what can we do to help improve roleplayer guild?

[skidcrow]

derived from a question asked by @cynder on this thread, i wish to ask you all: what can we do to make roleplayer guild better? now, though i am willing to hear about site-based suggestions (changes mahz can make to the site in order to improve it), i'm more interested in how the community can change in order to further itself and the site. compare to other rp sites, criticise current roleplays (preferably without dropping names; i don't want the mods knocking on my door), just spitball about what your thoughts on the community are - whatever you want, so long as it is relevant to the topic of this thread, do it! i am honestly really curious on a) what others think and b) how well we can take constructive criticism and learn from our mistakes.

(also: if you're gonna disagree with someone's point, don't be like me - either do it in a polite and civil manner or take your passive aggressive ass to pms. i don't want this to devolve into a shitstorm, like most other off-topic threads where scary opinions get involved. cheers in advance.)

[Punished GN]

Be collectively less retarded.

[skidcrow]

Be collectively less retarded.

@Mr Allen J

get outta here you dirty spammer

but easier said than done

[Cyndyr]

I highly doubt that there is anything the community could do to fix this, but it's worth a shot to see if there's a genius out there who may have a solution: finding a way to separate interest checks looking for sexual content opposed to those that are not in the 1x1 section.

[Punished GN]

If I had to stop being an asshole... I'm going to be realistic here when I say that, even if I write an essay on what the community could do better, it would be nigh impossible for them to enact it practically. And, there's a large contingent of people on the RPG that is relatively disconnected from the rest of the RPG, so it would be hard to reach them unless we tried too hard (more than it's worth, tbh).

But, that brings me to the one thing that we as a community can do better: communicate. Try not to play the clique game so hard, and try to bring other people into the mix.

[Todd Howard]

"I may vanish. I'm very loyal though"

Anonymous

Not having anyone who can write something this goddamn stupid

[Cyndyr]

But, that brings me to the one thing that we as a community can do better: communicate. Try not to play the clique game so hard, and try to bring other people into the mix.

@Mr Allen J

This is a really good point and one that I would like to see go somewhere. We have the Guild Discord which was a(n) utter failure beginning, but I'm trying to think what more we could do. Holding contests, advertising, and reviving the Guild News may be a good way to start.

Not having anyone who can write something this goddamn stupid

@Raddum

I don't think the community has the ability to control content.

[Todd Howard]

I don't think the community has the ability to control content.

@Cynder

Yeah.

Again, probably belongs in the bitch thread. Regardless that quote is the stupidest thing I've read this year lol.

In all seriousness unless people in general decide to not be dicks and ruin roleplays, there's nothing that can be done. It's up to each individual to either push things forward, or pull it back. And we have a lot more force tugging us backwards instead of pushing forward. Which will only worsen as school gets out; While not all of the youth provide a problem (People in 18-25 range tend to be some of the fucking worst people around here), I personally just see the community getting worse as people get more free time. As it gives people that constantly screw up more time to do that.

This is a really good point and one that I would like to see go somewhere. We have the Guild Discord which was a(n) utter failure beginning, but I'm trying to think what more we could do. Holding contests, advertising, and reviving the Guild News may be a good way to start.

@Cynder

The discord isn't going to become decent, too many people already have their specific discords for their little groups. They aren't gonna crawl out of them, either. Between that, and RP specific discords, the main RPG discord is worthless and will remain that way. Advertising, I dunno. Depends on how it's done and if the people doing it are shitlords and make us look bad. Contests could be neat, though who knows how that'd go. Might get the community together a bit.

Guild News... Eh. Again, it'd depend on what's done with it. I don't see it doing anything worthwhile for the site with the state it's in; Though maybe I'm just narrow-minded and can't think creatively enough?

[skidcrow]

If I had to stop being an asshole... I'm going to be realistic here when I say that, even if I write an essay on what the community could do better, it would be nigh impossible for them to enact it practically. And, there's a large contingent of people on the RPG that is relatively disconnected from the rest of the RPG, so it would be hard to reach them unless we tried too hard (more than it's worth, tbh).

