Upcoming Forum Changes Feedback Thread «123...Next Go

rudy8292

So, according to a post by @SimGuruDrake about the incoming Forum changes, I wanted to make a Feedback thread about these changes, because maybe fellow Simmers have some feedback.

Hello everyone!

A year has passed since I started engaging with all of you on these forums and during that time I've been looking at what works and what doesn't within this space. As such I'll be making a few changes that will help all of you and additionally will help us with moderation.

I will be breaking this down by sections:

- The Sims 3

- This is still a bustling community with a lot of topics of discussion. We will be condensing the Packs sections to no longer contain individual pack conversations. These sections are not as active as they used to be as most activity is happening with the TS3 General Discussion. Soon you will find all the content for all the TS3 Expansion Packs within the TS3 EP Discussion category and the same goes for TS3 Stuff Packs.

- The Sims 3 UK section will now have it's content filtered into the appropriate main sections of The Sims 3 area. As there isn't as much activity in that section and most members are engaging in the general section we feel this will help boost The Sims 3 section and to focus conversation.

- The Sims 4

-The Sims 4 Stuff Pack section will now be merged into general discussion.
-The Sims 4 Expansion Pack section will now contain all conversation in one area for EPs rather than be split up by EPs.
-The Sims 4 Game Pack section will now contain all conversation in one area for GPs rather than be split up by GPs.
-The Sims 4 Creative Corner will be merged into it's own Creative Corner section along side creative sections for Sims 2 and Sims 3. We really want to help highlight our creative community in one space instead of separating by which version you are playing on.

If a section wasn't listed on here it will not be moved / merged.

Additionally, we will have a fresh new set of rules and guidelines for posting in the forums to continue to ensure that we are staying up to date and to keep this a safe space to communicate and engage with the devs, moderators, and fellow community members.

Thanks and I hope you are all having a wonderful week!

So, I'll start with the fact that I personally do not understand why getting rid of the individual EP/SP/GP forums?

With the changes, every single thread is ending up in the same forum and I think it will be a mess. For sure if people are looking for specific things related to a specific pack. They have to go through a whole list of topics to see if they can find their question answered, and I think it just gets really messy.

What do you all think of the changes? Any suggestions?

Pegasus143

I'm really happy that they're merging the (currently separated by game) creative sections together. Previously, many of us who only posted in one of the sections had no idea that the other sections existed, which made it a lot harder when trying to find other peoples' work.
Answering OP's question, I'm not sure exactly why they're merging pack discussions together- maybe so that posts will be more likely to be seen and possibly get more responses?
I don't really see the problem with it- if you're looking for a thread about a specific topic, you can always use the search bar- that's what it's there for.

simgirl1010

Pegasus143 wrote: »

I'm really happy that they're merging the (currently separated by game) creative sections together. Previously, many of us who only posted in one of the sections had no idea that the other sections existed, which made it a lot harder when trying to find other peoples' work.
Answering OP's question, I'm not sure exactly why they're merging pack discussions together- maybe so that posts will be more likely to be seen and possibly get more responses?
I don't really see the problem with it- if you're looking for a thread about a specific topic, you can always use the search bar- that's what it's there for.

I think this might be one reason. I belong to another forum and we did something similar shortly after the Sims 4 was released. A lot of the different sub-forums were merged into general discussion because with the forum being divided into 4 sections, one for each version, some of the sub-forums were receiving very little activity.

Pary

I'm not bothered about the merge of EP / SP sections for TS3, in fact, I think its a really good idea actually. What IS concerning me a little, is, if I am reading it right, is the merging of the TS2 / 3 & 4 Creative Corner into all one section.

Now, does this mean that there is only going to be one forum section which incorporates all Creative Content in one ( so you see S2 /3 /4 creations all together, or, is there going to be one category with 3 separate sections - one for Ts2, one for Ts3 and one for 4 ?
Because when I'm looking for say, a house for TS3, I don't want to be having to wade through threads and threads of Ts2 or TS4 content just to find one that has a TS3 creation in it. It's easier to simply just pop into the TS3 section and I know that every thread I click will have a creation for the relevant game I'm looking for.

