Well this really blows!!!! I like the toyark and loved having a unique forum for dc talk. This is a great way to sour the taste of the toyark and have them move to other places now. I dont want to have to search around the toy general discussion to find my dc topic. Good way to get people to look the other way thanx a lot guys.

YOU DO REALIZE YOU WILL LOSE REGULAR MEMBERS BECAUSE OF THIS.

BIG MISTAKE TOYARK

I like some of the new changes and don't like some at the same time. Personally 95% of my time on here is spent either in marvel threads, look what I got, show me something cool, and random threads that spark interest.

I would have it into main categories then when you click on 1 it breaks it down into sub categories, example categories for news, community matters, toy discussion and media discussion. News would offer toy/media sightings, reviews, store specials aka coupon thread. community matters would be b/s/t, feedback,collections,customs,help center, etc. Toy discussion if you click would then break into the major toy companies, and then the major themes for them. Media discussion would break down into tv,movies,music,videogames, art, other. Just an idea. if you had saved search options. Or you could use elimates from deviantart.com, they have standard search and tabs, but at the bottom they have features daily deviations, well maybe toyark could do something like that and feature say custom work, members ebay auctions, or like twitter has; "trending topics" so if I make a thread and within the day there's 2-3 pages worth of good solid discussion, debate, laughs,pics etc, then perhaps rather then it getting bumped to the top of latest dicussion tab, it could be more graphically displayed, which would draw more attention, thus creating a better/larger discussion.

If forum participation decreases because of the changes, we will make changes to fix it. Wasn't working before, have to start someplace. This is a starting point.

DC Board was working fine in our eyes and everyone was happy. What part of this dont you understand? DC Lover again are being tossed aside and told we have to start somewhere. Thats crap. I have to tell you. You have really stirred up a hornets nest with this political move.

I understand your point of view being a hardcore DC guy, but the numbers weren't there. DC had most potential, but still low overall. Nothing political about it.

I will gladly restart the DC forum if the traffic warrants it.

^Not good enough. It been fun. I'm gone.

I am just curious really as to how doing this makes Toyark better for memebers. So far I see no upside.

I can understand some people not liking the changes. But, from our perspective, we had a lot of forums that got little to no traffic. DC, MOTU, Star Wars, etc. were all sitting there with minimal participation from the members while the Marvel forum was getting more traffic than all of those combined.

Now we have a central place to see what sticks and what doesn't and go from there.

I understand the reasonings behind it. I mean the site is a product, and Tony is just trying to adjust his product based on what he sees. And he's clearly open to everyone's opinions about it.

The only downside I see to this is turning off potential new members. If someone is looking for a site to talk both about DC and MOTU and was either recommended to come here or found it on their own, and then see there's no specific place to post, they won't sign up. If I was a new member looking at the forum for the first time, I would instantly think it's just for Marvel, as it's the only company labeled forum. Of course if I did some digging, I'd see that's not the case.

Like I said, I totally understand the need to do it, but I'm just thinking of what possible effects it may have overall.

Well as a customiser im all in favour of the new customs sidebar,seems like no-one who customises and posts there gets much love really,so this is a good way to bring customs to peoples attention,regarding the DC issue couldnt a small sidebar that takes people directly to a DC specific forum be set up?? It does seem harsh that DC fans have been unintentionally alienated by this,and are the sister site sidebars really neccessary?? There are links at the top of the page for those,surely doubling up on them is just a waste??

I come here for DC-related discussions almost exclusively. I am almost certain this reorganization will decrease my participation. Before, it was nice. . .if someone had said something new, it just showed right there in one easy spot, it was in bold -- grabbed my attention. I click on it, read what's new, and decide to respond or not. Quick and easy.

Now I've got to hunt for it. Inconvenient. I don't see how, since the problem was low traffic, that this is going to help increase traffic. Unless this is: 5 DC people are looking at threads; 5 MOTUC people are looking at threads -- let's combine them -- 5+5 = 10. Look now there's 10 people looking at threads! More traffic?!?!

Sorry, I just don't get it. If something had to be taken from us, maybe we could have done without the spot on the sidebar -- if there was something better you could have used the space for -- but kept it organized in the groups it was in.

I don't think this was "political" as some have said. But like I said, I don't get the motivation. Ultimately I blame Mattel. Marvel guys have MU, ML, and MS to talk about. We just have DCUC (the other stuff is just worth complaining about).

I'm not leaving or anything, but I'm sure I'll participate less.

I'd like to ask: What do you all (all members here) think makes the Marvel section successful, and how can we DC'ers or MOTU'ers or whatever do to copy that success?

The sidebar, up until today, had a highlighted graphic link to the DC Discussion forums.

