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Would you like to see this feature be implemented?

Yes, and I think the community will become tighter as a result!
7
30%
Yes; I love reading the works of others, but I don't know how to express it
7
30%
No, I'm afraid this will become too much of a competition
7
30%
No, I don't think this is a good idea at all
1
4%
I have no opinion; yes or no, I don't mind
1
4%
 
Total votes : 23

Writing Incentive: Review Feature [Update 10/2: POLL]

Postby Jaykobell » 02/03/2016 12:23 AM

So, I was just thinking about how Evelon has very much become, at least in appearance, a sort of 'do your own thing' community. People self-RPing, people keeping to their own plots, and literally no open RPs. I remember back in the earlier days when the whole community would know X pet from Y user. Kyuukai and Senervel are two examples, but there were more; Taliña is another one, and Lord Baal...

But I feel now members don't even really get in touch with other people's characters or stories? We even have the Meet the Characters section that literally nobody uses. :/ I remember being excited for that section... and no one ended up really using it.

It tossed and turned in my head, and I'd like to suggest something... I'm not sure how worthwhile it'll be. Members will need to contribute to make it work, but it might spur some camaraderie? Maybe.

What I am suggesting is a sort of peer review system.

How would it work? Now, fair warning: this topic is going to be long. Stuff is up for debate though! But here is just a basic idea of what I thought of.

For one (1) month, members can PM staff (or a designated person for this) voting for RPs they read and enjoyed. There could be a limit of how many RPs you can vote for; such as maybe 3? And of course, to keep things fair and well... to keep it from falling apart... one cannot vote for oneself. Even if you could vote for other people, well, it'd still be biased and unfair to vote for yourself.

So, let's say I see this RP somewhere by another user. I take a look, and it sounds interesting. I keep on reading, and I think to myself... that was really good! I bet other members would enjoy reading this.

I can then PM staff and tell them, I'd like to vote for this RP here. It deserves attention and for others to read it!

Okay! So what's the point of doing that? Of sitting down and reading RPs and voting for them?

At the end of the month, whoever earned the most votes gets featured, and when they get featured, they earn a reward. What is the reward? This part is obviously up for debate, but here's what I thought of:

When you get featured for the month: your reward is something from your Wishlist WITHIN REASON.

That means NO customs with COMPLICATED ADD-ONS or MARKINGS; but if you'd like a non-breedable custom with very small markings or just as a recolor, that's fine.

To me, the reward should be something that encourages the person to keep on RPing. That could be an Elixir of Fertility (to finally RP a breeding/lifemating they've always wanted), KS (change up some Kuhnas? get some experiment pets? future seasonal releases?), pets (even RARE Kuhnas!)... anything that will encourage to get a pet and say, "I really want to write their story next"!

So you might be reading this and thinking... what's the point of doing this?

Well, besides getting the reward... I feel like it will:

- Get you to read really cool stuff!
- Get you to connect with new characters and even members you haven't really spoken to before!
- Get you to RP with new people because you found out, hey, they have cool characters!

And overall, I find this will strengthen the community bond. The feeling that others are reading our stuff. The feeling we're not just RPing on our own with our own pixels in our own little corner. That people do think we have some cool characters. To encourage people to even pick up and CONTINUE or even FINISH RPs. To know, even if it's just a handful of people, someone thought your work was worth reading and even mentioning to someone else.

So then, here are some questions I thought of, and some solutions that I think may work out for them. This is up for discussing and you guys tell me what you think. I am but one person, so other points of view are welcome.


How can you be sure someone has read the RPs they're voting for?

I judge that one month is enough to read through an RP of a few pages. I think many of us have smartphones; when you have a moment in the bus or transit to/from home, when you want to relax before bed.
But when submitting a vote, maybe the submitter would need to say why they liked the RP? What was it that really stood out to them? Did they like the character development? Did they really like the style of the narrative? Did they find the characters realistic and relatable? What is it that got their attention?

It doesn't need to be paragraphs long and worthy of a star on your A+ essay. It can be just a few sentences to express why it really stood out to you. And hey, if they do end up winning, maybe your 'review' could be there to encourage people that it is a really good read!