( I've worded that in a really confusing fashion, but I don't know how to explain it more clearly at the moment - I hope you can decipher it @SimGuruDrake )

Pegasus143

@Pary The way I read it, it sounds like there will be separate sections for Stories&Legacies, Sims&Modelling, Lots, etc. but the games will be merged together.

rudy8292

Pegasus143 wrote: »

I'm really happy that they're merging the (currently separated by game) creative sections together. Previously, many of us who only posted in one of the sections had no idea that the other sections existed, which made it a lot harder when trying to find other peoples' work.
Answering OP's question, I'm not sure exactly why they're merging pack discussions together- maybe so that posts will be more likely to be seen and possibly get more responses?
I don't really see the problem with it- if you're looking for a thread about a specific topic, you can always use the search bar- that's what it's there for.

There is a search, that's true, however I think the forums will get extremely unorganized with them taking away all the subforums.

mastressalita

I completely agree with @Pegasus143 : for a long time I've dreamed of a day that the Stories and Legacies sections would be one, cohesive community, and not broken up by game, because those of us that use those sections (for the most part) do not care about what games our fellow SimLit authors are using, we just like reading Sim stories and supporting each other. I run a huge index thread of Sim stories on these forums, the Stories and Legacies Index, which I set up in the Community > Stories and Legacies section, since it accepts stories from any and all Sims games (and it has works from the first Sims game to Sims 4 and even Sims Medieval!), but it has been very hard for me to get authors from the Sims 4 Stories and Legacies section to submit their works there... because my thread isn't in their forum where the majority of that writing community hangs out. At one point I had to make a "gateway" thread in the Sims 4 Stories and Legacies section that just linked to my story directory over in the other section, so the writers there would be made aware of it. And many other SimLit authors have other awesome resources open and available to all, but were stuck having to pick one forum or the other to set them up, thus isolating the people that typically hang out in the other area. Julyvee94's awesome Beginner's Guide to SimLit and the Reader Circles started by CathyTea are prime examples. These are resources that are really for "all SimLit writers" (and have nothing to do with game version) but were set up in the Sims 4 Stories and Legacies section. So writers that hang out over in Community > Stories and Legacies may never even know about them!

I know over the last several months, many members of the SimLit community have worked very hard to spend more time "hanging out" in both the Stories and Legacies sections to try to create a more cohesive community among us, because we did not like being split up by the forums. I, for one, am 100% in support of the decision to let the creative community be a single cohesive group.

Hermitgirl

The Stuff Pack being merged into General makes sense to me. Normally people are excited by them for a bit and the conversation revolves around them for a short while then it tapers off after its been out awhile. The gameplay questions and conversations for Stuff Packs wouldn't be as in depth as for EPs or GPs. It also sounds much easier to maintain for the moderators in general.
I don't see how it would be a mess if people would title their threads to be clear what it's about in the given sections.
Those subsections in general are dead at times so this will give them more life.

PinkPaws66

I already hate that the stuff packs aren't separated. I wanted to read about the Romantic Garden pack, and it was not easy.

Now they are going to put those in General Discussion and cosolidate Expansion Packs and other things.

I understand doing that with past games, but not The Sims 4. I don't always buy stuff right away, and I really like being able to click on the forum for a pack to see the discussions relating to it to help me decide.

Rukola_Schaaf

i think any merging of the different games will have more negative impact than positive because it is confusing

just few minutes ago i surfed on the net new CC for TS4, found a beatifull patio thing sorted under TS4
i was confused if it was actually for TS4 since it was from a site about TS3 content, so i went to see & it was actually a patio for TS3

TheGoodOldGamer

It makes sense to me. Almost 99% of discussions about new packs are made in GD anyway. There's a thread about the Kid's pack announcement that's been bounced back and forth from GD to the Stuff Packs area half a dozen times today since it's been made, lol. I don't think any of the subforms for S4 besides GD and Feedback are active enough to make a difference if they get bundled together. Also makes sense to group up the creative stuff.

IngeJones

I don't mind the EPs merging together and the GPs merging together, but then removing the merged SP section altogether is inconsistent and I fear may confuse people who haven't read the sticky. You'd expect each of the three types of addon pack to be treated consistently. It was already niggling my OCD that the SPs were not seperated into individual SPs like the GPs and EPs.

Also there is already some confusion about what should be in each section. I recently started a thread for ideas of what to do with Magnolia Promenade. I specifically did not put the thread in the Get To Work forum because I was looking for ideas OTHER than just using it for retail. It was a nice lively and inspiring thread in the General Discussion forum. Then it got moved to the Get To Work forum and died, cos everyone in that forum presumably is using it for shopping just like it was designed.

