New Blizzard community website, forums begin testing in November
by Gregg Reece 
Oct 27th 2010 at 3:00PM
The announcement came out this morning on the EU forums that Blizzard is getting ready to roll out its new community website and forums for World of Warcraft some time in early November. Anyone who has been to the community site for StarCraft 2 will already be aware of some of the new features including a more advanced forum system than what we have now. Features will include the ability to report a post for trolling or spam without changing pages, being able to see a quick summary of the thread by mousing over and letting players up- and down-rate responses.
The current forums will be set as locked during the beginning of the transition and then will be completely removed toward the end. This means that if there are any old guides, posts or fun things from days of old that you want to see moved to the new forums, you should copy them to your own computer now.
One thing that is curiously missing from the announcement is what alternative Blizzard has developed to its original Real ID forums concept since it was thrown out. StarCraft 2 has a centralized handle that is associated with your Battle.net login, and it is the same handle/avatar that's used for multiplayer games. Hopefully, they'll provide more details on issues like this as things start to lead up to the changeover.
The full blue post is after the break.
The current forums will be set as locked during the beginning of the transition and then will be completely removed toward the end. This means that if there are any old guides, posts or fun things from days of old that you want to see moved to the new forums, you should copy them to your own computer now.
One thing that is curiously missing from the announcement is what alternative Blizzard has developed to its original Real ID forums concept since it was thrown out. StarCraft 2 has a centralized handle that is associated with your Battle.net login, and it is the same handle/avatar that's used for multiplayer games. Hopefully, they'll provide more details on issues like this as things start to lead up to the changeover.
The full blue post is after the break.
TakralusAzeroth isn't the only landscape that's changing. In preparation for the upcoming launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, we'll soon be releasing our new World of Warcraft community site which will provide players with a host of new features including blog posts, a robust game guide, and brand-new forums! If you want an idea of how this new site will look and operate, head on over to our StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty community site (http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/).
We currently plan to launch a live preview version of the new World of Warcraft community site sometime in early November, and will begin to transition over to the new forum system at that time. To make this transition as smooth as possible, we want to provide a tentative timeline for how we'll be phasing posting access from these forums (the ones on which you're currently posting) to the new forums.
We currently plan to launch a live preview version of the new World of Warcraft community site sometime in early November, and will begin to transition over to the new forum system at that time. To make this transition as smooth as possible, we want to provide a tentative timeline for how we'll be phasing posting access from these forums (the ones on which you're currently posting) to the new forums.
- For approximately two weeks after the preview site is released, both sets of forums will be open for posting. The requirements for posting on the new forums will be the same as posting here: you will need an active World of Warcraft account that's in good standing and a compatible browser.
- Following the initial testing phase of the new community site, all forums located at http://forums.wow-europe.com will be marked as Read Only. While you will still be able to access these forums, you will no longer be able to create new posts or edit existing ones.
(The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta forums will remain available for posting until further notice. In order to post on the beta forums, you will need to possess a World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta account.)
- The current forum system will be completely removed sometime in November to complete the transition to the new community site. All forum communication at that time, excluding that conducted on the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta forums, will move to the new forums.
Filed under: Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kaylin Oct 27th 2010 3:16PM
Sixen for MVP obviously.
Hanak Oct 27th 2010 3:17PM
It's a shame they can't move the old posts to the new forums, but I guess they couldn't solve it. :/
Daniel Fritz Oct 27th 2010 3:26PM
Actually, I think they needed to clean the pipes sometime. 5+ years of trollin' does a number on the amount of crap stored on the forums.
Pokkets Oct 27th 2010 3:35PM
It's the perfect time to reboot the forums - now that so much of the game has been reworked, a lot of the forum content will be inaccurate or no longer applicable anyway. It will also give MVPs a reason to post updated versions of their old guides, and those newer folks hoping to establish themselves within the community a better shot at doing so.
I imagine truly awesome threads will be copied over by users after the read-only period begins, even if the original posters are no longer around.
