Post by Rallier (1,156 posts) See mini bio
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I really am not a fan of how the Giant Bomb forums work and considering how the forums and especially the game pages are set up it is just weird that what I am about to suggest or a similar system still does not exist on the site.
What I would like to propose is a system that filters threads by the platform, genre, or theme that is attached to the game pages these threads are created on. I suppose that such a thing would also work with concept,object, etc... pages but those 3 are what i think the most important.
The main draw of such a system is to make it easier for users to find a topic that interest them and might want to reply on. A side effect would be that a user who occasionally visits the forums is exposed to a lot of things he/she is interested in and is more prone to comment compared to usual and become active in the community.
Now some of you might be thinking "but we already have such a system that makes a custom forum made out of pages that a user is active on" which we do but the problem is here is that that list is made out of pages that the user already commented on and knew they existed.
Say a new role-playing game is announced and someone creates the game page and makes a forum topic about it, no one ever heard about the game so no one clicks the thread and quickly it is pushed of from the "latest topics" page and there is no other way to enter this topic other then browsing through 5 pages of topics in "latest topics" or to visit the game page its forum without knowing the game exists (which is hard to do). Someone who is really into role-playing games will miss out on the announcement and will stop browsing the forum because there is nothing that interests him/her.
Now with such a system this user only has to click the filter by Role-Playing games button and all the threads made in game pages that are tagged with the "role playing" genre will display in a chronological order allowing this user to stumble upon the announcement.
Another example would be if a user only has a ZX Spectrum and wants to check out the recent active threads about games on the ZX Spectrum then he/she will just have to click the filter by ZX Spectrum button. Or more realisticly speaking someone who wants to look up all the active threads on either the 360, PS3 or Wii.
In order to make my suggestion a bit clearer a and for illustration purposes i made the following mock up that shows how such a system could look on the site. In the mock-up you'll see the threads filtered by the genre "role-playing" just like my first example:
Full size: http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/2728/suggestiont.jpg
Naturally in order to set up such a system a lot of work is required from the engineers but having forums that are practical and promote discussion on a website where the community is supposed to be the focus is something that should be their main goal.
What I would like to propose is a system that filters threads by the platform, genre, or theme that is attached to the game pages these threads are created on. I suppose that such a thing would also work with concept,object, etc... pages but those 3 are what i think the most important.
The main draw of such a system is to make it easier for users to find a topic that interest them and might want to reply on. A side effect would be that a user who occasionally visits the forums is exposed to a lot of things he/she is interested in and is more prone to comment compared to usual and become active in the community.
Now some of you might be thinking "but we already have such a system that makes a custom forum made out of pages that a user is active on" which we do but the problem is here is that that list is made out of pages that the user already commented on and knew they existed.
Say a new role-playing game is announced and someone creates the game page and makes a forum topic about it, no one ever heard about the game so no one clicks the thread and quickly it is pushed of from the "latest topics" page and there is no other way to enter this topic other then browsing through 5 pages of topics in "latest topics" or to visit the game page its forum without knowing the game exists (which is hard to do). Someone who is really into role-playing games will miss out on the announcement and will stop browsing the forum because there is nothing that interests him/her.
Now with such a system this user only has to click the filter by Role-Playing games button and all the threads made in game pages that are tagged with the "role playing" genre will display in a chronological order allowing this user to stumble upon the announcement.
Another example would be if a user only has a ZX Spectrum and wants to check out the recent active threads about games on the ZX Spectrum then he/she will just have to click the filter by ZX Spectrum button. Or more realisticly speaking someone who wants to look up all the active threads on either the 360, PS3 or Wii.
In order to make my suggestion a bit clearer a and for illustration purposes i made the following mock up that shows how such a system could look on the site. In the mock-up you'll see the threads filtered by the genre "role-playing" just like my first example:
Full size: http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/2728/suggestiont.jpg
Naturally in order to set up such a system a lot of work is required from the engineers but having forums that are practical and promote discussion on a website where the community is supposed to be the focus is something that should be their main goal.
