Forum restructure

[WildX]

After getting some feedback on the confusing forum structure and not being satisfied with it myself, I have decided to try out a new layout. This gives the forums back to The Mana World without contaminating it too much with SoM and ML sections. The last category named "Manasource Organisation" will contain sections for all projects under Manasource, but the rest of the board will now be once again fully for TMW.

This board still hosts all of Manasource and its private forum is our official decision-making platform. I just wanted to do this in a way that is less invasive on TMW's space as this has always been a board by and for TMW.

I still strongly believe in forum usage and participation because it brings together people who may play at different times and allows for more detailed discussions that are less temporary than in-game chat. Of course I realise that times have changed and forums are not as popular these days, but from experience with TMW I know how much more engagement we had when developers regularly posted their ideas and progress in the development forums.

I'll take this as a chance to once again encourage developers to use the forums as a showcase of work, source of feedback and potentially a training ground for new contributors.

Specific placement of sections can be changed around if people prefer something different. This is the layout that makes sense to me.

[Reid]

It seems more coherent, and will help to organize stuff within a single forum category for future SoM's posts!

[Bjørn]

I'm glad to see a stronger focus on The Mana World for these forums!

What still makes these forums a little confusing in my opinion is that we have way too many "announcements" and "pinned" topics. For example in the News section we have 5 announcements and 5 pinned topics, which generally places the actual activity at the bottom edge of the browser window. Probably something to go over on a case by case basis.

Edit: Also, on the board index we have links to "How to help?", "Download and play!" and "Join our online chat!". I would propose we remove all of them, since this is stuff that should be clear from the website (and on that note, the main thing the forums appear to be lacking is a clear link back to themanaworld.org).

[WildX]

I agree there's too many announcements. Many of these have been around so long that it seems like disrupting a timeless balance by removing them. Most are genuinely helpful or threads that for various reasons we never want to lose. If a specific one seems unnecessary it's probably easier to discuss case by case.

The redirects IMO are useful. From monitoring their traffic in the past, I'd say they're too useful to remove. I don't see how not linking to game downloads and chat tools is anyting but helpful and strategically sound.

Generally this being a 20 year old board it's going to be full of vestiges of the past. It's part of what I like about it, but that's subjective.