Originally a PM sent to the headadmins before the overhaul. Info might be outdated/needing to be updated.
I posted it here to allow for discussion of this idea.
Please try not to rip off each others' heads. Thank you.
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Okay,two (Now only ONE) disclaimers before I start:
1.) I already feel kind of shit for loading this PM onto you guys while you have probably more important overhaul stuff to do, and under no circumstances do I want to feel like I'm giving a vibe of 'I want this right naow!!!!' So, please, only look into this if you have time left, or need additional ideas very badly. Please, if you have other things to work on, leave this aside for the sake of the overhaul.
2.) This is a plan for the future. At this point in time there is no need for this yet, but with the ideas lingering in the back, it might be a nice idea to look into (Refer to point 1 again: if you have time!) if roleplaying becomes a bigger thing.
Yes, you heard me right, roleplaying. So let's start.
I believe a handful of you have already seen the thread: Guardians of the Elements. The current ongoing roleplay with over 3,6K messages. Currently, it's just a single thread. But it is an unorganised mess that we have little control over. First; look at the thread. No, don't read all 148 pages, just look at the thread with a quick glance. Take the 3,6K messages, and subtract roughly 1,1K that is actual content. What we are left with here, is 2,5K messages that are but OOC banter (Out Of Characters, anything in double-parentheses ((Like this))!), one-liners and quite a fair deal of arguments that are... pointless at best.
So why would this be an incentive for a subforum? Well, currently. Everything we do is limited: We can't moderate/delete posts or merge groups of one-liners into a single post. We can't delete the useless arguments that stock up the thread full of useless OOC, the poll is done wrongly and is unfixable. A bunch of stuff that can improve the quality of it all.
Now first things first: You've seen me drop the word 'Moderation'
I'd like to note that I used the term loosely there. I realise administrative forum staff can edit posts, which would not be a good thing to let a user do. considering it can lead to the user editing posts to spread ill-will to others. With 'Moderation' in this context I mean:
Editing thread titles, deleting posts, move threads, lock them/unlock them if something happens. So here's my first question of the day: Is it possible to change the order posts are displayed in? This would be useful for someone to merge one-liners into one big post and put that post in a chronologically accurate position if other posts have already been made after it. But, I'm getting ahead of myself, as the next point will be a better solution!
Currently, to prevent one-liners, we use IRC to roleplay. Problem? Sometimes rounding up 8 people from America to Australia at the same time, long enough (Averagely 0,5-2 hours) to roleplay something. It's imp- It's nearly impossible. 'Why not use PM's?' Well, you see. PM's have a 6-member limit (Including author) and are a hell to format properly for a multitude of reasons. With a subforum, we have a palce to start a thread, post one-liners there, afterwards, lock the thread, archive it and post the collection of those one-liners into the main thread so it stays clean. This would be easier to organise, cleaner, and if somehow harassment occurs, staff can easily look at it, instead of calling them to IRC/Inviting one of them to the PM if there is space.
Second point: Utility posts. Currently we have one of them, with one additional in the making.
These would be Trap's roleplaying tips thread, theGCN Thermos Text Formatter documentation/download (Which is a tool developed by me to format roleplaying logs into readable formats and give them nice colours.) and in case of this subforum becoming a thing, an information post!
'But Fiesta, we have onehighly succesfull, with a nearly 4K postcount roleplay going on. What point would there be in creating a subforum for it?' Here comes the point of 'Not at this point in time.' Currently, this RP is all we have, however. Users CaffeinatedKitty, Faliara and Trap_Wolf all have another roleplay in thought. So after GotE concludes/dies down, we can archive it and start a new one, all in the same subforum.
Now, I believe that is all I have. If this idea for a subforum would be considered, and even implemented. I would be more than happy to moderate it. But, I'm (again) getting ahead of myself by a long shot.
If you have forum resources left after the overhaul, and roleplaying becomes a thing in this community, it might be a nice thing to consider adding. But hey, again: No need for this 'rite naow!!' I just thought of putting this suggestion on the table for you to look at if you have time.
Lastly, I managed to cram all administrators/ASSHATS into this PM, but I enabled the 'Allow others to invite' if you feel the need another person is required in here, since I cannot add more than five.
Thank you for taking your time to read through all this, cheers! o/
~~~~Fiestaguy
I posted it here to allow for discussion of this idea.
Please try not to rip off each others' heads. Thank you.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Okay,
2.) This is a plan for the future. At this point in time there is no need for this yet, but with the ideas lingering in the back, it might be a nice idea to look into (Refer to point 1 again: if you have time!) if roleplaying becomes a bigger thing.
Yes, you heard me right, roleplaying. So let's start.
I believe a handful of you have already seen the thread: Guardians of the Elements. The current ongoing roleplay with over 3,6K messages. Currently, it's just a single thread. But it is an unorganised mess that we have little control over. First; look at the thread. No, don't read all 148 pages, just look at the thread with a quick glance. Take the 3,6K messages, and subtract roughly 1,1K that is actual content. What we are left with here, is 2,5K messages that are but OOC banter (Out Of Characters, anything in double-parentheses ((Like this))!), one-liners and quite a fair deal of arguments that are... pointless at best.
So why would this be an incentive for a subforum? Well, currently. Everything we do is limited: We can't moderate/delete posts or merge groups of one-liners into a single post. We can't delete the useless arguments that stock up the thread full of useless OOC, the poll is done wrongly and is unfixable. A bunch of stuff that can improve the quality of it all.
Now first things first: You've seen me drop the word 'Moderation'
I'd like to note that I used the term loosely there. I realise administrative forum staff can edit posts, which would not be a good thing to let a user do. considering it can lead to the user editing posts to spread ill-will to others. With 'Moderation' in this context I mean:
Editing thread titles, deleting posts, move threads, lock them/unlock them if something happens. So here's my first question of the day: Is it possible to change the order posts are displayed in? This would be useful for someone to merge one-liners into one big post and put that post in a chronologically accurate position if other posts have already been made after it. But, I'm getting ahead of myself, as the next point will be a better solution!
Currently, to prevent one-liners, we use IRC to roleplay. Problem? Sometimes rounding up 8 people from America to Australia at the same time, long enough (Averagely 0,5-2 hours) to roleplay something. It's imp- It's nearly impossible. 'Why not use PM's?' Well, you see. PM's have a 6-member limit (Including author) and are a hell to format properly for a multitude of reasons. With a subforum, we have a palce to start a thread, post one-liners there, afterwards, lock the thread, archive it and post the collection of those one-liners into the main thread so it stays clean. This would be easier to organise, cleaner, and if somehow harassment occurs, staff can easily look at it, instead of calling them to IRC/Inviting one of them to the PM if there is space.
Second point: Utility posts. Currently we have one of them, with one additional in the making.
These would be Trap's roleplaying tips thread, the
'But Fiesta, we have one
Now, I believe that is all I have. If this idea for a subforum would be considered, and even implemented. I would be more than happy to moderate it. But, I'm (again) getting ahead of myself by a long shot.
If you have forum resources left after the overhaul, and roleplaying becomes a thing in this community, it might be a nice thing to consider adding. But hey, again: No need for this 'rite naow!!' I just thought of putting this suggestion on the table for you to look at if you have time.
Thank you for taking your time to read through all this, cheers! o/
~~~~Fiestaguy