Shienvien

The Prophecy

@Veridis Quo: I was essentially thinking of a - if we want to speak in RPG terms - "random encounter". Something for your character to do until either the people at the borderhouse move forwards and are soon to spend the night in possibly the same inn (so they'd be able to meet your character in the morning) or TNY is back available and can either join the scene or we can wrap the scene up and you can do your collab.

The Prophecy

@Veridis Quo: Would you prefer to wait for TNY (as we don't know how long it would be until he's his computer back) or should one of us arrange an encounter of some kind for your character in between (which his character could later join, if he likes the idea)?

Mahz's Dev Journal

given the right tools, you can change the appearance of scrollbars and such. we're actually annoyed at times at how our own scrollbars are almost impossible to see because there's very little contrast. (its all dark gray). Not sure what (if anything) you need on windows to tweak those colors. On Ubuntu its simply a custom-installed theme.

I am familiar with these themes, however what I said above still applies: If the site uses its own styles, the site's styling will dominate unless you specifically tell your browser to override it. I can testify it works this way - for one, I am on a dark-themed Ubuntu right now (and managed to alter the appearance of such elements for another site just fine not long ago, no effort, no trickery needed)... @Celaira: For security and performance reasons, I'd advise against it...

Mahz's Dev Journal

P.S. I personally like the dark-coloured background. Of course, I would agree that some of the bright white parts don't look the best,although it may not help that some of said elements are built in to the browser (eg. the scroll bars which pop up in oversized signatures or in the post editor).

These parts are NOT "part of the browser" - the browser only falls back to determining the styling of these elements when these are not set by the site (or when the browser has been explicitly told to override the styling). A few lines in the CSS file (or whatever is used for styling the site) could easily fix these sidebars for you. @Mahz: Why, thank you for the increase in character limit. The last character sheet I posted, I had to triple-post (it was 48k chars of sheet, 50-something of short story for background and around 30k of relations and other such...).

The Prophecy

Things happen; as long as you let us know in the OoC when something is keeping you from posting for a longer time so that we'll know to plan around it, all is generally good.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Yeah, I like how left-sided userbits make the post content flow together rather than being punctuated over and over again with, say, Mahz's avatar, join date, post count, user title, etc that you see every. single. time. Ah, so I reverted back to userbits-on-the-left at some point on oldguild. Heh, even worse.

@Mahz

If OldGuild ever had this kind of userinfo-above-post layout, then it must have been done away with before late 2010 ... I never got to witness it. But yes, I am glad if this gets forever withheld... It just looks, er, somewhat aesthetically challenged.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Also, I'm moving the userbit for each post from the left side to the top. Wasn't the guild like that before guildfall?

I really do not like this kind of positioning, to be honest (including on cell phones - a lot of space you'd just be scrolling over)... It generates a lot of visual layout-breakup between the posts and makes the forums look far more disorganized. (I sometimes disable signatures just for this reason - fluff between posts is often distracting clutter more than anything. Especially in IC.) And no, the Guild did not have this kind of layout before the "guildfall."

The Prophecy

If possible, could the link be sent to me and Dark Jack, too? Just so that we'd be aware what is going on. It is currently day for the people in Zerul, and morning for those in the borderhouse, for the record. I assume you mean to start your collab later on in the same day (compared to the current time for the main group and those intending to join it)?

Mahz's Dev Journal

I respect that view. I also know there are players who join an RP, create an elaborate set of plots, and then disappear just as their character becomes critical. It's jarring to the casual reader and to other players. I'm not sure what the best solution is, some GMs are very hands on and careful about the story flow, while others just let players do whatever.

In this instance, the GM should have the right to gain enough control of the character to NPC them out of the way and redirect the other players to something else. My standpoint remains: existing posts must be not deletable, hideable, or in any way alterable by anyone but the poster oneself, except in cases when it is a direct personal attack, advert, or otherwise content that has nothing to do with the RP, and then it would be handled by mods by hiding the offending post. ((We need Report buttons.)) - Remember, deleting frequently leads to future lack of proof. Having been in the administrative side myself, I will persist to stress it. And occasionally, it *is* the mod who is the wrongdoer, and not player. Mods are human, too. Sadly, I've seen a mod harass a user based on personal opinion of said individual before.

On the other hand, having no recourse means that a troublemaker can easily enter an RP, post something nonsensical, and then even after their removal the GM would be powerless to hide or remove their distracting post. Is this something where a mod would be needed? If so, then you have the other consequence of taking the decision out of the GM's hands (and the GM runs the RP, not the mods). If the mods are simply there to carry out the GM's wishes, then what's the point of not allowing the GM to perform that action in the first place?

The GM is in charge of the story, not moderation. Again, we need !summon mod buttons for instances of disruptive behavior. The GM/co-GM label also gives easy visual cue as to who is in charge and who is just a fellow player expressing opinions.

I also understand your concern. What if posts were hidden in ways that left a placemarker in the thread, allowing anyone to view the true post if they so chose, but letting casual readers and players to skip by unnecessary posts?

Would probably be less opposed to this kind of implementation.

The Prophecy

@Veridis and TNY: Piratepad, Titanpad, Google doc etc. type of collab (text both/all counterparts can edit)? Else you can simply use the PM system here (and add me and Jack as most likely "silent" third and fourth members so that we know what is happening and I can straight up archive the posts).