Forum Additions

[Evelyn]

Hey guys!

So, this was recently brought to my attention and I thought I would address it. Alanor is a mature rpg with mature members, so certain popular trends currently rotating around other rpg's are unnecessary and foolish to implement here. That being said, I also feel that Alanor could benefit from a few additions.

I run two other rpgs besides Alanor, both of which do use popular rpg board trends (in terms of board additions, etc) so I'd like to offer up some ideas stolen from my boards to get your opinions!

Possible Forum Additions
Thread trackers
Plot pages
Face Claim
Active Player Roster (Who's Who)
Open Thread Directory

Forum Modifications
Change allowed avatar size (100x100 is toooooo small for me ><
OTM (Did we decide to stop doing these o.O?)
Links to subforums in primary forum descriptions

These are just suggestions. I personally don't believe we need most of them (especially face claim), but I figured I would throw a lot out there and get everyone's opinion.

So, what do you think? And is there anything else you feel Alanor might need/benefit from?

[Qwinnon]

As someone who has run many an RP I can say that just cause something is considered to be a popular trend around other RPs that it doesn't mean it can't be helpful.

As far as Thread Trackers I have always found, as a player, that thread trackers- especially for people with many characters with many threads- are always useful.

Plot pages are useful, but they don't have to be the complicated stuff you see used on most forums where you select certain parts of song lyrics that mean certain things. There are simpler formats if that is what is keeping people from wanting them. I actually prefer the simpler formats.

Face Claims are nice to have and to help keep better track especially if someone comes in, and wants to know who is currently being used by others. This is especially useful if certain celebrity play-bys are popular. I had to implement them once cause in one RP we literally had like ten Liv Tyler PBed chars cause it was around when LotR was huge.

Active Player Roster(Who's Who) helps a ton on alot of levels.

Open Thread Directory is brilliant. This way people know what threads are open, and the information is in one place that way they can just go find one then post.

Avatar size change. . . 100x100 is too small for me too lol I have all mine on other forums set to larger sizes. I like to make my own, but I suck hardcore at 100x100 icons just cause they're so tiny. So this could be helpful. I could point you to the necessary codes to make this possible on PB unless you already know them xD

OTMs I always find to be fun and interesting

Anywho, those are my thoughts lol I know I'm new to Alanor really, but just thought I'd throw them out there.

[Evelyn]

Haha I totally agree with you. My foolish was more referring to the html-heavy, color-blinding, lyrical madness that most people make things now-a-days. I'm a fan of really simply layouts.

[Luca]

We will need to be careful with resizing the avatars. The frame around the boards is not resizable, so anything that stretches the board will require Dema to redo the frame. We will also need to strictly enforce signature sizes if we do this. (My personal feelings on avatars is that they aren't even necessary if you have a signature, but if the people want larger ones I will not object.)

I like Plot Pages and Face Claims (actually, especially the latter, because I think we should enforce graphics as a requirement. They dress up the site and make people more interested in joining, in my experience).

I've never really understood thread trackers personally, and I'd argue that they aren't necessary yet. I don't anticipate lifting the 4-character limit.

I took OTM off for now because we have very few active members. The intention was to bring it back when our numbers grow, just Seelie and Unseelie at first, and maybe expanding to Seelie Male+Female etc as the need arises.

[Evelyn]

Avatars: The forum is plenty big enough to allow for a bigger avatar size. In fact, I think a good 150x200 would be fine (which is usually standard for most boards now). We could test it out just to see if it stretches the board.

As for signatures, I have a clause on my boards that dictates sigs can be as tall as people want, but no wider than 500px. My board is a little bit smaller than Alanor, so we might be able to get away with 550-600px wide. We can add in a rule for this, though I don't anticipate any problems.

Even with a four character limit, thread trackers can be very helpful, especially because of Alanor's fluid timeline (which allows multiple threads). Plus, it allows people to keep track of their old posts for reference (I frequently find myself sifting through the archives to find old Ren & Haley posts so I can keep track of how they act/what they've done).

Open plot pages (formulated however members might like - see my plottage post for my characters) would be great. We could stick up a separate forum for them. Face claim is a simple thread post that we should probably place under Mounds so that people can check it, just like the mantel list.

Also, this just struck me: I'd very much like to see links to subforums on the front page (in the descriptions for each forum). It, in my opinion, makes navigating a lot easier.

[Saalyn]

Personally, I prefer the 100x100 icons. If we have more images, and have them larger in size, it's just gonna slow down page load speeds. Image-heavy sites really irk me. I don't even like having the sigs on here, which is why I keep them turned off. Regardless, I think it's more important that we set a standard for these things so that the site can look clean and consistent. My suggestion would be to keep the icons 100x100, and if people want to have bigger, flashier images of their characters, leave that for the sigs. This way we don't have to worry about adjusting the current layout any after Dema worked her ass off setting it all up.

As for all the other stuff, do what you will XD

[Qwinnon]

To weigh in real quick on the avatar size issue. It shouldn't stretch the frame any at all actually, or mess with the board layout any like it will for signatures(I say this cause I've seen boards allow some ridiculously huge sizes including 300x300 and it not stretch), and allowing larger avatars shouldn't interfere with loading speeds cause they're not super large. 150x200 or 170x250 or 150x250 are three decent smaller sizes most boards do.

Now for sigs it will especially if you don't have a limit, generally I go 500x300 for a signature graphic and most forums go around there, but as you can turn sigs off for viewing it's not that big of a deal. Most of the boards I'm on are alot more graphic intensive with design, avatars, and signatures. . . and they load just fine for me and on most days(cause our DSL company is sucking hardcore) my internet speed is worse than being on dial-up. . .

On the thread tracker thing, even with a 4 character limit it could really help (actually I had just one char on a forum recently and ended up needing one cause I had so many threads), and honestly it's not like a thread tracker has to necessarily be a requirement (though they can help people to find stuff easier) so it could be an optional thing for those who feel they might need or want one.

And a yay for links to sub-forums on the main-page. Actually you can do that fairly well manually by either doing:
[link=INSERTLINK]LINKNAME[/link]
if you want it to open it a new window
[url=INSERTLINK]LINKNAME[/url]
if you want it to open in the same window

Or if you don't want to do it manually there's a ton of nifty codes out there. Either way, I say yay for sub-forum links.

[Saalyn]

There's also the issue of aesthetic. Sure, you can increase the icon size, but then it's going to fit in the column really tightly. I like a little breathing room so things don't look so cramped.

[Morgon]

Meh.

[Morgon]

I agree with anything that does not require more work from me.

ALL of my sigs are 550-600 wide, so I humbly request that 600 be allowed.

I'm indifferent to avvie size. I like creating 100x100s because I like the challenge, but it wouldn't kill me if they were taller. I agree with Jaded about the cell padding, though. Its looks really lame when the avatars are pressed right up against the sides. (It looks even lamer when they have reflection...please don't do that ><)