Reply To: Beasts of War – OnTableTop – Phase III: Time for speculations and conspiracies

[zoidpinhead 12722xp 3]

Thanks @warzan for the updates – very informative and helpful.  We have a parallel strategic development planning process going – your management consultants would be proud!

A common theme is developing here – especially in regard to future directions for Discord, Forums or other features.  The issue seems to me to be related to OTT’s positioning as a (or even THE) wargaming hobby umbrella site – it tries to offer something to everyone.  In so doing each tool or feature is only ever a small part of the whole.  Thus our Discord is mostly used for general daily chat with a few hobby updates or news stories popping up along the way.  Is this the same as a content provider who drives all of their community engagement through a Discord channel (Trench Crusade for example)? No, but it isn’t the only thing that OTT does for its community – therefore it gets used by those who most want it rather than all of us.  The same goes for Forums.  Is there the traffic here that LAF (or TMP of old) get? No not really, because that is all that community have.  If they want to ask about it or show it off it has to go on a forum post.

Therefore – let’s use each tool for what it is best at.  Mostly we are doing this already anyway.

• Discord is great for live chat – perhaps with a bit more focus this could work well to support existing users and maybe bring in some new ones.  If there is a themed week then perhaps a Discord chat dedicated to it would help.  You could advertise the content – have live watch-alongs with a Discord chat, answer newbie questions, etc.
• Forums are great for longer form discussions (like this one!) and for discussions over time like the amazing annual Hobby Pledges (thanks @lawnor ).  WAYPN has also been very popular but most other forums would have split this into different themes or focuses to help spread the load, so a WAYPN for Fantasy, one for Sci-Fi, one for Historicals; or a GW one, a Warlord one, a MAWM one, etc.  There is a big hobby question raised most weeks on the XLBS for the team but the community engagement only happens in the posts for that video, not in the Forum where the format is better suited to an exchange.  So at the moment individual community remarks aren’t always replied to and it is difficult the have a longer or deeper developing discussion as a community.

Ultimately, tools are what they are.  It’s how we use them that counts.  The issue isn’t really a technical one (except for better resourcing Projects) but a content management one.  You guys have built a great site and a wonderful community has formed here.  Let’s take it forward 🙂