How am I supposed to even start with this? There are a lot of users, and a lot of RPs!

Here's my idea...
Perhaps a subsection under Important Documents?
A small section where members can officially keep track of their RPs. You post a topic, and in there, they could list either all of them, or the ones they judge to be the best they have to offer. That includes breedings, RPs with others, self-RPs, old RPs, unfinished RPs... anything they wrote. And maybe, to get your attention, they could even include a brief summary of what the RP is about! It doesn't need to be paragraphs long; but just a short summary to get your attention.

That'll help users - especially the busy ones - to skim and filter through the RPs they'd love to read the most. Instead of users sitting and starring at the forums and asking themselves, 'okay, where do I start? Which RP should I read?', they could keep some RPs in mind and put it as a sidenote to check those out first.


What kind of RPs can be voted for? Anything? With anybody?

Well... yeah! Breeding, unfinished, even old RPs... why not? Because it's a breeding doesn't mean it's bad or too short; because it's unfinished doesn't mean it has great potential and you want to see what's going to happen next; because it's old doesn't mean it's bad or obsolete and not worth your time.

What about RPs with partners? ... What happens to the rewards then? ... I would personally just reward both writers, if only because the RP is a result of shared efforts. But, thoughts on this part?


I can vote for 3/X RPs? Do I just say which RPs I liked with no preference or order?

If we want to have multiple winners or multiple choices for one featured winner, I don't think it truly matters which RP you liked the best. So long as someone gets a point from a vote you submitted, whether they were your first pick or your second pick or actually your runnerup pick; you picked them! So I personally don't think a scale of most to least or 1 to 3 is necessary. But, thoughts?


I feel like me not getting nominated means I'm a horrible writer. I don't like this at all! Why do I have to compete with other users?

Let me be clear... this idea isn't meant to make the community become a center of competition. It's meant to highlight the efforts of writers and to give them recognition. We all work hard, and we all do our best when we write. If not our best, if anything, we write because we enjoy writing. But it adds to the enjoyment of writing to know others are also enjoying your writing.

That's why I'm not saying this should be a permanent 'contest' the same way we'd done the lifemate one years ago. We won't have fixed judges, we won't have a fixed time frame. Maybe someone didn't vote for your RP because they didn't see it yet! Maybe they haven't gotten to really reading it. Or maybe they did like the other RPs better; but that doesn't mean they didn't enjoy yours too. There are Grammy's and Award shows every year to determine which movie was best, which actor was best, which movie was the best in X category... even if you don't get featured for that month, you might get featured the next!

Does that make sense?


Hahah, there's no way to know if I'm bribing friends to vote for me so I can get free stuff! I'll get all my friends to vote for me!!

Well... I hope not. With this system, I'd hope for a lack of bias. I'd hope users can look beyond usernames and just look at the material in front of them. That goes especially for shared RPs, since it'd be really disappointing for someone to withhold their vote because they don't like your partner.

And well, bribing is no good. If you are found bribing for votes, then I'd suggest that you'd be disqualified for the month. The point of this feature wouldn't be to earn free stuff if you get featured. The point is to have the community come together to give feedback, enjoy what everyone has to offer, and maybe even expand on their RPing circles and experiences.

Many people describe(d) Evelon as the place that motivated them to write and to grow as a writer. To me, that feeling has sadly faded long ago... because I feel like no one even reads what I write. Will I stop writing altogether? No, I won't. But does it kind of demotivate me? Yeah, it does... the story is already in my head... so if no one else but me is going to really read it... why write it?

It's meant to bring the community together.


War RPs?

Actually, unless everyone can see the two Mess Halls... I'd say no. It's not fair to limit your chances for those RPs to the select members who have actual visual access to it. Unless people think it's a very tiny factor, and they would love to vote for those, then that's okay too! Up for debate.


Not everyone is at the same level... why just one person getting featured? What about younger or less experienced members?

