Suggestion Ideas & Remarks

[d1uni5ys24si3o]

Hi!
The name is BluEs and I think most of the staff saw my name once in a while. I might be a returning newbie to the website but I've been around, saw lots of RP sites, judged it and found pros and cons. I haven't found a single perfect website, but I did encounter a few great ideas and saw how important a good management team is for the maintenance of the websites.

So, here are a few of my suggestions/remarks for this HUGE community of roleplayers. I will separate my opinions and ideas in topics.

Spoiler: Advertisement

For such a large bank of role players, it's surprising how little interest you can find for not only your role play but others as well. So many threads with great ideas, bbcodes etc, yet not one interest posted. I was wondering why some of my RP ideas just weren't catching wind when in other sites it was literally The Bomb. And I wondered the same for some of my ideas and strangers.

Then I came to realize that it just all came down to the advertisement. The advertisement in RPN is very limited to the interest check and sending messages via PM in mass... But that's not very practical, to be honest. There is no visibility and your Rp just ends up amongst the bunch of garbage thread on page 25 in a matter of a day.

Suggestions
- A rotating banner system at the top of the page.
- Weekly/Monthly spotlight to the most promising role plays (that might create tension tho due to favoritism)
- Literally a clean up of the interest check area. it's very claustrophobic. I found a 2014 thread for some role play in the futuristic in page 254.... It's very overwhelming.

Spoiler: Community

I don't have a lot of complaints about this actually, except the fact that there is no writing competition hosted by the staff or anything. It's actually the only site which doesn't host any MISC. Sure, you can write stuff in the Creativity forum but that very forum isn't really organized into sections which make it overwhelming as well and not very encouraging to host it cause it will get lost like most role plays.

Suggestion:
- A few staff that fully focus on community projects to stimulate writing challenges or drawing with prizes like... example: Donator banner or Spotlight etc.
- Dividing the creativity forum into two sections: drawing & writing

* THUMBS UP THO FOR THE PALETTE CHALLENGE* But unfortunately... BBcode isn't really what is binding us all in RPN. Writing is So attracting the bigger population would be by making a writing contest.. *hehe

Spoiler: Staff

I have nothing to say negatively about the staff. So far, I have only good things. My only complain tho is... There doesn't seem to have enough staff to put the site in order. So, from what I could gather is that RPN underwent a change, switched back to some host... Threads are lost, reappeared, I get it... It's like moving from a house to another, things are just disorganized... But I'll be honest, I don't see any changes at the moment. I don't see a day down time to clean up all the dead threads, archive it... or converting old hosted projects into that new hp.

I don't see a mass recruitment of site managers (no need for moderators or anything... Just someone who can regularly archive threads that are dead for over a month or place misplaced threads etc).

Suggestion
-Host a massive recruitment dedicated to specific task. You will find help for sure.

So, that's all for my remarks, etc.

 

[Kaerri]

Advertisement - Now that we've got newsletters back, we'll be having a monthly RP feature again, if that's what you mean.
- We've talked about something like your banner idea before, but so far it's not something we think is a good thing for us.
- I don't think most people go back 254 pages when looking for an RP. I know I wouldn't.

Community - We do have a number of contests in the works, we just don't announce them until they're ready.

Staff - From your comments, I don't think you realize all that goes on with the back end of the site. We don't mass recruit staff members anyway. All our staff are carefully chosen and agreed-upon by the Admin team (with recommendations and advice from the current Moderators). We do have Helpers, which anyone can apply for, but again, those are chosen by the staff, and anyway they don't have anything to do with running or moderating the site, they just help out with answering questions, drawing donation rewards, and anything else the site needs that isn't actual staff work.
- As far as archiving, we have been doing an awful lot of archiving inactive HPs. Hundreds, if not thousands, last I heard. We don't have much in the way of automation, so all of that archiving and creating/converting HPs has to be done by hand - and only Admin can create/convert HPs, which is one reason why that part is going so slowly.

 

[Fable]

D d1uni5ys24si3o

Weekly/Monthly spotlight to the most promising role plays (that might create tension tho due to favoritism)

The monthly newsletter hosts a roleplay of the month. It was halted due to the staff member in charge not having the time and a new staff was needed to take it over.

