(Forum) A rework of the Suggestion section

[Desumi]

Hello fellow forumers! ^.^

 

I lately noticed the new forum update, which is a great way to expand the horizons of the community!

I personally have always loved Xenforo and its features, its neat and fascinating! :D

 

Now, this brings me over to a layout suggestion!

Which mainly are focusing on the suggestion section.

 

Why I suddenly wanted to suggest this?

I've been a part of a Minecraft community called The HiveMC, which have used XenForo for as long as I can remember on their forums.

I think these forums would also benefit from how they worked their suggestion section. Since its clean, easy to use and simple for both staff and members.

 

Time consuming? Popularity of the suggestion? Benefits? etc.

The suggestion would be a bit time consuming, but it all comes down to the skills and how much time the developers can dedicate.

On HiveMC a lot of people thought the new suggestion section worked better, because of how it worked compared to the old messy one.

The benefits of reworking the suggestion section is that it would display the suggestion privately (user and staff only) until its moved to public discussion or denied.

It would also remove the section that features the denied suggestions (because it would be private instead, would work more efficient this way).

And people would not be able to boost their post ratio on suggestions.. :P

 

 

Now... onto the suggestion itself!

 

Rework the suggestion section completely

I am pretty sure the community would appreciate a clean way to suggest something and reading about what was implemented to the game.

 

So how would this work?

First of all, you'd need to rework the sub sections of the forum's suggestion section (see example from HiveMC's forum style for a better understanding)

Divide it into 3 sections first:

- Public discussion

- Then a section where they submit their ideas, but includes two sub sections:

• Can read about what to include in the suggestion they are about to make
  
• And a thread with what is already coming to the server
  

- And a section where all the accepted ideas are stored, so people can read about them.

 

 

How will this system work compared to the current one?

The current system is based off on replies from the community and attention from staff members.

Which in overall are two common things you should not have, not that its wrong having it this way. Its just not clean and user friendly.

The new system would avoid those two things, until the thread itself is accepted by a staff/developer or opened for public discussion.

This would first of all keep suggestions private until they are accepted, or opened for public discussion just to state that.

 

About the types of suggestion state?

Accepted suggestion would be stored in a sub section where people can go in and read about what was implemented to the server.

Public discussion would serve as a way for the developers to ask the community if they think Pokemon Pro should work on that suggestion or not.

Denied suggestion would not be shown public, but only for the user who created it. This would clean up and remove a unnecessary section.

- And I personally think it would benefit users who don't dare to post a new suggestion because it would be visible to the community if denied.

 

What are the staff's job on this?

First of all, the staff do play an important role in this.

Depending on how the hierarchy works on Pokemon Pro, but tho it shouldn't matter too much.

The developers do have the final word on suggestions, as in moving them, locking them or otherwise opening them for public discussion.

However the other staffs here do have a voice on this and are able to comment on the suggestion, if they feel for it.

 

Note:

A suggestion should not be judged by the number of staff comments or if the suggestion perhaps lacks enough information.

But whether the final idea is doable or not and if the developers have enough time for it.

 

How would this be clean at all? Why not keep it as it is?

The current system is based on comment and hope for a reply by a staff member, right?

Its sadly not as clean, its a high risk your suggestion is overlooked and perhaps never looked at, at all. :(

Which can be struggling at times, if you really have a burning idea, which might be good...

But its overlooked because of many other active threads that were discussed in the meanwhile. (and bumping a thread shouldn't really be a option here)

 

I think that keeping things private would help staff sort out the suggestions that is not doable compared to those that might be, before letting the community reply on it.

Currently its just a pile of suggestions that people can post on before its even looked at by a staff. It would serve no purpose if the suggestion was not doable to start with. :(

Its also a easy way for members to easily boost their post ratings, which is kinda a cheap way to earn some trophy points. :/

It would give the developers a chance to think thoroughly about the raw suggestion. (and doesn't need to go through 1000 different replies on that suggestion)

 

 

Have I missed something?

Feel free to let me know below or start a conversation with me!

 

 

Thanks you for reading this suggestion! ^.^

- John | Electrocute4u

Edited February 28, 2018 by Electrocute4u

[Haneroze]

I do know that feeling. When I make a suggestion, it's a suggestion before all for the staff, not for the other members. So it's all a waste of time if there's no staff that even took a look at it. On that note, I think it's time to bump my threads that are sinking without any replies and barely any views, a thing I would not need to do with your suggestion.

 

I however see two problems with the new format you're suggesting:

 

1. If you hide the refused suggestions from other users, no one will know what has already been refused. If it's really necessary to hide the thread, it should at least be necessary to keep a thread updated with all the ideas that have been refused.

 

2. Certain users suggest things that are just super vague, and very easy to dismiss as non-doable. This is where a discussion with the other users first can be useful as they can help turn the idea into something realistic. For that purpose, maybe it could be useful to create another section where users can discuss an idea before submitting it to the staff.

[Desumi]

I do know that feeling. When I make a suggestion, it's a suggestion before all for the staff, not for the other members. So it's all a waste of time if there's no staff that even took a look at it. On that note, I think it's time to bump my threads that are sinking without any replies and barely any views, a thing I would not need to do with your suggestion.

 

I however see two problems with the new format you're suggesting:

 

1. If you hide the refused suggestions from other users, no one will know what has already been refused. If it's really necessary to hide the thread, it should at least be necessary to keep a thread updated with all the ideas that have been refused.

 

2. Certain users suggest things that are just super vague, and very easy to dismiss as non-doable. This is where a discussion with the other users first can be useful as they can help turn the idea into something realistic. For that purpose, maybe it could be useful to create another section where users can discuss an idea before submitting it to the staff.

 

Sad to hear about bumping, its really a very unnecessary thing to have IMO. :(

Well to address your points.

 

1. The way this worked on the other forums is that the staff kept a thread updated with what was already refused or coming to the server.

Tho the thread became very long and unclean. So they decided to keep it private instead. Since so many suggestions were sent it just cluttered up.

 

2. That is where the developers could potentially use my idea of opening a suggestion to the public (public discussion).

Otherwise the developers would ask the user on his/her thread in private (not for public) about the suggestion if it still lacks a bit of information.

Hence this:

Public discussion would serve as a way for the developers to ask the community if they think Pokemon Pro should work on that suggestion or not.

 

If they are uncertain or vague in any way, the developers can go to the community for ideas.

But mainly ideas would be considered by the developers if its a small doable idea and not very large and vague. ^_^

 

Anyway, thanks for being the first one to reply.

Great too see some feedback, since right now its not very much going on, on these sections of the forums. :P