Maybe we could have 3 winners a month? That is to say, one top winner that gets featured + Wishlist reward; and then 2 runner-ups or so, that got the most amount of votes after the featured winner. They could get a little prize too? Maybe KS? Or no prize? Up for debate.

Heck, we could even have a specific category where people get critiqued? Of course, all for the sake of getting better as a writer. It wouldn't be a critique of 'I really hated how they used that bright yellow for the dialogue, ugh!' but rather things that might've stuck out to you that made you go with other RPs/winners. None of us write perfectly and none of us ever will! If it's meant to make you better or if it's meant to even help a story (admittedly I don't always know what I'm doing when I write), we could have a category for it.

Under their own little topic in the subsection, people could say if they're all right with being included in that section! I realize not everyone might want to get included in there, so that would be a choice.


I think... that covers everything I'd thought of?

The point is that this is a feature that will be easy on the staff (all they gave to do is tally up votes and then declare the featured winner), quick and easy to implement (just make a set of rules and create the new subsection), and then the rest... depends on the community. It depends if you guys would like this, it depends if you guys would like to try to implement this.

How does it sound? How does everyone feel about it? Anyone has anything to add and/or say about it? Please discuss!
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Re: Writing Incentive: Review Feature

Postby Azura Rayume » 02/03/2016 1:46 AM

I really like this, actually. I don't even need the reward, just want the cooperation of the site back. I miss open rps, but they always get ignored when I make them for the past while so I kinda quit doing that. I read the journal post that I'm pretty sure started all this turning I your head, and I fully agree with the sentiment in that, too. I'm trying to get things together for a possible short story series/novel, but between just writing by myself here and no one on Tumblr, basically the only other creative outlet I have, caring enough to probably even read my babble let alone ask me stuff, it's hard to get the confidence going to write efficiently and well.

Some kind of competition feel is sort of necessary here for one reason or another, but if it's driving creativity and getting users to talk to each other again, so be it, I say. The only real problem I can see is that the staff is (understandably) busy, so adding another thing on top of that might not be something they're up for, even if it is smallish. Entrusting it to a user or two sho won't find a way to make it so that they/their friends always win, though, sounds reasonable to me.



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Re: Writing Incentive: Review Feature

Postby Jaykobell » 02/03/2016 2:02 AM

I don't think there's truly much required from the staff, really. The extent would be to count the votes and then post an update with the new featured RP for the month. The staff currently has crow, Toxic, and Thunder who still handle smaller, more miscellaneous tasks, so I could see one of them taking it on.

That was also my logic for setting the reward to be, relatively-speaking, anything from someone's Wishlist. Giving the user KS or recording an EoF is very simple and takes no time to record and process. A custom would be more time, yes, but not allowing complicated markings or add-ons should make them manageable.

Honestly not against taking care of it myself, either, if the staff wants it user-run.
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Re: Writing Incentive: Review Feature

Postby zapdragon555 » 02/03/2016 7:18 PM

This is definitely a super neat idea. Even if not a wishlist pet, a little chunk of KS would be fine as well. Wishlist pets would certainly motivate a lot more people, but there's also staff workload to think about. Either way! This is really cool and I like it a lot! It has my support for sure.

I like the idea of having a subsection in the Imp Docs area where people can have a first post with all of their RPs up for readings, and they can post to say they've added a new one or some such thing. And then have a stickied topic somewhere (minor updates?) that has a big ol list with links to the RPs that have been nominated by users. Then people can read them and vote on them, or nominate others, etc etc.

I do think we should include War RPs, because those can have some really interesting plots. It does suck that each side can't see the other side, in certain areas--why is that, anyhow? What purpose does it serve? We know people are posting and we know who's on what side and we have a pretty good idea of what each side does, so. Eh. But that's another issue altogether, I suppose. x'D



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Re: Writing Incentive: Review Feature

Postby Jaykobell » 02/03/2016 9:11 PM

I don't foresee it to be necessarily that much of an extra workload. Even if the featured prize is a custom with no add-ons, honestly it doesn't take much time to do recolors. It's only one person, maybe 2 max if a shared RP wins? But that's why I'm saying Wishlist; because I think some people might even go for breedables like Paragon or Lucain, which are also relatively easy to do.

