what they want to see. This can be done by separating the main index page into categories by the game titles.
I'm planning on making these main categories to the forum so only these are visible when you first enter our forums:
PMC Tactical
Armed Assault (ArmA)
Armed Assault 2 (ArmA 2)
Falcon 4
Operation Flashpoint (OFP)
When user comes to the forum, this above list is only thing he sees. Now the user clicks the name of the game they want to read forum posts about. Then the areas in my plan would go as following:
PMC Tactical
- PMC Tactical News
Armed Assault (ArmA)
- ArmA Editing
- ArmA General (this was previous "ArmA News" area)
-- ArmA Missions (this was previous the PMC Campaigns area) (category)
--- PMC First Fight
-- ArmA Modifications (category)
--- Vietnam: The Experience (ArmA)
Armed Assault 2 (ArmA 2)
- ArmA 2 Editing
- ArmA 2 General (this was previous "ArmA 2 News" area)
-- ArmA 2 Missions (category)
--- PMC something
-- ArmA 2 Modifications (category)
--- Vietnam: The Experience (ArmA 2)
Falcon 4
- Falcon 4 General
-- Falcon 4 Editing (category)
--- Campaign
--- Terrain
--- Theater Tools
-- Falcon 4 PMC Theaters (category)
--- Afghanistan
--- Europe
--- Georgia
--- Iran
--- Kurile
--- Nevada
--- Operation Desert Storm
--- Taiwan
--- Vietnam
-- Falcon 4 Other Theaters (category)
--- Balkans
--- Falklands
--- Iceland
--- Israel
--- Korea
--- Panama
Operation Flashpoint (OFP)
- OFP General
-- OFP Editing (category)
--- WrpTool
-- OFP Missions (category)
--- PMC Baltic Command
--- PMC Dynamic CE
--- PMC Fury
--- PMC Hero's Path
--- PMC Joint Justice
--- PMC Ranger Path
-- OFP Modifications (category)
--- Vietnam: The Experience (OFP)
The above category and forum area list is the proposal I have at the moment, it can and most likely will change before I'm satisfied with it.
The good in this configuration would be that if you are only interested in lets say Falcon 4, you only click the "Falcon 4" category and that's all you need, there will be no ArmA/OFP topics shown in the forum then for you.
Of course, if you use view new topics or view active topics, those still would list all the category's so you cannot hide from them completely. Also search by default searches all categories and areas in the forum, unless you specifically only choose where you want it to search.
Anyways.
If anyone has any feedback or suggestions I'm interested to hear, this is sort of major change in the forums and definitely I want to know if someone has something to say about it. Who knows maybe I'm missing completely something obvious and I'm about to make a big mistake, so please let me know how this new configuration looks.
I'm planning on making this change once I'm completely comfortable with the categories and forum area names... this would most likely take few days I guess.
Just to make it clear; absolutely no posts will be deleted, everything is safe when this configuration change takes place, not to worry.
Basically our forums expand into four different categories now, they are Armed Assault (ArmA), Armed Assault 2 (ArmA 2), Falcon 4 and Operation Flashpoint (OFP). Then we of course have the one basic PMC Tactical area which in fact you are reading right now.
Its mostly the case that Falcon 4 users aren't interested in ArmA discussion and ArmA users aren't interested in Falcon 4 discussions, so we should keep the forum as clean as possible that people only see what they want to see. This can be done by separating the main index page into categories by the game titles.
I'm planning on making these main categories to the forum so only these are visible when you first enter our forums:
PMC Tactical
Armed Assault (ArmA)
Armed Assault 2 (ArmA 2)
Falcon 4
Operation Flashpoint (OFP)
When user comes to the forum, this above list is only thing he sees. Now the user clicks the name of the game they want to read forum posts about. Then the areas in my plan would go as following:
PMC Tactical
- PMC Tactical News
Armed Assault (ArmA)
- ArmA Editing
- ArmA General (this was previous "ArmA News" area)
-- ArmA Missions (this was previous the PMC Campaigns area) (category)
--- PMC First Fight
-- ArmA Modifications (category)
--- Vietnam: The Experience (ArmA)
Armed Assault 2 (ArmA 2)
- ArmA 2 Editing
- ArmA 2 General (this was previous "ArmA 2 News" area)
-- ArmA 2 Missions (category)
--- PMC something
-- ArmA 2 Modifications (category)
--- Vietnam: The Experience (ArmA 2)
Falcon 4
- Falcon 4 General
-- Falcon 4 Editing (category)
--- Campaign
--- Terrain
--- Theater Tools
-- Falcon 4 PMC Theaters (category)
--- Afghanistan
--- Europe
--- Georgia
--- Iran
--- Kurile
--- Nevada
--- Operation Desert Storm
--- Taiwan
--- Vietnam
-- Falcon 4 Other Theaters (category)
--- Balkans
--- Falklands
--- Iceland
--- Israel
--- Korea
--- Panama
Operation Flashpoint (OFP)
- OFP General
-- OFP Editing (category)
--- WrpTool
-- OFP Missions (category)
--- PMC Baltic Command
--- PMC Dynamic CE
--- PMC Fury
--- PMC Hero's Path
--- PMC Joint Justice
--- PMC Ranger Path
-- OFP Modifications (category)
--- Vietnam: The Experience (OFP)
The above category and forum area list is the proposal I have at the moment, it can and most likely will change before I'm satisfied with it.
The good in this configuration would be that if you are only interested in lets say Falcon 4, you only click the "Falcon 4" category and that's all you need, there will be no ArmA/OFP topics shown in the forum then for you.
Of course, if you use view new topics or view active topics, those still would list all the category's so you cannot hide from them completely. Also search by default searches all categories and areas in the forum, unless you specifically only choose where you want it to search.
Anyways.
If anyone has any feedback or suggestions I'm interested to hear, this is sort of major change in the forums and definitely I want to know if someone has something to say about it. Who knows maybe I'm missing completely something obvious and I'm about to make a big mistake, so please let me know how this new configuration looks.
I'm planning on making this change once I'm completely comfortable with the categories and forum area names... this would most likely take few days I guess.
Just to make it clear; absolutely no posts will be deleted, everything is safe when this configuration change takes place, not to worry.