A few staff that fully focus on community projects to stimulate writing challenges or drawing with prizes like... example: Donator banner or Spotlight etc.

There will be more challenges later on. Wizard wishes to host at least two events or contest a month. However, with the process of the switch, other things had priority first.

Dividing the creativity forum into two sections: drawing & writing

With the prefixes, adding two separate forums, when at their base are both creative would clutter the main page with a redundant forum. There are prefixes to separate art and writing.

* THUMBS UP THO FOR THE PALETTE CHALLENGE* But unfortunately... BBcode isn't really what is binding us all in RPN. Writing is So attracting the bigger population would be by making a writing contest.. *hehe

This is something the staff are considering to do, for a while now, but planning takes time.

But I'll be honest, I don't see any changes at the moment. I don't see a day down time to clean up all the dead threads, archive it... or converting old hosted projects into that new hp.

If you look into the news forum, you'll see quite a few changes have actually happened. As far as changes regarding old HPs, that is something you won't see as that is a backend area of work, not something we'd announce to let everyone know we've fixed up so-and-so HP. A ton of communication between the admins and HP owners is needed and manually setting permissions and such. There are only so many admins.

Host a massive recruitment dedicated to specific task. You will find help for sure.

Moderators are not added via "application" but rather invited to be part of the staff team after observation of members who are considered to fit the needs and able to to the job that comes with being staff.


Now, I know that probably comes off a bit mean-ish, but not the intention, just trying to go over the things that I can go over. There is a ton of stuff that is done and discussed in the mysterious black-box of the staff waters. As far as the archiving thing, I believe there are settings for it to be automated, but perhaps with the switch over some settings either didn't stick, or something else. I'm not an admin, I don't do any of the actual high-level maintenance of the site itself.

Then I came to realize that it just all came down to the advertisement. The advertisement in RPN is very limited to the interest check and sending messages via PM in mass... But that's not very practical, to be honest. There is no visibility and your Rp just ends up amongst the bunch of garbage thread on page 25 in a matter of a day.

This is a very Iwaku based system. It comes down to a question, would you want someone to judge your RP by your banner or by your plot? The sad fact about banners is that it will result in RPs being judged by how well a banner looks.

The reason threads move so quickly is because we are such a large community. Very large and active. Also, I find it a bit impolite to call other member's RP interest checks garbage. :\

 

[d1uni5ys24si3o]

Advertisement - Now that we've got newsletters back, we'll be having a monthly RP feature again, if that's what you mean.
- We've talked about something like your banner idea before, but so far it's not something we think is a good thing for us.

Ok! That's good that they will feature monthly spotlights on roleplays. Although, I believe if not all role plays are posted, it might end up being " why him and not me?" etc.

Can I know why the staff believes the banner system doesn't work?

This is a very Iwaku based system. It comes down to a question, would you want someone to judge your RP by your banner or by your plot? The sad fact about banners is that it will result in RPs being judged by how well a banner looks.

My answer to that would be... Banner gives you an insight of how the role play would feel. It's not about how beautiful it looks or how ugly it is, it's about how much time you put into it to advertise your rp and also what you write on it.

What genre is your RP? Is it a light sci-fi or dark sci-fi? Fighting or romance? You can see this all on the banner and that's the beauty of that system. Iwaku didn't have that system for at least two years and people hated it because nobody could advertise as nicely. And honestly, the banner system is what attracted me in the first place to iwaku a few years back. It was unfortunate that they deactivated it due to coding failure or something until recently.

And if we go with that logic, wouldn't bbcodes also be considered a way of making your rp stand out and judge it based on how beautiful the bbcode is over the plot?

iono. That's how I see it.

Oh, and I didn't say the other interest checks were garbage as in content. Rather, because nobody is interested in it, it gets tossed LIKE garbage in the far end of the interest check forum xD That includes one of my interest checks haha. And btw, I kind of got offended that you called me impolite when you misunderstood the meaning of what i said.

- I don't think most people go back 254 pages when looking for an RP. I know I wouldn't.

HAHAH I hope! no but what I meant by that is... archiving isn't proactive. Now that you tell me ONLY admins can archive, I think it's a huge load on them. I ain't gonna be telling how to manage stuff, but... having three people deal with such a huge load + more responsibilities. No wonder there are still some threads from 2014 xD

But I lift my hat for those Admins working their ass off.

