Let me start off my saying this has me a bit confuounded.
All three Mass Effect games have a Story, Campaign, and Characters section. Back on the old forum, I believe these two sections were broken up into Story & Campaign and Characters & Romance. They now have been combined. Ok. I have no problem with that.
But, the really strange thing, is that their contents haven't been combined.
The ME3 Character and Romance section contained all of the Character-relevant threads. When players wanted to discuss something about any of these characters, had a question, or whatever, this was the section they browsed to. Because...Characters. Makes sense, no? Yet, none of these Character threads are in the new Story, Campaign, and Characters section.
Where are they?
ME > ME3 > Customization > Party Members
Er...what? Customization? What else is discussed in the same forum? Classes and builds, Character Creation, Weapons and Armor. Does this seem like the proper place to put Character threads? Not to me. That's not where I would go looking for them. I would go to Story, Campaign, and Characters. Because...Characters.
So, that's where the ME3 Character threads are. How about the ME2 ones?
If you navigate to the same location for ME2 (ME > ME2> Customization >Party Members), we see something interesting. There are zero topics. The entire ME2 Character section from the old BSN has somehow disappeared in the migration. Where did they go?
Oh, here they are!...
Mass Effect > Fan Creations > Other Fan Creations
For example, here is Thane's and here is Ashley's. I'm sure all the rest are buried in there somewhere, as well.
And, is this a logical place to put these threads? Hrm. What else is discussed in this section of the forum? Oh, you know, things like mods, textures, gibbed save edits, etc. Exactly the place forum users would hunt for information on ME Characters. Right? Er...maybe not.
The situation with the ME1 Character threads is the same as the ME2 ones. My guess is that they are also grouped into "Other Fan Creations." If you look at the stats of this section, it's rather...large. In fact, it's a huge portion of the forum, all in one section.
There are over 6100 threads and almost 830,000 replies in Other Fan Creations.
Are you kidding?
I want to think that this was a simple mistake and that in something complex like a forum migration, things can get...jumbled. But, it's also obvious that during the migration some decisions were made. For example, on the old forum, mod threads and other fan-made stuff like fan fiction were in separate categories. Here, they have been grouped together. The "Modding" section didn't exist initially, with players having to request relocation of their threads (like I did for ThaneMOD) once it was established. The end result is a fractured, misrepresentation of mod threads, with some in the Modding Section and some in the Other Fan Creations section.
Why weren't these just kept separate when migrated to start with?
Similarly, it seems that a decision was made to "bury" these Character threads (and who knows what else, now that the old BSN forum is no longer accessible). The elephant in the room is that at least when it comes to ME3, all of these threads were in the section that became locked on the old forum. And, while all the threads are still here on the new forum (thank you), they have been placed in a section where no one will look for them. In some "Customization" section (that relates to Shepard more than anything) rather than in the "Character" section.
And, in the case of the ME1 and ME2 threads, they have been buried in Other Fan Creations.This section seems to be the proverbial "No Man's Land" for the old BSN, a catchall that contains threads from various categories.
Finally, I want to point out something important. When it comes to forum sections that were not directly migrated over, now that the old BSN forum has been removed, bookmarks & links to these threads/posts are all now broken. This is unacceptable, as far as I'm concerned. Read-only access should only have been removed when links could reliably redirect the user to the same thread/post on the new forum. As it stands now, a majority of mine are broken, and I have...many. Finding this information again without the name of the thread/post is nearly impossible.
So, I now have to ask. Is there any plan to "disassemble" this hodgepodge of threads in the "Other Fan Creation" section? To get these threads back to where people would actually look for and could find them? Considering that organization, browsing, and discussion is the purpose of a forum? Can we get the ME3 Character threads relocated from "Customization" to "Story, Campaign, and Characters?" Again, so they are where people would actually look for and find them?
Please? Thanks.
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