Do you think a Research Help forum would be useful?

[Stormo]

This would be amazing! Mostly cause I can add to it, and it keeps me from having to go google silly things like 'what can make a bomb' and 'worst criminal offense can someone have & still be paroled' *cough* obviously for roleplays but it looks pretty bad when your hubby goes surfing through your internet history e.e;

 

[Reaper Jack]

The majority of my knowledge comes from documentaries, non-fiction books (if you ever get the chance read Iron Coffins. A fantastic war biography by Herbert Werner, one of a mere dozen or so U-Boat captains to survive the entire war in his submarine) video games (I'm not talking CoD, I'm talking well-referenced story-driven grand strategy pieces, I checked their research way back when I started to play them) as well as school and some of my own personal interests and hobbies. Of all of them, school taught me the least. Even my philosophy teacher taught more to me off-hand outside of class than in it. Education seems to become pretty pointless except as figures on paper after a while, shame, but that's how it works right now.

 

[Minibit]

I'm as huge an advocate of research as anybody here, but I'm not certain we need a separate forum for it.

As mentioned, these kinds of resources are already available in the current Content forums, and those with knowledge and/or interest are more than welcome to post there!

 

[Nightrunner]

I'm all in favor of it. I'm an expert on a few fictional subjects, but my knowledge of others is lacking. Having a place to trade expertise for fictional purposes sounds awesome.

 

[Jorick]

I agree with Minibit. This doesn't seem like something that merits its own forum. When it comes to the presentation of the front page of a forum, less is more definitely applies. Having too many forum sections makes it look cluttered and makes it harder for people to find exactly what they're looking for.

I think this kind of thread should already fit into the Roleplay Institute, based on what I've just read of the guidelines for the section. Seems to me that someone wanting to share their knowledge of a topic could make a guide about it, because guides are supposed to be educational articles that remain objective and I figure that giving information on something like 17th century French military organization and practices counts as educational and should be objective if it's to be of any use. Someone wanting to get information on a topic could make a help request, because the guidelines state that they can be a question or request for general information, so someone asking about that 17th century French military stuff should fit here. If such things don't actually fit under these headings currently, I think it would be better to tweak the guidelines such that they are allowed as stated, or to just add a new category to cover it.

Now that I take another look at it, you could also fit this stuff into the Worldbuilding Guild. Add a couple more categories like history and medical and so forth to cover the major bases and let people run free with their questions.

You've already got a couple sections that are all about helping people out and giving them information for their roleplaying needs, so why try to reinvent the wheel by making an entirely new section that covers a particular niche of the Institute and Worldbuilding Guild's general goal?

 

[Jaydee]

I come from journal RP, and research had always been something incredibly important not just when researching about the canon of a character, but even on the minute details such as navigation in the age of sail or military procedures for science fiction platoons.

It would be an invaluable source of help for many people that would want to make characters of their own for any subject. I would love to have it as part of the forums.

 

[AnnaBelle <3]

It's a great a idea, I think it will help a lot. It'll probably help other {including myself} to roleplaying in stories that they'd never tried to do. I do believe its a fantastic idea :] ♡

 

[Zackymas]

It's a very good idea; this would allow the writers and RPers to be more specific and realistic in their writings.

+1 support :D

 

[Helix]

Sounds cool, I'm all for it.

 

[Tad]

I'm hoping that this idea takes off - and it looks promising! I've been scribbling away from time to time, and I've always had to either google my research, pick out details that made sense, and hope for the best - rare is it that I get to talk with people who know much of anything about what I'm trying to write about.
Woo!

/edit:
It would be particularly useful if it were its own subforum or something easily searchable, as until this thread popped up I didn't think to ask Iwaku members about historical, medical, or similar fact searches, let alone where to post those questions.

 

[Astaroth]

@Jorick

Just to clarify, this IS currently allowed in the Institute. This proposed section would be an expansion of the system in order to better the content areas as a whole. We feel like this could possibly be something more. Prior to the Worldbuilding Guild's establishment, that kind of content was posted in the Institute as well and the Admins were skeptical about an additional area; now it's an invaluable and permanent fixture of the forum. We feel like there's potential IF there is a demand for it.

The forum organization is already a consideration which is being addressed, so we have ideas on how this would be integrated.

 

[Jorick]

That makes sense. The first post didn't make it clear that this sort of material is currently allowed in the Institute (largely due to referring to it as off-topic material), so I felt it was worth it to bring that possibility up.

I still think it'd be best to keep things simple by using the sections that currently exist and just encouraging a new kind of content in them, but it could certainly turn out like the Worldbuilding Guild and become a very valuable resource. I'd say there's no harm in trying it out, so I'm not gonna bother dropping a opposed vote in the poll or anything. Consider me a neutral and thus worthless vote. :P

 

[Astaroth]

@Jorick

Ah, my bad then for being unclear. I meant that it was technically off-topic, not that it wasn't allowed. I did mention that there are some threads there which would be moved, but that was in passing and I can see why you would make that assumption.

Yeah, it's entirely possible that this wouldn't work out. That's why we're seeing the kind of response that we get here before making a commitment, so every bit of input is worthwhile. Thanks for taking the time to put in your two cents!

 

[Frostbite]

I could totally help. My grandma is thai so i can feed info from her to you guys

 

[Reaper Jack]

I could totally help. My grandma is thai so i can feed info from her to you guys

For a second there I thought you said you could help by feeding us your grandma.
*Phew* glad I misread that.

 

[Frostbite]

Why would i even think of that?

 

[Tad]

Why would i even think of that?

I think it's the wording: your grandmother is Thai, therefore she must be spicy and delicious.
...sorry.

 

[Frostbite]

wat
no.
my grandma's personality is spicy though. xD
now i flee. //disappears into the night