As for the graphic links to sister sites and such, those are there for various reasons, but also serve as spots for our various other graphical links that we can and will be placing there in the future.

That's only partially the right track. Our thinking is this; We haven't been able to get more than a dozen people (and that's being very generous) to look at each of those removed forums individually. By condensing them down, we have everyone looking into a centralized location, and it increases the exposure to those threads. People who normally weren't wading into those specific forums now see the topics and may or may not choose to participate. But it does expose more people to those topics in the long run.

"You can lead a horse to water, but can't make him drink."

It's kinda like the toy aisle at Walmart or Target. Sure the action figures are all on the same aisle, but that doesn't make me look at everything. Real Steel figures are there. When they first came out I looked at them for less than 2 minutes. Haven't paid them any attention since then, except to think "when are these going to clearance?" Same with Pirates of the Caribbean. Exposure won't equal attention.

I'm not trying to be negative, that's not how I roll. If there's a problem with the traffic flow, fine, I like to understand the problem and figure solutions, that's all. So this morning we're taken by surprise by a problem AND a solution. I'm just saying I don't think this solution will work. I'll try to think of some helpful suggestions today. . .off to work now.

I disagree. I think what Joe said above is spot on in terms of exposure. Having you look at the one forum and see all of the posts listed can certainly bring in more attention to threads that some people may not have seeked out but still want to comment.

You mentioned Real Steel and Pirates? You may not have bought them or been interested, but the fact that they were next to DC or Marvel figures in the isle did get your attention. That's sort of the same idea here.

I feel by saying "I don't think this solution will work" is premature. This is day one of the change. Give it time. If it truly doesn't work after all, I'm sure Tony will change it back or make the appropriate changes to keep this place going.

Anyone who has come from our TFW forums knows that our only constant is change. We're never content and will change the site according to what we see is needed. But we will give it adequate time to see how our changes work. Our last change, where we gave all the majors their own set of forums, didn't work. We gave it a good amount of time to see how it would play out.

Again, new here, not opposed to change. However, by the logic of trying to bring traffic to lesser viewed threads, shouldn't you have also nixed the Marvel section and combined it as well. It sees the most traffic and would bring more eyeballs to than the five of us who looked at the DC thread.

I say that as a person who frequents both the DC and Marvel threads and will still likely come here for info.

Your welcome for your Marvel traffic, Toyark.

I was just getting started on your Star Wars section. You guys would've been swimming in Imperial traffic in no time.

The Marvel Forum is one of, if not the, busiest forum on the site. Due to this, it deserved to keep its own forum so not to clog up the AFGD area. The same will happen if enough people are discussing another toy line over the long haul. If DC toy discussion starts to get a lot of sustained traffic, then we will look into bringing a dedicated forum back.

Sorry, but no one member deserves or can take credit for the popularity of the Marvel Forums. People gravitated there for a number of reasons, including the myriad of readily available toys from multiple lines. If you are one of the people actively participating in the forum, then we thank you. We appreciate anyone who is active on the forums.

However, the Star Wars forum in particular, has had numerous years of little to no traffic. One member continuously posting was not going to keep that forum from being condensed down.

It's not really trying to force people into looking at other threads they don't want to.

It's more like - renting the entire San Diego Convention Center for your local DC collectors toy show. Not needed, feels very empty. So, we've appropriately rented a local hotel ballroom, and the show is now all purpose :).

Look, I am more of a DC guy myself, I understand why one would want it split off. Bottom line is, it was empty. Was it second to Marvel for line specific sub-forums? - yes. But a FAR second. Super far.

The actions of our users have proven repeatedly that they do not want to use the Toyark as a home for their line-specific discussion, Marvel being an exception. So we are rolling with that for now.

Again, if this change causes a decrease in participation, or another method presents itself worth trying down the road, we will make some changes. And if DC talk explodes in the AFGD - we will split it back off, no problem.

And on another note -

I've made the first Toy Discussion block on sidebar 10 posts instead of 5, and included discussion from both AFGD and News & Rumors.

I've also included Fan Art in the Customs Block.

I plan to add icon-based blocks that point to News categories soon.

Ok, then I'd like to share the credit with the active Toyark community. Even the Canadian members.

I'd also like to see an entire section dedicated to what I like. Thoughts?

Semi related to this, but I have a small nitpick relating to news threads. I noticed Marvel news (and any other brands for that matter, but I'll use Marvel as an example) is added to the "News" section rather than the Marvel section. This always bugged me because my link to this site is right to the Marvel forums, but by doing this I often miss out on Marvel news if I forget to check for it.

Wouldn't you increase traffic to a line's forum if the news was within that line's forum instead of the news section?

We tried it before, it did not work well. It made following and reporting on news nearly impossible. If you are looking for Marvel only news, then simply browse the Marvel News Category.