The Revamping

[Lady Vader]

UPDATED: 4/6/2004
New Addition: 5a



Order of things to accomplish:

1. Restrict acceptances into the Order. No more of this serious newbie moronic crap. I want intelligence to surround this group.

2. New look for TSO, curtesy of Warlock. Jen, I don't want to rush you, but the sooner we can get the new look of TSO and it's website done, the sooner we can start implimenting our new regime. (Note: I have some changes I'd also like to impliment with the new look of the board, mainly possibly removing/renaming some of the forums. I will speak with you on this.)

3. I want this group to become a renewed evil force in this galaxy. I want those that are not under our rule to tremble in fear to the point they crap their pants at the mention of our name. I want to put all other "evil" groups to shame.
And yet, while being all evil and whatnot, I want to continue to manipulate without being thought of as manipulators, specifically by those under our rule. Make them think they're getting what they want, when in reality they are getting what we give them. If the bunny is good, give it a carrot. If the bunny is bad, don't give it a carrot. And yet, in both cases, make it feel as though it's still doing a good job in being a bunny. Manipulate.
Remember: the NR and Jedi are our enemies... we should showed them as being the bad guys to those we govern.

4. All existing sisterhoods will remain: Meras, Shrine, Coven (assuming they're still considered to be around), some Imp factions (mainly just Visc, but he's already a member, so it doesn't really count much).
Any new alliances that are asked to be made will be turned down unless we see it as an advantage to TSO's growing in power, then it will be discussed in detail.

5. TSO's fleet is somewhat vast, and we should start spreading some of it to take care of our holdings. I propose we assign certain ships to certain planets/sectors/clusters we feel require a certain amount of security.
Also, we need to finish aquiring the rest of the Corellian system.

5a. In regards to Seeking Viscera (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34882), this reminds me of another point in which we need to get together a list of TSO military assest to place on the website. I think I mentioned to Jen that Gav is the best person to ask about this, though it is very possible Char;ey might know something as well. As to Visc, he will have his own lil squad of things, so ask him what he's got as well.

6. I'll need some of the mod's help to clean up our group accesses here. A large number of ppl aren't here anymore, and we should periodically clean out the access to the SSC and CC.


If I think of any other items, I shall post them up.

Likewaise, if you have anything you wish to add, feel free to post it.

Please try to keep light discussion and the like to a minimum. I don't want to overcrowd this thread to the point where it's unreadable.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I have the main/palace/training grounds forum banner done. I'll wait before you give me info on the forum shuffle before making anymore. I can do the access masks, if you want.


Remember: the NR and Jedi are our enemies... we should showed them as being the bad guys to those we govern.

Playing through KOTOR, it's really obvious how this works. The people on the Sith ruled planets really believe the Sith are doing a good for them (I'm thinking about Korriban, for anyone whose played) and believe that the NR/Jedi are a load of useless buggers.

[Rasha Vill]

I'm confused... Are we still going to try and get good political relations with the NR?

[Dasquian Belargic]

Even when we were, we were going to lie to them. Then again, if we're going for the brains over brawn approach to gaining power, perhaps not. LV?

[Lady Vader]

It's all about deception, ladies. Try for the political approach. It will also give us an inside to how things work on the NR side (I don't know if that'd be considered infiltration seeing as how we're keeping it in the open and ppl know what's going on OOC... I'm just trying to go towards an approach a Sith would go).

Hope that made sense.

Also, I will be posting a jpg of the new TSO categories and forum names shortly.

[Lady Vader]

DARK RED = categories

RED = sith only / open forum

ORANGE = TSO sith only / closed forum

YELLOW = TSO elders only / closed forum

BLUE = all / open forum

PURPLE = TSO mods only / open forum

GREEN = OOC all / open forum

PINK = board on Meras.org


(Indentations indicate sub-forums)

[Dark Lord Rivin]

So From the new titles I gather that Rasha's office will be in the Custom Outpost instead of the Visitor section?

[Dasquian Belargic]

Yes.

[AmazonBabe]

Hmmmm... that gives me an idea...

Should we have another forum for Rasha's office? Or shall we just make a sticky thread at the top for her?

Also, because this would be along her experties, I move for giving Rasha access to sticky and edit posts in the Customs Outpost. Thoughts?

