This forum should.....
from 
Stardock Forums
Stardock Forums
As more and more people start participating in this forum, this forum needs to evolve as much as the game needs to fix bugs and problems ... as well as twink its way to perfection. Here's my suggestions for this forum so far:
1) Different forums for different general topics. At the very least, a separate forum for strategy discussions, bug reporting, and suggestions. This one here being the catch-all/general/misc. forum.
2) Preview button, the ability to edit one's post, a spellchecker, and email notification of new posts to a thread you've started or posted to. I was quite amazed that for a programming company that this forum doesn't have these four standard features.
3) Whether "Suggestions" is kept here as a thread or given its own forum, suggestions need to be at least summarized and acknowledged. As of this posting, the "Suggestions" thread is now 292 posts in length. A common opening statement by posters is now: "I'm sorry but I didn't read all 2XX posts so I'm not sure if this has already been suggested. What I'd like is..." This results in a lot of repetition and thus even more posts in that thread thus making it even more less likely to be read all the way through by those with suggestions. If you set up a separate forum for suggestions, have one of the sticky posts (that always stays at the top of all the threads) give a summarization to date of all the suggestions and somehow have those posts already viewed by the designers be listed after those that haven't yet been. A new post to the thread that hasn't been viewed by a designer and it pops back above those threads that have been viewed in their entirety by designers. For those posts that designers want further discussion on, simply add a "sticky" to that thread and a post by Brad or another designer that discussion is sought on this topic (as it is currently being done with the wasted resources thread). If "Suggestions" is kept here, Brad (or someone in the company) should regularly start up a new one that first summarizes all suggestions so far, tells which cannot/won't be done (remember, we're not all game designers to we don't know if we're suggestions a minor twink or a major overhaul ... or an feature that would hurt game balance), which ones are under consideration (thus like further posts discussing this ... though this would be far easier in a separate forum), and which will be implemented and their ETAs. Then unsticky the old "Suggestions", have Brad (or someone from the company) post a final post to that thread, and disable replies thus letting it work its way deep into the graveyard. This way your fans know their voices are being heard, fans will read this summation before posting their suggestion (so if it's already been suggested exactly as they want it, they won't post it again), and you don't have to read redundant suggestion posts (or at least fewer).
Well, those are my suggestions for this forum.
Which do people like of the above? Suggestions for how they can be improved? And do you have other suggestions for this forum? If so, post them here. 
1) Different forums for different general topics. At the very least, a separate forum for strategy discussions, bug reporting, and suggestions. This one here being the catch-all/general/misc. forum.
2) Preview button, the ability to edit one's post, a spellchecker, and email notification of new posts to a thread you've started or posted to. I was quite amazed that for a programming company that this forum doesn't have these four standard features.
3) Whether "Suggestions" is kept here as a thread or given its own forum, suggestions need to be at least summarized and acknowledged. As of this posting, the "Suggestions" thread is now 292 posts in length. A common opening statement by posters is now: "I'm sorry but I didn't read all 2XX posts so I'm not sure if this has already been suggested. What I'd like is..." This results in a lot of repetition and thus even more posts in that thread thus making it even more less likely to be read all the way through by those with suggestions. If you set up a separate forum for suggestions, have one of the sticky posts (that always stays at the top of all the threads) give a summarization to date of all the suggestions and somehow have those posts already viewed by the designers be listed after those that haven't yet been. A new post to the thread that hasn't been viewed by a designer and it pops back above those threads that have been viewed in their entirety by designers. For those posts that designers want further discussion on, simply add a "sticky" to that thread and a post by Brad or another designer that discussion is sought on this topic (as it is currently being done with the wasted resources thread). If "Suggestions" is kept here, Brad (or someone in the company) should regularly start up a new one that first summarizes all suggestions so far, tells which cannot/won't be done (remember, we're not all game designers to we don't know if we're suggestions a minor twink or a major overhaul ... or an feature that would hurt game balance), which ones are under consideration (thus like further posts discussing this ... though this would be far easier in a separate forum), and which will be implemented and their ETAs. Then unsticky the old "Suggestions", have Brad (or someone from the company) post a final post to that thread, and disable replies thus letting it work its way deep into the graveyard. This way your fans know their voices are being heard, fans will read this summation before posting their suggestion (so if it's already been suggested exactly as they want it, they won't post it again), and you don't have to read redundant suggestion posts (or at least fewer).
Well, those are my suggestions for this forum.
Which do people like of the above? Suggestions for how they can be improved? And do you have other suggestions for this forum? If so, post them here. 