Title: We can do better with Forums
Family Name: MonkeyParties

Region (NA/EU): NA

Since our dear pal @HouseOfAlicia had made this post about in-game chats, I figured we could improve the same way within our community forums, it's about time.

Special thanks to @Warriors for providing this link showing all the threads created with players requesting a change on the forums, three pages worth, clearly showing this is a welcomed changed by a great majority of forum users.

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ㅤㅤFirst, let me begin by saying I'm aware a great deal of the player base tends to use the forums for a post or two and that's it. I never bothered posting within the forums because of the lack of essentials that a community forum would need. Truthfully, I only began posting actively when I was welcomed into the Ambassador Program and began helping within the Oasis of Knowledge. This is when I began to notice the issues with our community forums. Many of the frequent posters here have over a thousand replies, even some with over five thousand, crazy! I hope those who frequent our forums can support these suggestions as well as pitch in their ideas to improve this platform for current and future players.

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ㅤㅤSo, let's talk about our profile pictures. I understood having some basic images set up for everyone while the transfer of service was ongoing, but at this point, it's ridiculous to continue using this system. Kakao ended their service with Black Desert on February 24th, 2021, meaning we're about to enter a second year of no custom profile pictures within these forums. If we're not allowed to use a custom image of our choosing, here's an easy solution: our forum accounts are linked to our in-game accounts. What's stopping us from having a system where we can set an in-game screenshot as our profile picture? I'm sure a worry with this is users being able to have the iconic plague doctor as an image and scam others on the forums, but this can be easily solved with a title displaying above or below the username of official P.A. accounts.

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ㅤㅤThis brings me to my next suggestion, we should be able to set our earned in-game titles within the forums. As mentioned previously, our forum accounts are linked to our in-game accounts. We should be allowed to customize our forum profiles even further with this. Many players have earned titles that have been locked out for good and can no longer be earned by future players. Players should be able to show off these titles within every thread replied to or post created. This would also solve the earlier issue mentioned of possible scams due to profile pictures, where GM & CM accounts would have "Game/Community Manager" displayed right above their username with every post.

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ㅤㅤThe third suggestion, there should be a system where we receive notifications for anything our profiles are associated with, along with the ability to disable said notifications. How is it that we have a way to share posts on Facebook and Twitter but we have no "Follow This Thread" button, at the very least? Having to look over past threads to see any replies is horrendous and makes it difficult to help a player who replies a few days later, long after you've forgotten about the post you made. This affects new players greatly as they aren't being assisted as much as they can be within the forums. The same should be done with any message that's quoted from you, specifically when being quoted. This shouldn't be attached to the thread following as some threads you just want to post a quick reply and forget about the thread as a whole, but what if someone engages with your post? Right now, we have no way of being notified if anyone has replied to our created threads or our replied posts and for a forum, that's very unheard of.

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ㅤㅤ Fourth, add the ability to lock threads, this'll not only reduce spam within threads such as the Forum Rules but also gives us the ability to freely post without having multiple replies that could possibly get out of hand. This'll also allow any creator of a thread to lock any replies if they notice users are getting off-topic or harrassing one another within the replies of said thread.

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ㅤㅤLastly, this is mainly directed towards Pearl Abyss, less of a suggestion. Please, fix these posts that have been made to enforce the rules. This shouldn't be hidden within two different sections of the Class Discussions section of the forums. It's a simple thread that anyone can overlook. Also, there are Forum Rules hidden within two different sections and inside General Gameplay. Any post that has been made by Pearl Abyss relating to guidelines on a forum section should be at the very top. Why is it that we have "Adventurer Feedback Board" and "Oasis of Knowledge" in a unique section here, yet, no guidelines or rules showing above any other section in the same way? This'll help make the forum rules very clear and in direct view of anyone coming to the forums.

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ㅤㅤIf anyone takes offense to the suggestions, it is not my intention. The community forums are a part of our beloved game and it deserves to be updated just as much as Black Desert itself. There have been multiple posts for forum improvements, such as thispost by @Entropoid, hopefully this one sticks out the most and gets the attention needed. There's a reason that some players don't come back to the forums and I'm sure these improvements will make this platform a bit more welcoming and engageable. The notification system alone would improve interactions greatly! Please take these suggestions into account and if any player has suggestions or improvements to add, please chime in.

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Thank you for reading!

Other Suggestions by Users:

The suggestions that are added below are other suggestions that users have replied with either within the thread or in other posts that I agree with heavily. This isn't to say that other replies within the thread are "bad suggestions", these are just some I specifically agree with very much.

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@Tooshaitopost: Pinning and locking threads. This was briefly mentioned in the original post but pinned threads should appear at the top of the forum and GMs / CMs should have the ability to close threads whether that is their own pinned thread or a thread that has ran its course.

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@PeaceInChaos: Private messaging. Kakao forum had this feature where you could send private messages to specific users.  For example, when more "heated" exchanges were made between users on the public forum, the mods there would remove "heated" posts and encourage users to take their battle in private using this feature.

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@MarylandManson: Automatic Signout. I'd be happy with just not being signed out of the forum every 30 minutes.

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@Desymoo: Drafts. It's very difficult writing long-form threads without the ability to create a draft, especially when the site is constantly logging you out.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤShow the number of favorites on a post. I feel like this would be a fairly simple thing to implement but would be another great tool for gauging community interest on various topics.

