I agree... I think Chris should restructure the forums (and assign Admin privileges to someone who actually USES the forum so spammers can actually be
banned, new mods can be created, and things can be rearranged etc).
I've been thinking about this myself, here are some ideas -
- Add a separate spacecraft/models addons board. A lot of addon discussion seems to be about that, I think it'd be useful to have a dedicated board for it. This would be about construction, orientation, and texturing of 3D models that aren't planetary/stellar bodies (ie spacecraft, space stations etc). Possibly split this into Scientific spacecraft/models and Fictional spacecraft/models?
- Create a "Scientific Add-ons and Textures" board to focus discussion on extras for which there is actual science data available. This should be actively moderated so that off-topic discussion is moved to more relevant boards to keep the signal to noise ratio as high as possible.
- Assign an active Moderator for the Development board. Maybe even allow write access on the Development board available only to a select core of developers. Posters with access would be active developers of Celestia code or scientific add-ons - basically selected based on merit, knowledge and contribution. People could be added to this based on what they do on other boards, and by PM discussion with moderators, or newcomers could be allowed in on a probationary period to see how it goes before being allowed to stay (or not as the case may be) depending on their contributions.
- Tie the Scripting board with the Development board a little more closely. It seems to me that Scripters are somewhat separate to Developers and I don't really see why this should be the case. It's quite obvious to me that Scripting - especially with CelX - is not just about tours and flyarounds: scripters can also add functionality to Celestia itself (eg my planetary magnitudes script, or phase angle calculators and zoom to fit scripts etc). Developers and Scripters should be encouraged to work together to consider incorporating some of these useful function scripts into the core of Celestia.
- Create a "Fictional Addons and Textures" board for discussion about scifi addons, fictional planets (and fictional textures for real planets) etc.
- rename Purgatory to "Off-Topic Chatter" or something. Makes it more obvious what it is, plus doesn't offend people so much when their topics are moved there
. Or just remove it completely - there's no obligation to provide a place to allow people to randomly shoot the breeze here.
- Assign an active moderator to the Physics/Astronomy board to keep things on topic and educational. Vague philosophy/crazy ideas/metaphysics/unanswerable questions would be shunted to Off-Topic Chatter where they belong.
- Heck, assign active moderators to ALL the boards to keep them focussed. Or at least just make sure that the moderators that are around do keep an eye on things and move topics to the correct place if they're not there already.
- rename "Celestia Users" to "Celestia Assistance" or "Celestia General" or something, and make it obvious that this is the place to ask for help with how to use the program and request features.
I'd also rearrange and reprioritise the board structure somewhat, so the main forum page looks like this:
Celestia General
Celestia Scientific Addons and Textures
Celestia Scripting
Celestia Development
Celestia Bugs
Physics and Astronomy
Spacecraft/Models
Fictional Addons
Fictional Textures
Off-topic Chatter
i.e. keep the stuff relevant to Celestia at the top of the forum page, and keep the fictional/offtopic stuff separate at the bottom.
Of course, this is all moot if Chris doesn't want to make someone else an admin....
