Factorio Forums

As said (https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 916#p46916 ) , I'm watching this board as moderator a lot and I've set myself a limit of 10 lets play posts vs one "normal".

This limit has been reached now (or nearly reached, it's obvious, that it will). So, cause some of the most active forum members are found here, I ask here to split the lets plays into a own board, to make this "free again" for the (more technical) discussions of own creations.

Comments and discussion are welcome.

I say let's wait until it gets to 20 to 1. The "Let's Play" crowd is responsible for my discovery of the game and I want the YTers to be encouraged as much as possible to continue publishing. Yes, a split is imminent, but let's wait a little longer.

DerivePi wrote:I say let's wait until it gets to 20 to 1. The "Let's Play" crowd is responsible for my discovery of the game and I want the YTers to be encouraged as much as possible to continue publishing. Yes, a split is imminent, but let's wait a little longer.

Wouldn't a dedicated Let's Play forum actually give them a more recognizable platform? I agree with your point about the importance of LPs, so I would suggest making the new board its own entry in the main board index, not a subforum for Show your Creations.

I like the Let's Plays and think a Let's Play subforum would do more good than ill.

My thoughts have been: under "general > lets play". No subforum of show your creations...

If you do a subforum, phpbb has an option to advertise it on the main page. It is called "List subforum in parent-forum’s legend".

The vote is pretty clear. Most people would like to see it and I'm ok with it being under a separate section. Makes sense as the people who are looking for videos know exactly where to go to.

I think its inevitable. However you should put Let's Plays/Streams under Show Your Creations.

I am all for having Let's plays as a separate section. My only concern would be someone not knowing where to put something like, for example, a video tutorial, as it is not a let's play but not exactly a 'show your creation' either. I would suggest having a separate section for video and if need be split that further into let's plays, tutorials, reviews, streams, etc.

It makes sense to have a forum for Let's Plays, video series and other video journals of sorts.

Whether the new board is an entirely separate board or a sub-board of Show Your Creations, is not important. What is important is that it's easy to find. Most forum software I've worked with should allow you to setup the LP forum as nested under Show Your Creations on the main page, as well as have a link within the Show Your Creations board to the Let's Play board. If phpBB can't do something so simple, find better forum software

Regarding someone not knowing where to put something, there will always be some grey area and overlap. If someone were to do a short one-off video of their factory, Show Your Creations is fine, whereas if someone plans to do an ongoing series, such as -root's Factorio Fixit, or Gepwin's Factory Base Tours, those could fall under 'let's plays' even if they technically might not be.

So show your creations divided into two subforums?

Video and Screenshot? But what if someone wants to use both in a thread?


So few voting for this forum to be split, and make people prefer one section over another (seriously very few visit all parts of a forum regularly).
I see very little promise in splitting up the forums, at least right now. The lets plays/videos are what keep this forum alive. Get rid of either of them, you get rid of a lot of the attention this forum receives. And you split a small (for the moment) userbase. I don't really see it as a good idea. Right now we don't need anything that'll slow down the talk on a board, we need ways to increase talk instead.

If you're unhappy about the amount of lets plays here compared to other things. Then find ways to encourage people to post more of what you want, instead of to post less on this specific board overall.

sbroadbent wrote:It makes sense to have a forum for Let's Plays, video series and other video journals of sorts.

-snip-

Regarding someone not knowing where to put something, there will always be some grey area and overlap. If someone were to do a short one-off video of their factory, Show Your Creations is fine, whereas if someone plans to do an ongoing series, such as -root's Factorio Fixit, or Gepwin's Factory Base Tours, those could fall under 'let's plays' even if they technically might not be.

good thoughts. i think a wide reaching "video" forum would best. Then we just need a way of easily finding each type of content.

No problem either way.

If other creativity were separated out do we think it will encourage more non-video oriented work? If not it might seem to be effort made with no particular benefit.

I always thought this section should be more pics of things people create or make a short video showing something.

I have nothing against the posts about people playing and creating videos, I even watch some of them, but there are a bunch here and it is getting tough to find the pics of things that I want to see.

The lets play videos are nice when I have time to watch them, but when I don't it's nice to be able to go to a section where people just post pics and things.

I'm not sure if the LP's need their own subforum because the general forum seems to pick up any discussion that got pushed out of the "Show your Creations" forum.

But if you do make it a subforum, you need to make it a subforum under the "Show your Creations" forum. The "Show your Creations" forum is about pictures videos etc, and LP's are videos of people's creation that they are showing to people, and certainly that fits this forum better than just general discussion.

