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:Idea:

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2014 4:03 pm
by Drakel
:idea:

Okay, so we have some major problems and while I should be the last person here to even speak since I decided to abandon the site completely for bigger, faster, stronger... nobody here has much of a choice anymore and I have quite a few ideas that may help, all of which are easy things that we could all do here, on the forum itself.

First off is ACTIVITY. If we're more active people can see that we're still alive, fast and moving and would be more inclined to join. A more active community is a more lively one and a more lively one tends to be one worth joining. Right now, with a post every week if lucky to a post every 4 months things have gone down hill, and it's still rolling down fast. One person can't lift this weight. IF we're all active we can lift this weight back up to the top of the hill again. This means that we're actually going to have to try really hard to at least post daily at the very least. Once we reach the point where everyone is posting daily things would speed up and go to hourly posts to a post every minute, to a post every second. That is what we want and that is how we'll get it.

Second is our THEME. In comparison to what Dragnix originally was, this is nothing like it's former self. We're not talking about dragons like we used too and instead we talk about random things in general and RP. That is NOT what this site is about. Sure we are a small community so things like that is understandable though the fact is that we don't talk about dragons anymore. The one person who could probably save this site (raptor) I kicked out thanks to 15-16 year old teenage angst and sheer stupidity. In all honesty though, there is another MAJOR issue that we have about this problem. Ourselves. When a new dragon discussion DOES pop up we shut it down completely and practically tell the OP to shut up. We do this by telling the OP that we already discussed that specific issue and that instead of discussing it again they should look at the past to see our responses. Guys, let's all be clear here, science is ever changing and so are opinions. What we thought we knew in 2002-2009 is probably completely different now and new ideas, thoughts and knowledge are in our heads in comparison to the past. Not only that but newer members DON'T know our thoughts and opinions and it's wrong for us to tell them to go look for them. We are killing this site by doing that. We need to stop and let the past fade away so the future may start again. If we want this site to be active with a member group that we would like/want, than we need to allow more Draconic Discussions, create more debates and speak as though every topic was never spoken about before, even if it was.

Third is all about MODSHIP. No offence to our current mod team, but we all only have 2 Admins and 1 Mod. Looking at this community that's not that bad but sadly when we look at their activity... well, I think you can see for yourself.
Kayla: Last visited: Wed Jun 22, 2005 4:28 pm
Tempest: Last visited: Thu Feb 27, 2014 9:35 am
Vampirehunter42: Last visited: Wed Jan 09, 2013 2:49 pm
This means that our Admin is currently the ONLY active mod here. Kayla completely abandoned Site and Vamp hasn't been around for one and a half years. I think it's now clear that we NEED an active mod who isn't our main admin. I think this mod needs to be voted in by the community as a "petition" of sorts. If we are going to be an active community that is alive, we need mods to keep everyone in line and kill every spambot they see instead of us waiting half a year before it's killed. Sure Tempest can moderate things himself and alone though in all honesty Tempest needs to focus on far more important issues than moderating the forums. If everyone agrees with me on this, I will start nominations and a thread for voting so we can nominate and petition for our new mod.

Those three issues are the big 3 issues that we have and a small way that we could fix it.

Even so, I'm not even close to being done. Here is a list some ideas that I have that may help us.
  • We aren't that fun anymore. We need more creative and fun games. One of which that I'll be doing is called "Koboldz" which will be a fun little game that you can all play and would all probably love and enjoy.
  • We need more RP selection, but I also think we should start a Persistent World, preferably fantasy setting where we create everything within the RP and every action/RP we do changes and shapes the world itself. We only really need a map and after that we RP and everything else just flows in naturally from our own creativity. A persistent world, for those who don't know, would be something like our favorite RP thread, "Exx's Tavern" but instead of being enclosed in just the tavern, we expand to the entire world overall.
  • As I said before, we should all petition and vote for 1 or more new mods to help this forum.
  • Lets be more open. This means that we talk more, understand each other's pasts, lives and such more and then continue to talk about our lives/issues/that such with one another. This gives us all more reason to stay since we're less inclined to leave if people we care about are still here. This also gives us all a more human appearance and would probably help members who do look at this forum join.
  • Just a stupid idea, but instead of having just an RP archive lets have a complete archive section with subforums. This will get rid of those past General, Draconic, ect... discussions and place them all in a nice, orderly archive for us to look at when we want instead of flooding the other forums.
  • Dragnix News... Once we're active we should have this to talk about main discussions, new things that are happening to the site, member ideas, featured Draconic discussion, Art thread, and RP and probably maybe a member interview about a certain draconic discussion. It'll be nice and fun to have.
  • Contests. We should have more of them once we get active again. Maybe a Writer of the month/week, an artist of the month/week, and other things of that such. Popularity, fun, w/e... maybe give them a little extra forum bonus if Tempest is willing.
  • Once we are active I suggest a new group. "The Ouroboros Guild," (or some other name if we choose) which would be responsible for keeping up with several of these activities be sub-sections. One part would be keeping the contest hosts and such, one would be for the News and one should be for "Member Help" which would include welcoming and helping out new members in a nice, professional manner, linking them to the rules in and giving them someone they could talk too and guide them. Of course this group would be made up of older, trusted members. This idea is mainly for when the site's member count is relatively large.
  • To our Admin, this one is mostly directed to you Tempy. Keep working on the site and let us know all new details that you might have added to the forums and the main site overall. Let's all hear from you at least monthly and hear what ideas/plans you got for the future of this site. An Admin that's active in the community and is participating with them is always a good thing,
  • Let's get to discussing more draconic discussions. Even if we've already talked about those questions and answered them, lets just ask them again and refresh our minds and further our ideals/opinions. We need this.
  • Let's Rock. 8)
Some ideas are stupid, some are good. they're all just my opinions and ideas so let's see what you guys think about all this. :)

