Forum 10/13/12 Updates: Housekeeping

[Samantha]

Hello, everybody! I have some rather official news to talk to you today. It's rather long, but please give it a read through. I'd really appreciate it if everybody could leave some sort of feedback.

Okay. So a couple of months ago, I sent a PM to Amy asking if she would consider granting me some more modly-type powers around here, being that she's been busy with real life lately, and if you'll notice now, I have a shiny new "Administrator" title beneath my face. I believe that I now have access to all of the forum's coding and whatnot, which means that I can administer the revival of some of our dead forum features (granted it's going to take me a little while to get a hang of how the coding works, so let's hope I don't royally screw anything up).

In the past couple of months, some things around here have sort of fallen into disuse. Things like the role-play board and the shop, for example. And since we're advertising now and trying to bring our numbers up, it'd be nice if we can offer everything we promise. So here are my thoughts:

1. The Rules

Need updating. We're missing a couple of obvious ones (like "no spamming," for starters—although it's not as if the spam accounts we get really care if there's a rule or not), and some of the current rules are a bit repetitive. I'll be updating them soon, as well as adding on a section containing general forum information (like ranks).

2. The Boards

How do you guys feel about the order of the boards? I was thinking about condensing some of the boards and adding others that we feel are missing (for example, we don't really need an "EA Chats and Email" or "Site News and Discussion" anymore, since the Exchange/BBS is dead/near dead).

I also think we should have a board under "General" in which the staff can make official announcements and other posts of that nature. Currently, we do them in our blogs (or I put them under Off Topic>Forum), but it's easier (I think) to have them all in one place.

Any other ideas for boards that can be added/changed/condensed/etc.?

3. Ranks

Many of us have already reached the highest rank, or are about to reach the highest rank. What about making them harder? Here's what I was thinking:

0 posts: Mute
50 posts: Tongue-Tied Tourist
100 posts: Stammering Sim
250 posts: Overmodest Orator
500 posts: Loquacious Lurker
1,000 posts: Big-Mouthed Bedlamite
2,500 posts: Babblative BBSer
5,000 posts: Voluble VIP
7,500 posts: Esteemed Personage of Prolixity
10,000 posts: Supreme Social Sim

Much higher, I know, but this will give us something to work for.

4. The Shop

Has fallen into disuse. Now that I've gotten access to coding, I can figure out how to process requests and whatnot, and we can hopefully get the shop up and running again. I believe that there are still some unfulfilled requests floating around in there, too.

I'd like to add things to the shop, too. Amy experimented with second avatars, and if I can figure out the code, perhaps we can add these? EDIT: I just checked the global footers, and this code is actually currently in place. I know that Amy said it wasn't the greatest code, but we can use it for now, I suppose.

Also, custom titles. I know that I was originally against this when Amy pitched the idea, but we've really grown in the past year, especially away from the atmosphere of the actual BBS, which is where the current titles are borrowed from. Again, I'd need to figure out the code, though. Maybe I'll play with prices, too. Yes/no? Thoughts? Other ideas for things to add?

5. Blogs

What do you guys think about these? I, for one, am in favor of ditching them, but I'm only one person. Many us of us have our own blogs—whether on WordPress of Blogger or LiveJournal—and the ones here really don't get much use, anyway. Should we keep them around? (Obviously if the general consensus was no, I'd move the threads in the blog section elsewhere to that they wouldn't be deleted. Also, I'd see about refunding simoleons to those who bought theirs.)

6. Role play

Another dead feature! I'd like to revive this, though. I know that I had fun role-playing; what about you guys? Many of the original role-players have not been around much lately (sadly), and I don't really know how to deal with the half-finished role-plays. I suppose they can be left, and any new role-players can just begin regardless of them.

I'm not sure of the best way to go about reviving this. I don't know if it'd be better to wipe the previous role-plays away, or to just play over them (like I mentioned above). I know that legrande and I had a role-play together that's half-finished, and we're both still around. But I don't know how people feel about picking up a half-done roleplay so many months later. It might be hard to get back into.

(I also had this cool idea where, instead of using real pictures for the RP locations, we could build them in our games and take pictures, but I'll hold off on pitching this idea until later. We've got enough going on right now.)

