Hi Simmers,
2023 is upon us and the Microsoft Flight Simulator forums have been publicly open for over 2 years now! Thank you to those who have made these forums their home and we hope you have either found likeminded simmers to interact with, received help on an issue you’ve had, provided help to a fellow simmer, shared screenshots, learned something new about aviation, or provided us with a bug or feedback report. We really appreciate the effort shown by so many simmers to follow our Standard Operating Procedures and Code of Conduct.
As we enter the new year, there are some forum structure changes coming throughout December. As the sim and community evolves over time, so does the forum needs and categories. You may have seen some shifts over time the past few years, and this shift in forum organization is no different.
Over the past month I have worked closely with the forum moderators to assess which categories were being used, which not used enough or offered too much redundancy, what areas of the forum needs attention, what tools are under-utilized, and more in order to figure out where changes should be made.
Forum Goals Going into 2023
Our goal is to create a space that is:
- Easy for new users to browse and join in on the conversation
- Intuitive for the average user to figure out where they would like to post in order to engage with their specific sim interests
- Structured for users to receive and provide community support
- Better streamlined for users to submit official bug reports
New Forum Categories
Here is what the new forum categories and sub-categories will be going into 2023. We will revisit this every quarter and adjust as necessary.
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Provide your feedback in threads, join community fly-in events, browse through user-made content, and more. Learn more about who manages and supports these forums by reading about the Forum Team here.
Sub-categories:
Please click on each sub-category to see and overview of the section and its changes.
News & Announcements
This category will remain unchanged. It is where the MSFS Community Team will post Official News, Dev Updates, Release Notes, Forum News, and more. This is a great sub-category to subscribe to new posts to receive a notification whenever we post something new!
Navigate to the category and in the top right click the bell and choose “Watching” to get notified on new posts.
Official Feedback Discussion
This new category will contain threads posted by the MSFS Community Team. Every time there is a new update or piece of official content, you can come to this sub-category to leave your feedback and/or vote in an official poll related to the new content. Here you will not be able to make new threads, just respond in various official-discussion topics.
As a reminder, this is not a place for reporting bugs, but expressing your sentiment and overall opinions on the new update or content piece. If you are finding bugs, please still create a bug report in the Bug section so we can properly log it internally. Bugs that are reported in Feedback Threads will likely get lost in the mix of replies.
Community Events
No change to this category. Please continue to create and attend community events while following the Event Creation rules of this sub-category.
Content Creators
No change to this category. Please continue to post videos and content while following the Content Creator Posting Rules of this sub-category.
Forum Guides
No change in this category, just moved for convenience and visibility for new users looking to understand how the forums work!
Friends, Clubs & Groups
This category combines the previous “Find a Friend” and “Clubs & Groups” categories into one. Feel free to advertise your simming groups, share your gamertags, and look for friends to fly with here.
Screenshots & World Discovery
This category combines the previous “User Screenshot Gallery” and “World Discovery” categories into one. Share screenshots, routes, locations, and more here.
Community Support
New or returning to MSFS or think you might be able to provide some great advice to your fellow simmers? Help each other with tutorials, troubleshooting, and more in this section.
Sub-categories:
Please click on each sub-category to see and overview of the section and its changes.
Pilot Guides
This category combines the previous “New Pilot Guides” and “Advanced Pilot Guides” categories into one. You will see each topic tagged appropriately instead to indicate whether it’s meant as a beginner-friendly guide or an advanced guide. Here, you can find user-made wiki guides on how to navigate the basics and advanced features of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
SDK Tutorials
No change in this category, just moved for convenience and visibility for users looking for user-made SDK tutorials. We encourage SDK enthusiasts to join the SDK dev community at https://devsupport.flightsimulator.com/.
Aviation, Navigation, Communication
This is a sub-category meant for simmers to ask or answer any questions related to aviation, communication, and navigation in the sim. This includes but is not limited to: aircraft functionality, sim physics, aircraft systems, ATC, NAVAIDs, Live and AI Traffic.
This space is open for both 1st party (base sim) content as well as 3rd party content, but we ask that you specify with tags or in your first post so users may be able to assist you correctly.
Menus & Activities
This is a sub-category meant for simmers to ask or answer any questions related to the settings, assistance preferences, general options, world map, aircraft selection, hangar, achievements, user interface design, sim activities, and other menu options.
This space is open for both 1st party (base sim) content as well as 3rd party content, but we ask that you specify with tags or in your first post so users may be able to assist you correctly.
Tech Support
This is a sub-category meant for simmers to ask or answer any questions related to sim installation, performance, crashes (CTDs), graphics and optimization, hardware, peripherals, community folder/add-ons, and anything that falls under the umbrella of “running the sim”.
This space is open for both 1st party (base sim) content as well as 3rd party content, but we ask that you specify with tags or in your first post so users may be able to assist you correctly.
World
This is a sub-category meant for simmers to ask or answer any questions related to scenery (photogrammetry, DEM); airports; weather; live weather; fauna, land, and sea traffic; and anything under the umbrella of the “living world”.