TheGoodOldGamer

There's a thread for this already in the forum feedback section.

forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/891699/upcoming-forum-changes-feedback-thread#latest

YungGigi

Don't understand why they're pushing all stuff pack threads in with general discussion. So much for cohesiveness

YungGigi

IngeJones wrote: »

I don't mind the EPs merging together and the GPs merging together, but then removing the merged SP section altogether is inconsistent and I fear may confuse people who haven't read the sticky. You'd expect each of the three types of addon pack to be treated consistently. It was already niggling my OCD that the SPs were not seperated into individual SPs like the GPs and EPs.

Also there is already some confusion about what should be in each section. I recently started a thread for ideas of what to do with Magnolia Promenade. I specifically did not put the thread in the Get To Work forum because I was looking for ideas OTHER than just using it for retail. It was a nice lively and inspiring thread in the General Discussion forum. Then it got moved to the Get To Work forum and died, cos everyone in that forum presumably is using it for shopping just like it was designed.

I was looking for that thread the other day and couldn't find it lol mine is not used at all so I wanted to see what other people did with it. I don't own any stores. Tempted to just bulldoze the lots and make mansions but idk

IngeJones

YungGigi wrote: »

I was looking for that thread the other day and couldn't find it lol mine is not used at all so I wanted to see what other people did with it. I don't own any stores. Tempted to just bulldoze the lots and make mansions but idk

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/891257/what-have-you-done-with-magnolia-promenade#latest

I have taken to bookmarking pretty much any thread I am interested in following as they do have a tendency to get moved about

IngeJones

I don't mind the EPs merging together and the GPs merging together, but then removing the merged SP section altogether is inconsistent and I fear may confuse people who haven't read the sticky. You'd expect each of the three types of addon pack to be treated consistently. It was already niggling my OCD that the SPs were not seperated into individual SPs like the GPs and EPs.

Also there is already some confusion about what should be in each section. I recently started a thread for ideas of what to do with Magnolia Promenade. I specifically did not put the thread in the Get To Work forum because I was looking for ideas OTHER than just using it for retail. It was a nice lively and inspiring thread in the General Discussion forum. Then it got moved to the Get To Work forum and died, cos everyone in that forum presumably is using it for shopping just like it was designed.

Inna Minnit

How about dealing with the basic, and very obvious, step of having the gallery and the forum work together. It is dumbfounding to me that my gallery account cannot post to the forum. Or that my gallery isn't linked to my user account here.

Skobee

Hm, i'm actually happy with the changes, felt like there were too much different topics and started to wonder in which topic I should post

IngeJones

I agree it's better to have fewer topics, just wanted there to be consistency between the way all the different packs were organised.

Hermitgirl

I like the idea of the changes. Those areas are dead after the intial furor, when a pack is released so it will be good for general discussion to have them there. I know I've seen many what pack should I get threads either way so it will be possible to ask in general about stuff packs or use search to find out where they are mentioned later.
EP's and GP's add much more gameplay and sometimes strategy so I guess they need to be separated.

Tomatplante

I think these changes will make me visit the EP and GP forums much more often, and read more stuff pack topics. I usually keep to the general discussion, ideas and feedback because I can't be bothered to go through all the child categories unless I have a special reason to go there. I'm guessing users like me are the reason they are doing the changes, they're hoping to have more visits on the GP and EP categories.

NeonHighways

I'm ok with most of it, but I don't want to see the separate TS4 stuff pack section go. Unlike TS3 they actually have gameplay content, and they inspire more discussion that would fit in it's own category.

Marycool33

I think posts will get more attention but, at the same time, it might be messy like OP said. I don't really mind merging it all together but I feel like people won't pay attention to posts about older expansions, causing the 1st page to be filled with threads about the newer ones. I don't know, we'll have to see how this plays out...

Sk8rblaze

We will probably have a lot of stuff packs, judging by how many we have now, so I think it makes sense not to clutter the forums with dozens of categories for each pack. I prefer discussion to be as centralized as possible, as I really don't want to check 20 categories within the forum whenever I'm on, which would actually end up needing to happen, as the gurus are very quick to organize the forum to put threads in their respective categories (which is good at the end of the day).

The search function would work great for you if you are trying to narrow down threads which pertain to Romantic Garden Stuff, as you said in your original post.

crinrict

Maybe it would be useful to have a community kept sticky for all each pack with important threads. Like an index for threads with a lot of info or longer discussion threads.

For the stuff packs we could just have one cause that would clutter up GD.