A bit of confusion.

[shadowshade]

Earlier this evening, my second character was accepted by DC. I was looking around for a place to start her off when I realized that I had no idea how to get her down from the top of Sulace Mountain. While I wouldn’t completely discount a partial lack of inspiration on my part, thinking on it a bit and talking with Nightstalker in the c-box revealed to me the problem. Now, just to clarify, I have no problem with the board or the idea behind it; I like both. The people here are okay and I have yet to find myself wondering exactly where I fit into the site’s social structure.

First, I would like to say that I have OCD. It’s not life-controlling, but it’s enough to make me very linear and organized in some ways. This might be part of the problem. However, what I’ve noticed is that the boards seem to have no real connection to one another. Sulace Mountain, for example, is a single mountain without a range of mountains around it. The Village seems to be nameless, and it strikes me as odd that it would be the only prominent village in a given area - such as the kingdom, which also seems to have no set name. If the site’s set in a specific part of a larger world, that would be understandable; however, it does not seem to me that this is so.

Again, I’m not dissing site. It just seems to me that the boards are very disorganized. I’m having trouble figuring out exactly how to get Adrasteia from one place to another. There doesn’t seem to me to be a set path that leads from one place to another, a main road, any kind of commonly traveled ground - anything of that nature. For Caitlyn, it was no problem; a witch can travel anywhere she likes with little trouble. But barbarians tend to group together in specific settings, and what little travel they do undertake wouldn’t be distant from their home. It’s like a puzzle in my mind with the pieces scattered to different places. It’s difficult for me to draw a line directly from Point A to Point B, essentially drawing my own map of the path Adrasteia would take to get from the mountain top to the slopes; from the slopes to the base; from the base to whatever settlement there might be, including through any specific obstacles (such as a particular forest or around a particular lake); and so on.

Maybe it’s just me. It just seems very confusing and disorganized in my mind. So, after talking with Nightstalker, I came up with an idea of how this might be fixed. Unfortunately, it would be kind of a major fix.

I’ve set up forums before, usually with a name for pretty much everything. Each village or city would have a name, every river and forest would have a name, and there would be a mountain range that would have a certain name; mountains within that range would each have their own names, though only some of them might actually be boards or sub-boards. An example of how I would set up a forum is this:

[Category] Uno Mountains
----[Forum] Alpha Mountain
--------[Sub-Forum] Beta Peak
--------[Sub-Forum] Charlie Summit
--------[Sub-Forum] Delta Caves
--------[Sub-Forum]Epsilon Path
----[Forum] Alpha Mountain Base
--------[Sub-Forum] North Fargo Road
--------[Sub-Forum] Gamma Forest
--------[Sub-Forum] Hydra Lake
--------[Sub-Forum] South Fargo Road
[Category] Dos Lowlands
----[Forum] Internet Village
--------[Sub-Forum] North Internet Village
--------[Sub-Forum] Internet Inn & Pub
--------[Sub-Forum] Internet Stables
--------[Sub-Forum] Main Street
--------[Sub-Forum] Internet Square
--------[Sub-Forum] East Internet Village
--------[Sub-Forum] Internet Smithy
--------[Sub-Forum] West Internet Village
--------[Sub-Forum] Internet Practice Yard
--------[Sub-Forum] South Internet Village
----[Forum] Jasper Trail
--------[Sub-Forum] Kappa Farm & Ranch
--------[Sub-Forum] Lotus Winery

As you can see from my example, each place you would go to is clearly linked to another place. It would be no trouble for someone new to RPGs to join others on an adventure or for a veteran gamer/writer to start their own adventure/quest. It would be obvious exactly where everything was in relation to everything else.

I’m not saying the site needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. I’m just saying that for me, it’s very difficult to find a decent niche for Adrasteia because I’m having trouble connecting the dots in my mind. Also, for new members, it would be very easy to get acquainted with the board. It’s easier for the human mind to remember things when they’re in a specific order with one thing leading directly to the next; (especially my own); thus, new members would have little trouble picking a starting point and going back or forth to other parts of the world. They’d know exactly which roads to take to get where. A variety of paths to a given location might be slightly more confusing, but not by much if they’re organized in a linear pattern.