7. I can't count. I forgot number seven.

To make up for it, take this incredibly autobiographical gif:



8. Of the Month Awards

This was something that Amy and I talked about doing away with, or at least cutting back on. It's a cool concept, but we just don't have enough people to award every month, and we don't want to keep awarding the same people. Seasonal awards were pitched, but I think even that's a little too much right now. Opinions?

9. Okay, I'm done rambling.

This all said, there will probably be some changes around here (possibly some disorganization), so bear with me.

Also, if there are any other suggestions or complaints, please don't hesitate to raise them. I haven't actually conversed with Amy, and I don't want to change too much of what she's put so much hard work into creating, but I think that some of the things that I mentioned above are rather important.

[Zoe]

Okay, let's see what I have to say about this (though there's not much, because it all sounds pretty well thought-out.):

1.
Well, yeah, I agree. In addition to the whole spam account thing, you could always delete those. I know Amy mentioned something about deleting accounts that hadn't been active in more than four months back when the site had a little more traffic.

2.
I'm all for deleting the topic boards about the official site. It never really gets any new threads anyway, so, you know. And then the thing about a board under General for staff updates, I have a question. Who all are staff besides you? I know BB was part of the team, but she's been gone for some time now. I've never really kept track of that. But I honestly don't think we need that many staff members for such a small community.
I have an idea, though it won't really change much. I was thinking that maybe you could condense the Forum Contest Section with the User Contest section, since it seems that all of the user contests are on the forum, respectively. So the User Contest would be a sub-board onto the Forum Contest section, and maybe the Contest Winner section, as well? I dunno. It's just an idea.

3.
I like the idea of making the ranks harder to achieve, but maybe just a little bit of a downsize. By just a little. Because, to be honest, I kind of doubt anyone would ever get 10,000 post on here! It would take more than two years at the rate all of us post! But I guess that's the point. So feel free to disregard that, haha.

4.
Not much I can say for this except yes. I never really got to use the shop, so sure! I'd love for it to get back into business.

5.
I think that they should get ditched, as well. Perhaps you could put the posts in a section that they best fit, just in case someone wanted to get back to them for whatever reason they may have. But I'm all for it.

6.
I never had the chance to use the roleplay boards, and I'd love to use them! As for the whole thing with deleting the posts, I'm not sure. I really liked reading them, but since they're not finished, what's the point of having them? But I guess that's just my close-minded opinion

7.
Ah! There's no seven!

8.
Yeah, I'm thinking we should cut back on these until we get enough members, or just ditch the idea completely. Though that's just my opinion.

Okay, never mind. I had a little bit more to say than I thought I would. But overall, I liked your ideas, and I'm happy that the site's going to go through a bit of cleaning up.

[Samantha]

Oct 14, 2012 0:05:02 GMT Zoe said:

1.
Well, yeah, I agree. In addition to the whole spam account thing, you could always delete those. I know Amy mentioned something about deleting accounts that hadn't been active in more than four months back when the site had a little more traffic.

2.
Who all are staff besides you?

I have an idea, though it won't really change much. I was thinking that maybe you could condense the Forum Contest Section with the User Contest section, since it seems that all of the user contests are on the forum, respectively. So the User Contest would be a sub-board onto the Forum Contest section, and maybe the Contest Winner section, as well? I dunno. It's just an idea.

6.
As for the whole thing with deleting the posts, I'm not sure. I really liked reading them, but since they're not finished, what's the point of having them?

7.
Ah! There's no seven!

1. Mm, yes. Accounts do need to be deleted in general. Spam accounts will be deleted and bans issued, though.

2. Staff is currently me, BB, and Amy. Three people isn't actually a bad size. When we were all still active, we did a lot of behind-the-scenes talking and planning with each other, which was nice. Granted, Amy only really had the access to make huge changes to the forum; BB and I only had very limited powers. (That was another thing I was thinking about adding to the rules: a list of current staff members. I remember that before I got on staff, I had no clue who was where.)

I have a feeling that BB may not be back, and I don't know about Amy. I kind of miss having other staff members around, though.

I like that idea! I'm all for economizing. I have to check, though, how it works, because I wouldn't want to condense them and lose all of the threads from one board in the process.

