Suggestion Can we have a sub forum for lightsabers?

[Luuke]

I disagree. I think separating topics will increase traffic. If I want to look at other topics, I'll click my mouse to them. Separating them will give me more reason to frequent the board.

 

[Lichtbringer]

Blaster go, Sabers no.

 

[Darth Lars]

I'd rather there be a separate subforum for TFA, so that I would not have to see them in the main Star Wars forum.... :darnkids

 

[Gytheran]

I disagree. I think separating topics will increase traffic. If I want to look at other topics, I'll click my mouse to them. Separating them will give me more reason to frequent the board.

Again, people looking specifically for lightsabers will find it easier... of course there's a search feature, also. It WILL reduce casual views though(those not specifically looking for lightsabers). There is no question there. It's a case of out of sight, out of mind. ASAP is a fine example of dissecting a forum too far. It didn't work.

 

[Welsh Pirate]

Again, people looking specifically for lightsabers will find it easier... of course there's a search feature, also. It WILL reduce casual views though(those not specifically looking for lightsabers). There is no question there. It's a case of out of sight, out of mind. ASAP is a fine example of dissecting a forum too far. It didn't work.

Using ASAP as an example is like saying "Building my house entirely out of filing cabinets didn't work out, so obviously I should never use a single filing cabinet again and pile all of my belongings in to a single towering heap." There is a huge amount of middle ground between those two things.

 

[Gytheran]

Actually, having been a member of the RPF for 15 years now, I can, without a doubt, say that I'm looking at far fewer threads not directly connected to the "Star Wars Costumes and Props". Occasionally I make it over to the Ren section, but anything else is almost non existent. I don't usually have a lot of time to spend on the forums and because of that, if something doesn't catch my eye, I will miss it completely. Seeing phantasm spheres, aliens props, Bubo replicas, Ghostbuster costumes, BOBA FETT, etc would have been something I would have seen on a regular trip to the RPF and now I have to actively search for them or not see it at all. It seems like separating it makes it clear and concise, but, in reality, you're creating extra steps to see content that would have normally been readily available.

Using ASAP as an example is like saying "Building my house entirely out of filing cabinets didn't work out, so obviously I should never use a single filing cabinet again and pile all of my belongings in to a single towering heap." There is a huge amount of middle ground between those two things.

 

[cboath]

I'm curious how Knights of Ren got a sub when there's loads more of other things out there more popular from a potential sub basis?

As for autotagging...intriguing idea. A forum is a large database, tags are simply a field in the database entry. They are somewhat different from description and name (etc) in that those contain a single entry whereas tags is a field with multiple entries. It would not be a rewrite in the slightest to add sort by tag. It would, though, result in multi-tagged entries showing up mutliple times. This would be more of an add-on or whatever this boards software calls it. I'm not advocating going that far, but if I worked on vbulletin, i'd be looking to see if such an add on existed or start tinkering on my own

But again, it comes back to the point of typo's, as long as you have to type in the entry, or you can, it's not effective because lightsaber != lightsabre. So, if you want to can the entire list of potential tag's - great, but it'll be a royal PITA to generate that list AND keep it up to day.

I'd like to think it COULD be made to work BOTH ways. Have 8 subforums (just a random number, don't panic) under Star Wars and have a checkbox or something at the top of the screen (basically a single check box) that says SHOW SUBS or DONT SHOW SUBS. When DONT SHOW is checked, you get a single star wars forum that shows all the topics under the Star Wars header, subs included. If SHOW SUBS is checked, you get a main star wars forum and the subs in their respective folders. It's close to the same principal as a global search returning information from mutliple forums. There IS a way to know that SubB is underneath/linked to MainB. So it is possible to write it to show all threads from MainB as well as all threads from SubB. Just an idea. Could also be applied up the line as well. For those who want it you could have it come back and list all new prop threads in single view.

 

[MCM]

I'm curious how Knights of Ren got a sub when there's loads more of other things out there more popular from a potential sub basis?

As for autotagging...intriguing idea. A forum is a large database, tags are simply a field in the database entry. They are somewhat different from description and name (etc) in that those contain a single entry whereas tags is a field with multiple entries. It would not be a rewrite in the slightest to add sort by tag. It would, though, result in multi-tagged entries showing up mutliple times. This would be more of an add-on or whatever this boards software calls it. I'm not advocating going that far, but if I worked on vbulletin, i'd be looking to see if such an add on existed or start tinkering on my own

But again, it comes back to the point of typo's, as long as you have to type in the entry, or you can, it's not effective because lightsaber != lightsabre. So, if you want to can the entire list of potential tag's - great, but it'll be a royal PITA to generate that list AND keep it up to day.

I'd like to think it COULD be made to work BOTH ways. Have 8 subforums (just a random number, don't panic) under Star Wars and have a checkbox or something at the top of the screen (basically a single check box) that says SHOW SUBS or DONT SHOW SUBS. When DONT SHOW is checked, you get a single star wars forum that shows all the topics under the Star Wars header, subs included. If SHOW SUBS is checked, you get a main star wars forum and the subs in their respective folders. It's close to the same principal as a global search returning information from mutliple forums. There IS a way to know that SubB is underneath/linked to MainB. So it is possible to write it to show all threads from MainB as well as all threads from SubB. Just an idea. Could also be applied up the line as well. For those who want it you could have it come back and list all new prop threads in single view.

Quoted for truth!

