We developers would like to bring up an seemingly escalating problem. At the moment a big part of our forum threads have a tendancy of becoming a bit messy. In this topic I would like to give a few tips and tricks when posting, which might improve your chances of getting your post read.
1) Compact discussions equals good threads
Have you ever encountered a thread running for 10+ pages which subject you find a bit interesting? Do you read all pages to get a grip of the full discussion? I assume that in most cases you would answer "no". Personally I always read the last posts on the last page, and sometimes the first posts on the first page. Huge threads tends to become unmanageable like this after a while, and the middle posts just disappear in the hoard of messages. These giants can sometimes be avoided.
When creating a thread, a thing to remember is to keep your topic as non-generic as possible. I will give you an existing example:
Questions (a common mistake, no harsh feelings towards the author)
I have seen too many threads of this kind. They bring up a too generic topic that basically could fill up a whole forum. As you can see the posts in this thread just keeps on bringing up more and more new questions, and it is way too hard to keep track of the different questions.
Another example of a too generic thread would be a thread with the subject "Bugs". If everyone would post their bugs in here, we developers would never be able to keep track of each single bug. You (as the poster of the bugs) would also have a very hard time tracking the status of your bug.
Another reason for gigantic threads is as follows.
2) Dont drift off-topic
Just like the previous point, this problem make threads unnessecary big. Keeping on-topic is a very important thing to do, and at the moment we seem to be getting worse and worse at it. Out of the many topics I've seen sofar that has drifted off-topic, one of the most recurring problems is when someone brings up an comparison to another game (often LoL, DotA or HoN) which sometimes leads to a discussion totally about that game. Do not misunderstand me though, comparing/discussing other games is not a problem, just as long as the discussion stays on topic in a topic dedicated to that discussion.
Edit: Noticed that this actually is stated in our Rules/Guidelines (which i hope that most of you have read).
Forum Rules and Guidelines - Must Read wrote:Please do…
* Keep your posts on-topic
3) Write good subjects for your threads
A good subject often gets you a long way when trying to get your thread read. Your subject should explain the contents of your thread, leaving the reader with a basic understanding of the thread when having read just the subject. Here follows a few examples of some good subjects, and of some that are.. not so good.
Subjects which are quite bad
Beta? - What does this thread wants to discuss about the beta? I would instead suggest something like "Any new information on the beta?"
Bloodline Champions - Reading this subject, what would you think that this thread contains? Take a look and see if you were right
Better subjects
How long did it take you to get accepted into the beta? - I dont think anyone misunderstood what this thread is discussing. Good subject.
Melee Bloodlines - Attacking while moving? - Gives the reader a good understanding of what the thread wants to discuss.
Trust me, coming up with a good subject for your thread isn't that hard. In some cases it might feel hard to explain what you want to discuss, but I'm confident in that you can find a subject that at least doesn't leave the reader clueless.
4) Avoid creating multiple threads about the same subject
At the moment we get quite many threads/questions concerning the same things (mostly about the beta). The following questions are quite common:
- When does the beta start?
- How will we get notified about the beta applications?
- I got invited to beta through mail! How do i play the game?
Pro tip: Try searching before posting new threads. I just tried and it worked like a charm. The search window actually even complained that simply searching for "beta" was a too common word.
Conclusion
Simply put, spend a few seconds of final thought to your posts. It will not only improve your posts, it will push the community towards a good direction.
We will never reach an utopia where we have a perfect forum though, "bad posts" will never cease to exist. To tackle the problem, we have had some small discussions on appointing moderators which can help point the discussions in the correct direction. This will be most probably be addressed in a near future.
To give a bit of impact on how important we feel that this is for our community, we have decided to award something for posting with a good standard. I have read almost all posts on this forum, and have decided on a personal favourite post.
Aaand the winner is!
Questions about Fear mechanics in BLC
Motivation: This thread brings up a unique and interesting discussion. The initial post might be short, but even so it gives a compact and well formulated description, both in the subject and in the post.
The author of the winning post will be rewarded with guaranteed beta access.
Congratulations SilverSeraphim!
PS.
The decision of the winner is final, we will not reward more posts at this moment. Contributing to a good community will always make you raise in our eyes though (which might lead to other rewards
).PPS
4) Avoid creating multiple threads about the same subject wrote:"I got invited through mail! How do i play the game?"
No, you have not gotten a beta invitation through mail. Most probably you confused it with the confirmation mail for the beta signup, which only tells you that we have recieved your application.
