Alright, Boy-O's

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

It's time for housecleaning once again.

Looking to drastically simplify things. We have got a bit of an overabundance of forums, both public and private, so we need to figure out what we can live with, live without, and what we might wish to rename.

Check out this (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=22735) thread for a good starting point.

[Reshmar]

So the Rand D forum has not been used in 3 years. I say we get an R&D tag made and use it for any R&D posts in the general OOC forum.

Leave the WAR Room as a private forum just to make us feel special for being a part of the empire and all by having access. But moving it into the regular Imperial grouping. getting rid of the Imperial Command Network. maybe just moving it all under the empire instead of a separate sub forum. so doing away with the public sector sub forum as well. that just gives us the galactic empire and a few subforums like Imperial center, Bespin, and the private War Room. maybe adding a couple new IC subs like Anaxes or Cardia or even Corulag for IC threads for what ever such as training. Anaxes is naval the other two are army so maybe just a single "The Academy" sub forum. it could even work as both An IC and OOC forum where new people can post their intrest in joining.

Or instead of R&D in the general OOC... Maybe even a sub forum for both IC and OOC R&D called "The Maw"

[Captain Untouchable]

I think there's too much player overlap for private OOC forums to make sense anymore: most of us can see both sets with one or other of our characters, I think. There's too much topic overlap (IMO) for an "Imperial" OOC forum either.

I'd be inclined to have a shared discussion space for Rebels and Imperials (and anyone else) to discuss "Galactic Civil War" stuff, so that we can make sure that both sides are always on the same page. We might perhaps want to keep an "Imperial Archives" thread though, for blueprints and important stickies.


As for renaming... could we make the forum names a little broader? Right now we've got a bit of a "My thread doesn't happen on Coruscant or Bespin, so it needs to go in Star Wars Roleplaying". However, if instead of just Coruscant the forum represented more of the Core Worlds (Kuat, Rendili, Byss, etc), it would seem like a more logical place to put all of our political / fleet command / INQ / etc threads, so they'd be under one roof.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I was definitely hoping to be able to ax the OOC forum here, yes. Back in the day it was fun, but now it's pretty much dead weight.

I've got more thoughts, but I'll wait till I get home to write everything out.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I like the idea of putting R&D into the main planning forum, since especially, Resh, we haven't used it in three years as you say. There's no point in keeping it here. I love the 'Academy' idea, too. It would provide a great training forum for new folks I think. As for the War Room, I've got no problem keeping that as private if that's what folks want.

I also like the notion of expanding the scope of forum names as you say, Jace. I can't remember which one of you guys mention it to me, but a forum name of 'The Core' is a great idea IMO. It would be able to cover most if not a good chunk of the main Imperial held worlds, and if someone is wanting to do a thread on a particular Core world, they can either include it in the title or I can easily make tags for said worlds.

So now, pulling the subforums out of Public Sector, we can pretty much junk the Officer's Club, turn 'Imperial Center' into 'The Core', move the threads from 'Imperial Bespin' into 'The Core', and keep the 'Imperial Library' as is, since that's our archives already.

That way it'd look like this when clicking on the Empire Forum:


The Core
The heart of the Empire beats ever-steady, and in the Core it beats with enough strength to take the galaxy as its' own.
The Academy
Choosing a life of service to the Empire is the greatest of commitments. Here you will hone your skills and learn how to make the decisions that will be needed to bend worlds to our will.
The Grand Imperial Library
Imperial Archives

It's very minimal, and not overblown or convoluted. If we decide to keep the 'War Room' and set it as private, it would be up in there as well, but even with that it's nothing that's going to detract from the straightforward look and feel of the simplicity.

Thoughts/suggestions/comments/did I forget anything?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

As Bette I have a say, so I say it looks fine to me. :p

[Captain Untouchable]

I think Bespin needs to stay separate from The Core, because -

a) Bespin is in the Outer Rim, not The Core. If we smush it into The Core, it makes the forum name deceptive / confusing.

b) Bespin is a "mixed" setting - it has Imperials yes, but it also has pirates, smugglers, Black Sun, Rebels, Hutts, and all sorts. It is Imperial on paper, but the threads/etc aren't supposed to "feel" Imperial, so a separate forum may be in order.

c) I like the fact that Bespin has a separate default skin and it's own icons: it emphasizes the differences I just mentioned, IMO.


Edit:

Bonus thought on "The Core". Is it a venue for ALL threads that happen in the Core, or just Imperial ones?

