Poll: Expanding Roleplay Genres

Is Iwaku ready to expand the genre categories?

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I think having that many is fine. Its better to have them and not really use them until someone gets an idea than to not have them and make a mess someplace else. Im all for plan B and C and just having options. Thats always nice.
 
I'll establish pros and cons and tell you all my decision.

Pros: These extra RP genres add piece of cake orginization and you know what you are getting into. This in turn will generate interest in an RP that otherwise wouldn't have been looked at the in the first place. Plus the added genres make us look bigger, taking a step forward, generating members that we didn't catch earlier.

Cons: As numerous others have said before, there is the problem with empty genres. Sure there are the one or two people who like such and such a genre but that means they would have to contantly generate content for interest to be accumulated. In essence it would hurt our appearance in making us look like a dead/dieing RP site with nearly no activity. In addition the reasoning behind it ("To give a category to half split RP's") Isn't really that big of a pro point. Half and half RP's would pop up in the new system as well as there is no end to the ideas you can meld together.

In the end my decision was no. I believe a certain point has to be reached before we hit the multi-genre RP's and we just haven't reached it yet. But that isn't to say we haven't come far. Indeed everyone's commitment has effectively turned Iwaku into a renewed hotspot for avid RP'rs and has brought us new faces that we now recognize. We just have not breached that level where we have enough faces we can place to each genre and count on yet.
 
This is one thing I...really don't care about.
I mean, if we keep the genres how they are, that's fine. The present organization isn't something I think potential members could possibly have a big enough problem with to not join on its account. On the same token, if we use this new set of genres...it won't stop members coming, it won't add any new members.

Simply put, it's not a big enough change for anyone to care who isn't just OCD about how far they must scroll down the home page. And I really doubt too many potential members are that.

As a person who's seen various RP forums and whatnot, adding more genres is extremely insignificant compared to changing the basis of RP categorization.
 
I say go for it! If all fails then you could always switch to the original setting the site had it's genres in...^^/
 
I voted 'no' because the only change I see that could need done with the amount of members on per diem would be a main Mature board. I mean, I'm in on the whole Smut Club business but it would be nice for us pervies-and I'm pretty sure you can set up age limits or mod approvals on these boards-to have a more accessible adult area. That's really the only change I see.

Not that, you know, after a few weeks bitching and groaning I wouldn't accept the change.
 
Additional smut for 'us pervies'...? Really?

O.o

Anyway, back to the important stuff, we still haven't heard anyone give a solid plausible reason for the extra sections (other than to make things look nice/SCROLL BAR HELL). I just don't think we should walk into this willy nilly. After all, the only way for sure that you're going to know if it's a bad idea is when members start incessantly complaining and/or they leave. So yeah, I don't see how saying "I think we're ready to move onto bigger things" is reason enough to add more sections. Give actual figures of how many members are actively roleplaying, how often and in how many stories. Then we can definitely know if the demand exists to carry out the proposed changes.

ANNNND... I need to stop posting in this thread XDD Sorry haha
 
Although I do agree with Meno, I think the "proof of guilt" or rather "proof of activity" relies on those saying no to this change. From what I see Diana is set and ready to do this and really I don't have a problem with changing a few titles on the main page, it is just the image of Iwaku I care about. Xindaris has told us, as an avid RP surfer, that he didn't care about the effects of this change. Yet Xindaris is not qualified to speak on behest of all newbies even though his words make sense.

I believe if this change does eventually proceed to go through, and from the looks of the poll I'm pretty sure it will, there ought to be some kind of generalized poll either between staff or all Iwaku of what kind of seperations we should make. What we should leave as just general Science Fiction and what could be seperated into its own unit.

Like I was discussing with some people on MSN Science Fiction would really only need to be seperated into three categories that cover 90% of the RP's I've seen made. (Advanced, Near Future, Transdimensional) Any other suggestions I think we should put down now so there is barely any work to be done on developing the new poll/new page.
 
Not another poll!

Honestly though considering how many RPs are in Misc, and if it wasn't there and people were not worried about being wrong, how they would easily fit into the other sections, I think we need to make the GMs feel more empowered, and not in fear of breaking rules that are not even rules.

