Your views sought on changes to the forum

[Deleted member 5399]

Firstly I'd like to thank @Red Fox One for lending a hand with the spoiler method.
It certainly saves a lot of space and yes it does create fewer pages on threads.
One thing I find works for many is having those very much needed items next to profiles in game.
As for gifting, if one follows the people they regularly gift to, it is much easier to look for recent content of that person, and find what they currently might need.
As for other threads such as launches etc., I see no reason why things should not be combined together. I have multiple neighbors in my games and yet only a handful of iOS or Android gamers I know are even in forums.
Often I do see a user gather together several neighbors to make them aware of optioning in on a support account; or letting a neighbor know to gift a particular item for a while to restock the warehouse.
So there are many options the forum members can certainly do as well to keep threads small.

 

[Mike47]

I personally would prefer to keep the Windows thread separate and would not like to see any more restrictions on what we can post.
The windows users tend to post about advice, experiences etc as well as trading and this makes the forum more friendly.
I think a weekly thread is about right as some posts run over several days.
Combining the Alliances and Launch threads is a good idea as these tend to be quite short.

 

[david smith]

Yes we should merge, now that cross platform gifting and cross platform spaceship launch joining

 

[gbswales]

I had assumed this was going to be a move to merger the different platforms together - currently I have to duplicate space launches in two areas because although I am a windows player - I have many iOS and Android neighbours. There are (now) in my view no sane reasons for seperating them. I also don't have a problem with a weekly trading thread at the moment I dont bother with the android ones because of their being so many daily threads. As to long posts why not have posts that show just the first 5 or so lines with a link to read .....more as you see on many other discussion type sites. for me I would have:-

• Trading forum (I think that this could include quests etc)
• Space flight Announcement forum - Posts should be marked "expired" 25 hours after posting as flights are only open to join for 24 hours
• Member requests/opportunities which could include alliance topics (once an alliance is set up the pm conversations are the best place to use
• Gameplay questions/topics
• Tutorials/guides
• Errors/glitches/suggestions (this puts everything GI staff need to see in one place!)
• All other game related chat
• Genereal chat - not game related

Your main objective should be to simplify the structure and make it more user friendly - what has been proposed seems little more than a minor tweaking of what already exists - much better to have a clean sweep change than drip feed changes

 

[gbswales]

Thank you for ideas we will take them into consideration .


In day we could get 60-70 posts over 10 pages. would you like to read those many pages for a few neighbor posts ?

Yes but I am sure most of us now have neighbours in different OS so together or seperated the number of posts we have to read is the same - except that in one of them I have to look in seven different forums for every week. I don't think I have ever tried to read everything - would be nice if each of the threads in a topic area had a sub-title - that way just the sub-title could be displayed. However I suspect that the forum software itself limits the scope for changes like this

 

[Comet18]

In the past, I've voted against combining. I'm going to take a pass this time around. I don't read the android forum, so if I have Android neighbors, the probably wonder why I send the the same thing every day.
I like weekly threads. I could not keep up with posting something daily.

I wouldn't mind if we wait until after the holidays to make big changes. I have trouble keeping up now without learning new things.

My game would be no where without this forum. Thanks.

 

[Red Fox One]

The frontpage should display several threads of some of sections so that we can keep up to date with what's going on. For example if updates come out for all platforms, there will be several threads for Windows, Android, ios. If more people discuss in the Android thread for example, others would have missed the news about an update for Windows or ios because not everyone click on the "Airport City News" page to view everything inside.

In my opinion it would look better like this:

Airport City News
- News 1
- News 2
- News 5
- News 7
- News 8
Around 5 featured threads would be a good amount, I think. News 3 and 4 might not be too important or interesting so we'll get to see News 5 or an older News 8 where people are still discussing things. Same thing with the bug/suggestion/guide/question sections but those can be limited to 3 featured threads.

Spaceship Launch
- Green
- Blue
- Red
Just do these 3 subforums where in the title people have the option to select what platform they are on, just in case if future updates break the ability for the different platforms to join launches until it's being fixed. EDIT: Doesn't necessarily need to be changed as current system is also good.

Trading part maybe Android and ios can be merged, I don't know. Windows players like to keep a weekly format so it's definitely separate from the daily threads.

That's it from me. I think those are the bigger parts of the forum.

 

[Ten33go]

Okay, it's obvious what the majority around here think (Based on current poll results), but here goes...

1). I'm not really sure what the issue is regarding finding someone's signature. It's a very simple process that takes 30 seconds (Depending on Internet speeds and how the forum feels at that moment). No matter where they post on the forum, you're going to find it. It doesn't matter if it's in the Windows Trading thread, the Android Trading thread, or anywhere in a public thread.

