Member retention won't be solved by RoG changes or rubric changes. Member retention is a huge problem we have to tackle first. Perhaps with 3.0 we should give althanas a nice fresh coat of paint and add a little glitter. Spruce it up. I know we have like 50 styles, just make something more showy, surely we can find someone with the skill.
Member retention has nothing to do with the look of the site, Frost. I'd use an analogy with women and relationships to demonstrate my point, but you're probably too young for it.Originally Posted by Jack Frost
You reel 'em in with a low barrier of entry with simplified rules and such, promising an easy-to-understand game and a fun time. You keep them around by having a friendly, receptive community (which is impossible on the Internet, I know) that is focused on making that person a better writer.
That being said, I've always found the extensive rubric to be a little silly. Focusing on getting the highest score possible on someone else's terms took the fun out of writing threads here for me really quickly. If I were running the show, I'd simplify the judging rubric into six categories. Who, what, when, where, why, and how. These are the six things every writer needs to focus on to tell a good story.
Another thing I'd do is remove technique altogether. If someone loses a battle by one point because they forgot a comma or two, that's not exactly fair. That, and we've got some pretty terrible writers who float in every now and again. If they submit a thread and get torn apart even though they were having fun, they're likely to not return. Take technique out, but make it mandatory for judges to point out in a notes section or something things they writer could do to improve their writing. Some creative, trolling-free criticism as opposed to a "Technique - 2. Learn to English." would do wonders to keep them coming back for more.
Last edited by BlackAndBlueEyes; 12-28-10 at 05:58 PM.
The only time I've seen a unanimously receptive community is a forum for shaving...
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I'm on a couple radio drama/voice acting forums; one's 100% drama free, while the other has maybe two jerks on it. It is possible on creativity-driven forums, but here that's still asking for a lot.
I had a longer post, that addressed the fact that our standards were too high, but it seems like every time I put a shit ton of thought into any input I get trolled to death. I'll put the short version instead. Not everyone is as into role plying as us. Hell the only reason I stick around is out of the necessity to write and get feedback. Had there been other options I might have jumped ship, but there aren't.
Perhaps we should lower the bar just a little bit. Lets not drop to where we get....
*john smiled* how are you?
As a post.
But we don't need Tolkien novels for threads. It would be nice, but lets face it, for most of us this will only be a hobby.
We shouldn't decrease our focus on writing quality, only on creative freedom. And really, more of the latter would lead to more of the former.
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Elijah Belov, "Everything else is just a chef!"
Bitterwood -- Red-Stained Night
That's the most brief and profound thing I've ever heard from you Christoph, and pretty much sums up what I'd end up saying but in rigorously quicker time. Nicely done.
So instead of writing to a rubric we should write for the hell of writing? So really to sum it all up. Fuck the rubric lets go ahead and write? Shouldn't we really just trust the writers not to power game? Sure the levels are nice, but who has the time to write themselves to epic proportions?
I do.
You can't trust people to make the best decision, Jack. The first rule of humanity is that People Are Stupid. They will believe anything you tell them, as long as they A) want to hear it or B) fear it to be true. Have you heard the term "if you give a mouse a cookie"? I understand if you haven't, as it's somewhat of an old-fangled term (twenties, haha), but the term remains true; let one thing go, and people will take it and run with it.
I write for the sake of writing; I write because I like seeing my character grow, not because I want to impress anyone with my work. And I personally find that the levels help that growth. While, understandably, the leveling system can be restricting (i.e. Why the fuck is a 2000-old immortal soldier only average in swordsmanship and can only fire a fireball two feet in diameter?), I find that it helps weed out those who would simply destroy everything in sight if they could and those who can actually be creative.
"Some things they never tell you
While you're riding the assembly line
Like who'll be the hands to hold you
And what's their state of mind?
Well, hell I'm not much bigger
Than a pointed index finger
But who am I to lay the blame?
I'm only here to cause some pain."~The Autobiography of a Pistol, by Ellis Paul
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