With a tremendous holiday gaming season approaching, we'd like to take this opportunity to clarify our intentions regarding how gaming forum official threads, the new threads for new news policy, and thread title updates will be handled by the administration. Until now we've coordinated these policies internally and used informal rules, but we feel we'll benefit from some explicit guidelines considering the volumes we'll be dealing with soon.
Official Threads
As most of you know, an |OT| should be created no earlier than seven days prior to its game's release.
Game |OT|s will now be moved to the Community forum one month after their game's release. Assuming a minimum activity level, notice will be given in the thread title with a "[Moving To Community Friday]" edit so that people know where the thread's headed. Threads that die out quickly or are rarely bumped after the one month mark may or may not be moved to Community at the administration's discretion.
A sticky thread has been created in the Community forum for the purpose of better managing the assignment of |OT| duties and to coordinate optional group efforts for |OT| production.
New Threads For New News
You've spotted something new. Is this information for a game that many people will care about? If so, then significant new information for the game should receive a new thread. In particular: announcements, interviews where significant new information is revealed or insight into the game or studio is gleaned, the first video or screenshots or gameplay footage that is released, or a significant new info dump.
In cases when there is not enough interest for the new information to justify a new thread, such as for a minor indie game with a small following where the previous news thread only received a few replies, the new information can be posted in the most closely related recent existing thread.
Uncertain? You will not be punished for creating a thread that doesn't get a great deal of replies. On the other hand, if a game is getting many new threads recently, feel free to ask the community if the new information is new thread worthy (in an existing thread) so that the Gaming Forum doesn't potentially get spammed with too many separate threads for one game.
Junior members who are unable to post new threads should, in cases when there is an existing and active related thread, post a reply there with a link to the new information and a request that someone with thread creation privileges post the new thread for it, or in cases where there is no appropriate existing and active thread, send a private message to a moderator or admin that is currently online (look for the green light here on the forum leaders page) requesting that they post a new thread for it if they deem it appropriate.
Patches and DLCs that meet notability requirements should get their own news threads in the gaming forum rather than only being dropped into the existing |OT| for the game. In the case of total conversions ("Dudebro: Zombie Invasion") or DLC expansions ("Dudebro: Exodus"), a new |OT| may be appropriate. In those cases, after one month the new |OT| may or may not be merged into the main |OT|, at the administration's discretion. Create a news thread rather than an |OT| in the case of patches, costume packs, sidequest packs, etc. Again, consider notability requirements in each case.
Thread Title Updates
Thread title updates will be performed by the administration when a related development occurs or when additional similar media is released and a thread for that information already exists. For example, when an active thread about new screeenshots gets another screenshot dump, the thread title may end up being edited.
Thread titles will not be updated when new information that meets notability requirements for a new thread is posted in an existing thread. In that case, a member should post that new information as a new thread or if necessary a moderator can perform a thread split, whichever happens first. For example, a screenshots thread will not have its thread title updated when a new interview comes out a week later.
Examples
"Pixel Wars Gaiden Overdose Announced!" (13 replies); new screenshots released one month later, can be posted in existing announcement thread.
"SKYRIM TO REMOVE ALL ATTRIBUTES AND LEVELS; WILL CONTROL WITH ONE BUTTON" (30,000 replies); new interview with Todd Howard about how much he doesn't care about PC gaming released two weeks later, absolutely post a new thread.
"New Dudebro Screenshots" (200 replies); more new screens released one week later, moderator may feel it is appropriate to update thread title with "[Update: more new screens]". If a new batch of screens is released three months later, it may be more appropriate to create a new thread since time has passed and the last thread received significant interest.
"Diablo 3 at Blizzcon" (1000 replies); thread is active and information keeps trickling in over the course of a week. Thread author and/or the administration may keep the original post updated with the new information, and the thread title may be edited periodically by the administration to reflect it. Note: if, for example, during this thread's life Blizzard makes a major announcement, such as Diablo 3 being given to everyone who buys a one year WoW pass, a separate thread for that news is justified since it goes above and beyond "people who care about Diablo 3 reading up on some new tidbits" into "significant general interest news."
