The List

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

As Holly and I have been working on ideas for breathing some life into Fans, I decided to make a list. Now it's been sitting for almost two weeks, and my brain just isn't giving me anything new to add. It's not complete by any means, but I've already showed it to Holly, Nav, and Ogre, and I thought it best to show it to you guys. Largely for the fact that I'm starting to run out of ideas, and also because I want to get your opinions and suggestions on what I have so far.

So here you go.



New Default Styleset
- simple
- easy to navigate
- eyecatching

Styleset Features
- Small icons along either the bottom or along the side that depict a certain number of linked RP's. Icons act as small illustrated banner/links and anyone can submit an icon for a chosen group of selected RP threads. This works along the same lines as the links on the right side of SA's sight.

Possible board intro
~ I’ve started looking at the animation project I’d thought of ages ago, and a thought occurred to me. What if, instead of a single undefined animation just floating around, this was a full-blown project to make a small series of rotating intros for Fans? I’d seen little animated intros that other sites have, and began to think that it would certainly be something unique to bring to SWFans.
- Intros will be no more than 60 seconds long.
- There will be more than one, in order to facilitate the number of members we have
- In order to save time and energy, people can be paired with others - ie, Vega with Daiq and Hera, LV and AB fighting, etc etc.

James has already expressed a strong desire to help me with this project, and has offered to help put it together in Flash, though if anyone wants to help out, I welcome it.

Dotnet
- update every Wednesday evening
- possibly change ‘funstuff’ slice

Writing Contests
Hopefully these contests will encourage the newer members to A) get to know the old folks, and vice versa, and B) help better a new Rper as a writer.

Time allowed per contest – either one or two months

RP must:
- Be understandable in terms of grammar, spelling, etcetera
- Flow
- Have a definite beginning and a definite end.

Team Structuring
- Group 1 : “noobs” / older members
- Group 2 : Open to all
- Group 3 : older members
- Class A : 2 Rpers per team
- Class B : 3 Rpers per team
- Class C : 4 Rpers per team

Judging
Possibly the BO guys, as I can see them being impartial and fair when it comes to judging an RP.

Prizes
- Framed print of any chosen Dotnet
- T-shirt
- Framed print of a finished drawing of winner’s character.
- Supporter Status
- Any other piece of merch that is normally sold

Merchandise
- Playing cards with Fans characters on the back
- Calenders (365 with different quotes from threads MAYBE)
- Art Prints
- Apparel
- POSSIBLE Illustrated “Best Threads of [insert year] (I’d have to check the different kinds of binding Kinkos offers)
- Dotnet volumes (when the quantity of Dotnet comics becomes large enough)
- Framed prints of some of the more popular Dotnets

Supporter Status
- Personal gallery and the ability to upload images into said gallery (already available)
- Access to torrents (already available)
- Access to “Fans Radio” (essentially put together a collection of the music members enjoy, and set up one massive playlist so people can listen to it like a radio – or also see about setting up something like those ‘Launch’ and ‘Yahoo’ radio things)
- Accessibility to additional supporter exclusive stylesets (not including the already present ones)

Styles:
~ Kessel Inmate (or) Star’s End Inmate – James had this idea, but he only got so far with it before hitting a brainfry. I’d like to resurrect it, as I think it’s definitely a unique idea.
~ Mon Cal Seas – I had this stewing in my head when I was doing the Slicer styles, and I think it has the potential to be a very well put-together and beautiful styleset.
~ Nar Shaddaa City Life – This one will probably be fun to make, as the theme would be that of the vertical city, and I like the idea of maybe playing with the “neon Vegas” look.
~ Corusca Gem – Something that I thought of on the fly, it would be a lot like the streamlined styleset in that it would be sleek, minimalistic, and smooth while still retaining eyecatching appeal.
~ Hoth Summit – I used to have a sig that I’d made which had tauntauns, the mountains of Hoth, and a snowboarder all put together – while there certainly won’t be a snowboarder or the like included, I think this would be a fun stylest to implement.


So that's the list I so far. Thought/questions/comments/suggestions?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I can bind things up to two inches thick. ^_^; if we make the font small enough in a 'best of 2004' that might work...

And you didn't add the Swfans Chat room idea.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I mentioned it to Ogre, but like a dumb-dumb, I forgot to put it on the list :o

[Lilaena De'Ville]

*uses a crayon to write "Chat Room" on the list* ^_^;

[Shawn]

There's a couple of things I'd like to do to help revitalize the site, but I keep finding myself distracted by other things.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

We'll just have to hide all the shiny things then.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Here's the new default styleset I'm working on - I've changed it a little from the one I sent to Shawn, and it's by no means done in the least, but I wanted to get everyone's input and suggestions.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

and it appears I've suddenly become attachment illiterate.

[Navaria Tarkin]

:lol

the art of parlay

:lol

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The little thumbnails on the right are links to current threads, right? Or links to old threads?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The thumbnails would be links to current threads - I just pulled those ones off the top of my head.

