Compliments & Criticisms: Your Thoughts On SW-Fans.Net
Whether you are a regular poster, a newcomer, or an anonymous lurker, please let us know your thoughts on the community as a whole. What appeals to you about 'Fans? What frustrates you? What confuses you? Comment is free, so be as frank and honest as you want - without attacking individual members of the community.
Being a newbie to the site, but not to Star Wars Simming (and running a few sites myself), I do have a few thoughts on the site. I'll keep them brief as my ADD will get the best of me.
THE GOOD -
1. Lots of simmers. I enjoy simming, but I also enjoy reading other sims of members who really like to sim. It gets my creative juices going.
2. Open, in my opinion, to my comments (otherwise this thread wouldn't be here).
3. Fairly lax in what criteria I post for my bios. Doesn't have to be in any set formula.
THE "NOT-SO-GOOD"
(I don't like calling it bad, so we will stick with this title.)
1. With all of the different genres' it took me awhile to figure out where to post for what. We have specific boards for each faction and then a general board.
2. When rummaging through the boards, I do not find a list of who is leading each faction and the hierarchy, or if I do find it, then it is woefully out of date (sometimes by years). It's like looking to by a house that has been left vacant. Some people move on. I would like to see the factions hierarchy updated so that new people know who to contact in case they need to get started.
3. For the fleeters, it would be helpful when we are assigned ship(s), to be given a first mission to get us on our feet. I have my ships, and I know that I have freedom to post whatever I may, but I don't want to cause problems because I haven't read every thread and missed that an independent planet is actually controlled by another faction and now I started another war.
SUGGESTIONS
1. Have a contact person for each faction that contacts the newbies for their perspective faction. I would prefer it to be the leader, but it should be someone who has authority to give out ranks, ships, assignments, etc.
2. If a faction has gone inactive, could it be hidden so that it doesn't clutter up the site? I know that admin will still see them, but the vast body of members wouldn't see it.
3. Have a place on the forum where positions are being advertised, or "want ads" can be placed incase someone is searching for a sim or members or is wanting to contribute to sims.
Again, I think this site has more positives and negatives and will continue to sim here. In fact two members of my other site have already moved over here. These steps might make it easier for others to feel out their first few days of posting.
Thanks for the reply, Tarrick. Especially as a newcomer to the forum yourself, your input is really interesting.
Would it be beneficial perhaps to have a thread in this forum, with links to the profiles of each factions moderators - along with a brief explanation of the faction itself? By keeping that information centralised, we eliminate the need to updated lots of threads throughout the board and avoiding, like you say, there being out of date and potentially conflicting information.2. When rummaging through the boards, I do not find a list of who is leading each faction and the hierarchy, or if I do find it, then it is woefully out of date (sometimes by years). It's like looking to by a house that has been left vacant. Some people move on. I would like to see the factions hierarchy updated so that new people know who to contact in case they need to get started.
I agree that in some factions, there are an excess of forums. The Empire for instance seems to have a large number of forums, that don't see a lot of activity. It might be worth consolidating some of those forums and giving them a clearer purpose - in the same way that the Jedi forums are set up. What do you think, Imperials?1. With all of the different genres' it took me awhile to figure out where to post for what. We have specific boards for each faction and then a general board.
I like this idea a lot. We don't have a huge number of hardcore fleeters, but plenty of people writing pilots.. so I don't think it would be unfeasible to come up with a mission for a new members to take part in. This could even be something that is run on a monthly, or bi-monthly basis... some fleet combat that would involve a contested or unoccupied world.3. For the fleeters, it would be helpful when we are assigned ship(s), to be given a first mission to get us on our feet. I have my ships, and I know that I have freedom to post whatever I may, but I don't want to cause problems because I haven't read every thread and missed that an independent planet is actually controlled by another faction and now I started another war.
Is there a faction in particular that you are thinking of with this suggestion?2. If a faction has gone inactive, could it be hidden so that it doesn't clutter up the site? I know that admin will still see them, but the vast body of members wouldn't see it.
This forum (RP Planning Discussion) is meant for exactly that purpose3. Have a place on the forum where positions are being advertised, or "want ads" can be placed incase someone is searching for a sim or members or is wanting to contribute to sims.Maybe that is not clear, though? In which case, we could add to the forums description or perhaps just have a general 'Wanted' / recruiting thread.
