A new StateTree channel might be a good idea..

[lusty glen]

So with 5.1 StateTree became stable and I believe it's big enough to be separated from #gameplay-ai channel, like how #lumen and #lighting/#graphics are separate from each other.

here are the reasons why I believe this:

• StateTree codebase is huge
• StateTree is a complete general purpose AI framework like Behavior Tree, but its not a part of AIModule
• As always docs are not sufficient for extending StateTree on C++ side, we're constantly having conversations about "how-to"s on #gameplay-ai
• It's extraordinary as #mass in the sense of features its introducing
• The way how StateTree handles things internally is quite different than the rest of the engine (be it custom meta specifiers and instance data types user has to write etc) and it requires people to read the source code carefully - so it's a good reason to have a specific channel to talk these things
• Recently Mieszko and Mikko (Epic staff, #gameplay-ai developers) started to involve into community and Mikko specifically contacting with people at #gameplay-ai about StateTree. It'd be helpful for both sides to share information about the API.
• It's actively being developed and each update we're probably going to need to discuss the changes more intensively than a regular #gameplay-ai talk

so TL;DR since framework itself is huge and completely separate from behavior trees, like #mass , i believe it deserves a special channel

[bitter yarrow]

How would you feel if #gameplay-ai became a forum channel and had a StateTree tag?

[lilac sail]

Honestly - I kind of like that all the AI stuff is nestled in the #gameplay-ai channel.

[lusty glen]

I'm generally distant against forums feature in discord, though if community would be fairly active there more than #gameplay-ai about StateTree I'd end up using too

I dont believe forums feature is useful as a channel for intensive conversations

which ends up happening a lot for a gamedev server

[bitter yarrow]

Good to know. I ask because we're exploring the idea of turning support channels into forums.

Channels that are mostly used for getting help/solving a problem seem like good candidates.

[lilac sail]

I find the #gameplay-ai channel was already fairly quiet for the longest time. It wasn't until a few months ago (maybe like 5-ish) that it really started picking up. And in general, it is the same people talking. With the occasional new person coming in asking for some help.

[bitter yarrow]

In particular: I believe it would reduce the number of missed questions because each would get its own post with its own discussion.

[leaden basin]

#control-rig when

[bitter yarrow]

Under consideration and very likely.

Just not sure what shape it will take. Our channel list is getting unsustainable and needs a rethink.

Another thing enabled by forum channels: if a new feature comes out like StateTree that isn't well documented but is generating a lot of discussion, and has no tag, you could start a thread to capture that discussion. Then it becomes easier for us to evaluate whether the topic should get its own channel or simply be added as a new tag.

Something to consider. 🙂

[lusty glen]

Well this was been on the agenda of moderation for... a very long time 😄 . If #gameplay-ai is going to stay and wont be archived, having StateTree as an experimental forum to test how people will use it is a good idea. Like any other channel, #gameplay-ai is also (mostly) limited to a few people answering questions. I personally wouldn't prefer using forums if those people wont be active there. For example recently Mieszko managed to convince Mikko to join Slackers and they answered many StateTree questions. If Mikko (main dev of StateTree btw) only continue answering people at #gameplay-ai I dont see any reason to ask any questions at forums since it wont even reach to limited amount of people that has knowledge about StateTree

This generally applies to every channel imo

[bitter yarrow]

I appreciate the detailed request regardless. Really helpful to us.

[lusty glen]

tl;dr if it can somehow cause more people to answer questions or attract already active people at #gameplay-ai a forum for statetree would be a very good idea

if #gameplay-ai itself wont be archived

[bitter yarrow]

#gameplay-ai would only be archived if it became a forum channel. We can't convert text channels into forums, they have to be replaced and start from scratch.

Any time we do that, we would definitely archive and not delete, so the knowledge still shows up in search.

It's important to me that we preserve past knowledge, even if a channel is no longer used.

[lusty glen]

That's why I recommend just having a separate StateTree forum rather than a generic #gameplay-ai forum as a beginning. I'm pretty sure many people are reserved against forums people like me and it would display how people will use forums feature in the future. So mods also can have an idea how it would work out

Beginning with a niche step is better than completely archiving 7 years old channel(s) 😄

[bitter yarrow]

Well we already have an idea of how people use forum channels thanks to #969360633386655744.