Also, I imagine that there could be a drop down menu with several predetermined subcategories from which to choose ("sabers", "blasters", "costumes", "other", etc.) to eliminate misspellings. I'm thinking of a system like reverb.com has for listing musical instruments. They have 3 dropdowns to subcategorize listings by genre; they spell it so that you don't have to. I don't see why that wouldn't work here, but with Star Wars instead of musical instruments

 

[cboath]

The issue here is Besides SW, you've got Trek and it's (don't kill me for getting this wrong) 5 TV series, 6 TOS movies, 3-4 TNG movies, and 3 JJ movies, Marvel, DC, etc,etc, etc...you're talking tags for probably 100's of characters, 100's of actors, 1000's of props, 100's of movie titles, etc. And that doesn't include revising those lists every time a new movie or TV show comes out. There's 4 more SW movies slated over the next four years alone...From a canned tag standpoint, just way too much to enter into the system.

I'd much rather take my shot at the addin for showing subs or not And i'm not a real developer

 

[Luuke]

That's all well and good but we're not talking about other franchises or sub categories. We're talking about a request from the board for a Lightsaber sub-forum. The FACT is the boards search feature does not work. Go ahead, type in lightsabers and see what you get. Maybe a few hit specifically for lightsabers but the majority is not. Either way, it seems from the number of post likes and responses, the majority of people would like to have a separate sub-forum for lightsabers. Why some of you are so adamantly resistant to it kinda befuddles me. It can only help the people who use the forum, not hurt it.

 

[SethS]

I've been trying to look back in time at specific customs-- for example, I've got a Canon Y to play with and I know there have been several posted here and it's taken a lot of trial and error with searching to find them all-- especially when the word "canon" has another meaning in the Star Wars world. If all lightsaber threads were in a single forum I'd be able to narrow that specifically. Just an example.

Blasters are cool, and so are droids and spaceships-- but lots of scifi movies have those things. Lightsabers are truly iconic and one-of-a-kind in terms of concept, on-screen use, and as props. They deserve their own place.

 

[ARKM]

Ok so all sides have argued their points and all sides have good, valid points both for and against. That said, I'm pretty sure the only way this is gonna happen, if there's even a small chance it could happen, is compromise. You can't please everyone so perhaps we all need to learn to concede on this or that issue so that maybe the mods will move forward on this. That said, I think it should be costumes/armor for one section and props for the other. Yes, that means that lightsabers will also include blasters, thermal detonators and Dejarik tables but what can you do? Compromise is the only answer. Maybe and I stress maybe, you could leave most props in with the costumes and have a blaster and lightsabers only section but that might be asking too much. Just a lightsaber section? As much as I'm for it, I do not think that will ever happen here. Just my two credits.

 

[Gytheran]

Well I've state a very legitimate reason as to why it's a bad idea to dissect the forum further. As to your request, here's two searches for 'lightsaber'; one site-wide and the other just SW costumes and Props:

That's all well and good but we're not talking about other franchises or sub categories. We're talking about a request from the board for a Lightsaber sub-forum. The FACT is the boards search feature does not work. Go ahead, type in lightsabers and see what you get. Maybe a few hit specifically for lightsabers but the majority is not. Either way, it seems from the number of post likes and responses, the majority of people would like to have a separate sub-forum for lightsabers. Why some of you are so adamantly resistant to it kinda befuddles me. It can only help the people who use the forum, not hurt it.

 

[Luuke]

Try doing that search on the main RPF page...

 

[Gytheran]

Why would you even do that? You'll get every thread with a post with the word 'lightsaber' in it. It doesn't mean the search doesn't work; it means your search criteria is too vague...

Try doing that search on the main RPF page...

 

[Luuke]

Why would you even do that? You'll get every thread with a post with the word 'lightsaber' in it. It doesn't mean the search doesn't work; it means your search criteria is too vague...

That's my point! The search feature pull from stuff that isn't a lightsaber topic. The standard search feature doesn't work. Some people want to see lightsaber topics from across the board. HENCE why I'm asking for a sub-forum.

 

[Lichtbringer]

I like lightsabers as i do blasters, but a pure lightsaber forum would not be what fits my lightsaber interest.

While i like to look for selfbuild customs or the stuff from the EU,sabers and blasters from time to time, it don´t love it.

So for me it would make way more sense to have the real movie propstuff in one forum, and all the rest and not so interesting like EU sabers and blasters plus costumes in another.

Having ALL the lightsaber stuff together would not help me in any way.

 

[Darth Lars]

While I love lightsabers, I think that a subforum would be dividing things up into too tight categories.

For instance, hypothetically, if you are building a costume for a character then you might want to write about all that character's various props in one thread. Therefore, you would put it in the regular Star Wars forum and not in the Lightsaber subforum.
But that thread may very well contain some info that would be very useful to another lightsaber builder, but that other user would not find the thread because it is in the "wrong" forum.

I think a better solution would be to have a more expanded "tag-filter" forum feature. LIke many forums have a "prefix" filter for their Classifieds section. (FS, WTB, FA, etc.) but allowing more than one at once.
With such a feature you would be able to tag your thread with "Lightsaber", "Blaster", "ESB" etc. Then users could filter the forum on tags: click the "Lightsaber" button at the top of the page to see only lightsaber threads, or likewise for all the other categories.

This forum already has tags on threads, and you can search on tags. But tags are free-form and not mandatory: they would have to be typed in . and therefore nobody does that. They should be buttons, and you should be encouraged (if not required) to pick at least one.
They are also only available in the search function: not used to filter the forum view.

 

[matty matt]

Personally, I'd like sub forums like this:

-OT Props and Costumes
-PT Props and Costumes
-ST/Anthology Props and Costumes
-EU Props and Costumes

I'd probably never leave the OT section.

 

[cboath]

I've stated that before, to can the whole tag system is problematic due to how many tags you have to add to the system and manage after the fact. It's a ton of stuff to add to the system