6. Agreed. This is my dilemma. I really want RP back up and running, though. It was a good feature.

7. There is now! (Thanks for pointing that out, Zoe.

[legrande]

I don't really have much to say, because I think most of your ideas are pretty fair and, like Zoe said, well thought out.

3. I think that whilst making the ranks slightly more challenging to obtain is a good idea, perhaps 10,000 is just a liiiittle bit too high. But it does seem to line up with the others quite well... I don't know.

4. Getting the shop back up and running is a good idea, after all, we're still collecting simoleans. It's a good way to somwhat personalise the forum too, I think.
I'm not quite sure I understand the custom titles thing. Is it like the feature on GOS, where you can input text to appear above your avatar (or at least I assume that's what happens, I've never posted there so I can't check). Like this:

Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

5. Yeah, I think that the blogs are a good idea in theory, but like you said, we've mostly got personal blogs elsewhere. I think I've only used my blog to post when I didn't know where else to put whatever I was doing, so I don't think they'd be too much of a loss.

6. I did like the roleplay boards. They're a really nice feature, I feel. It would be nice to have them up and running again. (Even though I can never get my replies at a reasonable speed, I suck hahaha. And it's all my fault for abandoning ours...once again, I suck!) :L
Maybe we could have a sort of "backlog" of old RPs for any that are unfinished and unlikely to get finished? Like, make a seperate section in the roleplay board for them. I don't know. I don't even think that makes sense.

8. Yeah, at the moment the Member of the Month awards are just a bit pointless with so few of us. Might as well scrap 'em.

I think that's all I can think of at the moment. I might have more to add/clarify later.

[Samantha]

Oct 14, 2012 10:05:16 GMT legrande said:

3. I think that whilst making the ranks slightly more challenging to obtain is a good idea, perhaps 10,000 is just a liiiittle bit too high. But it does seem to line up with the others quite well... I don't know.

4.Is it like the feature on GOS, where you can input text to appear above your avatar (or at least I assume that's what happens, I've never posted there so I can't check).

6.And it's all my fault for abandoning ours...once again, I suck!)

3. Okay. Since you guys (all two of you, that is) seem to in consensus of this, then perhaps 5,000 as a max? That does seem a little more reasonable. Currently, you reach the highest at 700.

4. I don't have an account at GoS, so I'm not entirely sure. I'm assuming that you, the member, can add your own custom title to your profile? This would be kind of the same, except you tell a staff member what title you want them to add (since I don't think you guys have the ability to add your own custom title...do you?) and they'll add it and deduct the correct amount of simoleons from your profile.

If I were to do it for you, legrande, it would look like this:



And you can add UBBC tags for colors and effects, just like the user/display name. I want to try to figure out if I can move the title up above the stars, so that it's under the user/display name, but I'm not yet sure if it's possible.

6. Really, don't worry about it. The whole thing kind of fell apart for everybody.

Or, on RP, here's an idea. I could add a post to the bottom of each unfinished RP that says something along the lines of, "Previous roll-plays terminated prior to this point. Begin new role-play here." I don't know. I've never been part of another board that's done RP. I don't know how anybody else handles it.

[LadyofShalott]

I had a huge rambling post ready yesterday, but I clicked a button and it got deleted. So I hope I remembered everything in this.
Sorry in advance, it's a little disorganized.

I agree with you that this place needs to be updated a little bit. But like you I don’t really know how to start going about doing it.

I personally don’t mind how the boards are set up (they’re fine to me anyway). But I agree that some of them are outdated, like the “Site Discussion” and “EA Chat” boards. It would be cool if we could make get away from the main Sims 2 site. I mean, I know this place was created as a backup for the main Sims 2 site when it was down, but since it’s back up and running (as good as it’s going to get anyway) I think it would be cool if we made ourselves an independent little forum that had no ties to the original site. But then our name wouldn’t make much sense anymore. I don’t know, just my opinion, don’t know if anyone agrees with it.

There are probably a lot of people who would be against this, but maybe create a Sims 3 section? It might bring in more members if there’s a wider selection to talk about. Even though we primarily talk about TS2, I know there’s nowhere in the rules that limits us to it. But then again, it might lead to inner forum conflicts and fights if I know anything of what the Sims 3 site is like when TS2 is brought up. Just throwing it out there, we don’t have to act on it or anything.

