Suggestions for Althanas

[Mathias]

I've started to compile a list of things that I, personally, think could use improvement on Althanas, or new things that could be implemented.

Thread Summaries
This is something for both players and Moderators to consider. Maybe summarizing your entire thread, and adding it in as the final, final post (except, it shouldn't/wouldn't count towards your score), would be nice. This would filter into the overall suggestion I wanted to propose; more updates in the News category.

I remember several attempts, throughout Althanas' life, to create a consistent style of article that appeared on the front page. The Radasanthian Reader, for example. Or In-Character and Member Interviews. I think that threads that make a major impact, shape and change Althanas is some way, should be compiled as part of the... (I hesitate to use this word, because I don't like the thought of any Althanian's efforts being "neglected") "canon," of Althanas.

There would be a news update maybe every two weeks to a month, detailing the recent happenings of Althanas. (For instance, some of the major events that are happening in the FQ) However, this wouldn't apply to just the moderated, or pre-planned events. This would extend and encompass any thread that any player makes that ends up actively altering Althanas in some way, shape or form.

A History
This is somewhat like my Thread Summaries, but it would involve all the things that have happened up until now. I mean, many people hear about the "legends," of the Ice Reavers and the Bandit Brotherhood, and Yari Rafanas, Valentina Snow, Devon, and all that, but there's nothing I've found that documents the exact events that have occured. There's nothing that details what happened during the Ice Reavers-Facade war, and all that jazz. It'd be nice to see that.

And basically, the updates that accrue from the "summaries," proposition, would eventually be filtered into the "history of Althanas."

Membership Purge
There are a LOT of inactive, never-posted accounts on the Members List. It's kind of hard to scroll through to find someone, alphabetically, because of all the crap accounts. It also inflates our membership statistics...

An Open/Close Mod
I'm not too sure how you could code this and effectively implement it, but I thought adding a forum-mod that would allow the topic-poster to mark a thread as "Open," or "Closed," would be neat. I'm sure there are good arguments against the time it may take to make it, versus the practicality of it, but it would be a nice, tiny luxury.

Feel free to add your suggestions! This is by no means a complete list of my own, and I'm going to edit and update it as some of these become irrelevent, or are realized to be redundant.

[Breaker]

Membership Purge
There are a LOT of inactive, never-posted accounts on the Members List. It's kind of hard to scroll through to find someone, alphabetically, because of all the crap accounts. It also inflates our membership statistics...
[/b]

I could not agree with that more. All of the fake accounts on here get really annoying. I also think the rest of your suggestions are good, and have a small addendum to them.

It would be neat if we brought back the "Teaser" feature that I remember from some time in the past. Quite simply, once a week a moderator posted a teaser snippet from a battle or quest in the news thread, along with a link to the rest of the thread. Generally there was a good spread of threads which were highly regarded, threads that would have a major effect on the Althanas storyline, and threads created by newcomers so everyone could get to know them. I may be wrong about some of the details of this thing, but it was a really neat bit that I kinda miss.

[Earthwalker]

On the Open/Closed Mod:
A nice, simple way to do this (if it can be done - I don't know) would be to take those little icons that can be added on the front of the post (A smiley face, and frowny face, a scroll, etc.) and add a O and a C to them. Then people could indicate Open/Closed status by selecting the O or the C when they create the thread.

Thread summaries:
The concept of making a newspaper-like affair sounds amazing and neat. I know I'm new here, and all that, but if given the chance, and a little help on how to figure out the formating (how whoever does it now formats it to look like a newspaper) I'd be totally willing to do it entirely, every two weeks to a month, or work with someone else to do it. It sounds like such a badass idea, and all it really would need to work is one or two people like myself to make it happen.


It would be neat if we brought back the "Teaser" feature that I remember from some time in the past. Quite simply, once a week a moderator posted a teaser snippet from a battle or quest in the news thread, along with a link to the rest of the thread.

EDIT: The teaser idea, though I had not heard of it, sounds neat.

Membership Purge:
Not a mod, and don't really know enough about how that would impact things to feel confident in making an educated comment.

