The RPG-Directory Staff have decided to have a good clean through RPG-D, maybe update things here and there, and get a new appearance after the Forum World Cup. And so, we gladly want to know what you as member would like to see changed, added or removed on our forum.

All your ideas, suggestions and comments are very welcome, and they help giving us an insight into what you think about RPG-Directory. We have made this forum for you, and you are the ones that can give us an idea of how you think about this forum. So don't hesitate to post in here ^_^.

RPG-Directory Staff Team

Well, at the chance of sounding like the biggest keener of them all, I wouldn't change a thing about this board. i really think you have a nice, diverse set of forums, all dealing with different things.

I'm excited to see when you get the Board Review forum up, though. I always love reading reviews and such.

As well, my only small suggestion would be to go through your Directory of Boards. Many of them there are no longer on-line, or have been deleted fully. Might clean up some space?

Yes, we have a regular look through our Directory. And of course we'll be having a Directory Clean-out with the whole forum sweep ^_^. It's just impossible to do this on a weekly basis

Thanks miss for posting in here ^_^.

Also on the Directory Cleanout note, if you ever come across a broken link, simply PM me, I will take care of it immediatley. ^_^

I don't know if this is what you were looking for, but I thought I might bring it up just in case. Anyways, I've been searching around the Directory for a good RPG. However, many of them haven't been active for a long time. Maybe if RPGs which haven't been RPed in for over a month could be given a warning so that the member can either delete it from the directory or bring it back to life.

I hope that doesn't sound rude, but it's quite annoying to see a whole long list of RPGs and then poke through them only to find that they've died out. I know that people have lives and RPGs aren't always top priority. I've had some RPGs die out, and I sure wouldn't mind deleting them from where I've advertised (if I could remember where I did advertise).

I definitely agree with Darth Makar. It would also make the lists shorter [ex: HP roleplays go on for 11 pages] and if your site is active, there's no quick way for list browsers to see that.

Hrm, while I see where you are going with this. We can't really force people to make their boards active again. While they may not have been posted in, the admin may be trying to gain members and whatnot, it just didnt work out.

Also, some people come, advertise and leave, and with those people, there isnt any way for us to tell them.

You could always give them a PM saying something like Hey, you're board hasn't been posted on for a month. Are you working on it or can we delete it from the Directory?

Even a mass e-mail would work.

The only problem with the PM idea is that members turn off their e-mail notification, so unless they check the site often, they would not know that there is a PM waiting for them.

I suppose, though, that we could discuss setting up rules for such situations: if your board hasn't been posted on within the past [enter time frame] and the Administrator(s) has (have) not logged on within the past [enter another time frame], we have the rights to remove your board from the list -- or just to the archives so they could easily be moved back if necessary.

See, if the board has been inactive for 1+ month or something and the administrators have not been online for at least half of that time, the chances of them still working on the site is very slim.

I do, however, agree that attempting to contact all members that have posted in the directory would be hard -- which is why I would suggest set-in-stone rules where we don't need to contact them before removing them from the lists. We could simply add in the rules topic that if they have problems or if an advert is moved accidentally, they're to PM a staff member. It's something we'd probably need to talk about in more detail, though. :)

It is a good suggestion, but one that wouldn't work out, and one that is also not fair.

The problem with doing that is, it is our service where you can advertise. Even though a board advertised is inactive, but hasn't been turned offline or deleted, the person who advertised it still went trough posting on our forum. They followed all the rules, and so they are allowed to advertise. We only have the right to remove thread either if the forum is turned offline or deleted, not when the board is simply 'inactive'.

Also, it would be impossible to go through the directory 'also' for checking on inactive boards. Boards turn inactive all the time, and so if we wanted to use this rule, then we at least have to check the Directory once a week, which is impossible. Inactive boards are eventually filtered out anyway, new boards are submitted on a daily basis, and old advertisement can be bumped after a month after the last reply.

We are already quite strict in our rules here on RPG-D, and to add this rule, we would almost be a prison or something. And also, we have our real lives as well, we can't devote every minute of our day to RPG-D. And if we we're going to use these kinds of rules, it will be impossible for us as staff to do anything else on this forum.

I can see the point in not having the time to actually monitor what isn’t being active. So how about a possible compromise?

Rather than try and spend unwanted time and energy into removing the inactive forums, maybe spend a little time (once a month) as a reward to both active members to this forum who have active forums or are working on making active forums?

Make a little rotating list of “five of the month” (number can change), where you pick one topic.. and anyone who wants to submit their forum for it, can be looked over for either most active new threads, highest post counts, most newest members, etc. the criteria can change and to be added to the list for review (effectively eliminating the inactive members and forums) people have to submit the forum for the months drawling.