[Dasquian Belargic]

I don't think another forum is necessary, in the least bit. I can't honestly see what threads Rasha would need to make, most of the time, that she would require her own office. Making her a mod of that forum is fine by me though.

[AmazonBabe]

OK. Make it so.

On another note, I've been toying with the idea of changing Elders' Vision to Elders' Circle. But I'd like to hear whether other ppl like this or if it should just remain as it is in the jpg I posted.

[Zereth Lancer]

I have a thought but someone might have thought this up already.

To reduce the chances of getting a bunch of newbs again we should make the "Join TSO Forum (or whatever its going to be called) a secret forum that only the members have access to and then the people who want to join TSO would have to PM one of the sith masters asking to join and supplying a small bio and info on their character

If the person is deemed worthy to join TSO then they can have access to the "Join TSO" forum to start their recruitment thread.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

I like that idea. Not my call, but it would solve so much...

[Lady Vader]

Hmmmm... your idea has merit, Zereth.

Only prob is that my inbox is somewhat popular, and I'd hate to be receiving a gazillion PMs just for the sole purpose of recruitment.

But we can utilize some of your idea: What I propose is to leave the Recrutiment forum open, but the rules will be that you post a thread with your characters bio and history and why they wish to join. If the writing style is decent and the person shows some sort of intelligence, we will give them a probationary period where they should lruk a bit to see if this is really what they want. Say after a week, if they have lurked, and posted in occassional threads (no spams), and understand the rules, then we allow them in. It's simple and to the point.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I don't like the idea of applying through PM.

When we originally set up the KRath, we had a rule whereby you had to have at least 50 IC posts on SWfans before you could join. Perhaps we could so something like that, with less posts.... 20/30.

[AmazonBabe]

That could be added to what I said above.

No PM recruyiting though. That would get annoying.

[Rasha Vill]

So would the recrutment threads be similar to what they are now? Or would the Recrutment threads be mostly OOC? I may just be misunderstanding this, so could some body try and explane what the new recrutment process will be?

And when will all this come into effect?

[Vega Van-Derveld]

I think they would be the same as they are now, only perhaps with a little more OOC communication with people? We can just stick a topic in the recruitment forum, letting people know of changes to our recruitment policy.

[Dasquian Belargic]

okay, I thought I'd just attach a couple of the forum banners here...

http://sw-fans.net/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=651903

this is for the elders forum (formerly the council room)

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://sw-fans.net/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=651904

This is for the outpost, which will become the visitors center and recruitment center, bundled into one.

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://sw-fans.net/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=651905

This one is for the Palace.

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://sw-fans.net/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=651906

And the Shipyard.

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://sw-fans.net/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=651907

Last so far, the training grounds.

[Rasha Vill]

Really Nice! I like them!

[Zereth Lancer]

Those are awsome!!!!! good work Das

[Southstar]

Very nice. Someone should buy you a pizza!

[AmazonBabe]

Someone's been busy!!! ^_^

Come, be a guest in my home, and I shall wait hand and foot upon you for that AWESOME work. :D

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://sw-fans.net/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=655658

I managed to find the original image used for the spaceport.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I'm slightly worried about the design. I've done it all at a 838 pixel width. This shouldn't be much of a problem for people with 800x600 resolutions, but I'm not sure how its going to look on a larger screen. I mocked up this to see what it would look like if we had a side bar. suggestions? obviously I would change the font to be more inkeeping if we used it. maybe make a few graphics headings, dependong what's there. the other alternative is just to center the whole thing and have a tiling texture background behind it, although I'm not sure that would look so good :|

http://sw-fans.net/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=655664

[Lady Vader]

I kinda like the side panel thingy, but I wouldn't know what to put there seeing as we have all our links around the main piccy.

Maybe just centering it to keep it simple would be best?

[Dasquian Belargic]

Yar. I figure that would work. I just feel bad for people with big resolutions, who are going to have huge chunks of black either side of the forums.

[AmazonBabe]

*raises hand*

I run 1024x768, so i'll be one of those.

Is there NO way of making it so it doesn't do that? I mean, GJO doesn't seem to have that prob...