I was thinking that to promote member interaction, we could post a list every week or month of some of the more interesting threads being done, and people could claim one or two and make an icon for it. That way they could be contributing, show off, and I wouldn't have to draw so much ^_^;

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I'd also like to (if OOC gets converted to only RP related threads) encourage the group subforum to be used as sort of a 'holonet' for news flashes, etc etc.

Lemme think about it a little more and I'll post my idea more fully. I got this from TRF, but I think that its a great idea, and implemented well could help us all keep tabs on whats going on in our universe a little better.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I love the idea of transferring TRF's Propaganda forum here. I think it's a great way to add another of depth and 'reality' to the whole roleplaying experience :D

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I just remembered, wasn't it Dru that had his GNN thing going on for a little bit, and made those faux newspapers? I loved those - maybe we could bring it back to life to go along with this holonet/propoganda forum?

[Morgan Evanar]

Yes, it was.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Originally posted by s'Ilancy
I just remembered, wasn't it Dru that had his GNN thing going on for a little bit, and made those faux newspapers? I loved those - maybe we could bring it back to life to go along with this holonet/propoganda forum?

That would be awesome also :D I still have one of those saved somewhere

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Well we can't depend on Dru to do it all, or even ask any one player to do so.

I was thinking we could add tags to this Holonet Forum, along the lines of "Tabloid" "News" "Propaganda" and depending on the slant you give your news bit, you'd use the appropriate tag. Or if you can't write a "news" article without being all Telan about it, the mods could change the tag to "propaganda"

And it would be like three (or however many) different holonet stations.

^_^; thoughts?

[Navaria Tarkin]

i am confused on one thing...


Or if you can't write a "news" article without being all Telan about it, the mods could change the tag to "propaganda"


all Telan about it? o_O

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Another way to say "propaganda", imo. ;)

[Darth Viscera]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
Another way to say "propaganda", imo. ;)

I take great offense to that. And by offense I mean not real "i'm going to boil your cat alive and light your bathroom on fire" offense, but rather fake internet :shakefist offense. A better thing to say would be "All Drakiss about it", seeing as how I was the person who invented propaganda on TRF (and was rather spectacularly successful with it, if I do say so myself). Ask Christin about the sandwich, she'll know what I'm talking about.

And being outlandishly self-promoting and liarly is a-okay in propaganda! For example:



Following the Republic's recent defeat at the Battle of Desteyr, Imperial authorities have made spectatular progress in rounding up cells of Jedi. The most recent cult followers to be apprehended were found sexually satisfying themselves using the corpses of infants who they murdered in last week's thermal detonator attack on the Zarr City orphanage.

In weather news, the sky is still orange, despite the lies and misrepresentations of our enemies.

In politics, a poll was conducted among citizens of the Republic recently, and the results were hardly surprising. 100% of those polled described their tyrannical regime as "evil", further stating that they look forward to the day when they are liberated by the benevolent Galactic Empire.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Tabloid would refer to gossip, News to actual bare facts reporting with minimal skew, and Propganda is "outlandishly self-promoting and liarly" as Viscera stated. ;)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Ok then, I've added this to the list:



SWFans Chatroom
- A chat room akin to Meras’ Omega room so that Rpers can talk to one another and have ‘chat parties.
- Also, perhaps a Sunday AIM group chat.

Propoganda forum
- Used to update Rpers on the status of the SWFans galaxy, and broaden the RP horizon.
- Maybe new topic tags which are of course forum specific ~ [TAB], [NEWS], and [PROP].
- Possibly bring back the GNN idea that Dru had; maybe ask some of the Rpers to be on the GNN ‘staff’ and write articles for GNN.


I also think it would be kinda neat (and rather humorous, too) for whoever was the top news director person to act Jonah Jameson-esque so he/she could yell at the 'staff members' to bring him/her the next front page article or try and expose someone a la Spiderman ^_^;

Hehe, we should have a Weekly Galaxy News that has stories like "Wampa/Ithorian Baby Seen in Ithorian Forests!" and "Statue of Palpatine Seen Weeping Tears of Orange Tang!"

[Dasquian Belargic]

:lol!!!! @ Jonah Jameson idea

I love it. I can see the anti-Jedi headlines already

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Well, GNN could be the "news" tag, and WGN (Weekly Galaxy News) could be the tabloid tag. ^___^

edit: I did chat to CMJ recently, and he said that he was up for judging RP contests. He reads scripts as part of his job, so he'll be a very good judge. Unless he's the one responsible for Alexander being made!!!??

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

:lol I hope he's not.