So, the idea that merging everyone together is going to make it easier to find out what your neighbors need is a moot point. That, and the cold hard fact is, at least 80% or more of the people on here (on ANY platform), don't bother looking at signatures anyway. They rely on what's in your game profile, or, even better, simply hit send in return (Regardless of whether you need it or not).

2). Placing ANY restrictions on the amount of conversation going on to me is completely against the idea of a forum in the first place. We're SUPPOSED to communicate and converse, that's what FORUMS are for...

If you restrict the amount of conversation, why have the forum at all, except for maybe coordinating space launches, quests, etc.

3). The recent reorganization of thread and forum sections is good. It's nice and clean. Merging Alliance and Space Launch threads was a good idea too, as they aren't as used as the trading threads.

4). As a couple of other Window's players have already stated, our thread is much, much more than a trading thread. We have a pretty tight group of people that converse, joke, assist, advise, console, cheer each other up, support each other and generally have more than a trading thread.

It's one of the things that I love about this place. Sure the weekend codes, tips, suggestions, guides, etc. are helpful and great, but the people I have met in the Windows thread (And this would also include those newer cross platform people that post in it as well) have gone beyond that. We're friends.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that other platforms don't feel the same way, but from what I've seen of poking around this place, there's nothing close to what we have. And it would be a very sad day indeed, if we lose that because everyone has trouble finding out what their neighbors needs are just a tad quicker then they can now (Or so they think).

I will support whatever the majority goes with obviously. I'm not going to leave this place, protest or jump up and down screaming if it changes. I've met too many great people here, we've had loads of great fun and camaraderie, and I will be forever thankful to them for their help, as well as the powers that be at this forum, for getting me where I am today in the game.

As Porky Pig would say, "That's all folks"!

 

[Fencat]

I don't understand why every windows user think you suddenly can't talk anymore just cause we combine the threads.
Noone said that unless I missed something, I know I didn't atleast, rather the opposite, I would prefer to have more life in the forum including the trading then there currently is in the ios/android part and I hope the feeling @Ten33go mentions above spreads to the whole forum.

I did suggest a daily thread as a compromise for both worlds but I'd love to have a weekly thread if most people prefer that as I too think that's easier to follow.

Currently it feels like there is a split up depending on if you like a lively forum or strict posting rules rather then a split in platforms. Then we should have a strict trade only post and one a mix of everything post not a Windows and ios/android post as the platform labels makes no sense.

 

[Bob69bob]

I do almost all of my trading via PM (why would anyone but the person I'm talking to want to read about it?) and my research by searching through sigs. I almost never look at the trading thread unless it's a specific need, like tower/town hall etc where the searching is a little quicker and you know that the person has been recently active.

People don't generally like change, but maybe we'll work out that they do something better than us? The more ideas that are shared, the better. We'll all get used to it. If we can all share and all launch together, then the threads might as well be together unless specific to the OS, i.e. glitches, updates, etc.

 

[Kris]

I really think merging the forums would be the best option.

 

[Dave]

One small bug bear of mine, from a technical point of view is the PM trading. Every time a PM is sent, the recipient also receives an email advising them they have a PM waiting. At present, the forum is sending out over 100,000 emails a month and that just keeps growing. As you can see from the screenshot below, once we go over out limit of so many per hour, the rest get rejected and end up in my spam box. This is just from earlier on today

Obviously I would like to tackle this because a couple of the main issues are the strain on the server, and also users that have just signed up and awaiting their activation email won't get it.

My options available are:

1) Spend sums of money on a dedicated email server
2) Restrict options on account PM/Email etc

Now I don't particularly want to have to do either of those, as one will hurt my wallet and the other will restrict your enjoyment of trading.

One option I have been looking into and would like the views of those that PM trade. A new forum will be added so it would look like the below

Airport City Trading
- iOS & Android
- Windows
- Amazon
- Facebook
- Private Trading

Within the Private Trading (PT) forum, Member A can create a thread. Member A will be the admin of that thread and as such can invite any other member to join that thread. Unless your invited to a thread, no-one else will be able to see the thread title or thread content. Basically its a PM that is much more resource friendly.

 

[Wired Parrott]

I don't understand why every windows user think you suddenly can't talk anymore just cause we combine the threads.
Noone said that unless I missed something, I know I didn't atleast, rather the opposite, I would prefer to have more life in the forum including the trading then there currently is in the ios/android part and I hope the feeling @Ten33go mentions above spreads to the whole forum.

