A couple of questions: Do we know if Minna will retain a link to these forums from the SSSS page once she's finished with that story? Or that she will provide a link to these forums on any of her new works?
The answers to those questions may be a deciding factor on the first two structures that include 1) "Minna's Comics" as a whole, and; 2) "Minna's New Stuff." In the event that it happens that no new traffic is being directed here, it might be easier to (sadly) lump these into the "Webcomics discussions" sub-boards.
Although we haven't had any explicit word from Minna about this subject as far as I know, I think we've been running on the assumption that Minna will not link this forum to her new works - this is, after all, the 'Stand Still Stay Silent' fan forum and not the 'All-Inclusive Works of Minna' fan forum. We won't be asking her to link the forum to her new works, and Minna does seem aware that many SSSS fans are unlikely to be the target demographic of the new direction which her work is taking. I do think it is fairly likely that the link will remain on the SSSS page, though, so that might provide some amount of new users.I think you're right, Keep
JoB, do you mean users having to apply to access a board about a certain "universe", even if it's rating is normal (opt-in) or the ability to choose to hide that item from their tree (opt-out)?Opt-in, opt-out, invitation-only in special cases; per board (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?action=profile;area=ignoreboards;u=10) or through group memberships (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?action=profile;area=groupmembership;u=10); those are technicalities that should IMHO be decided on later, as those mechanisms will likely not get introduced right now, either. All I'm saying is that if we foresee that people will want to have X drop beyond their individual horizon, and if the mechanism is hinged on the tree of (sub)topics, we would need to have the new structure we're picking now reflect that. (And that we'll likely want this kind of per-member visibility to be a self-administered setting, of course, rather than creating a new workload for the admins.)
I don't know if the later is easy to implement, but it may become more interesting if the Forum grows substantially. I'd let things as they are and see what happens. I'm sure we will have to make more adjustments as this place shifts from "Minnacentric" to a more general approach.
I'm also not so concerned with what the structure of the "tree" looks like. But I think we should consider the option, if the forum starts to have a lot of people following a small number of other works, to move such other works to a position equivalent to that of SSSS: that is, a general 'other works' grouping for those that have only a few followers and those that most are just starting to explore and don't know whether they'll follow, but a specific grouping named for the work or author for anything that's attracted a large consistent following.
This was one of the ideas we have been upholding among the staff: if and when some other fandom or issue gathers enough following, it will have a board (perhaps a child board to start with). But we don’t want to go guessing and setting up boards now, rather let it grow organically to see which fandoms warrant their own areas.
One of the key questions is whether we want to keep SSSS or Minna’s comics in a category of its own, or include with all the other stories and fandoms into the “Words and Stories” (or whatever we want to call it) category. This will also influence (although not dictate) what happens with Minna’s new works. So this is something we are particularly keen to hear opinions on.
[. . . ]
An opt-out feature for potential new boards would be good, if it’s possible (I have no idea)
This page lets you ignore particular boards. When a board is ignored, the new post indicator will not show up on the board index. New posts will not show up using the "unread post" search link (when searching it will not look in those boards) however, ignored boards will still appear on the board index and upon entering will show which topics have new posts. When using the "unread replies" link, new posts in an ignored board will still be shown.
I personally don’t like the idea that all new fandom boards would be opt-in. That will most likely result in much less traffic in those boards and the “cross-pollination” effect we are hoping for will be diminished.
One of the key questions is whether we want to keep SSSS or Minna’s comics in a category of its own, or include with all the other stories and fandoms into the “Words and Stories” (or whatever we want to call it) category. This will also influence (although not dictate) what happens with Minna’s new works. So this is something we are particularly keen to hear opinions on.Regarding this: "Words and Stories" separated based on the author, rather than the individual webcomics? That way "Minna Sunderberg" would have a topic with child sub-topics of her individual works; likewise for "Anni K." or "KB Spangler" or "Dave Warren" or ... you get the idea. Some might only have one work, some might have several.
I just hope that restructuring doesn't involve too many changes in aesthetics! The purple and blue theme of the forum seems to be somewhat linked to SSSS, so I'm not sure how it would work once we move away from that topic specifically. What'll be the background picture? What font will we use? Etc... But the thing that I like about the current theme is that it's a great relief on my eyes. There's a push for more high-contrast themes with no drop shadows in web design in general, but I found it very unpleasant because I have a terrible astigmatism :P (makes the words all fuzzy if there's too much contrast) I think it's a pretty common condition, but I'm not sure how many forum users also have eyesight this bad.
Also, Tarnagh, I second what Jitter said about sorting by author - it's not a system that would be good to apply for everything, as many works either don't have a singular author or aren't strongly associated with the author's name. However, it might be a good system for specific authors with multiple works whose names are recognisable - as Jitter said, it can't be applied to everything but it's a good idea where it works.
Thank you Songbird for your frank viewpoints! It’s very interesting to see how it looks when coming in from outside. One of the reasons for the apparent silence is that the Personal board is invisible to the newest newbies - I understand well why this is, but your comments point to a problem!
I agree that there seems to be some reluctance towards creating new threads. When this is combined with people apologizing for thread necromancy, it sometimes seems a bit like “we are Just Fine with these conversations, please do not disturb us”. I don’t think this is very conducive for new users to become active! So far we have users coming in and traffic happening from the SSSS updates, but if we are serious about diversifying we have to give the air to encourage people to also start new discussions.
As far as structuring the fan art: I think the only suggestion I've got to make there is that it should allow for some people possibly wanting to do crossover works.I think any crossover would fit well into the proposed categories of Art or Writing. If it turns out that are many crossovers we can consider, in the Future, a dedicated child board.