Official Threads
As most of you know, an |OT| should be created no earlier than seven days prior to its game's release.
Game |OT|s will now be moved to the Community forum one month after their game's release. Assuming a minimum activity level, notice will be given in the thread title with a "[Moving To Community Friday]" edit so that people know where the thread's headed. Threads that die out quickly or are rarely bumped after the one month mark may or may not be moved to Community at the administration's discretion.
A sticky thread has been created in the Community forum for the purpose of better managing the assignment of |OT| duties and to coordinate optional group efforts for |OT| production.
New Threads For New News
You've spotted something new. Is this information for a game that many people will care about? If so, then significant new information for the game should receive a new thread. In particular: announcements, interviews where significant new information is revealed or insight into the game or studio is gleaned, the first video or screenshots or gameplay footage that is released, or a significant new info dump.
In cases when there is not enough interest for the new information to justify a new thread, such as for a minor indie game with a small following where the previous news thread only received a few replies, the new information can be posted in the most closely related recent existing thread.
Uncertain? You will not be punished for creating a thread that doesn't get a great deal of replies. On the other hand, if a game is getting many new threads recently, feel free to ask the community if the new information is new thread worthy (in an existing thread) so that the Gaming Forum doesn't potentially get spammed with too many separate threads for one game.
Junior members who are unable to post new threads should, in cases when there is an existing and active related thread, post a reply there with a link to the new information and a request that someone with thread creation privileges post the new thread for it, or in cases where there is no appropriate existing and active thread, send a private message to a moderator or admin that is currently online (look for the green light here on the forum leaders page) requesting that they post a new thread for it if they deem it appropriate.
Patches and DLCs that meet notability requirements should get their own news threads in the gaming forum rather than only being dropped into the existing |OT| for the game. In the case of total conversions ("Dudebro: Zombie Invasion") or DLC expansions ("Dudebro: Exodus"), a new |OT| may be appropriate. In those cases, after one month the new |OT| may or may not be merged into the main |OT|, at the administration's discretion. Create a news thread rather than an |OT| in the case of patches, costume packs, sidequest packs, etc. Again, consider notability requirements in each case.
Thread Title Updates
Thread title updates will be performed by the administration when a related development occurs or when additional similar media is released and a thread for that information already exists. For example, when an active thread about new screeenshots gets another screenshot dump, the thread title may end up being edited.
Thread titles will not be updated when new information that meets notability requirements for a new thread is posted in an existing thread. In that case, a member should post that new information as a new thread or if necessary a moderator can perform a thread split, whichever happens first. For example, a screenshots thread will not have its thread title updated when a new interview comes out a week later.
Examples
"Pixel Wars Gaiden Overdose Announced!" (13 replies); new screenshots released one month later, can be posted in existing announcement thread.
"SKYRIM TO REMOVE ALL ATTRIBUTES AND LEVELS; WILL CONTROL WITH ONE BUTTON" (30,000 replies); new interview with Todd Howard about how much he doesn't care about PC gaming released two weeks later, absolutely post a new thread.
"New Dudebro Screenshots" (200 replies); more new screens released one week later, moderator may feel it is appropriate to update thread title with "[Update: more new screens]". If a new batch of screens is released three months later, it may be more appropriate to create a new thread since time has passed and the last thread received significant interest.
"Diablo 3 at Blizzcon" (1000 replies); thread is active and information keeps trickling in over the course of a week. Thread author and/or the administration may keep the original post updated with the new information, and the thread title may be edited periodically by the administration to reflect it. Note: if, for example, during this thread's life Blizzard makes a major announcement, such as Diablo 3 being given to everyone who buys a one year WoW pass, a separate thread for that news is justified since it goes above and beyond "people who care about Diablo 3 reading up on some new tidbits" into "significant general interest news."