Remove half of the things.

I'd very much like it if the only sections of the forum were:
In Character
Looking for Roleplay
Game Related
General Chat

In this utopia, new event-posts will be posted in LFRP, population turned to a LFRP-subforum. Group Forums will be deleted TWICE for being a hideous relic from the elitistic past of the server. Registry will be removed completely, and guilds would be encouraged to make their recruitment/info threads on the official DB forum. Introductions/etc will be cut just as brutally, as they remind me of the vouching days of old.

P.S: This is a serious suggestion, I'd really like it if it was considered as such by those in power to enforce changes like the ones I make here.

And what about the library and art section?

I don't see any point in removing Registry myself.

Tbh if we're going this far we might as well just delete DefiasRP and encourage all discussions to happen on the realm forum.

Probably too late to undo the damage, though.


As far as the suggestions go, the Group Forums are fine where they aren't being used for private cliques. There's nothing wrong with the various racial forums, for example (aside from the fact that no one uses them). And Council forum already had its private section removed to focus all discussions in the public forum, which was left there because it was supposed to create transparency and provide the community insight into what the Council was working on--unfortunately it seems that since I left it's gone mostly unused.

I can agree about removing the Registry, for sure. People should be using the realm forum for guild recruitment.

Registry is boring, and the majority of the RPers who read there will already be guilded. It is not a good arena for recruitment. A single sticky thread for Alliance, and one for Horde, like the threads on the official forum would be more beneficial. You'd still see what's out there, but not as much clutter.

Library and art would be cut. Sure, we'd lose some good stories, but quite honestly, most of them wouldn't be missed. A sticky in the new IC could be "Library" where the different writers might link to their writings, preferably on personal blogs.

TLDR: This site has a lot of words. 80% of them are very old and irrelevant words. This makes the size of the website daunting and demotivating. It also makes it harder to find the relevant content.

Dwyburn wrote:I'd very much like it if the only sections of the forum were:
In Character
Looking for Roleplay
Game Related
General Chat

In this utopia, new event-posts will be posted in LFRP, population turned to a LFRP-subforum. Group Forums will be deleted TWICE for being a hideous relic from the elitistic past of the server. Registry will be removed completely, and guilds would be encouraged to make their recruitment/info threads on the official DB forum. Introductions/etc will be cut just as brutally, as they remind me of the vouching days of old.

P.S: This is a serious suggestion, I'd really like it if it was considered as such by those in power to enforce changes like the ones I make here.

What?

Going by your process of thinking then shouldn't "events" take priority over "looking for roleplay"?

Group forums, which can be considered elitist, work well for the distribution of in-game information (books, posters, letters) for a specific group of individuals. Which cannot be distributed purely in-game for a number of reasons. Refusal to install GHI, requiring certain external links, etc etc).

Why should guilds be FORCED to advertise on the realm forums? They should be doing this anyway but - as you may recall - we share our dedicated realm forums with the PvP community and so prospective guilds are likely to lose their threads in the mix.

Library and art would be cut. Sure, we'd lose some good stories, but quite honestly, most of them wouldn't be missed. A sticky in the new IC could be "Library" where the different writers might link to their writings, preferably on personal blogs.

Whoah there Edgar Allen Poe. Who pissed in your cereal this morning?

Drustai wrote:Stuff.

The lack of use of the group forums would be the primary reason for letting them go. They're things of the past mainly, and I think the IC and LFRP sections nicely can hold the information/requests they'd be needed for.

And uh... While, as earlier stated, this request is serious, I'm well aware that it isn't a very reasonable one.

Swan Emperor Arenfel wrote: Many things, with several points.

For Library-things:
I stand by the statement, even if I don't mean that as an offense. I respect the RPers behind the stuff, but personally enjoy their actual roleplaying a lot more than their independent writings. Aaaand a lot of it is ancient stuff, which while saying nothing about the quality of it, means it's not likely to influence the RP of current players.

For Event-section:
Somehow, I dislike it. I think a joint section for that and LFRP might beat both in their current forms.

Dwyburn wrote:I'd very much like it if the only sections of the forum were:
In Character
Looking for Roleplay
Game Related
General Chat

In this utopia, new event-posts will be posted in LFRP, population turned to a LFRP-subforum. Group Forums will be deleted TWICE for being a hideous relic from the elitistic past of the server. Registry will be removed completely, and guilds would be encouraged to make their recruitment/info threads on the official DB forum. Introductions/etc will be cut just as brutally, as they remind me of the vouching days of old.