[Dasquian Belargic]

Yeah, I'm a step up from that resolution, but I didn't want to make it too large for people with smaller screens.

Unfortunately, given the shadowy feel of the design, I don't think it could be made to fit like GJO's, nope.

[Lady Vader]

Damnation =\

[Dark Lord Rivin]

I don't think that many people will have a problem with it.

[Dark Lord Rivin]

Question...When do people think that the revamping to the site will be complete?

[Dasquian Belargic]

Things I need before the revamp can be completed:

Forum descriptions, to go underneath the names
A couple more banners
Buttons
Ogre to do his magic (not sure how long that will take)


I'm working on the graphics today/tomorrow.

[Severen Morkonis]

HOOWA! first post in the secret sith chat!

Told you before Jen the graphics is looking good, if you need some help in speeding it up gal, gimme a list and ill run through it. :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

I'm fine doing the graphics. I just need to set myself on it for an hour and it should be done- although the process of converting all of the smaller images is somewhat tedious, I prefer to do it all myself.

As for the rest- forum descriptions are definetly welcome. The list is up near the top of this thread somewhere, so if people want to start having a stab at them, go for it.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Looks good, really good.

[Lady Vader]

I'll work on the forum descriptions.

As to the graphics, you keep at it Jen. (I love the new stuff, and laughed at the stretched old stuff... I came on and was all "wtf", before I realized it was because of the new stuff which was longer).

Anyways, the descriptions are fine for the most part, but some need some slight editing. I'll do that and get em to Ogies.

[TheHolo.Net]

Everything should be done. You may need to do a "Shift - Refresh" to clear the old images out of your cache if you are seeing odd colored images or stretched images.

[AmazonBabe]

^_^ !!!!!!!!!!

*Huggles and squeezles and lovels and suffocates the Ogies with much thank yous!* :rollin

*And then plays with his tusks* :D

Sharp and shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiney. *Is fascinated*

[Dasquian Belargic]

It's dark and spoooooky in here, guys :uhoh

[TheHolo.Net]

Looks like we missed an image recolor: <img src=http://sw-fans.net/forum/images/TSO/subscribe.gif>

It is the subscribe graphic located at the bottom of viewed threads.

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://panic.hopto.org/swf/vega/tso/board/icons/subscibe.gif ?

[AmazonBabe]

It is dark and spooky... I like it! >D

OGIES - Question! Why is it in order to get some of the graphics to keep working, I have to keep doing the shift+refresh? Also, for the locked threads, I have to actually go into the thread, then come out of it, then do the shift+refresh to get the orange icon to pop in... why??

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic
http://panic.hopto.org/swf/vega/tso/board/icons/subscibe.gif ? The file name is subscribe not subscibe. :p


Originally posted by AmazonBabe
It is dark and spooky... I like it! >D

OGIES - Question! Why is it in order to get some of the graphics to keep working, I have to keep doing the shift+refresh? Also, for the locked threads, I have to actually go into the thread, then come out of it, then do the shift+refresh to get the orange icon to pop in... why?? Clear your browser's cache.

[AmazonBabe]

*Goes to find browsers cache*

Uh, where can i find that again? ^_^;

[TheHolo.Net]

Depends which browser you use.

[AmazonBabe]

At work, I use IE.

[TheHolo.Net]

To effectively clear the cache of the browser you will need to close IE, open the control panel, open Internet Options, and then use the button to delete files in the temporary internet files section on the General tab in the middle. It could take some time before the process is complete. The cursor will hourglass while over the Internet settings windows while it is deleting and then return to normal when it is finished.

Being that you are at work it is possible that your employer uses a proxy server that also caches things, which could mean that it could take a few days for your problems to vanish if clearing the browser's cache doesn't fix it.

[Lady Vader]

Ok, it actually updated everything, except (again for the locked forum icons). I figure it'll right itself in a few days. No biggie.

----------

Also, we need your help once again with something...

