Suggestions Thread

[dorian]

Just like the title says, I thougt the forum needed one.

I really like this place and I want to see it thrive. In that sense, I thought I should outline a few suggestions I think could help with activity and the logevity of this focum.

1. This forum would benefit from being submitted to RPG-Directory. Many experienced role-players browse around there when in search of a new place to settle in. Placing an add there and bumping it once a month once it's been reviewed and accepted has the potential of bringing in more long lived members to our little stage here.

2. All members should strive to log in with their characters daily, even if they are not active at the moment. It maintains the impression of presence forums sorely need to attract new members.

3. Activity checks are good, but allow me to share my experience with them. I've been on sites with no activity checks, with activity checks that only removed FCs from the safe list and on sites who deleted inactive accounts when members failed to answer the check.

From these sites, the ones who functioned longest and best in the long run were the ones who didn't delete accounts, even the ones who didn't have activity checks at all (they also didn't have face claims but people seemed to work with that without conflict).

It's just that, a person may suddenly get distracted by RL so completely they momentarily forget all about that role-play they're on but when the situation calms down or changes you see them coming back for another session of post-o-rama. It sucks when you come back and find your account has been deleted. Few people would recreate them in this case, while more would get back into the game if they came home to preserved accounts.

My suggestion is to leave accounts be and just remove face claims so that the play by-es are not locked to characters that may never be returning. If the person returns they'll have to deal with finding themselves another FC if theirs became taken by someone else.

4. Instead of having "mutant ban" periods, introduce a policy like "for every mutant character you must have a human character" or "every person is allowed only N amount of mutant characters", or something along those lines. It's not fair to new members to have to make humans or move on while older members waltz around with a substantial amount of mutant characters. I'll be the first to admit it's funner for me to play mutants and, given the option, I would be tempted to make only mutants. The "for every mutant you need to have a human" would work on me and I'm actually trying to keep my scores balanced, so maybe it would help for all members at large.

I know the admins are busy/stressed/have technical difficulties and such at the moment and I'll give Grim a big pat on the back for being a real trouper and dealing with the apps consistently and Rae needs cookies for attending to other administrative work lately from what I can tell, but I really wouldn't want to see this site slowly sink into inactivity. It'll be more difficult to attract loyal members because of its unspecific theme and everything.

Offering a few suggestions is all I can do in my position and you guys have been doing a fabulous job at creating a nice looking forum with an easy theme and exciting plot promises. Please bear in mind to log in your characters whenever possible and if there's anything I or other willing members can do to ensure the life of this place, don't hesitate to point it out!

<3 <3 <3
Your local adoring member,
Norbex.

Oops, that was long.

[Amita Bosko]

Hear, hear!

[✖ GRIM]

Thank you for offering your insight Norbex Although it wasn't needed *glare* Kidding kidding.

1. Rae has added us to a few directories, but I think it may indeed be beneficial to also add us to the RPG-Directory. I'll see if I can do so today (if none of the other admins have done so already, though).

2. That's a very good rule, and while I oft forget it. I do try and log in with my characters from time to time to give it the little extra liveliness that OUF needs. But if everyone else could do so, that would be super great.

3. I was planning to do something along of the lines. I would also move their profiles to an inactive board (so that they can send one of the admins a PM of "will you move my profile back to the active ones?" without all the hassle of creating one anew and all that. But give me some slack, this is the first time I've had to play admin for a 100% on a semi-active place. XD Not that I would trade it in for anything, no way.

5. Because four is lame. No kidding, I just am too lazy to change it to four. Although it ain't too much effort on my part.

Aaahhh... That we could do. But I know myself. Hahah. Sadly enough. But that's actually one of the best ideas that I've seen in a while... Or at least it's better than those I can come up with. orz I'll see if I can modify those rules a bit and add it in. Ho ohohoho. I will need to create a lot of humans to compensate for my mutants then... Also, to keep the gap of female/male a bit smaller. I was also thinking to put in place that if you have (for example) four characters that two have to be femmes and two men. At least for those who can pull it off? I dunno... orz

And thank you for the big pat, I really needed that. *sniffle*

[Oscar Leonhardt]

Sounds good to me! Although the female characters thing, I can play them (although I often have less muse for them in a consistent manner) but some people just can't and forcing it probably wouldn't work, so yeah, your "for those who can" thought is where I am as well.

I (and the playerbase) really appreciate your efforts Grim! As well as those of the other admins. So hang in there like an inspirational torch of reliable. *huggles the gloomy one*

Ahem.

You all are awesome, in general. I love the writers on the site. ;D

[✖ NORBEX]

Please log your characters in whenever possible! Thank you.

Edit: Rephrase away from stupidity.

[Miriam Valentine]

Huh... I saw the very first post for this, and didn't see anything else until now. Wow. Oh well. I log in my trio because... ... ... I'm paranoid that I might have received PMs on an account, and so if I don't check it, I leave that person hanging for no reason. Ha. The rest is what I'd go with, generally, hence the fact that I didn't reply to this thread until now.