Chandrila and Duro are technically Rebel worlds, but are part of the Core. Do we need to accommodate those (with the planet tags that Christin suggested), or do the Rebels need to sort out a posting venue for those planets themselves?

Corellia is a semi-Imperial planet, but we're planning a lot of activity there soon, what with Rebel resistance fighters, Imperial counter-efforts, and the local populace getting caught in the middle. Does that stuff need to be in "The Core" (since it technically *is* happening in The Core), or does that need a separate forum, or do the Rebels need to accommodate that?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Keeping Bespin separate works for me.

As for threads in 'The Core', I'd say it could just cater to Imperial ones.

I really want Karl and Tear to weigh in on this, so I'm going to wait for a bit until they post. I'd love to hear any ideas they have.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I would imagine all the Corellian resistance stuff would take place in Star Wars Roleplaying.

[Captain Untouchable]

I would imagine all the Corellian resistance stuff would take place in Star Wars Roleplaying.

It certainly can, though personally I'd prefer if it had it's own little corner.

It won't just be big "lets blow up a factory" stuff - some of the things we've been chatting about amongst ourselves are more character orientated, quiet little moments between family members, people caught on opposite sides of the political factions that have sprung up... all sorts. It's potentially as diverse as the Wheel, or as Cloud City, in terms of what can go on.

If those threads were all in Star Wars Roleplaying, it'd be much harder to keep tabs on what is relevant to Corellia, what is relevant to your faction on Corellia, what is relevant to you personally on Corellia... there's only so much you can do with post icons and [square bracket] notes in subject lines. A separate forum has the added bonus of making it easier for casual participants to join in. If you start an Open thread in a bar in the hypothetical Corellia forums, it's a lot easier for that to amount to something (for the relevant people to notice) than if it was an Open thread in Star Wars Roleplaying.

*shrug*

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I see. Well since I don't know what's been talked about I didn't know it was going to be quite that involved, but still, I think even an added post icon for RPing would work. But that's up to other people, just an idea on my part. :)

Adding a new forum for a story arc that will have an end point (maybe it won't have an end point) seems like adding more clutter, not removing or consolidating it. Even the Cloud City forums are largely ignored because we don't have the activity level to fill them. It's there if we need it, yes, and I'm not saying we should get rid of Bespin, I just don't know that adding a Corellian system forum is really needed. It is, as Charley said, adding a click to getting where you want to go.

But, like I said, just my opinion. :)

[Captain Untouchable]

My big reservation applies to both the Rebels and the Empire, so I'll write it in a quote block thingy (because I'm lazy).


Deleting forums is really easy. As part of the process on most forums, you can choose to move everything from the forum you're deleting into a new destination, which you pick from a drop-down box. (I assume Fans has something similar).

Unfortunately, forums don't come with an undo button. If in six months time we discover that we're seeing a lot more activity at the deleted roleplay setting, the only way to restore it is to manually move all of those threads back, one at a time. That represents a lot of work, and perhaps isn't something we should rush into.

Maybe instead we could place forums "under review"? Over the next three/six/etc months we could keep an eye on the activity level of a forum we're thinking about deleting. If the activity over those months is low, then delete away. However, if we suddenly get a surge of activity within that window, we've dodged a bullet on a lot of hard work.

Bespin is something that we were trying to kick-start just before I moved. We haven't been very active in that forum for a while, but the prospect of it maybe being deleted might be enough to motivate some more action. Our posting activity in general has been on the increase over the last few months, so that could very well infect Bespin. If in X months time we still aren't utilizing the forum, then at least we know that we made an informed and considered decision, rather than a spur of the moment one we might have regretted.

The same principle could be applied to the Corellia forum. We create it now, and keep an eye on it for X months. If it turns out to be active enough to deserve a forum, then phew: at least we didn't have to split it out after the fact. If it isn't active enough, no harm no foul; we can merge it into the general population.

Just a thought, anyway. :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I said "I'm not saying get rid of Bespin" so I believe we're on the same page there. :)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I think he was referring to my thought on moving Imperial Bespin into The Core forum.

[Captain Untouchable]

^ Correctamundo - a mix of that and an example-of-concept that was relevant to the Imperials.

[Park Kraken]

Agreed on most of the points made so far. The R&D Forum was largely invalidated after the introduction of the SWF Wikia, where the catologue of designs could be kept instead of someone having to go digging into the forums to look for a design and read up on it. By the same token, having a tag would be helpful for discussion of a design or if someone wanted help in customizing their flagship, etc.

