CBox Tech & Social Opinions Survey!

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Diana

LOOK HOW CALM SHE IS
Original poster
ADMINISTRATOR
MYTHICAL MEMBER
Invitation Status
  1. Not accepting invites at this time
Posting Speed
  1. 1-3 posts per week
  2. Slow As Molasses
Online Availability
10AM - 10PM Daily
Writing Levels
  1. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Female
Genres
Romance, Supernatural, Fantasy, Thriller, Space Exploration, Slice of Life
NOTE: This is a PERSONAL OPINION topic! Please share with us your own PROS and CONS about the Cbox. What do YOU find good about it. What do YOU think is a problem. You don't need to hate on, agree or disagree with other people's opinions. There is no right or wrong. We would just like to hear everyone's thoughts so we can take this current opportunity to improve the Cbox. :D

Tell us your thoughts on both the technical aspect (like how the cbox works, functionality, etc) and the social aspect (what does it do for the Community). Make sure your post is clear and organized so we can make a checklist of people's comments!



While we work out all of the current problems, kinks, and issues surrounding the cbox, your opinions will help us determine the best way to implement the system back to the forums. <3



If anyone gets all riled up, we'll hit you with a stick. c__c; It's just a survey!
 
YEAH TK, GAWSH

PROZ:
Entertaining
Asmo

CONS:
Distracting

I sat and stared at it for five minutes(Post, not the cbox), but that's pretty much everything for me.
 
PROS:

- Quick integration of new members
- Easy way to exhibit personality traits
- The energy of a real-time group conversation
- Chat RPs
- Seeing what people are like when they don't have time to carefully craft a response


CONS:

- Very distracting for me
- Development of a Cbox culture that undermines the roleplays
- Potentially damaging first impressions for guests and newbies
- Even more opportunites for me to overstep the mark
- Members who pride themselves on being lazy
- Demogogues


I'd rather have the Cbox taken away from the Index Page and put in a sub-section.
 
Pros:

1. Good way to get new members settled in.
2. Good way for you guys to talk about your forum rps
3. Conversations with people you know are there.
4. Chat rps (I see that as a pro even if I'm not in them)
5. Actually seeing people how they truly are.

Cons:

I see the same cons in the cbox that I'd see in a forum cause to me it is not distracting

1. Spammers..I've seen it before
2. People not knowing when to just let something go.
 
Pros:

Great Socialization Tool

Place for new members to ask questions and to get to know the older members.

Can strike up friendships with other members quicker via the c-box, not everyone want's to give out their MSN right off the bat.

Great place to kill a few minutes if you have nothing else to do.

Questions between GMs and Rper's can be answered in the c-box.

Ease of contacting someone else.

Fun to watch how other members act via lurking.
Cons:

Negative behavior used on the c-box leaks over into the forums

- Spam, overtly sexual content, trolling…

- Stuff that should remain in insanity leaks onto the c-box, then the other boards.

- Negative effect upon newer members

People believing it's the core of Iwaku

Drama…

For some reason (not connected to the amount of people on oddly) it'd drastically lag my browser window if it was left open for an extended period of time (usually because I forgot about it).

---

I also side with Asmo on moving the c-box off the main-page and into it's own subforum at the bottom or something, or tab at the top of the page. That'd put the focus more onto the RPs (in my own stupid opinion).
 
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Pros:

the ease with which one gets to know new members (and therefor new people) is staggering for one such as myself.

It gives more of a sense of community

it's an easy place to take all the trivialities about certain RP's that neither belong in the OOC NOR Insanity.

Is a GREAT advertisement tool for GM's and players alike.

An active C-box (generally visible on the front page) usually means an active site, and with all the dead RP forums around the internet, that does say something.

A place where drama and spam can be contained outside of the forums.

it's a good way to proliferate oneself on the site. Meaning a faster integration into the core group of roleplayers on Iwaku.

Chat RP's

Cons:

Drama and spam have a higher likelihood to occur because of it's 'real time' nature.

it heightens the server load, apparently, which leads to longer loading times on low-end computers.

some (Fair) mod policing is most likely necessary now that we've grown a bit.

Like any social area, it's vulnerable to clique-ish behavior. But I have to say the forums themselves have the same problem.

--------

I've been as fair as I could be, these are my opinions on the good and the bad. Personally, I think the C-box is fine on the frontpage, and C-box admittance after a single post would probably help keep (or even attract) new members, provided things do not get out of hand as with the "abbadon" incident. I do not think they will, and that this is more exception than rule.