And I understand people are concerned over staff workload... but that being said... it shouldn't prevent new features, either. Especially not features that, I find, are meant to liven up the community, or at least make the community a bit more involved with itself; which I think is something the community really needs.

That's why I generalized the prize to the Wishlist; someone asking for a RARE Kuhna will not take a long time to process and record.

Baal had also said that if staff needed help, they could ask me. And I honestly have no problem handling the prizes and the customs that'd come out of it. I have nothing against that.

I'd also vote for letting both sides see everything, concerning the war. I think that's honestly just a thing from the first war that we kept... I don't see the point of it much. We can hide the Barracks, but I don't see why the Mess Halls couldn't be shown. That's not up to me or even this discussion really, sadly. I agree with you, though.
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Re: Writing Incentive: Review Feature

Postby Citanul » 02/03/2016 10:03 PM

I really like this idea. I'm all for it, to be honest. I'd really love to know if people read my RPs or enjoyed them, or even knew about my characters.

I do sort of miss doing Open RPs. My biggest problem was that sometimes the other person would just drop off writing, and I needed to finish out this plot. I felt bad going on without them. Or leaving them behind, if they wanted to continue at a later date.

I've been meaning to list my current RPs somewhere in my Important Documents, I just haven't had the time to do so lately. It was something I was working on with my zoo pen as well, to keep track of my pet levels.

As far as the War threads go... Considering we don't do a hell of a lot of plotting I don't see why? Keep one thread secret from the other for all secret correspondences, but the rest keep open? Or just disqualify War threads all together. It would have to be an either/or situation, I think.
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Re: Writing Incentive: Review Feature

Postby Sarah » 02/03/2016 10:08 PM

I really like this idea as well. I've always wanted like a thumbs up button or something and this is just as good. When I have time I do really like to read people's rps when I see them in the recently posted area, but I always feel to awkward to let them know I liked it. I'd just really like to have a way to recognize the hard work that users put into their writing.

I think having a place to record rps is an amazing idea. I have a post in my documents with pretty much every rp thread I've every written in and its kind of a monster. It'd be amazingly helpful to me to be able to have a dedicated spot for it and a place for a little summary and things.
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Re: Writing Incentive: Review Feature

Postby Kallile » 02/04/2016 8:00 PM

I am overly in love with this idea. I too remember the days of open RPs and in general the bigger sense of community because it it. We never needed an RP advertising thread--we went out and found each other. I think this would be a good alternative to get us learning about one another a little better and visiting some characters other people have worked really hard on developing.

To be honest a lot of my self-RPs come to a halt because I hit a point where I don't know if anyone besides myself is even liking the story I'm building, and then I hit a 'what's the point' place where even the draw of KS isn't enough to keep me going. This has happened with more than one of my plots and I'd so love for hear from others or, even better, to have people feeling more comfortable to ask if they can be a part of it!

I think we'd need multiple winners, however, for one reason. Not every RP is rated for our younger readers. I think we'd need one Mature-rated winner a month alongside one regular winner (at least) to make sure that all writing styles get some love. I know a lot of my plots can get some darker themes and so I mark them as mature,

But yes, final thought: What better thing to do, as a community of writers, than to show our appreciation for our peers but featuring a piece of their work and in doing so driving all of us to be better writers and to be more involved?
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Re: Writing Incentive: Review Feature [Update 10/2: POLL]

Postby Jaykobell » 02/10/2016 6:26 PM

UPDATE to say I added a poll. I figure not everyone, even if in favor, will post just to say 'I want to see this'. So now you can vote in the poll!

Kal, that's an interesting and valid point about the mature RPs. I think this is something that might need to be decided as a community, though; if only because honestly, I see a lot of our said younger viewers who aren't afraid to use those mature tags, lmao. But if this is something the community would like, to split between mature and regular, then I'm okay with it.

There hasn't been any feedback from the staff, so regardless, I suppose this is still up in the air.