I like your idea for the GNN and WGN topic tags instead of just news and tab :) Amending the list now.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Okay, I'm confused as to what we're waiting on. ;)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I think for me to finish the new default styleset, though I'm not too sure on that?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

or maybe for one of the two admins to not be on vacation. ;)

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
*uses a crayon to write "Chat Room" on the list* ^_^; I have never been a fans of a SWFans.Net sponsored chat room, nor will I ever be. It would take activity away from the forums and is nearly impossible to moderate to keep content appropriate. I don't see this happening.

I'm okay with the other ideas presented, but will warn now that it is most likely not going to be possible to implement the portal style exactly as your picture depicts due to software limitations and style limitations. As of right now I can't say for sure which features will work and which will not because it will require that it be implemented to find what will and what will not be possible.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

What I wouldn't give to have you and Shawn standing over my shoulder and pointing out what you want right then and there while I'm putting it together ^_^;

I'll mess around with a few more variations of the portal layout and post them up so you can tell me what workes best.


Also, maybe we should start to get the ball rolling in the way of announcements? The first being to maybe tell people what the OOC forum will be used for now, and where general OOC goodness will be going?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

oh yeah, and my idea for the chat room was that the link to it be located in the supporter forums. But I understand.

edit: and I put up a GNN article in OOC, just as an example of things to come. And, because I wanted to get the news out. ;) I should add in a link.

edit edit: I'd like to suggest that the forum change - ooc to general discussion etc etc, that Shawn suggested earlier - take place about the same time as the Empire re-emerging. Or, when we get to announce it to everyone.?

[Morgan Evanar]

If we're going to shuffle forums, make OOC only related to RP. Make box office the "General Offtopic Silly Hattery Forum", and make SW Films "Film and Media."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

That's what I thought the idea was that Shawn had said... :huh

Regardless, yes, that was what I would like to see done as well. OOC would be ONLY for RP ( the group subforum could be changed into the IC News forum with GNN and WGN tags ) and the BO forum would be the gen. discussion forum (basically, the OOC forum as it is now). and yeah... I know I'm just repeating what you just said. I can't help myself!

[Lilaena De'Ville]

http://www.sluggy.com/ads an idea for advertising... I'm thinking buying out a few "all day" ads, for ten bucks a piece would be our best option.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

What about these guys?

http://ctrlaltdel-online.com/

http://penny-arcade.com/

Also, I talked to Holly a little about it, but what if we did some form of advertising through the people on the boards that play Galaxies?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

yeah, basically a word of mouth campaign through our gamers.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

sorry, couldn't edit in an image.

How's this, for a type of banner?

edit: minus the white stripe at the top ^_^;

edit edit: We'd have to use Mitch (have to ask too) or s'Il's art work, because they're not copyrighted by any big corporations that will sue the pants off us, and they don't belong to actors/actresses, etc.

edit edit edit: added all the banners I made up to this post, deleted other attatchments.

<img src=http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/adbanner1.jpg>

<img src=http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/adbanner2.jpg>

<img src=http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/adbanner3.jpg>

<img src=http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/adbanner4.jpg>

<img src=http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/adbanner5.jpg>

<img src=http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/adbanner6.jpg>

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I'll possibly have to redo that pic of Morg - dun wanna bring down the wrath of Valve upon our heads ^_^;

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Fair enough. :) I'm just goofing around.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

By all means goof around, woman!! :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I was going to use some of your pics you did for your animationg project and couldn't find them online.

*d'oh*

I just remembered I saved most of them to my computer. ^_^;

edit: If you're doing a re-do, then rename it like "halve life" or something simliar enough that people will know what your spoofing. :)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Thank goodness you saved those - I don't have them on my comp anymore, and the yahoo photo album they were in is gone ^_^;


ps, I love the ads you have so far. I should quit being a dork and make some too :D

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I need to do some in the regular ad banner size, but it's so SMALL. :(


edit: I did two horizontal banners... dunno if anyone'll like them or not. Christin - I emailed your pictures back to you, so you have the copies I had, at least, which isn't all of them, unfortunately. :( And I hosted the banners and put them all into my first post.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

:Poke

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I need to write up a 'to-do' list., I really do. I keep jumbling everything mentally together and start overwhelming myself >_<

If I can get it ordered, or if someone wants to get one together in order of importance.

[Morgan Evanar]

Christin, start on the styleset, and I'll do an HTML/CSS translation on it.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

...still waiting on a timeline for these changes... :)

edit: I re-uploaded the ad banners I did, fixed some problems.

edit edit:

http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/stylesetportaljpg.jpg
http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/styleset1.jpg

I's still messin' around. These look useable? For the Moderator's Choice pictures i don't see why we can't implement them - other than changing the link being a slight pain? It would be just like how Jenny can change her banners at Fascinataru with no trouble at all - just upload the right sized pic to the correct folder with the same name...?

[Morgan Evanar]

I could try my hand at putting that together, but I'd do light gray instead of white where the text is.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Sounds good to me. It's in the color scheme.

Edit: LIke that? try the link.

