did forum name change?

Hey guys I'm on my phone, and i realized this forum was called *discussion* or however you spell it. Not sure if it was me just never really paying attention, but i swear forum name seems different.

But if it is, my question now is why?

 

Not enough gossip was going to justify that name any more?

 

So it's a just a in general chat about gaming now or something?

 

Nothing has changed except the name, which I guess someone decided sounded better.

--Eric

 

No. It's still Unity-related or close.

 

Oh okay..... Glad that's summed up now LOL..

Alrighty, I appreciate the insight.

 

Just a pre-warning, there's going to be a reshuffle of forum orders tomorrow as well. Everything support related will be listed at the top, ordered alphabetically, some other forums will have their names change and there will be forums added. Pay attention to descriptions.

 

10-4...

Is there a reason behind this?

I mean like, is it something new y'all are trying just to see if it works out better, or is there a reason to change everything, like are a lot of people having problems where to post things and stuff, so trying to give more options and stuff?

 

Oh good...way too much stuff gets incorrectly posted in Teaching/Gossip/Game Design, which has to be moved.

Also, while you're doing that, can you put the moderation queue/report list back on the main page instead of hidden in the little icon? That's had a pretty big "out of sight, out of mind" effect almost immediately, where I don't see it when cruising through the forums so I forget to check it, and it seems most of the other moderators are doing the same thing. So reports and stuff build up for a while with nobody looking at them.

--Eric

 

A communications disruption could mean only one thing: invasion.

 

Guess that out of sight out of mind thing happened to me, I didn't realise at all. I'll get it looked at.


And yes Superpig is correct, there's a huge influx of support stuff being posted in these top sections and a lot of new users who are lost and confused. Speaking of new users, we will also be opening a section for beginners, so BE NICE

We also want to match the sections with that of Learn and Documentation, if you noticed some of the descriptions (I've not finished yet because it's half broken and it's super boring to make, actually I think they're removed now because it broke) there are links to the relevant documentation areas and learn areas, to make it easier for people to search.


This is what it will kind of look like, I say kind of because I rejigged it a bit since I took this cap.

 

Ahh okay.... Well if you ask me, it might be good to keep at least Discussion at the top, like put it in the Welcome to the Forums section.

This forum appears to be the most active, I'd hate the inconvenience to have to scroll down to find it LOL.

But of course that's only my observation.

 

That's exactly what happened with me. Before, I had some sort of OCD. When I saw things needing to be taken care of I was on it. Now, not so much

 

Actually scripting and support are the most active forums.

 

Great idea. Can some beginner-oriented stickies be curated and put in there?

 

I see a lot more scrolling in my immediate future....

 

You mean typing in "for" in your browser's address bar doesn't automatically bring you to the last forum you were at? I'm using Chrome...

 

Oh god you aren't lying!

I find my self more on forums than I do working on my game, these forums are addicting! lol.
I've never in my life been so into a community before lol.

 

One more thing: I just discovered the "staff" button in the members list doesn't do anything. I know it worked at one point, so I'm not sure when it stopped working.

--Eric

 

I don't understand your point.

 

You could add "Favorites" section where you can favorite your forum which is going to be listed on top.

 

I like that idea actually .

 

I'm aware and trying to get the solution out asap, we had a small block on pushing fixes, last two day's or so while we're updating the forum. But I hope to have it out today.

About the mod-queue and reports, I'll look into a better solution than behind the user icon. Just right after we're done upgrading.

 

Yes! Hopefully I can collect some of the most common things we see posted in this forum by beginners, if anyone has any suggestions too, I can always add them.

 

Nice Tip! BUT that involves typing... which just ain't gonna happen But seriously, they invented the mouse for a reason, the kee-board or whatever you call it is so 1970's.

 

So...you typed that with a mouse?

--Eric

 

On-screen key-input.... DUH! (click) (click) (click)

 

Personally, I think the objective is to help beginners to ask better questions. I don't want them to not ask questions, because that would be detrimental to community growth. So to me, it seems like a great idea to give them a bit of starter information that addresses those super common first questions ("Can Unity do X?") and invites them to discuss whatever the next step on the path is for what they want to do.

I think Gigi's thread was a great, broad attempt at that. However, if there's a beginner section coming up then I see no reason it all has to be crammed into one thread. Which should make it better for everyone.

Off the top of my head, an example of the kind of thing I'm thinking of would be a thread for newbies who want to make an MMO. It can straight up give them a nice rendition of the common answer in the OP - tell them how hard it is and to do a few smaller projects before starting the epic quest of an MMO. It can then invite them to ask questions of the community about things like good early/first projects that will help them along that path and that suit their other interests.

This achieves a few things:
1. Doesn't push them away from the community area of the site. If they came to the forums rather than Learn it's because they want to talk. The common answer we give of saying "Read the Learn section" doesn't really support that.
2. Delivers the most common part of the answer that applies to every beginner, in a nice, non-jaded, beginner friendly manner.
3. Helps setting realistic expectations in a pleasant way.
4. Directs them to asking more interesting questions that are more likely to get good answers.

I have no idea if or how well it'd work, but maybe worth a try?

I also think that an article or two on how to start with game development, general expectations of advancement and the different areas of skill would be super handy. I once read an article on how to get started as a game programmer, and it put me on a much more realistic and practical path than I might otherwise have followed.

 

Two sections named "collaboration"?

 

That's a great start. I think it needs to go further, though. If I had no idea about game development other than thinking it's cool, and wanted to start learning, I wouldn't know what thing in the Learn section to pay attention to.

Imagine you know nothing about game dev but really like CoD and want to give game dev a shot. Click the "Learn" link at the top of the page. What do you do next?

I know what I'd do next. I'd go to the forum and start asking questions. At that point you don't even know if you want to be a programmer or an artist, let alone what "2D" or "Animation" or "Architecture" mean. The stuff in the Learn section is great for people who already know enough to identify which topics apply to them. A part of what I'm talking about is helping people make that first step.

Note: I realize that Unity is a tool provider and isn't responsible for providing ground-level training. This is coming more from community-oriented thinking.

 

That will change.