If you set up a deadline, and then release the selected sites a week after it, its fresh sites that can easily change (as the criteria changes). Etc. Yet, a possible negative drawl back is that people may mistake sites not on this list as being active, so it might be important to note that isn’t the case…. Yet, this negative side may also revert that, and make admins work a little harder to be in the list.

It was just an idea and we will never really know how it can happen, unless it was tried. ! ^_~

Ps. This may very well be done already, but I’m still new and looking over the site and commenting as I go. :)

Hrm, I'm not exactly getting what you are suggesting.

We pick 5 forums/members each month and then what? Could you try to clear that up?

It doesn’t have to be 5 that was just a number off the top of my head.

Make a list and sticky it? Put urls in to click to their site. Maybe display their buttons if they have it in a thing similar to the rotating affiliates bar. Something.

Who knows, it could also turn out to be a way to give advice to other forum users (sorry, I can’t help but think of new things the longer I think about topics!).

i.e.. say, you picked 5 awesome sites that had received the most new users/members/visitors, whatever. Maybe ask a related question, “what did you do in this last month, that you believe attributed to the new users?”. And post their Reponses with links to their site. So other members can see their work in progress and maybe imitate it. i.e. if one user claimed that joining a bunch of webrings worked to attract other visitors, etc that would be something other users can also do if they wish and aren’t already doing so.

Its was just an idea. ^_~

Ok so like a contest of best RPG and then interview the winners? Its an idea, it is, unless that is way off base of what you are getting at...

Anyways, I like the idea, but I dont get how it will help eliminate inactive boards in the directory.

Oh, I never meant it would eliminate the inactive boards. Didn’t mean to imply that it would, either.

It was just a possible suggestion that could move people to see some current active boards, rather than fish through a list of inactive ones (a complaint from above). Then again, my mind never stopped and I just kept thinking of other possibilities, that just might encourage more activity on boards and a way to promote activity for those that are doing their best to make/keep active communities.

^_^

Ohh ok, it just confused me to try to see the correlation.

It would be an interesting idea. At the moment we are working on getting a lot of aspects of the forum sorted out, so once we start to think about contest I will most definetly throw that out there ^_^

More suggestions are still welcome. The minor re-vamp is coming closer, the only thing we're waiting for is a custom skin/graphics to finish, which hopefully happens in the coming 2 to 3 weeks (sounds long, it will be over in no time XD).

Any suggestions relating to boards, adding things, removing things, input about how our staff are doing. Do not be shy, anything can be told here as long as your not flaming ^^.

The announcement box should be removed.

If there is one thing that will never be removed then it's the announcement box. Do you also have a reason why it should be removed in your opinion?

It lags the board. You have to scroll down a lot to get to the bottom.

That is not a reason for me to get it down. You have to scroll a lot anyway, seeing the board is quite long. And I collapsed the forums already as much as possible. The announcement boards provides some essential links to topics which are otherwise harder to locate for new members. It also shows the most important news etc.

I agree that the announcement box is pretty much needed. Anyway, it would be nice to see a new skin, from what I've heard you've had this one for a long time. Besides that, I think it's all pretty much perfect. I don't think you'd be able to down size your forum's any more then they are, and I can't think of anything to add what hasn't already been thought off.

Sooo...there was no point to my posting, just thought i'd give my opinion :)

And your opinion is very much appreciated Damon ^_^.

We've had this skin for a long time. But don't worry, we're in the process of getting a new skin. And we're basically waiting until the skin is finished before doing the re-vamp. So when the skin is finished, the re-vamp will be done.

I'm really, really sorry if this is in the wrong place but there is a reason I didn't check thoroughly, which is also the reason I am posting!

I've found that every time I come here I struggle to look at the forum for more than maybe five minutes without getting a pounding headache. I have never had this problem in over a year of looking at forums and I think it's because the skin and font are too light. I've seen a couple of other members compain that a light font on a light background makes it terribly difficult to read.

Again, I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place or seems offensive in any way but I'm trying desperately to be as quick as possible so I can read as much stuff on RPG-D as possible before my eyes stab me in the brain.

Thank you!

Really? I almost never have a problem looking at RPG-D and I've been looking at it a looong time. Perhaps it's your computer's brightness settings. The skin is supposed to be more of a grey than a white and perhaps your monitor is just making it brighter than it actually is.

Yes, I certainly don't have problems from the skin being light. However, change is good. Even something as simple as the blue maintitles to the red maintitles was nice, though I think a complete revamp would be healthy. Of course, it's a ton or work. . .

