New Forums

[pclips]

Hey I am setting up the forums on the new site, and you guys are the ones to cloudsource to. Help me think of the basic topics and general organization for it, please. Like, tonight.

[The Rose Dragon]

A thing to consider is whether to separate Rules Discussion and Plot Discussion. It might be annoying for people like me to read the discussion threads here and try to find metagame plot relevant stuff amongst the rules discussion.

[Arkaim]

Perhaps an ideas section? For orchestrating a comic that includes so much references to the real world, I'd imagine that you guys won't be able to think up everything.

[BRC]

The Basics
General Fowum: For discussing things, generally.
The War Room: Discussing current events in the Erfworld comic.
The Library: Discussing the setting and rules of Erfworld (may be a sub-forum of the War Room).
Now, if you want more general non-Erf topics
General Media Discussion
Other Web comics
Condemmed Hole for Squatter Hobbits: PbP games.
Gaming Discussion: Perhaps called "Warlord Training".
Silly Message Board Games: This really should have some amusing Erf-Related name, I just can't think of one.

[ishnar]

Hrm.

Maybe a dead section but a fanfic section might be fun. I've been considering making a short story or something myself. Name it after that thinkagram book or something. All original fanart or fan written materials.

Since this is a war game, rules are often part of the story, so having a separate section for rules discussion seems problematic. There will just be too much overlap, and eventually, all discussion will default to whichever section is most active.

Erf on the block. section where threads like demotivators would go. Chop up erfworld to make posters, logos, or avatars.

Maybe a erfgear section. I notice that Megatokyo makes decent money selling themed goods. That might be a good place for ideas to maybe get some income while you wait for the books to publish, and keep your income from being dependent on books.

Gaming forums. I know why not just call it a rules forum? But I'm afraid if it were just a "rules" forum, then story forum dwellers will keep on telling people to go discuss rules "over there" even when it is related to the story. The games forum will discuss rules from the perspective of someone attempting to play the game, as opposed to someone from the story forum attempting to justify a new theory.

[dr pepper]

Minigame Section: devise and play erf related short games.

For example: Twoll Bombing. Each player has a dwagon and a twoll. The first to bury the other's twoll in droppings wins.

[Eco-Mono]

Hrm.

Maybe a dead section but a fanfic section might be fun. I've been considering making a short story or something myself. Name it after that thinkagram book or something. All original fanart or fan written materials.

A fanworks section is definitely a good idea.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Minigame Section: devise and play erf related short games.

For example: Twoll Bombing. Each player has a dwagon and a twoll. The first to bury the other's twoll in droppings wins.

That is a splendid idea, I think I'll start tapping keys right away ... okay, maybe a few days, away from my work-station at the moment.

The Basics
General Fowum: For discussing things, generally.
The War Room: Discussing current events in the Erfworld comic.
The Library: Discussing the setting and rules of Erfworld (may be a sub-forum of the War Room).
Now, if you want more general non-Erf topics
General Media Discussion
Other Web comics
Condemmed Hole for Squatter Hobbits: PbP games.
Gaming Discussion: Perhaps called "Warlord Training".
Silly Message Board Games: This really should have some amusing Erf-Related name, I just can't think of one.

That's a pretty good list.

Naturally I am all for the War Room. It must have strict moderation, because people can't fight in there.

And to start a suggestion for the "silly message board games" name of subforum, say "The Orly Perch". Surely someone can think of something better.

[HandofShadows]

You may want to set up something called a "Bot Trap". This is somethimg that helps keep spam/advertising bots out (The computer ones at least. Can't stop the human ones unfortuantly. ) I am an officer on a site with a good amount of traffic and the bot trap made a huge cut in spam/advertising.

A Bot Trap works like this: When a person signs up on the forums and have zero posts, they are places in a special group. This group can only see a single forum and the single topic in that forum. To get normal access to the forum and be able to post as a full memeber, the new person just has to post a response in the thread. It can be as simple as "hi". This keeps the bots out because while they can make new topics, they cannot respond to topics. Have not had a bot get past the trap yet (other than the human ones).