Mature RPs are allowed in the regular sections, you just put Mature on the tag, I don't see how hard that is and if you don't want to worry about youngins reading your writing because it's pure smut, it takes little time if you're an active mature member of this community to be excepted into the smut group. The only lack of activity is that people are far more willing to read smut then write it.

I do not think extra sections will cause people to complain more then any change in the history of forums had caused people to complain, nor do I think it will cause people to leave. I do however think we should consider if empty or near empty sections are plausible and if so how that will make our community look to newbies. Newbies ARE the future, without newbies your community dies. This is true irl as it is online.

Last thought from looking at comments from members, while it's nice to say that we can always change it back, we don't want to be constantly changing things around. If we're going to do this, let's make it something that's going to work so that the naysayers have to admit it is working, and those that like it are not then punished by going backwards.

P.S. Be considerate of other people's opinions. They have a right to them.
 
Moonwings didn't have genre categories, Torsty. If you're gonna be a jerkbutt, do it about the right site! D:<


For the record Diana was on the fence about it too, which is why I posted the poll in the first place to see what the community felt. XD I think we're ready enough for it, but we also don't need it yet. It's just one of those take a risk or play it safe sort of things.

Meno and Piro have already listed all of my own pros and cons. o___o; The poll is gonna be up all through January. Not something that's gonna be decided on right away.
 
Diana Notacat said:
Moonwings didn't have genre categories, Torsty. If you're gonna be a jerkbutt, do it about the right site! D:<


For the record Diana was on the fence about it too, which is why I posted the poll in the first place to see what the community felt. XD I think we're ready enough for it, but we also don't need it yet. It's just one of those take a risk or play it safe sort of things.

Meno and Piro have already listed all of my own pros and cons. o___o; The poll is gonna be up all through January. Not something that's gonna be decided on right away.
Click to expand...

WHUT WUZ THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MW AND AFTA? LOOKED PRETTY MUCH THE SAME FROM WHAT I REMEMBER! AND I CAN SEE THAT SOME OF THE GENRES SUGGESTED HERE ARE COPIED AND PASTIED RIGHT FROM *THAT SITE* D:<

This is not a poll, this is a suicide-letter! >=(
 
I unno, I think it's a good idea. I mean, I understand looking like a dead site, but when new members show up, they tend to browse through all the genres. I don't think it will look dead... I just think having the wider variety makes us look more organized.
 
I was thinking no and apparently hit yes by accident... :/

I think my main issue is with the distinction between "Sci-Fi Earth" and "Space Sci-Fi". Most of the RPing I do is Sci-Fi in nature, so with that in mind what happens if the story takes the players to Earth or Focuses on early solar system exploration? I'm sure with the current staffing it wouldn't be an issue, but if I were still new I would be worried about having to move the thread simply due to the forum's content. I'd say if anything... have Sci-Fi be it's own forum and have "Cyberpunk" replacing "Sci-Fi Earth" but then thats the only type of RP I can see going in there.

"Otherworld" I don't really have an issue with but I have to ask why? By defination, all of the games that would go in there would fall under "Fantasy", "Sci-Fi", or "Miscellaneous". Doesn't bother me if we have it, but it just seems like extra work that is not needed.

I believe "Modern Earth" has already been covered, but just to beat a dead horse... not a fan of the name but I'd live with it.

Historical I like though. Gives people a place to play pirate and centurion without invading the fantasy forum. I would say though to keep it more or less hard fiction. Any magic or supernatural elements and it should be pushed into Fantasy.

Finally... if changes must be made, why not edit the current forums to have subforums? Project Genesis proved that you can do it... why not make one for Earth and have the sub forums of "Past", "Present", and "Future" or something like that? You'd still get the organization you are looking for me thinks.

Anyway that would be my big... uh two euro cents? Rather small coin really.
 
Slyen said:
Finally... if changes must be made, why not edit the current forums to have subforums? Project Genesis proved that you can do it... why not make one for Earth and have the sub forums of "Past", "Present", and "Future" or something like that? You'd still get the organization you are looking for me thinks.
Click to expand...

I like this idea, but that's definitely something that would have to be way farther in the future when Iwaku was even bigger. XD Right now I think we could add a couple genre categories but not too many...


