Dear users,
in the next days there will be some changes on this platform. You surely expect the announced new categories already. Now the time has finally come: The forum will be reworked! As this can't be done all at once, we are planning the restructuring in several phases, which will be worked through one after the other and will affect the daily business to different degrees.
The team of OMSI experts and the administration has been working together in the last few weeks to develop a detailed concept and prepare everything so that the restructuring can take place during ongoing operations. The alternative would have been to close the platform for days or even weeks, which is of course out of the question.
Phase 1: Forum
The current categorization in the forum is based on the fact that the WebDisk used to have a small community. Since the closure of the MOF, however, we have seen a sharp increase in the number of users and thus much more community activities, topics and posts. The old structure was no longer up to this. We are planning the following concrete measures:
- Better sorting of forum categories
- setting up collective threads for commercial AddOns and reworking the "Commercial DLCs" section
- Support forum as a central point for all requests for help from players
- Help forum as new central contact point for developers seeking help, with various subcategories
- Freeware area, where you can present your WIP and completed projects. This area is also explicitly intended for discussion threads, because the comment system in the filebase cannot be a complete replacement for a thread.
- Minor changes in the community area
- Introducing labels, which makes sorting, filtering and finding threads much easier. A small foretaste of this can be found at the Questions&Suggestions forum.
During the restructuring we unfortunately have to limit your access temporarily to avoid conflicts. It is possible that during the measures your threads or posts are no longer visible, are moved or you can no longer write posts. After the restructuring, however, everything should be available again as usual.
Please don't report threads or posts concerning wrong areas during the restructuring. We are doing our best to get the forum, the heart of the community, back into full operation as soon as possible.
As soon as it starts, we will inform you here, in this thread.
Phase 2: Wiki & FAQ
Besides the forum and download portal there are other areas which are slightly revised. We are currently discussing how we can extend the Wiki, e.g. by adding new categories and instructions. We will also establish a forum-wide FAQ to replace the numerous announcement threads. Be curious about this feature! There will also be a uniform set of rules. Don't worry! We still follow a liberal philosophy, but the previous rules cannot be found centrally, which makes it difficult, especially for beginners, to get a foothold here in the WebDisk.
Phase 3: Download portal (outlook)
Also the categories in the download portal lead again and again to confusion and contain double entries. We would like to dedicate ourselves to this in the medium term. In view of the mass of entries we are still in the planning phase. Further information will follow after the completion of phase 1 and 2.
We are pleased that you are using OMSI WebDisk to provide content for the community.
Best regards,
Lµkas (Co-Administration)