History of Althanas:
This sounds just about as neat as the Newspaper idea, though it also sounds like a lot more work. I donno if I would be as eager to work on this side of things, just 'cause it would mean a ton of work, and I don't think I have that much time to spend on the forums here. Also, I don't know about calling it "Canon" - just history seems fine.

[Mathias]

Actually, by the Open/Close thing, I also was hoping you could change the status, later.

So, say, you've got 3 participants in a thread so far, you're at post 5 or 6, and you don't want anymore, you can close it. That was one of the main goals of that suggestion. Although, Earth, that IS a good way to do it.

Thanks for your feedback, guys!

[Earthwalker]

Can you not edit that feature of things when editing the first post of a thread?

I wouldn't know, having never tried, but if you can, that would solve the problem.

[Rajani Aishwara]

History of Althanas:
If you're just talking about the general history there's a massive timeline in the Role Players Corner that dates back pretty far. Almost every region has a history somewhere in there. If you're talking about recent history like the past two years, you're absolutely right. I have to ask like a million people what the hell happened before I got here and the answers vary. My suggestion would be, if someone's doing something that seems pretty important, document it and put it in the timeline as it happens.

[Call me J]

If you want to know anything that happened about a character that is post crash, you can look at their profile. I mean, pretty much, a biography of every major quest is in Damon's biography, and I remember Letho's being similar. The bigger problem is that people like Yari Rafanas, most of the Ice Reavers and others have no details because they were gone so long. The problem with that is because the guys are gone, who is going to write the history?

[Raelyse]

If I'm not mistaken, I'm the closest to an active member who participated in the Ice Reavers-Facade war. Which is very very sad.

[Max Dirks]

If I'm not mistaken, I'm the closest to an active member who participated in the Ice Reavers-Facade war. Which is very very sad.You forget, I judged the Ice Reavers-Facade War!

I think it would be easy for players to put their piece of Althanas history into a Wiki! I lend my support to that proposal yet again.

[Tamara Roth]

Definite support for something that will keep the history updated, especially when it comes to things involved in Featured Quests. I had a hell of a time trying to tie my character into current events without stepping on some large piece of continuity.

[Earthwalker]

A wiki would be neat - I've seen them used to great effect before. We would need people who know how to make and maintain them, though - I know I don't have those skills, but perhaps some of us do.

That would allow people to put up what they know, and add things when they invent something new. Also, once we can get a good guide on how to do things, we can start being fancy and citing the threads where the information shows up - someone who updates the Wiki with a new town in Salvar would cite the thread where that town was used, allowing people who are interested in using that place to see what was there when it was last visited.

[Mathias]

I'm pretty good at editing wikis.

I can't do some of the more advanced stuff, like make icons and article grouping, but I'm familiar with some of their coding.

And an Althanas wiki is an amazing idea. /signed.

[Veatrix]

Membership Purge
There are a LOT of inactive, never-posted accounts on the Members List. It's kind of hard to scroll through to find someone, alphabetically, because of all the crap accounts. It also inflates our membership statistics...[/b]

I also agree with this. So many people post just to talk to people. I'm not saying that's bad, but Althanas isn't the place for spammers and socializers. Write as well, people! I've been on Althanas since... like two or three years ago. With changing accounts and never reaching level one, due to laziness, but nevertheless, I've seen some pretty useless accounts.

ALSO.

Maybe it's just me... but I like seeing avatars... it's like a visual representation of the character. Requirement for avatars? Sounds a bit... picky, but that's just my thing.

[Sighter Tnailog]

You forget, I judged the Ice Reavers-Facade War!

I think it would be easy for players to put their piece of Althanas history into a Wiki! I lend my support to that proposal yet again.

The Ice Reavers - Facade war was originally judged by Lorenor, who caused a ruckus when he awarded Eleric Hybrid Hero a straight board of 10s for his work, which many on Althanas deemed, while good, not quite perfect 100 material.

