Switching Things Up a Bit: IA Restructure

[Lamont]

Good day all!
With interest to try and help the navigation around ZZ for both new and old members, we have gone and overhauled the basic forum structure for [mostly] OOC areas of the forum. We took your feedback and ideas, mingled them with some woes of staff, and came up with what you can see now.

Please don't hesitate to continue providing feedback on how things work for you as a reply to this thread. Some of these board changes are experimental :3

Note: Thread revamps are also on the roadmap, this is just the first major step in improving organization & discover-ability.

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NEW CATEGORIES


Earl's Pokemon Academy
Named for the Pokemon School's original name in Gen 2 in Violet City, this category contains all of the informative resources about ZZ's gameplay. It's core is what Prof. Oak's Lab used to be, with some inserts from other parts of the forum. Such as the forum Announcements.

It has been categorized by type of resource, with a split of basic information to advanced so as to be friendlier to new members who may not want to know or care about how modding works:

• How to Play: Basics the bare necessities for brand new members. Links to helpful introductory materials that do not get into any of ZZ's nitty gritty inner workings can be included.
  
  
• Handbooks where all the reference guides and lists will reside.
  
  
• Extracurricular is where all the heavier mod-relevant public materials will go that are optional for members to know. Such as how the EXP System works and ZZ's Exclusive things like sprites & item/ability/move changes.
  
  
• Announcements the same as before but without the Staff Test board.
  

Prof. Oak's Lab
This houses all the resources only relevant for Moderators (Mod Guide, Mod Rewards, Les Secrets, etc), and core activities that require Moderators for updates, such as:

• The current core Moderation Centre threads
  
• Staff Recruitment Tests
  
• The Battle Database
  
• Pkmn/Item Transfer/Updates moved from Bill's PC
  
• The Game Corner & the Pokeathlon Dome
  

Global Terminal
The OOC Area. This would contain the boards:

• General Chat
  
• Rainbow Zulu
  
• Suggestions
  
• Advertising
  
  
• Community Bulletin: Previously the 'Absent' board. This has been repurposed into a place that all members can post 'announcements' for the community. These could range from special deals or promotions in your Trainer Shops or elsewhere on forum, activity notices, or projects off-site that you're proud of or things such as a special charity stream you're doing and think ZZ members would be interested. It's not for advertisements, but a place to put a time-limited topics you want to share that doesn't really warrant a 'discussion' like under the General Chat board.
  

Pokemon Network Centre
All the character focused things, such as:

• Apps & PC's
  
• Your First Pokemon
  
• Find an RP Partner
  
• Chatter
  
• Trainer Shops
  
• Trade Center
  

[antonius]

Okay, just for clarification, does this mean the old Bill's PC been split apart completely so no longer exist? How often do we use the announcements? This may sound bad but I will still be using the "extracurricular" section because there are times I forget about the experience levels especially 25+ and the move changes. Will our Staff Only forum change in this?

[Tarlar]

Bill's PC will still held the boxes. The transfer thread has just been moved to the Oak's Lab board, since it makes more sense now its where you post to get things updated ^^

Announcements is as now, and I too are using the level/exp guide almost every time. That's what its for. I can't remember where the Les Secret was moved to, but I'm sure we either find it or it is noted in the discussion about it on the mod board ^^
EDIT: found les secret It's funny enough under the moderation board

[Lamont]

Les Secrets & the Moderation Center never moved ;D

And I should hope that mods are using everything in the 'Extracurricular'. That's where all the public mod-adjacent information is. Not exclusive to mods, but definitely a more crunchy area that not every member needs to know unless they're curious.



And yes, Bill's PC still exists but is now just for PCs; nothing more. It's just been moved to be by the character profiles. To request any updates from mods regarding PCs, inventories, parties, and the like that thread has been moved into the Moderation Center with all the other threads of its kind (Eggs, Transactions, etc)

[antonius]

So is things like our monthly events (buena password, lotto) still in the same spot or did those get moved? I suspect Gogoat still remain in the Dome.

[Lamont]

As per the note above:

Jan 15, 2023 4:26:26 GMT 11 Lamont said:

...we have gone and overhauled the basic forum structure for [mostly] OOC areas of the forum.

...

Announcements the same as before but without the Staff Test board.

*Edit: And yes, you can see the boards like Game Corner & the Pokeathlon have remained unchanged. Johto was not touched.

[Caramell 🍬]

I like it! It's a nice change.

Everyone, please remember that even with this change we're all open to feedback. While adjusting to the changes to the overall new layout / design, don't be afraid to let us staff know what you think (just as some of us are doing here, with each other). <3

[Jenesis]

I'd like to make a suggestion to move Global Terminal to either the very top or the very bottom of the board, because it contains the advertising sub-board. Those are the places I usually look when I'm trying to place an ad, and it's frustrating to have to scroll through the whole board when I can't find it on a first glance.

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ETA: I also think the very first post of "How Battles Work" should be added to the beginner guide, since battling Pokemon is a basic and fundamental feature of modded threads (and not everyone coming to ZZ will have played the video games, necessarily). Regular members don't need to know how the damage is calculated, but they should be guided to information like "you can only call one move per post" and "you cannot choose to dodge."

I missed that there is a link in point #6 under Role Play while skimming the basic Trainer's Guide. Maybe give its own section for emphasis?

//

What if Member Suggestions was moved up next to the Moderation Center? Since it is specifically a board to suggest ideas for the staff team to read and discuss and not really a board for members to have discussions with each other.

[Lamont]

Ah! Sorry I missed your edits afterward Jenesis. Just saw the 1st one there, which was done :3


Shuffling about thread posts will be taken into consideration for the next phase, thank you for the suggestion! We're working on a better 'Trainer Guide' sort of overview page that should work nicely with things like that.


Member Suggestions is a place for discussion though, not requesting something of mods. It is not a place for members to put in requests on staff to do, necessarily; even if in the end it may turn into that. Suggestions are not a 'mod task' or resource like all the other things in the Lab at the moment. The suggestions area is a place for Members to come together (or do solo) and come up with ideas they think would benefit the site & work together to make it the best it can be. Members are encouraged to discuss, or at least post & show support of an idea they like.

We could perhaps rename it a little to make it less expected that staff will are the main workers on any suggestion. Which was already something we had been considering.