New Format Discussion Thread

[Soifa]

A place for people to discuss their ideas as to what they want to see in the new format.

This is NOT a debate thread, it is NOT an argument. It is a feedback thread.

[Auramune]

Just a note to myself to post on this later, I do have input.

[Higura]

Overall it isn't a bad layout. It seems to me like it breaks down a lot of the subforuming, and placing it into a more coherent system. (So we don't have to go through the registration section, to rifle through the powers and other character biographies.)

Which it's good that character biographies are now going to be displayed as they're own section on the homepage, since it was a pain the BADONKADONK to try and find people as it was. Mostly considering that people were divided into either 'new characters' or 'alts and bios', so you had to look through both before finding who you wanted.

I don't keep on top of guild events much, but that, and the survey section will be interesting to see. I'm sure they'll find their use, once we actually open them up. Everything else looks pretty standard, from what I'd expect of an overhaul. I never kept on top of the 'city leader' stuff, so I'm not sure why it has its own section. But since its not my place to question it, I'll leave it be.

Overall, aside from a few confusions upon my end, I think the new format is going to be an okay replacement.

There is my feedback.

[Bartholomew]

http://screencast.com/t/2Y6LQgbnB2 My feedback's in this link/picture thing.

[Auramune]

My suggestionfeedbackstuff


Registration & Important Stuff sections- Open to non-registered/non-logged in members.
The other forums- Locked until people register/become 'members' of the forum. The keeps bots from accessing certain forums, as well as most anti-rps jerks(we don't get them often, but when we do we will be able to see them.)

Event Calander- Add Subsection for MabiEvents(not guild events)? and AU area(since they're kind of events.)

OOC Chatter- Add Subsection for Game update information(like upcoming gs, stuff from mabidata and junk like that so it doesnt clog ooc section)
-Move over Recycle Bin, Dungeon requests, and Sales Board

[Khunvyel]

I just want to tuck a note here that my suggestions and feedback still need to be submitted, and thankfully I got the most of that already written and all that... on the computer at home. Which is miraculously useful when I am out at work and thus not coming home until the end of the week >_>

[Khunvyel]

So, this is just the forum layout feedback, holding back other things regarding forum usage and the continued guild restructuring program. I am sorry for a few of the ugly list-formattings, the new update also brought an idiotic way to parse BBCode into html, autocorrecting where it shouldn't.
I have been one of the people who suggested moving to a different forum host, which is further elaborated in a spoiler on the bottom. Now, starting with a few basic things before going on;

#) Never use more than 2 stickies to maintain readability. Additionally using Announcements serves as a distinction of importance, but at any rate; never exceed a total of 1 announcement + 2 stickies, except for short term use.
#) You should consider which forum sections are to be viewed publicly and which will be hidden from guest-eyes. Personally I think there are too many things public that shouldn't be.
#) Trim the description text a little for some forums so you can add the subforums as links on the bottom of the parent forum description text without wasting too much space.

Comments on Category 1 and 2:
The first category should only consist of Registration and Rules since this serves as the first-contact public section. Nobody should need more than that on first visits. If you feel the need for a third forum in there, perhaps you want to make something like an introduction and testimonials part where RPSociety presents itself in a few topics.
This means you move the Power Requests and Comprehensive Character Bios into the next category, having a perfect separation of IC and OOC affairs.

In "Applications", rename the subforum "rejected/incomplete" to "Rejected" only. Just keep the incomplete registrations in the main forum. They don't hurt anyone, they don't clutter anything, and people can come back on their unfinished applications without having to bother moderators to move their stuff.
My very personal opinion about this is; get rid of the rejected forum altogether and toss rejected applications into a general archive.

Merge "Guild Surveys" with the "News" forum. Call it "Announcements" or “News and Surveys” and only have 1 subforum therefore with “dated / completed” stuff. Forum system already uses [ Poll ] as a prefix before the thread title appears, so this already makes a difference to regular entries. Since 2009 there are so few polls made that it doesn't validate an entire forum for them. If there is a poll, it is usually about something important, which is mostly considered “news” for the guild anyway. Other news-unrelated polls can be started in other areas.

Rename “Rules” back to "Information and Rules" or to “Rules and Guidelines”. This allows all important information to be pooled, mandatory and supplementary. Everything that is a rule, be it for the guild or RP, can be put there AND any RP guideline related (specialized for Mabi or generic) fits as well. This centralized spot will make it easier for players new and old to orientate and read up.

Rename "Comprehensive Character Bios" to "Character Sheets" because that is what they essentially are. Bio + powers + character RP progression. I don't think that history updates should be casual and optional. If a character goes through a massive change due to something happening due to a roleplay session or a plot or even through rebirth, this absolutely has to be noted. It is a bio for a reason. People don't have to write books, they can have a sentence or two for events and changes happening to them, those who want to elaborate will do so anyway.

In "Power Requests", rename the subforum "Powers bluebin" to "Rejected Powers". Keep the topics for unfinished powers in the main forum, regardless of age. Clean up as necessary. If people have a new idea how to make a power working, they can continue from there instead of bothering moderators.
You only need one sticky topic here, that explains how the power request works and which things are a no-go, and then link to some useful topics in the "Rules and Guidelines" section how certain skills are handled (like Shamala transformation / Demigod / Pala+DK / etc). Put a note in this topic that people should use tags for their requests. [Power], [Race], [Item], whatever.