I remember this, because I participated in this war as Death by Fire, character name Dhraghrae Rhionnach, way back when. It is especially good to remember because Eleric was using at the time the weapon that made him famous: a railgun. I specifically recall having to defend against that railgun, and it was NOT FUN AT ALL. In order to fight back, I managed to teleport a helicopter around and chaingunned the whole damn building.

Let's not claim more credit than is due, shall we? In some ways, this underscores the danger of a wiki: unscrupulous individuals could edit in all sorts of things they didn't do, and we wouldn't really be able to keep track of what was truth and what was shameless self-promotion.

EDIT: The only difficulty in creating canon and doing what you describe news-wise is the sheer time involved.

As the author of the Radasanthian Readers, I know for a fact that it takes a LOT of work to put them together. Now, if we could pull together a crack news-writing team, that would help, but my efforts in that direction have so far resulted in only one article not written by me in all of Althanas history.

[Cyrus the virus]

Maybe it's just me... but I like seeing avatars... it's like a visual representation of the character. Requirement for avatars? Sounds a bit... picky, but that's just my thing.

We have requirements for avatars?

[Veatrix]

I suggest that we have avatar requirements, but even I think that's a little too miniscule of a suggestion. ^-^

[Mathias]

I do remember, Madison, you putting together more writers for the Radasanthian Reader, a long time ago.

As a matter of fact, one of the goals of it WAS to summarize some of the outstanding quests and battles that were taking place.

I think it'd be a daunting task, trying to read through plenty of threads and then attempting to organize all of it. But, then, that's also where players summarizing their threads would come in handy; it would lessen the actual workload. I wouldn't want it, however, to result in the "reporters," simply reading the summaries; that would be... blah. But, it would give them a sense of whether or not they want to report on that particular thread.

Also, as a tweak to the suggestion itself, I think it'd be better to report and document completed threads. I don't know if that went without saying, but I figured that, if this were implemented along with the Teaser, then they'd fulfill two distinct, complementing roles.

[Max Dirks]

There were three people who judged the war, Findelfin.

Stop being a pompous ass.

[Sighter Tnailog]

You're right, there WERE three people. Which means that you didn't judge it by your lonely, which is the impression you tried to foist on everyone. And I'm the pompous one?

The only person I ever got to write for the Radasanthian Reader was Silence Sei, who wrote as "Moe Wordsthanu" and did a little gossip column for me.

[Mathias]

*re-rails the thread*

Regardless of who judged or witnessed or did what, I think it's safe to say that those who were involved in any way, shape, or form, would have a valid contribution.

And yes, a wiki would be unprotected from mistakes, but you're relying on a mass of people, rather than just one hopefully omnipotent editor.

In a wiki, other people would be able to correct other peoples' mistakes and work towards the agreed-upon, perfect facts. I think a wiki is an excellent idea and fits Althanas perfectly. This is a collaborative website, and a collaborative wiki would simply only further the accessibility and easily-consumable information ABOUT that world we wish to roleplay in.

EDIT:
Also, Madison, I really would like to see more Radasanthian Reader... maybe there'd be others who would be willing to put forth a conscious effort into reporting for it? It would be a nice feature to have, and have it take off well.

[Caden Law]

It is especially good to remember because Eleric was using at the time the weapon that made him famous: a railgun. I specifically recall having to defend against that railgun, and it was NOT FUN AT ALL. In order to fight back, I managed to teleport a helicopter around and chaingunned the whole damn building.
...sorry to kill whatever confrontational mood you guys are fostering, but...

Am I the only one who saw this and suddenly envisioned Findelfin in the Matrix? With the Neo coat and sunglasses and everything? D:

That said, one of my only qualms about the site in any way, shape or form, is the abundance of firearm-wielding characters when that's supposed to be a bit of a no-no. Likewise with the slew of We Fell In From Another World But We're Fine Now types. Considering my own walking cliche piles though, it's hardly a serious complaint.

As a player though, I'd like to see some more background on the resident mythologies. Not the War of the Tap or the last round of XEM'ZUND EATS YOUR BABIES! per se, but the gods and the planes and all that. Out of idle curiosity, has anyone ever actually played a quest to Icehenge? What about direct (or even indirect) involvement from the resident pantheon?