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 6:17 am
by Falconer
Every idea is stupid until it works.

^-^ Time to put the serious hat on. *dons hat* While I don't blame the mods for their absence (after all, most of the old members also popped smoke and vanished) I do think that we need more. I vaguely remember, and correct me if I'm wrong, that we used to have a different one for each forum way back in the day. I volunteer myself for the voting, though I'd also expect YOUR name in there Drakel, as this revamp is your baby.

The persistent world RP thing would actually work well, I think. ^-^ I miss Ex's Tavern. I don't think you'll get a lot of support for that, though, especially from the RP creators who like to have different rules for how their worlds work at the fundamental level.

And yes... more dragon debates. I want to see those come back.

tl;dr: SUPPORT.

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 2:34 pm
by Drakel
Falconer, you're right. It's been a long time since ANYONE has been alive here and we shouldn't forget that the other moderators do probably have lives to worry about as well. Still though, for here we do need to add more mods who would be active for the community. Also thank you for the vote. If I had to pick I'd honestly say you, Exx (if he's still around) and/or Dragon444.

Well a persistent world might work if everyone cooperates and agrees with each other, sure some compromises will be needed in order for it to work though I'm sure in the end it would for at least a while lol. Plus Exx Tavern was always an RP/thread that gets revived continuously so I see no reason on why not to bring it back in this new chapter for the time being.

Overall though I'm more than glad to see that I have your full support Falconer. :mrgreen

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 9:04 pm
by alondor
I thin the persistent world could work, so long as we acknowledge who is in charge of it when, and we agree on how long someone can be inactive before their adventure falls into someone else's hands.

As for the voting thing I vote for Falconer, I'd vote for exx but his presence is spotty at the moment

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 4:33 am
by Drakel
alondor wrote:I thin the persistent world could work, so long as we acknowledge who is in charge of it when, and we agree on how long someone can be inactive before their adventure falls into someone else's hands.

As for the voting thing I vote for Falconer, I'd vote for exx but his presence is spotty at the moment
Same, plus since this site was all about Dragons maybe this persistant world is all Dragons? So we'd have thousands of different dragon species in this world making major changes or something... idk.

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2014 3:57 am
by alondor
Dragons are typically too big to RP as PCs, or too powerful, I think humanoids interacting with dragons (NOT How to Train Your Dragon style) would be the best bet

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 1:18 pm
by Drakel
alondor wrote:Dragons are typically too big to RP as PCs, or too powerful, I think humanoids interacting with dragons (NOT How to Train Your Dragon style) would be the best bet
That could work. IDK, though I'm sure that we'll be needing a whole new form of discussion for this persistant world.

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 2:30 pm
by Falconer
I'm tempted to go post something pointless in the Tavern just to move it back to the front... :P

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2014 10:42 am
by asdf
Im definitely up for an rp, i never even got to try out my last character. It would have to be the week after next because next week i have scout camp and am too cheap to get a plan for my phone (which is crap anyway).

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2014 10:39 pm
by BeneathTheStarlight36
i like the ideas here.

we did have the posting contest with Sivert, but after that, activity basically died and he just sorta stopped coming. anyone know where he is?

i don't really rp. at least, not yet. as for the dragon discussions, i'd love to get that section more active, but i don't know what to post, really.

about the moderation here, somebody else really should have been appointed if nobody was going to be here for 4 straight months.

overall, i'm up for this, though. i really like the idea of this site, i'd love to see it become a reality. (again?)

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 11:58 am
by Drakel
Falconer wrote:I'm tempted to go post something pointless in the Tavern just to move it back to the front... :P
Glad to see it's back up. I'll be posting in it soon. :D
asdf wrote:Im definitely up for an rp, i never even got to try out my last character. It would have to be the week after next because next week i have scout camp and am too cheap to get a plan for my phone (which is crap anyway).
Awesome and it's cool. Have fun in scout camp man.
BeneathTheStarlight36 wrote:i like the ideas here.

we did have the posting contest with Sivert, but after that, activity basically died and he just sorta stopped coming. anyone know where he is?

i don't really rp. at least, not yet. as for the dragon discussions, i'd love to get that section more active, but i don't know what to post, really.

about the moderation here, somebody else really should have been appointed if nobody was going to be here for 4 straight months.

overall, i'm up for this, though. i really like the idea of this site, i'd love to see it become a reality. (again?)
Glad to hear you like the ideas.

