So what I've been running into is that I can have a hard time find ing a really good role-play. Just picking one and visiting is very tiring. And then if you don't know what you're looking for, its hard to just set up a request.

What I'm thinking is if there could be a critique section. There could be some critquing staff that will give their opinion on the board and whatnot. They could rate it with stars or out of ten or whatever is thought of.

This would also be a great way for people to improve their board to become great instead of lousy or just ok. You would probably close it every once in a while, like what you do with graphics, so that the staff isn't over worked.

I would also think that finished critique should go into an archive with this section and the final rating is reposted in the Subject Description. Then browsers who just care about quality instead of genre could find what they want much easier than looking at every link on the whole board.

This is an idea I've just recently had and thought it would really help. I really hope you consider it!

It's good, but it would take some insane staff to manage and make flow correctly. At the moment, things are kind of hectic with all of the staff, but it's definitely a consideration for the future maybe.

I like the idea, but I'm not so sure how it would help solve the problem. Honestly, what one person thinks is a good board, another could think it's total crap, you know? It doesn't really tell you what it's about, either. So that doesn't help in the not knowing what you're looking for category.

It could be like X-Play. They give their honest opinion of the board and give it a rating from 1 to 5. But it's really up to the member if they want to join based on the review or their own personal preferences. I think it's a good idea really.

I would definitely be willing to devote some time to this. I think if we created some sort of grading chart where various aspect of a board were rated such as layout, content, organization, advertising, etc etc, and then given more specific critiques on top of the basic numeric rating, it could work very well. With a general ctitiquing form, all that would have to be done is hire a staff of people, perhaps assign each person to a separate genre [one for each advertising category] and then let them critique boards at will. I would steer clear of allowing people to sign up to have boards critiqued because that will more than likely lead to overflowing lists of people and not-too-happy staff members. But i think if you get a solid and active staff team and had them make say, a minimum of four critiques a week, it could be a great system and a really proactive way to improve upon role playing standards.

I agree that a lot of people have different opinions on boards. Some people absolutely love say... fantasy, while others believe it's complete crap. I think that once we have a little more time and the revamp is finally finished, we will be having a review area where both members and staff can review, so this is kind of like that. Also, all of the non-green boards might get a review too, and that's not really necessary...

I really like the idea of having a place to review boards. I like it even better having both the staff and the members of RPG-D review them.

I like this idea. it's help get sites running and at the same time get a rating system down to help people looking for a board decide.

You have to understand that the Review board will work in the way that a member submits it´s ´own´ forum for a review, and a staff member will review the board. It´s not like we´ll go to review the complete directory. The reviews are more for the forum owners then for people looking to join an RPG. When a person gets a review about a board which is in our opinion so-so, and still needs some work here and there. This does not mean it's a bad site to join at. We don't look at the genre, or what the RPG is about, but at the board, how it's made, how it's build, how it's growing, and what could be improved.

We also decided to implement member reviews in a subforum, so an admin could get some more feedback. The staff reviews being the top-notch ones so to say :p. Of course, if we want to pull this off, we are currently under-staffed. So if anyone's willing to be a reviewer, you can contact me via pm if you wish.

Sounds like an awesome plan to me. It's about time we got a review system together. I trust that the reviewers you hire will make some sense, because unlike other sites the members here don't seem to have their heads up their ***es. Nothing annoys me more than a cocky reviewer.

Likewise Darth. I dont like those kind of reviewers. So we'll be careful about picking review staff. We've tried this before, but it always seems hard for us to get some proper, dedicated staff together. But we'll try ^^ and see if it works out.

Oh, wow, I'd totally love to help out with stuff like this.


What if you guys had two divisions? Get a more 'technical' group of people (or just a few, tech stuff isn't so hard to work with that you'd need a whole team) to work out the mechanics, as in, you know, how the board is laid out, how easily accessible the information is, how thorough the rules of conduct are, things like that... and then get a few people (who might further divide up according to their preference of board types) who would critique the plots, canon lists, places to RP.. that sort of thing.

(blush)

It´s a good idea. However way too much work. Basically, all what you said above is done in one review. The staff reviews will dive into as many points as possible, from layout and information to placest to RP. However, I don´t see a point in ´reviewing´ plots, canon lists, that is something that makes the RPG. A plot is something really personal, and is very bound to taste. I could say basically all high school plots are not good, but that's just an opinion, another reviewer might think it's a good plot for a high school RPG. The reviews will focus more on the managing side, because the review is ment for the staff on a forum, like I said before. Not for possible interested members. Reviews could only be requested by the forum's admin, no one else.

And onto the plot, I think we had an idea for the re-vamp to actually make a forum specific for plot feedback etc. So that's another reason not to let it reviewed by staff.

Basically what you could expect from a review here on RPG-D, is that we give you a good solid review on your board, pointing out good and some less good things, and suggest how you could improve these things. A good point is that we know what an RPG board is all about. So you won't be getting stupid comments that you would be getting on 'regular' resource forums who offer a review service. We would specialize ourselves in RPG forum reviews. That's the plus. So that's the kind of review you would give if you would like to be on the review team here.

(for the people who've send me a message they'd be willing to be on the review team or wanting some more infromation. I will be getting back to you, but I haven't had much time today to really give it proper time. Don't worry, you will get a reply back ^^)

I would love to help out reviewing, but I'm bad a critique. When rating something I feel bad giving any one anything three. On a scale to 10 it's 6. I'd just love to see it work, but I wouldn't be able to actually take part in reviewing, unless I'm submitting something for review.