Howdy Folks,

So I wanted to get some input from you guys regarding the thread structure of our little side of the pond. As you know, so far this expansion we've been running things a tad differently and there may (or may not) be some other things to come.

If you can spare some time to provide thoughtful insight, Melthu and I would very much appreciate it. Please copy the general portion, and whatever other areas you find relevant to your use of our forums. Some of the following questions may be irrelevant to your spec, so please don't feel obligated to answer everything.

General:

• Have you generally found information easy to obtain?
• Do you feel comfortable participating in discussions that you believe yourself to be well-versed/an expert in?
• Have you found thread rebooting helpful? Or do you find the break in conversation makes it harder to follow relevant topics?
• Do you feel like you're always sure that you're posting in the correct thread?
• Would it be helpful to have encounter-specific threads (by spec) where individual boss fights can be discussed? Not to the degree of providing help prior to an encounter, but a place to go to after you've pulled a few times to discuss general strategies regarding your individual role (spell selection, glyphs, gear)? (Please note your primary spec in your response.)
• How do you feel about our decision to open Simple Questions to gear/log analysis, helpful/not so much?
• Do you feel like having a subforum specifically for sim/spreadsheet/script discussion would be helpful so that threads that are only relevant to a few weren't mixed in with the rest? (Note: We would sticky the current working models and then this would open up the ability to have quick threads for discussions like, "Can someone check xyz for me?" that we can just close after they've been addressed.)

Feral:

• Did you find the separation of Cat and Bear useful, or was it just annoying to have to read two threads?
• Would you find a gear discussion thread useful (check out the first post/a few pages of the Resto one), or is it pretty straight forward in terms of what is available? If so, would it generate enough discussion that you'd like separate ones for bear/cat?

Balance:

• Would you find a gear discussion thread just for Balance useful, or were you able to get what you needed from the Resto version since all applicable items were included?

Please feel free to address anything I haven't covered, but be as focused in your remarks as you can and make sure to identify a spec if it's relevant.

Lastly, please take a moment to PM me your feedback regarding moderation. Are you happy with how we run things? If so, what do you like? Are you unhappy? Are we too lax, or perhaps too strict? Please speak freely, as long as you don't send me a stream of profanity I guarantee you nothing will be held against you. I will forward and/or discuss anything I get with Melthu, regardless of spec we generally have aimed to moderate the same across the board so any insight on caster or feral will be helpful to both of us.

Again, your input is critical because as a community you make our forums what they are and we want to make it as accessible as possible in terms of making the information available to you. To be entirely honest, I will review your post history when taking into account your feedback because it is relevant to your remarks. The longer you've been here and the more you've contributed will definitely make you stand out. That said, if you've had an account forever and have hardly posted because you don't even know where to start/find things generally intimidating we want to correct that and we won't ignore you! So please, speak your mind in a constructive manner and we'll do our best to address your concerns.

Thanks!
Carebare & Melthu

What happened to the feral bear thread/discussion?

The feral bear thread has been fairly inactive, primarily because bear tanking hasn't undergone great levels of change during 4.2. Specifically where there is no movement in the theory and practice of bear tanking there will not be a lot of discussion. For 4.3 it looks like it will be similar based on the current PTR, I know it's not maths based but bear feels to play the same way as in 4.2 on the PTR. Adding bear tanking approaches to specific fights would make the bear thread more useful and more active. It could also foster a more active bear community as people encounter problems they can get specific fight questions discussed and tanking strategies developed. Currently bears have to look to other sites to understand specific problems on fights.

Personally I found the separation of bear and kitty helpful. They are two very different play styles and while they currently share a talent tree the discussion is very different. The larger quantity and more fluid state of kitty DPS based on performance tweaking in game generates a lot more conversation that previously made it hard to find any bear content. A lot of the simpler bear questions are in the simple questions thread rather than in the bear thread. I think the simple questions thread has been very effective in providing useful clarifications.

I don't see the value currently with a separate feral gear thread. There is less choice in gear in this expansion, with greater standardisation across bear, kitty and rogues. From a bear view point, we try to follow our stat priorities as best we can and the simulators, rawr, mrrobot all provide effective ways to identify upgrades, reforges, gems and enchants. There may be value in having separate discussions on these tools for all druids.