Besides that, a new player etiquette guide would be nice. Not some big honking in-depth thing of doom, just a short list of some sort. I say this mostly because I've had two instances of submitting threads for judgement only to have a lack of communication with my fellow players; in the one, Seth Rahl didn't contact me to say he'd submitted a thread for judgement, and in another I did the same thing to Call me J because I thought a thread was over and didn't think to contact him. Maybe just a reminder to stay in touch with your fellow RPers or something. It's second nature to most of you, I'm sure, but not all of us have been here two or three years >_>;

Another new player thing, and this is probably going to sound more like me just griping and whining so feel free to skip the next two paragraphs, is that I'd like to see a little more responsibility spread out for The Fate of The World.

Judging solely off what I've read (which isn't a whole flippin' lot in the way of RPs, just guides and the like), a lot of the time the whole world hinges on a small group of about four to ten people. I mainly cite the Coronian Civil War when I say this, chiefly because you had Letho, Izvilvin and Bredith basically deciding the course of an entire country with little to no outside involvement -- and when one or two people asked to join, they got laughed at.

I can understand trying to keep a story streamlined and the hassles of coordinating a metaplot -- and for what it's worth, it was a good piece of work. But something about that just rubbed me the wrong way and I've been itching to say as much for a while now.

[Sighter Tnailog]

The world of Althanas has been "thin," dimensionally speaking, since the Wars of the Tap. Without the unifying force of the Tap, it's much more likely that other realms will touch Althanas, thus leading to the influx of characters from beyond, so to speak.

Another reason why I like the idea of the Tap: it just provides so many convenient explanations.

[Saxon]

I talked to Ithermoss about a year ago about weaving together an epic laced with Thayne mythology when I began to see a pattern in some of the stuff he had been talking about. I still might do it, but I haven't really had the time to commit to something like that quite yet. Maybe a little later.

I've been trying to tailor different things from Althanas history into stuff I've written to make it a tad bit more authentic. The Tap however, seems like something I'd tackle on a very limited basis. One's thesis on something like magic shouldn't encompass everyone's views on it, or at least thats what I've thought. I'd be more inclined to use it as a medium and incorporate it into some of my work if I had the peace of mind in knowing that it wouldn't be compromising it. Its a little too rich for me, I guess. :rolleyes:

[Cyrus the virus]

and when one or two people asked to join, they got laughed at.

Choose your words carefully, lest I brand you a liar.

The Coronian Civil War existed as a writing tool, not a Featured Quest. There's a significant difference that isn't terribly hard to see.

[The Architect]

Well, right now the entire War is pretty open-ended. I have a good idea where the main story would lead, but I can't really say which side will win in the end. Maybe neither wins in the end. I can't really say since the whole thing just started to happen. I'll update this thread when something important happens. That means if you or anybody else decide to make their own story during this upheaval, they have a chance to influence what's going on.
Right there. He says right there that we have the chance to influence what's going on. In fact I've capitalized on that allowence with The Day Radasanth Sank (http://http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=5511) where the city's common sector is attacked from underground by a group of people who support the Empire. Lot's of important buildings are blown up!

On the flip side of things the Corone issue is mentioned in the Featured Quest forum discription, so if Letho isn't going to bring it to that level then it needs to be taken out of the forum discription. I've also been told that threads like mine (connected to the main storyline, but not sanctioned by those who have authority over it) tend to be ignored. I've been trying to contact Letho these past few days regarding this rumor and I hope it isn't true, because Alberdyne and I have played hard on this one.

[Saxon]

This is why I thought the Radasanthian Reader was and is such a good tool. It abridges stories and makes quests on althanas seem more like an anthology then the sort of segregation we seem to unconciously put ourselves through. Honestly, if there was a staff for a newspaper like it and we kept to the style like it showed in the most recent edition of the Reader, I'd be happy to lend a hand.

Perhaps its more for the public and the press to decide what should be considered important in events like these. History is what you make of it. ;)

[Sighter Tnailog]

Corone is slated to be featured more broadly in Chapter 3 of the FQ, just FYI.