Defiantly. But once I got accustomed to this skin,nothing can really beat it. Nicola's the best XD. We've tried like.... douzens of times to get a custom skin, and it has never worked out. Nothing can beat this skin. That's why we decided for now to do minor variations for the maintitle. Change colour once in a while. We've become quite big, so I feel pre-made skins don't really belong on RPG-D anymore. So if we do change skins, it'll be a custom one.

And this skin is defiantly more grey-ish in tone then actually white. So messing with your screen settings should help.

I agree with the skin. Nicola is by far the best :)

Has a forum of the month/week/etc. been considered? I think it'd be nice to give recognition to at least one board that's been alive for awhile and uses RPG-D for spreading the word. In the same way, a Member of the Month/Week/etc. would be nice to give recognition. Also, if you're in need of any staff positions, don't have people apply. Instead give it some time and look out for members that you guys think could do it. That way, it sparks a little competition in meaningful posting, friendliness, and activity. Competition, after all, can really fuel boards, so long as it stays healthy competition. This aspect of using competition to promote activity could also apply to forum of the month/member of the month.

Another thing that popped into my head is monthly/weekly/etc. newsletters using the Bulk Email feature in the Admin CP. It could have various purposes, but primarily it would be a tool to bring back members that registered awhile ago but never became active or forgot. Things that could be included are upcoming features, general announcements, future plans, and answering frequently asked questions.

Just a few ideas for RPG-D :D

I dunno if this is the kind of suggestion you're looking for, but a c-box might be nice? ^^

I'll give my opinion :)

C-box's are great. They're an amazing way to instill community fellowship and activity. There's a problem, however, that has more of a potential to advance on this type of board. That problem is spamming. Sadly, there are not enough mature people out there for a cbox to operate without immature people spamming it with links/slurs/etc. It'd be worth a try, but if a cbox were to be implemented I'd recommend the Premium Cbox. I believe it's two US dollars a month, and has features that fight against spam.

Yet another opinion from Coty ;)

Shame I use Euro's where I come from.

But no, I would never ever install a c-box. I've never liked those things, and i really don't think they are appropriate for a forum of this size.

I like your suggestions a lot Coty. Some have been brought up by other staff members. It seems I'll be having more time the coming months, so I can work on new things for the forum, including some new features and services that I've wanted to implement a long time ago XD. I think RPG-D could use a little boost, and after being over a year old, it's time for that me thinks ^^.

So, seeing I'll have more time, more suggestions are always welcome. I love member imput, I mean, after all, it's something you come to and post, use it's services, it's me and the staff who provide these things for you and maintain the community. So don't be shy and suggest things that you'd like to see on RPG-D.

I have another idea. I think I've seen it before, but honestly I'm not sure if that's a figment of my imagination or I honestly thought this up myself :)

It'd be a long stretch, because it's kind of an off of the wall feature. Forum Design. Not making skins, nor the actual forums, but designing the forum in the way of coding, applying the skin, and forum graphics. For instance, an applier to this service wants a forum within a general color scheme, with a specific feel and a skin that they choose. Then, if they want a sidebar, the person in charge of their skin can apply it and tweak it to work with the skin, and make sidebar graphics. I think it'd be a feature that would draw many people in and give RPG-D another service to it's members.

How is this possible? The admin of the board would create a temporary Admin account for the person in charge of their forum, and it can be deleted when it's done. Of course, RPG-D could require extra advertising on that forum for 'designing' it for them. The integrity of RPG-D would be on the line, but that's why you do extensive screening of Forum Designers and such.

Some problems I foresee is a lack of people willing/capable of 'designing' a forum and a large amount of people wanting this done for their board. It's a rough idea, but perhaps a form of it could be implemented for RPG-D.

Yet another idea from me. . . o.O

Hrm. Yea, I've actually seen almost an entire board dedicated to that concept, but, I dunno, I wasn't a big fan of the idea. I mean, we could have a little tag line on the bottom of their forum like the skin copyright, "Designed by the RPG-D Design Team," but wouldn't you want to make the forum yourself? A lot goes into thinking up all the ideas for boards and tweaking your side bars and finding the perfect skin, it's almost like a bonding thing with your board and if someone else just up and does it for you, I feel as though the main admin would be more willing to simply drop it at a whim because they didn't put as much work into it.

If it's on the support side your thinking, just about any one of the staff members, including myself, would be willing to help you install a particular code if you are having troubles or even point you in a better direction via the Support Center.

You're right, of course, but I know of many people who'd rather not bother with the look of the forum, and that be their downfall. Also, I've noticed that some people seem rather bashful asking for extensive help in the Support Center, and as a result they just kind of plow on and put up whatever.

I know exactly what you mean about bonding, though, I know for a fact that I'd never request such a service for my own board. My main thinking of it is for people that have little idea what's going on with the coding aspects, and would rather focus on the roleplaying.

