Can we get a House of Helping?

[Laerun]

Can you please add a new forum section for people wanting to learn or help this FG community? People need help learning FG and how to navigate and use this forum...
Please send this request up the chain to management. This will help a lot. I am already taking on students. I am a lowly student myself teaching others.

Laerun

[Talyn]

There's always the Discord too where we try to help out, you can sometimes get help on the voice channels and for coding help it's easy to paste XML or Lua script there and get answers faster than the forums.

[Martin153]

I think the Mods are very reluctant to change the structure of the forum. I have seen this question asked many times but only workarounds etc are ever suggested.

[Trenloe]

I think the Mods are very reluctant to change the structure of the forum.
The moderators don't have the ability to change the forum structure. Only SmiteWorks can do changes.

[Martin153]

Thanks Trenloe.. I wasn't sure. Personally I do find the forums a little frustrating myself when trying to find stuff in particular the Morecore and ruleset threads.. I had to go through 40 odd pages to try and find an answer to my question recently.. Search is okay but again you get so many pages.. The answer to most things is out there.. Just takes a long long long long time to find it sometimes... For example I was trying to find out the status of the Traveller ruleset being developed. I still cant find it!

[Trenloe]

For example I was trying to find out the status of the Traveller ruleset being developed. I still cant find it!
Create and Share - Armory - rulesets. https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?27508-Traveller-(Mongoose-Publications-version)

Or, click the "Site Search" link and enter traveller It comes up as the top search result. You can't have been trying very hard! ;) ;)

[Martin153]

Not going to argue with you Trenloe. I did a search on Traveller (twice after waiting 60 seconds to do the another other search) I was presented with numerous entries spread over numerous threads. Its 2017!!!! A single thread called Traveller would make life so much easier. Please tell me you are not saying that you consider the 14 sub forums is enough to cover the numerous systems being played on FG. I am not saying you should have a thread for every system but.. c'mon...

[Trenloe]

A single thread called Traveller would make life so much easier.
Remember this is a public forum where anyone can create a thread. Trying to keep stuff to do with Traveller in a single thread would be a moderation (and user) nightmare - you can't just merge multiple threads into one and keep the flow of information understandable.

I'm not saying the forums are perfect. But keep in mind that your idea of "making them better" could be someone else's idea of "making them a nightmare".


I did a search on Traveller (twice after waiting 60 seconds to do the another other search) I was presented with numerous entries spread over numerous threads. Its 2017!!!!

In this example (finding information on Traveller rulesets), the tools you needed were there for you and worked - from what you're saying you just couldn't see the wood for the trees. But, if you'd spent a couple of minutes reading the threads from the first two entries returned in the search - which are the two main threads on Traveller rulesets on these forums (see screenshot below), you would have got the info you're looking for.

Yes, it is 2017. It's the age of the search engine. In this case the info you were looking for was right there. To coin a phrase... "c'mon..." ;)

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=19968

[LordEntrails]

IMO, I don't think a "House of Helping" forum is a good idea. I think it would confuse a great deal many people, what's the difference between "Healing" and "Helping"? I'm not saying that there isn't one, just that many people would not know, especially those not native English speakers. I'm not sure how offers to help (if that's what this would be for) is anything different than the current community or system specific threads. Maybe you could explain a bit more clearly what you are wanting and how you see such being realized and used?


A single thread called Traveller would make life so much easier. Please tell me you are not saying that you consider the 14 sub forums is enough to cover the numerous systems being played on FG.
I think the most practical solution for something like this is for us (the community) to create and manage stickies. (And of course usefule/meaningful thread titles when we start a thread.) The problem, imo, with something like your troubles with Traveller is that there is so much information and activity, if it wasn't 2017 we wouldn't have so much information we have to sort through when we are looking for something :0

Note, if you use the Google site search rather than the forum search you don't have to wait 60 seconds :)

[Trenloe]

Following up on my mention of the search tools providing useful information, here's a video showing how I go about searching the FG forums and getting useful information - using the above example of info about Traveller rulesets.


https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6oOdW6SsMwsVE5sdE1kUjhJaUU

I hope this helps people get an idea of how to use the search engine and navigate the resulting forum threads returned.

[Martin153]

All this when you (or Smiteworks) in the Section 'Game System' Have a sub section 'Traveller' I guess that would just make things far to easy for us users. Why do something simple when we can spend lots of time searching through hundreds of posts in dozens of threads, some which spread over 40 pages, watch you tube videos, or do google searches (really)? The Morecore thread now has 48 pages. I bet it's full of useful information relevant to systems that interest me. If only I had the time to go through it and filter out the information I don't need and find the information I do!

Don't get me wrong I love FG and think the product is far superior to all its competitors. Every time on social media when I see people promoting other systems, I always give FG a positive promotion. But Smiteworks sure don't make things easy at times..

I will stop now as this isn't going to get anyone anywhere.....


You can't have been trying very hard!
Sorry Trenloe this really got my back up and I found it quite insulting.

[Trenloe]

Sorry Trenloe this really got my back up and I found it quite insulting.
I'm sorry, my intention was not to insult you.

[Martin153]

It's fine don't worry about it.. It's forgotten. ��
I am not technical at all. I realise everything I need is somewhere in the forums. Personally, I feel with a little reorganisation users would find everything they need in one place. I know it's not practical to have a section for every game, but some games appear very popular based on the number of posts. These may warrant their own section.

Systems like Traveller have stood the test of time. It is nearly as old as me with a cult following, unlike me. It is extremely popular and I know many people will use the ruleset. The Traveller Facebook group has 1000s of members, many watching with interest the development of a FG ruleset. I even think Mongoose Publications would be interested in a license deal. When I get asked for an update on how the ruleset is coming along, I struggle to get the information I need.

At the end of the day we both support the best online tabletop out there. Thanks for all the work you and the other mods put into supporting this great product.

Martin

[Laerun]

Okay, okay, many good ideas and suggestions here. I was thinking we could have a section for a Fantasy Grounds School (not House of Helping). That said section (FG School) would be divided by other sub-sections by, i.e,: language, genre, and game systems. It would be to learn how to play, use, and navigate the Community Forums, Fantasy Grounds, and last but not the least,; suggestions as to 'wing' or improvise situational things that come up in a give game that are not fully covered or coded-able in the game. I would enjoy a section dedicated to this (coding)also, coding! I have already setup a school on Discord for 5e DnD FG training. But I had to post in a popular thread, whereas folks think I am running a game possibly, but actually I am just going to do a Sunday School. I have about a dozen students so far, and maybe one other teacher lined up. We really need this to happen to encourage and help this community grow.... I felt like after I purchased the game, the original license back in 2011, I was totally lost. I never played with FG until this past February. Now that it has come this far, I have hope. I would like to do stuff (teaching/playing) through this forum, as I do not have the skill or setup like some of the YouTube instructors. I do use my own Discord server online and my thread is growing... https://discord.gg/CYSkMh8

Sincerely,
Laerun

[Laerun]

There's always the Discord too where we try to help out, you can sometimes get help on the voice channels and for coding help it's easy to paste XML or Lua script there and get answers faster than the forums.

That suggestion would be a part of an official FAQ or list of learning resources.

[Laerun]

Ways to learn Fantasy Grounds: We help each other navigate that first couple of months of trial and error. You can watch video tutorials online, such as YouTube (the Digital DM is my favorite...). You can read the forums and discussions on this official forum, or go to the Discord channel. But by far, the best way to learn is to play with others as much as you can...