I did suggest a daily thread as a compromise for both worlds but I'd love to have a weekly thread if most people prefer that as I too think that's easier to follow.

Currently it feels like there is a split up depending on if you like a lively forum or strict posting rules rather then a split in platforms. Then we should have a strict trade only post and one a mix of everything post not a Windows and ios/android post as the platform labels makes no sense.

As I stated a few times pretty much every ios/android player that came to the windows trade thread post platform merge
were not pleased with our random postings within said thread. If you compare the two how they are posted in right now you
will see the obvious difference. As far as if the admins/mods are going to allow the windows players to continue that practice
if they are merged I have no idea as they have not stated anything either way. Perhaps your last statement is the solution but
my guess the windows players that post often will just post everything in that new thread and ignore the trade thread.

 

[Wired Parrott]

@Dave My guess the vast majority of those emails come from the preferences below.

The bottom setting specifically I would imagine creates a vast number of emails. These settings are defaulted to on which also sends
loads of emails to us, hence why mine are off. Maybe some people like getting emails literally at every mention of their name but I think a change to default as off for the bottom two might be good. Then people could change it if that is what they wanted.

 

[Dave]

The majority of those settings are off by default now.

 

[Ten33go]

The majority of those settings are off by default now.

This may help you tremendously, as most players don't venture into that part of their profile / preferences. A lot of traffic may disappear based on that alone.

 

[Agent_L]

Within the Private Trading (PT) forum, Member A can create a thread. Member A will be the admin of that thread and as such can invite any other member to join that thread. Unless your invited to a thread, no-one else will be able to see the thread title or thread content. Basically its a PM that is much more resource friendly.

I was going to propose this thing exactly.

It's driving me nuts: the main forum is barely useful for me. Almost everything I do on the forum now is on PM threads and it's killing me because it pretty much defies the purpose of having a forum in the first place. I get many notifications every visit, but I can't really tell the difference from someone actually PMing me 1:1 with some urgent matter, or is it one of chit-chat threads so it's aimed at someone else actually.
It will require extra functionality, I believe, eg a separate place on "new posts" list for watched threads, so it could be a viable alternative for PM threads.

The only reason why I am opposing the merge of trading threads is that Windows are my close friends while Android are people I don't keep as close, so merging them together while makes much sense in general is inconvenience to me specially. A private forum threads could solve the problem. Perhaps even better would be different levels of privacy: a thread that's available to everyone, visible to everyone but posting on invitation, and full privacy so not invited people don't even know it's there. Or maybe moderator powers for the thread starter would be enough: if he could kick misbehavers then every thread would establish own set of rules.

I also have to say that the daily/weekly closing of trading threads have to go. It defies purpose of a forum, too. I can understand closing a thread once it reaches several thousands messages, but doing it for the sake of breaking up conversation is, well, breaking up conversation, which is the reason why we came here. Dunno if that was what @Ten33go had in mind.

I also think that imposing stricter rules on signatures would be a great idea. IMHO it should be restricted to 3 sections: what user needs, what user can gift and optional personal message (aka the actual signature). Now, the first 2 should be mandatory and the whole thing very limited in size (eg max 2 lines per section), because as it is now the signatures often take more screen space that content itself. On the PC it's mere inconvenience, not huge problem, but reading forum on a phone means you scroll 3 screens of one signature just to reach one-liner actual message. The spoiler tag does more harm than good, because the point of signature is to communicate current needs and gifts, so hiding it diminishes it's use.

 

[Dave]

Some very interesting points there.

The reason why we close the Daily/Weekly friends is because once the day/week is over, they would have served there purpose.

Otherwise you'll have people posting in threads which are weeks old and it then gets confusing. Although there is no issue with the chat that takes place in these threads, you have to remember there primary function is to act as a trading area.

The signatures is a well established problem now and its quite refreshing to hear that the length of some of them frustrates more then just me. I will be looking into see what options are available.

 

[Bob69bob]

All great points. I, and I suspect others, had no idea that PMing caused any issues at all. To be honest, the emails have been driving me nuts and on my list of things to do was to change my settings to reduce them! I think the private trading thread idea is awesome.

As was mentioned earlier, a like button in the PM section might also reduce traffic. It's a good way of acknowledging a message without having to actually send one back.

I'm all for a signature tidy up. Maybe a space could be opened on people's profiles to allow for all the info people want to get out, like all the info on their other accounts. A single open text line on the sig could say, "see my profile for....."

 

[Bob69bob]

Ironically, I've just gone to turn off most of my emails and after 5 minutes, I still can't find the place to do it.