Preventing Information Loss

[Gulnyr]

Can we come up with something to help prevent information and decisions from being lost among the thousands of posts and threads of the forum?  Something that allows easy access to official positions without requiring a degree in Internet Archaeology, useful both for old hands and for new players?

At first I thought of stickying threads, but that just makes a weird block of threads and only slightly helps finding things because there's no index.  

Then I thought of making a stickied index thread within each forum section that lists topics/decisions/information and then links to threads about those things where the discussion took place, but threads like that are less useful if they are within restricted sections, like deity forums.

So I thought of index pages on LORE, visible to all, with as many pages/sections as necessary, all nicely linked up, with information and decisions clearly displayed so they are easy to understand and are not lost.  Links could be provided back to forum threads if it seemed important enough.

Any other ideas?

[davidhoff]

I don't know, but I think you're close on your ideas.  This may expand the Forum index a bit but you could have new folders labeled on topics and then under that folder threads that talk about that subject.  For example:

Forums:
sub folder: Rules within Threads
sub folder: Rofirein
*stickied threads under Rofirein would include some of threads we've been discussing recently*

This index, its folder titles and linked threads, could be added and updated by GM's and Players gradually.  Anything more than that seems like a lot of work to go through and try to find all the rules threads and make a composite list.

[miltonyorkcastle]

I have ideas on this (as I'm sure others do), but I'm waiting to see what else comes forward from the community before commenting.

[Dorganath]

What milty said.

I think also that, depending on what the final method is, such a thing is going to be a big task, especially to get started, and that we're going to need someone to take ownership of it. When I say "someone" I do mean someone who is not already a GM, simply because I don't want to heap any more duties on GMs at this time.

As these discussions progress, if such a position would interest you, speak up.

[Acacea]

I was tossing some things around the other day, because it's something I've thought about before, but I don't really have anything that I'm not skeptical of implementing at this time because of time/effort/return... some ways in the future, though, I was thinking we might be better off with keeping LORE as it is, and doing something like Blizzard's blue posts if we ended up with those kind of forum capabilities.

Basically, the someday ability for an admin to flag his posts or the posts of someone else as 'official'. Posts flagged in this way could be a filter option for easier searching, offer another choice besides 'get new posts' in 'get new official posts' ... Possibly toss to a repository of sorts as something to consider editing current information with.

I feel like it should be an on-posting function that is turned on rather than always on, because...

[INDENT]*Devs can post without automatically being official. Contributing to a discussion and giving an opinion is different from saying "this is so." Also, if they just want to post a silly comment on a youtube video, it doesn't need to clutter up a search.

*So that if someone makes a post that lays it down in a way the admin fully supports, they can just tag that post rather than having to messy quote it or rewrite it or anything else.

*It's not something that is dependent on someone being timely with that kind of update... and can just be examined whenever in case there is new information that could be integrated with existing content on LORE, rather than having a separate anything for "decisions" or official sounding posts. Information is information, you know? And that seems like where it is all going to end up, anyway.

*If you add tags to posts marked for this, it doesn't really matter where they fall in the forums, whether a new thread or buried in a 30-page one - with a better search (in another forum, far far away) you can just search the whole forum for the word "Rofirein" in flagged posts. [/INDENT]
It's sort of irrelevant because I'm not sure we can make it work like that right now, anyway, but I just kind of cringe at the thought of the indexing upkeep administrative work of doing it any kind of manually. It seems like something that should be done "all the way" so that it can be useful in the longterm, or something short-term useful that does not take very much effort... not a temporary lot-of-effort thing. I am of course all for limiting information loss (duh), but I have a pretty good memory and do have a degree in Internet Archaeology. *nod*

I'm not suggesting that that's ideal and so forget about it... just that I know we don't have a lot of people in either area. I'm wondering how often this comes up, and how much of it is related more to the issue of information in general being finished or released, than it is to a specific post being lost, you know? Not to be a downer. I am interested in the topic, and also am hopeful of suggestions that seem less a mass-hire of administrative assistants but more plausible than adding new search functions. The "how" is kind of important, I guess.

If it does end up something like the forum stickies and links bit, I think rather than someone taking "ownership" of it, that it should be done in a way that anyone can report, however that is possible.

This index, its folder titles and linked threads, could be added and updated by GM's and Players gradually.

I feel like the "and players" is important. If Gulnyr suggested that Knights should have the ability to dispense justice and Ed makes a ruling for all Rofireinites that clearly states otherwise, Gulnyr should be able to take Ed's post and put it in the appropriate section without too many steps. Not as an official position or responsibility, but as a player that sees a decision and just marks it for other people so it doesn't get lost... and so that if he doesn't, someone else will. Anything relying on someone owning it as a project seems temporary at best.

(In other words, I did not really add anything helpful - just to summarize, there. *sad* Carry on. )

[Dremora]

Maybe a simpler but more tedious (for the team) stand-in option for things such as the Rofie confusion and argument (which apparently has reared its head more than once): Add an adjoining tab or link on the LORE pages were OOC clarification and information quotes that are peer-reviewed and accepted by all the appropriate members of the Team, from GMs, to Leanthar, to Ed; are kept for reference whenever someone is unsure of something or needs them to back his/her argument.

[Hellblazer]

Just putting a foot note to show an interest in helping, if this project comes to life.