Mahz's Dev Journal

[Captain Jordan]

Perhaps "Recruiting" would be better than "Looking".

@Teknonick

What's the difference between 'Recruiting' and 'Open' or 'Applications'?

[Teknonick]

Hmm... well, 'Open' would possibly mean you're allowing new RPers. 'Recruiting' or 'Applications' would mean you're specifically crying out for more people. I've had plenty of RPs where I would like to advertise I need a lot of people, then slow down the pace with a simple "Okay folks, thanks for the help! We're still accepting though, but no need to go advertising the fact." sort of thing. Off Topic: YOU FORGOT THE PAGECLAIM! NOoOoOOooOO!

[Captain Jordan]

Hmm... well, 'Open' would possibly mean you're allowing new RPers. 'Recruiting' or 'Applications' would mean you're specifically crying out for more people. I've had plenty of RPs where I would like to advertise I need a lot of people, then slow down the pace with a simple "Okay folks, thanks for the help! We're still accepting though, but no need to go advertising the fact." sort of thing. Off Topic: YOU FORGOT THE PAGECLAIM! NOoOoOOooOO!

@Teknonick

Sounds like a GM issue, not a tag issue. I could see a distinction between Open and Recruiting if the game had yet to begin. But it's usually easy to tell which games have started yet by the number of IC posts they have. So I'm not sure I see the need for all the different status tags.

[Teknonick]

Possibly that's the case. But it's still nice to have. But, I don't see a problem with a few extra tags. And it's not the difference between when we've started or not, it's the pace of people flowing in. If you see 'Recruiting', then that means you're willing to take in a ton more people. If you see 'Open', that doesn't mean you're looking, but you're still accepting.

[KeysOfKayes]

Possibly that's the case. But it's still nice to have. But, I don't see a problem with a few extra tags. And it's not the difference between when we've started or not, it's the pace of people flowing in. If you see 'Recruiting', then that means you're willing to take in a ton more people. If you see 'Open', that doesn't mean you're looking, but you're still accepting.

@Teknonick

But for the player looking for RPs to join, does it really matter how much the GM wants new players? If it's open and they're interested in the RP, then it's open and they're interested in the RP. To them, it doesn't matter if the GM is looking for ten more players or just two.

[Teknonick]

It's not a very important suggestion, just a minor one. If he doesn't go with it, alright. We seriously don't need it, it would just help a tiny bit. I personally would like to join a few RPs specifically asking for new recruits to help them out, as I hate seeing good RPs die. But that might just be me.

[Captain Jordan]

<Snipped quote by Teknonick> But for the player looking for RPs to join, does it really matter how much the GM wants new players? If it's open and they're interested in the RP, then it's open and they're interested in the RP. To them, it doesn't matter if the GM is looking for ten more players or just two.

@KeysOfKayes

Pretty much this. Open is open, if you're the person who needs more information about the exact state of openness, then read the thread. This is intended to be at-a-glance information, so it should be simple and clear about what it means. The fact that the question had to be posed about what the difference between the suggested tags implies that more than one player on RPG is going to question the same, misunderstand what Open and Recruiting mean, and miss a possible RP because of it.

[Teknonick]

Very good point. The fact we're having a discussion about this means the tag wouldn't work anyway.

[Mahz]

Notes: - I'll try to push up the [hr] tag after work. - The @Mention button still needs to inject the mention wherever your cursor was in the editor. @NuttsnBolts: - Yeah, I think you're right that the tags might be too much for the sidebar, but I'll first experiment with changing the styling of tags so they're less jarring to begin with. Like most components on the guild, they were made for a white background. @Shienvien: - Good idea for breaking the "Latest" widgets apart. I will play with various sidebar configurations over time. Fortunately, in the meantime, the sidebar usually seems to have 1 check and roleplay from each of the Free/Casual/Advanced sections when I glance at it. - My core hypothesis is that, in its final form (fully matured with all ancillary features in my head built on top of it), the tag system will obsolete all roleplay and interest check subforums. For example, soon the "Casual Roleplays" forum will show roleplays that have the "Casual" tag no matter where they are created (e.g. those created in the "Nation Roleplays" forum). The cross-pollination will go far in boosting the discoverability of all roleplays.

Some GMs might want a way to indicate how many slots are left if they have restrictions on such, but we are open for other ideas on how to do that than the lengthy one we had.

@Ellri

One thing I want to avoid is too much rigidity and prescriptiveness in the system. For example, I don't think I want to force GMs to come up with a "slot count" for their roleplays. The amount of open "slots" in a roleplays is just more nuanced than that since things like posting volume and roleplay complexity (which change from week to week) are really what dictate whether a roleplay can stomach another player or not, and those are just things that a GM has to consider over the lifespan of a roleplay. For the same reason, I'd wager that "this roleplay is full" is usually negotiable.

We do disagree a bit with removing the NRP section, but only so long as the free/casual/advanced tags can be applied within it. Same goes for tabletop.

@Ellri

Yeah, I won't touch the forums. Not until (if ever) users stop using them. My philosophy here is that people will simply use a better system over time. Users need time to explore a new system and, most importantly, arrive at their own workflow. That's why my plans for the guild are always incremental and co-exist with the existing systems. Also, I need time to experiment and iterate on a system. Also, one nice thing about subforums is that they can foster their own subcommunities/atmospheres. Clicking into the Nation or Tabletop Roleplay forum is much different than just clicking a "Nation" or "Tabletop" tag filter. I will have to think about what this means for the tag system and how I can possibly preserve the phenomenon with tags.