[Caden Law]

Choose your words carefully, lest I brand you a liar.
I've been called worse by better than you. If you're going to retain the Grizzled Internet Tough Guy facade, grow some thicker skin about it, please. Incidentally: Citing Architect's quote of Letho, followed by...

I'm interested in joining the Civil War as a hired sword working for the Corone Empire.

Fuck yes. I'm in.

I'm pressed for time right now so I'll keep my questions brief. Is there an 'official' quest? Would the underground hire mercenaries? Are you taking part in this yourself, and if so, which side? When are you going to re-open No Rest For The Weary so I can finally fucking post in it?

http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=6412

Part three of a series of quests. Besides this I am not helpful whatsoever.

It's a closed quest though *cackle*
Now that this is all settled and I've made my point, I'll refrain from commenting on the matter further. It was not, nor does it remain, my intention to get into an internet slapfest with a staffer at a place I happen to be growing attached to. I was simply pointing out a gripe and I did not call attention to you by name; you did that yourself. If you wish to lodge an insult or counterarguement, I won't respond to it, but I do apologize for any roughed up feelings.

Now can we get back to the actual topic, please? :)

[Mathias]

Good god, cut it the fuck out already, everybody.

Offer something constructive. This isn't the thread to argue over the suggestions or what's happened, but to offer new ones and how to improve upon what is currently in effect as well as the suggestions presented within.

Please keep your bickering to a minimum of zero from now on.

[Sighter Tnailog]

Agreed. And I won't hesitate to warn both staffers and players in the event of future ugliness. I will say that Cyrus is, to an extent, right: the Civil War was a tool for people to use as they wished, not an organized "event" like the FQ. One of the things about having a "state of affairs" on Althanas is that the state of affairs is one that can be used by people in any number of threads they choose to write, and quite possibly, if the thread is good, a continent writer will adopt what they do as canon or make some sort of announcement.

The fact that a particular quest related to the Civil War was closed does not change the fact that the Civil War was still an open forum state of affairs.

[Serilliant]

Pursuant to the goal of redirecting this thread, I'll comment on a few of the technical issues that have been suggested here.

Althanas History/Wiki
I was greatly against this idea when it was originally proposed, but it has started to grow on me slightly. My biggest fear is that we lack the staff to properly moderate a Wiki. That combined with the immense amount of initial work in transferring the entirety of our canon (some of which is already written down, and some only exists in a select few heads) presents a daunting proposition. My biggest fear is that a Wiki would split our attentions and may ultimately be fruitless if it doesn't take.

I see its advantages, of course, but I think we could just as easily rope them in by making use of vBulletin's integrated FAQ system. There's already a great deal of history located there, we just need to resolve to beef it up and fill in the gaps.

Membership Purge
vBulletin has an integrated membership purging system that, when I tried to use it about a month ago, didn't do anything. Looking into why and figuring out how to make it work is on my todo list, but with very low priority. I will tend to it in the near future, though.

An Open/Close Mod
This gets suggested every once in a while and always seems to me to be a pretty good idea. We went through a relatively lengthy period where very few battles and quests were actually listed as "open" (most people were soloing or writing with only a small group, and those that were looking for new partners were doing so in the RPC before they even made the thread), but it seems like "open" threads are becoming more common again. I'll see if I can find a quick, easy way to make this happen and if not, I like the suggestion of putting an "O" and "C" graphic in the thread icons.

[Call me J]

Althanas History/Wiki
I was greatly against this idea when it was originally proposed, but it has started to grow on me slightly. My biggest fear is that we lack the staff to properly moderate a Wiki. That combined with the immense amount of initial work in transferring the entirety of our canon (some of which is already written down, and some only exists in a select few heads) presents a daunting proposition. My biggest fear is that a Wiki would split our attentions and may ultimately be fruitless if it doesn't take.

I see its advantages, of course, but I think we could just as easily rope them in by making use of vBulletin's integrated FAQ system. There's already a great deal of history located there, we just need to resolve to beef it up and fill in the gaps.