This space is open for both 1st party (base sim) content as well as 3rd party content, but we ask that you specify with tags or in your first post so users may be able to assist you correctly.
General Discussion & Interests
Connect with other simmers in niche areas of the sim from gliders to VR! Anything that doesn’t fit into the below specialty categories can be discussed in General Discussion. Feel free to introduce yourself in our New Simmers thread!
Sub-categories:
Please click on each sub-category to see and overview of the section and its changes.
Several of these sections allow for discussion of both 1st and 3rd party products, however please note the following:
It is okay to ask for advice on using a 3rd party product from the community, but official 3rd party support should be conducted outside the MSFS forums. The term “Support” refers to issues with purchasing, downloading, installing, or reporting bugs for 3rd party products.
General Discussion
This sub-category will be moving here under “Interests” to encompass any general discussion or miscellaneous topic related to Microsoft Flight Simulator that does not fall under any of the other sub-categories.
The current Marketplace Feedback sub-category will be dissolved and moved here, with a tag marketplace-feedback to denote old topics that moved. If no other category seems to fit what you are trying to convey, try creating a post here. A member of the Forum Team will try to assist if it needs to be moved to another category.
3rd Party Product Announcements
No change in this category, just moved for convenience and visibility. 3rd party developers (freeware or payware) wishing to post announcements in this category must read and apply to acquire the Verified Forum 3rd Party Developer role.
Activities
This sub-category is a discussion area for any activity in the sim including Reno Air Races, Maverick, Bush trips, Landing Challenges, Tutorials, Missions, and any 1st or 3rd party activities. This is not a bug-reporting area. Please tag your post to specify the activity.
Aircraft
This sub-category is a discussion area for 1st or 3rd party aircraft. This is not a bug-reporting area. Please tag your post to specify which aircraft you are discussing, and follow the category rules (link to be added here).
Gliders
This sub-category is a discussion area for 1st or 3rd party gliders! This is not a bug-reporting area.
Hardware & Peripherals
This sub-category is a discussion area for PC hardware, sim peripherals, and more. This is not a bug-reporting area.
Helicopters
This sub-category is a discussion area for 1st or 3rd party helicopters! This is not a bug-reporting area.
Home Cockpit Builders
This sub-category is for discussion of the building of home cockpit setups.
Real-life Aviation
This sub-category is for discussion of real-life aviation, whether it’s to talk about progress on your PPL or sharing the latest in aviation! Please remember it is still against the Code of Conduct to discuss politics and religion, so please do not post about real life aviation events that include these themes, including plane crashes.
Scenery & Airports
This sub-category is for discussion for 1st and 3rd party scenery and airports. This is not a bug-reporting area.
SDK
This sub-category combines all previous SDK sub-categories into one and is for the discussion of using the SDK. We encourage you to become users of the main SDK forums located at https://devforums.flightsimulator.com/, but you may use this space for various other discussions. Please use tags in this space to help forum users easily find post topics.
Utilities
This sub-category is for discussion of any tools or utilities you are using for Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Virtual Reality (VR)
This sub-category combines all previous VR sub-categories into one and is for the discussion of anything related to Virtual Reality. This is not a bug-reporting area. Please use tags in this space to help forum users easily find post topics related to their specific VR headset.
Bug Reports & Wishlist
This section is for Official bug reporting and voting. Before you create a bug report, use the search function to look up your issue as someone may have already reported it. If they have, feel free to vote and add your issue to the thread. If there are no reports on your issue, create a new topic in the sub-category that best fits the description and follow the bug-reporting template.
There should be only one bug described per topic you create.
Here is a guide to some of the Official Tags used:
feedback-logged - A Community Feedback is logged in our database to verify the bug. Note: If the feedback is verified as a bug, the thread’s tag will be changed for “Bug logged”
bug-logged - The issue reported by the community is logged as a bug in our database. Note: Once logged, the team will be working on a fix for a future update
need-your-help - Unable to reproduce, need further information
workaround - A workaround is available
fixed-on-live - The issue previously reported is now fixed on the current version of the sim
Sub-categories:
The sub-categories remain unchanged.
- Activities
- Aircraft & Systems
- ATC, Traffic & NAVAIDs
- Hardware & Peripherals
- Install, Performance & Crashes
- Scenery & Airports
- Virtual Reality (VR)
- Weather & Live Weather
- Miscellaneous
Wishlist
This sub-category is for you to vote for a feature you’d like to see in the sim in the future or to create a new topic if you have an idea for the sim that is not already listed. This is not a bug-reporting area. Please only create one feature request per thread, and don’t forget to vote for your favorites! This lets us know what you find most important while making decisions on the future of the sim.
Resolved Bugs
This sub-category is where any bug or wishlist thread goes once the initial issue in the thread is resolved.
Tags
Let’s use them more! Tags are extremely helpful when new users are searching for specific issues, so whenever you create a new post, try to tag relevant information such as aircraft type, peripheral, platform, etc. to help other users find relevant information. Some sub-categories will have a tag requirement and a list of tags for you to pick from, while others will be up to you.
You’ll start noticing the forums change over the next month. Please bear with us as we re-organize the forum space, and cheers to 2023!