Yeah I saw the contest but I think a good ol' writing contest might be fun to do here. :)

It's cool, if you joined Exx's Tavern you'll get a good feel on RPing and as i for Dragon Discussions no need to really worry lol. It's always good to start with the basics than expand.

Overall I'm glad to see that so far everyone agrees with everything or the majority of what I said. Up now is starting it all. :)

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 3:16 am
by alondor
I can get us out of the mess Exx left us in before he disappeared again, unless someone objects in the next few days I think I will

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2014 12:31 pm
by Falconer
Give it a bit longer for others to post... at least it'd make the fight more interesting. Clearly Exx intended to set off a whole new chain of events, not have three people to react briefly then one person just arbitrarily end it all.

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2014 9:35 pm
by BeneathTheStarlight36
alondor wrote:I can get us out of the mess Exx left us in before he disappeared again, unless someone objects in the next few days I think I will
care to explain?

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 12:22 am
by alondor
It would be a fortune teller looking into her crystal ball observing past events. I merely asked about ending what exx set up because Exx hasn't been here recently. Since he hasn't been here, how will we determine what occurs?

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 2:00 pm
by BeneathTheStarlight36
i assume i wasn't here yet when this all took place.

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 12:10 am
by alondor
It was during your break I think

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 5:47 am
by Falconer
We could just duke it out with the big spider thing... I mean, we've all seen LOTR, I think we can RP how a giant spider attacks.

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 3:00 am
by alondor
I'm more interested in what its resistances are, it is pure tainted magic

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 5:49 am
by Falconer
Probably around 2500 ohms.

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 4:00 pm
by Falconer
I was looking at a few of the old RPs that were running here: Eternal Twilight, Labyrinth of al'Hatai, Sukara: Words of Power, The Starshine Dilemma...

I want to see these come back. ET could have had a sequel, Starshine Dilemma seemed to end just when it was getting good... It seems like back in the day we had a great RP'ing atmosphere going and some really good games running. Now the selection is reduced: two word games and Ex's Dying Tavern, with any other games not seeing activity in over a year.

All of this feeds off of the key issue: lack of permanent members. Years ago, when 14-yr-old me first starting getting on the internet to "do stuff", I had no clue where to start. So, I just typed "dragons" into Google and went from there. This forum was the third place I stumbled on, and the first I stuck around at. All you old members (jish, Blue Tiger, 444, DragonRider, wut2say, vamp, Makla, etc. I'm looking at you) created this awesome little corner of the internet. I learned a lot here, got my first RPing experiences, had fascinating conversations on everything from dragons to turkeys and everything in between. It was a close-knit community, and I'd like to think we were all friends.

I want to see this today. I want the forum to become what it used to be. Will the old members come back? I don't think so. They've gone their separate ways, and moved on. If, say, jish were to reply to this thread, or wut2say suddenly pop back into the RP board I would eat my hat. So here is my solution:

Recruit.

This goes to every current member of this board who wants the same as me. Recruit your friends. Know anyone who you think would enjoy themselves having arguments about dragons in literature? Any friends who would like to pretend in posts that they are a mute engineer colonist on another planet, or a magical sorcerer (I cannot spell that word without help for the life of me) in a fantastical world? Family members that like discussing recent news with people guaranteed to have a, uh, UNIQUE opinion of it? RECRUIT THEM. Show them the site. Welcome others who join. When did we stop offering metaphysical cookies to newcomers? The line from the movie may be "if you build it, they will come", but here we have the exact opposite: "if they come, they will build it".

We can talk all day long about new mods, or site restructuring, but at the end of the day a community is only as strong as the people in it. So let's fix that.

[/soapbox]

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 10:50 pm
by asdf
If you thought I left, guess again. I have quested the vast New River, faced horrible foes such as the canoe mouse and tent spider, hardships including sunburn, broken down vans, and unexpected swims. I have paddled 62 miles in 5 days, now I can almost see my abs. Plus, the phone I ordered came in while I was gone and when we picked it up we caught httyd 2 in 3d (friggin awesome). But im back!!!

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 2:38 pm
by BeneathTheStarlight36
welcome back, asdf! that is absolutely crazy. sounds like an adventure, for sure.

i was thinking months ago already about recruiting people, i just don't know if anybody i know would be interested in this site.

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 3:12 pm
by Falconer
What's the worst that can happen, they join for a few days and leave?

Re: :Idea:

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2014 3:03 am
by Drakel
Falconer wrote:-snip-

[/soapbox]
Yep.... I think it'd be awesome to bring some RPs back up again. xD

ASDF: Sounds like a great adventure. xD

I hope you had fun lol.