P.S: This is a serious suggestion, I'd really like it if it was considered as such by those in power to enforce changes like the ones I make here.

No. This is a stupid idea.

the distinction between actual events and random conversations regarding rp-ideas is huge in readability.
Making population a section that is pretty expansive, with a lot of sub-fora into a subfora is really obfuscating things.
removing registry is silly, because there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to advertise your guild also on this forum, additionally, in the registry you don't need to pointlessly bump threads to keep it in view. i'm not saying don't post in the realm-forums, because you damn well should if you want to recruit. But that doesn't make the registry obsolete. DB-RP isn't an extension of the realmforums, its its own entity.

I'll agree with you that the groupforums are a cluttered mess and potentially something could be done to "clean" it up, but the idea to just "delete" 4 years of content, is just an afront to my sensibilities. As someone that actually remembers most of it, I enjoy historical context of the same debates across expansions, and the insight into how people have changed, or systems have changed(or not changed) Its is just plain ludicrous to even entertain the idea of deleting 10% of the entire forum, without even a good reason. You may think it is an elitist past, and maybe you're right; but hey learn from it, instead of shoving it off under a rug.

Your neglect over this the library also, is just jarring. You don't need to read it, you don't need to worry about it, but some people do, You're not alone in this forum

the deletion of the introduction part of the forum... hmm... I could be convinced that that's a decent idea, even though you still need a place to have the rules set-out, and if there's something I personally dislike is stupid "hey, i'm new to the forum" that people will make regardless if there's a place there or not. At least now, it is not cluttering flamewars and other interesting conversations that i can troll to my heartscontent.

Swan Emperor Arenfel wrote:Why should guilds be FORCED to advertise on the realm forums? They should be doing this anyway but - as you may recall - we share our dedicated realm forums with the PvP community and so prospective guilds are likely to lose their threads in the mix.

Because this server's RP community has been so long entrenched in a private forum that the quantity of new blood is basically zilch. And as seen from last year when Ephitos and others were promoting people to actually post on the realm forums, the vast majority refused to use both and continued to focus entirely on this one which prevented the effort from taking off. Forcing guilds to advertise on the realm forums instead of here means: new players will actually see the threads and old players will be forced to use the realm forums actively.

Right now, the Registry forum just attracts current DefiasRP community members and encourages alt creation. It does not attract new players and this kills the community.

Ideally there should be MORE than just guild threads on the realm forums. Ideally the vast majority of conversations that take place on DefiasRP should take place on the realm forums. But guild threads would at least be a start.

a cracking point actualy   Should do this more

I confess I myself nearly never use this fourm anymore all that tends to happen here these days is drama realy

Amaryl wrote:something I personally dislike is stupid "hey, i'm new to the forum" that people will make regardless if there's a place there or not.

This is a good point, and food for thought.

Might solve a lot of my issues with the things, if the outdated things were moved to an Archive of sorts, I realise. That'd make it possible to find the discussions of old by the search field, like today, as well, but possibly get it a bit out of the way. Make it clear to new and old readers that the posts in question don't represent the current situation.

As for Population, it's a section I'd prefer not to have, its existence lowers the treshold for metagaming, even if that's not a major argument. Idk, the word "clutter" comes to mind, but also makes for an unconvincing argument on its own. As so many current players have posts in it, though, I didn't even bother suggesting to cut it out completely.

To be honest the Population subforum would have been better kept to the Defias Brotherhood wiki instead of being added to DefiasRP. Unfortunately people never seemed to really get into using the wiki.

Also, as far as search goes... I'd like a search function that actually works. That'd be nice. Current one only searches in the subject field.

Drustai wrote:

Swan Emperor Arenfel wrote:Why should guilds be FORCED to advertise on the realm forums? They should be doing this anyway but - as you may recall - we share our dedicated realm forums with the PvP community and so prospective guilds are likely to lose their threads in the mix.

Because this server's RP community has been so long entrenched in a private forum that the quantity of new blood is basically zilch. And as seen from last year when Ephitos and others were promoting people to actually post on the realm forums, the vast majority refused to use both and continued to focus entirely on this one which prevented the effort from taking off. Forcing guilds to advertise on the realm forums instead of here means: new players will actually see the threads and old players will be forced to use the realm forums actively.

