Dion

How can we help improve RPGuild? Community suggestions and discussion.

Special thanks to @Cynder and @Grimhildr for kickstarting the process. Special thanks to everyone else that participated in a deliberation on how we can improve the guild. Your efforts are appreciated and valued, because only through discussing things can we reach new ideas and solutions to the problems that festered and continue to fester in RPGuild - as a community and as a forum.

Some pointers before kicking off the thread -

o No flaming
o No ad hominem
o 'Be Fonz Cool', whatever the fuck that means
o Constructive criticism only, naming an issue is one thing, complaining and whining another
o Motivate your answers
o Try to think of solutions as well as problems

Some questions you can ask yourself to help you come up with a reply, solutions, problems or just something you want to share -

o What do you think problems within the community are?
o Have you ever experienced a problem that made you feel like 'what's the point' or feel like giving up?
o What are the causes for these problems do you think?
o How could you fix these problems?
o Is that solution wholly realistic?
o How do you feel about the sense of community on RPGuild?
o Is this sense of community important to you/your solution?
o How do you feel about community engagement on RPGuild?

These are just some questions you can ask yourself to answer the question on how to improve the Guild, but any other answers/questions are welcome to. As long as you remain deliberative (decision through argumentation, not by raising your voice and yelling the loudest) and open to new ideas your answer will be welcomed.

Does RPGuild Need More People?

@NuttsnBolts I see at least 1 new introduction thread every day. Which is enough for me.

Does RPGuild Need More People?

I think it's also fair to say that the introduction subforum sees a lot of activity still.

what can we do to help improve roleplayer guild?

@pugbutter discord.gg/XX8FD

what can we do to help improve roleplayer guild?

@The Spectre you are also free to add me and get invited. In fact everyone is. The server has always been open to everyone, I just didn't care to spread the invite link, lol.

what can we do to help improve roleplayer guild?

@Ammokkx then add Óðinn#7167 and I can invite you to my server. It's very small server though, and IDC who really gets in there. ATM it's just people I know and friends, all more or less from RPG.

what can we do to help improve roleplayer guild?

True. Everything was really happy-go-lucky because Guild was back, but in hindsight things were bad 3 years ago too. Just not as severe as they are now.

@Raddum

Yes, 100%.

@pugbutter I mean I'm against dividing the boards all together. The only reason I can see not to merge free, casual and advanced into 1 area is that free would move so fast that it drowns both casual and advanced. I'd be OK with just a 'advanced' tag at the header of a title, or a casual tag, etc. It might make people more willing to strive towards bettering their skills too.

I'm also in favor of a blacklist, knowing I'll make it on there. In fact, I might just start one in my own discord server. Just posting names and such of people that are notoriously bad for RP's.

what can we do to help improve roleplayer guild?

<Snipped quote by Buddha>

The issue isn't whether or not people realize the problem, the issue is the amount. I think almost everyone who frequents the bitch thread knows about the issues, recognizes the issues and combats them, but the simple fact is that the majority of the site doesn't regular the bitch thread- much less the discussion threads like this.

@Ammokkx

I've never seen anything about community engagement or moderator activity in the bitch thread if that is what you're talking about. Those are pressing issues to me. That other members sometimes drop an RP, eh. Buyer beware. If you let them into your RP without checking past activity in other threads you're a moron?

Ye, we're months, if not a year or more behind on solving this problem from a decent starting point.

@Raddum

It was probably an issue ever since guildfall, since the member numbers have dwindled since then.

what can we do to help improve roleplayer guild?

<Snipped quote by Buddha>

Agreed. This site's greatest draw for me has been that the mods aren't power-hungry. Other RP sites, other forums, a certain anime streaming site, have all been ruined by mods who care more about becoming god in their little internet-societies than about actually making the sites better for everyone. I'd sooner have no mods at all than a force of them who, given Mahz's inactivity, can run rampant without any checks and balances to limit their damage potential. Personally I know there are at least three people on this site who would want me banned just for existing with a different opinion near them. I think I'd be a fair mod but there are people who'd fear for their safety on the site, because they and I have had our spats before, and it's much too easy for players to hold a grudge, especially when the opportunity to retaliate on those grudges presents itself.

But then, @BrokenPromise brings up a good point: if the mods control the rules of the site, then the players control its culture. If we want a certain type of roleplayer (e.g. people who go AWOL on the RPs they've joined) eradicated from this site then it's up to our GMs to enforce these folkways. And if the guilty parties don't like that, well, they're free to make their own RPs here, or to go somewhere else. The absence of the mods only punctuates the idea that we the players are responsible for creating the site which we want to play on: if we want more diverse plotlines then we must be the ones to write them. If we want problematic players to leave then we must be willing to publicly acknowledge them as problematic. And so on.

Waiting for other people to effect the changes we want to see on this site isn't working. As players, and especially as GMs, we must be willing to be the changes we want for the Guild, especially if the mod team make it clear that they're not looking out for us anymore.

@pugbutter

I agree with what you say but I must raise a counterpoint:

at this point, how many RP'ers have we lost that did not decide the culture (because let's face it, that's more work than some of us are willing to put into a hobby) and instead just quit/leave the site.

Are we not at the point where this change is a bit too late? I feel like this is a realization we should've had from the start. Not now that we're realizing there might be a problem.

what can we do to help improve roleplayer guild?

<Snipped quote by Buddha>

What should we do then? Sit on our hands and hope that the staff members are more active in the near future? We are running out of options. Do we demand that the staff members be more active or just give up on saving this site?

I am fucked if this site goes under and my roleplaying hobby might just end. The only other site that I could go to is Iwakuroleplay. But, I have been banned there for a long time (it was over something stupid that I deserved the ban). So, I am screwed when it comes to my roleplaying hobby and I love to do it too.

@The Spectre

No. I would prefer to have user elected moderators. But I fear the outcome would be even worse. But I don't trust the community or the moderators to make that call anymore. The mods have proven they don't really care, the community has proven they're too clique-y for that. IDK what other solution there is.

Do you trust the mods to make that call unbiased?