Will We Ever Get a Forum?

Great to hear. Fingers crossed for this year then. :)

@REDACTEDUSER

We also need a nice overhead menu bar with a "Marketplace" and "Learn" and "Community" links across the top/header. We also need a Marketplace, where users can post their assets for the community to use/share.

Lumberyard needs a REAL Forum, and also needs a "standardized" menu bar (similar to this one here) that shows "Explore" (with sub-menu navigation pages/links for "Features", "Showcase", "Roadmap", "News" and "Indie Development Fund"), and then "Marketplace" (with a link to the "Marketplace" storefront where users can post their community created content (for users to download for free, or for sale, etc.), a place were users/developers can search for free community-created Assets, plugins/gems, scripts, sound effects, Full Projects, etc. A "Learn" (with sub-menu navigation links/pages for "Tutorials" and "Documentation"). A "Community" (with sub-menu navigation links/pages for "Gallery", "Forums", "Answers" and "GitHub").

Create the forums/community/Lumberyard site with a black background (instead of white), for uniformity, and so if you are surfing/viewing the forums (on your mobile device) you can save/conserve energy. Using a white background on the site really eats up the battery life on mobile devices. Or at least have it so you can "toggle" between white and black backgrounds (with black being the default). That way if users like white, they can "toggle" back to white, very easily. Just have a "Lights On" and "Lights Off" toggle (for black and white backgrounds), with black being the default.

Also make sure that it supports HTML and/or BBCode, and also a nice WYSIWYG Editor (similar to WordPress). With the ability to use HTML, BBCode, Smilies/Emoticons, etc. Also have the ability to create "User Groups" (users that divide the community into manageable sections/communities/groups with "like minded" interests), especially for projects/features (i.e. Flight Simulator, Train Simulator, Truck Simulator, Cars/Racing Simulator, etc.). Where users can work together, share code, have discussions, and Community Volunteers can "volunteer" to help/moderate various community "User Groups" (sub-groups) [with "public", or "private" or "hidden"/closed memberships]

But we REALLY REALLY REALLY need Forums with Community Volunteers/Group Leaders, where we can create our own private (or even "hidden"/closed User Groups) with mailing lists, group discussions, and users can request to "join" a public or private group (hidden groups are "invite" only). Where community group members can discuss Game Design, plugins, tools, models, art, UI, audio, animation, materials, visual scripting, UI, etc.

We also need the ability to send PM's (Private Messages), as well as have mailing lists. So developers can discuss topics/discussions (with a group/team) via Mailing List.

Give "Teams" the ability to create their own "User Group" and their own various "Mailing Lists" (Dev Mailing List, Support Mailing List, User Mailing List, etc.)

Also add the ability for "Friends" or "Foes" list (where we can add people/users to our "Friends" list, or block users in our "Foes" list). Also have the ability to see users (who's currently online) and see their online status, and send them private messages (messenger/PM's).

Also have "template" support, so that teams can create their own "templates" and customize the look/feel of the various sub-groups.

If you need help with this, let me know... but this would be a good "example" of a nice Community Forum (easy to use, well thought out, and has all the easy to use navigation and forum features that we need).

Use either vBulletin or phpBB (Crytek uses phpBB). I think phpBB would be the best for a Community Forum.