UESP Forums

Would it be possible to split this topic into UESP Site and UESP Forum? At the moment it's a bit of a split between the two, and from a purely selfish POV it would be great if there was one place where I could go to see questions being raised about the wiki site.

Nothing?

Sorry 'bout the delay, and thanks for the idea. But no, there's hardly any reason to do what you propose. If you look at the amount of topics in UESP Site, and compare it with other Folders, you can see that it's really a very small collection. In that amount of topics, they aren't that difficult to find - in the beginning they may be, but once you get a foothold, it's pretty easy to follow up. We need to keep the general look of index pages perceivable --- not necessarily the best of explanations, I know, but there it is.

More important would be for members to name their topics properly, so that search was easy. Whenever you start a topic, make it clear what you're looking for.

Personally, I think it's a good idea. One subforum called UESP Forums and the other called UESP Wiki. It's essentially the same principle as the Oblivion forum being split into Oblivion (gaming) and MOD-Oblivion (modding) subforums.

You can't rely on members to create a topic title which makes it easy for other members searching. Many members creating new topics aren't tech-savvy enough to think ahead that far in advance. Just look at the number of topics which start off entitled PLEASE HELP!!! or similar before a moderator changes the title to something that reflects what the topic is actually about.

Before you start saying, "But members will post in the wrong subforums and we'll have to move topics", that's another thing you can't rely on. Members will always do it. Just look at the number of times a moderator has to move a topic from Oblivion to MOD-Oblivion and vice versa.

It's all part of a moderators job. I know what I'm talking about because I used to BE a moderator, and moving/renaming topics were things I had to do despite the subforums having perfectly clear descriptions. There's no getting away from human nature. To err is human, as the old saying goes. Unfortunately, to correct is the moderator's job, and always will be.

Suggestion: At the top of every forum page's topics/posts list is the "navigation helper" which displays exactly which subforum you're looking at. Why not add the subforum description just below it? E.g...

forums.uesp.net >> Oblivion >> MOD-Oblivion

Discussions and questions about the CS and mods for Oblivion

This would help to make it clearer to members exactly which subforum they're in. I can't see this being difficult, just a bit of customisation of the template files used to generate the web page that we download.

Hope this helps.

Well, never say never... I have to check with others, what they think about splitting it.

The idea of a "navigation helper" is good, I think, it would certainly help new members.

I'll forward both.

You misunderstand, Andere. It's not an idea for a "navigation helper". It's an idea to improve the "navigation helper" that's already there at the top of all forum pages, which allows you to easily navigate the forum structure.

What I'm proposing is this (example for THIS page)...

The Board Index page lists the UESP Site forum area as follows...

UESP Site <--- name of forum area (clickable link)
A place for discussions and questions specifically about this Site <--- description of forum area (its purpose)

However, after clicking to enter that area, ALL pages within it show the "navigation helper" as follows...

forums.uesp.net Board index » UESP » UESP Site <--- clickable links

What's lacking is the description of the UESP Site forum area, which would help members to understand its purpose. Most members (like myself) only navigate once via the Board Index to the forum area we want. After that, we simply bookmark the topics list page so we can come straight back to it. This saves navigating via the Board Index every time, so is more convenient and much faster. However, because we're bypassing the Board Index which contains the forum descriptions, and because pages within forum areas lack the forum descriptions, we never see the forum descriptions! In fact, we end up forgetting them!

The proposed change is simply to add the forum description below the "navigation helper", so that members will always know what the current forum area is for...

forums.uesp.net Board index » UESP » UESP Site <--- clickable links

A place for discussions and questions specifically about this Site <--- the description (for UESP Site)

This will appear at the top of every page within the UESP Site forum area, even when the Post Editor is being used! So there's no excuse for not knowing which forum area you're in or what its purpose is. You just look at the top of the page and it's staring you in the face.

Hope this helps to clarify things.

No, I didn't misunderstand you H8Ball, I just expressed myself badly.

Anyway, these ideas have been presented to the Moderator Squad. Both suggestions are, as far as I understand, impossible for moderators to realize - it takes Admin action to do it.

But like I promised: it has been forwarded, and I'll let you know as soon as I know.

Cheers, m8s.