And I plan to launch an overhaul of the sharing category with forums before touching any of the support channels. Slightly larger scale experiment but still not a server-wide overhaul.

[limpid wave]

you are making forums look too useful to say they don't want them Eren 😄

[bitter yarrow]

We did run a survey recently that indicated most people are open to forum channels.

Just so we're clear: I have no intention of replacing every channel with forums. To me it has to really make sense for the topic and the way people use the channel.

[lilac sail]

Hey pfist - mind if I DM you some feedback on forums? Mostly just want to DM due to some background info.

[bitter yarrow]

My DMs are always open.

[hazy quiver]

I can understand that point of view... however, personally I think the channels that would most benefit from using forums would be the gallery/showcase channels such as #work-in-progress, #released, #fab, #generative-ai, etc

Maybe the dead channels would also benefit from forums too ... but for the active help channels like #cpp, please do not replace the channel with a forum (or at least provide both).

[bitter yarrow]

Completely agree re: the gallery/showcase channels. That's my next experiment before we do anything larger scale. 🙂

please do not replace the channel with a forum (or at least provide both)
Yeah it's very active subcommunities like this that make me hesitant.

Forum channels are better for organized tech support, but can be worse for community dynamic.

[hazy quiver]

Hmmmm, I never saw any survey 🙃

[bitter yarrow]

Ran it in October.

[hazy quiver]

damn must have been busy but it's ok I'm sure I'm loud enough you know my opinion lol

[bitter yarrow]

😄

Yeah would've been great to have your thoughts! It was mostly forum channel questions with example use cases.

[hazy quiver]

the new gallery mode is awesome for art based forums 🙂

[bitter yarrow]

Yeah! Really looking forward to seeing how it's used here. I think it will be a hit for the sharing channels.

Makes them way more visual.

[hazy quiver]

💯 % agree

anyway sorry to Hijack, I do agree we need a home for StateTree

[bitter yarrow]

Would you be open to there being a C++ forum channel for support if there was also a place for programming-centric discussion?

It's OK. These are all tangentially related, and it's been a lively discussion with lots of useful input.

[hazy quiver]

I mean I'd be open to it, but I'd ask all my questions in the programmer chat and only answer stuff there....
It's hard enough for me to keep up on the #969360633386655744 forums so I only watch the new things and everybody's favorite necro post.

I keep Discord open on my 4th monitor and I don't really like having to switch channels ever. I just sit in #cpp and if I see something pop up while I'm working that I can help with I jump in.

[bitter yarrow]

Interesting. Yeah, that's an aspect of chat-oriented apps that's popular, and I don't want to lose sight of it.

[hazy quiver]

For me the way I see this server is:

#cpp Programmer help chat
#lounge Lounge
#969360633386655744 Feedback
Other Channels Noise or dead channels, only go here if a last resort and nothing came up in search.... do not expect answers

[bitter yarrow]

Playing devil's advocate to what I suggested earlier: the problem I see with splitting a topic into separate "chat" and "support" channels is it's very difficult to enforce not asking for help in the chat channel.

It generally just doesn't work, because people will do it anyway. It's natural.

[hazy quiver]

What brought me to this server was it being a chat. If Discord didn't exist I'd be looking for an IRC server or something....

I kinda liked Discord not having non-chat features at the beginning, so defending my chat preference wasn't a thing I had to do lol

[bitter yarrow]

The #unrealengine IRC channel played a role in my creating this server. 😄

[hazy quiver]

That's kinda why I have the attitude of "This is a chat. The people who like forums should use the official forums which exist instead of replacing chat"

[bitter yarrow]

One channel was too constricting for Unreal, but I wanted chat as an alternative to the forums.

Hence Unreal Slackers was born.

I honestly just wanted #unrealengine with multiple channels and jumped on the opportunity.

[hazy quiver]

now we have a million channels (I joke)

[bitter yarrow]

Now here we are 85,000 members later.

[bitter yarrow]

You joke but... 👀

As an admin there's always the desire to reduce the number of channels, reduce the burden on my moderation team, keep things more organized and easier to find for newbies, etc.

I recognize that some of the advantages forum channels offer are probably more attractive as an admin than as a member.

