As the title suggests (drum roll), this space is intended to talk about how to make this group better and more effective.

I would encourage all of you to take a look at whatever is posted here and vote on it. I will start by quoting Scootalooser, who sent me a PM (a while ago) about how to organize the races and folders better.

Upon hearing of you're new World-Builders group, I was quite excited to join and have been really enjoying the discussions and debates in the group. However, I did notice that in the forum each species is only a thread. I fear that overtime, the thread will become over-crowded and I was wondering if you considered making each species a category of the forum and then making various topics for discussion sub-categories. This would allow people to find more interesting topics for debate a lot easier and not have to wade through pages of comments to jump into the discussion. I hope I was able explain that well enough. I know you're probably really busy and won't reply, but I hope you consider this suggestion.
- A concerned group member, Scootaloser

Now, I happen to think this is indeed a good idea, and if nocreature here opposses it, I think it shall be implemented.

Another detail, I think, which would benefit us all is, instead of including Chessverse, etc. lore into the individual folders, we use a specific thread for that, such as Loyal2Luna's thread.

Thoughts?

Sure.

I think making a single thread become a folder is a good idea, but only after 1 000 posts or so. Or depends on content discussed.
Then it will be moved to separate folder where new threads will be created.
Old thread will be set to "read only" mode.

This will allow to review old discussions and therefore have all the raw data stored.
This will also allow users to sort their thoughts on what they want to discuss before it will be chopped into tiny bits.

For example, I am thinking about Changelings in general. Overall is not yet complete and making a folder now would, most likely, change discussion to some other direction.
Sorry, this is my thought. I am not sure it'll happen, but precaution is a good thing.

I agree with this assessment. However, it does bring up the issue of a jumbled mass of threads, so it'd be even better if we had someone or a group of someones cataloguing the threads as they pop up.

551746
1000 posts?

I've only ever seen one thread reach 1000+ posts, and that was an RP thread in a group with over 500 people. I don't think that's gonna happen here for a looooooooooong time.

As for my two cents, I'm all for it. Might be a bit hard to keep organised, but so long as the group has an active admin team, it should be fine.

551773
I'm used to see things that are flamed. Plus, number 1000 is often used in MLP...
And if there is less than a 1k posts, then navigating through them is rather easy. Especially reading all of it.

This sounds like a solid plan to me

551746

I agree, but lower the posts-to-become-folder quota thing to 750 and you have a deal.

great idea, scootaloser isnt such a loser it would seem. cant be having ideas like that. go for it. also, your idea is good to.

I am all for this suggestion. I think it's good.

I think it's a pretty brilliant idea! I wouldn't want to have to wait until we reach a certain post limit to make the change from thread to folder, unless it's a creature that's in a specific fandomverse instead of the canonverse. If that makes sense. That way, we can talk about various things and the topic won't be all over the place, with user1 talking about Zebras religion, while user2 is talking about zebras magic, and neither are related...

TL;DR, I like the idea. Go for it.

To summarize all the suggestions;
After a thread on a species has reached a certain post number (probably somewhere between 500-1000), it can be put in its own folder, where sub-threads will be made for the various aspects of that species' culture/world. After that, the old thread would be made "read-only" for reference.

Did I miss anything?

586045
Problem is, we don't have sub-forums where we can organize things like that. Something like a sub-forum would help tremendously, though.

586055 Huh. Well, I guess the species-specific (say that three times fast!) threads could be tagged until something like sub-forums do pop up, much like the world-building threads are tagged now. They could be something like "Changeling: Music" or "Griffon: Food" or something like that.

586081
Then there would be so many threads that it would involve massive amounts of scrolling. I don't think anyone wants that

586086 Well...how about this: We go with tagging threads based on species, but have species-specific (I did it again!) sticky threads at the top that point to the various other threads for that species. That way we can prevent some of the scrolling for people.

586100
At this point, though, activity is steady but not over-whelming. So I don't think we're at the point where we need to set up a massive archive of stickied threads leading to the non-stickied threads.

586111 But in the case that we DO get to that point, we have a back-up plan. Or something.

586115
Hopefully by that point we have sub-forums.

551735 How about a separate group for Crystal ponies/Crystal Empire?

And why not threads for each of the pony tribes to shear ideas about how their specific traits/abilities work?

If I am understanding this correctly, you would have a lot difficulty with anything like a smooth transition from "One thread for this species" to "large locked thread, continuing different facets of the discussion in smaller threads". You would either have to have people transferring information over from the large thread to each of the small ones, or the small ones will make no sense without reading the large one (at least a link at the start of each small one that needs parts of the large one to be clear would be good).

Would it be possible to have a story recommendation thread? Maybe not for pony fics—since that's what the folders are for—but I'd love to hear about what epic fantasy novels everyone's read that they liked.

1630547
A reasonable idea. I'll pitch it to the other admins.

553310, 551746, and 551735;

The number of posts required for a topic to become a folder shouldn't be anywhere near that high. The current most replied-to topic is at 168. That's the January Writing Prompt, by the way. The current most replied-to topic that isn't prompt related is at 91. That's the Changeling topic. I don't predict seeing many post exceed 100 replies in the near future.

Ultimately, a minimum post requirement is not a good idea. It will require the admins to do extra work. They will have to monitor the replies of all creature related topics then create a new folder for that topic as it meets the requirement. That's a lot more work than doing it all at once and only having to add folders when requested by the group. I'd prefer the admin group focusing on group activities such as the monthly prompts rather than shuffling topics and folders around.

Beyond that, the idea of folders has definite merit. It will encourage those intimidated by the long list of previous replies to more comfortably present their ideas. They can more easily get and give feedback without it getting lost in the jumble of others' ideas. Those that wish to browse the ideas of others will also be able to more selectively. If we take this course, I predict a greater sharing of ideas and growth as a group.

It's probably time to add more story folders. The "other" folder is getting pretty fat.

4366220

Agreed. I think the Crystal Ponies in particular could do with a separate folder, not least of all because they have their own tab. Also possibly the Breezies, for the same reason.

4366220
4387055
Whoops! Didn't notice these comments, for some reason.

New folders added for Buffalo, Draconequus and Non-standard Ponies! If you think of any other canon creatures that we've missed, then please let me know

4474417 Minotaurs

4474576
Strange, I could've sworn we already had one. Added

4474417

Much better. As for other species. maybe donkeys? I don't know if they're garnering enough stories to justify a complete folder, but that's the only other species I can think of at the moment. I think the major ones are all covered.

4474603
Aye, the criminal lack of donkey folders shall be addressed.

551735
I agree with the proposition to make each species a category instead of just a thread. doing so would allow more specified threads, such as government, culture, locations, characteristics, etc.