Spoiler:

Remove "Completed Events" subforum. Old things fall back to later pages of the forum sooner or later. Completed events should be closed and edited in title to slap a [COMPLETED] or [DONE] tag in front of it. This is enough visual separation from the remaining, active events. But I know how people are fond of subforums, so I guess they want some spot to stuff past events in

Rename “Gameplay Discussion Guides” to “General discussion”. From there, you can go different routes:

Variation 1a) Have a subforum for dedicated and extensive game guides and summaries.
Variation 1b) Instead of a subforum, use the [Guide] prefix for the relevant topics. By doing so, have a sticky that shows the summary and links to all the guides, thus they are accessible regardless of which page they got flooded to.

Variation 2a) Add subforum called "Guild Discussion" for said guild related things.
Variation 2b) Make "Guild Discussion" its own forum, and not a subforum, and rename "General discussion" to "Game Discussion" (either with or without the "Guide" subforum).

I think a separate place for talking guild stuff is important, because chatting about the game is one thing, but wanting to talk about the guild itself is something completely different. Having a place like that makes people more likely to talk about it on their own. Of course, you can always make people use tags in their topics for either [Game] or [Guild] instead of Varation 2. In the end, it entirely depends on what is more used. If discussions about the guild are not used that often, then keeping them only as subforum is justified IF using a subforum at all, that is.

Comments on in-character Category:
I use an entirely different approach to it. There needs to be a way for random/casual RP and plot based RP. I view the Guild Bulletin as a breeding ground for random/casual RP as well as getting things “done” in the game via in-character means. I also see it as a potential place where things can get started to develop into something bigger, but in all honesty, I see little to no evidence or emphasis for people to start or participate in Plot based RP. Perhaps because of the lack of initiative and "I-don't-know-where-to-put-this-or-if-that-is-okay". This could be solved with a sticky topic in said subforum, or a part in the guideline section explaining it. I am also not sure about all those organizations either. From my outside perspective, they seem to just pop up at random, have no impact on RP and serve no other purpose than being “there”, because being in an organization is the flavour of the month.
The City Leaders area has me equally puzzled. It is just a place to show who is currently responsible for the city and which rules and situations are currently in effect. Considering that, I don’t even think this justifies a dedicated forum let a lone a subforum for ex-city leaders. You can just edit posts after a historical note of city leaders retiring from their post.
So this is my proposition:

Guild Bulletin: No change, used like now. Making IC notes of things that happen / people want to make happen / mentioning game things in an IC fashion.
(( |-- Forum RP )) Subforum for casual tavern-style forum RP but ONLY if people really need to have this section back. The current Forum RP was injected due to a situation with Mabinogi, as it seems, and did not last a month.
Plot Development: Think of it like an IC version of guild events. Plots can be started here from the ground up and those who started to develop from IC interactions or the Guild Bulletin are recreated here with a better structure. This all serves as an informative and historical purpose and gives an overview of things that are currently happening on an in-character basis. There is no “forum RP” subforum required here, because this already acts more or less like one, as a hybrid between a summary of what happened in game, as well as giving people who are not available and wanting to participate a chance to insert how their characters would (re)act upon the news.
|-- Of stories past: (name not final) Subforum for completed plots, as well as a place for people to move old history threads from past plots over there. Can be renamed to "once upon in Erinn" or something like that.
Erinn Bureaucracy: This is where "City Leaders" and "Organizations" merge and allowing a place for more. There are so many possibilities how to set this up, with or without subforums, that I am just letting this linger here. This could also be the place to have a “world shaping” topic, that shows the RPS changes to Erinn which came time after time due to prolonged playing.

Comments on off-topic section:
This is an easy one. OOC Chatter, Other games and Creativity board is sufficient, and I would add the non-Mabi related RP there as well, including the Alternate universe things, as they are not Canon to Erinn. Again, as said above, stories that are from characters in Mabinogi could either fit in here or get their justified place in the plot subforum. I dunno, it is matter of opinion.

Alternate design from above visualized:

This is to better visualize the comments and ideas from above, and show my “optimal” version, which is not my favorite one because I usually dislike subforums, but I think this works best. Forums in (( double parentheses )) are optional.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Registration
Approved Members
Rejected Applications (( unfinished applications stay in the main forum and are tagged as such ))
Rules and Guidelines
(( Life in RP Society )) (( as a more descriptive thing of what we do, with regular members posting there as well. A portfolio of sorts.))

 
GUILD & GAME

News and Surveys
(( Archive ))

Character Sheets
Power Requests (( Different name for "Power" pending to better accent the more encompassing approach ))
Approved Powers
Rejected Powers
Event Calendar
General Discussion
Guild discussion
Guides

IN-CHARACTER

Guild Bulletin
Plot Development
(( Of stories past))
Erinn Bureaucracy
(( subforum/s pending ))

OFFTOPIC

Chit-chat
Other Games
Creativity Board
(( Other RP ))

And now, about moving to a new host, here are some reasons, but I won't go into full detail since this is just the suggestion topic for the currently proposed layout:

Spoiler:

[Sponsored content]