I love the idea of adding things to the shop! I especially like the idea of multiple avatars and titles, it could be very interesting. But as far as the blogs go, they’re kind of underused. Like Samantha said, most people have their own personal blogs to post things to, and except for the admins, most of what was posted in them could be in the General Chat or in other boards. There’s not really any use for them.

Getting the roleplaying back up would be amazing! I didn’t participate in it when it was running (for some reason I never got around to filling out a character bio. I had a sim and pictures and everything for it, but I never filled the bio out ) but it would be awesome if we got it back up and running. It might be better if we just start with a blank slate for it though since it’s been down for so long. Someone could PM the people who have characters and see if they want to keep them or not, but otherwise it would probably be better if we just start over. I do like the idea of building the places in sims and taking pictures. It kind of fits better with a Sims 2 roleplay.

And yeah, the Member of the Month would be a little weird to start back up since we only have like 5 active members. Maybe we could do it again if we bring in more people?

5000 as a max sounds reasonable. I think I had only around 1000-2000 posts on the longest running forum I was ever on. So it's definitely hard to attain, but still, well, reasonable.

That’s just my opinion though. This was a good topic to bring up. I think with a little reviving and updating, we could get this place going again.

EDIT: Baha I just saw number 7. ;D

[Zoe]

Oct 13, 2012 19:46:17 GMT Samantha said:

To make up for it, take this incredibly autobiographical gif:

This gif basically sums up my entire life. Well, as they say:

[Samantha]

Oct 14, 2012 17:17:40 GMT LadyofShalott said:

I had a huge rambling post ready yesterday, but I clicked a button and it got deleted.

It would be cool if we could make get away from the main Sims 2 site. I mean, I know this place was created as a backup for the main Sims 2 site when it was down, but since it’s back up and running (as good as it’s going to get anyway) I think it would be cool if we made ourselves an independent little forum that had no ties to the original site.

There are probably a lot of people who would be against this, but maybe create a Sims 3 section?

And yeah, the Member of the Month would be a little weird to start back up since we only have like 5 active members. Maybe we could do it again if we bring in more people?

EDIT: Baha I just saw number 7. ;D

I've done the same thing, like, three times in replying to your guys.

I am in complete agreement. I personally have been over the BBS atmosphere since the minute I stopped frequenting that site, and sometimes I think that the fact that we're so similar gives us a bad rep (because not a lot of people like/liked the BBS). BUT this is not my site; it's Amy's, and I can't in good conscience make changes that drastic while she's away. I personally would want do away with the "Benes" (probably switch to something like "Thanks" instead), and change the name of the ranks to something more original, but that's only my opinion. (Also, I think there is a way to change the forum's name. I know that "The Unofficial BBS" could be changed, and possibly "sims2bbsbackup," too.)

I'm not in any way against adding a Sims 3 section. I follow a bunch of Sims 3 blogs on Tumblr, and although I don't play, I still like seeing the pictures/reading the stories/hearing the talk. I think it would definitely open the site up to a greater number of people. What does everyone else think of this?

For Member of the Month, I'm thinking of leaving up the board and putting it officially on hiatus. If we ever do start it up again (which I'd like to, but alas), I'd probably consolidate the award to make it just "Member of the Month/Season/Year/Whatever," because that can be applied to writers and CC creators and just helpful/friendly people in general.

Hehe. ;D Oh, and mine, too, Zoe.

[legrande]

Thanks for clearing that up for me, Samantha!
We don't have the ability to choose custom titles already but I understand it to show up similarly to how they do over at GOS where they show up above your default title. I'd like to see that implemented here, but I also like that it's sort of a reward that you earn.

I'm personally all for getting away from the BBS feel too. I was never actually active over there. I think I ended up here because of a mention tacked onto the end someone's story. I've never seen this place as a "backup" for the official site personally, and it'd be good to make a clean break as I feel that this place isn't anything like the 'real' site and that people might be discouraged by thinking that it is. That's just my opinion (and I talk too much here anyway so feel free to disregard).