Right now, the Registry forum just attracts current DefiasRP community members and encourages alt creation. It does not attract new players and this kills the community.

Ideally there should be MORE than just guild threads on the realm forums. Ideally the vast majority of conversations that take place on DefiasRP should take place on the realm forums. But guild threads would at least be a start.

The only problem being that the realmforums are poop for having discussions, civil or otherwise. People should post on the realm-forums. they should post their events there, and their guild advertising, and what not, there's no question about that; but blaming this forum for a decline in population of a 10 year old game is silly and facetious.

But the point remains that you cannot on the realmforums have 20 guild-recruitment threads -10 event threads, 10 specific RP related discussions as it pertains to DB as well as OOC and the PVP/PVE discussions

actually im inclined to agree with drustai.. this is a private fourum at the end of the day as such it creates an isolated community and as most people on this forum are in high positions on the main server it makes it very hard for new rp'ers to become integrated.. this I still remember myself when I first started to rp.. nomater what the intent the very nature and existence of this forum will create a stereotype for the new roleplayer of usually elitism, which in itself can put people off from even trying to integrate


eah but we digress this thread is geting derailed from the point!

SUBFOURMS!! Personally I think they are fine the way they are thow yes the search function is very bad and in need of updating

Does this forum make DB-RP look insular from the outside world? I can agree with that to some extent; but this forum has never been the actual focal point of DB-RP, or at least not to the extent that people believe it is. Big events are/were never actually realised in this forum; that happened in game. most guilds only a small minority has actually ever been on this forum - but the idea that what happens here is what revolves in the RP community is pure fantasy.

That said, i'm not sure if you guys actually used the realmforums in vanilla or tbc, but it was a mess of trolling on the same stupid topics we have hear like clockwork but only worse. the only difference being; you were forced to bump recruitment threads.

I used the realm forums back in TBC, quite a lot. And I miss when it was as active with RP stuff as DefiasRP is now. That's why I rolled on Defias Brotherhood in the first place--because of all the roleplay threads and stories being posted on the realm forums, which made DB look more active than AD at the time.

And yes, there were OOCers and trolls... but there was also newbies and lurkers, who get drawn in to the RP community by seeing active RP discussions on the forum.

I see Defiasrp.com kind-of as an archive, or a forum how a forum should function. Things of past can actually be found and won't be buried in dozen of trash threads.

Blizzard forums are not as good, as you can not post any images and the forums is designed the entire game in mind rather than the singular community of a single server. HOWEVER, nothing posted on defiasrp.com will bring new members to the server in the extent that realm forums do. I'll give off you an example.

I was whispered a days ago by a completely random person who had got convinced to move to Defias Brotherhood by a large post i had made in "what about aliance side ?" and he was not even the OP of the thread. He just had happen to stumble upon it.

This is why things should be posted on Realm Forums if you want to see more roleplayers on Defias Brotherhood. It does actually bring new people on the server, whether you want to believe it or not.

Now actually On Topic:

The Group Sections could use some cleanup but otherwise i think the forums function just fine. Guides and similar topics would be nice if get updated and put into a single place, and other relevant/actually useful topics that do not "age" (like an IC poster of an event would), and so that they can actually be found.

However, that requires work, time and effort and our current forum moderators tend to be busy with real life, they being people as much as we rest are. If you want to see change, do discuss possibility of changes and do offer your aid.

As for the Population section, i to hope the http://defiaseu.wikia.com/ would be in more use, but if people like to stick to the forum version of their profiles, so be it.

This is a needless suggestion.

Swan Emperor Arenfel wrote:

Dwyburn wrote:I'd very much like it if the only sections of the forum were:
In Character
Looking for Roleplay
Game Related
General Chat

In this utopia, new event-posts will be posted in LFRP, population turned to a LFRP-subforum. Group Forums will be deleted TWICE for being a hideous relic from the elitistic past of the server. Registry will be removed completely, and guilds would be encouraged to make their recruitment/info threads on the official DB forum. Introductions/etc will be cut just as brutally, as they remind me of the vouching days of old.

P.S: This is a serious suggestion, I'd really like it if it was considered as such by those in power to enforce changes like the ones I make here.

What?

