This week saw the addition of the latest subforums 'Music', 'Food and Drink' and 'Welcome to EM' with 'Off Topic' being re-implemented. These new sub-forums were put in place by Jasprar (with the consent/recommendation of other members on the mod team) in an attempt to open up the forums to appeal to a wider range of current players whilst also making it more accessible to new players who want to broaden the knowledge of the game and also make friends within the forum community who share similar interests. Although 'General Discussion' encompasses these elements, the addition of the new sub-forums makes everything feel much tidier whilst also sign-posting threads to newer players by making certain areas of discussion more prominently accessible. The previous subforums were more centered around mafia related topics with the exception of video games which proved to be a popular forum, inviting users to discuss and share opinions on a non mafia-related topic. The success of this thread highlighted that niche subforums can attract a wider community, hence why the decision was made to implement sub forums which are more interest based to make the forums more attractive to new players.
TLDR? Start here:
We are not currently looking to delete the new subforums. They are still in the stages of being tested however we are always looking to improve so constructive criticism would be much appreciated to let us know what you think. There is currently deliberation into the merging of certain subforums and also the addition of a media-related subforum so thoughts on this in particular would be extremely helpful. Whilst the deletion of the existing subforums is not priority at this point in time, ideas about how the new subforums as they exist currently could be improved are also welcome if expressed constructively.
This thread should not be about bashing the Food & Drink subforum as a result of what has been said above. It is important to remember that the aim here is to try and utilize the idea of subforums to find ways of making the forums more accessible to all whilst catering to a diverse range of interests.
Obviously the forums cannot be improved or expanded without input from the people who keep it thriving, so ideas that relate to the philosophy that was expressed in the OP are very much appreciated.