That being said, I'd like to ask the staff if, at the very least, we could have the RP hud section I mentioned? I wouldn't mind reading people's stuff, but I seriously don't even know where to start.

Note, I'm only asking for the section. Implementing the feature or refining it can wait. But with the new Like feature, I'd like to go like some stories. I just don't know where to start.

Perhaps a subform to important documents or 'About You'? Perhaps together with the journals; maybe even under Zoo Pens? Either way, we can move it around if the initial location doesn't seem to fit afterwards.

That's a quick and easy thing to do, and if the staff (Kyrit? I realize Krypto is currently unavailable) wants, I'm willing to write up rules, albeit just a few short ones really, on how to use that section for. I'm also willing to maintain a list much the same way we do for Wishlists and Zoo Pens.
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Re: Writing Incentive: Review Feature [Update 10/2: POLL]

Postby Jaykobell » 02/10/2016 8:41 PM

To the (at this time) 5 people who voted no, could I please get your feedback as to why? Specifically those who think this isn't a good idea at all. I would like to hear some feedback besides just seeing the poll results.
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Re: Writing Incentive: Review Feature [Update 10/2: POLL]

Postby ToxxicRenegadeAngel » 02/10/2016 9:18 PM

I think this sounds like a good idea, in terms of actually bringing the stories within the threads to the attention of others.

I also liked the idea of users creating a shortlist of threads they would like to put forward; I tend not to be too active on here, and wind up having to decide very quickly whether I will read something or not based on the title or opening post; a thread where I can find a short description of the available threads would be ideal!
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Re: Writing Incentive: Review Feature [Update 10/2: POLL]

Postby ToxicShadow » 02/10/2016 10:19 PM

I've been trying to decide where I stand on this, which is why I haven't replied until now. But, honestly, I still don't know how I feel about this idea. I don't go, "Oh my goodness, YES!" nor do I go, "Uh, no, I am NOT down with that."


Let me tell you why I don't really feel it's necessary, at least for me:

I absolutely do not roleplay in the hopes that someone else will read it. That's not what motivates me, nor has it ever really motivated me. I roleplay simply because I enjoy it. I enjoy making characters, I enjoy seeing how they react to one another as well as different situations, I enjoy writing stories. Honestly, roleplaying has been a way for me to get through difficult times or to relax and have fun, so I don't need other reasons.

Even having the "Like," function for me seems out of place. This isn't facebook. It's not the same sort of social media. For me, I just don't see the point, but, again, that's because I am not writing for anyone else but me (and my partners, should I have them).

If we REALLY want feedback, we can always try to start up a thread requesting such. But, really, the matter of fact is, most of us are living our adult lives and can hardly find time to sit and read roleplays when we already struggle to find time write our own roleplays. That's just how it is, once most of the community is out of high school and dealing with higher education, work, and their own families.


On the other hand:

I don't think it's a bad idea either.

I don't honestly think it will become too much of a competition since, already, most of us don't write because we may get something out of it. We write because we want to. Either to enjoy ourselves, to interact with others, and so forth. I also don't feel that we're the sort of community that will harbor too many ill feelings if other users win competitions. Although, there may be some frustrations if the same users win several times in a row, or something similar to that.

I do like the idea of having a "Roleplay Spotlight," where roleplays get featured, because, well, it is nice. Recognition CAN be a nice thing.

I do like the versatility of the prizes. It honestly reminds me of the Wish-A-Thon, where we just give out random prizes, usually based on the winners' wishlists (or we just drop some KS/GT on you to buy purty things).


IF this became a thing, I would recommend these changes:

That there is a thread where users that wish to participate may submit up to 3 roleplays that they wish to have judged for this. Each month, users HAVE to submit roleplays if they want to participate, so there is at least some sort of entry requirement. That way, inactive users aren't ending up with rewards, and that way users have a VERY clear list of roleplays to read.

Once a roleplay has won, it cannot win again. (So it will require a thread listing records of all the featured roleplays.)