[Creature]

I think the main reason why they DIDN'T set it up like that was because then you can imagine something that is there. If it had absolute paths people would feel an absolute need to travel along THAT path. Besides, it would be nearly impossible, using your thing as an example, to allow the thread to go from a main street to the smithy or some such. This way allows MUCH more freedom, all you have to do is imagine the paths and allow yourself to create your own adventure.

I really think it would be limiting people if they had to constantly make new threads to get to another place.

[shadowshade]

Not necessarily. What I'm suggesting is the organization of the forums and sub-forums themselves, not the means by which one RPs. Actually, I prefer an RP to continue in the same thread regardless of starting location as it makes things simpler; not having to start a new thread every time you move to a new location prevents the creation of many threads with only a few posts in each. But if you wanted to RP in a specific place, such as on a specific road between one town and the next, you would have that road available to you. Also, this wouldn't be at all limiting. You would still be able to take whatever way you wished; if there are multiple paths to the same place, you have multiple ways to RP your adventure.

Freedom is all good and well, but sometimes it is better to have a set format for getting around so that the world makes sense. If someone mentions a road no one's ever heard of, and then ten more people do the exact same thing, it gets kind of confusing. Suddenly, you have a dozen roads that seem to exist for only the thread they were first mentioned in.

Freedom, thus, can be quite confusing. Also, it can be extremely limiting.

For example, where in the kingdom is this mountain? Or, is it outside the kingdom? Where in the kingdom is the village? If I want to RP in a village at the base of the mountain, what forum would I RP in?

See my point? I don't have any answers to the above questions, and that's frustrating to me.

Consider Tolkein's books. These were obviously on a much grander scale, but they were all set in the same world. Yet there was enough freedom to be able to have almost any kind of RP almost anywhere in Tolkein's fantasy world. Moria, for example, probably wasn't the only network of mines or caves in the world; it was just the one that was known about.

[Creature]

If you want to figure out where the heck something is check the map. You should have noticed it in the middle of the rules. i25.tinypic.com/2w2lesz.jpg

Also, this is a place where your imagination comes to life. I think if people COULDN'T make up random villages, paths, so on and so forth this place would be incredibly drab. There may be a thousand or so random paths that just suddenly come out of nowhere, but that's part of the fantasy part. Big adventures wouldn't exactly come to life, and it would be drab.

Besides, I don't think any massive changes to the organization will happen anytime in the future, considering many, many people enjoy it this way.

[shadowshade]

It's not merely knowing where things are that's the point, though. You might know exactly where something is, but not know how to post to get there. That's my point. I'm not sure where to post the in-between at by looking at the forums and sub-forums. A newer member who (unlike me) hasn't looked at everything at least once to get a feel for the site might find themselves in the same predicament and thus end up jumping around the site aimlessly searching for one particular spot.

There's also the matter of the Sulace Mountains. In the map, it's implied that they're a range of mountains. The forum, called Sulace Mountain, is implied (by name & desc) to be a single mountain. That's a bit confusing.

[Creature]

If you don't know how to post to get somewhere, ask for help. It's not that hard, and i'm pretty sure a ton of people would know how to do that. There's no need to change the entire system of how it's set up.

Besides, once you look at the map it's all good, and there's no more problems for the mountain range. All's good.

[.:KOL Riddick:.]

Though i kind of skimmed through Creature is right on this one. It may LOOK confusing as hell but literally if you have it the way you said, it would have no good meaning. The freedom of this has been literally {or mostly} cut off, and you have well only one path, or a few.

I won't say it is wrong but just really I think the way it's set up now has a lot more freedom =P! Besides why just also make another thread to go to the neck point. It would clutter the boards, and makes a little more work for the admins.

For this particular site {not saying all types like this needs it like this} wouldn't be suited with your idea. Not that I am saying its bad or anything, but think about a little more closely, having it this way kills out all other things. You have to think a lot harder to have some random fight or something totally random appear. Then it wouldn't be so random because the fact you had thought about it.

And the fact would be if it was like this then the topic within said board/sub-board wouldn't last long and have no meaning either {or little meaning} ^^;.

