=][= ADEPTUS ASTARTES FORUM CHANGES =][=

[Brother Tyler]

The Adeptus Astartes forums have changed a bit due to the amount of traffic.

1. First, we pulled the Adeptus Astartes out of the ++ IMPERIUM ++ category and created a separate ++ ADEPTUS ASTARTES ++ category.
2. Second, we consolidated the Deathwatch, Imperial Fists, Iron Hands, Raven Guard, Salamanders, and White Scars into the main + ADEPTUS ASTARTES + forum, removing the sub-forums for those Chapters.

This allows us to reduce the amount of scrolling that members have to do to get to the Chapters they want, and members that are not interested in the [Loyalist] Adeptus Astartes can simply hide the category to reduce the amount of scrolling they have to do to get to the categories/forums/sub-forums they want to see. This also allows us to realign the staff assignments and overall workload.

 

In the future, correct and consistent use of tags will become important in helping to identify which Chapter(s) a topic cover(s) - and in allowing members to filter out unwanted topics. If you just want to see the topics about the Salamanders Chapter, for example, all you have to do is click on the Salamanders Chapter tag and the system software will return only the content with that tag so that you don't have to scroll through topics about the Iron Hands, Raven Guard, etc.

[Felix Antipodes]

I’m assuming the Chapters who lost individual status was down to lack of foot traffic in their old spaces?

[Brother Tyler]

Yes, the traffic in these forums was very slow. We collected data for 6 months and determined that these forums could be consolidated into the main Adeptus Astartes forum and all posts within the last 7 days would appear on the first page. Most of the time, all posts within the last 14 days would appear on the first page.

[Brother Tyler]

Note that the change described in the first post has been completed and the Resources topic has been updated, including removing a few indices for Chapters that had little/nothing relevant.

 

Many of the topics do not have the basic tag identifying the Chapter to which they apply (e.g., Imperial Fists Chapter, Raven Guard Successor, Brazen Claws Chapter). If you see one for which you are the topic creator and want to take the time to add the appropriate tag(s) (by editing the first post), feel free to do so (we would very much appreciate it). If members don't take care of this minimal amount of work, it will be left to the staff who will take care of things if/when they have time.

 

As a basic rule, the name of the Chapter/Legion along with "Chapter" or "Legion" should be the first tag (the "Legion" tag is used when referring to the organization pre-2nd Founding).

 

For example, a topic about the Imperial Fists Legion prior to the 2nd Founding would need the tag Imperial Fists Legion.

 

A topic about the Imperial Fists Chapter after the 2nd Founding would need the tag Imperial Fists Chapter.

 

Successor Chapters, meanwhile, would need the "Chapter" tag (e.g., Crimson Fists Chapter); and if the Chapter's lineage is known, the "Successor" tag identifying the Legion from which the Chapter descends (e.g., Imperial Fists Successor).

 

Additional tags to cover all of the bases are unnecessary, especially acronyms/abbreviations. For example, a topic about the Imperial Fists (whether Legion or Chapter) would not also need Legio VII, VIIth Legion, 7th Legion, IF, Fists, etc. All that is needed is the basic tags for the Chapter/Legion and the Successor tag for known lineage.

 

When we upgrade to Invision 5.0, tags will no longer be free-form, but will instead be selected from a pre-defined list. This limitation is not our choice or a setting that we can change, but is inherent to 5.0. The only input we have will be building the tag list. The staff will be working through that structure soon and will provide a description of our methodology once we finalize things. The basic tag system I identified above will definitely be part of the overall tag structure, however. There may be more tags that we build in, but we haven't settled on those yet so I'm not going to describe them here to avoid unnecessary and incomplete work and wasted time on anyone's part.

[Brother Tyler]

Just for the sake of transparency, here's the spreadsheet showing the data that drove the consolidation.

 

 

The green background in the Consolidated (bottom) row means that there were 25 or fewer topics, including the planned pinned topic (the Resources topic), from all of the forums in the given time period (7 days, 14 days, and 30 days). That means that all topics in that period would appear on the first page. Our minimum goal is to have all active topics in the last 7 days appear on the first page, though 14 days is ideal. As you can see, there were only two data sets where there were more than 25 topics, and those only occurred for the 30-day periods.

 

It should be noted that we also considered two other possible combinations. The first was to add the Ultramarines in with the sub-forums that we eventually consolidated, and the second was to consolidate all of the Adeptus Astartes sub-forums except the Grey Knights (since they use a different base codex). The data supported including the Ultramarines sub-forum in the consolidation, but we felt it was inappropriate to roll any of the "Big Five" (Black Templars, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Space Wolves, Ultramarines) in. The data definitely did not support rolling in any/all of the other "Big Five" Chapters.