Divide by genre
Here's how I'd do it.
Instead of genre "tags," I would just define Free, Casual, and Advanced somewhere (which is already done), and let those be the tags for games divided by genre.
Go look at the 1x1 interest checks, for example. That is a very wide array of genres right there. You'll see [Free], [Casual], and [Advanced] quite easily. None are really drowning out the other, and if they do... then that's what a Bump is for. Perhaps interest checks in one part of the forum or the other occur more frequently, but the more they are divided by genre, the less that will show. Remember that as it is now, all the genres are lumped together.
Also, it has always seemed to me that separating a forum by supposed "skill" levels is just begging for tension between people that identify with those levels. i.e. I am a Free RPer, screw those novella-writing elitists! I am a Casual RPer, screw those noobs and elitists!. I am an Advanced RPer, screw those one-liner noobs! (Some exaggeration and generalization here. It's the small minority around here that makes such things an issue, I know... but still. The site setup encourages it.)
And to me, having the Free, Casual, and Advanced tags (rather than the sections), would encourage people to um... not identify quite so much? The difference is sort of subtle, I know. But I think it would encourage people to think more as such: "I am simply a roleplayer playing in a Free/Casual/Advanced game in the <insert genre> section."
Also, this leaves room for those that don't identify with the Free/Casual/Advanced thing at all to just put up an interest check in a particular genre they are interested in and define their own expectations in the interest check/OOC.
I would breakdown the categories thusly:
- Futuristic (for the sci-fi and future post-apocolypse type games)
- Modern (define a starting time, say... 1900's to present -- where the slice of life, highschool, super heroes, etc. could play)
- Historical (any time from cavemen to 1900's, alternate histories included)
- Fantasy (sword and sorcery stuff)
- Fandoms (obvious)
- Other (Sort of iffy about this one, but... for things that fit nowhere else)
- Arena
- 1x1
- Tabletop (namely because a whole thread of people asked for this not too long back)
Naturally, the next argument to this is, "But some things fall in several categories!" Okay... well. Presently, some Casual games could be Advanced games. Some Free games could be Casual games. Let the GM decide where he/she wants to advertise... and if they want to advertise a Dragonball Z game in Fandoms, Futuristic, and Fantasy, who cares? Maybe they're interested in attracting people that love those things. Leave the responsibility for deciding where the game fits up to the GM.
But all that aside... dedicated roleplayers will root out roleplay, whatever you call it or however you divide it. I think this site succeeds because it's organized, simple to join, and it doesn't have a bajillion different windows and dividers and such in the screen like some of the other sites I have glanced at. As long as all that's not screwed with, the breakdown of categories/genres/whatever doesn't matter all that much, in my opinion.
#1: Identifying by tags would cause people to identify by those crude stereotypes more, not less, seeing as how they're consciously adding that tag.Originally Posted by Unlit
#2: Casual would drown out advanced. I don't even want to imagine what free would do to the both of them. (That's not a problem in the current system.)
#3: Advanced, casual, and free are also representing rates at which people post.
#4: Stoptryingtofixsomethingthatisn'tbrokenwithsomethi ngthatisbroken.
How would it drown it out? If you just have something on the side, where you can select which tags to view, then only those things will pop up. Check mark those boxes and see your dreams come true.
[ ] Free
[ ] Casual
[X] Advanced
[ ] 1x1 Free
[ ] Arena Casual
etc
Now only threads with the advanced tag will show.
[X] Fantasy
[X] Modern
[ ] Historic
[ ] Fandom
etc
Now only those tagged with Advanced, Fantasy and/or Modern will show up.
Or you can check this box:
[X] MUST have BOTH
Now only those tagged Advanced, Fantasy, AND Modern will show up.
Why don't people just [Insert Genre] manually. Satisfies both sides of the arguments, with Guild having to reconstruct how they've been run, presumably, since it's inception.
Or, instead of moving all the threads and going through hell again, we leave the categories alone and add genre search tags that do the SAME THING, but without having to choke the forums down with search engine traffic. Because there's the thing about a search engine on a forum like this.
It's searching the hard drive for all data that meets X and Y criteria.
The reason it works now is because not everyone is using it on everything to find the things that they can already find in five minutes instead of one minute.
If EVERYONE was using searches, it'd break things down.