After chatting with Rory a bit and talking about what people have suggested so far, I think it would be something more like:

Fantasy
Modern
SciFi Earth (Or called Cyberpunk? I dunno if that name is too specific or not. o_o This means futuristic earth settings and high tech, but without any space travel.)
Space SciFi
Historical
Misc
Mature

We'd skip out adding Otherworld since it's unnecessary, and we might remove the Quickfire section in the near future if our chatrp thing doesn't pan out. D: So it'd just be two new genre forums, and not too large of a difference.


Keep on posting those comments and votes! :D
 
Uh... I feel so stupid right now XD Slyen raises a very good point. I was looking at all this from the perpective of the FRONT PAGE. I was thinking "OH MUH GOSH, MENORAIN. TEH FRONT PAGE IS GONNA LOOK LIKE A WHORE HOUSE". But now I realise that I wasn't exactly right. Not if everything was just completely separated from one another and categorised correctly (one of the main problems with the proposed idea was that several of the sections were too similar). Bear in mind that I'm assumming that when you talked about oocs before, I thought you meant that you were splitting them up also. So, here's teh imaginary format that I'd personally like to see:
ROLEPLAY TALK, "Promote your roleplays or ideas, and collaborate on writing a new story. Providing resources and support, Roleplay Talk has everything you need to get started"

FANTASY, "Traditional, magical or creative fantasy styled roleplays"
Fantasy OOC, Traditional Fantasy IC, Modern Fantasy IC (present day with magical gods and all that), Steampunk IC.

SCIENCE FICTION, "words elude me right now..."
Science Fiction OOC, Earth IC (modern or near future), Cyberpunk (completely new science fiction world), Space IC (dimensional space travel etc.), Project Genesis.

DRAMA, "Roleplays with realistic settings; be it modern day or eons past"
Drama OOC, Modern IC, Historical IC.

THE ROLEPLAY VAULT, "An archive for completed stories" (leaving out the thing about dead rps because it looks bad)
Hall of Fame, Graveyard

What was left out and why?:

Otherworld: No matter how creative one might try to be, the level of technology and the explanation of it's processes will always dictate the category? "The steam is a gift of our diety" *moves to fantasy* "Teh steam is created by this fancy device I made last night" *moves to science fiction*. It's as simple as that, man. Besides, it also depends on the GM's vision. If their roleplay transcends categorisation, then they need to be asked what crowd they'd prefer for their roleplay to be among. The fantasy lot? The science lot? Or another? We'll work it out. It's not exactly rocket science.

Quickfire: Because it needs to die haha nahsrsly O.O

Mature: Warning tags can be used beside the thread title. This doesn't need a whole damn section XD However, there should definitely be staff designated with the job to watch these ones.

Misc: Yeah... I don't see the need for this. We can always work out best fit for a story. GM's can always discuss this with the appropriate staffer or follow the method I stated above. A resource thread in the 'Roleplay Talk' could provide help or tips about categorisation.

Now, I'm not sure what you made of all that, but I'd like to reiterate that this is simply my own idea of the perfect format. Don't wanna step on anyone's toes :wink:

also, so much for not posting in here again. phail.
 
Call it Post Modern, don't even have Earth in the title. Let the GMs figure out if it fits there game. I still say we don't need Misc it's just a crutch.
 
Yeah, I never cared for having a Misc section myself, but I figured you never know when someone will do something really weird? o___o I'm good with pulling that one, since 99% of roleplays usually fit in fantasy, modern or sci fi...

Dunno about renaming Modern as Drama though, since any genre could be Drama. D: that's more like a sub-genre than a main one...

Oh! If if you're wondering why we have a Mature section but still allow people to post mature content: This is cause there's a lot of members that don't feel comfortable posting that kind of stuff out in public, even if it's behind spoiler tags and rated. (For reasons like them not thinking it's appropriate, or they just want the privacy, etc.) So we have the Mature section that only gives access to people 16+ of age. That way it's behind "closed doors". People are still allowed to post it elsewhere (with ratings and warnings), because Iwaku doesn't censor content, but most don't and prefer keeping it in the Mature section. XD

And don't worry about continuing to blabber your opinion. XD That's what the thread is for.
 
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