Community Bulletin Board at spawn | Suggestion Box | Forum

I am glad my comment is being considered.  Of course I had no idea the "Idiot Problems" or bandwidth issues that could occur, since I have never run a site like this.

I may be delusional, but I think people should be able to sum up why to visit their city on 2 signs.  I mean... people can communicate a stupid amount in 140 Twitter characters.

As an example, I have a million things I would want to tell people to entice them to come to my city.  The Spider Trap, a big tower they can jump off of, free things, a new Hide & Seek arena (with both PvP and non-PvP), smelting ovens, villagers to trade with, archery set-up, a little PvP arena and Parkour training thing, etc etc blah blah.

BUT...I can boil it down to "SmallVilla free stuff, info for newbies, PvP & more" 

That could fit on two signs, I am sure.  And, I could routinely change them.

As for other concerns:  Bad mouthing someone's city ("such and such sucks") could be a reason for a temp or perm ban, as could any destruction or anti-social behavior.  I mean, you wouldn't allow that behavior in other parts of the game, right?

If you have the patience, I do have comments regarding a couple other things Frelling mentioned:

(Please understand, all the following is from the viewpoint of a User/Player.  Not a web-designer/admin. I am just saying how I have responded to things, which, based on what I see with other new players, is sorta kinda normal.)

*  People don't read signs.   Oh my yes.  So true.  But...   I think the biggest problem is that the signs with the most valuable information are the ones right after getting off the Spawn Ship.   I hope we could agree I am a reasonably intelligent person who tries to help herself during the game.  And ya know what?  I didn't read any of those Port-located signs.

Why?  Because I had just spent 20 minutes reading signs for the Trials.  Then finally (finally!) I was through and ready to play...and I am hit with... a bazillion more signs.   It is just too much.  Especially since at first glance (if you don't read them) it appears to be the same info again.   There is major sign-overload after departing the ship, and I fully understand the mindset of the people that don't read them.

I do have some suggestions, that may or may not be feasible, as to how to help the sign-overload problem.  And I can present those to you later if you are interested.

* People need to go to the forums.  Yes they do.  And I have made a habit out of checking them.  But... only because I got nosy one day.   Initially, I entirely dismissed them.  The reason is:  I am used to forums looking active.  This one doesn't.  At first glance, I look at post time stamps and see "2 weeks ago"  "4 weeks ago"  "6 days ago" etc. 

Yes, if I look harder I will find "1 day ago" and "2 hours ago" etc.  But they don't appear frequently.  In my mind (and I guess of others) there is no point perusing a forum that has outdated discussions and info.

I would suggest taking time-stamps off "sticky" type posts (if possible), and moving your "most recent discussions" section up higher, so new folks can see at an instant it is active. 

Also...and this is the harder part...some of us would have to make a true effort to start and reply to threads to keep things active.  Almost anytime I mention the "IRL" thread in chat, people don't know about it and run to check.  Ditto with ban things (gossip rules). 
So we also need to mention -- in chat -- the COOL things that are in the forums, and not just an announcement or such.

Finally a comment you might think is really silly/dumb regarding the forums:

I admit to being ditzy at times.  But my husband did the same thing, so maybe it isn't just me/us.

There is something counter-intuitive about the fact that the Top Menu Bar of the main page *IS* a link itself.  And, if I remember correctly, that fact isn't consistent either.

Initially, both my husband and I hovered over the "Forums" menu and saw the drop down of "members."  We never saw a "forums" link.  And, when a drop down appears, there is something in our web-user brain that doesn't tell us the top word might also be a link.  It took me a week or so to have the light-bulb appear over my head.  Especially since not all the Menu words are also links.

If you think, how often do people say, in chat, "But how do I get to the forums?"  (and then they are told "go to the website").   This, I think, is what they mean. 

A simple change of, under the forums Menu link, making another "Forums" link above the "Members" link could solve some problems with people finding the forums.

Did that make any sense?

I know it is weird.