The only exception to that is the discussion on the mutant ban vs. human "count" thing... The question posed here is: What is the goal? Is there an actual goal for trying to keep things balanced? What I mean is, shouldn't it basically be obvious that there is a pre-selection determination made by visitors towards mutants? Another way of putting that is: "What is the site advertised as?" The answer is in the first line of the description, and I quote: "Our Undefined Fate is an original mutant rp." I don't mean to discredit the description, but... we're sort of putting the nail in the coffin of human/mutant balance right there. Do I think the description needs to change? No, not really. The "mutant" part is what defines the setting. However, I don't believe that, apart from "balance", there is any reason for anyone coming in to think they should even be required to create a "human" type at all. What is the HUMAN determination? What makes them interesting to play? They're currently understated and, basically, represented as "playable" NPCs, despite the presence of the DNCS... and, maybe, I guess, to a much lesser extent what is possibly available with Miri.

Humans as humans in the world and dealing with the "differences" and "conflict" available is fine. It may intrigue some. But... alternative "counter" OR "pro" type factions in terms of their relation to mutants, is probably more appealing, insomuch as it gives a "unique" reason for that human character to be involved. I don't believe we'll be experiencing a balance to the issue without some nurturing of "incentive" for human characters. I'd love someone to counter-argue the point with me on this, in hopes that I'm missing something.

Male/female is... amazing to me, actually. Haha. As a guy that creates... mmm... 90-95% female characters, I have typically found myself in the minority, and although I have seen the reverse plenty - that is, female players that create mostly males - this is actually the first time I've come across so strongly a male push in any "character class", even on yaoi-themed sites. I'm not sure how to remedy that. It was just an interesting observation for me.

Anyway, I'll stop the wall of text here, for now. Just to see what the "active" response is like about it. Oh... and, Grim. >\ I've got internet back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you heard it before, right? But you ain't never heard it from ME before! >=o

[✖ NORBEX]

Lazarus, we're on the same wave again. I agree with there being no real point in keeping things balanced. Be it in the mutant/human ratio or the female/male one. Whatever we lack, and will somehow be relevant for plot reasons we can just fill in with NPC mentions. Is it as exciting? No. But I see no reason not to let people make whatever they please and just assume that, although there are more mutants on the board, that just the cast of characters that are actively read, whereas the great majority of people are obscure dudes and dudettes that don't do much in the grand scheme of things.

However we think about it, I'd prefer to keep away from any bans as well.

And by the way, Lazarus, I've been silently considering the ironic-ness of you making mostly (if not solely females) and my preferring to write mostly males for a while now. : P

Edit: Oh yeah, the new idea goes againt saying that you need X amount of humans to have X amount of mutants, I forgot I mentioned that. I can't keep up with my own inner debates anymore.

[Miriam Valentine]

Well, that's kinda what I mean. Do we want balance? If we do, there needs to be incentive, but "mutants", on base, have their own incentive in that they get nifty special powers. Humans have... ya know... bills and taxes and.... jobs... and ... stuff. Unless they are retarded, like Miri, and are born into some fancy schmancy organization. That is, I made my own incentive by creating her in charge of a "faction", so to speak, to justify it. Then I got creative and gave her some chemical crap and some physical training; a la an Iron Man or some other "human" super hero, so... it's not really the kinda "human" you're generally expecting. So, if we want humans... a ban has to be enacted, unless there are true reasons, other than "normalcy", to entice a player to make them. If we don't... then... shouldn't it just be mentioned in passing, generally? That doesn't seem exactly fair to the humans already on the board, but... I dunno. I don't see why there would be a push to make them otherwise.

The male/female thing I got no answers for. And... silently considering? LoL, Why just a silent consideration, Norbex? I seem to be rare. xD I've seen lots of my opposites, but... I don't think I've seen any of me, in terms of opposite gender writing RP.

[✖ NORBEX]

*nods at good points*

You're right, there's less of your case but I've seen plenty, though not exactly on forums but more in roleplay games. As for silently... because I don't feel the need to mention everything that goes through my mind? I dunno.

*wanders off shrugging*

[✖ GRIM]

Well, I can only apologize to you guys for being such an inexperienced admin. This is literally the first site that I've admined alone (not by choice even) that hasn't died in a few days. So most of what I'm doing now is just testing and learning. Sometimes it may seem foolish and what not, but I'm always willing to listen and correct whatever I went wrong in. xD I'm not arrogant enough to believe that my way is the only correct way~

Yeah, I should stop using this as an excuse, but it's still so very much true. XDD

Ahem, yeah... so... guys (and girls), would you prefer I just delete the banned stuff and what not? Although I think that Argent would like to keep it that way, but everyone is like "remove it" and I somewhat agree with that.. But on the other hand....... Oh well. ~w~ Maybe it's indeed best to just let everyone run amok as they please (within the rules). I would keep the statistics there though, about how many humans/mutants there are, but without the small text underneath it? owO Just to give people an idea of what we may need, but not forcing it?

[✖ NORBEX]

I'd say keep the statistics for fun but remove the word "banned." I don't know about you but that's not a word I want to see on the front page when I check out a site.