Possible plan for the Gear Discussion Forum.

hopefully someone will put up an updated version of the "MT gear progression" post, I liked that one ( the one by Zamach is just sorted by ilvl )...
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The more I think about it ... the stronger I feel that:

1. Information that is more or less static should be easily accessible (i.e. forum restructuring)

2. Information threads and discussion threads should be kept separate but coupled by links. At the end of the info, a user can click a link to read more of the discussion ... and contribute. When a post get's popular and the discussion reaches 20+ pages .. people are less likely to read it.

3. Stickies should really only ever be temporary. Whether they are stuck for a week .. or 6 months .. eventually the information/discussion get's outdated and it's time for the thread to be trimmed/purged/archived. Nothing frustrates me more than reading 15 pages of a thread .. to have the last 2 or 3 posts tell me .. "this information is now irrelevant, look for the posts on ... blah"

I support anything that helps me save precious browsing time. I think that a serious look should be taken at restructuring forums as per my initial suggestion. That, or a move towards a Wiki.
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Just a quick update,

I have the layout sorted out now but unfortunately it is on my PC at home, whose display blew up on Friday. My techy support friend will be sorting it out Tuesday [it looks like a new graphics card best case scenario] so the super uber sticky should be up an running hopefully this weekend.

Apologies for the delay, the time I had put aside to post it all up corresponded with the time the site was down, followed by pc failure. All good fun!

Barathorn
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First, thank you all those who write the stuff here.

A couple of comments from the perspective of someone who doesn't raid but still wants to do the best tanking job I can.

One 5/10 man guide and one 25 man guide is what I would use most.

I'd prefer gear guides separated by the kind of tanking that allows access to that gear. You probably don't need a separate 5 man vs 10 man but a lot of players never see 25 mans and to have a gear guide cluttered with items that are unobtainable isn't helpful.

Off-spec guides are really helpful.

When plate drops that isn't what I really need for tanking it is nice to have a quick place to check it's worth as either ret or healing.

Links from gear guides to mechanics guides would make learning easier.

It's one thing to be told which item is better, it's quite another to be able to jump to a mechanics discussion that explains why.

As for the outlines I've seen suggested above they would help a lot.

But even if there is no change this is still the best site for learning about pally tanking and tanking in general and that is thanks to all of you who discuss this stuff so honestly, openly and knowledgeably.
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My two cents:

One levelling as prot sticky. Not all of us are 80, and people tend to like the existence of levelling prots

To avoid chatting in a sticky -- branch it. This is a method commonly used in other forums I visit. The main post is stickied and (sometimes) locked. It links to another thread (or more than one) for discussing the content of the sticky. Branching comes in when there's a perceived need for discussing a new, different, aspect of the sticky, in which case the "owner" of the sticky simply edits the original post and adds a (labelled) link to a new thread.