[2023] MOVED: View Notifications Bell

Originally posted by Steve (Dawn's Hubby): I will give you an example. When I posted this thread, was I supposed to post this question in General Discussions, Questions and Answers or Off Topic?

We don't have a section for discussing forum rules & moderation, because discussion of moderation is actually against the rules. The forum is for discussing the game. I don't want to sound unwelcoming, but that is the technical answer to your question. I do appreciate your respectful manner, and I think this thread can stay open for now, rule notwithstanding.

As others have said, it is contingent on every user to post in the right sub-forum. I believe we've named the sub-forums as intuitively as we can. It's nontrivial to make changes there but careful thought has gone into the names, at least.

I view moving threads as the nicest option - a courtesy to the user, in effect - over the alternative, which would be locking or deleting threads not posted in the right section. I can't speak for other Steam forums, other than to say that in my experience as a user they tend to be a mess, where information is buried. But here, we have an obligation to everyone to keep the forum organized for readability.

As you say, we have to operate with what we have. That means a generic 'moved or deleted' message on all moves, instead of something more useful like directing you to where the thread was moved. We have a redirect option, which leaves the thread listed in the old sub-forum after it's moved. But options are limited there, too, in terms of how long it is before the redirect expires. Similarly, the "Post History" link that's on the right column when browsing the forum is very useful in the case of a moved thread, but it's not particularly prominent and many users don't know it exists.

I'm going to move this thread to Off Topic because that's the closest fit available. I will leave the redirect up for 1 day. This can be your practice run for tracking a thread that was moved. Though I want to re-iterate, it would be easiest for everyone - those that make threads, those that read and reply to threads, and moderators - to use the sub-forums in the first place. It's so important, it's worth keeping a pinned thread up reminding people to do so.