Notebook.ai

Thoughts requested on improving the Roleplaying forums

@andrew flash_onAdmin Admin forum 107 comments schedule
flash_on
@andrew flash_onAdmin
verified_user Mod Admin

Hey guys, obviously this board is one of our biggest, most successful ones (wooooooooooooooo!) and I'd love to expand it. I've been watching and lurking in some RPs for some time, but I wanted to get some thoughts on how y'all experts would handle expanding.

Some terminology, upfront: the "Roleplaying" section on the forums here is a "Board". It has many "Threads" (of which this is one. It doesn't belong to a group of boards like the rest of the forum, e.g. Characters/Magic/Creatures in the "Worldbuilding" section, Writing Prompts & Plot Factory in the "Writing" section, etc.

I'd like to create a "Roleplaying" section with several (probably 2-6) boards. My question is this: how would you like those boards organized?

Some ideas, but obviously they're not that great (or, I don't know if they are), which is why I'm asking for your help:

  • Genres (fantasy RPs, sci-fi RPs, romance RPs, realistic RPs, general RPs, etc)
  • Ages (middle school RPs, high school RPs, adult RPs, etc)
  • Topics (vampire RPs, criminal RPs, adventure RPs, etc)
  • Familiarity (introductory RPs for anyone, beginner RPs, advanced RPs, expert RPs, etc)

So… any and all thoughts are very welcome. I won't be creating the section/boards quite yet, as I'd like to get some discussion going and comments rolling, but I am looking at this (and other ways) to improve the forums, and this board in particular. I'll open up another thread soon with some news on other features that'd make the forums better, so if we could focus on the forums in the context of roleplaying here that'd be amazing.

Thanks, everyone! :)

Maybe divide them by genre and then age? Or vica versa? Familiarity would be good too.

group
@PuffPoff

Genre and familiarity would be the most helpful ways (for me at least) to organize the boards.

@WriteOutofTime

I agree! Genre and familiarity make the most sense to me.

person_off
Deleted user

Yes, familiarity would definitely help.

person_off
Deleted user

Tbh I agree with them genre and familiarity would help

person_off
Deleted user

I definately agree with Familiarity and genre. Although I kind of like how this is already designed because its easier for me to go rp to rp.

person_off
Deleted user

Tru

person_off
Deleted user

Do you think we can have some sort of chat notification like a notification pops up on your screen whenever someone has chatted on your rp and you click on it to take you there, kind of like pinterest?

@BookAddict

I think genre would be great. Ages could be bad, since a lot of people rp with a range of different aged people and alot of rps have a range of character ages. I think familiarity isn't that great since i found RPing with more familiar rpers a good way to develop my skills.
just my personal opinion though.

@ScarletAndHerSides

I personally think that it’s lovely just the way it is.

@BookAddict

I personally think that it’s lovely just the way it is.

hmm yeah. it's really easy to go from one thread to another right now, which I like. i reckon if you divided the threads into boards, something like the pinterest notification that @AmericasFavoriteFightingFrenchGirl_LAFFETTE! suggested would be needed

It seems fine the way it is right now, but if we were going to sort it, I’d probably say by familiarity or genre

person_off
Deleted user

I quite like it the way it is right now, but if we are going to do this, I’d say do it by genre. @BookAddict gives good reasons for why the other sorting systems wouldn’t work as well.

@BookAddict

thanks

person_off
Deleted user

👍

person_off
Deleted user

Also, rating. Like, PG or G or PG13 or R or anything in between? I think that would help since a lot of young people (including me) want to keep their innocence. It would also help for what people choose what to respond in the chat forum. And also, maybe there should be a "Kick" or "Unkick" option for the people who have made the thread so if someone is being abusive on the chat then they can simply boot the user out. It would be a good thing to put on all chat forums, actually. Sorry if my ideas are stupid, you don't have to take my advice, I'm just putting it out there as a suggestion and nothing more.

@BookAddict

Rating could work. Genre is still my preference, but rating is probably my second preference of the ideas so far.

person_off
Deleted user

Rating could work. Genre is still my preference, but rating is probably my second preference of the ideas so far.

I was thinking both would work together, actually. Everyone has way better ideas than me lol.

@BookAddict

Rating could work. Genre is still my preference, but rating is probably my second preference of the ideas so far.

I was thinking both would work together, actually. Everyone has way better ideas than me lol.

no, your ideas are good. you're the first to suggest an original sorting method, all the rest were suggested by @andrew (Our Supreme Lord and Overseer)

I like the whole rating thing, but I’m not sure how easy it’s be to mix more than one sorting pattern together

@BookAddict

yeah, I feel like more than one sorting pattern would be way too confusing and result in way too many boards

person_off
Deleted user

Also, rating. Like, PG or G or PG13 or R or anything in between? I think that would help since a lot of young people (including me) want to keep their innocence. It would also help for what people choose what to respond in the chat forum. And also, maybe there should be a "Kick" or "Unkick" option for the people who have made the thread so if someone is being abusive on the chat then they can simply boot the user out. It would be a good thing to put on all chat forums, actually. Sorry if my ideas are stupid, you don't have to take my advice, I'm just putting it out there as a suggestion and nothing more.

I really like this "Kick" - "Unkick" idea.
And I really like the Genre, Age and Familiarity

group
@wrixle group

I really like the idea of it being sorted into genres or topics. I feel like separating it into different age groups would be quite restricting as many roleplays have a multitude of age groups. For similar reasons, I don't think sorting by familiarity to roleplaying would be good either (it would be restrictive and I feel like you would miss out on an opportunity to learn more about roleplaying and get better at them). I do; however, really like the idea of the roleplays having ratings based on what happens in them. Finally, (and sorry for such a long paragraph) I think that if you are going to sort the roleplay boards into different categories it is best to keep things as simple as possible (as has been stated by others) because if there are too many sections to click through in order for you to get to your roleplay it would just get confusing and honestly, quite annoying.

@Oakiin

I like rating, and I like the notification and kick-unkick as well. I also think that topics is a good one.

@SaltyLasagna

I also think ratings might be good? Like pg13, g, etc. Idk what do you guys think?

person_off
Deleted user

I also think ratings might be good? Like pg13, g, etc. Idk what do you guys think?

I must say I agree.

@Natasha

I think that separating the roleplays into familiarity would be a good idea because in some of the roleplays I've been in I've seen some people have to leave because it all got to complicated and confusing for them, and I've also had to leave some rps myself such as roleplays where the rules where that you have to write like…..over ten long and well written sentences in order to be part of the rp.

flash_on
@andrew flash_onAdmin
verified_user Mod Admin

Thanks for the feedback so far, everyone. I appreciate it. :)

For everyone saying they like it as it is now, I hear you. It's super convenient to be able to jump from one RP to the next without the extra clicks of switching up the board you're on. That said, I also don't want some less-popular threads to get beaten out by larger ones – honest question for people: how often do you click through to page 2, or page 3, or further on this board? Do you think there are RPs that basically get "lost" with all the threads? That's one of the things I wanted to improve by adding more boards.

It also sounds like genre and familiarity are pretty popular. With the above in mind, I think it'd probably be nice to limit the number of extra boards to keep the feel we have now while also growing, so we'll probably go with just one organizational pattern for now. I'm happy to keep the conversation going, but I'm leaning towards genres right now, perhaps also with an any-genre board for beginners.

A follow-up question:

  • If boards were roughly split up by genre, how often do you see yourself staying in the same genre to RP in several threads versus jumping from genre to genre for each thread?
person_off
Deleted user

I see myself staying in the same genre but I already rp in that genre all the time soo yeah :)