Hm. I think the last 4 posts, especially therapist, brought some very good points.

Especially this "time spending" and information vs. entertaining is a point, which (I think) is for most of us important. If I have time, I will surely look into the videos and look around. If not, I don't want to be bothered by sorting let's play videos out and find the (technical) interesting things.

So I suggest now (against my upper post) a board "Videos > 5 mins ("Let's play" and other)" under "Show your creations"-board.

ssilk wrote:So I suggest now (against my upper post) a board "Videos > 5 mins ("Let's play" and other)" under "Show your creations"-board.

Dude. I have a PhD in overcomplicating things. Don't overcomplicate this.

One subforum under "show your creations". Call it video. Everything video related goes there. Job done

Speaking as a man loathe to allow a new subforum in unless clearly necessary, I have an alternate proposal: Why not use another forum that already seems to have a fair population of let's plays to host let's plays?

Right now "Spread the word" is primarily about discussing news and promotions for Factorio... but an awful lot of it is also streams and let's plays. I think before we consider whether lets plays need a subforum, we should first consider whether "Spread the word" is a proper forum for placing them in.

I'm for either -root's approach...

-root wrote:

ssilk wrote:So I suggest now (against my upper post) a board "Videos > 5 mins ("Let's play" and other)" under "Show your creations"-board.

Dude. I have a PhD in overcomplicating things. Don't overcomplicate this.

One subforum under "show your creations". Call it video. Everything video related goes there. Job done

... or Phoenix approach:

The Phoenixian wrote:Speaking as a man loathe to allow a new subforum in unless clearly necessary, I have an alternate proposal: Why not use another forum that already seems to have a fair population of let's plays to host let's plays?

Right now "Spread the word" is primarily about discussing news and promotions for Factorio... but an awful lot of it is also streams and let's plays. I think before we consider whether lets plays need a subforum, we should first consider whether "Spread the word" is a proper forum for placing them in.

The later would mean that maybe the "Spread the word" category could be merged together with the Let's Plays/Videos since both "Show your creation" and "spread the word" are filled up with let's plays and streams to the point where I don't see anything else in them.

I still favor -root's approach... a section called "Show your creations..." and the two subs being "Picture based" & "videos/streams" would be enough. But the "Spread the word" category should still be looked at too since it is full of videos as well.

I don't think let's plays belong in "Spread the word", unless they are made by someone with a bunch of subscribers unrelated to Factorio.

The Phoenixian wrote:Speaking as a man loathe to allow a new subforum in unless clearly necessary, I have an alternate proposal: Why not use another forum that already seems to have a fair population of let's plays to host let's plays?

Right now "Spread the word" is primarily about discussing news and promotions for Factorio... but an awful lot of it is also streams and let's plays. I think before we consider whether lets plays need a subforum, we should first consider whether "Spread the word" is a proper forum for placing them in.

The later would mean that maybe the "Spread the word" category could be merged together with the Let's Plays/Videos since both "Show your creation" and "spread the word" are filled up with let's plays and streams to the point where I don't see anything else in them.

I still favor -root's approach... a section called "Show your creations..." and the two subs being "Picture based" & "videos/streams" would be enough. But the "Spread the word" category should still be looked at too since it is full of videos as well.[/quote]
Yeah, as you touched on the one key flaw in making "Spread the word" an official place for let's plays is that it risks drowning out other forms of discussion there.

Right now, the one thing "spread the word" could do, even if it isn't currently, is grant us a place to conduct organized efforts to promote Factorio. (For example, there's a small, three month old TV tropes page for Factorio. If we were to to orchestrate an effort to update it and add links from other pages, It would not be the first time a community had deliberately done so.)

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Now that I've touched on my proposition, and it's counterpoint...

-root wrote:

ssilk wrote:So I suggest now (against my upper post) a board "Videos > 5 mins ("Let's play" and other)" under "Show your creations"-board.

Dude. I have a PhD in overcomplicating things. Don't overcomplicate this.

One subforum under "show your creations". Call it video. Everything video related goes there. Job done

Ssilk has a point but he just needs a better name. For example: "Let's plays": It's a common enough phrase, is specific enough that it won't add confusion, and can easily be given a subtitle like "Your place to find let's plays and streams" or "Your place to find let's plays, streams, and video tutorials" (depending on what exactly should and should not go there) to clue people in to exactly what definitely goes there, and leaves those other forms of videos open otherwise.