Should I tighten up the forums?

[Dominic]

My concern is that what we accept as obvious for "Unicron Trilogy" may not be clear to others, I know a few collectors who have no idea what that is referring to or consider AEC to be a true trilogy. And I certainly wouldn't accept folks knowing where Mighty Muggs and Robot Heroes should go. I am thinking of doing away with "The Now/Then" breakup, then "other" would remain as is. This is getting very convoluted when you work in stuff like Power Crap Combiners though, it's a little too much to be "other" and yet not good enough to deserve its own forum. I'm trying to tighten up the forums, and now it feels like we're talking about fattening it up.

"Robot Heroes" and the Muggs are just tertiary lines. Anyone who is looking for information on them would know to look/post in the "other" section. "Unicron Trilogy" is common terminology, and could be explained with short definitions.

Okay proposed forums set up:

Discussion by line:
-Generation 1 (1984-1992) Generation 2 ('94-95)
-Beast Era (1995-2002: Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Robots in Disguise and Machine Wars)
-Unicron Trilogy (2002-2006: Armada, Energon, Cybertron)
-Movie (2007 to current)
-Animated (2008 to 2009)
-Iterative lines (not defined by year, includes Classics, Universe, Generations, "Transformers" and various re-issues lines)
-Other (short run, secondary and tertiary lines: Alternators, Masterpiece, Legends, Heroes of Cybertron, Robot Hereos, Crossovers, whatever....)

TF Media:
-Movies (aka Bayverse)
-TF Shows: (we could move Crab's "revisiting Beast Wars" thread here to start it off"
-TF Comics and Novels:

General:
-Open Discussion. (Renamed "Talk Here Suckas")
-Comments and Questions.
-Sightings/Buying/Selling/Trading



Dom
-in no way plays at being a bad ass.

[Shockwave]

I propose this: Toys, Shows, Comics, Other Crap. Seriously though I really don't find anything wrong with the current set up. I mean has anyone really had any trouble finding where the appropriate place to post something is? Or where discussions on a certain topic are?

[Onslaught Six]

Only when there's something new and undefined, like PCC--and that's Hasbro's fault anyway.

I like where we're at now, but that's me. S'not broken, man, don't fix it.

[JediTricks]

I think I'm going to merge "The Now" and "The Then", but this talk of separating the entertainment from the toy lines is interesting, not something I have considered. I fear it'll fracture the existing conversations, and I wonder how one can separate the entertainment from the toy lines in their minds, but if there's a strong argument for it, I'll consider it.

I think the change will come when I get back from Comic-Con in a week, which coincides with TFV - year 3! (I started the site just before Comic-Con '08... on this day!)

[Onslaught Six]

Honestly I don't think I'd be that fond of that approach. If the majority rules the other way, I won't argue against it, but I like it how it is now.

When you do restructure, though, I'd suggest keeping the current stuff up at the top where it is now, regardless. One thing that always kinda miffed me about Ben's forum (when it was there) was that it was structured chronologically, and all the new stuff always ended up at the bottom--so you'd have to increasingly wade through this mush of old stuff that barely got discussion to get to the newer lines.

[Dominic]

In this case, the idea would be to have a section to talk about the comics and such away from the toys. There are plenty of comics and characters that do not have toys, and vice versa.

It is unlikely to fracture things much more. People who are in for the comics will will still be in for the comics, and people in for the toys will still be in for the toys.


Dom

[Shockwave]

I'm with O6, I think things are fine the way they are. I mean, let's face it, there's only about a hundred different ways things could be categorized and organized so, in the end, does it really matter?

[JediTricks]

Honestly I don't think I'd be that fond of that approach. If the majority rules the other way, I won't argue against it, but I like it how it is now.

Did you mean you wouldn't be fond of splitting entertainment from toys, or merging "then" and "now"?

When you do restructure, though, I'd suggest keeping the current stuff up at the top where it is now, regardless. One thing that always kinda miffed me about Ben's forum (when it was there) was that it was structured chronologically, and all the new stuff always ended up at the bottom--so you'd have to increasingly wade through this mush of old stuff that barely got discussion to get to the newer lines.

Absolutely agree.

In this case, the idea would be to have a section to talk about the comics and such away from the toys. There are plenty of comics and characters that do not have toys, and vice versa.

It is unlikely to fracture things much more. People who are in for the comics will will still be in for the comics, and people in for the toys will still be in for the toys.

But ultimately they're expressing the same goal. Look at Drift, we talked about Drift as a character and he became a toy, now we talk about him as 1 thing. Straxus, same thing. Hasbro sees the entertainment as being another part of the expression of the brand, not a separate expression.

I'm with O6, I think things are fine the way they are. I mean, let's face it, there's only about a hundred different ways things could be categorized and organized so, in the end, does it really matter?

I'm hung up on the fact that I have new lines to add to the forums this week, and it's starting to feel bloated, and I wonder if there's something I can do to make it better before I throw us into that end of the pool.

[andersonh1]

I'm hung up on the fact that I have new lines to add to the forums this week, and it's starting to feel bloated, and I wonder if there's something I can do to make it better before I throw us into that end of the pool.

As the number of sublines continue to grow, this will continue to be a problem. Which suggests that a method of dividing everything up not based only on related toylines needs to be adopted.

How about something like this?

G1, G2, BW, Bmac - all part of a single continuity, technically
A/E/C - Unicron Trilogy - same
Other - RID, Animated, Robot Heroes, Titanium, Alternators, Masterpiece - the one-shot lines, only tangentially related to other lines

If nothing else, that would collapse "The Then" into three forums instead of five.

[Dominic]

Organizing by context is a recipe for disaster, or at least headache. (Try sorting out what is in context with another thing.)

I still argue that (along with putting recent lines near the top) the most important bifurcation is toy:media. Just have 2 or 3 forums for discussing the cartoons, comics, shows whatever......


Dom
-unless the toyline itself is media specific....ala "Animated". And oi....