Now you may feel that such messures are not needed of course and you may not need them. The Bot Trap can always be put in place later if it's need at some point in the future.

[Justyn]

Not a very big idea, but, if you are going to have swear filter, instead of having it turn the offending words to asterisks or to other words, why not have it turn the words into "boop"s?

[raphfrk]

Y
A Bot Trap works like this: When a person signs up on the forums and have zero posts, they are places in a special group. This group can only see a single forum and the single topic in that forum. To get normal access to the forum and be able to post as a full memeber, the new person just has to post a response in the thread. It can be as simple as "hi". This keeps the bots out because while they can make new topics, they cannot respond to topics. Have not had a bot get past the trap yet (other than the human ones).

Another option is to add a question during the sign-up process. This can be slightly more difficult, as you have to modify the sign-up .php page (so you need some coding skills).

It means that there would be no need to manually promote every new user to the 'not-a-bot' usergroup.

The question could be something like "What is the Croakamancer's name?" or "Who is the leader of the GK side?"

Automatic bots won't be able to answer the question, but someone who has read at least the first few comics would easily do it.

If the person doesn't answer the question correctly, then the registration would fail.

If bots start getting through, you can always modify the question.

[pclips]

Okay thanks you guys. This definitely did help me set up forums in a sensible way. We launch the site sometime tomorrow.

[ichthus]

Okay thanks you guys. This definitely did help me set up forums in a sensible way. We launch the site sometime tomorrow.

Out of curiosity, did the Erfworld site just eat itself? I was working on the wiki and it went out.

[pclips]

Out of curiosity, did the Erfworld site just eat itself? I was working on the wiki and it went out.

It did. We're in beta and we can't test load til we start seeing some people show up. Seeing some people show up blew it up, I'm afraid. We've upgraded the hosting another level and we're trying to track down any runaway processes or the like.

One thing I can promise is that we will have whatever server or server it takes to accommodate the traffic we get, even if we have to beg for contributions to a server fund. I will personally stand at a busy intersection with a cardboard sign that says "CANT AFORD BANDWIDTH PLEASE HELP GOD BLESS U" if need be.

[dr pepper]

I recommend that you gradually lock down the boards here, posting links to the new site as you do so.

[SteveMB]

I recommend that you gradually lock down the boards here, posting links to the new site as you do so.

That's up to Rich, of course. My guess is that both boards will continue through the conclusion to Part 1, as the discussion on the new site picks up enough momentum to become self-sustaining.

[kreszantas]

Awww, missed my chance but mostly the stickies that are here and the demotivators should be listed of course. Volcanic Eruptions thread would be nice for the completely off the wall TFH style of speculation.

[HandofShadows]

It means that there would be no need to manually promote every new user to the 'not-a-bot' usergroup.

Actually the forum software I am familiar with (and I think it's a fairly standard feature nowadays) will keep track of postcounts and will assign members to specfic groups based on that postcount. No manual changing of groups needed.

[raphfrk]

Actually the forum software I am familiar with (and I think it's a fairly standard feature nowadays) will keep track of postcounts and will assign members to specfic groups based on that postcount. No manual changing of groups needed.

Ahh, I see, good plan.

You setup the 'post here to enable account' forum so that no new threads can be created and set the promotion to 'not-a-bot' usergroup at a postcount of 1 post.

Ofc, there is no 1 way to do it. The most effective solution is one that is different from everyone else, and yet easy to implement.

[ishnar]

I don't know that that kind of bot trap is necessary.

Just have one of those random code jpgs at account creation that requires the user to input the code in the picture.

It's more user friendly too.

[raphfrk]

I don't know that that kind of bot trap is necessary.

Just have one of those random code jpgs at account creation that requires the user to input the code in the picture.

It's more user friendly too.

Bots can get past them. Any given method degrades over time as bots are designed to process them.

[Pyrian]

If you can code up a unique trap for your own board, then nobody's likely to bother writing code specific to getting past that particular trap. Uniqueness helps.