I like it in principle, but couldn't we have a separate staff for the Wiki? All someone needs to be able to do to mind the Wiki is care about Althanas. They don't need the same skills as a judge or an RoG mod.

[Cyrus the virus]

Now can we get back to the actual topic, please? :)

In a moment. First, I must suggest that if you think my writing *cackle* is similar to mocking people who wanted to join in an event, you should rethink the way you perceive a random poster's comments. It's a bit harsh to say people were "laughed at" when they wanted to join in on something, when that's just your own (wrong) impression.

I don't think it's ridiculous of me to have felt the need to comment on that.

Regarding the Althanas Wiki, I'm still not sure of how it works on an administrative level. How easy is it to recover data if someone decides to just wipe it all out?

[Call me J]

Perhaps we could have a wiki where only moderators and the original poster can delete, but anyone else can add? That way, no one can take out something unless it is it really needs to be taken out. Honestly, outside of spam, I don't see a need for us to have to delete much.

[Cyrus the virus]

If we can do that, it sounds super.

[Mathias]

That's not particularly the way a wiki works. When someone makes an edit, it appears in a log that anyone can access and compare to any other edit ever made (but usually compared to another edit in recent history.)

Therefore, if someone makes a vile, malicious, innacurate, or otherwise "bad," edit, then it can be reverted to a previous, "good," incarnation.

[Call me J]

That's not particularly the way a wiki works. When someone makes an edit, it appears in a log that anyone can access and compare to any other edit ever made (but usually compared to another edit in recent history.)

Therefore, if someone makes a vile, malicious, innacurate, or otherwise "bad," edit, then it can be reverted to a previous, "good," incarnation.

That'd probably work better then. I was just trying to brainstorm, knowing nothing about wikis. My only concern is what happens when two people have competing views about what happened? Lets say Bob and Chuck are both writing about Malice v Grey Braves. Bob remembers it being Malice who instigated it for no reason, Chuck remembers that the Grey Braves started it. What happens then?

[Broken Dragon]

That'd probably work better then. I was just trying to brainstorm, knowing nothing about wikis. My only concern is what happens when two people have competing views about what happened? Lets say Bob and Chuck are both writing about Malice v Grey Braves. Bob remembers it being Malice who instigated it for no reason, Chuck remembers that the Grey Braves started it. What happens then?

Knife fight to the death?

[Mathias]

They both must attempt to find evidence in order to support their arguments, just like a regular debate. On an actual wiki, like 'pedia, people will search through news databases, editorials, etc. and then properly cite them. I'd figure we'd have to be less formal, considering we don't have that kind of... documentation. (Which is what a wiki would solve, of course.)

So, the best we could offer is the actual thread itself, or someone who participated/judged or was active in a specific relation to the event in and of itself.

If nothing could be produced, it might be simply left as, "It's been forgotten who struck first, but what ensued was," yadda yadda blah blah so forth and so on.

EDIT:

I'll also say it again, if I haven't on here already. A Wiki runs itself, basically. And concerning the idea of "man power," it really wouldn't take much to run it; normal Althanians with downtime or boredom could do it, if they've nothing else to reply to. Also, as the wiki in and of itself develops and is improved upon, there would, in fact, be less to research, etc. etc. as we would get to a point where much of the information has been compiled, and all that is needed now is to develop new protocols for implementing new information, and then implementing that new information, in and of itself.

[Earthwalker]

Aye. From what I understand about Wikis, no one person would be able to wipe the thing out - that would take gross inaction on our part, in addition to a malicious individual.

Also, the most time would be invested into simply setting it up. Once it was there, it'd be fairly simple to maintain, and people would update their own data and all that.

Also, there is no reason that the mods on the wiki should be the same folks as here - but also, no reason they shouldn't be. Wiki-talented folks should run the wiki, and forum-talented folks should run the forum. If the fields overlap, then great - if they dont, the great.

Also, we should get together the group of people who want to run the Reader. Like, now to soon. Perhaps in a new thread, as to not clutter this one.

EDIT: Citing is good. Also, easy. Also, we should do it.

ALSO EDIT: I like the word Also.