The user(s) that won the month before cannot participate in the month following. (So if CuteLittleButterfly won in June, they can't participate in July, but can participate again in August and there after, until they win again.)


All this said, I can go either way. If the majority of the community wants it, why not try it out? Like anything else, we can just have a test run and see how it goes. If the majority doesn't want it, then that's that.

Same as Omni, however, it WOULD be nice to hear from the users that are against the idea, so that we know why it is that they are against it and if it is something that can be remedied. Up until the poll came in, I don't believe anyone that was against the idea posted, so knowing why would be nice.
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Re: Writing Incentive: Review Feature [Update 10/2: POLL]

Postby Kyrit » 02/11/2016 1:19 PM

The staff actually has a lot of ongoing project ideas in the mod area that are going to be adding to our workload once they've been worked out. They're all still in the planning stage, but for example there's  a feature that should hopefully make it easier for users to get add-one for their pets and another that should help users earn a bit extra KS should they wish to use this. My point in mentioning these is that I don't think the staff doesn't have time to work on a feature like this. We'really about to lose Crow for, at the very least, a month. This means another staff member has to pick up her work while she'said out. Then there's the fact Thunder will be focusing as much of her time as possible on getting the second half of her mini war plot running. Kreepy's out for the count right now due to Internet problems, and this leaves mostly just myself and Thunder to work on litters.

That being said, a lot of the community has expressed an interest in this. Kreepy made the like button since she figured that could hold people over for a while, but if you guys want to do a user run system, that works much better. We encourage users to want to do things for the forums. Freezair does the annual secret Santa and Millie tries to always host a Christmas event. We do our best to fund these sort of things when asked, since it's users coming together for an event and staff doesn't have to add much to their work pool.

I don't like the current prize system though. While I understand it's wishlist based, it feels unfair that someone could get a custom breedable worth $20, while someone else might just get a general Kuhna because the first person has nothing but customs on their list. If there is going to be a prize for this feature, I feel it should be a modest one that is kept at a constant. A set amount of KS, or something like a pet coloration that is only available from this feature. Making 4-5 pets to choose from of the same coloration would mean multiple choices for if you win more than once a year, and a simple coloration doesn'the take us long to toss together. It would initially add to our workload, but once the pets are made that'she about it. They're ready and the feature wouldn'the have to be run by us. You'don't just need to add any that got sent out to the records, which is quick and easy.

Toxic also had a lot of great points that I'don't like to see used if this feature becomes a thing; preventing the same user from winning two months in a row, same rp can'take be featured twice, system for keeping absent user from winning, ect.

I'm holding off on making a subforum until Kreepy and I can talk, since I'd rather not just spring it on her once she comes back, but I am open to working with you guys since this seems like something a lot of users want. I just don't see it as something that can be staff run.
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Re: Writing Incentive: Review Feature [Update 10/2: POLL]

Postby Freezair » 02/11/2016 3:55 PM

I'm one of those people who voted against this, and I've been holding back on replying to best convey my thoughts on why I'm not in support of this. Hopefully now I can explain myself well.

For one thing, I'm a lot like Toxic in that I do not write my RPs to be read by anyone but myself and my partner. As someone who writes and who uses her language skills as part of a job, I need a break from having to be perfect and nice all the time. Roleplaying is sort of my "junk food" writing, which I have fun with because I stop caring about the specifics and just write whatever comes to my mind. I don't mind if people stalk my RPs, but much like a fashion designer who goes to the store in her sweats because she's had a long day, it's not something I want called out no matter how fun and comfortable it is for me. On a personal level, I don't want that additional layer of pressure here. And on a less personal level, I also know that a lot of people do come here to relax after their hectic lives filled with work and family, and I don't know how much pressure they want either.

But on a less personal level... well, this might sound odd to say, but I think we're too tight-knit for this not to turn into a competition or a bed of drama. The truth of the matter is, everyone knows everyone, and everyone has some connections with somebody else. And I unfortunately feel like accusations of favoritism and such would be... hard to shake. It's unfortunately something I've encountered in the running of the Secret Santa. Back when the site was larger and had more members, there was a certain degree of impersonalism to the SS--chances were good you were going to get someone you didn't know that well, and that someone you didn't know well was going to get you, so if your gift was not precisely that custom you were hoping for, it was sort of understood as being part of the event. Now, however, that the community has become much closer and we tend to inter-player gift bomb a lot more, the expectations people have for the event have gotten much higher, and I've had to deal with some of that behind the scenes.  