[hazy quiver]

yeh, on one hand I like the different topics; but on the other there are just so many and most of them are very niche so they move slow enough that they might as well be a forum

[silk ginkgo]

I feel like state tree stuff deserves its own thing

But I also feel like the majority of new users don't even look at all the channels we already have

[bitter yarrow]

This is partially helped by some new features we have early access to. I haven't made an announcement yet, but you should see a new channel directory at the top of the list. It lets you completely customize the channel list.

[hazy quiver]

that sounds awesome and a long time over due from Discord lol

if I can just stick the channels I care about at the top I can ignore the other ones better (half-joking)

[silk ginkgo]

So you would obviously keep #cpp , #lounge and #generative-ai , the important ones obviously 🥹

[hazy quiver]

yeh I got a little busy I need to get back on #generative-ai

Gotta set up a local install of stable diffusion

[lilac sail]

It sounds like my one-stop shop for AI in UE is going to get broken up 😢

[hazy quiver]

I ran into an issue testing AI stuff where TensorflowJS would cause my power supply to kill the computer. I know this 'cause I tried on an identical machine with no problem; swapped the power supply, no problem. So once I get off my butt about this I'll be back on that AI grind.

[hazy quiver]

but it sounds like the new version will have a pretty gallery so that's an improvement

that's one place I think threads will shine... we can all have our own showcase threads, no worrying about blasting people offscreen when we have a picture dump

[silk ginkgo]

👌

Yeah I feel like #generative-ai would be a perfect test subject for the gallery feature thing

[hazy quiver]

BM is unconcerned with my petty mortal issues lol

[silk ginkgo]

Lmao

I was reacting to you getting back into ai stuff

[bitter yarrow]

And back on the topic of this request: StateTree seems too specific for a forum channel, imo.

[lilac sail]

Oh - forums for sharing stuff 💯. But I just don't think ST needs its own channel personally. Mainly because #gameplay-ai was already kind of a dead channel until like a handful of months ago when some people started becoming regulars.

[bitter yarrow]

If we use forum channels for tech support, it seems like they'd do best as broader topics with subtopics handled by tags.

[silk ginkgo]

||sorry for derailing, it seems like it's my specialty||

[hazy quiver]

yeh, what about an "engine plugins" forum and tags for each of the major plugins?

[bitter yarrow]

That seems too broad since they're making practically all features into plugins moving forward.

Then the channel becomes a lot less discoverable.

[hazy quiver]

yeh I just don't know where you cleanly draw lines for categories within them

most plugins would straddle at least 2 topics

like is StateTree just for AI.... not really

[bitter yarrow]

Examples of my thinking so far:

• a #desktop forum that has tags for Windows, macOS, Linux
• a #mobile forum with tags for iOS and Android

A #physics forum with tags for Chaos and PhysX.

[hazy quiver]

I like that but my only question is... would that be for coding support related to platform, packing support related to platform, runtime issues related to platform, or all of those?

[bitter yarrow]

It's mostly OS-specific packaging and compiling issues.

Referring to our Platforms category.

[silk ginkgo]

I also kinda like the idea of having a forum channel in our general section that people can use to open threads about features they want to talk about, like Verse or ST in this case

[hazy quiver]

because if it's a coding issue related to platform right now they just go to #cpp (honestly they do that for setting up the dev env on Linux/Mac too)

[leaden niche]

my only concern, is if we give users the ability to create the threads in the forum channels, it won't be be sub-categories of the main topic, it'll be questions and questions and questions

[bitter yarrow]

The #linux channel is surprisingly active. Not sure how they'd feel about being turned into a tag in a forum channel, frankly.

[leaden niche]

this is why i advocate for moderator created threads

[hazy quiver]

maybe people will actually go there if it gets more active, right now the Mac/Linux users have a hard enough time dealing with UE being a mainly Windows dev env.... they don't like us telling them to go to the #macos channel because it makes them feel like we sent them to the small kids table

[bitter yarrow]

Using posts as subcategories is a whole different can of worms.

But that's another approach one could take with forums.

[silk ginkgo]

True, I can see that happening

[leaden niche]

we still get questions and help threads in server feedback lol

[bitter yarrow]

Very rarely.

But that's beside the point I suppose.

