New SWTOR Forums Revamp!

The official SWTOR forums are getting an overhaul starting on September 26, 2022! This will include a proper mobile version, a way to follow topics and users, the ability to upload images and media, an in-game calendar, and lots of other little updates. Forum Post

šŸŒ„ The developers have said they are looking to migrate all old content over, but just in case, I highly recommend that if you have any GUILD LISTINGS, ROLEPLAY, BACKSTORY SHEETS, STORIES, FANFICTION or GUIDES posted on the swtor.com forums, that you copy+paste the text from the forums and save them elsewhere just in case, so you aren’t sad later if something funky happens in the migration. For those in roleplay guilds, I also recommend to remind your players to do the same and back-up anything they feel is important to them.

Hi everyone,

I have news to share about changes that will be coming to the SWTOR Forums in that we are moving away from the current platform and will be utilizing a brand new forum platform beginning September 29th!

This migration will move out in phases as we build out a forum space that is uniquely SWTOR. First and foremost, Iā€™m sure all you are wondering about what will be happening to the current content on the forums. They will remain as they are, as all are being converted over to the new platform. As with any project of this size, there could be things that may not appear correctly or may be missing, so if you notice that happening with your content, please let us know. And just like with the current forums, the new forums will still only be available for use to Subscribers but will be viewable by anyone.

The first phase
Launch will focus on functionality of the platform such as all of your normal day to day functions. Itā€™ll be easier to create posts, follow topics, format posts, and add images/media. Note about the latter, there will be slight restrictions. A setting will be in place that a user must have 1) an active forum account for longer than 14 days and 2) have made at least 10 posts on the forums in order to upload any media. Additionally, should the system flag your media for any reason, it will be withheld for review. Only once it is approved will it be viewable by everyone.

Key features that will be immediately available after launch:

Streams aka Personalized Feeds + Tagging
One of the coolest features that will be available to all of you off the bat is the ability to create Streams (not in broadcasting terms). Think of Streams as Feeds. You will have the ability to customize what content you follow whether it be of specific topics, people, or even specific tags. As an example, you could follow my account, JackieKo, and see all the posts I made which will include game update info, bug report follow ups, and Off Topic posts. However, moving forward any post I make pertaining to the game itself that provides additional info to you all will be tagged as #gameinfo, #devupdate, or #update7.1.1 and you can customize your stream to only see posts with those tags.

Optimized Mobile View
We know navigating the current Forums on mobile is a bit of a hassle, so weā€™re looking forward to seeing how you all feel about mobile view post launch of the new Forums. As with any visual change, we encourage you to play around with the new format, and provide feedback of your experience.

Announcements + Alerts
We will gain the ability to place banners on the new Forums that will highlight unique Announcements. As an example, these could broadcast info about an upcoming PTS phase.

Alerts are more immediate pop ups that will be shown on your screen that can be dismissed easily. An example of when we will be using this feature is a reminder that a dev stream is about to go live.

As I wrote earlier, the above features will be live once the new Forums launch. I do want to stress that this is a space that I want all of you to feel a part of, so please offer constructive feedback on the best ways we can utilize these features to better serve the community.

In-Game Event Calendar (wonā€™t be available until October/November)
Once this feature is ready to launch, you will have easy access to info about active Game Events! A calendar tab will be easily accessible on the Forums that will take you to the Event Calendar, so you have easy reference to event info at your fingertips. This will also be a space where we will add info about future contests and dev streams.

The second phase
The focus for this phase will be on the aesthetics of the new Forums outside of the general layout of it. We will be adding ways for players to earn points the more you utilize the Forums such as creating posts, browsing, liking posts, etcā€¦Those points will earn you badges and ranks. Devs will even have the ability to reward unique badges to players whose posts are helpful, constructive, and informative. We are particularly excited about this feature and its ability to highlight high-quality posts that contribute to our community.

This will also be the time when we update the icons next to each sub-forum category.

Iā€™ll have more info on the schedule of these additional features at a later time. We want to ensure the quality of the first stage and give players a chance to get used to the new format before adding more features. If youā€™ve frequented the Forums for a while, youā€™re probably wondering when these points will start accumulating for you. They will be applied retroactively from the time the new Forums launch. For new accounts made before the second phase rolls out, you will begin accumulating points after the first time you log into the new forums.

Whatā€™s the timeline on all of this?
The new forums will be live on September 29.

Beginning September 26th at 10am CT / 3pm UTC, the Forums will go into a read-only maintenance mode for 72 hours. This is to ensure that everything is imported correctly, and will give us time to do necessary testing. Thereā€™s 10 years of info thatā€™s migrating over and an entirely new platform being deployed, so we are allocating 3 days to make sure everything is working correctly before opening it back up to everyone.

Should there be any unexpected and pressing updates to share with our players such as the new Forums going live earlier than anticipated, we will be updating everyone on ourĀ Twitter account.

The new Forums have been a long time project of ours and Iā€™m really happy that we get to share this with all of you soon!

Best,
Jackie


This will also be the time when we update the icons next to each sub-forum category. – Galactic Strongholds community, I see you! I’m getting you your icon. – Jackie


Question: I’m happy to hear it! I might go back to browsing the forums when that change happens. Question, but is the team looking to update other sections of the site as well? A few are outdated, holonet mentions galactic command. The class section wasn’t updated to reflect LOTS’ changes.

Answer: Nothing to share at this time. But we’re always having conversations on ways to improve and update the site/game šŸ˜Š – Jackie