Upcoming changes to the PBP forums

[Arje]

This is an announcement of some upcoming changes to these forums.

I've managed to wheedle my way into some power and I've decided to use it for good instead of evil. In the upcoming two weeks you can expect to see some changes to the way the PBP forum operates:

Through the use of child boards and dedicated spaces we're going to streamline the recruitment process, get you people some individual areas in which to run your game, create some template storage areas, throw up some discussions about the differences between play by post and tabletop, and generally create a more stable and easily accessible medium.

I'm an old veteran moderator of play-by-post forums and thought that I could help out. My living situation is going to be changing soon, and I won't be able to game as much with the RPPR crew, but I love what you guys have done with these forums, and this community, and this is what I can do to make it better.

In coming days expect further clarifications and announcements as to the upcoming changes. Please feel free to ask questions, and make suggestions, and as they are addressed, expect to see them come into play too. Following that, expect to see some additional architecture fall into place, and we can begin the process of archiving what has fallen along the wayside, and moving active games to their new sub-forum homes.

-RJ

[Arje]

Additional Note: While I currently have administrator status, as soon as these changes are made, I will be more or less stepping down after creating a moderator level entry with some advanced permissions over the play-by-post forums. I have no desire to have power or permission over the other boards, but it's simply easier in the short term to have broad control now and restrict it after the new system is implemented.

[Kroack]

All hail Administrator RJ!

[Arje]

The recruitment board is already up. I'll be making my own recruitment post momentarily.

As for individual game spaces there are two ways we can do this.

Each board can be a child board of the overall play by post board
-or-
we can create some new sub categories on the main page.

Or some combination thereof.

It's up to you guys.

[Mckma]

The recruitment board is already up. I'll be making my own recruitment post momentarily.

As for individual game spaces there are two ways we can do this.

Each board can be a child board of the overall play by post board
-or-
we can create some new sub categories on the main page.

Or some combination thereof.

It's up to you guys.

I think the best option would be sub categories based on system maybe?  I think child boards would be too much.  I don't know how many systems would be frequently used though, so it may not work so well...

I guess that wasn't really clear.  What I am suggesting is child boards of the PBP board organized by game system or genre (at first when I read it I thought you were suggesting a child board for each game).  Actually I think the genre idea might be best, a child board for maybe 4-5 common genres...

[Kroack]

One category for D&D 4E

Another for Pathfinder/3.5

Another for CoC

Another for the ORE engine games

etc

[Mckma]

One category for D&D 4E

Another for Pathfinder/3.5

Another for CoC

Another for the ORE engine games

etc

The only problem I see with this, is it's a lot of boards with potentially very few games running (like if the community doesn't start a lot of games).  But I do think it would work better if we had a ton of games running (since people would probably be more likely to want to search by familiarity over genre).  Either way, I think the way to go is child boards by genre or system...

[ristarr]

I have no desire to have power ..., but it's simply easier in the short term to have broad control now and restrict it after the new system is implemented.

How many times has humanity heard these promises?  And how many times has power, once granted, been given up?

Sorry.  Thanks for working on this.  I have not participated in any PbP games before, but would like to get into some.  I think a wider distribution ( maybe to the general PRG thread ) for the announcements of a new game would be helpful.  It would be a way of attracting people that are not thinking about playing in a game, but may get interested if a certain game popped up.

[Arje]

I'm going to be running a little experiment to see if child boards can have child boards at approximately 1:00 AM CST . If they can, then, give the small number of games likely to be running at any given time on these boards, I will most likely organize them by game category similar to what y'all have outlined. I think that makes more sense given the number of what is likely to be running.

If things expand and we need to revisit that solution then we can as it becomes prudent.

To be clear, I propose having a child board for "D&D games" and then having child boards of that subboard for each individual game. It has been my experience that co mingling of games in the same board space greatly decreases both the participation, quality, and longevity of the games so co-mingling.

If child boards cannot have child boards then we may move to a different system or possibly having the "D&D board" and the "M&M board" in a new subcategory on the main page, with appropriate child boards as needed.

[Arje]

child boards can have child boards can have child boards. It's child boards all the way down.

We are go for launch.

[Mckma]

I'm having some issues with finding unread topics in child boards.  It will show that there is an unread topic on the main main board, but in intermediary boards it won't show.  Next time it comes up, I'll outline what I mean better...