Third-level forums

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tepples
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Third-level forums

Post by tepples »

People are requesting a sub-forum for the third competition. So this might be a good time for me to rearrange the forums to take advantage of a feature new in phpBB 3: third-level forums.

nesdev.parodius.com ran phpBB 2, which had a 2-level hierarchy: a site contains categories, and a category contains forums. are "NES / Famicom", "Other", and "Site Issues". In 2012, when Parodius Networking was wound down, nesdev.com moved to a different server running phpBB 3. A phpBB 3 site has top-level forums, which contain second-level forums, with no fundamental difference between forums at different levels. A "category" is just a forum that has sub-forums and doesn't let users create topics directly inside it. Inside of a second-level forum I can make third-level forums.

I was thinking move Reproduction inside Hardware, GB and SNES inside Other Retro Dev, and the Japanese, Chinese, and Middle East forums inside International. Then I could make the compo forum inside Homebrew Projects.

Second? Object?
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dougeff
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Re: Third-level forums

Post by dougeff »

Sounds good.

If you click on 'homebrew' will there be a folder at the top to open '2016 compo' sub-forum ?
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tepples
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Re: Third-level forums

Post by tepples »

dougeff wrote:If you click on 'homebrew' will there be a folder at the top to open '2016 compo' sub-forum ?
Yes. It would appear on the main page in a "Subforums" line, just below "Moderator", and at the top of "Homebrew Projects".
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tokumaru
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Re: Third-level forums

Post by tokumaru »

I'm OK with this change.
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darryl.revok
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Re: Third-level forums

Post by darryl.revok »

Sounds good to me
Drag
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Re: Third-level forums

Post by Drag »

No objections here
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tokumaru
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Re: Third-level forums

Post by tokumaru »

I just realized that all the second-level forums fit on my phone's screen now, which is nice. I can see where all the new posts are and open new tabs in the order I want without having to scroll back and forth.
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Memblers
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Re: Third-level forums

Post by Memblers »

I was thinking a compo forum would be nice. The changes look good to me, too.
tepples
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Re: Third-level forums

Post by tepples »

tokumaru wrote:I can see where all the new posts are
I just use View unread posts.

phpBB 3 also fixed a serious bug in "View unread posts". phpBB 2 assumed that all posts prior to your previous session were read; phpBB 3 no longer does.
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tokumaru
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Re: Third-level forums

Post by tokumaru »

tepples wrote:I just use View unread posts.
But the forum names are hard to read on my phone without zooming in, and I already memorized the forum order in the main page.
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Bregalad
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Re: Third-level forums

Post by Bregalad »

Am I the only one who is completely lost since the change? I do not understand what is going on anymore.
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rainwarrior
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Re: Third-level forums

Post by rainwarrior »

I fear change. Also I kinda think it's weird to start a whole new forum section for a temporary contest that's only going to be a handful of threads that would be plenty relevant to the Homebrew section anyway.

I often have trouble trying to figure out which existing category my post is most relevant to. Often times I'm doing something I think is relevant to all of "homebrew" and "music" and "nesdev" all at once, and I really don't know where it belongs, and I don't want to cross post, either. So... personally I already think we're overcategorized here.

I don't really care, though, since I also use the view unread posts and just read every thread. The organization of forums doesn't really affect me very much so it's not like my opinion on this should count for anything. ;)
Drag
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Re: Third-level forums

Post by Drag »

rainwarrior wrote:I often have trouble trying to figure out which existing category my post is most relevant to. Often times I'm doing something I think is relevant to all of "homebrew" and "music" and "nesdev" all at once, and I really don't know where it belongs, and I don't want to cross post, either. So... personally I already think we're overcategorized here.
For that thread specifically, the content deals with music more than anything else, so the music forum would be the most appropriate. Although that's a homebrew rom, it's specifically music being played with no other interaction.

A good rule of thumb is to seek the most specific forum and walk backwards from there, ending at "General Stuff" when there's nowhere else.
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Guilty
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Re: Third-level forums

Post by Guilty »

A third level forum for the compo sounds really nice. I've been trying to lurk each thread about it but I sure don't want to miss anything, especially more official details or rules. Maybe by the time those guidelines are released, I'll have just barely enough experience under my belt to enter something in!

For now I don't have much to contribute other than excitement and encouragement. Keep it rolling, boys!
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rainwarrior
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Re: Third-level forums

Post by rainwarrior »

Drag wrote:For that thread specifically the music forum would be the most appropriate. A good rule of thumb...
I didn't literally mean that I needed help choosing a category. My point was that it's annoying because it's relevant to multiple categories, and this is true for a lot of posts on this board. Forcing something into one category hides it from others.

I guess my ideal board would filter posts by category tags instead of imposing exclusive organization on the posts themselves. A tree structure would be great for the categories themselves, e.g. any post tagged "2016 compo" would end up in the "homebrew" stream. This is just a pipe dream, though, obviously we must make do with what we've got.

The way things are structured here, though, puts posts themselves in very exclusive categories. You don't get to see "SNESdev" posts in the "Other retro dev" stream, they are effectively separate forums, and the tree structure is totally wasted, because the only thing that's really in a tree is the presentation of links between forums. The posts themselves are not functionally acting as if they had a hierarchy.

Because of the lack of effective structure for posts themselves, an excess of categorization makes it harder for someone interested in multiple topics to get to the information they want. Though there is the "unread posts" feature that bypasses the categories entirely, it is only useful for people like me who are willing to open every thread; if this board had higher traffic I wouldn't find it a useful feature at all, and I think for people who read this board less frequently that tipping point is much lower. (e.g. this thread about the SNESdev subforum).

Though, if "view unread posts" was customizable and could omit undesired subforums, that would be pretty helpful in mitigating this organizational problem.


Anyhow, my objection is still weak. I do have an opinion on it, but I don't really feel that strongly about it, mainly because the unread posts feature is still good enough for me (but it's fragile).
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