Diana has been saying lately that, between roleplays, people need things to do, relevant to their interests. I view the C-box as that busy place right near the bar which you visit for a drink and a talk after you've left the dancefloor. Without it, I'd probably not have the stamina to get back on the 'dancefloor' that quickly again, and post even slower than I do now.

It's a shame that there are people who aren't interested in posting in the roleplays at all, yet examples as Orochi, Ampoule, Isabella, and some others prove that these people DO add positively to the atmosphere and image of the site. I'd hate to see Iwaku turn into an elitist club of snobby 'artists' because we 'are a roleplay site, not a social site."

meh...agree with me or not, these are my views.
 
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Pros:

Fun
Good place to discuss rps and have impromptu rps/test scenes
Good place to wait for people to post
Fun place to test personalities for characters

Cons:
Distracting
No dice roller
Often becomes a pissing contest
 
Pros:
Gives you a chance to see how witty the other members are with a spur of the moment response to a retort you make.

Quick and easy way to get certain links and video's noticed with a quick response without making a whole thread devoted to said link.

And its an easy way for all the members to get together and chat without having to hunt down or download IM systems.


Cons:

People often come bitching and complaining about their day and personal drama when no one wants to hear it....ok yeah you had a bad day...but don't go making a game of whip em out and measure because no one gives a flying shit. =/ but thats just my opinion.

New members who don't know our taste in humor may quickly become offended if they jump straight to the Cbox without gradually being drugged into our insanity via the forums and threads.
 
Pros:

- Helping new members get settled in (As Sho already mentioned; also, this bullet holds true for myself)
- Brilliant distraction from work
- Allows for easy coordination without opening 6 IM windows or hunting for contact info like a filthy stalker

Cons:

- Some members don't stop 'settling in'
- Brilliant distraction from things besides work (posting not included due to the fact that I see that as a whole different issue altogether)
- Cliques / Demogogues (As Asmo put it)
- Lack of monitoring

I've not experienced someone being asked to post and seen them respond, "Yeah hold on, hold on, chatting on the cbox." Granted it probably has happened, but I see about a dozen other things getting in the way of posting before a cbox. Like, you know. Life.
 
We're not ever merging the two forums. >> I won't explain the how and whys here though, as this is a topic about Iwaku's Cbox and only Iwaku's Cbox!

Lets stick with listing the pros and cons, please! D: We asked so you can tell us WHY you wanna keep/remove the cbox and WHERE any tech problems are in your usability!
 
NO REMOVING THE CBOX!!! IT IS A PART OF IWAKU WATHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!

Without it Iwaku would lose a lot of what make it unique (i.e. members, and the ease of how they communicate.)

The CBOX binds the community, allows us a convenient place to talk about things other than forum stuff. I refused to believe meg when he said the cbox might not be coming back.

*considers creating a posters' union for the sole purpose of striking for cbox*

HIT DIANA WHERE IT HURTS!! IN THE STATS!!!
 
PROS
- It's an excellent place to relax for members
- It allows friendships to form between members (seriously, I wouldn't know nearly so many people on Iwaku as I do if I didn't frequent the CBox)
- It helps to create a sense of community on the board (which is important, given that Iwaku is, y'know, a community)
- It allows for chat-based RPs (something rather neglected in the CBox, it must be said, but I plan to rectify that soon)
- It helps new members meet older members, get to know them better, integrate them into the community quicker

CONS
- It can provoke arguments between members (that's instant-messaging for ya, hell, that's the internet for ya)
- When problems flare up on occasions, the CBox's nature as an instant-messenger means that staff can have a hard time keeping things under control before it all gets out of hand
- It does lead to some members just sitting in the CBox and not really doing much else
- It causes things like Maverick to happen
 
I think all the pros and cons have been stated succinctly, so I'll skip that part. ^^;

Just from where I'm standing, I did notice that after the cbox went down, activity in general and insanity did spike. I did not notice any such spike in the RPs I am involved in (though I'm in only three, so others might have noticed a difference). However, if we were to do away with the cbox, would that help in the long run? I don't think so. The cbox is merely a symptom of an internet that is full of distractions and sweet, sweet instant gratifications.

Everyone knows you can't cure a disease just by treating the symptom, yes?

Since we can't shutdown the internet (though that would be awesome), I would say: keep the cbox. It's fun and handy, and yes, it is distracting, but it's keeping members distracted on Iwaku. It keeps them from straying to other forums, and keeps them coming back regularly.

On a personal note: if the cbox does stay, I decided to still post more in the forums, just so everyone can get involved without that motherfucking lag.
 