Please place below orange-red sentence in the following forums (in the same way GJO has it's "Warning" messages in their Jedi Only forums):

The Great Hall
Sith Palace
Training Grounds
Shipyards


WARNING: THIS FORUM IS FOR TSO SITH POSTING ONLY!
IF YOU WISH TO POST, PLEASE ASK A TSO MOD FOR PERMISSION. ANY UNAUTHORIZED POSTS WILL BE EDITED IN A HUMORISTIC FASHION. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

[orange-red color, font size 1, centered, underline and bold where shown]

(Permission has been given by GJO to utilize their "Warning" message, edited to suite TSO's purposes.)


Also, we will be adding a TSO FAQ here in the same way GJO has it's own FAQ. I'll get that to you, Ogre, once I have edited it accordingly and run it through the mods here.

(Permission has been given to utilize the GJO FAQ for TSO's purposes.)

[Rasha Vill]

It all looks really good! Much better than the old look.

I would also like to remind people about the Idea of Giving Rasha Mod powers in The Outpost, as mentioned in posts 9 to 11 in this thread... Is that still going to happen?

[Dasquian Belargic]

Originally posted by Rasha Vill
It all looks really good! Much better than the old look.

I would also like to remind people about the Idea of Giving Rasha Mod powers in The Outpost, as mentioned in posts 9 to 11 in this thread... Is that still going to happen?

Sure why not. If Ogre is still reading this, can we have that done too please? :)

[Southstar]

Regarding the new application process: How are we going to decide to accept or decline these new people? As far as I know, any knight level person could accept (or simply respond to the post and welcome them in) based on their own judgement. Is it still the same or what?

[Live Wire]

I felt the need to put my two cents in on this whole application process.

At swfans we've always had a problem with what I call joke accounts. I hate to say it but you can usually tell the intelligence of the RPer by the name that they chose to rp under.

Aside from certain sock puppet accounts this is a pretty good rule.

I think the whole group should have a vote yay or nay with their reasons why stated.

[Rasha Vill]

The Character Ida Knoe (one of Southstars apprentices) is not a joke character, and only her name was a joke, and even at that I was very sleepy when I though it would be funny to give her that name, so you can't always judge by the name.

And as for the recrutment, I think it should be that a member knight reads the descriptions if they like the characters entry form then they start to RP membership for them. if at any time durring the RP they have there doubts on if they should join, then they ether bring it to the attention of others or they decline them outright.

[Dasquian Belargic]

IMO, if someone is accepted, you should just post a "Yes" and tell them that they are now free to start RPing. We don't need to do any kind of recruitment roleplay, unless the person specifically wants to.

[Dark Lord Rivin]

Okay, I guess I was just thinking too complex. So can any member accept them? or just a knight or higher?... what's the deal?

[Southstar]

I'm leaning towards the everybody votes and if it's a 'yes' then the person starts RPing in the Sith forums, no recruitment thread. But time is kind of an issue. I think each applicant should wait to recieve, say, three yeses then their in. If we take too much time then no one is going to care whether they got accepted or not. But we need an efficient system for this.

[Lady Vader]

I like the idea of at least the knights, master, and elders voting yay or nay. After all, it's a group decision on whether we let ppl in or not.

We can start ONE thread per applicant in here with each knight, master, and elder voting their yay or nay. The votes would be open for say a week.

I say if a person who had applied can't wait a week to see what the outcome is, then they don't deserve to be here and RP. mean, what's to say they won't be all ancy when they actually do start ppsting? (i.e. PMing the participants with "When are you gonna post next?")

[Dasquian Belargic]

We can start ONE thread per applicant in here with each knight, master, and elder voting their yay or nay. The votes would be open for say a week.


Ugh no. Overkill. Just post the 'yay' or 'nay' in their recruitment thread. Keep things organized. also that means that if you're 'nay'ing, you can explain why and they have a chance to see what they're doing wrong.

[Live Wire]

Im not sure I like the idea of the vote being open like that but I guess if they get stupid thats what banning is for right.

And I agree with LV if they can't wait a lousy week then how are they going to handle rp where things last for months. Patience is the name of the game.

[Lady Vader]

OK, we have the nay and yays in the applicants thread. That's a better idea.

[Southstar]

Sounds good. Umm... who's going first?

[Dasquian Belargic]

I started the ball rolling.

[AmazonBabe]

*Goes to check out Dasquian's ball rolling.*

Wow, that couldn't have sounded any wronger (new word! add it to the dictionary) even if I tried. ^_^;