I just hope that restructuring doesn't involve too many changes in aesthetics! The purple and blue theme of the forum seems to be somewhat linked to SSSS, so I'm not sure how it would work once we move away from that topic specifically. What'll be the background picture? What font will we use? Etc...I believe nobody thought much about aesthetics yet, mostly because we're not planning to change the name in the coming restructuring. If (or, more probably, when) we come to that point I see no problem in keeping the overall scheme and switching the SSSS-related pics for others. We could even make a call for submissions for the many excellent artists we have in the Forum, asking for creations that match well with the current colour scheme.
No reason why there couldn’t be threads for authors though! It is a good idea where it works.I agree with Jitter and Keep Looking. It will work better when an author has it's own "universe" of stories, and has a well-known name, like Tolkien. It's hard to work for multi-author franchises like Warhammer 40K (BTW Wikipedia credits Rick Priestley and Alessio Cavatore for the creation). Implementing a tag system, as Songbirds suggested, sounds good, but I don't know how much work is needed to do that.
Some notes:On my understanding from the third structure ("last example"), it's clear that writing techniques discussions would go to the new "Academy" board.
- The general category description needs a tweak to make it clear this is the board to talk about existing media and the types that go there (comics, books, games (...). The way it's currently phrased in the example could be taken as an invitation to discuss writing techniques and more, what I believe goes in the Creative Area.
- It bothers me a little that SSSS is in the same category as other content but I can't think of a better alternative.
- Does PerSSSonas really need its own board? I'm torn on this one. While I feel it should go under the SSSS sub-category since one exists it also belongs to the Roleplay genre and together with an upcoming non-SSSS game it would be a good opportunity to start populating that board. Empty boards are intimidating.
- It'd be nice to have a link to the rules thread in the navigation bar or a in forum-wide sticky thread.
Yuuago, these structures are not set in stone as alternatives yet!Exactly. I see the SSSS Art Museum going to the "Art/Audiovisual Media" board, while the Forum Art Museum would go to the "Original Art" child board. Same for writings and the Scriptorium. I believe the Creative Area would be a great and stimulating place, particularly by inviting artists to try other sources of inspiration (and crossovers too).
The current idea is that also SSSS fanworks would go into the Creative area. The current Art Museum and Scriptorium threads would be moved there as seed content.
The idea is to give more visibility to the creative content and perhaps encourage more of it.
I would like to propose adding an "Events" board to the Creative Area. Advent Calendars, Chapter Break Fillers, Yoinktobers and the like tend to mix writing and visual arts, so they wouldn't fit exactly in neither category. It could also give them more attention. After some time (a month? two?) they would be locked and moved to their own space in the Archive, as proposed in the third option.
As for the events, I would lock them but keep them in the board especially if it’s dedicated just for events. Or maybe archive like two years after it’s finished or something like that. The Art Museum and Scriptorium threads have years and years of content, no reason why the events should disappear quickly.Yes, I agree! We don't have that many events after all. If we keep having 4 or 5 events each year there's no reason to hurry in archiving them. And two years seems reasonable.
After locating it I then tried to determine what other sort of non-SSSS we had going here and found it was almost nothing at all. It took over a month for a thread unrelated to any of her works to pop up in the unread threads.
There were no dedicated sections, barely any active threads and no new threads in weeks either. I also stumbled on the occasional oddly-worded post implying the need for permission to create new threads—what took me to another trip to the stickies and general forum rules—and not rare apologies for veering off-topic in existing threads made without the attempts to create new threads. It felt as if there's this cloud of silence hanging over the forums people hesitate in disturbing, specially when it comes to content outside SSSS. New people operate by example, if the role model is not making noise that's what will keep happening. And this quietude is not by design, it's just status quo doing its thing.
As for the events, I would lock them but keep them in the board especially if it’s dedicated just for events. Or maybe archive like two years after it’s finished or something like that. The Art Museum and Scriptorium threads have years and years of content, no reason why the events should disappear quickly.
Yeah, I never got the point of archiving things. Locking event threads after the event that has passed - sure. But leave them in the category they belong to, so that someone who browses the category can see the forum has a history of doing X event, and can see how it was done over the years, instead of having to figure out there's also an archive where things are moved.
Yeah the archive is kind of a mess, I think one of the main things that will be changed in the restructuring (and the reason we'll need skald help), is sorting the archived threads and moving them to their respective boards.You mean unarchiving everything? I'm not complaining, just curious. Also I think this process (total or partial) wouldn't have to be done in a hurry. We could focus first in the restructuring, and later began moving the archived threads to their new locations.
You mean unarchiving everything? I'm not complaining, just curious. Also I think this process (total or partial) wouldn't have to be done in a hurry. We could focus first in the restructuring, and later began moving the archived threads to their new locations.
Hi everyone! :)
This seemed the thread most fit to ask...
I just realized that the events-board and with it the current chapter-break-special doesn´t show unless you´re logged in. I think I recall a conversation somewhere to keep older events visible for everyone so it´s easier to join in. Therefore: is it supposed to be this way? I might have overread something, but I´m just asking to be sure. ^^'
Butter good! :squirrelcookie:
Yes, it's meant to be this way! Since the events board has a lot of older/previously archived boards, and archive stuff is generally not visible to guests, we decided it'd be best to hide it from that category in order to respect the people who've participated in events in years gone by (as we've got events going back nearly to the start of the forum) and might not be comfortable with that stuff being visible to the whole internet anymore. It does mean that guests can't see our current/ongoing events, which is a bit annoying, but we figured it's more important to have a cohesive events board for the forum users.