Divide by genre

[Holeypaladin]

So I've noticed that the RPs are divide by a "free/casual/advanced" type system, but to me that tell me very little about the type of RPs I actually write. I think it's more important to know the type of story than the minimum requirements of the RPers.

So I think it'd be better if it was divided by genre in addition/instead of by minimum post requirements. Sci fi RPs and fantasy RPs and fandom RPs should more or less be easily segregated from each other, so that I don't have to filter through a hundred RPs in genres I'm not as interested in in order to find the ones I am.

Possible categories:
Sci fi
Fantasy
Fandom
Romance
Horror
Modern
1x1
etc., the list can go on if need be, but those ideas I mentioned make up the majority of the different types of RPs I've seen. But one guideline I can figure is that if an active RP gets booted to page 2 or 3 on the list within a single day, that category is probably too large. Except possibly in the case of fandom RPs, there's just so many of them that there's no avoiding having multiple pages of active ones.

[Rose Swan]

No. I had this on my personal site, it doesn't work. The Free RPs update by the minute, and they drown out the slower RPs. It sounds like a wonderful idea, but it doesn't work.

I've always supported a tag system, but sometimes there are mashup RPs that you can't decide if one or the other. Then there are genres that are just way far out there and don't really have a genre.

[The Australian]

It would never work on a site as active and populous as this site. If it was on a site with a smaller scale, then maybe it could be pulled off.

[Holeypaladin]

Really... I would think a higher population would have a higher chance of finding people interested in certain genres, rather than lower.

[Squee]

This idea has come up quite frequently, and while I'm not opposed to finding a way to help give threads more face-time, the idea of genre-organization tends to be disliked as a whole. The issue with doing it by genre is that a fair amount of threads don't fall under one genre, and when we made a list of genres last time, we just found that the genres made more of a mess of things.

On one of my older forums, we split the RPs up by Canon / Original, so RPs that involved an existing fandom like Hunger Games, Anime, etc, would be in one area, while RPs that worked around less scripted sources were in the Original area. For the most part it worked well, because users who wanted to scope out RPs based around their favorite fandoms could do so, while those who wanted to RP in looser settings could also do so.

I think if the Guild does feel that it's time to start organizing a little more for the sake of keeping threads from getting knocked off the front page so quickly, I think splitting it up in that manner might be a good start.

Searched for this for you.
Back from May.

And then this one from 2010.

As much as I initially disliked the idea of categorizing in a quality-like hierarchy, I really can't imagine it any other way. Some people want quick and easy RPs, others prefer ones that are challenging and allow for more character development. Throwing all RPs together in a genre without any tiers of quality level would make things a bit messier.

If we went to a genre based organization, then we'd receive ideas about separating them into quality levels, so not only would we have genres, but we'd have a whole mess of Advanced / Casual / Free categorizations and it really wouldn't solve anything.

The best thing to do is to keep it simple, and not to over complicate what we have.

We were going to put prefixes in other areas of the boards, specifically into Interest Checks, but we're still working on a way to better organize the prefixes so they don't turn the thread indexes into a mess.

Prefix Images:

I'll take this opportunity to try something different though, and see how it's received. So, we'll be trying out using images as prefixes instead of text.

Feedback is welcome. =) I'll be adding them just on the Suggestions / Problems forum for now. If it's well received, I'll remake them to be a little nicer looking and start expanding it to other areas of the boards.

I am assuming she means the [Idea] and [Problems] concepts here.

[Kestrel]

Really... I would think a higher population would have a higher chance of finding people interested in certain genres, rather than lower.

No.

I like to play both sci-fi and fantasy games, I'm down with many modern settings too. This means, as per your request, I would have to potentially search three separate sections to find an RP as opposed to searching one or two. While I am broad in genre, I tend to avoid the free section as it's not really my style. I would click a lot more topics to find that advanced sci-fi game I could be looking for (as free and casual both outnumber advanced games.) On top of that, I can usually guess the genre by the title of the topic (or hovering over it) but I have to open the topic to find out what section it's meant for (in the general interest check section.)

Finding 'advanced games' is a huge pain on sites that do use a genre split, because of;

No. I had this on my personal site, it doesn't work. The Free RPs update by the minute, and they drown out the slower RPs. It sounds like a wonderful idea, but it doesn't work.

But they're out there. In fact most RP sites split by genre. If that's what you prefer, by all means go there. People here share my preference and we've got activity to spare, so unless you come up with a brilliantly laid-out argument to sway everyone the other way, an "I think that" just isn't going to work.

[Brovo]

Nope. This would be horrible. For several reasons.

#1: As cleverly defined by your hardness in sci-fi thread, people's personal definitions of a genre are all across the board. What counts as fantasy to one person, may not to another. Plus, there are multiple genres called "fantasy." Several are not like one another at all. Would you force them all together? Or would you sub-divide ad naseum?

#2: RP's are not genre-defined works. And if you think so, you're delusional. An RP at any time can cross into a new genre and leave its old genre, or be multiple genres. Hell, most are.

#3: The current system is fully functional. Just look in a thread, read the intro paragraph and if it's not what you're looking for, move on.

#4: This forces people who post small amounts a million times a day with people who post large amounts slowly. It will automatically kill slow RP's in favour of quick-firing RP's, which kills variety, it doesn't increase it.

#5: More sub-forums is a hassle, not a blessing. It makes things more confusing for new people, it doesn't clarify jack shit.

There. Just five reasons of several why this would be a bad idea.

[Aragorn]

Wouldn't work. One of the most simplest reasons is that the site is so used to a Free/Casual/Advanced categorization. You would have people who are normally Advanced players getting frustrated by the lack of length of Free posts.

Then there is this. Many roleplays do not have a definite genre. Several of them could be classified under several. And seperating by genre would therefore severely limit the directions the roleplays could go.

And lastly, having that many categories on the front page would prove to be confusing to new people. Many newcomers, in fact, tend to like the three way seperation by skill level. Makes everything simpler.

So yes, good idea in theory. But in practice? Ehhh I don't think so.

Well, I missed Brovo's post.

[Omega]

No

[Akrilix]

I think that dividing it based on genre and then level would work just fine. But it wouldn't exactly be "new-user friendly", and as pointed out above, roleplays aren't easily definable.

However, I do think it would be nice to be able to tag and filter RPs. I do find it irritating that I have to sift through three pages of unrelated stuff to find the one thing I'm looking for. Of course, you can't change the basic structure of the site - too many people would dislike it, so it's really moot.