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At some point in the near-future, I'm going to be working on the Roleplay expansion, which includes character and nation profiles. Before I get started though, I wanted to get some thoughts from the RP community specifically. Currently, all RPs are organized in one forum, separated out by RP, but with recent forum changes I'm more open to doing subforums as well. Would it be preferable to keep things as they are or switch to subforums?

Also, I would be interested in any ideas, suggestion, or discussion about anything that would make running or playing in RPs better here on the forums.

I've been wondering...what about rather than separating every major RP by section (aka how it's done in the Gathering Portal), we do it by subforum?

Hear me out, I don't mean make a subforum for every RP that someone makes, but rather by genre.  Light RPs could be in there as well if we wanted, or we could make it dedicated to the more dedicated ones, IE:

*Fantasy
*Political/Nation-Based
*Sci-Fi/Futuristic
*Modern

and whatnot.  Application threads could be within the main forum itself (aka the Gathering Portal literally be like a portal to different areas), and there could be another subforum dedicated to OOC threads.  Map threads could be stickied in the appropriate genre subforum so that people know that they're important for the RP they're getting into.

It'd also open up to more ideas like having a subforum for character related things, such as character diaries/journals, factbooks for nation/character profiles, main character profiles (outside of general applications) until the RP expansion for profiles is made...and whatnot.

For some reason I just feel like it'd be easier to manage for when we get more ideas for expansive RPs, rather than creating section after section once another idea takes off.

As a fairly new player here, I most likely have no idea how things are done in Wintreath and there is a good chance I might be getting this all wrong. However, I would like to put my two cents to the matter.

I suggest seperating the RPs via subforums into each type of RP; nation-based, character-based and so on.

The nation-based RPs would concern the stories of individual nations; Wintrean Union would be a great example for this type of RP. There would be a sub-subforum where national factbooks and general information threads can go, an OOC sub-subforum for discussions and signups, and an IC sub-subforum for main roleplay threads.

Character-based RPs would consist of RPs where individual characters in the history of the Frozen Realm of Wintreath interact; house RPs such as A War Fought On Many Fronts would be a part of this category. Again, this subforum would be divided into one where character sheets and general information threads go, an OOC subforum and the main IC subforum.

While setting up the rules and background information of nation-based RPs would be within the discretion of the OP and those who participate in the said RPs, the same cannot be said for character-based RPs as they would be naturally interwoven with the non-RP sector of the Frozen Realm. An official map(if there isn't one) would have to be created and announced, lore and history of the realm(again, if there isn't any) written from the founding of Wintreath. The structure, membership and relationships of the Houses would have to be taken into consideration, and royal decrees and politics would somewhat influence the RPs.

Again, I am unexperienced in Wintreath and will need feedback. Thoughts, opinions and suggestions would be appreciated.

I believe the most efficient and effective way to change this, if we were to change it, would be to create a subforum rooted within The Gathering Portal for every RP then organizing all of the threads within into three different sections just like how we are separating the different RPs currently. These three sections would be OOC Discussions, Information Center, and Story Telling (IC). It is a similar setup to what I have on the NH forum for our region RP there, and I know it to work well.

If anyone else has a simpler and better solution, speak up.

I believe the most efficient and effective way to change this, if we were to change it, would be to create a subforum rooted within The Gathering Portal for every RP then organizing all of the threads within into three different sections just like how we are separating the different RPs currently. These three sections would be OOC Discussions, Information Center, and Story Telling (IC). It is a similar setup to what I have on the NH forum for our region RP there, and I know it to work well.

If anyone else has a simpler and better solution, speak up.

The only problem I see is the Gathering Portal becoming bogged down with different subforums if we were to take on a lot of RPs...and then organizing every single one that specific way might prove to be a bit tedious.

Right now we only have 4 active RPs, though that'll change in the future, especially since there's always RP ideas being posted.  Not to mention, they'd have to wait until a subforum was even built for their specific RP before it could take off...which could take a while to happen depending on Moot's time, since he's the only one at the moment I can recall that can add new subforums as well as sections.

Whereas if we just separated them by genre and had other subforums for the various other threads...people wouldn't have to wait as long.  The moment enough interest is gathered, they'd be able to post their threads immediately and get the ball running without having to wait for their subforum to appear.

If the RP were to grow beyond just the 3-4 topics, I could see the potential of giving them their own forum...but I don't think a separate forum for each RP that is only going to hold that many at best would even be necessary.

I believe the most efficient and effective way to change this, if we were to change it, would be to create a subforum rooted within The Gathering Portal for every RP then organizing all of the threads within into three different sections just like how we are separating the different RPs currently. These three sections would be OOC Discussions, Information Center, and Story Telling (IC). It is a similar setup to what I have on the NH forum for our region RP there, and I know it to work well.