Damn... Only three people for that responsibility? XD You guys are crazy lol.

Helpers, which anyone can apply for, but again, those are chosen by the staff,

I do realize that a lot is happening in the background! All due respect, it's the least I expect! All that I am saying is probably not new and quite repeatitive tbh! But, one thing for sure is I am surprised that only Admins can archive. I truly believe that that responsibility should be given to a sub-division of staff that would focus on that. I mean, how can three people proactively archive stuff... Anyways, I mean it's not big of an issue. Just sucks for you guys.

and only Admin can create/convert HPs,

You admin sure love keeping all those responsibilities to yourselves xD

*lifts my hat* I mean sure some stuff is slow but you are still keeping this website afloat when so many other rp sites are out there.

Wizard wishes to host at least two events or contest a month. However, with the process of the switch, other things had priority first.

Ohoh! Two events a month would be so fun :3
And yeah of course there are priority first. I mean it's a long term suggestion xD not expecting it to be taken so seriously and immediately hahahah.

With the prefixes, adding two separate forums, when at their base are both creative would clutter the main page with a redundant forum. There are prefixes to separate art and writing.

Yeha but that's what I mean. Like the HP, you could have two groups in one forum
I don't know if you understand what I mean but it's similar to how the HP system works... I would HATE if the main page got more cluttered than it is.

not something we'd announce to let everyone know we've fixed up so-and-so HP

I wouldn't expect that. Then again, until I read the post above I didn't think ONLY the three admins had the rights to change and move threads around. Who knew.

mean-ish, but not the intention, just

Haha no worries. You do seem defensive in my opinion but that's cause it's text based and it's written in a serious tone like it should be.

I'm not an admin, I don't do any of the actual high-level maintenance of the site itself.

I think that's the problem then. If admins all have the high level maintenance of the site and there are only three admins, it's to be expected that things are running a bit slow due to how active and dense the community is (I mean you said it as well at the end. It's a very active websites, God Bless).

 

[Fable]

Ok! That's good that they will feature monthly spotlights on roleplays. Although, I believe if not all role plays are posted, it might end up being " why him and not me?" etc.

Hmm, I've not witnessed anyone asking why X roleplay was featured and not Y. Most of the time the newsletter is fairly positive going over things like roleplay of the month and member of the month.

Can I know why the staff believes the banner system doesn't work?

It's a variety of things that were considered.

The maintenance for banners would only add to the long list of admin duties (which you already can tell is pretty dense). Banners would be in need of being added/updated/removed constantly based on a variety of factors;

• The RP is shut down.
• The RP is closed to new members.
• The RP has been removed by the original poster.
• The RP violates the site rules and has to be removed.
• The RP creator has gone on a hiatus or left the site leaving their interest check essentially "dead."
• A member wants to add their banner to the ad cycle.
• A member wants to remove their banner from the ad cycle.
• A member wants to change the banner graphic.

That sort of fluctuation would require large amounts of time just reviewing ad banners and the RP attached to them. There are also other ways you can do this, without the "in your face" ad system. If you look at welian 's signature, they have a simple button that directs you to their HP. Yes, member's can turn off signatures, so not everyone would see the ad there, however it is much less intrusive and having ads as optional is always more friendly.

That's just one area of concern. Most people dislike ads and result in the use of ad-blockers. There is more fairness in having interests checks in the forum rather than an ad system. While yes, over time threads without replies will make their way into less viewed pages, most people "bump" their threads to resurface them.

The Dark Wizard has made it clear that there will be no advertisement systems.

Yeha but that's what I mean. Like the HP, you could have two groups in one forum
I don't know if you understand what I mean but it's similar to how the HP system works... I would HATE if the main page got more cluttered than it is.

Ah, I think I get what you mean. However, there is basically a "main" forum and then sub-forums that fall under it. The main forum is still a forum. So instead of splitting one forum into two, it'd be three. :\ Again, it's a bit unnecessary with the prefixes being used. You can always click a prefix if you only want to see "prose" in creativity.