I don't really use the Individual Group RP forums that much, although I guess some of the threads could go in there (like the "Man the Bulwarks" solo thread with my Alliance character), are we encouraging solo RP's with no to minimal impact on the Galaxy to be put into the smaller RP forums, or to just have mainly training RPs there?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I see no problem with solo RPing being put into the group specific forums, so once we get everything situated and redone, just let me know which threads you would want moved. If we go for an 'Academy' forum, training threads would definitely go in there.

I really like the idea of Imperial-centered threads that are written on an Imperial held world being done within the Imperial subforums, since it would really flesh out and add some meat and weight to what we do in here. And let's face it, heh, right now we do a whole lot of 'not much'. I think that if we did, it would be create a nice, well-rounded feel for the boards as a whole.

It's worth mentioning I think, that we could always use 'Imperial Territories' or 'Imperial Space' instead of 'The Core', since there are more worlds than just the Core worlds that the Empire controls.

[Tukphen]

We could maybe split the catch-all bucket into two.

Imperial Core could cover all of the civilized important worlds like Coruscant, Kuat, Byss, Rendili, Balmorra, Commenor, and so on. There are Imperial Academies on Corulag (Core), Carida (Colonies) and Raithal (Colonies), so training threads could either happen here, or in a separate Academy forum; either would work, I think. Most of the stuff that would happen on the Core Worlds would be commandy/political, or otherwise fairly "peaceful" stuff.

Imperial Rim would cover everything that isn't a "Core" world. Some of these planets - like Eriadu and Naboo - are fairly civilized, but they're far enough from the Core to be slightly isolated and self-sufficient. Other worlds might be more scummy and uncivilized. Unlike the Core you're much more likely to get skirmishes and fleeting going on, as well as other run-ins with Rebels and other scummy people that you wouldn't get in the Core.


This way we keep our commandy/political type threads a bit separate from our fleety/combat threads; we keep the comfy/civilized goings on separate from the remote/uncivilized goings on, and we make it a little easier to find what you're looking for without combining stuff under one roof.

I think we should keep Imperial Bespin as well: it still has the potential to be the anti-Wheel, if we can get some activity kickstarted there again.

[Tear]

That way it'd look like this when clicking on the Empire Forum:

The Core
The heart of the Empire beats ever-steady, and in the Core it beats with enough strength to take the galaxy as its' own.
The Academy
Choosing a life of service to the Empire is the greatest of commitments. Here you will hone your skills and learn how to make the decisions that will be needed to bend worlds to our will.
The Grand Imperial Library
Imperial Archives
I like this. I like the Core description too Si'lster. I think adding extra forums for places simply because they are outside "the core" is sort of backwards. Aren't we trying to reduce unused space?

Maybe just adjust the description for the Core to advise players that Bespin/outer rim threads can be posted within too. Then simply use a Bespin tag to differentiate it.

Bespin threads aren't going to be lost in the great cluster of activity currently taking place on the Imperial boards. That's not really an issue we encounter anymore.

[Ambassador Wrath]

I think "trying to reduce unused space" is an oversimplification.

We're trying to streamline and rationalise: but that doesn't always mean making things smaller. Sometimes that process involves breaking things down into elements that have a more specific purpose. If you re-read post #18, you'll see that it isn't just an arbetrary breakdown by geography: it's also a division between two completely different subject matters, and two fairly distinct sets of roleplayers. The fact that the hypothetical forums have names that sound geographical is just a handy bonus.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Keeping Bespin as the anti-Wheel is a neat thought, as is the trial period you mentioned in another thread, Jace.

Glad you like the descriptions, Tear :) I did make a Bespin Imp tag to see how it would look, and while it does look spiffy, I'd be leery of actually using it since I don't want that to open the door to a plethora of other planet tags being made, heh.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

ok, how does this look.


Imperial Core
words words words

Imperial Rim
Words words words

Imperial Bespin
Words words words

The Academy
Words words words

The Grand Imperial Library
Archives



Am I forgetting anything?

[Dasquian Belargic]

That looks fine to me.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Needs more words. :colbert

;)
/its a joke

[Captain Untouchable]

Someone Gavel This.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Just gimme dem forum descriptions and I'll gavel the crap out of it.

[Mu Satach]

Yay - Bespin lives...

<i><small> so say's the ghost of rpg past </small> </i>

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

For the core, you can use the same description I gave on page one for the original core forum.

For the rim, how about 'The hand of the Empire reaches across the stars to bring law and order to the galaxy'

For Bespin, 'An Imperial holding, Cloud City is home to many' - or feel fre to keep the description for it as is.

For the academy, you can use the description I wrote out on the first page.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Gavel'd :gavel