[quote][b]Summary:[/b] Some of the descriptions for the Forum Categories as they exist in the Forum Category combo box on the thread creation window are very ambiguous and lead to confusion amongst new members. In particular, the description for #Gaming has caused the most trouble, and could use with some updating in addition to a general pass on all the descriptions.[/quote]To over-elaborate on the summary, one of the sources of friction between newcomers and veteran members on Bungie.net occurs when newcomers inadvertently post their threads in the wrong forum. Ultimately it's not the end of the world if one or two threads end up in the wrong place as it's very easy to inform these members where their topics should belong which prevents future incidents, but over time if new users are consistantly making the same mistakes over and over the clutter can be very annoying for the veterans who dwell there. Over the years since we transitioned to Bungie.next and also very recently I've become aware of consistant patterns of misposts being made by our newest users without fail. Reactive solutions can prevent future incidents and informational threads can teach the curious explorers who discover them, but I feel that a few changes to the website's UI could help improve the conveyance of which forum is for what and also premptively prevent some of these incidents which can over time really lead to some toxic interactions between users. Specifically, I'm talking about the descriptions of the forum categories as they appear on the thread creation window's combo box, pictured at the top of the thread with some annotations by myself. They range from functionally informative to cutesy references, the latter of which I feel cause the most ambiguity and confusion amongst new members who aren't aware of the taboos and rules that we as a community have built up over time with regards to what can be discussed where. My interpretation of what each forum is for might not match your vision of how the website's forums should be used, so make sure to let me know if you feel I've gotten something wrong in the comments. For now though, these are my thoughts on each Forum Category and its description working down the list: [quote][b]Destiny : Be Brave.[/b][/quote]Be Brave. It's short, simple, and matches the marketing of the game. That's well and good. However, I feel that while it's pretty obvious that #Destiny is for general Destiny discussion, it isn't clear that it's supposed to be THE place for general Destiny discussion, and often times threads that belong there can leak out into other forums, much to the annoyance of certain denizens who dwell there. Clearly stating something along the lines of "Destiny : Discuss it here." might prevent misposting elsewhere. [quote][b]Feedback : Feedback and suggestions for Destiny.[/b][/quote]Of the forum categories that we have, this is the most recent and also the most functionally descriptive. The only problem I've noticed with this particular forum is that sometimes Website feedback occasionally finds its way into there when it should belong in #Help, which has less to do with #Feedback's description and more to do with #Help's description. By the way, like #Clans before it, #Feedback is currently #feedback which makes it seem [url=http://i.imgur.com/JrHDgdt.png]stylistically inconsistant[/url] with the rest of the Forum Categories. Achronos fix it. Achronos pls. [quote][b]Help : Help us help you.[/b][/quote]This is another ambiguous cutesy description which doesn't really describe the services and purposes of this forum. Like its predecessor #Support, some people mistake it as a general help forum (though at least we aren't getting nearly as many "I need emotional support" threads) when in reality it's supposed to be for help with Bungie.net or Destiny issues of a technical nature. In addition, feedback about Bungie.net is supposed to go here, but that nuance is completely unadvertised and any feedback threads which would indicate that this is a good place to report bugs and complain about stuff often gets buried under the numerous other help threads. Something along the lines of "Help : Recieve support for technical issues with Bungie.net or Destiny; Provide feedback for Bungie.net." is wordy, but gets the idea across. [quote][b]Clans : Lead or join a clan.[/b][/quote]Leading or joining a clan is well and good, but I've seen this forum used to discuss clans in general, and I've also directed people towards #Clans if they aren't interested in joining anything as formal as a clan persay but still want to find friends to play Destiny with for either raiding or fireteam purposes. Advertising those services would help clear things up elsewhere, more on that later. [quote][b]Bungie : Follow our quest for World Domination.[/b][/quote]The Bungie forum has always been a bit of an oddball, even on the old website. Presumably it's for discussing Bungie in general, its culture, its happenings, stuff like that, but since opportunities to see behind the veil rarely happens outside of mailsacks and tweets, more often than not it's used by people who believe it's a direct conduit for talking to Bungie. This will likely happen regardless of what you change the description to, and as there isn't much in the way of discussion there anyways, it's not a high priority. [quote][b]Community : Join the Seventh Column.[/b][/quote]The community forum. In times of old it was our hallowed grotto towards which the community could converge to discuss itself and the website in general, but as some of those purposes got absorbed by other forums the Community forum has been left in a somewhat ambiguous state. As difficult as it is to define exactly what the Community forum should be used for, I feel giving it a somewhat clear purpose will encourage people to use it for discussion. [quote][b]Gaming : Make friends. Play games.[/b][/quote]This would be the forum category that inspired this thread. If memory serves me correctly, originally when Bungie.next launched we didn't have a Destiny forum with which to discuss Destiny. In that time of Darkness, #Gaming was the place we went to discuss and play games to maintain our bonds as a community. Destiny has been revealed and even now we are only a few days away from launch, but in all that time the description for #Gaming has not changed. This is problematic, because while internally the forum has become a place to discuss and play games that are not Destiny, many new users read the description and believe that it is a good place to find people for raids or fireteams. These people might not want to join a clan and with an absence of anything telling them where else they should post to find people to play with, they often end up posting in #Gaming which puts them at odds with some of our more vocally honest members who call that place home. This problem is not going to fix itself once Destiny launches, in fact it will only likely get worse. If any of the descriptions need to be changed for the health of the forums and community, I feel it is this one. There's quite a few people who are indifferent to and even dislike Destiny who still call Bungie.net home and want a place where they can discuss the games they want to play in peace. I can totally respect that, and I can understand the frustration they feel when their home gets invaded by the new guys and I can also understand (but not condone) how they might lash out at them in their frustration. If there is anything that can be done to prevent these sorts of interactions that can quickly become toxic overtime, it should be done as soon as possible. [quote][b]OffTopic : Surf a Flood of random discussion.[/b][/quote]I'm rather fond of this description, it's both functionally descriptive and also contains a clever reference to one of our oldest communities on the website. The only change that I would suggest is perhaps making it clear that this is for discussion that doesn't fit in anywhere else, a few of our newer members take the current description to mean "Anything can be posted here", which often leads to simillarly toxic interactions as what happens in #Gaming. I can ultimately understand if the Webteam is hesitant to clearly define what each forum should be used for as it somewhat flies in the face of the design mentality that Bungie.next seems to be built around where both the Community and Individuals can determine how they use and view the forums. But please, do not be afraid, look at what happened when DeeJ told us that clan recruitment should go in the Community forum, we reached a satisfying solution through honest dialogue about how we wanted this site to be used. If any redefinitions cause simillar backlash, we can work it out, and the immediate extra clarity that such changes would provide can help tremendously to avoid some really unfortunate community misinteractions which could turn a new user away from the community forever. Feel free to leave your thoughts below on this subject, especially if you disagree with anything I've said, we can discuss it a bit :)