IMPORTANT Introducing New Comic Forum Rules

[Dreadknux]

After taking stock of the general activity/health of the forums, I've decided to introduce some new guidance (which may become rules in the future, but not just yet) that will aim to encourage greater activity and more posts from users.

The following may be changed or adapted over time as users get used to this guidance and we get a feel for what works and doesn't work.

• New Topic Per Comic ISSUE (AFTER RELEASE ONLY):
  I'd like to encourage people to make a new topic in this forum once a new issue of IDW is published and available for purchase. We can call it an Official Topic (OT) or a Megathread (MT), I'm open to suggestions. In these topics, other users can post their opinion of the issue's stories, and their feelings of how the series is developing in the context of that issue's release. These topics should NOT be created until the issue is published and available for sale.
   
• New Topic Per Comic Solicitation / Cover Release - NEWS TAG:
  I want to encourage more adhoc news posting on this forum. At the moment, one look at the topic listing in this forum makes it clear that things are pretty dead (there are topics relating to IDW news from August 2021!). For Comics, this is usually whenever a new solicitation is released or when an IDW artist/IDW itself pushes new cover art ahead of an issue's publish date. These are absolutely news-worthy and should be of interest to fans of the Sonic comics, so they should get individual topics. Use the 'NEWS' tag when posting these kinds of topics.
   
• Less Reliance on Overall 'Comic Brand' Megathreads - ESPECIALLY IDW
  For Comic Series that have ended, such as Archie or Sonic the Comic, it may make sense to contain all discussion in a single Megathread. It currently doesn't favour the forum to have an existing running single topic for all IDW discussion. It sucks all of the discussion to that one topic and makes the rest of the forum (besides that one topic) look dead.
  
  This is in particular reference to the General IDW Megathread. I might even close it soon, just to further encourage the above activity.

What I want to do with these changes is to explode some of the various threads of discussion that are currently locked into one single topic, and encourage more discussion and activity by showing users who casually browse this forum that there is life in here.

I know it's hard to break habits that have been worn in for years, but we can make sure that, by adapting with the times, this place remains a welcoming, relevant and interesting one for people to discuss the Sonic comics. I will be thinking of ways we can use badges and Achievements to reward and encourage users who follow the new guidance above, so we can all work towards this goal together.

There is a really fantastic, dedicated and strong Comics community within the SSMB, and it's a shame to see them all clumped up in one topic when there is an entire forum dedicated to you. The world is your oyster! Take advantage!