But, that brings me to the one thing that we as a community can do better: communicate. Try not to play the clique game so hard, and try to bring other people into the mix.

@Mr Allen J

>tfw allen is actually intelligent for once and you agree with his points

I highly doubt that there is anything the community could do to fix this, but it's worth a shot to see if there's a genius out there who may have a solution: finding a way to separate interest checks looking for sexual content opposed to those that are not in the 1x1 section.

@Cynder

yeah, that's honestly a good idea but, unfortunately, not something the community can do much about. :/

<Snipped quote by Anonymous>

Not having anyone who can write something this goddamn stupid

@Raddum

I don't think the community has the ability to control content.

@Cynder

sure it can. to register for an account, you must first either a) compete to the death in the hunger games: guild edition or b) consistently write at least a paragraph on the login page each week or get lockedd out of your account

jokes(?) aside, we could maybe inform each other about inconsistent players. but only as a last resort, i guess. gms have the right to check a person's previous posts to see how dedicated they are anyway, and deny them if they're a flaker.

[Todd Howard]

jokes(?) aside, we could maybe inform each other about inconsistent players. but only as a last resort, i guess. gms have the right to check a person's previous posts to see how dedicated they are anyway, and deny them if they're a flaker.

@Grimhildr

The thing is, the GM's are desperate for their large playerbases, and don't give a shit half the time. While some GM's have level heads and think shit through, other people just want those 10+ players for the sake of having extra stock if a few drop out. The shift in quality due to this is painful at times, and then the decent people leave, and the worst of the community is left there. Then the GM kills it, or the players just don't have the ability to move forward due to either being unable to do anything themselves due to incompetence, or because the GM isn't hand holding.

Or it's plot-heavy and the GM just flops. Because that happens.

[Cyndyr]

The thing is, the GM's are desperate for their large playerbases, and don't give a shit half the time. While some GM's have level heads and think shit through, other people just want those 10+ players for the sake of having extra stock if a few drop out. The shift in quality due to this is painful at times, and then the decent people leave, and the worst of the community is left there. Then the GM kills it, or the players just don't have the ability to move forward due to either being unable to do anything themselves due to incompetence, or because the GM isn't hand holding.

Or it's plot-heavy and the GM just flops. Because that happens.

@Raddum

I'm not sure if this would help, but maybe someone (or a group of individuals) could write up a guide for new and/or inexperienced GMs on how to NOT kill their Roleplays? You make some valid arguments that I think any GM could benefit from hearing.

[skidcrow]

<Snipped quote by Grimhildr>

The thing is, the GM's are desperate for their large playerbases, and don't give a shit half the time. While some GM's have level heads and think shit through, other people just want those 10+ players for the sake of having extra stock if a few drop out. The shift in quality due to this is painful at times, and then the decent people leave, and the worst of the community is left there. Then the GM kills it, or the players just don't have the ability to move forward due to either being unable to do anything themselves due to incompetence, or because the GM isn't hand holding.

Or it's plot-heavy and the GM just flops. Because that happens.

@Raddum

that's true. to be honest, i looked over that fact because the moment i see a bad rper joining an rp that i'm in, i'm out. if the gm is willing to accept players like that then they clearly aren't dedicated enough to their rp and will just run it into the ground.

for reals tho how hard is it to think to yourself "will i still be interested in and want to actively post in this rp later down the line?" when applying. like tf.

[skidcrow]

<Snipped quote by Raddum>
I'm not sure if this would help, but maybe someone (or a group of individuals) could write up a guide for new and/or inexperienced GMs on how to NOT kill their Roleplays? You make some valid arguments that I think any GM could benefit from hearing.

@Cynder

to be honest yea. i think the reason there's so many people out there that get shat on for being, well, shit, is because rpg is pretty scarce in terms of guides. like, sure, i've seen some around, but they're wayyyy at the bottom of piles of new threads. honestly there needs to be a pinned guide in each roleplaying subsection so it's hard to miss.