I know that if you go into your User CP and click on group memberships, it lists all the groups and their leaders, but I'm not sure how common-knowledge that is :/
I do know that it lists the moderators of each forum you're currently in along the bottom of the page. I don't know how easy it would be to shift those to the top of the page though; that's not my territory, heh.
I was discussing this with someone... yesterday, I think it was. No matter how far I go, or how hard I look, I haven't found a community that is as 'good' as here. It's hard to pin down what it is that makes it work. There's just something about the atmosphere. We somehow managed to be both laid back about stuff, and intensely passionate at the same time. There's always someone to bounce ideas off, and there's always non-hostile advice to be had. And I wholeheartedly think that we have some of not only the most talented and creative people writing here, but also some real, genuine golden souls.
Plus, no other Star Wars community has Jace. And everything is better with Jace.
In terms of criticism... yeah, we can be a bit scatterbrained and disorganised at times. We've got information split between the wiki and the website, and it doesn't always match; and not everyone knows where to find it; and not everything is presented in the same sort of way.
I guess it's one of those situations where we're so used to how it works, we don't need it to be organised. It's like when your room is an absolute tip, but you know exactly where everything is.
Coming as someone who is still (fairly) newish (what... going on two years now?) I guess I can toss my two cents in here and be fairly honest when it comes to trying to remember what it was like initially and what it's like now.
Honestly, when I first took a look at Fans I was intimidated. There are a lot of forums, and even now I have to wonder if some of the minor storylines don't get lost in the depths somewhere... but then again, I think if anyone is following the escapades of a specific character/group of characters/etc... they pretty much know where to look to find them. It did take some getting used to in terms of where to post what, but honestly I also like it in the sense that it does provide the feel that this is a big galaxy. Major events take place where you can clearly follow them/find out/etc... and minor things can go without notice and for some reason that makes sense to me. Is it the best set up? Maybe not... could it stand with a bit of tidying up? Probably (especially with the group forums... maybe they just need an OOC area and an IC area apiece rather than several RP areas just within one group... unless it honestly makes sense to divide them up.)
So yeah, intimidating at first. But if you kinda lurk around, look around, read around (shouldn't this be the first thing anyone does when they join a forum? After introducing themselves? Maybe that's just me.)... you get a feel for it and I think most people would be just fine. Is it a place to just "jump right in"? Maybe not, but there's reasons for that and that brings me to my actual favorite part about this place that really set it apart from other forums for me... freaking... STORYLINE.
As much as it's RP... I've felt that really Fans has put more of an emphasis on collective storytelling rather than nitpicky uber strict RPing. Trust me... when I found out that I had the ability to basically "do something with a character because it made sense" and not have to worry about "well does it fall in the rules of this group? Is my character basically high enough level to do that? Wait! I'm not a force user, I can't go hang out with those people!" I wish I was overstating that "AHA!" moment, but I'm not. The simple ability to have intrigue that comes from characters backstabbing others, switching between groups, spying on other groups, etc etc... it just opens storylines that just...well... again, make sense. There's a nice flow to it all in that aspect.
But again...without strict structure I can see how this would intimidate people. But I have to be honest when I say this, it's not an elitist thing, it's not a "my forums are better than yours" thing or anything like that... I can't stand forum RP formats where the fact that if I feel like making a new character I have to start them at the lowest of lows and slowly work them up. The second time going through a "basic force abilities class" thread was tiring. The third time it was maddening, the fourth just abysmal. It takes the fun out of writing when you have to basically level up a character to actually WRITE them. I know the journey is half the fun sometimes, but when I've already gone through the basics with two characters... and maybe there's a roll that needs to be filled.. do I really want to go through the exact same steps on a third? Nooooo. Dear god no.
Some people might enjoy that sort of thing... I don't. :P And I love the fact that these forums don't do that to people. You can do it if you want to! But you don't have to. I'm not saying the other way is bad, far from it! If that works for how people want to write - great! Yippy. It works beautifully for someone who is new to RP, or unsure of how to get started in that format... or may just want a more structured setting. I find that Fan's somewhat looser format works here, to be honest. There's still kinda some requirements of "newer" characters. Obviously a person who is brand new to being a Jedi isn't going to be pulling the same stuff as the Master rank folks.. but I feel like on Fans their journey into becoming a full fledged Jedi/whatever would come more natural and less check-listy.
