Some whining and moaning. :)

Here I am again! Remember that I have no personal issues with any of you and that I mean no offence in any way. I feel very un-easy when I see issues and problems that have a very simple solution. I certainly do not intend to step on someone's toes but I can not either sit by and watch without saying anything as i think far too many do that already.

The issues:
1 - It is too hard to get access to these forums. That causes problems in-game as you can't really expect someone to know the laws if they can't access them, join events if they haven't heard of them, join the community if they don't get welcomed. As an example I vouched for my friend Dagur on march 26th and as far as I know he still hasn't been invited here. Another friend of mine also claim to have registered but hasn't gained access for a really long time and feels a bit neglected. That honestly sucks. Do you really expect people to be so eager to join that they'd stick around for several months? Will that make them feel respected and welcomed?
I do understand WHY you want to be sure it is the real person behind the character and all that, but why are you making this so bloody advanced that it scares people off? This is not increasing the RP on the realm, it is not making life in Azeroth easier and it certainly do not embrace new roleplayers - and that last part is so damn important that it annoys the crap out of me (not literally, no ) that nothing is done.

2 - You need confirmed that someone is a roleplayer before they get access to these forums. This creates even more work for you. And I really don't see the point. If a non-rp'er joins I really can't see how that'd hurt us. What's he supposed to do, give weird answers to people's posts?

3 - A slight elitism. This is sensitive, i know. And I am also sure that none of you really are bad people or do this intentionally. Of course you will behave like you're best friends when you ahve been for several years and of course newcomers will feel left a bit outside. But when you must make a name in your RP before people respond to your posts properly on a forum something is wrong... (that was merely an example. I will not do naming and shaming and I do not necessarily talk about myself)

The solutions:
1 - I suggested on the realm forums that a thread could be made where the player itself would write that he registered on these forums. That way you can really, really be sure it's the same. Problem solved, easy and painless. It has still not been done, what I have seen.

2 - Let the por sod join. If he behaves badly just kick him out again. Who knows, maybe he will think what we're doing here is so awesome that he gets interested in RP too? That'd be great, wouldn't it! Awesomeness and exactly what we want the ooc'ers to do! So why exclude them from the start without any other reasons than them not being roleplayers - yet?

3 - Ask questions, bump their posts and whisper them feedback on their descriptions. like you already do with your in-game friends. Make them feel welcome and they will want to stay. Just as they will want to prove themselves to impress you with their roleplaying skills and then happily correct whatever faults they make when you give them friendly feedback. Simple, quick and very, very rewarding.


Again: I want everyone to be happy and I want the RP to fourish. I do not believe isolation from newcomers is the way to do this. maybe it is actually causing the opposite. Do think of it. And do ease the burden of work on your own shoulders.

Much love
Menyet

I agree with two things that were pointed out.

1. The "application" process just seems to complicate things a wee bit more than is necessary.

2. Is there really that much harm in letting someone join and then realizing that this is not the forum for them? If they mess up, it's easy enough to limit their access again. There isn't really any information that could be considered private or that poses the potential for encroaching on anyone else's "territory." No ventrilo or teamspeak details or passwords are posted anywhere.

ELITISM!? WHO LET THIS COMMONER IN! WHERES MY BLOODY GUN?!

And I liked the '' this was a happy whine.

Alright, I'll try to not mess things up while replying now (have a tendency to do so when I have too much in my mind).

1. We're discussing this in the moderator forum. We're also discussing an alternative solution to make guests or newcommers able to post in the Public Section to verify themselves. So patience, we'll shortly solve this one way or the other. As for your friend, Dagur, I have not found him in either the member list, or inactivated member list. So either he's applied in another name, or the application must of messed up and not shown. If you could ask him what name he signed on, and ask him to try and sign again then I can look into it.

2. This is a forum for roleplayers. That is how I made it. Why? Because I was truly sick and tired of the realm forums trolling, its endless updates on only PvE and PvP progress when I could not give two shits about that and only wished to see the poor RP threads that quickly disappeared into the endless threads. Accepting OOCers and people that think they might be interested in roleplay in an unknown future would most likely just add to the moderators work, as they would most probably make threads about raiding, troll and insult and just cause trouble, take info that we're not interested to have spread with OOCers and gankers that would come and have fun corpse camping on our events. All this, is what these forums was created for. For us roleplayers to have a place to feel comfortable and safe with all that. Now of course there's always bad blood even within roleplayers, but at least the work can be kept at a minimum at this point.

As for newcommers, going back to point 1, the idea we're discussing would solve that issue also.