As it stands, keeping the categories as is prevents advanced role plays from being drowned, and I roleplay in advanced, so yes, I'm quite biased about this. I'm willing to budge and go with genre tags, because that shouldn't add much strain whatsoever. However, I do not see the point to fixing a system that isn't broken. Why bother. Why even do it. As it stands the 95%+ of the forums that are remaining silent are doing so because the current system works for them. Silent majority wins. Every time. All the time.
Genre tags? Alright. I can see a point to genre tags. Not categories, because we don't need an excess of categories, but tags I can work with and accept.
EDIT
Oh, and Rilla's right. If you really want it, just add it yourself.
#1: Arguable. I disagree. I personally wouldn't put a tag at all on an interest check, and I know many that wouldn't. Why bother? I would stipulate my own rules in the interest check/OOC anyway, and anyone that didn't want to meet them, wouldn't express interest. The only way to know for sure, would be to try it.
#2: Not true, really. Gonna throw a little math at you. I just went and counted all the interest checks in Free, Casual, and Advanced that show activity a day old or less. In Free, there were 17 interest checks that had activity a day old or less. In Casual, 30. In Advanced, 13.
Now, I proposed six categories that would support group roleplay. If you add all those one-day-old-or-less interest checks up, that is 60 interest checks total. Assuming a more or less even distribution, you could expect activity in an average of about 10 interest checks per day per category, based on this data (60 interest checks/6 categories = 10). Now there are busier times and slower times, I know, and not all categories would be as active as others. But a full page of interest check, at least for me, is 30 interest checks. Dividing up the sections to this many categories would increase an interest check's time on the first page of an interest check category across the board, regardless of what kind of game it was.
#3: I don't think I said anything about this?
#4: Fresh ideas should always be encouraged, my good man. It is the sign of a community that cares. And ultimately, none of us other than Contra or Mahz can change a thing anyway. There's no need to be so critical of free discussion, is there?
I was talking about tags. Not categories. People can still view things the same way as they always have by not checking any of the boxes off at all.
But we can do it this way
Enter in either the Free, Casual, or Advanced parts of the forum as usual.
Then you just select the genre TAGS on the side, as I've previously mentioned. You don't have to, you can continue seeing things the way you've always seen them. But if you do select them, it will narrow the search. It'll put the ones you want at the top of the list.
#1: Yes, why bother differentiating an interest check to be meant for people who type several paragraphs, or two lines that are barely legible. Why, I can't see this being used at all!
#2: Interest checks =/= General activity. Let me show you.
Free:
Threads: 14,737
Posts: 1,744,361
Casual:
Threads: 32,153
Posts: 2,112,243
Advanced:
Threads: 7,919
Posts: 443,241
1x1:
Threads: 33,037
Posts: 1,193,548
Arena:
Threads: 2,450
Posts: 85,460
As you can see, it's not even worth comparing. I shouldn't even have to mention how advanced is naturally slower, because more is typed. That is part of the expectation of advanced. Which means if you threw all the interest checks together, casual would DROWN advanced and free. It would strangle them to death, by virtue of the fact that casual would be more active. By and far. And because they would all be in the same place, they would compete for limited screen space via which gets posted in more. Which means that the initial "balance" would quickly tip to casual, because casual would be seen. Advanced would only continue to be frequented by those actively looking for it, and knowing that it's there because it has its own category.
Math > Not math.
#3: You didn't. I felt like mentioning it because it's important to realize that the only reason advanced still exists, or arena god forbid, is because they're protected from the mass activity of casual by being separated from it. People wanting to write at X pace with Y amount is a far better comparison and system than "everyone who likes space cowboys go here, regardless of how often you post, or how often you don't, or how much you post, or how much you don't." I would never ask someone from free to read my entire post in advanced. Nor would I ask someone from advanced to only post one liners, and it's not fair to force that.
#4: Fresh ideas should be encouraged, except this isn't fresh. Go ahead and actually read the first couple of pages. Contra commented that it's not. And it never has been. And it never will be.
Seriously, if you want this system... Go to Roleplaygateway, or go to Gaia.
Want to know why Gaia is drowning in crap?
This is why.
@Christiefries: Sorry. Misread. I'm recovering from alcohol so I'm a little crude and rude at the moment and jumped the gun.I'd be willing to experiment, but I'd more test it out by manually adding the tags first and seeing if it has any markable increase or decrease in effectiveness on those threads.
@Rilla: Go ahead.
Unlit, stop trolling.
This thread was necro'd. Likely by an alt. Don't worry, it's been reported. I know you guys love the sound of your own voice, I get that. So do I. But for fuck's sake. The horse is dead.
we have such sights to show you
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