Forums Changes Made Overnight [2010-04-29]

I made a few forums changes overnight, mostly for organizational purposes. Here's the rundown:


* Split The Outpost forum into GW1 Outpost and GW2 Outpost forums, and moved various Outpost threads to their rightful locations. This was always the plan once Guild Wars 2 information started coming out more regularly, and that seems to be the case now. Also divided them up into separate categories.



* Merged the Community Marketplace forum into the Community Service & Activity forum. Just wanted to make room in the Community Awareness & Interaction category, and the Community Marketplace wasn't really being used much anyways. For all your buying/selling/trading desires, you can now use the Community Service & Activity forum for that (in addition to its previously-existing function as an activities/help wanted/services offered area).



* Removed usergroup-required access to The Builder's Workshop forum. This wasn't getting much activity regardless, so there's no real point in having a usergroup for it. It is now able to be viewed/contributed to by all registered forum members. Forum guests won't be able to open the forum. Hopefully the greater-allowed access can spur some new contributions/discussions, as it's a really great idea for a forum and it would suck to see it go to waste.



* The Community Underground forum was renamed to the [meh] Private Quarters, and is now located in the same category as the other [meh]-specific forums are. Also, the General Matters Of [meh] forum was renamed to Guild Matters Of [meh].


Reasoning for this change:

The Guild Matters Of [meh] can be viewed and posted in by any registered forum member. There might be some topics/votes/etc. where [meh] may not want just anyone to participate or voice their input. I broadened the (potential) focus of the Community Underground [meh] Private Quarters forum so that it can now be used as a special-access [meh] forum in addition to a secretive builds locker (as it was being used for previously). This way, [meh] can have a private forum for things as well as an even-more-private Guild Office for those sensitive topics which maybe shouldn't be in the prying eyes of [meh] Private Quarters usergroup members.

It's totally up to [meh] if they want use the [meh] Private Quarters forum for its broadened function or simply keep it as the secretive builds locker as it was before. I'm just giving them that option for future consideration. (It's all set up and ready to go, if so.)

The permissions for the [meh] Private Quarters remain the same as before: only people in the Access: [meh] Private Quarters usergroup can see the forum's existence/open the forum/read/post/etc.. As [meh] now effectively has a 3-tiered forum access structure ([meh] Guild Office -> [meh] Private Quarters -> Guild Matters Of [meh]), I made it so members of the Access: [meh] Guild Office usergroup can view/contribute to the [meh] Private Quarters forum. Basically, since the Office access usergroup is in a higher tier than the Private Quarters usergroup, it should have all the rights/access of that lower tier.


The '[meh] Private Quarters' name:

[meh] Private Quarters is just a name I thought of off the top of my head. If [meh] has a better name in mind for the [meh] Private Quarters, let me know and I'll update it. I think the existing name fits pretty well though.



* Moved The Trophy Case forum into the Community Awareness & Interaction category, since it doesn't really pertain to solely Guild Wars 1 anyways (the now-renamed category it was previously in).



* Rewrote some of the forum descriptions.



* Updated the Archives forum names/descriptions to reflect the forum changes.



* Adjusted some of the Worth Points given to a few forums for better consistency.

I don't expect everyone to read through all of that. I just listed out what I did in case anyone wanted to know.

One Additional Change:


* EVERY FORUMS MEMBER can now edit their own 'Custom Tag' (instead of just Moderators). Go to your profile to do so. The custom tag shows up in your profile and underneath your avatar on every post you make. I have also disabled the 'Humor' profile category as the new 'Custom Tag' availability now makes it redundant.

The allowed length of the 'Custom Tag' is pretty high, but please don't overdo it.