3. I personally try to not favor too much. If I see a thread I'm interested in, I'll read and bump it regardless of who made it. The rest I usually just 'mark as read'. It is hard as a newcommer, no denying that. But then again, it has always been. Ever since I first joined WoW myself, it took seriously hard work to get friends and become known. It's only natural really, even if its a game its real people behind the screens. And as humans, we will all mostly keep to our friendship-circles, cause we know it is safe there. However with that said, I think Defias is an amazing server at getting newcommers into the roleplay and giving them a chance. Most so then on the few servers I've been on and left cause that was simply impossible.

Thanks a lot for your reply, I am really happy that you gave it so quickly and I do respect both you, the rest of the moderators/admins and I think you're doing a great job with this site!

1. That's great. These forums are incredibly active and it's such a shame that all roleplayers get access to them because of such simple things. So it would certainly be an improvement!
Also I will ask Dagur again if he signed with a different name than that, i am pretty sure he did say Dagur though. Maybe he deleted it or something. : /

2. Okay, I can understand your arguments there and I will accept them too.

3. Well enough. Do note that the elitism critique was not at all personally aimed at you or any others. What I meant is simply that sometimes it is worth to go out of your way to encourage newcomers extra well.

Why of course, I try to give my attention to things where people are genuinely concerned and have ideas to improve. And I appreciate it all, and yes as said just nudge your friend again. I apologize I did not mention it before, cause I remember trying to find him in the list but did not, but then got caught up with something else and forgot about it (I tend to be a bit mindless, and sadly I have the memory of a goldfish at times).


Rest assure, most of the things that are suggested and discussed are being handles in the moderator section. Even though some of the issues take some time, we'll always try our best to improve things here to the best of everyone.

I feel great now, thank you so much! Oh, btw, would you please accept this vouch for Toranian? He's a great roleplayer and is the one he is and all that. Had him talking about it on skype so I know.

Sorted

I agree with that this is a VERY good realm for newcomers.
I've been here about a month, and already made so many friends.
As for elitism... it's fun.

Always room for improvement IMO.

One simple complaint from me:

1) Zetaboards is more customisable and has more theme variety than Forumotion!

Okay, I'm done.

A few replies from my side as well.

First of all, the minor remark: Dagur has been activated, by me personally, and that is why Sai can't find him in the inactive users. Perhaps he should try logging in?

I'll take your concerns in reverse order if you do not mind.

#3. (pre-note: don't tell me it's not personal, I don't receive it as such, but as you read you will understand why I speak for my person only, on this one) I really don't believe this is the case, nor would I want it to be. In fact I seem to remember personally praising you for a couple of your threads, even though you were very fresh and some people were distrusting to you. Sadly, noone can "force" people to accept newcomers. It's all in the impact one makes. Some people ring a positive bell, some people ring a negative bell. That is a social standard and it's not caused nor can be solved in these forums. Personally, I've never overlooked a post thinking "meh. newbie. pass." or along the lines.

#2. To this, I will oppose 100%. Reasons stated by Sai cover me fully, so I won't expand into that.

#1. Three things in regards to this:

a. Forumotion does give me hell sometimes, indeed. And I believe I've said in the past too, that Zetaboards would've been my choice. But those are the forums we have now, and there's been tons of work invested in making them work, not to mention the tons of data already contained in them. Technically it is possible to transfer to another platform, but that will only create even more work for us to setup the new ACP, fix all groups from the start, all permissions, adjust them, resolve upcoming compatibility issues, rearranging, remodding, rescheming...

b. The registration procedure is still being discussed, as Sai posted.

c. I'm afraid that the "That causes problems in-game as you can't really expect someone to know the laws if they can't access them, join events if they haven't heard of them" is a bit onesided. I'd estimate that a good 50% of the active RP'ers has not registered, either. How will they "know the laws" (to use your example) then? Also, there are 152 users registered that have never even made a single post. Some of them might visit once per year.

As an overall note, there are ongoing discussions about how to improve even more. Feedback like this, which is pinpointing concerns without assaulting or assuming, is much appreciated

Saihna/Julia wrote:it took seriously hard work to get friends and become known. It's only natural really, even if its a game its real people behind the screens.

In my eyes this is called serious butt licking has to be done. Not considering IC work that has been done but only OOC work. At least that is what I personally notice alot.

Saihna/Julia wrote:it took seriously hard work to get friends and become known. It's only natural really, even if its a game its real people behind the screens.

Yup, I've been here for nearly what, two years? And still I'm not that familiar with people, took me around the one year to get integrated into the community.