[Shienvien]

Fortunately, in the meantime, the sidebar usually seems to have 1 check and roleplay from each of the Free/Casual/Advanced sections when I glance at it.

If it makes a difference, then I managed to spot five intChecks and five newest RPs being all in casual for several hours in the run during the day (or what constitutes for a day for me). It is actually part of why I brought the suggestion up to begin with. :-P

Also, one nice thing about subforums is that they can foster their own subcommunities/atmospheres. Clicking into the Nation or Tabletop Roleplay forum is much different than just clicking a "Nation" or "Tabletop" tag filter. I will have to think about what this means for the tag system and how I can possibly preserve the phenomenon with tags.

I consider the "creating its own subculture" a bit of a problem rather than advantage, to be honest ... pack-mentality of smaller communities and all that. Furthermore, as I am predominantly an advanced player, I've somehow found myself completely excluded from the NRP scene of RPG ever since it got its own subforum ... which is bizarre, considering that across all sites, well over half of the RPs I've joined have been NRPs this past year. Oh, and what about the quote/quotemention matter (as right now, the only way to make "normal" quotes is to remove the '@' by hand or type the name in manually)? I'd rather avoid sending unnecessary mentions, since with threads that will be browsed by the person anyway, it just means they will have to separately go to the alert tab to dismiss the alert.

[Captain Jordan]

Oh, and what about the quote/quotemention matter (as right now, the only way to make "normal" quotes is to remove the '@' by hand or type the name in manually)? I'd rather avoid sending unnecessary mentions, since with threads that will be browsed by the person anyway, it just means they will have to separately go to the alert tab to dismiss the alert.

@Shienvien

I think that's fixed now. Whenever I get a notification about a quote, if I visit the thread in question before visiting the notifications, the notification is dismissed. Not sure if it's fixed for multiple notifications in the same thread yet, but I think it definitely works for single mentions/quotes when you read the post in question.

[Mahz]

Oh, and what about the quote/quotemention matter (as right now, the only way to make "normal" quotes is to remove the '@' by hand or type the name in manually)? I'd rather avoid sending unnecessary mentions, since with threads that will be browsed by the person anyway, it just means they will have to separately go to the alert tab to dismiss the alert.

@Shienvien

I think you should just quote-mention. Clicking in to a quote-mention from the notifications menu clears it. Though I need to improve notification auto-clearing and allow users to delete specific notifications from the list. But altogether I think it's better to err on the extraneous side. Eventually notifications will be auto-cleared when you view the page of a topic that created them, so it won't even be an issue. And I expect most people are happy to see a number next to the bell icon even if they were gonna check the topic anyways. I personally use notifications as a to-do list and often forget to respond to posts that don't notify me, so perhaps other people are similar.

[Captain Jordan]

<Snipped quote by Shienvien> I think you should just quote-mention. Clicking in to a quote-mention from the notifications menu clears it. Though I need to improve notification auto-clearing and allow users to delete specific notifications from the list. But altogether I think it's better to err on the extraneous side. Eventually notifications will be auto-cleared when you view the page of a topic that created them, so it won't even be an issue. And I expect most people are happy to see a number next to the bell icon even if they were gonna check the topic anyways. I personally use notifications as a to-do list and often forget to respond to posts that don't notify me, so perhaps other people are similar.

@Mahz

Oh, huh, I totally thought it auto-cleared already. Hmm.

[Shienvien]

I think you should just quote-mention. Clicking in to a quote-mention from the notifications menu clears it. Though I need to improve notification auto-clearing and allow users to delete specific notifications from the list. But altogether I think it's better to err on the extraneous side.

Well, I just got two to this thread, and clicking on one won't make the other disappear with it... I guess the notifications (and how useful you find them) probably depends heavily on how avid "patroller" you are and how many threads you frequent. For me, it is mainly just this thread and the RPs I'm in ... and I have all of those open as tabs to start out with (which I typically just go over horizontally every now and then), so the alerts end up being a bit redundant and extraneous. I am aware the notifications disappear when you click on them, but I normally either only notice or look at them after I've already visited the thread(s), or I just get several to the same thread at once.

[LegendBegins]

I'd personally make a notification settings page. Some people only wish to be notified under specific circumstances, and some not at all. That way, it won't become irritating to anyone.

[Shienvien]

If we can disable notifications, then they kind of lose their function... The ratings notifications might be a bit uninformative for some, but in most other cases, notifications are supposed to be (or in my vision they are, in any case) the "summon person" buttons that you use somewhat sparingly, but which certainly are a convenient and useful tool. Hence, I'd rather have a system that makes you make an extra move or two to specifically notify someone over one in which you'd have to resort to PMing people old-school style because the person turned notifications off after receiving eighty-seven when they left for a family vacation for the weekend.

[Rare]

Why do we need to remove the NRP subforum? We don't we remove the Arena subforum and divide it up and sent the RPs to free, casual, and advanced?

[Shienvien]

Why, if it was mine to decide, I'd probably meld arena into 1x1 and free/advanced/casual, too. (1x1 is a bit of a weird creature just because it won't typically ever recruit after started; the level-division would only really matter with IntChecks...) NRP is just one subtype of RP which I personally have been participating quite frequently (as opposed to approximately one proper arena RP in the past eight years), which is also why it also came up first for me.

[Dinh AaronMk]

>Remove NRP Oy vey.

[Rare]

I still would like a dislike button on the rate. There is a like, laugh, and a thanks button. A dislike button would just get overused like the other ones. Why did we add them since they can get overuse as well?