Obviously though, like you've constantly stated, Amy put in a lot of hard work to creating this place and I wouldn't want to disregard that in the slightest.

As for making the forum Sims 3 inclusive, I think it's a fine suggestion. After all, it seems a lot of people play both of the games. Although Sims 2 is my preference, I don't think that it would be awful to make this forum include of both, especially seeing as a lot of this forum seems to be centered around the creative side of Simming as opposed to the technical side so it doesn't really matter. Of course there's also a wide fan base to appeal to. Put it this way, I don't see the harm in it.

[Zoe]

Oct 14, 2012 21:23:50 GMT legrande said:

I've never seen this place as a "backup" for the official site personally, and it'd be good to make a clean break as I feel that this place isn't anything like the 'real' site and that people might be discouraged by thinking that it is.

Yes! Exactly what I was thinking. This site has always been a completely separate idea for me, personally. I never really tied together the two sites in any way except for the fact that they're focused around the Sims 2. So that's why I mentioned that I'm all for trashing the section that focuses around the official website.

As for the whole Sims 3 section, I think that would be a good idea, as well. It caters to all sorts of players. I mean, it's not like we're going to hiss and bite at you if you play the Sims 3. We're a pretty welcoming community, small as we are.

Also, I think that once the Tumblr for this place starts getting the right kind of followers, we'll begin pulling in more members. Which brings up another topic: what's going to be on the tumblr, exactly? I was thinking something along the lines of general updates and news like the tumblr for Gos (but then again, they also reblog a lot of photos from people). So yeah... just wondering.

[Samantha]

Oct 14, 2012 21:23:50 GMT legrande said:

We don't have the ability to choose custom titles already but I understand it to show up similarly to how they do over at GOS where they show up above your default title. I'd like to see that implemented here, but I also like that it's sort of a reward that you earn.

I went looking for some codes to move the custom title, and here's what I found (sorry, legrande, you sort of turned into my guinea pig) (and that's good; you guys shouldn't have the ability to add your own custom title):



The first is above the user/display name, the second is beneath it. I think I like having it beneath better, right above the rank.

Oct 14, 2012 22:24:05 GMT Zoe said:

So that's why I mentioned that I'm all for trashing the section that focuses around the official website.

As for the whole Sims 3 section, I think that would be a good idea, as well.

what's going to be on the tumblr, exactly? I was thinking something along the lines of general updates and news like the tumblr for Gos (but then again, they also reblog a lot of photos from people). So yeah... just wondering.

Yeah...that was my hidden agenda, as well (and now you all know).

Okay. I think we may end up with a Sims 3 section, guys.

General updates, yes. Also, when people put downloads up, I'd advertise those, as well as provide a link to download them here. Pictures from contests, links to advertised stories...things like that, I suppose. I'm open to suggestions, though, since I'm not entirely sure. About reblogging, I wasn't sure what to do. Or whether or not the official Tumblr should do follow-backs. What do you guys think?

[Laura]

I'm hardly active around here at the moment, but here's my two cents all the same. I'm here in spirit, even if my physical being is preoccupied with college and real life.

Spoilered to aid scrolling.

SPOILER: Click to show

1. The Rules - I'm fine with whatever changes you make here really.

2. The Boards - I really believe these need a massive overhaul. To me there's too many, with most underused, if posted in at all. I think many of the ones on the home page (i.e. Going Somewhere, most of the contests boards) could be hidden away as sub-boards of broader ones. It takes way too long to scroll down to the log-in/members dashboard, in my honest opinion! No concrete idea for what should go where, I'd leave that to you, but it really needs tidying up.

3. Ranks - they are a little too achievable at the moment. I agree with the others in saying 10000 is too much (for now, at least). 5000 is definitely more realistic!

4. The Shop - I've been waiting on my coloured username for a long time... so long I'd forgotten! Not a complaint or a hurry-up plea - I'm no longer pushed if I'm honest. But the shop would be nice to have as a feature. I don't think it should have its own board category though. Merge it with something else?

Also - perhaps increase the prices for items? A few hundred posts, and you can easily afford a blog AND multiple different coloured usernames. Might be alone in my thinking here, but they should be a little more exclusive - rewards for people who put in the effort and post.