That said, I've made some great friends on this server, and don't regret one bit moving here from Sporeggar(The Venture Co. originally) back in the end of TBC.

I've never been a Blizz DB forum junkie. I despised those forums.

I've never been Alliance (save for one gnome-escapade). And so I have always felt a large "side" of the RP of this realm (all the good AND bad) I have kinda missed in DB.

I've never been a member of OotRB or SGE or such. And as such I am sure I have missed out on great RP opportunities Horde-side.

But I tend to write my RP rather than act it in game (I don't think WoW is brilliant for RP, but that's a game/world mechanic thing, and not for here). I also have my head up my arse, and so I probably miss lots of stuff.

Then again, I only joined these forums a few months ago. Very recently infact. I personally use these as a stopping point to see the actual good in this server. There are forum whores here, like on the Blizz forums, and even on our guild forums, but that is forums for you. I may even be one in some places. But these forums were a place to escape the majority of crap and maybe find those one or two pockets of something that can become a new story, a new idea.

So... where am I going. I dunno. But these forums aren't an end to RP in anyway. Regardless of how many rules or regulations can get thrown up here. They are only rules and regulations for the people who accept them, here. There are countless other great RPers who may and do exist. Those once in a blue moon meetings. And they don't know what we do here. Should they know? Sure, point em here. How could we help?

make a public section where people can join (we do this on TTW forums) and post an "app". it doesnt have to be an app here. just a post of interest. They don't see anything else (personally i wouldnt want "anyone" seeing everything going on here, not even all the rp or such). once someone posts there, and is "vouched for" in a "recruitment" style thread or similar they are then activated.

these forums are just like a guild forum really. and i think they should be seen as such.

These forums are also full of bullshit and fun. and i like them that way.

But they are forums. and they are not "my world". I make my RP within and without of the rulesets suggested and sometimes "enforced" here. And I wouldn't want anyone else to do anything different really.

I would hope you use these forums and enjoy them. same for every active member. same for those 100+ members who havent posted. Same for all those members of TTW and LS and BD who never posted on our forums. Some people register "because they have to". register to read and never post. cool for them (if very annoying as a aid leading officer). but forums should be as open as possible to members so they dont just become little clique-havens. and that happens by people using them. the people they were designed for. roleplayers.

(can i add, not rollplayers. goon joke... anyways...)

Great, this works now. Thanks for activating me although it did take a bit of time (got the activation email on the 19th of this month).

Welcome aboard, lad

@Gruff... it's scary how close you are to what I suggested in mod forums for the public area. xD
@Rhebecca: I don't know how things work in your rp circles, but I've never encountered such a thing. In fact, some of the most widely respected RP'ers of this server have and keep a healthy distance from too much commotion.

Rhebeca wrote:

Saihna/Julia wrote:it took seriously hard work to get friends and become known. It's only natural really, even if its a game its real people behind the screens.

In my eyes this is called serious butt licking has to be done. Not considering IC work that has been done but only OOC work. At least that is what I personally notice alot.

This made me wonder if it would even be possible to be accepted by so many people by practicing what you call "serious butt licking" OOC wise. You'd have to be licking the butts of at least 300+ people on a regular basis, which would naturally take a lot of time and effort out of the game. Would anyone have any time left to spare to actually play the game like that?

I wouldn't say so. After 3 years of RPing on Defias, I onyl have a total of 17 msn contacts from people on the realm, whose majority I don't even talk to that frequently, unless it's game related (RP, guild, events, council, etc.) Whoever gave you the impression of having to lick any butts OOCly in order to become known, was wrong.

I am e-popular, right guys?

guys?

Archal/Hazrah/Vaneyk wrote:I am e-popular, right guys?

guys?

Well, you're a cool guy in my book. That counts, right?

Of course I am not suggesting that anyone should spend days kissing arse. ^^

If everyone is nice to one or two people each that'll be enough.

Nathiniós wrote:

Archal/Hazrah/Vaneyk wrote:I am e-popular, right guys?

guys?

Well, you're a cool guy in my book. That counts, right?

I suspect this is the beginning of a beautiful love story.

Felinaa/Dijie/Finnabhair wrote:

Nathiniós wrote:

Archal/Hazrah/Vaneyk wrote:I am e-popular, right guys?

guys?

Well, you're a cool guy in my book. That counts, right?

I suspect this is the beginning of a beautiful love story.

Not my fault Archie is so damn girly.

Did you mean "SEXY"?

Did someone say SEXY?