Oddly, when a group gets as close as we have over the years, it can be increasingly easy to feel left out, and I worry that feelings of disatisfaction would brew among those not spotlighted. Or, conversely, that everyone would get spotlighted to the point where the event wouldn't feel special and it would just start to feel like an excuse to give active members good stuff. Which is fine when it's once a year--the Wish-a-Thon has basically turned into that, which I think is perfectly fine since it's seasonally appropriate, but I think it's better left to once a year. And I feel like that potential for left-out-itude is especially strong considering that this is about people's writing, which is something a lot of people care very deeply about. This is a situation where, if you don't win or get featured, it could be seen as your writing not being "good enough." And that's a thing that some people don't take well. That's unfortunately something I learned when I judged that Valentine's Day breeding room contest all those years ago--people will sometimes react VERY poorly to writing criticism, and I feel like judging people on it is something that will lead to sore feelings. This is especially so since this idea isn't really in a state right now where it's "optional." If we're just having people skim all the roleplays ever--well, I know I, personally, feel a bit "exposed." Some RPs are probably meant to be sort of private and personal. I know I've skimmed a couple of RPs and wondered if anyone but the players was meant to read them, and I don't think it's wrong for them to want to keep things that way.  

However, I am in favor of ideas that would encourage more open roleplays. Maybe, for example, events open only to pets that can be adopted free on the main site?

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Re: Writing Incentive: Review Feature [Update 10/2: POLL]

Postby Citanul » 02/11/2016 11:27 PM

I guess I can see why the Staff may not be able to help run a feature like this, though I'm having a hard time understanding why we don't have more staff, or at least part-time staff, 'on hold' in case of things like these. Real life is most important, but a lot of the reason I've seen people leave, or get interested and just drop off, is because of the lack of.... Stuff, I guess. I don't want to hijack this thread, but a lot of the pull when I first got here was the War and all the lore around Evelon itself, and that's just sort of petered off into nothingness. Yeah, we have war stuff going on right now, but with few updates. Breeding rooms have become easier and harder at the same time. I only breed for plots right now, but even then sometimes it feels like it's not enough. I have several self-breedings I wanted to do that were plot related but that's the only thing I could do that month.

Sorry, derailing my thoughts here. I do agree that this could become a contest and tensions could run high. We could even make it just some low thing - 50KS maybe - but just enough of an incentive to write or to put your posts out there. Honestly this wasn't about who you're writing for. So don't participate? Most of us aren't here to impress anyone, but to tell a story. If it's personal don't showcase it. But I know I'd like to see who is reading my RPs, who is seeing the world I'm building inside of Evelon.

As far as ORPs go, I wouldn't mind doing more, but every single one I've been in has dropped off. Either one person responds way more often than the others so everyone gets left out, or no one responds at all. If I could get guaranteed a post every day/every other day I'd be more interested. If I get inspired for something it won't last forever. For example, my last attempt at a huge ORP I had Caine and all of his kids meeting up with all of the local vampires, I thought it would be neat to see everyone's lore and powers, and it ended up being this cluster of half the people never responding again and the others trying to go on interacting. It just didn't work out.

One more thing - As far as user-run events go, I think it would be fun to do something like that, but I'm honestly completely afraid to be told that I'm playing favorites if I hosted one, due to said close-knit community. Everyone knows who I talk to outside of Evelon and who I'm RL friends with. If they entered the contest and won, even if it was due to a good entry/rng, how would I prove it wasn't biased? That's just my two cents about it. I feel like I've had some good ideas for the entire community, but I don't think I'd host anything due to what I've said above.

Sorry if I'm slightly rambly or incoherent, lack of sleep and moving is killing me these days.
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