Second avatars and custom titles sound awesome!

5. Blogs - Actually, I'm not a mad fan of the blog system myself, when most people have separate blogs elsewhere anyway - that section was completely underused on this site. It wouldn't bother me if we trashed them altogether.

6. Roleplay - I did take part in the board, and would love to do so again! Honestly though? I'd wipe the entire board and start fresh, whether that meant keeping Lake Owensmore or creating a brand new world and clearing out the old characters. I would also keep it a lot more low-key, operate it on a smaller scale - the current world is too vast in my opinion, given the size of our (active) member base. By all means, back up old roleplays... but I really think they should be wiped completely. A fresh start!

I'm not all that certain if I like the 'location-based' threads the roleplays operate out of, either. Would it not be easier (and less cluttered) if a new thread was started for each individual roleplay, only to be used by those involved writers, rather than having pages and pages of writing, multiple scenes and roleplays, characters etc in one single thread? We could still have locations; but rather than each having its own thread, there could be one locked thread describing all the locations your characters could visit, and it would be up to roleplayers to create new threads and say where their roleplay was taking place in such. Or something.

tl;dr - I think a better system of running roleplays could be worked out. Excuse my incoherency there (one am, I need sleep) but those are my feelings on that.

7. James Franco - I kinda love him.

8. Awards - we do not have a large enough active memberbase for awards. Yet!

2 cents? More like 2000. But digression. And so-tired-I-could-fall-asleep-on-my-keyboard-ion. I'm not sure about the sims 3 thing. See if there's a market for it, once we get new people in? Tumblr's not my thing, but it seems to be many other simmers's new found home, so fair enough to use one to reach out to people.







...

[Samantha]

Oct 15, 2012 0:27:36 GMT Laura said:

Spoilered to aid scrolling.

2. The Boards - I really believe these need a massive overhaul.

4. The Shop - I've been waiting on my coloured username for a long time... so long I'd forgotten! Not a complaint or a hurry-up plea - I'm no longer pushed if I'm honest. But the shop would be nice to have as a feature. I don't think it should have its own board category though. Merge it with something else?

Also - perhaps increase the prices for items?

6. Roleplay - I did take part in the board, and would love to do so again! Honestly though? I'd wipe the entire board and start fresh, whether that meant keeping Lake Owensmore or creating a brand new world and clearing out the old characters. I would also keep it a lot more low-key, operate it on a smaller scale - the current world is too vast in my opinion, given the size of our (active) member base. By all means, back up old roleplays... but I really think they should be wiped completely. A fresh start!

I'm not all that certain if I like the 'location-based' threads the roleplays operate out of, either. Would it not be easier (and less cluttered) if a new thread was started for each individual roleplay, only to be used by those involved writers, rather than having pages and pages of writing, multiple scenes and roleplays, characters etc in one single thread? We could still have locations; but rather than each having its own thread, there could be one locked thread describing all the locations your characters could visit, and it would be up to roleplayers to create new threads and say where their roleplay was taking place in such. Or something.

tl;dr - I think a better system of running roleplays could be worked out. Excuse my incoherency there (one am, I need sleep) but those are my feelings on that.

7. James Franco - I kinda love him.

Oh, gosh. This thread is probably a pain to scroll through, she says, not bothering to add a spoiler to her own post.

2. Agreed, agreed, agreed. Basically with every point you made there. As someone who is incredibly obsessive-compulsive, the boards have long made me want to cry.

I was thinking that perhaps we could have a "Features" category, with the shop, role-play, and contests all beneath it? That would definitely condense a few boards, especially considering the "Contests and Awards" category itself is going to be losing a few boards. I also agree that perhaps "Introduce Yourself" and "Going Somewhere?" could be somehow combined. We don't really need two separate boards for those.

4. Soon, I promise! After general maintenance comes to an end, I'm going to boost all old unanswered requests, and people can also begin submitting new ones. On merging, I agree. See above.

I agree with the price increases as well. They need to be tweaked, especially since we'll be adding new stuff.

6. Argh, roll-play. Perhaps I'll create a roll-play archive sub-board? I agree that they should probably be wiped clean, but I'd hate to delete other people's writing. Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea. And it also answers the question, "What happens if it falls into disuse again?"