[TheHolo.Net]

I like the clean new look of that a lot. I could work on it some this weekend. Though we will need an icon/button set for all the many different icons/buttons contained in a style.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Yeah I know. ^_^; I'm pretty sure I still have the button set from the Streamlined style saved on my computer, so I'll go off those and get some made up.

[TheHolo.Net]

Okay, I know I didn't get to it this weekend, but I hope to fairly soon.

Something else I will need, besides an icon set, is category images for each main forum listing category. I see your linked image only includes category images for the "General" and Roleplaying" categories. It would be best if you did them all so I don't try to match yours and fail miserably.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Yeah, I'll try to do 'em all. :) And put something together for how it would look in a thread.

Okay, here's all I have so far...

There should be a folder of buttons (which you may or may not like ^_^; ) and the two psd files I've been workind off of. Let me know what else you need. :)

http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/simplered.zip

[TheHolo.Net]

Okay, I am a dirty rotten procrastinater that deserves a kick in the pants. I will keep trying to get to this soon though. ^_^;

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

You're far better than I am, Ogre :p

Which reminds me - I told Holly this last night, but if people could, please bug me about Dotnet and light a fire under my rear so I'll stop putzing around with other things and get to it. Threatening PMs are most accepted as well - be creative :)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Also, to address a slight tangent, I think it might be good if we started recruiting again. Like, each organization's leader make recruiting threads. I wanted to start one before I wrote this - to see what the level of interest was, and I was very pleasently surprised with the people that both replied and IMed and PMed me.

Also, I think it would be a good way to start the shift of the OOC forum into the propoganda-esque deal we're looking to go for. Another idea I had was inspired by SA's banner wars. Basically, companies, organizations, etc etc can make their own banners or series of banners and use them in their own recruiting threads. I was originally going to propose the thought of possibly making it so they show up at the top of the page, but that would send Holly back to the drawing board pretty much I think, in having to add a space for them.

Anyways, here are some quickies I whipped up:

for the Imperials - http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/banners/empire.gif

for the 'Rebels' - http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/banners/rebels.gif

fo the Watch - http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/banners/watch.gif

and a stationary one for the Bothan SpyNet - http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/banners/spynet.gif


thoughts? comments?

[Morgan Evanar]

I was bugging you about .net for like 3 weeks. :mad

[Lilaena De'Ville]

DO dotnet RIGHT AWAY YOUNG LADY! Stop messing about in Flash. :verymad


:grumble And Ogre, don't even get me started, you procrastinator.

;)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Oh s'Il - I do love the flash recruiting thingys, but it might be cool if you made them the regular web banner size, and then we can use them on other sites (if we pay) for advertising...? Yes/no?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

s'Ilancy - if we start advertising heavily at webcomics, we should partner with the groups to have something in place to welcome newcomers.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

hmm, I'm not entirely positive I understand exactly what you mean, but it seems like a good idea from what I can gather. Are we talking something like a stickied thread somewhere that welcomes them or something?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

No, no...

It's like at the GJO they don't seem... prepared to deal with a bunch of people joining. They have their "put in an application" process going (which they also have at TSO and I blame this [although it is a good idea] for chasing away a lot of RPers) and it doesn't seem to me that it's being checked regularly or that it's kept up on.

For instance, I looked through the applications when I needed a padawan, and picked one, and was told she was accepted. But when I pm-ed her, she hadn't been notified yet and it had been a few weeks.

So perhaps as we get our ads ready and start looking at paying the money, we should coordinate with the groups to make sure they have 'welcoming' and application screening people. Or maybe we could ask them to re-evaulate the application process.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

aaahhhh, ok I see now. Yeah, that makes sense to me. I'm thinking a combination of screening people and a change to the process might be the best idea.

I understand that it was put in place largely to screen out those SMS idiots, but it may have done more damage than good *shrug*

If itt can be streamilined though, and improved, that would help alot.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Yeah. We can't exactly TELL THEM to change things or else, but a gentle suggestion might be in order. Plus, Morgan has acces to this thread so maybe he has some ideas too. ?

Some things I thought of at work:

1. The all day Sluggy.com ad is $10. I will committ right now to buying one whole day. We should also try to get most of our adverts out during the month of May to capitalize on the buzz from RotS.

2. Perhaps we should make a thread in OOC for people to donate towards advertisements? Perhaps we should think about selling ad space here as well ( perhaps a single banner at the top of the portal page? Just an idea!! ).

3. TYPES OF ADS: We have some done up for RPing (Jedi, Imperial, etc) but I think it's important to also draw in newbies for the "star Wars" forums - Collectors, movie buffs and geeks of all shapes and sizes.

4. The forum re-mixing should be done by the end of April, IMO, so it's all set and ready for RotS.

5. We need to get groups excited about new people joining! Change that mindset from "oh no more work!" to "yay more fun!"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Holy cow - so just one day is ten simolians???

[Navaria Tarkin]

as for the application process for the GJO =P it's being worked on, but with episode three coming up along with the advertising, it is a good idea for everyone to be on the same page to deal with whomever wants to come in and play anything

:: runs outta thread ::

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Originally posted by s'Ilancy
Holy cow - so just one day is ten simolians???

That's one day of ONLY YOUR ADS running for the whole day. Which is pretty cool.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Originally posted by Navaria Tarkin
as for the application process for the GJO =P it's being worked on, but with episode three coming up along with the advertising, it is a good idea for everyone to be on the same page to deal with whomever wants to come in and play anything

:: runs outta thread :: lol don't run away!

But yes, we all need to be on the same page, and it's important that we aren't chasing away newbies, or appearing stuck up or anything like that.

[Morgan Evanar]

I am, honestly, completely broke. I screwed up with a loan I had and I am paying it back rapidly, and my car eats any remaining funds.

I do want to help with this but I have neither the time (until June) or money (December?) beyond moderating duties. I am sorry that I can't help with this more :(

[Navaria Tarkin]

:: runs back in and takes the pole outta her ass ::

:p

Well, only reason i've not been in this thread is because I really don't know how to contribute to it since I'm bad at this stuff. Been really watching the threads and stuff and yeah.. broke.... :cry I hear that.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Well I don't think anyone should expect the moderators to pay for all advertising anyway. Hence my idea about a fundraising thread. :)

[Shawn]

I'm applying for a new job with a pretty decent salary. So if that pans out, I'll be more than happy to help out here. I'll know for sure in just a few weeks.

[TheHolo.Net]

I am also hopefully getting a new job which pays a bit better and is a lot closer to home, which will give me more time to do my admin-type stuff. Like update the portal style with LD's snazzy redish theme. As for money, I really don't have any extra left over from keeping the bills for hosting and domain names for this and Meras all caught up.

But advertising around the time Ep3 comes out is boud to do this site a great deal of good and we do have plenty of bandwidth to be much busier than we are.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

If we did it with a paypal link so that people could send money to your paypal Ogies, that would work, right?

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
If we did it with a paypal link so that people could send money to your paypal Ogies, that would work, right? It might be better to create a seperate paypal account for advert funding. Payments are automatically withdrawn from mine already for hosting here and I don't want there to be fund overlaps that short change either hosting or advert costs.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Ah okay I see.

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/simplered.zip I sure hope you still have this file somewhere, because I never downloaded it and need it before I can really start in earnest.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

O_O

....

edit:

http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/simplered.rar try that ^_^;

[TheHolo.Net]

Thanks. Now it looks like I still need this stuff and I should be good to go.
Originally posted by SWFans.Net
Something else I will need, besides an icon set, is category images for each main forum listing category. I see your linked image only includes category images for the "General" and Roleplaying" categories. It would be best if you did them all so I don't try to match yours and fail miserably.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

um... I thought I'd done that. ^_^;

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/stylesetportaljpg.jpg
http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/styleset1.jpg
there all re-uploaded. I knew I had them done.

[TheHolo.Net]

On this image... http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/styleset1.jpg

...can I get you to do matching text side bar headers for "Statistics" and "Messages", instead of "Style Select", "Dotnet", "Main Menu", and "Contribute"?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Will do, Chief. :)

edit: I hope that was what you needed. ^_^;

[Morgan Evanar]

I think the menu is too left-heavy? Split some of the more important things up toward the right?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I don't like the look of a vertical menu on both sides. Which is why I designed it the way i did... is that what you mean? a menu on both sides??

[Morgan Evanar]

Yes, because it's too long otherwise. Maybe just cut the gallery to a single image.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I'm assuming not everything I stuck in there will be used in the final code that Ogre does.

[TheHolo.Net]

I still have a lot left to do on it, but I did get it started yesterday: <a href=/forum/index.php?s=&styleid=79>Style Link</a>

[Lilaena De'Ville]

omg i love it!!! :D

[TheHolo.Net]

Like I said, there is still a lot of work left to be done, but, I think I have the main forum index pretty much set up and to my liking. Now I just need to do all of the other pages. @_@

[TheHolo.Net]

All thats really left for this style is to finish setting up how the actual forums display (threadlist/forumdisplay) and the showthread/postbit stuff. Ideas and/or extra images to spruce them up appreciated.

I am also considering resizing the style's main banner graphic so that it is a little smaller in height.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Believe it or not, I have been thinking about this but I'm not sure how to create a 'style' for inside a thread that is not fixed width, since that seems to be what I create when I design. ^_^; I'm getting a little paranoid about it.

[TheHolo.Net]

I managed to adjust your main style (which was fixed with banner and footer) to be a non fixed width one, so I can probably convert another too. :p

[Lilaena De'Ville]

http://panic.hopto.org/swf/lilly/styles/styleset.rar should contain three PSD files that should either give you inspiration or allow you to make something you like better, easily. :D

One word of warning though - I hadn't discovered folders to keep things organized until the third PSD. ^_^; (p.s. thank you morg!!)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I've been thinking about this for a few weeks now, and thought I'd bring it up. Along with the ideas that the staff has had for the boards, what if we started a thread in OOC asking the members what they would be interested in seeing changed/added/etc? It would be good to get feedback from people and find out what they like about the place and what ideas they have that might help and benefit us.

Nothing drastic or anything, just asking the players what might help make their experience here even more enjoyable?

[Dasquian Belargic]

Sounds like a sensible idea.

[Navaria Tarkin]

:thumbup

aye

[Lilaena De'Ville]

do it! do it!

[TheHolo.Net]

Okay by me.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Or, we could just do what was already decided in this thread. We did decide to do some things, didn't we? To do them before Ep 3 came out?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

What I have. Let me know of any changes I need to make :)



The staff has been talking for the last few months about improving the forums; putting forth ideas to help revitalize and liven things up. We have come up with quite a bit, but there is still some things missing, and that is input and more ideas from the members themselves.

We want to know what you think might be good/fun/interesting to see here. We want to know what makes this place fun for you, and what sort of ideas you have to help make SW-Fans even better. It's the members that really make this place, and so we're asking you what sort of changes you would like to see that would make your roleplaying; and overall experience even better.

Throw out ideas no matter how crazy or simple you think they are, and we [the staff] will do our best to help accomadate and make them happen. Please realize though, that not every single idea will be accepted. This thread is meant to be a springboard of sorts for people, to bounce ideas off of one another and fine-tune things so that we can shape SW-Fans into something more unique than it already is.

Here are a few ideas that we have already come up with and are working on:

1. Writing contests with prizes for the winner(s)
2. New default styleset
3. Animated gif banners for different groups (ie, the Empire, NR/Rebellion/Watch)

There are more, but I don't want to spoil any surprises :)

So let us know what you think would help.

[TheHolo.Net]

I like it.

[Navaria Tarkin]

it's bootiful

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Looks good to me :)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

ok, it's up =]

Also, I remember something Shawn said about possibly having movie reviews, and after a spurt of righteous and indignant anger which evolved into pure maliciuos hatred toward Michael Chaw, I was thinking we need to look more into Shawn's idea. Something of another aspect for Fans, like a 'movie reviews by real people' sort of thing. Something I'm sure the BO guys would like alot.

I hate Michael Chaw; just to remind you all. Oh so very much hate do I have for him.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

http://lost-forum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=11 I think we should have a creative department, like this forum does. Not *exactly* like it, because then we'd all have to be 14 yr old girls, but you get the idea. I love the "creative challenges" forum the most.

We could have one, and also a gallery with screen-caps from all 6 movies. I'd cap 'em myself, but the ability to do so seems to have been voodoo-ed out of my computer.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The thread needs an announcement about it, to direct people from the other forums to it.

edit:

aaand I got home from work finally so I did it myself.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I don't know how well-recieved this will be, but I want to put it forth anyways.

All the ideas we've had have been wonderful. Unique and helpful. But, to me the problem runs a little bit deeper. For me, I love to RP s'Il. And yet, I've done so much with her now that lately everything new I try to do doesn't work out and I feel as though I just have nothing left. I've had ideas for RPs that I want to do with s'Il, but right now they just don't fit very well. I feel I've used her up in this sort of setting.

What I propose is (to my knowledge) Fans' first reset. Really strip everything away to the barest of bones, and start over fresh. Put the Empire in power, bring back the Rebel Alliance, and start anew more of the canon (and non-canon) independant groups like the Bounty Hunter's Guild and the Trade Federation Start our characters over; either in completely different settings or with the same beginnings yet with the choice of sending them down different roads.

It seems the most fun we had RPing was when we were 'climbing the ladder' in essence to get where we are now. Thing is, now that we've essentially gotten to the top we don't know what to do. And we've been here for a long time. Some more than others, but the fact of the matter still remains; We're on top, and now we don't really know what to do so we're floundering.

All the ideas we've had so far can still be implemented on top of a reset, I feel. Basically not only would we give the forums themselves a facelift, but we would scoop out the guts and start from scratch internally.

I know some might not like this idea, and I do admit that I wasn't too keen on it when I first thought of it last night at work, but the more I considered it, the more it made sense to me. I could give s'Il a new direction while keeping a few things from how she is now, and the more I thought about it the more I liked it. RP's just started coming to me, and I felt excited again. It was the same excitement I had when I first joined up.

So there you have it. Maybe what Fans' needs in addition to aesthetic improvements is a reset.

[Morgan Evanar]

I've proposed this on about four or five seperate occasions, and it's always met with a less than lukewarm reception. It makes me a sad panda, honestly.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

I'm pretty sure I said this the last time this idea was proposed, but I would love to reboot the universe.

[Morgan Evanar]

Yeah, it was you, me, and Hera and Daiq. Charley and Rie cling screaming to this dogmatic heap.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Just for reference, here's one thread where this was discussed, back in 02 (couldn't find anything more recent). I think it probably deals with the majority of potential arguements that could be brought against the idea.

http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12377&highlight=morgan

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I think a reset would be a good idea.

But if we all go back to being... apprentices and padawans, who will train anyone?

[Morgan Evanar]

I think we should have the option of retaining rank. I know I wouldn't.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

That sounds good to me.

[Navaria Tarkin]

course if everyone retains rank ... hypothetically speaking, then there is no starting over :)

Depends on how well it is received....I have a feeling it will be brushed under the rug again.

Also s'il... thanks for getting things back on track tho I still am not liking the new poster. He flames Morgan gets a warning and acts like I spit on his face :| oy... heads up .. he already is on the verge of godmoding in one thread and doesnt like me OOC because I was the lucky one to deal with him at GJO :lol

i'm thinking I should have no more dealings with him at all

[Navaria Tarkin]

http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38334

ze same doofus has rebooted our system woooo!

:zzz

I swear when I pmed him from the GJO application I encouraged to lurk more and ask questions!! I swear I did :(

edit- for the record before I start accusing Jak and Jedimaster whathisface are the same person.. can we verify this. I suck at the IP

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

As for the retaining rank, I was thinking about that last night also. Not sure how popular this would be, but here goes.

No one retains rank with the exception of one or two; possibly three. If we go back to the Empire being in control, I was thinking that maybe they could have exterminated most if not all of the Jedi, leaving a small band of Jedi refugees/fugitives. The lone master or two masters would have to help train the apprentices/padawans left, but since the ratio is a bit lopsided, a few might have to discover things on their own.

[Navaria Tarkin]

okay said persons are different, with similar writing styles and attitudes that it seemed logical. Tho, both need to be watched for completely different reasons.

I'll keep posted on the god-moding thing with jak, s'il is talking to jedimaster dude


s'il, your idea is a good one but overall not sure if it be kicked in the nuts before it could be discussed more :( tho wouldnt hurt trying.

course, what about ze sith? Cant really go to one on one still with so many of them about

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I moved his thread, and PMed him for the reason.

If we leave any Sith as masters, they will just take over the universe. I know I would.

of course, if you're okay with that...

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Silly Hollie, always with the taking over the galaxy :p

I just figured that what happened with the Jedi happened with the Sith and Dark Jedi as well; the Empire turned on them. Plus, if Visc does come back to RPing, then we wouldn't have to worry too much about a Sith taking over, since as he put it, he could 'go all Goa'uld on them' or however you spell that word ^_^;

[Navaria Tarkin]

All this talk is nice, but until we get an idea that the rest of the board is willing to even consider this ... it's all work for no reason

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

You want I should post another announcement in ooc about it?

[Navaria Tarkin]

how about we deal with the forum improving first then move onto a new topic... I fear the newbie invasion will inact change :p and not for the better I believe

but seriously, one thing at a time. Forum idea shouldn't take too long now that it is hopefully back on topic :|

[Morgan Evanar]

Nope.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I was going to make a post saying how great it was to have this steady influx of newbies. Should have known it wouldn't be long before a difficult one turned up |I

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Yay, another 8 hour thinking session under my belt.

I thought alot about the Sith, and got to thinking about games like Jedi Academy and Jedi Knight (I sadly haven't played Outcast :( ), and figured that we could go the route of cults. Like in Jedi Academy we had the Marka Ragnos Cult. What if we had cults that followed Freedon Nadd or Exar Kun? Heck, we could have the Ragnos Cult, and just say that it didn't die out after Academy ended, so an aspect of Fans would somewhat be a continuation of Academy in some senses. Maybe throw in a few Sith/Dark Jedi trinkets and artifacts that are used as focal points for each cult?

[Morgan Evanar]

Originally posted by s'Ilancy
Yay, another 8 hour thinking session under my belt.

I thought alot about the Sith, and got to thinking about games like Jedi Academy and Jedi Knight (I sadly haven't played Outcast :( ), and figured that we could go the route of cults. Like in Jedi Academy we had the Marka Ragnos Cult. What if we had cults that followed Freedon Nadd or Exar Kun? Heck, we could have the Ragnos Cult, and just say that it didn't die out after Academy ended, so an aspect of Fans would somewhat be a continuation of Academy in some senses. Maybe throw in a few Sith/Dark Jedi trinkets and artifacts that are used as focal points for each cult? I had a lot of details planned but it didn't matter. :( You need to see if the bucket holds water first.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The key here is attitude. I know in the past this sort of idea has been ill-recieved, but that was the past. This is now. A: Mark is no longer around, and I know that he was a major roadblock when it came to wanting to present this idea, and B: The current situation we have right now I know should help knock people's heads in the right direction.

As long as we're positive about the reset and excited about the opportunities it presents for us all, then our attitudes will be infectious and spread. Optimism is the name of the game now. As long as we remain in good spirits and friendly with everyone, it should work.

I really don't see why it wouldn't, as the major opponents of a reset are either gone or hardly visit let alone RP enough to really have much of a say.

[Morgan Evanar]

Yeah, but Charley is still around, and so is Rie although she does between nothing and WoW.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I personally think Charley wouldn't be opposed to a reset at this point in time. I haven't talked to him about it yet; was gonna save that for a face to face talk.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I would love a reset. My characters are all sucked dry, by myself, and others. And we should make a rule - don't enter a RPing thread unless you plan on actually posting. An Ill Wind = case in point.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I'm putting this here because I don't know exactly where else to put it, but it does deal with the forums facelift. Pretty much it's just a quick mockup of how we might be able to make the site look; the styleset is just something I through together.

http://s93860457.onlinehome.us/misc/mockup.jpg

Now, let me explain some of this stuff, since it makes sense in my head but nowhere else.

Star Wars Films
Same as always, nothing would really change for this forum.

The Movie Pit
Where all movie talk goes, not just SW.

Movie Reviews
Pretty self explanatory, I think. A collection of all the movie reviews our members do. I think a criteria for writing reviews does need to be established; by some of the BO guys, I would imagine. That way not just any crap review gets posted.

General Gaming
Blah blah, same thing

Collecting
Same

The Rec Room
What OOC was, now has been moved up into General Interest. I didn't really know what all to call it, and I didn't want to just put General Discussion, so I just put Rec Room. Any other suggestions would be welcome.

The Holonet
IC news and propaganda. a cesspool for GNN and WGN.

Roleplaying
Open grounds like always.

Storytelling
For closed RPs and major character development.

The Empire
The Empire's base of operations.

The Rebellion
The remnants and freedom fighters trying to topple the Empire.

The Bounty Hunter's Guild
For all those mean-type independants looking to make a fortune off of other's bad luck.

The Cult of Freedon Nadd
I really couldn't think of anything else to put for the bad dude Jedi-folk.

The Artists of Fans
Small bios of Fans' artists, including who inspires them and what art they like, etc etc.

Artist Galleries
Dedicated Galleries for each artist.

PS Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials
A place for artists to share their knowledge of PS.

Sig Shop
Where members can request sigs from either certain artists or leave their request open for anyone to respond to.

Con Prep
This is something Hollie and I started talking about to possibly advertise Fans; going to conventions to get the word out. Here is where people can plan for cons.



Darkside of Endor stuff would stay the same for the most part.


Along the side I added quick 'links' for the Fans store, awards, dotnet, and a place where maybe the mods can have bios of their own so that newer members can get a better understanding of who moderates Fans. I thought it might be helpful.

Anyways, I figured I'd backstep a little and curb my reset idea for the moment and concentrate on the matter at hand :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I like the layout a lot. Some thoughts - PS tricks and Sig Shop be subforums (along with a Challenges forum) inside a general "artistic" heading or something.

Also, a link to the gallery of screen caps, which I think is a must have.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I had tried to edit my post, but it didn't work, and so I'm double posting.

If we reset, I suggest all pre-reset threads be archived in archive subforums. Like a link on the board that says "Star Wars Fans v.1" and then the Rping archive forum and St archive forum inside, as well as group archive forums. Thoughts?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I was thinking the same thing, but forgot to put the link. I was going to just call it 'Fans Classic'. 'v.1' works for me :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

the name was also merely a suggestion. :p


Also, is Viscera coming back to RP??

[Dasquian Belargic]

I think so. He's supposed to be an integral part of helping the Imps attack Coruscant, isn't he?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Supposed to be. Yes.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Well, heh, I suppose it's evident that I talked to Charley about the reset. He was pretty nuetral about it at first, but we started just throwing ideas out and this yearly reset / season-type thing came about, and now he's pretty stoked about it :)

I must admit, I am too. It's fresh, and has the potential to stay fresh.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Sometimes a year isn't long enough to get one Rp done, however.

[Morgan Evanar]

Maybe things need to be planned better?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

PLANNED BETTER?! *splutters*

I enjoy a good RP planning session, it takes an afternoon. Anyway, I'm saying nothing more on the subject as it really is moot.

[Morgan Evanar]

^yeah ok whateva sista.

[Morgan Evanar]

Rie sucks a lot.

Seriously, I think we need to do this with the forums

Star Wars Discussion (combines EU+Films)

Box Office and Other Media Discuss Flim, Music, and the Arts

General Discussion (combines off topic for Box Office and OOC)

Gaming is fine

Collecting is fine

Trash Misc

Operations is fine

Roleplaying fine
Storytelling is fine

OOC becomes
Propaganda and News Forum
RP Planning Discussion Forum