I agree that it's a necessary evil. Not everyone on this board is over 18 and can do whatever the fuck they want, so not everyone has msn/yahoo/skype. There's really no way that everyone can be efficient in their RPs without it. One or two people? Fine, we can deal, but everyone? Negative. I may sound like a derp who was once called Red Spy on that, but whatevs.

From a technical standpoint the C-box was clunky. Not so much as the old C-box on the proboards forum, but clunky still.

-It was a lag machine. FFFFFFF- How bout real chat?
-Even when it wasn't lagging, half the time it didn't refresh when it should have. There were days when I had to refresh Iwaku as a whole because the C-box wouldn't do it itself. Everything loaded up fast so it wasn't my connection. So, when it wasn't lagging, it was a fifty-fifty chance it was just frozen as a whole. Not even kidding.
-BBCode, although technically unnecessary, was garbage on it. I mean really? Three or four commands at my disposal? Negative. All or none to me.
 
Ok ok just like a job jeez- never mention the word Merge.-

Pros of having chat: making new friends, chat rpg's, plus the benefits of plotting for RP forums if necessary. Also, fun addiction!

Cons: Occasional insanity outburst, and pests like myself.-.-
 
Diana's CBox pros and cons! From both member perspective and admin perspective!


As a Member I Feel:
Bored and cockblocked without a cbox. I do post a LOT on the forums and in the roleplays, but I don't like spammy sprees and there's a lot of moments I just wanna piss around and chat with people. It's not easy to do on the forums, and nor is it easy to do with 10 IM windows open. t___t And I'm getting cockblocked when I need to speak with someone quick-like but I can't because they're at work or school and can't use IMs. Most people just dun notice PMs fast enough.

The cbox has been my best networking tool, because I am not comfortable chit chatting with people in private unless we have something specific and important to discuss. People get upset with me because I don't respond fast enough, and I always feel like I'm not adding enough to chit-chatty conversations, cause I seriously dun have anything interesting to talk about. c__c At least in the cbox with a group of people, the conversation changes so quickly. Everyone can get some attention.

As an Admin I Feel:
Really, really frustrated with how often fights would break out in the Cbox. I would go to bed and wake up with messages about how ___ pissed everyone off or how ___ was arguing and wouldn't quit. Or I'd be lurking and watch people get pissy over something seriously stupid. Not everyone knows how to drop things and let it go. And not everyone knows how to topic-hijack to get everyone focused on something else.

I'm also annoyed with the constant offensive and sex chatting. Yes, I like getting naughty sometimes, but ALL the time? It really does get to the point where it's putting off other chatters AND totally giving bad impressions to newbies. x___x We need our regular influx of newbies, and frankly I don't want the only kind of newbies we get to be dirty mouthed sex fiends. We need a variety of personalities to make a more exciting and interesting community.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS:
The lag problem is a major issue. It's affecting performance, especially when a lot of people get online. I wish I could choose which BBcodes work in the cbox too. I'd like improved admin/mod controls. :/


MY PROS!

- Instant communication with other members! Especially ones without access to IMs. Much faster than using the PMs.

- Integrates members with the community faster and builds relationships faster. Makes a "safe bridge" to be able to interact with members in a group situation, so later you feel more comfortable contacting them in private.

- Chat roleplay. Hell yeah. >:D

- Always easier to kidnap people for forum roleplays. When you talk about them in the cbox, people get curious and check them out!

- I can answer people's questions faster and they can "summon" me when they know I'm lurking!

- Less forum spam, cause people can quick-reply in the cbox instead.

MY CONS

- Fights erupt SO quick and SO often.

- Some people only post in the cbox and never get involved on the forums.

- Easy way to procrastinate cause you always want to chat with people instead of posting!

- Turns off newbies/members with inappropriate or misunderstood behavior.

- Does put extra load/lag on the server when a lot of people are using it.
 
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Pros: Great for getting to know each member instantly.

Cons: If you DO get rid of it, just think of the amount of people that will complain, that's even worse then the drama llamas!
 
Yeah, but eventually those complaints will go away.

If we restore the Cbox then we risk going back to what we had last month, where there was either an argument or a rape-fest every two days.


Seriously, it's an insult to the collective intelligence that we all have.

I like a bit of smut and controversy from time to time. But logging in every day to see Darkness calling people faggots, Krom going on about gore, Maverick and Wiccan raping each other and Isabella glowing at everyone was getting really fucking tedious.

I don't care how ironic you're being. That's no excuse for a lack of imagination.



You like the Cbox? Then use it to support your other endeavours, not to degrade them by setting yourself up as a Chatbox fucktard.


[/Jack Daniels-fuelled rant]
 
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