Forum Board Spring Cleaning

[Twillie]

Hey all!

Due to both the changing tides of the internet and our own forum community, the mods have recently discussed a reformatting of the forum's structure. The NTWF has always had a history of growing, shrinking, and changing its boards to the demands of its current member base, and as we experience these changes now, a number of boards in turn have lost their original use. We wish to declutter the forum to best fit how members use it today.

The mods have created a new proposed board structure for the forum that can be found below, with boards and subboards going through one of three options: being merged with another board, being retired to Memory Lane, or staying just as they are. We also want to emphasize that none of these changes, if implemented, would be permanent. Nothing will be deleted, and if a board retired now has a demand for use in the future, then it can just as easily be moved back. 

Our proposed structure is also not final say; we show this to you now not as the last word, but as a request for feedback. If you disagree with anything we propose, please let us know! Our one goal is to create a forum structure that best fits the needs and wants of its members, so you will know best if a board should stay or go! Feel free to comment below with any thoughts, questions, or suggestions you have about this process.

The window for feedback will last for three weeks, giving until June 18th to post any comments below. After that, the mods will take all suggestions given and implement any changes on June 21st.

Thank you,
The Mods

[Twillie]

Here is our proposed new structure for the forum:

The Forum
Central Square

Neopia
Neopets General
    Pet Parade
Times Lobby
Issues: Previews and Reviews

Interactive
Splatterboard
Discussions and Debates
Games and Interactive

Creative Endeavors
Writer's Workshop
The Art Studio
Work Reviews and Advice

General
Off Topic
Clubhouse
Positive Spin
Banter Board
Dear Diary
    Scrapbook Shelf

And for further reference, here are all the boards to be merged or retired:

Merged with Times Lobby:
NT Projects
Collaborations (non-NT collabs will go under Writer's Workshop)

Merged with Rules:
Avatar Signature Sizes

Merged with Writer's Workshop:
Pen's Point
NTWF Stories

Merged with Off Topic:
Reviews and Clues
Help
Other Places Online

Merged with Positive Spin:
Birthday Board

Forum Gates, Forum Events, and Issues and Inquiries merged together

Retired:
Role Playing
Guilds
Taco
Tabloid Town (The current tabloid thread will be pinned on Splatterboard and then retired once it reaches 50 pages)
Dramatis Personae
Memorable Quotes

[Ian Wolf-Park]

I have a couple of questions. The first is what would be the estimated timeframe for the the new forum structure to be implemented after you listen to feedback? I know it's still early in the process and it will be announced when it is about to occur, but it wouldn't hurt to ask, right?

The second is whether there will be downtime or if it will be a seamless transition.

[June Scarlet]

I was curious as to how you were going to handle the Project Coordinator? I know the only reason the NT Projects subboard was created was for the Project Coordinator rank. Will they just have access to the entire Times Lobby now?

[Twillie]

Ian Wolf-Park The timeframe to give feedback will be three weeks, so we'll have this topic open until June 18th! From there, the mods will go over all suggestions given, and changes will be made a few days after on June 21st.

June Scarlet The Project Coordinator role is one that, on paper, is given for a temporary time while a project is going on, and then is removed once the project has come to an end. Considering that collabs have been an ongoing thing, though, it might be best if we talk with those who currently have the Project Coordinator role to see how to go forward. Is it you and Rabbit ♠ that have the role right now?

[Holly]

I know I haven't been active on here in forever, but when this restructuring happens could I request my (still in progress) Taco 10th anniversary project be moved to either Splatterboard or Writer's Workshop? (Probably Splatterboard makes the most sense if Role Playing is also moving there, and it has a goofier tone, but it could also fall under NTWF Stories. Your call as mods, honestly.)

[Twillie]

May 29, 2019 15:54:18 GMT -5 Holly said:

I know I haven't been active on here in forever, but when this restructuring happens could I request my (still in progress) Taco 10th anniversary project be moved to either Splatterboard or Writer's Workshop? (Probably Splatterboard makes the most sense if Role Playing is also moving there, and it has a goofier tone, but it could also fall under NTWF Stories. Your call as mods, honestly.)

Yeah, it would be no problem moving your thread to Splatterboard!

[Killix]

May 28, 2019 11:31:03 GMT -5 Ian Wolf-Park said:

The second is whether there will be downtime or if it will be a seamless transition.

There will be a little downtime as we shuffle things around, though probably no longer than an hour if everything goes smoothly.

There will be some kind of announcement warning for the scheduled downtime in advance so that nobody hits submit on their epic 50,000 word post only to be greeted with Maintenance Mode. XD

[Gelquie]

Just an update to our plans, there are two changes.

-Role playing will be retired instead of merged with Splatterboard.

-Memory Lane will become one of two parts, the second being The Archives. Memory Lane will be used for memorable or sentimental events or threads, and will be largely untouched (minus some organizing). The Archives will be used to store our retired boards that do not get much use anymore. (If there's interest in those boards in the future, they can be moved back out of the Archives.)

[Twillie]

A reminder that there's a week left to comment on the proposed structure! If you have any suggestions, questions, or concerns, be sure to post them before the end of June 18, next Tuesday.

[Gelquie]

Maintenance has concluded and the boards have been rearranged as planned! Let us know if you have any questions or concerns.