Understandable. Could we try to keep it as a subforum of FF&W rather than as a prefix, though? Worldbuilding threads here are quite different from fics and poetry, but the discussion threads from here can certainly go in Writer's Lounge instead. It would be a subforum for the sake of organization, without pressure on consistent activity. The regulars have been talking in the DCC about this being an attractive option.
Or is the reasoning that FF&W or the worldbuilding threads would gain more activity or visibility or other benefit from being merged?
Agreeing w Rika here- I think it would be best perpetuated as a subforum of FFW. The organization makes sense that way. Besides, Worldbuilding is a thing lots of people like but it takes a ton of like, behind the scenes effort that isn't necessarily reflected in activity but certainly is there.
If subforum is preferred, why not into the Writer's Lounge subsection? People are already free to discuss fic ideas, plots, etc in there. Keeps it separate from fics and makes use of the existing discussion section on all things writing, which I personally feel fits with world building. It'd still have a prefix of course.
I'm also very curious how activity was judged towards the Multiverse like is there a stastical requirement such as "1k posts within 3 months". I mean, I personally don't see a drastic difference in activity level with other Create & Discover boards and the Multiverse. Like I wanna see the receipts.
No statistical requirement is done by us because each section (forum frontier or otherwise) is different in scope. Generally creative sections like this
shouldn't get more than many other sections like say Sun and Moon or PGC, as posts of creative works take time to make and so forth. But it depends on how activity continues throughout the three months, not just in a so-called 'honeymoon' period when the section is new (every FF section gets this effect), and we do compare with similar sections when viable.
Let's talk stats though as you asked! For reference, The Multiverse got ~500 posts last two months (considerably more in November than October, interestingly), and ~25 threads posted in since start of October (not including stickies). A killer stat however is that only 6 non-sticky threads have posts in the last week and that's including the 1st as within that week (so really 8 days from my Australian timezone - but hey, let's just go with '6 threads with posts since start of december'). So for sake of brevity and rounding to nearest 50 with posts:
(Posts in October and November/Threads with posts since October/Threads with posts since December 1 inclusive)
TM: 500/25/6
A&D (no subsections included): 600/100+/22
RT (no subsections included): 400/22+/5 [ew month cutoff I can update the second number later]
FF&W (no subsections included): 300/56/15
So AD is the most active by any standard. TM has more posts in FF&W, but in terms of non-sticky threads is well behind that, and that doesn't include the subsections FF&W has (add another 7 threads from the Writer's Lounge to the 'non-sticky threads with posts since dec 1' stat for instance - that's more than TM in itself!).
It has comparable thread numbers to the Roleplay Theatre and more posts than it too... but that also has two subsections not counted above (and in 2016 overall Roleplay Casting has more than the main section!). Said subsections add another 12 non-sticky threads with posts in the last week. If I took all of RT its posts in October and November becomes ~850, and you can add the thread numbers yourself.
So basically, TM is unfortunately well behind on unique threads getting posts, not including stickies like DCCs, and while it has some more posts than some individual Creative main sections, it's not the only basis we consider FF on. If there's only a few threads currently getting posts three months on, then even if they were getting a lot posts there's no need for a separate section just for that imho.
I haven't bothered to compare Game Development as that section is probably closer to Rom Hacking than the above.