Proposal for a new forum - feedback requested

[Hulkling]

[Samanna]

I'd like to give you folks a little background on what we've done in the Shaman community.

Before we ever moved here, I set up these forums and gave access to about half a dozen posters. We used this place to discuss what we felt were serious issues, and to fine-tune our presentation of the issues (as we perceived them) as well as what we would suggest for fixes.

It does sound sort of elitist when I put it like that, but believe me, it wasn't. The issues we worked on (as well as the general remedies to seek) were decided by public polls; we just wanted to keep a high signal-to-noise ratio as we worked out the mechanics of presenting the problem and the syntax of explaining how and why it was a problem.

When the main boards were sold to ogaming and became unusable, these boards were already here... and so we came. I hid the secret figurating forum, but it proved very useful over the years. As Class Correspondent, I considered the posters there my secret, invaluable cabinet of advisers. They critiqued and contributed, and sometimes initiated the issues I presented to the devs. In fact, the description of that forum still reads "Where the community brain trust can debate the finer points of ideas still under development without every assclown piping in." This group continues to support the class by providing the same sounding board for Waring.

The core of users included some of the most knowledgeable, most well-known, and best expressed Shaman players (crap grammar and ass spelling doesn't help one's argument AT ALL), and all styles of play were represented. As some posters sort of faded away, we'd discuss who to bring on board. Our invites were always based on who loved the class, enjoyed playing it (regardless if they were raiding top content, grinding ldons, soloing velious, or whatever), and had an appreciation for what they knew and what they didn't - so that when the did offer advice or opinion, it was good and relevant, and they kept quiet (or asked questions) when they were out of their element.

When I took polls to revise the Top Ten in late summer of 2005, public polls picked the issues, but the cabinet and I sorted out the minutia of each issue. If you look at http://samanna.net/sham.issues/10.sep05.shtml , which includes subsequent updates, you'll find that although no issue got any direct response from the dev staff, in the year that followed, four of them were considered resolved and three more were at least addressed.

What I'm trying to say is that a limited, focused, dedicated group can do wonders, provided it has the same goals as the larger group. And if such a group remains focused on general class improvement for all styles of play, and partners with the Correspondent, it can be immensely helpful.

[Galelor]