[leaden niche]

yes, but imagine a more popular category than server feedback

I really like the idea of threads as sub-categories

and with the "Browse Channels" feature on discord

where you can choose what channels are even shown

on the side bar

[hazy quiver]

I don't know if I can imagine such a thing... this channel has the ever-popular complaining post

[leaden niche]

hahha

[silk ginkgo]

We also don't know how well it could work if we don't try it

[bitter yarrow]

Regarding community dynamic: something I like about forum posts is that the member list only shows the people in this discussion, not the entire server.

So it gives you a different sense of community you don't usually get in text channels.

[leaden niche]

well, it keeps it very discord like, in the fact that's it's freeflowing conversations

but also narrowed in on more direct topics

without clogging up the main channel list

[bitter yarrow]

I'm not as worried about clogging up the main channels list since it's now customizable.

[hazy quiver]

right but we'd need to keep switching threads/channels to see what's going on

people like me are gonna pick a thread and camp

[bitter yarrow]

I still want to reduce and reorganize where appropriate, but the channel browser certainly changes things.

[silk ginkgo]

Yeah I agree with this, it's nice
I'm familiar with this on the MJ server, people there have started opening threads and creating smaller nice communities within the forum channels

[leaden niche]

true, but maybe not super subdividing the categories, something like Programming, and a thread for CPP, another for BP, and Python, and Verse, etc etc

[hazy quiver]

CPP and BP being peers... ok sure
WTF are Verse and Python doing at the same level as those.... they are very niche

[bitter yarrow]

To me this is totally fine in some cases. Like imagine that a forum channel is mostly support questions, but there can also be tangential threads like "Share your battlestation" or "mechanical keyboard enthusiast club". I think forum channels would excel in topics where we can allow subcultures to organically emerge.

[leaden niche]

Could introduce a DCC forum, where each major tool gets it's own thread, so people can discuss the unique complications each tool provides to interacting with UE

[bitter yarrow]

Good example of what I was discussing above. If there was a DCC forum, I would want members to be able to create their own threads because they'll think of subtopics and fun subcultures that we won't.

[leaden niche]

Like, we have plenty of people who want to give help, but the challenge I find alot of the times is finding the person asking the type of question you can answer, specially because alot of people specialize in something, not generalize

[hazy quiver]

yeh I just think majority of the people answering stuff in #cpp do the same thing as me, we leave the channel up and jump in to help

[leaden niche]

Yes, but then 50% of the threads will be "why does my blender character look like deadspace monster when I import it into Unreal??"

[bitter yarrow]

I don't see the problem with that.

[leaden niche]

I mean, that's an assumption of course

How many threads can we pin?

[bitter yarrow]

That's much better to me than a text channel filled with those same questions.

[bitter yarrow]

I think it's still just 1.

Let me find out.

[leaden niche]

I think most seem to enjoy the "chat" like nature of discord over a typical forum approach

I think the issue I have finding people who I can help with my knowledge is, when i look in a generalized topic

[bitter yarrow]

Yep, still only one pinned post per forum channel.

[leaden niche]

it's too spread out, and the odds of someone asking a question in my speicalty are a bit harder to find

[bitter yarrow]

Yeah.

Worth noting: Forums have their own contextual search separate from the server-wide search. Coupled with tags, this is a really nice experience if you're looking for people to help.

Also nice if you're looking for answers.

[leaden niche]

we have tons of people seeking knowledge, I feel that enabling those seeking to give knowledge and making it easier for them to find recievers is really benefitial

[wet ermine]

Nobody uses search now, what difference will forums make?

[bitter yarrow]

That is simply not true.

[hazy quiver]

this is sadly true

[bitter yarrow]

Sure, some people will ask a question instead of searching, but to say no one uses it is an exaggeration.

[hazy quiver]

nah you're wrong on that.... I personally use search but I can tell you for sure most people asking questions in #cpp do not

[limpid wave]

I use search to find my own messages with correct build config lol

[wet ermine]

I have literally never seen anyone say "I tried to search discord chat history for an answer, but couldn't find one, please help with x" or some form of that.

[bitter yarrow]

Just like searching the web and finding your own 2-year-old blog post!

[hazy quiver]

yeh 99% of the time I search myself so I can copy/paste an old post to somebody (usually about setting up debug and installing symbols)

[wet ermine]

Same. I search for things I know I/others have said when I know it's already been said.