I agree that there are so many locations that we do not actually need. I don't know if I agree with ditching the locations. Honestly, I am such a noob when it comes to roll-play. You should have seen my many questions when we were setting up the RP; they were often prefaced by "Excuse my ignorance, but..." The locked-thread with the locations is interesting, though, and I could see it working...

Have you even been involved in a roll-play on another forum, simey (or, actually, has anybody else)? If so, have you seen it used in the way that you describe?

More agreement: I think that there is a better system for role-playing, too. I was never a fan of how, if characters switched locations, their old posts would just sit unused in another location.

Actually, as I continue to type, I am slowly convincing myself that your idea really does have some potential behind it. It would certainly create less clutter.

It's a huge change, though. Again, I'm hung up on the ethical question of whether or not I should be making so many changes while Amy is away. She never actually answered my PM; I just noticed the other day that my position had been changed from global mod to administrator. I don't know if she'd be offended that I was changing so much of what she put in place. Or if I'm being over-dramatic in saying this. A lot of the changes seem to be to make the forum run smoother and more efficiently, but I don't want to overstep my boundaries, you know?

On final thought, I really do like your idea, simey, or something similar to it.

7. I've only ever seen him in Hollywood Heights, but he was great in it. I definitely have to check out his other works.

Also, I don't know if the forum will have to go into maintenance mode for a few days, or if I can work around you guys. As we've talked, the maintenance thus far has definitely expanded from my original intents.

[LadyofShalott]

I like the idea of getting rid of the locations on the roleplay. I've been on a few different rps before, but honestly never posted much. I just mainly lurked and read other people's storylines. For the most part, they were all centered around locations, but it did seem like there was a lot of clutter when they switched to a different location. And then there were threads that began in a confusing spot when they switched, because only the people involved knew which thread lead to which and what order they were all in - So in other words, it got pretty cluttered and confusing. But I'm not sure I'm all in for having boards for certain characters and storylines. I know some of the fun when I was doing rps was just starting a thread and seeing who would jump in and what storyline would evolve. So maybe, like you suggested simey, let the people who start the threads say where the location is. That way they could just put a location change notice in the thread when it changes.

The custom titles - I'm also in favor of having it below the name. It looks more orderly that way.

And ooh, yeah, I wouldn't feel right completely changing this place- name, url, and such- without Amy's permission. I don't think you're being overdramatic, Samantha, because I would certainly be in the same boat as you. I know how overly helpful this is, but I don't really know what to say to do. Hopefully she'll get in touch with you. I don't think she'll mind if we just try to revamp the place a little bit without overly changing what it was originally meant for. If that made any sense at all (sorry, I'm trying to type and read an overlly long and boring story for english at the same time).

As for the tumblr account.... I can't really help, cause I have absolutely no experience with tumblr whatsoever. But it sounds interesting. *skips over to tumblr to look around a bit*

[Samantha]

Oct 15, 2012 1:44:25 GMT LadyofShalott said:

So maybe, like you suggested simey, let the people who start the threads say where the location is. That way they could just put a location change notice in the thread when it changes.

The custom titles - I'm also in favor of having it below the name. It looks more orderly that way.

*skips over to tumblr to look around a bit*

I've been thinking more on simey's suggestion, and I think it would work a whole lot better--easier to follow, less clutter. Thread titles could be the character names and the location, and the titles could be changed whenever a character joins or leaves, and whenever the group changes location. Also, when a RP finishes up, there isn't already posts in a thread that another group would then have to begin after--the second group could just begin their own thread.

Also, you mentioned that you liked to begin and see who would join in with you. That currently isn't allowed. But I was thinking that we could open it up: if you wanted people to join in with you, you could mark your thread "open." If you had a set group and didn't want others joining, you could mark it "closed."

Okay. It's currently set to below the name. I'm going to leave it that way, since we all seem to agree that that's best.

Perhaps I should link to the Tumblr? That might be helpful, hm? Oh, legrande, you don't mind if I credit you as having created the avatar on the Tumblr page, do you?

EDIT: I just found a code to add custom stars to a member's profile. I don't know how it works yet, or where I'd get these stars, but perhaps they could be added to the shop eventually, too.