If anyone else has a simpler and better solution, speak up.

The only problem I see is the Gathering Portal becoming bogged down with different subforums if we were to take on a lot of RPs...and then organizing every single one that specific way might prove to be a bit tedious.

Right now we only have 4 active RPs, though that'll change in the future, especially since there's always RP ideas being posted.  Not to mention, they'd have to wait until a subforum was even built for their specific RP before it could take off...which could take a while to happen depending on Moot's time, since he's the only one at the moment I can recall that can add new subforums as well as sections.

Whereas if we just separated them by genre and had other subforums for the various other threads...people wouldn't have to wait as long.  The moment enough interest is gathered, they'd be able to post their threads immediately and get the ball running without having to wait for their subforum to appear.

If the RP were to grow beyond just the 3-4 topics, I could see the potential of giving them their own forum...but I don't think a separate forum for each RP that is only going to hold that many at best would even be necessary.

You, Sir, need to take a trip to the NH forum and see just how many threads we have under my system.

I see your point, but your concern about the Portal getting bogged down with subforums is kind of moot when you want to load it with so many subforums right off the bat. And under your organization, RP threads would be separated between subforums. My system keeps all threads for a RP in a single easy to find location. Yes, there will be some waiting involved, but the wait will be worth it in my opinion.

* Wintermoot is continuing to keep track of the discussion

I've been wondering...what about rather than separating every major RP by section (aka how it's done in the Gathering Portal), we do it by subforum?

Hear me out, I don't mean make a subforum for every RP that someone makes, but rather by genre.  Light RPs could be in there as well if we wanted, or we could make it dedicated to the more dedicated ones, IE:

*Fantasy
*Political/Nation-Based
*Sci-Fi/Futuristic
*Modern

and whatnot.  Application threads could be within the main forum itself (aka the Gathering Portal literally be like a portal to different areas), and there could be another subforum dedicated to OOC threads.  Map threads could be stickied in the appropriate genre subforum so that people know that they're important for the RP they're getting into.

It'd also open up to more ideas like having a subforum for character related things, such as character diaries/journals, factbooks for nation/character profiles, main character profiles (outside of general applications) until the RP expansion for profiles is made...and whatnot.

For some reason I just feel like it'd be easier to manage for when we get more ideas for expansive RPs, rather than creating section after section once another idea takes off.

When I'm viewing/participating in an RP, I want to have everything together. Factbooks, OOC threads, IC threads, map threads, etc. If, say, I'm writing a post for FtA, I want to be looking at other FtA stuff. I might refer to OOC or Factbooks to make sure my information's straight, or look at the map to have accurate coordinates and sense of location.

What I won't be doing is looking at threads from another RP. FtA and Space Expeditions are both sci-fi, but they're completely unrelated. It makes no sense to place their threads together, and makes even less sense to separate threads of the same RP into different subforums (unless those subforums are devoted to that particular RP).

And it doesn't matter that we need to wait for Wintermoot to create subforums. The existing forum sections system already requires Wintermoot to add the threads after they are created. Much as we do now, we can jump in immediately anyway, and wait for Wintermoot to create the subforum and move the threads over later. (In fact, something similar has happened before with the Wintreath Academy, and I never saw that as a problem.)

I like Aragonn's suggestion, but I might be biased because that's the RP format that I was originally introduced to. Personally, I feel that both this system and the existing one work equally well. If you look at RP's developed under the many-subforums system, you find multiple threads devoted to different plotlines in the RP. Furthermore, having each nation factbook with its own thread is much easier to organize, view, and discuss.

However, from my time in Wintreath, I've come to see that these forums tend to be more megathread-based. It might be better, because it allows writing and discussion to flow together more easily, but its also harder for later viewing purposes, as it's not as well organized.

So overall, I wouldn't mind seeing individual RP's getting their own subforums and sub-subforums, but keeping it the way it is is fine for me too.

I believe the most efficient and effective way to change this, if we were to change it, would be to create a subforum rooted within The Gathering Portal for every RP then organizing all of the threads within into three different sections just like how we are separating the different RPs currently. These three sections would be OOC Discussions, Information Center, and Story Telling (IC). It is a similar setup to what I have on the NH forum for our region RP there, and I know it to work well.

If anyone else has a simpler and better solution, speak up.

The only problem I see is the Gathering Portal becoming bogged down with different subforums if we were to take on a lot of RPs...and then organizing every single one that specific way might prove to be a bit tedious.

Right now we only have 4 active RPs, though that'll change in the future, especially since there's always RP ideas being posted.  Not to mention, they'd have to wait until a subforum was even built for their specific RP before it could take off...which could take a while to happen depending on Moot's time, since he's the only one at the moment I can recall that can add new subforums as well as sections.