Mattimus Oct 27th 2010 3:37PM
It is the end of Necro'd threads as we know them! For a few weeks anyway.
brian Oct 27th 2010 3:54PM
There would be a lot of outdated guides and stickies that would just confuse new players. It would take a lot of time to go through and see if each post needed to be updated or redone.
Most posts will be redone by players anyway, and any blue stickies will be there. Besides, they did say something about the old posts being in storage as read only, so players would be able to read and repost from there if they really wanted to.
Josin Oct 27th 2010 3:17PM
I wish they'd introduce the new forums with a general amnesty for those of us who got permanently banned during the mass-banning of the RealID fiasco.
ShadowPriest Oct 27th 2010 3:25PM
seconded
Josin Oct 27th 2010 3:31PM
I know I'd had some brushes with the mods in the past, as far as warnings, but I still can't believe they permabanned me over the post they did.
I think they were just oversensitive that day, and coming down hard on anyone who had the misfortune to post in that thread. They banned me so fast that by the time I clicked "View Post" after writing it, I got a banned message. I don't see how a response that fast could've been well-reasoned, or anything more than a blanket ban.
Pyromelter Oct 27th 2010 3:41PM
Are you talking about posting in the thread that had 4000 pages before it got locked? I put a post in there (and I rarely post on wow forums), and didn't get banned.
Or maybe there was another one or you made a new post /shrug
Tinwhisker Oct 27th 2010 4:03PM
I posted int hat thread and was pretty hard on Blizzard in it, but when I posted, I kept my head, spoke clearly and gave reasons for how I felt. Guess what, I can still post.
It seems to me that they banned people who just raged and threw obscenities.
Josin Oct 27th 2010 4:11PM
conspiracy theories on Blizzard's silence (nevermind that it wasn't yet 8am on the West Coast, when the mods clock in.) I laughed at them with "PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!"
Submit>View New Post>Banned Message
Ta-daa.... that simply, you can get banned.
Josin Oct 27th 2010 4:12PM
Good grief, I can't even copy/paste today.
^^ should read:
There was another thread that spawned, and people were going on about conspiracy theories on Blizzard's silence (nevermind that it wasn't yet 8am on the West Coast, when the mods clock in.) I laughed at them with "PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!"
Submit>View New Post>Banned Message
Lanuria Oct 27th 2010 4:24PM
I got banned for not liking someone on my server. They went out of their way to report any post I made and apparently I was trolling when I said that a certain thread would last when it was obvious it wouldn't.
I would really love to post on the forums again. :(
Tinwhisker Oct 27th 2010 4:42PM
So you went into a very hot topic thread with posts coming in faster than can be read with an ALL CAPS message? What did you think was going to happen?
Honestly though, you know you can appeal the ban, right? Unless of course you think you don't have any grounds to appeal it. :/
Mr. Tastix Oct 27th 2010 4:48PM
I have a huge hatred towards the forum moderators, and not because I was banned (because I -was- trolling and I -did- admit it).
My problem with the forum moderators isn't their biased attitude but the idiotic warnings and bans they make. I know a few people who have been banned from the forums simply because somebody holds a grudge towards them, they get reported for the silliest of things, and Blizzard bans them for it.
The way I see it, Blizzard doesn't investigate the reportings at all, they just ban or warn them right off the bat because it's "easier".
Josin Oct 27th 2010 5:39PM
@Tinwhisker
Appeal denied. Apparently despite my long history of intelligent and helpful posts on the tanking forum, where I delicately handled even the most moronic of questions, a post on a hot-button issue was enough to decide that I wasn't worth having in the community.
jay Oct 27th 2010 3:23PM
Looking forward to seeing this new design. The current site is terrible.
Pokkets Oct 27th 2010 3:27PM
Do the SC2 forums have a "subscribe to thread" feature? I haaaaate trying to remember to monitor threads for replies...
Lucidique Oct 27th 2010 4:02PM
Seconded. This is very much needed.