[leaden niche]

the issue with discord search is it's not very contextual, if I search for someone talking about something, I will just get everytime anyone has mentioned those words, and it'll order by like time

[limpid wave]

you can safely expect the people in #cpp that ask googleable questions aren't going to do anything until you give them a massive READ THE FAQ thing but the FAQ is 30 different specific tips and one newbie thing

[bitter yarrow]

The search options are really helpful for narrowing it down, at least.

[leaden niche]

kinda

from a moderator stand point, search is dope

[wet ermine]

Nobody who can't google something is even going to bother with the FAQs.

[hazy quiver]

hell most of our convos are spent begging people to listen to the help being given... nobody wants to search, or read, or even watch a video

[silk ginkgo]

Peopel don't even read the pins and #cpp has a ton of helpful ones 🥲

[wet ermine]

There's so much pushback on even saying, "You should learn some basic c++ before trying it in unreal".

[bitter yarrow]

Maybe I'm an outlier. I use search a lot. I can find messages from a specific person between these 2 dates, in this channel, containing only messages with images.

[lilac sail]

And BM does mean a ton 🤣

[bitter yarrow]

Pins have very poor discoverability. 😦

[limpid wave]

yeah unless there is some way to force people to agree to some "I read the manual and I can prove it" thing nobody will ever read pins

[wet ermine]

You are definitely an outlier, pfist.

[silk ginkgo]

That is true tho

[hazy quiver]

I've found success with this by copying the pin contents into chat and showing a screenshot of something related that's interesting... nobody will look at the pins directly and certainly not on their own

[leaden niche]

having a pinned post in every moderator created thread, with things we typically Pin, could be useful for each of the subcategories

[silk ginkgo]

I do use search a lot but I feel like an average discord user doesn't

[bitter yarrow]

The poor discoverability of pins is part of my motivation for building a new website. Good resources are better served on the web.

[leaden niche]

that's useful for moderation, but not learning

[bitter yarrow]

Certainly not as much as we do, I agree.

[limpid wave]

how can you direct newbies to this site?

[bitter yarrow]

Define "newbies".

[wet ermine]

There are tons of websites that already have good information. Are you going to build yet another website that collates links and has useful guides?

[bitter yarrow]

No.

[lilac sail]

Good job @lusty glen. In your quest to break up the family in #gameplay-ai - we have hijacked the thread to discuss the merits of forums 😅

[hazy quiver]

people with a "newbie" mindset (you know it when you see it) could be a brand new BPer or a salty old c master

they ignore all advice despite asking for help

[limpid wave]

I guess people who have very common questions who we always give boilerplate answers to, it's not a real problem as long as they are polite I guess but it's pretty repetitive how many common issues we get

Like I want to rent a blimp that explains build.cs linker issues

[lusty glen]

[wet ermine]

The advice they ignore is everything but the exact, specific answer they need that involves them doing no work at all.

[leaden niche]

the bot will alleviate some of this in 2023

[hazy quiver]

ahh yes the no-work answer

[leaden niche]

or througout 2023

[lusty glen]

see, even with forums feature offtopic is our nature

jk

[hazy quiver]

it's what happens to natural conversations

that's why I'm against constraining them

[limpid wave]

as much as I wish we had a "google it nerd" button that would be pretty dismissive lol

[leaden niche]

i mean, it's still adjacent to the topic

[limpid wave]

sorry, not really related to statetree forums

[lusty glen]

~~I cant keep up with the previous messages -- is #gameplay-ai being archived now..? :~~
apparently not

[leaden niche]

but related to the underlying issue of UE5 rapidly expanding and adding features

[hazy quiver]

welcome to #cpp 's hyrda... it's all tangentially related.... to something

[leaden niche]

and us needing a solid method for organization these conversations

and in a way that benefits the community

[limpid wave]

in my mind the best thing is to make sure that channels don't get overcrowded but you also don't create a million dead channels no regulars check

[wet ermine]

Forums are the perfect way to organise conversations like that. But this isn't a forum and people aren't here to use a forum.

[limpid wave]

I kind of wish we could just have one giant forums that people filter by stuff they are interested in for tagged problems but that's probably not a thing

[bitter yarrow]

Sorry, no. Your question just inspired a very lively discussion. 😅

[leaden niche]

but we can use the technology of the forums to extend the same chat like nature of discord

[wet ermine]

Isn't that what the epic forums are for, megafunk?