Whereas if we just separated them by genre and had other subforums for the various other threads...people wouldn't have to wait as long.  The moment enough interest is gathered, they'd be able to post their threads immediately and get the ball running without having to wait for their subforum to appear.

If the RP were to grow beyond just the 3-4 topics, I could see the potential of giving them their own forum...but I don't think a separate forum for each RP that is only going to hold that many at best would even be necessary.

You, Sir, need to take a trip to the NH forum and see just how many threads we have under my system.

I see your point, but your concern about the Portal getting bogged down with subforums is kind of moot when you want to load it with so many subforums right off the bat. And under your organization, RP threads would be separated between subforums. My system keeps all threads for a RP in a single easy to find location. Yes, there will be some waiting involved, but the wait will be worth it in my opinion.

Forgive me, I actually mis-read your post when I replied.  When I first read it, it came out to me as saying that you wanted to create a subforum for each and every full fledged RP that we have, hence my response back.

If anything, though, my system would be following this, minus about maybe half of the subforums: http://10000islands.proboards.com/board/26/role-playing-forum

The difference being that rather than being separated by theme with any genre being the dominant theme type, it'd be the exact opposite where it'd be separated by genre specifically so that people could explore different RP types and would know where to go for them.

However, I will say that I do like your idea of keeping it to three threads specifically. 

I believe the most efficient and effective way to change this, if we were to change it, would be to create a subforum rooted within The Gathering Portal for every RP then organizing all of the threads within into three different sections just like how we are separating the different RPs currently. These three sections would be OOC Discussions, Information Center, and Story Telling (IC). It is a similar setup to what I have on the NH forum for our region RP there, and I know it to work well.

If anyone else has a simpler and better solution, speak up.

The only problem I see is the Gathering Portal becoming bogged down with different subforums if we were to take on a lot of RPs...and then organizing every single one that specific way might prove to be a bit tedious.

Right now we only have 4 active RPs, though that'll change in the future, especially since there's always RP ideas being posted.  Not to mention, they'd have to wait until a subforum was even built for their specific RP before it could take off...which could take a while to happen depending on Moot's time, since he's the only one at the moment I can recall that can add new subforums as well as sections.

Whereas if we just separated them by genre and had other subforums for the various other threads...people wouldn't have to wait as long.  The moment enough interest is gathered, they'd be able to post their threads immediately and get the ball running without having to wait for their subforum to appear.

If the RP were to grow beyond just the 3-4 topics, I could see the potential of giving them their own forum...but I don't think a separate forum for each RP that is only going to hold that many at best would even be necessary.

You, Sir, need to take a trip to the NH forum and see just how many threads we have under my system.

I see your point, but your concern about the Portal getting bogged down with subforums is kind of moot when you want to load it with so many subforums right off the bat. And under your organization, RP threads would be separated between subforums. My system keeps all threads for a RP in a single easy to find location. Yes, there will be some waiting involved, but the wait will be worth it in my opinion.

Forgive me, I actually mis-read your post when I replied.  When I first read it, it came out to me as saying that you wanted to create a subforum for each and every full fledged RP that we have, hence my response back.

If anything, though, my system would be following this, minus about maybe half of the subforums: http://10000islands.proboards.com/board/26/role-playing-forum

The difference being that rather than being separated by theme with any genre being the dominant theme type, it'd be the exact opposite where it'd be separated by genre specifically so that people could explore different RP types and would know where to go for them.

However, I will say that I do like your idea of keeping it to three threads specifically. 

No, I meant each and every full fledged RP would have it's own subforum rooted within The Gathering Portal. Each subforum would be given the name of the RP and divided into three sections each named as I previously stated. Honestly, I don't imagine having more active RPs than RP genres. When a RP is finished, it can be archived to keep The Gathering Portal from being too cluttered.

Under your proposed system, there will be six or seven subforums, making your concern about having a lot of subforums seem hypocritical. The genre subforums aren't guaranteed to have anything in them because people won't have and interest in them and can sit there as empty spaces that are not even needed. With my system, every subforum will have at least three threads in it, one for each section of the subforum. When a RP is finished or no longer holds any interest, it will be archived and the number of subforums withing The Gathering Portal will be lessened.

Your proposed system will work great for new players who have no idea what they're doing, but it's terrible for veteran players who want things to be organized for easy referencing. I think that new players coming into an organized system will teach them how to be organized and will help them more in the long run. This goes back to my belief where everyone should be elevated to the same level rather than being brought down to the same level.

For reference, this is the system we have in New Hyperion:

http://w11.zetaboards.com/New_Hyperion/forum/4226943/

That's the link to the archives. Here is the setup for the NH region RP.

That's the link to the archives. Here is the setup for the NH region RP.

Yes, but I thought it better to link to the archives, as we will be having multiple RP's in this region.

No further arguments?

Is someone looking for an argument?