[Smokeh]

Since I am a new member (hi! *waves*) I thought it might help to put my two cents in, considering I think this thread has gone on a bit too long. The extra boards you're suggestion for your version of organization may not be the version the admins envisioned when they created the board. And since the board in its entirety has lasted for three years now, that must be a testament to the fact that there is no confusion besides what you're trying to bring up.

Now, there's a reason why there's the availability to post within a forum without going into a subforum, which is the problem you keep trying to address. If you actually think about it, if there was a forum and subforum for each and every possible path, village, forest, pond, etc. this board would be HUGE and that actually deters people away from posting, based off my own experience from running boards. And it helps that they give you a general map of the area so I can make my own paths and clearings and secret villages if I wanted to. It lets me use my imagination and writing skills, which is the point. Frankly, without the map, THEN I would be confused as hell, but having it gives me a general idea about a world that Doesn't Exist.

As for the Sulace Mountains in the map compared to the actual board, it could be a way to focus people into one spot or, gasp, a typo. That's just something you can ask the admin about, see if they feel like changing it, or just role play around it. It's really not that confusing. It's similar to how like there are the Appalachian Mountains, but also a place called Appalachia within them. You can just rp traveling away from the main mountain toward the subsequent mountains.

Now. Seeing things from a newbie's point of view who's doing just fine and really hasn't look at everything or anything until they were invited to a thread, does that ease your OCD mind? You obviously joined for a reason. Doesn't seem fair to the people running the board who put the time and effort to make it for you to suddenly criticize their work to give you a place to play.

EDIT: I re-read one of your posts and found I could answer the questions you posed rather easily.

where in the kingdom is this mountain? Or, is it outside the kingdom? According to the map given, the Mountain is to the northwest of the kingdom, outside of it.

Where in the kingdom is the village? Wherever you want it to be. It's in the kingdom. Near the palace. And assuming the palace is almost always in the center of kingdoms, there ya go.

If I want to RP in a village at the base of the mountain, what forum would I RP in? In the Sulace Mountain forum.

I think you're thinking about it too hard.

[shadowshade]

Addressing the problems of size and longevity, I disagree. I was on a board that was around for four years that was huge and laid out very similar to what I showed. It did very well. The admin eventually shut the site down because she didn't want the board anymore (among other internal problems), but it was actually near the top of several voting lists for most of its existence.

As to Sulace Mountain, I figured it was probably a typo or mistake; that's why I mentioned it. And as for what you said about the map, that's exactly my point; without it, you'd be confused as hell. As far as the location questions are concerned, I wasn't talking about geographic locations; I was talking about geographic locations as mentioned by the board.

Anyway, this was just an idea and one that I was actually a little leery of bringing forth for fear of pissing people off. I actually mentioned to Night that I wasn't sure it was right for me to question the way the board was set up being a relatively new member of a 3yr-old site, but he said to go ahead and post it.

[Creature]

I really don't think there's much more meaning to dragging this on, so i'll hope this ends it. There's a map, so there's no problem. This is a well developed site and it's doing well the way it is, so there'll be no change. And lastly...

WHICH NIGHT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT? D:

Nightarcher? Or Nightwalker?

[shadowshade]

Nightwalker. Thought that would have been obvious, as I mentioned him earlier. Unless he's a she?

[.:KOL Riddick:.]

lol we have two people, that have the word night in their name but oh well on the topic or not I'd say we just stop. Don't want it to drag any further like Creature said ^^; I hope no one minds?

[Creature]

Ah, Okay. Well, this matter is solved.

[aura]

*reads a few replies* I half-agree with you, Shadowshade, but I don't think anyone except for you has had a problem with it. Although it would probably make me feel better if the main village had a name of some sort. It bothers me when I mention it in a post and it just says "the village." I:''

And it isn't required for you to post in a certain sub-board; say, you could just post in the Sulace Mountains and say where your character is in your post. Same for the village and such.. I dunno if that makes sense, but meh. There ya have it.

I'd probably get pissed off if we had these fucktons of sub boards, though. And I can't imagine how the admins would feel. D: