RP and RPer of the month(s)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Would anyone be adverse if we shifted the RP/RPer of the month into a seasonal thing? Due to the slower pace of things, it seems to me that it'd be a good notion to adopt for the time being; at least until the pace picks back up.


Winter - December, January, February
Spring - March, April, May
Summer - June, July, August
Fall - September, October, November



This sound ok to everyone?

[Ilias Nytrau]

This makes most excellent sense to me! :D

[Captain Untouchable]

What if we change things up completely?

We're a little bit bad when it comes to keeping on top of updating things. Even when we're super-active, we're pretty forgetful with this. ^_^;

What if instead of having to remember to ask for nominations every so often, we just have an ongoing (stickied?) thread that people can just throw up suggestions as and when it springs to mind, and we can switch things over as and when there's a consensus. That would make it a little easier to keep the focus stuff relevant to the stuff that is going on right now: currently for example, we should probably have the All That Remains arc as the focus roleplay, because it's so potentially relevant to everyone?

If it's something big relevant like that, and if there isn't a date/season/whatever associated with it, it doesn't matter so much if we're too distracted by being awesome to remember to switch things over. :uhoh


Edit:

For the threads that don't necessarily have far reaching consequences, but are just flipping awesome, maybe we could add in a "Hall of Fame" or something? If you've been reading a thread that was really really good, and you think people should read it just because it's a good read... but it's maybe not headline news as far as all-impacting plot revelations go... maybe you nominate it for the Hall of Fame, and we have that as a recurring article on the front page of the forums? Keep the community pat on the back stuff as an aspect of the boards, and save the wiki front page for the more plot-heavy stuff, maybe?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I personally would prefer for it to be on a seasonal rotation. I'd had plans to make little winner/prize icons that folks would be able to put in their profiles for when they won winter/spring/summer/fall RP/RPer.

That's my preference though.


I do like the idea of a hall of fame category a lot.

[Charley]

Hall of fame could be the seasonal rotation since a thread's awesomeness is basically what I usually vote for. Do that quarterly, and then keep those big over-arching roleplays for the focus roleplay, if that makes sense?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I'm fine with whatever, I just figured having a quarter-based system would still allow for a cyclical turnover without a monthly rush to finish a thread or whatnot. Like, nominations would open up in the third month so that folks would have enough time to read/write etc on top of the two months previous. Truthfully I'm open to trying whatever everyone wants :)

I did have a thought on the way home tonight though, for the possible future - what if we tiered things? I was thinking four tiers:

Tier 1
Daily character spotlight on the portal page
This stems from my original thought to have a sidebar on the portal page that has a character avatar with their name below that's a link to their wiki page. Since a code would randomize once a day, it's all automated and no effort would need to be given aside from getting the randomizer/refresh code.

Tier 2
Monthly focus RP - The awesome threads that aren't a part of a big storyline.
Featured on the Wiki frontpage.
Featured on the portal.

Tier 3
Quarterly RP and RPer - Can be standalone threads or storyline threads
Featured on the FB page.

Tier 4
Hall of Fame - I have to admit, to me a Hall of Fame should be prestigious; maybe a once every six months nomination session. Possibly limited to one or two RP's.
Featured on the FB page.
Winning writers get a small Hall of Fame 'trophy' graphic to put in their profiles/signatures/whatever.

[Captain Untouchable]

That is the complete, polar opposite of what I suggested the Hall of Fame be for.

Fans has no shortage of exclusivity. The absolute last thing we need to do is be adding some super-elite award that happens so rarely that only a teeny tiny subset of people ever get recognised by it. Maybe Hall of Fame is too grand a term, but what I suggested was a way for people to recognise good quality writing from their peers, without restriction. If a thread is good, it should be applauded for being good, regardless of whether it's been six months or six seconds since the last one was added to that category.

If you think a Hall of Fame should be prestigious, then call it something else. Maybe use Hall of Fame to refer to character spotlights or something, and just call it "Recommended Reading". Either way... what I suggested was a way for people to say "Hey, I've been reading this thread and it's fantastic", as a positive reinforcement, motivational, being a friendly and supportive community thing.

This all sounds way, way to overcomplicated and overambitious for us, given our track record with these things, at this point in time. And I am violently opposed to a thread exclusivity club. (Also on painkillers and excessively cranky, but still)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Ok, sorry. Wasn't trying to generate any sort of exclusivity vibes, I just thought it was a neat thing and I really did like your idea for it. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

I think what he's saying is that it would just be kind of a kudos thing. Less formal than even tier two stuff. Not sure how we'd get that to push to wiki, front page, fb, etc but maybe that's what drives all those other things? Or maybe I'm overanalyzing.

[Jaden Luka]

Charley phrased it much better than I did.

Yeah, it would be a pat on the back / kudos sort of thing. To my mind, leaving someone a Reputation comment (in private) is the first step in praising someone. This would be the next step above that: not just telling them they did a good job, but telling everyone else too.

And I like the suggestion that it might drive the other things. Maybe instead of trying to drag out nominations on a monthly/quarterly basis, we instead look back at the freely nominated kudos threads for a given time period, and chose something from there?

As far as how to link it through to Facebook and the front portal and such... for Facebook, just posting a link to the thread once it's been nominated does the job. And for the portal... if there's a way of writing code to randomise an avatar on the front page, maybe there's a way of making it randomise a kudos thread (from a specific list? items in a specific category?) as well?