[limpid wave]

yeah, I suppose

[silk ginkgo]

Tho discord forums are a perfect combo between forums and realtime chat in my opinion

[hazy quiver]

@lusty glen Thanks for the great proof of concept. You just showed that forums will have everybody talking on the same post anyway.

By making this post you just moved the conversation from https://discord.com/channels/187217643009212416/982578548936146964 to here.

[leaden niche]

with moderator created threads, treating them as subcategories for the limbs of a topic

like state trees doesn't belong in AI anymore

[limpid wave]

that's just glorified nested channels at that point

[leaden niche]

as it's separated from AI

[bitter yarrow]

Ah. This is what the /faq command is working towards solving. When the new website goes live, there will be a form where any of you can suggest new answers to be added to the bot.

[leaden niche]

and is going to continue to be more of a separate tool set that is used in both AI and non-AI

[bitter yarrow]

The /faq command is meant to be an easy way to share those canned responses.

[limpid wave]

the people who don't even read the rules are never in a million years going to /faq

but I guess we could use it

[leaden niche]

exactly, we can't nest channels currently though

[lilac sail]

Oh - does this mean that I might finally beat Laura to answering something? Until she learns how to use the faq that is

[bitter yarrow]

Yep, that's the intention. For you, not the newbies.

[leaden niche]

so, with forums we could ^_^

[lusty glen]

I dont know if any of you mentioned already but you people aware monitoring n amount of forum threads is waaaay more difficult than monitoring a few alive channels, right?

[leaden niche]

you don't need to, that's the great thing, you can monitor the one's you can provide value to

[hazy quiver]

I'm not against using a forum to nest normal channels (meaning only mods made threads which serve as channels), it just feels really hacky

[lusty glen]

just like.. what mods are doing currently? 😄

[leaden niche]

discord doesn't currently provide a better option ^_^

[bitter yarrow]

I am yet to be convinced of the benefits of simulating nested channels. It seems like a weird UX to me.

[wet ermine]

What would be great is like a set of commands like /dontasktoask that just prints the website in chat, or a way to link specific common answers. /faq state tree or something.

[limpid wave]

ah yeah

[bitter yarrow]

And all the evidence and research I've seen thus far tells me forum channels perform significantly better when members can create their own threads.

[leaden niche]

oh you mean moderating them, we've made alot of strides in the past year to relieve alot of that pressure and make that a bit easier on us

more channels won't make it harder to moderate ^_^

[bitter yarrow]

A forum channel with lots of posts is no more difficult to moderate than 84 text channels.

[leaden niche]

What type of communities it that research and data coming from though?

[bitter yarrow]

It's the same load, just distributed differently. And with our /report command, it won't change much.

[limpid wave]

The number of extra plugins is indeed getting kind of nuts, I'm glad we have a #mass channel as it's a pretty generic framework (I am super biased of course as I asked for it etc) and statetree is also pretty impactful but it could get out of control really fast. I wonder if something like #experimental_plugins or #engine_plugins or something would be nice? #source_plugins?

[lusty glen]

only a few alive ones matter from 84 though.. when is the last time a moderator had to visit #linux or #editor-scripting? 😄

[wet ermine]

When's the last time anyone visited those channels? 😛

[limpid wave]

I think it would be useful to see metrics on the channels with the most activity to try to section out who gets demoted to forum thread and who becomes a full channel

[leaden niche]

I mean, IMHO we can add as many channels as needed for everything possible, cuz the new Browse Channel feature basically alleviates the issues of too many channels for people, as they can easily choose what channels to even show or not show now

[hazy quiver]

lol they said #linux was active earlier in this thread but I wouldn't know personally

[leaden niche]

but nesting them in threads feels "cleaner" a bit to me

[silk ginkgo]

We don't talk about that 😅

[limpid wave]

#packaging is like an elephant graveyard of Android issues

[hazy quiver]

#slate is where questions go to die

[bitter yarrow]

A wide variety, including creative communities. This is coming from a combination of my personal experience, hearing from other Partner Program admins, and significant internal research done by Discord across the board.

