Glider forum

The reason I think a forum dedicated for gliders isn’t needed is because, as said in my first post, we would then need one for helicopters, balloons, etc.

Anyone who needs support for gliders can use the #glider tag or search through posts with the #glider tag.

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Oh, I definitely understand the hesitation.

I think the existing forums will get flooded not only with glider, helicopter, boat, etc. posts, but with untagged posts, and ones in which these questions quickly disappear down the page and into relative obscurity. (I know the admins/mods already move a lot of things around. Will tagging be added to that responsibility?)

Is opening new forums a difficult thing? Asking for a friend :wink:

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By this kind of reasoning why do we have any subforums here - why not just use tags and search function for everything? :wink:

This forum also shouldn’t be only for “support” - it should help community interested in given kind of flying to get together easily and share their passion with similarly interested people.

If there is a significant willing community and given kind of flying is different than other - then yes please!
Just as in my RL aeroclub we have separate planes section, gliders section and parachute section (with separate internet forums) and a balloon section is forming with new members.

Without it msfs forum would be mostly a place for only reporting bugs, as msfs gliding community without single “landing page” will be active with interesting content in other places (msfs gliding facebook group, dedicated discord channels).

Subforum would help grow msfs gliding community by banding people with similiar aviation interests together, show that Asobo treats different kinds of flying seriously and understands how distinct they are and also provide starting place for novice glider pilots to quickly gain knowledge and maintain interest.

I and many other people as RL glider pilots bought MSFS specifically just for gliders and are uninterested in any powered flight topics (that is not a tow plane :wink: ) - for me current forum it is like a sea of spam from which I need to needle out interesting posts - with subforum I and other glider pilots would be able to find new interesting posts instantly and also were more eager to post interesting only for gliding information.

And here’s a list of distinct glider only topics:

  • how to set proper weather in MSFS for thermal and ridge soaring
  • where are good places to fly, what quality add-on glider airfields are available
  • how and where one can find live weather in MSFS suitable for soaring
  • differences between RL and MSFS gliders
  • joining for multiplayer gliding flights / friending other glider pilots / gliding events / reviewing them
  • what new gliders would we like to have
  • proper technique of winch and tow launches
  • how to properly pilot a glider
  • how to use nav computer
  • announcing add-ons glider specific (unofficial gliders, tow, winches, nav computer enhancements, tweaks)
  • relations from eventful glider flights
  • newbie support

At current forum state IMHO forum categories are not community-centered (they are most like technicalities-centered) and helping community to grow should be one of main it’s goals.

The best moment to add such subforum was 3 day ago as gliders and helicopters were added - there are already messed up thread like in given glider feedback there are generic questions how to start tow, how to find thermals etc, the second best moment is now.

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If you need support with gliders, use the #self-service:aircraft-systems category and use the #glider tag. Or, if there is a bug, use the #bugs-and-issues:aircraft-systems using the #glider tag. Do the same thing with helicopters as well (use the #helicopter tag)

For discussion on gliders, use the Official Discussion.

No one uses tags.

Gliders and helicopters have been a major wish list item for many users since FS2020 was released. Now that they are here, it makes sense that they have dedicated forums. What’s the downside of giving them a forum each?

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I like it. Now if only I could filter out the sheer number of uninteresting posts that pertained to airliners in the rest of the forum :rofl:

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I agree, a glider forum would be great. And one for helicopters too.

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Ok, as it seems we don’t deserve our subforum, let me use this thread as a landing (or starting? :wink: ) page to point interested in gliding in MSFS people to what I think would be an excellent and easy to implement for Asobo wishlist item for glider races (similar in style to Maveric low alt mountain challenge):

Whereas I can understand why MS would prefer to have a smaller number of places to find bug reports about MSFS, I am struggling a little with the rationale for not providing a community forum that serves the communities’ needs/wants.

For instance, what would be the problem with having an area of the forum for gliders, helicopters, boats or whatever, where like-minded people can have dedicated discussions about their specific preferred usage of the sim? As others have suggested, that would provide for discussions that, simply put, won’t need the input of the MS/Asobo, such as for self-help, usage guides, reviews of related addons/controllers etc. Any requests for technical input/fixes etc. could easily be created in the existing bug-reporting channels, with an appropriate tag(s), as also suggested.

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Using generic categories of forums to sort out aircraft would be useful.

Generic categories of forums could be:

FIXED-WING POWERED AIRCRAFT
ROTARY AIRCRAFT
GLIDERS
ROCKETS AND HYPERSONIC AIRCRAFT

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Please add a split in that suggested list between GA/smaller craft (I don’t know the term, sorry) and long/medium haul Airliners!

This suggestion doesn’t work well, people do not tag posts and moderators do not add tags - example:

Even Asobo’s official weekly glider photo challenge wasn’t tagged with ‘glider’ :frowning:

Gliding subforum would group gliding posts better and would help gliding community to grow.

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Moderators will place tags on threads related to something in the sim. Like a thread dedicated to gliders and it is missing the #glider tag, we will place it on there.

Normally, the Community Managers will only place the #screenshot-challenge tag on Screenshot Challenge threads.

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Thank you for this, I understand that flight kind subcategories may seem a little bit orthogonal to the current way forum is organized, which already has quite rich hierarchy and idea for categorization and I understand any reorganization would cause problems with old posts.

But imagine you have marine simulator and support oil tankers (airliners), laisure motorboats (GA planes) and yachts (gliders) - well they all are used by sailors on the sea, but boy, they hardly have common ground (or water :wink: ) to talk about - quite different interests and perspectives (they even prefer different weather and sea conditions - windy for yacht races is not so good for leisure motorboats) same is for gliders & planes.

Maybe some other forums of similar broad simulators could give some inspiration.

Sorry - brand new to this forum - I am looking to find where I can glide with other people - would appreciate some advice - thanks

Hello @TinkyWinkyMD,
Welcome to the forums!

There are 2 subcategories under “Community”. One for “Find A Friend” the other for “Clubs & Groups”.

Latest Community/Find a Friend topics - Find A Friend

Latest Community/Clubs & Groups topics - Clubs & Groups

When you reach Trust Level 1 (easy to obtain!), you’ll be able to create a new topic. See this guide about Trust Levels and how to advance:

A post was split to a new topic: Glider airbrakes as a separate control

So the moderators seem to positively considered our case. Exactly like I thought with a deeper reorganization and accounting for various interests as other suggested. Good! Thank you, it is good to see that our voice is heard.

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The new glider forums is now available:

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