Discussion Forum

Suggestions to improve the MTG Vault

Hi there!
I know there is a thread on changes we would like to see on MTG Vault, I just don't know how active the topic is right now, so I start a new one.

According to the form we are supposed to use, here is the critique:


3 things I like:

1) Obviously there is a ton of web pages that provide deck building tools, but this one is charming, nicely colored and easy to use.
2) The community here is quite nice and active. Coming up with new ideas every day.
3) I can feel that you, the creators of this site, really care about keeping the MTG Vault working as fluidly as possible.



3 things I don't like:

1) Over the many years I've been using this site now, I feel like nothing has changed. I think it needs to be modernized and dusted off.

2) I guess 90% is casual Magic here. Its hard to find users that care about somewhat competitive decks, update them and tweak them
constantly. Many users post like 10 decks a day and never take a look at them again.

3a) Also on the front page i can not see the decks' format, unless the user tags it correctly. So I click on one and say to myself:
Nah I don't want to go through 100 cards and comment on a format I'm not familiar with. Formats should be obligatory!
(EDH/Vintage/Legacy/Modern/Standard/Casual-no format/...)
You can make it so, that a deck name can only be saved if the format has been chosen before.

3b) So the Front Page still has to improve and i think those tabs are misleading.

- First of all there has to be an option to divide the formats for all tabs, so I can see f.e. new Standard decks only.
- Unloved should be "Please Help" to maybe really engage people to take a look at it. Decks should only be able to set as Unloved if
there is a question deposited. Users that try to help should be rewarded with reputation.
- Active decks should be decks that have actually been changed. If the deck gets likes and comments, it shows up in the Hot Decks
anyways, so whats the point of active decks if not to see an archetype evolving?



3 things I want:

1) Regarding modernization I would like to see an option to view the deck in card piles like it is used on MTGO or MTG Goldfish,
that can be snipped or directly posted somewhere else. I think this would be way more appealing.
MTG Goldfish even provides a narrow block list, that can be used for Twitch streams.

2) I would also like to see this site become a major mtg forum like mtg Salvation. The dedicated forum here is almost dead. It has to be
possible to merge the deck building section and the forum. So that you can post visual deck lists instead of links and also subscribe to
discussions on like say UW Control. That way you can keep on improving your deck constantly and report results.

3) You could try to implement a play test section where you can goldfish a couple of turns in addition to the sample hands.

4) Last but not least, I addressed this before, I would like to see a report button for abusive comments and deck names.
You could f.e. use the reputation system to empower moderators that can report or delete.



I hope to see this site growing bigger in the future and maybe you consider some of my thoughts to improve.
Thanks
Posted 24 September 2018 at 15:02

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4 replies

Thanks for taking the time to write this massive thread, it's really appreciated. I can't answer all those questions right now, but we are working on things in the background :-)
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Posted 25 September 2018 at 07:47

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Hi SpliNter,

Thanks very much for all the feedback! :)

My main focus over the coming months is to redesign and improve the site to make it work on mobile - long overdue I know, but life got in the way!

I 100% agree with you on formats, I think they should be required. I also want this to be the primary way users browse through decks - you pick a format first and look at decks of THAT format. We did struggle in the past with old decks coming through marked as "Standard" after they had rotated out, so we just need a way to deal with those, maybe as simple as untagging them after their cards rotate. Having the formats be the primary indicator of a deck should help the competitive scene too.

I like the idea of viewing a deck in card piles. Always have, just never got around to it (time issues again).

If we nailed the browsing of decks, I don't think we would need to merge the forums. The deck pages themselves have the same commenting/conversation ability as the forum does, I just think people struggle to share/find decks because of the current structure? Else we would just have people building a deck and then posting it on the forum asking for help with it? Hmm, I'm unsure on this topic.

Playtesting, reporting and moderators sounds good, I think they are all already on the very long list of overdue items.

To summarise, I WISH there were more hours in the day. I'm trying to juggle some things around to make more time for working on the site though and as I said, my primary goal is to make the site mobile-friendly in the next few months!

Gary
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Posted 25 September 2018 at 09:58

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No need to stress yourselves, just keep on working slow and steady.
Okay maybe there is no need to exactly merge the forums, but we have to be able to post deck lists or at least single catds in the comment sections. It is struggling to post a different take on someone elses deck or even single cards in their comments.
We now have to copy a list, rebuild it and then i link it in their comment section. They then copy the url to look at mine and may or may not take some ideas from it. On mtg salvation you can directly post lists to compare with.

Im looking forward to the mobile friendly page!
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Posted 25 September 2018 at 11:09

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First: I really like MTGVault and browse this site on a daily basis.

The forum is dead because of some simple points:
.) Many people don't know that it exists or aren't interested. When someone owns only decks copied from other decks or has only deck with no description/ tags why should this person be interested into talking about his deck?
.) The people who see that it exists make some posts and never get answers, and even if they get some, there are no notifications that tell you that you got an answer on a post. If I post something in a discussion board and see 0 comments after a year I'm simply not motivated to post anything more.
.) The forums are full of "help me me with deck XYZ" posts that got zero replies. Either nobody ever looked at this thread or the help was given on the appropriate deck. Again if I see a forum full of posts with zero answers I'm not really motivated to post anythign because the chances are high that I won't get any answers.
.) There are no other administrators/ channel guards/ whatever you may call it (at least I don't know of) other than Ian and Gary and they have to do the maintenance on the site. So if someone posts a thread that is in a completely wrong forum, inappropriate or anything else, this will stay in the forum until doomsday comes.
.) The site is more a deck-building site and not a real forum. I have been active some time ago on mtg-forum.de which is more of a forum. When you post a deck there you have to add cards, and explain the card-choices and strategy otherwise the post is DELETED.

How this can be addressed...a good question.
Close some of the sub-forums, keep the ones that are active.
Add administrators/ moderators to manage the forum (finding people who you can trust and are willing to do this will be a hard choice tough). They have to be displayed attop of the appropriate forum and (see idea below) there has to be a way of contacting them.
Convert the "Unloved decks" to a "Help me with this deck" but force users to add questions they want to have answered.

One thing that came into my mind was adding a user and chat/ message system. The user-system should display what decks this person likes to build, and what he can help other user with while the message system should allow other users to contact someone.

Greetings
Muktol
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Posted 28 September 2018 at 11:01

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