Uber short edition: I think Fans works as a place who want to write something that seems more like cohesive fan-fiction than typical rule/turn/etc based forum RP. Though I think we could all start attempting to organize the wiki and such a bit better so its easier to find stuff sometimes.
Yeah... that about sums up my feelings about this place before I get into the mushy "you guys have made me feel so welcome *sob*" stuff.
My Bad. I was looking at the ARCHIVES. Never mind on that suggestion.Originally Posted by Dasquian Belargic
Another DOH! I even remember posting a want ad there. I tell you my ADD kicked in.3. Have a place on the forum where positions are being advertised, or "want ads" can be placed incase someone is searching for a sim or members or is wanting to contribute to sims.
This forum (RP Planning Discussion) is meant for exactly that purpose
Overall I am thoroughly thrilled to be here and glad I found this site.
The wiki could use more love.
I think that each 'faction' should have a stickied list of the current members and hirearchy within the faction. And that these should be up to date.
Group mods should get on that right away (include easy links for PMs as well, that would help with communication with newer people).
I like 'Fans because at other places people hate me for no reason.
oh what a tangled web I weave
The wiki is and will always be an optional thing. If people want to update it, they can - and it's great when people get all enthusiastic about it, but no one is going to be forced to do it. So if you think it needs more love, you gotta be the one to give it
The spirit is willing, but I'm so dadgum lazy
Some group forums could definately do with a good stream-lining, as has already been said. It would be nice to see more Wiki stuff but we can only look to ourselves for that, I think we should each at least strive to make a basic page for each of our characters at some point - broken links are horrible! But again, it is voluntary and that shouldn't change.
A personal gripe of mine is the underlining of a post once it's been edited five minutes after it was first posted. I don't know why but it just irks me to no end and has me rushing to edit posts before the five minutes runs out, it is a petty complaint, but aesthetically it drives me mad. And I am very particular about appearances like that. I understand this is a vBulletin thing but is it possible to change this so that the line appears at the natural bottom of the post, along with the Edited by... message with it?
What would people think about removing the 'bio' forums from the board itself? That way, we don't end up having one bio on the board and one on the wiki- and it might give some the drive needed to transfer their characters info over
I agree about that 'Edited by...' thing Droo - it has always irritated the presentation-fixated part of me. I think originally it was originally a measure put in place to help the staff deal with certain issues (people posting something horrifically offensive, then editting it out and claiming it never happened) so maybe it could be removed now? I'm not sure. That would be a technical matter for our more technically minded admins
I think removing "bio" pages from the forums isn't a bad idea at all. If someone needs to have their concept reviewed that can be done in an initial interest thread in whatever OOC forum the group has, rather than making it its own post somewhere. Once approved they can go slap it up on the wiki to make it "official"
I have 'stickied' this thread so that as time goes on, people can feel free to put in with any thoughts or suggestions they might have
I think the "edited by" isn't a bad thing to keep, its just as Droo said that it doesn't fit into the 'footer' of the post. Right? maybe I'm confused again. I think we should keep it because then if something IS changed in a post we can know to look for it.
Last edited by Lilaena De'Ville; Jul 15th, 2010 at 02:05:56 PM. Reason: checking to see something
On it.
@ Tarrick - Plans are coming together and I'll be sure to direct you on the path to Victory.
I think I'd wiki a lot more if I wasn't such an ignoramus on the format. Maybe this weekend I'll talk to somebody who's good at it and figure something out.
Wiki format is dead simple, just copy someone else's page and mod it. With the Wiki, bio forums are redundant IMO.
Some formats are a little over-complicated if you're unfamiliar with the coding. For example, the format that people have with scroll boxes all over the place can be disorientating (the titles aren't always easy to spot, among other things), and they're easy to "break".
Some bios use a much simpler format though, and while it would be nice if everyone was working to the same template, provided the information is up there it doesn't really matter at the end of the day.
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