[Todd Howard]

I'm not sure if this would help, but maybe someone (or a group of individuals) could write up a guide for new and/or inexperienced GMs on how to NOT kill their Roleplays? You make some valid arguments that I think any GM could benefit from hearing.

@Cynder

While admittedly there's a bunch of people on here that could do that, (I guess I could try to do it, but let me continue-) I have tried hand-holding GM's before and guiding them, and the shit doesn't stick for people. Now, I'm not saying that's everyone: There's people that might read and understand it, begin to grasp it; But some GM's have a terrible tendency to do all of the big no-no's even after you try to inform them that they are the big freakin' no-no's.

Lying, putting their RP on the backburner for other roleplays they are in or to search for more 1x1's, neglecting to quality check, not knowing what they want to do with the roleplay(A HUGE OFFENDER), and last but not least, completely fail at communicating. There's more, but I won't bother listing it all, as most people in this thread already know what I'm talking about.

Anyhow, now I'm off to work. So continue -perhaps- making some progress here.

But I don't see the community fixing this shite. I'm negative, yeah, but that's also being a bit of a realist.

Admittedly I'm a results>idealism gal.

[Todd Howard]

that's true. to be honest, i looked over that fact because the moment i see a bad rper joining an rp that i'm in, i'm out. if the gm is willing to accept players like that then they clearly aren't dedicated enough to their rp and will just run it into the ground.

for reals tho how hard is it to think to yourself "will i still be interested in and want to actively post in this rp later down the line?" when applying. like tf.

@Grimhildr

Yep.

Sometimes the above happens and in some form of cancer it happens in reverse; Bad people ditch because they're too lazy to fully read and gasp a more advanced situation; So they leave instead. It's fucked up, honestly. Because it downs the playercount regardless of who leaves, and the GM starts going "Well, fuck me sideways" no matter which one left. It's just a mess that comes with forum roleplaying; Especially groups. Which is the best way to do it, yeah, but it just isn't enjoyable most of the time. It's a stress-filled mess.

[mickilennial]

what can we do to make roleplayer guild better?

@Grimhildr

Write. Also, let go of petty feuds (looking at you slice of lifers).

[vancexentan]

I believe that a more aesthetically pleasing look to the forum would do better. And perhaps adding in another section for higher level players that aren't necessarily advanced. I consider myself a high casual roleplayer and find the stuff on casual to be lacking in many cases however I can't consistently make giant two paragraph plus posts for roleplays. It's not in me to do that especially considering it may end up dying.

I would also like to see a reputation system added when you can anonymously give people positive, or negative karma depending on your opinion of them as a roleplayer. So a prospective gm, or fellow roleplayer can look at their profile and see that they have a large amount of good, or bad karma stacked up. Alternatively a way to at least block/black list people from forums you post due to the performances in other roleplays.

[Cyndyr]

I thought of a few suggestions while doing notes:

• RPGN isn't as consistent as it used to be, but what if we were to make a fanmade version of it?
• Taking a page from Iwaku for a second here - updating/adding guides to the appropriate section and linking newcomers to them.
• Reviving the Contest function and/or creating our own (we could always come to include poetry, artwork, writing song lyrics, etc).
• Recruiting prospective coders to possibly help Mahz out around the website (this one is faaaar to idealistic).
• Possibly reviving the website chatbox (not sure how useful this would be with all the Discords floating around though).
• Holding community events - I honestly have no specifics for this quite yet, but maybe like a CaH Night or something like that.
• Actually reporting people to the Moderators as needed in order to make the website feel less "lawless".

That's all I have for now. Might add more lately.

[mickilennial]

No to everything Vance just said.

[Cyndyr]

No to everything Vance just said.

@Inkarnate

None of Vance's suggestions would be possible for the community to accomplish anyhow. I do back the idea of adding a block/ignore list though. I think that would be extremely helpful for avoiding the feuds that we all constantly come across.