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Mix of @Dreadspark and [CM]Cadry: Moderation Notifications. I do have somewhat of a complaint for not getting notified of these [Moderation] instances nor did it allow me to review my own content. Unless I'm actively watching and recording my own post history or another player informs me of the removal/content of the post then there is usually little way to know what was removed or why...

A notification system for moderations is something that I would like to see implemented! I think it would make moderations more clear and transparent for everyone.

You nailed it on every point! These forums definitively feel custom made and that's great, I mean it gives PA the flexibility to do what they want and they've been steadily improving it. However, your suggestions will absolutely give it a lot of flair and QoL improvements that they deserve.

Editor Improvements

Presently PA is using Tiny editor and because of this, they can enable a few features to help us maximize the design of our posts because right now the only way to do it is by manually enabling it using web developer tools. What features you ask? Well I'm glad you asked!

1. Enable the Spell Checker: This would allow us to check whether or not we made mistakes and improve the overral quality of threads. I make a lot of typos but can't see any underline under anything I write. I live by the spellchecker.

2. Give us the little horizontal rule button. This is great to help organize larger bodies of text especially when a thread becomes rather large due to a lengthy explanation.

3. Numbering / Bullets because we like to list things

4. Clear style button because the editor isn't perfect and it likes to break

5. Give us nicer colors to work with for font coloring

To illustrate a thread which I had to spend a considerable amount of time "decorating" You can view it here.

Easy access to your profile

Right now you have to open a thread to find the reply area so you can click on your avatar to access your forum profile. You can also do this if you can find a post made by you. In my opinion, this should be easier and available from any page on the forums.

Pinning and locking threads

This was briefly mentioned in the original post but pinned threads should appear at the top of the forum and GMs / CMs should have the ability to close threads whether that is their own pinned thread or a thread that has ran its course.

BDO Forum Emoji

Look at this cute thing? Why not have a list of them that can be embedded in posts? This would be awesome!

lol this reply took 35 minutes to compose because of world bosses xD

Posted earlier: Improve forum performance and features

And there was another thread about forum improvements posted by someone in the last week too.

This is symptomatic of the issues with the forum and feedback process, duplicates get posted and lost.

Included your post from October into my post to provide further examples of a forum change being wanted by the community.

Thanks for sharing!

I agree, the forums have needed an update for a long time, excellent suggestions! :)

I disagree that this forum is a place for players to personalize their profile, feel comfy and hang out with friends.

Whats the point of all of that?

This place is to discuss topics and report bugs. What will some titles or custom pics accomplish but trouble for PA?

I agree on one thing tho, you should get a notification if some1 quoted, liked/disliked (1, 5, 10 ...) or removed your post/thread.

And id like to add another thing:

Going to your account, then to activity, then to comments and check every thread you were interested in, is too long and annoying.

Make it easier, add a "track thread" for x-days and 4ever

What about the Event  and Fan Art  forum sections that Pearl Abyss constantly hosts events through?

Is the Guild & Friends  section, where players seek new groups to meet and play with, not something being taken into account either?

What about the multiple threads speaking of things outside of BDO within the Off-Topic  section, such as the on-going Witcher 3 talk?

If players are bound to be within the forums for a long time, may as well have more freedom to customize profiles to their fitting like multiple other game community forums.

Hi I am a forum dweller since Kakao forums.  I have a good amount of downtime at work where I can't play and the forum helps keep me connected to my favorite video game when it gets boring here.  Hence, why i have so many posts here lul.

Love and agree with all your suggestions.  It's odd because Kakao forums had some of these features that you described.  Things like notifications.

Along with your suggestions, I'd like to throw in a few other things that could make the forum a better user-experience.

1)  Private messaging. Kakao forum had this feature where you could send private messages to specific users.  For example, when more "heated" exchanges were made between users on the public forum, the mods there would remove "heated" posts and encourage users to take their battle in private using this feature.

2)  Show the names of users who liked and disliked posts. Kakao forum also had this feature, instead of the totally anonymous up/downvote system PA forums have.  I feel showing who liked and disliked posts is important because it shows which ideologies certain users align with.

3)  About unlinked accounts.  You mentioned that forum accounts are linked to our in-game ones.  I might have misread, but not all forum accounts are linked.  There are a good amount of non-linked accounts who post here, some more frequently than others.  In an effort to not invalidate free-speech, I do not think unlinked accounts shouldn't be able to post here, but with your suggestions of a custom profile picture and showing in-game titles, I feel that suggestion would help visitors determine who's on a linked account versus who's on an unlinked account.  Knowing who's a forum-linked account to an active in-game account is important in the sense of community.

Community building is important and I feel the forum is a good additional way to do this.  Here's to making the forum a better place!

I just checked all the mentioned sections and they are compared to general and feedback, dead.

What will custom profile give to PA? They have to control and review every pic permanently. With the event its for a limited time and it is a farm for traction on their site.

Titles ingame seem pointless to me and even more pointless on forums, this will just waste their time for what exactly?

Will more ppl go to their site because they have custom pics and titles? NO those ppl are already there!

There is a reason why the forums are bare bones.

Imo PA can do whatever but id prefer functional stuff instead of fluff.