My answer to that would be... Banner gives you an insight of how the role play would feel. It's not about how beautiful it looks or how ugly it is, it's about how much time you put into it to advertise your rp and also what you write on it.

What genre is your RP? Is it a light sci-fi or dark sci-fi? Fighting or romance? You can see this all on the banner and that's the beauty of that system. Iwaku didn't have that system for at least two years and people hated it because nobody could advertise as nicely. And honestly, the banner system is what attracted me in the first place to iwaku a few years back. It was unfortunate that they deactivated it due to coding failure or something until recently.

And if we go with that logic, wouldn't bbcodes also be considered a way of making your rp stand out and judge it based on how beautiful the bbcode is over the plot?

iono. That's how I see it.

I understand your counter point about BBCode, however before one gets to the point of viewing a post that may have BBCode - as not all do - they've already seen a prefix asssociated with that interest check that gives an idea of the setting without the use of a banner. However, BBCode can still have the exact same effect regarding attaching something visual to the interest check. The thing is, with BBCode styled interest checks, you can simply leave the thread and move on. With an ad banner cycle, it'd still be there where it is placed and every now and then you will see the same ad pop up as part of the random cycle.

Oh, and I didn't say the other interest checks were garbage as in content. Rather, because nobody is interested in it, it gets tossed LIKE garbage in the far end of the interest check forum xD That includes one of my interest checks haha. And btw, I kind of got offended that you called me impolite when you misunderstood the meaning of what i said.

As far as the "garbage" comment. It was the way you worded it that sounded like a generalization. This is where we might have to simply agree to disagree as debating on the word usage would be an area of contention.

I do realize that a lot is happening in the background! All due respect, it's the least I expect! All that I am saying is probably not new and quite repeatitive tbh! But, one thing for sure is I am surprised that only Admins can archive. I truly believe that that responsibility should be given to a sub-division of staff that would focus on that. I mean, how can three people proactively archive stuff... Anyways, I mean it's not big of an issue. Just sucks for you guys.

I think you misunderstood Kaerri. Moderators can archive and move posts and threads. Only Admins can set up HPs and that many thousands of old HPs have been archived since we switched back to xF. There really isn't much of a need or a demand to go through interest checks and archive them because the dates of last replies and when threads were first posted are visible. There may be a rare case that someone replies to an old interest check.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love organizing things. It could be considered as something to be done at a later time, just right now there isn't really a need for it.

Haha no worries. You do seem defensive in my opinion but that's cause it's text based and it's written in a serious tone like it should be.

Yeah, my replies for suggestions are fairly direct which can come off as being 'blunt' but it's mostly me trying to show a serious (so srs) consideration for suggestions. X3 Surprised it came off as defensive tbh, though perhaps it was the writing style.

Spoiler: The lack of emojis. ;p

 

[d1uni5ys24si3o]

Fable
Okey Dokey~
Makes sense I guess. I will resort to my beautiful non-existing signature even if I despise those cluster space xD

btw, the main forum is a bit weird. There is the explanation text under the titles of each forum. Just wanna make you guys notice that.

So best of luck to you guys with that!

 

[Fable]

Fable
Okey Dokey~
Makes sense I guess. I will resort to my beautiful non-existing signature even if I despise those cluster space xD

btw, the main forum is a bit weird. There is the explanation text under the titles of each forum. Just wanna make you guys notice that.

So best of luck to you guys with that!

If you go to the main page and hover your mouse over the forum title (not going to the forum itself), that text also shows up, it's a description thing to help guide to what content belongs in there. :3

 

[d1uni5ys24si3o]

If you go to the main page and hover your mouse over the forum title (not going to the forum itself), that text also shows up, it's a description thing to help guide to what content belongs in there. :3

Ah thought it was a bug cause the text wasn't under the titles before xD

 

[Fable]

Ah thought it was a bug cause the text wasn't under the titles before xD

Hmm, could have been a bug before if it wasn't showing, though probably depends on if you were using the app, mobile, browser, etc. "Much variables there are" - Sith Yoda

 

[d1uni5ys24si3o]

Hmm, could have been a bug before if it wasn't showing, though probably depends on if you were using the app, mobile, browser, etc. "Much variables there are" - Sith Yoda

It's the website hahha
Ok I had a buggy site since I joined xD