[leaden niche]

not enough solid Slate learning material out there, if they had alot more, I feel more people would be into Slate

[lusty glen]

I still support the idea of starting with a niche category rather than going wild with converting channels directly... maybe even some people requests those niche forum(s) from moderation? like android packaging like megafunk mentioned

[hazy quiver]

100% agree

[leaden niche]

95% of the issues people have with UMG, it's like, well go learn slate, MAGIC lol

but, no clue where to send them to do that hahahha

[bitter yarrow]

There's another example I think would work. A #ui forum with UMG and Slate tags (and possibly more, like CommonUI).

[limpid wave]

the other issue is merging old channels is not a thing it seems

[wet ermine]

I try to answer as many as I can. 😛

[silk ginkgo]

Tbf it might be even easier since with forum you get a preview of the latest message

[leaden niche]

The tags thing, it's so limited though, it has a literal hard cut off on amount

[wet ermine]

The pins keep disappearing from the #slate channel. (By "keep" I mean it's happened like twice.)

[bitter yarrow]

Unfortunately not. And text channels can't be converted to forums. You have to start from scratch. Of course, we rarely delete channels. We prefer to archive them so the knowledge still shows up in search.

[leaden niche]

so then we have to kill tags to add new one's as UE expands further

[limpid wave]

but if the backup messages are the issue the new site should resolve that anyways so #whocare I guess

also archiving

[bitter yarrow]

Forum channels can have up to 20 tags. I can't imagine any topic needing more than that.

If you need more than 20 tags, you need a separate channel.

[leaden niche]

DCC tools alone would consume more than 20 tags lol

[limpid wave]

DCC tools are kind of second fiddle here

at least in my experience

[leaden niche]

true, but it doesn't NEED to be that way

alot of quirks and great ways to use different tools in a UE pipeline

[limpid wave]

what Mippi is saying is that he will make a new #blender channel 😈

[leaden niche]

banned

actually, nvm, we don't need a DCC thing

scratch the whole idea

dunno what i was thinking

[bitter yarrow]

So what you're saying is we should create a #blender forum.

[leaden niche]

i hate you all

[limpid wave]

but yeah I think people asking UE <> dcc specific questions should be totally cool, import issues are super ue related

[wet ermine]

Or a DCC forum with a Blender thread!

[leaden niche]

i'm gonna go cry in a corner now

thanks

[leaden niche]

basically this, as much as I'd hate to see a spot for Blunder here

[bitter yarrow]

lol

[leaden niche]

it'll break my heart, but at least I can ignore it hahhaa

[bitter yarrow]

Does it hurt you knowing Epic supports Blender so much?

[leaden niche]

i wrote many angry letters

[hazy quiver]

which brands of blenders should we keep the discussion limited to? just consumer stuff like Ninja? or real commercial stuff used in restaurants?

[bitter yarrow]

Oh god I hate Ninja blenders.

They're terrible.

[wet ermine]

Are those the ones where they have the adverts where they blend random shit like iphones?

[bitter yarrow]

They're made for chopping up gadgets, not food.

[limpid wave]

this is a Vitamix discord

[bitter yarrow]

Yes. We have one and it sucks.

[wet ermine]

Why?

[bitter yarrow]

Sir this is a Wendy's.

[bitter yarrow]

Because it's designed to be flashy, not efficient. It's very inefficient at blending or pureeing basically anything I put in it.

I always need to constantly scrape things down and eventually move to an immersion blender for puree.

[hazy quiver]

Remember the Blendtech videos?

[bitter yarrow]

If you're just making smoothies and shakes, I guess it's fine. But even then.

[bitter yarrow]

Hah, yes I sure do.

OK folks. I need to go to bed. Thanks for the lively discussion and mountains of forum channel feedback.

And thanks to @lusty glen for the detailed feedback and, well, inadvertently causing this avalanche.

[wet ermine]

Ah Blendtech, that was it!

[leaden niche]

https://media.tenor.co/videos/7affc6434cf4f68045cbad2c65f16f7a/mp4

[hazy quiver]

No that was BlendTech. The videos were called Will It Blend

Ninja is just a current brand that makes generally kinda shitty kitchen stuff, they're not related. I have an Air Fryer from them... it's ok; the blenders suck tho pfist is right about that part.

[wet ermine]

Ah.

I definitely want a Blendtech blender.

[hazy quiver]

mmm iPhone smoothie

Dr. Ringo said eat more apples