Going by your process of thinking then shouldn't "events" take priority over "looking for roleplay"?

Group forums, which can be considered elitist, work well for the distribution of in-game information (books, posters, letters) for a specific group of individuals. Which cannot be distributed purely in-game for a number of reasons. Refusal to install GHI, requiring certain external links, etc etc).

Why should guilds be FORCED to advertise on the realm forums? They should be doing this anyway but - as you may recall - we share our dedicated realm forums with the PvP community and so prospective guilds are likely to lose their threads in the mix.

Library and art would be cut. Sure, we'd lose some good stories, but quite honestly, most of them wouldn't be missed. A sticky in the new IC could be "Library" where the different writers might link to their writings, preferably on personal blogs.

Whoah there Edgar Allen Poe. Who pissed in your cereal this morning?

Stephen King did.

I support this suggestion.

Except the library part I support this idea.

I know a lot of people who have registrated here that were either new to RP or to the realm (or to game even!) and they found it useful.

Elitism is most often brought up by people that are already involved in the community already, I cannot see how the RP community would be better served without this forum or without some parts suggested, looking at the amount of stories, art and events provided that should be evidience enough.

That there are less players around today than in 2005 is due to the game being ten year old, not if we have certain subforums here..

Also, to have it all in once place is much more handy and user-friendly than how it was earlier with a number of forums (we had one for SW Council, one for War Council, Wiki, realm forums etc), to have people to sign up for one forum makes more sense than have people to sign up for four-five different forums/sites.

Maelmoor wrote:I know a lot of people who have registrated here that were either new to RP or to the realm (or to game even!) and they found it useful.

Elitism is most often brought up by people that are already involved in the community already, I cannot see how the RP community would be better served without this forum or without some parts suggested, looking at the amount of stories, art and events provided that should be evidience enough.

That there are less players around today than in 2005 is due to the game being ten year old, not if we have certain subforums here..

Also, to have it all in once place is much more handy and user-friendly than how it was earlier with a number of forums (we had one for SW Council, one for War Council, Wiki, realm forums etc), to have people to sign up for one forum makes more sense than have people to sign up for four-five different forums/sites.

This.

This suggestion comes off as selfish. The forum is quite neat, easy to navigate and has a collection of useful information. Not to mention, you're suggesting to rid people of their creativity because you're not fond of the clutter/think it's useless.

As for the whole "this forum dissuades people from role-playing!" - you're not forced to be on here. I'm not fond of the realm forums - you're filtered and moderated harshly. Your topics can (and often will) be intruded by non-rpers, trolls and gankers. Trying to force guilds to post there is ridiculous - post where you want to post. If you don't agree with the forum, you're welcome to use the realm forums. If I make a post in the guild recruitment section, if someone kindly asked me if they can put it on the realm forums, I'd allow it but I'm not bound by duty to post it on there.

Lets take each section you missed out:


Introductions
The least used section. Though, it does have 31 threads. That's 31 people introducing themselves to the community. Whenever I join a forum, I usually post in this section.

DefiasRP Forums
For topics like these, it's useful. It's the forum "tech area". We could limit that to private messaging but for threads like this one, the community voice is often useful.

In Character/Events
These three could be combined, but I personally think it's a pretty neat format at the minute. It doesn't take a genius to work out what each is used for!

Population
357 threads, as I write this. That's 357 different characters that people have taken the time to put together a background for. Some are people that have left the game and won't come back but all of these characters have been used in our role-play. If I meet someone new, I check to see if they have a page. It also shows you what to imagine their character like, what relations/alliances they have, a bit about their past that you may never find out and plenty more. If you only want to learn about a character through your rp, again, you're not forced to look at that section.

Registry
A simple point. You said most the people who go into that thread are already guilded. Read some of the posts in there and you'd be proven otherwise. A null point. It's useful.

Library and Art Section
A creative outlet for role-play. As someone who has a few stories archived in there, I think I speak for everyone when I say a kindly piss off in response to removing it. There's no reason to. A new player wouldn't click on that section and go "THAT'S IT. I'M DONE WITH ROLE-PLAY! THESE GUYS LIKE WRITING." - if we went through with this, we'd have to remove the artwork thread too.

Group Forums
How dare you attack- Wait, this section isn't actually that exciting. I can't really defend it. But I'm sure it's nice.