Guys, just looking at today''s threads shows that maybe 9 or 10 of them are graphics questions, perhaps even DirectX or OpenGL questions. Please... if it''s about DirectX, use the DirectX forum. If it''s about OpenGL, use the OpenGL forum. If it''s about both, or graphics in general, use the Graphics forum. If everyone posts in the wrong forums it makes it a lot harder to find the information you want, especially weeks or months down the line when using the search facility. It also makes the moderators'' jobs harder.

True that.

The hard part about the Game Programming forum is that it''s generic enough to encompass all of that, so I hesitate a bit about moving messages (I''d rather not make people have to search around for their messages). It''s partially my fault since I still haven''t written a FAQ (damn I''m lazy ), but it''s still a bit obvious when there are specialized forums. Anyway, I don''t think it''s way too large a problem seeing as the other forums get a decent amount of use, but it probably could be better.

I''m not sure what to do to remedy the situation (if it is indeed a situation that needs remedying). I should write a FAQ (although from my experience people rarely read FAQ''s anyway), or I could simply start moving posts. Perhaps I could have some sort of "Daily Digest" post on things I have moved and where I moved them? Anyway, if anyone has any opinions on this feel free to post it here.

well the thing is if my question deals about graphics i might not get a responce if i put in say opengl forum as apposed to the game programing forum

Hehe... senshi is a heretic. Not even a FAQ yet. Your own forum (thats not the HW one... that just scares me over there), and you can''t even take 5 minutes to write a FAQ. I''m disappointed.

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Trent (ShiningKnight)
E-mail me
OpenGL Game Programming Tutorials

quote:

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Original post by ShiningKnight
Hehe... senshi is a heretic. Not even a FAQ yet. Your own forum (thats not the HW one... that just scares me over there), and you can''t even take 5 minutes to write a FAQ. I''m disappointed.

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Trent (ShiningKnight)
E-mail me
OpenGL Game Programming Tutorials

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Heh, well the problem is that for the FAQ I want to have a lot of answers to questions in there as well as guidelines. I guess I should start with something up there .

quote:

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Original post by Anonymous Poster
well the thing is if my question deals about graphics i might not get a responce if i put in say opengl forum as apposed to the game programing forum

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The problem is that this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If all the OpenGL people think "if I post in the Game Programming forum instead, I''ll get more replies", then the OpenGL forum stays empty. But if all the OpenGL people think "I''ll post in the OpenGL forum because that''s where it''s supposed to go", then the OpenGL forum sees a lot more traffic, more people will read it, and you get more replies.

This system needs your help to work, people. The staff here have done a good job of separating out the forums into what I believe is the optimum number... not so many that you can''t keep track of the ones you want, not so few that each one sees too much traffic to keep up.

Benefits of making sure you post in the right place:

1) Experts in a given field may only find time to post in ''their'' forum. For example, the AI forum has some well-known AI programmers posting in it who don''t seem to bother posting in other forums. So, if you post your AI question in Game Programming instead, you miss out on their expertise.

2) It keeps traffic more evenly spread out. This probably means less load on the server when generating topic lists, less load on the server when you ask to search a specific forum rather than a very busy ''catch-all'' forum, or even all forums.

3) It makes searching for previous answers easier. If I want to find an answer for a DirectX question, it would make life a lot easier if I only have to search the DirectX forum for it. If I have to search all the forums for a DirectX question, I might get way too many hits, with no decent way of being able to narrow those down.

4) People don''t have to read topics they''re not interested in. When I read the Game Programming forum, I don''t want to see a lot of OpenGL topics. Why? Because I don''t know a thing about it. I can''t help any of the posters with their questions. If I could, I''d have gone to the OpenGL forum in the first place. It gets frustrating to open up yet another thread that shouldn''t belong there. In the Lounge recently, people were complaining that the quality of the forums is dropping. Lots of posts in the wrong places contributes to this.

5) Respect. If you post in the wrong place, people have less respect for you. You are showing that you believe your problem is more important than the rules of the board. The GDNet staff put in a lot of effort to maintain this resource, the articles, news, the forums, and more. If you use it with no consideration to the time they put in to setting up a decent classification for the forums, you''re showing that you don''t respect their work. Personally, I''m not very inclined to help someone who posts in the wrong forum. The short description of each forum is accurate enough. On the other hand, if you post in the right forums, you get the respect of your peers for at least paying attention to the rules of the forums.

So please guys. If you''re one of the people who posts your threads in here, just because you think the relevant forum is a bit quiet, please read the above points and reconsider. Everyone needs to cooperate and follow the reasonable guidelines if these forums are to work as well as they should.

True ''dat.

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Trent (ShiningKnight)
E-mail me
OpenGL Game Programming Tutorials

Right - and if it''s about consoles feel free to use the console forum.


Mike

yup!(just wanted to say something)

there are too many forums I think. Instead of DX, OGL, Graphics, NeHe, and Iso why not just have 3d and 2d? For example what if I was making an isometric game with dx8? Where would I go? What if I''m a newbie and I''m not sure which category my question falls under and I end up posting in the wrong place? When a forum is too unpopular it dies and its threads go into the main two. The key then it to make the less popular forums more popular by combining them. If all forums have equal traffic it is in people''s best interest to post in the correct one, unlike now where it would be pointless to post in, say, the beginner''s forum. The more you split the more posts end up in the main forum. If you split the forums into 100 more we''d end up with 100% of all posts going to the two main forums. It is time to do some combining.