There's pros and cons, for sure :)

Well yet again, we're thinkin about a re-vamp. And I will set through this time, with or without a custom skin (sighs). At least the forum itself will be re-vamped with new services and additional features. So more ideas are very welcome.

Another point is, if you are a skinner, and youre quite good in making skins, you can contact me through pm, as we really want a custom skin. We are willing to credit you here on RPG-D and we would be forever greatful.

For Coty, (late reply, but better late then never), such a service would be impossible in my opinion. We lack staff with proper skin/coding abilities, we can't even make our own custom skin, let alone design boards for others. It would also cost too much time and to many resrouces/staff time.

On the subject of C-box's, to come back to them, I now know for sure we'll never get a c-box. C-boxes are a real pain in the bum security wise. I've heard from forums who have been hacked through the c-box. So even if I wanted to have a c-box, I won't get one, because I don't want to comprimise RPG-D's security.

I think that idea of Coty's sounds fun! I love coding - both CSS and HTML, which make up boards - and making things look pretty. I make my own sidebars/announcement boxes/etc. at the sites I run so I feel as if I have a good grasp on that kind of thing. If you ever did seriously consider that idea, I would love to help out with it!

I kind of like the idea of someone doing services to make the forum, but at the same time I do enjoy doing it myself. I can't code for crap, so I just go to places like here, or ifcode or the invisionfree skinning zone to get my codes and CSS and all that jazz, but I would still rather do the grunt work than sit around and let someone else do it. Then it just doesn't feel like my forum. I would rather just request a skin of my own. Which I plan on doing at the IFSZ. I just don't have enough posts yet. :p

I myself love the C-box. It's a great way for my members and myself to say quick things that aren't really worth a whole topic, but RPGD doesn't really need one. At first I saw the "Not C-box ever" thing and was all "BUT WHY NOT?!?!?" but upon further thought, there's no reason for one on here, lol.

Anywho. I like the idea of a kind of Services thing happening here. Only not just for skinning, but also for like, graphics, or maybe you need help deciding what style of character application you want to use, or help writing up the rules for your board. (lord knows I've rewritten mine about 5 times already) Or skinning tweaks. I have no idea how to make a skin of my own, but when I really sit down and work at it, I'm quite good at skinning tweaks.

-MK

RPG-D does have a graphics service. However, it's been down for some time. (seemingly due to the lack of activity in the graphic staff department) I think that RPG-D should keep the graphics sector going by weeding out the inactive graphics artist and trying to continue bringing in new ones. After all, they'd be bound to find a few active ones after awhile. I'd also suggest RPG-D going to places such as RcR and Pandora's Closet to pick up decent graphics artists to work here. I think the good ones that don't shine on those sites would like the "higher status" they'd receive here.

As to the skinning/etc. services, I obviously still am in support of it. (as I originally suggested it) I understand the difficulty RPG-D may face finding staff, but I think the RPG-D administration may be surprised as to who has a general knowledge of coding that can collaborate to bring this service to life.

As a side note, a collaboration could undoubtedly work to bring a custom skin to RPG-D. Roswenth, to my knowledge, has a good hold on the coding of skinning, and others as well as myself have ability to create the graphics for it. I find my problem in creating my own skins the coding part, for small things elude me and my skin ends up shoddy.

If I may be as bold to state what I view as obvious- RPG-D has a high member count, but it's active members are far lower. This, in my opinion, is because the only thing RPG-D is used for is to advertise. A new member spams enough to get the required posts to advertise, they advertise, and they may stick around some to "advertise" through discussion. Then, when the site declines or exceeds the word of mouth RPG-D offers, then the member becomes inactive. Until, of course, they have another site to advertise or are desperate to find a new RPG.

To get members here for things other then advertising, these services need to be offered! Not necessarily the services I promote, but ones unmentioned and not thought of! I've been a member of RPG-D since. . what, October? The thing that's kept me here, personally, is the discussion and portal to RPG's. I've advertised two or three sites, but rather than having the intention of simply advertising, I try to be active in the discussions and I answer whatever questions that I can.

I do not mean to be offensive or sharp-tongued, I just love RPG-D and I want to see it grow healthily. I also didn't mean to ramble so much, so please point out anything that doesn't make sense and I'll be glad to explain my thought process.

ADDITION: I started scrolling around and I thought of something to add onto this. It may not exactly belong here, but I don't want to post a suggestion and sound like a complete whiner and annoying. Members post their sites into the Directory Submission forum, and by the time it gets sorted into it's category the site is on the brink of death or dead. I understand that only ShinLi is on sorting detail, but I spend more time searching for a new RPG in the Directory Submission forum then the actual Directory itself. I'm sure the administration is aware of this problem, but I'm voicing it nonetheless.