A Notice Board

Bugs & Features
#1

This came up… three times today, actually!

The idea is that we should have a notice board. I recall we discussed and discarded the idea of a general use board (like the ‘read’ board in the Plaza on Taps, etc, etc) because it’s an iffy thing and not too useful for most people. However…

We do need something to let people know about events coming up, since our area managers have been so good at making some! The question is what form this takes.

It could be a ‘motd’ like auto-play on login/command, which I’m not sure I like, because this is an RP server and I sure skew for some skueomorphism in my immersive environments!

It could be a board in the Park. Right now, at least, most people go to the park rather frequently.

It could be a board that exists in major hub locations like the park.

More ideas? Discuss. :slight_smile:

Kumi Azai’s Suggestion Board [Week 2]
#2

It could also be a designated place in these forums! It doesn’t necessarily have to be on-game, so long as the messages there express how someone would find out about it IC.

#3

What if the board (wherever it is) was just a link to forum.wolfery.com?

#4

Yeah, I wonder that too. I like that solution, really. I suppose the question is ‘how do you get people to look frequently’, because they might not.

#5

I do rather like the forums being a place for ooc chat and organizing events rather then… on muck message boards and stuff. And if this were to be implemented, could easily come along with future planned updates Acci plans with scripting whatnot.

#6

I think that’s an issue no matter where you put them.

If you need to go to a certain location on-game, then people have to go by that location - and if it’s a popular one, then people coming by just to check the messages will annoy the people who want to hang out there.

If it’s the forums, people need to remember to check a separate place.

If it’s a motd, people need to not ‘tune out’ the recurring message and actually notice something new, and may miss things if they tend to stay connected and just mark themselves away.

In the future, it might be cool if there could be ‘calendar events’ that could be registered, so something like a motd could prompt people with, “There are 3 events scheduled in the next week! Check them out at (url)”

2 Likes
#7

I am in favor of offloading all this to these forums. I can imagine a new subforum for “semi-OOC” notes and announcements, as suggested upthread; if my character is planning to host dance party on the clock tower roof, I can just write about it there, with all the details, in third-person.

I also like the idea of having a “notice board” section in the park’s description that, on closer examination, describes it as tacked up with posters, flyers, and notices, and offers a hyperlink to the subforum if you want to “read” them. A nice, lazy, IC solution. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
Kumi Azai’s Suggestion Board [Week 2]
#8

I’ve actually put up a link to the forums in the town center room (since I get tired of hunting into my browser for a button. We need a button on the interface somewhere I feel, so you don’t have to log out all of your characters to see the splash info page.

2 Likes
#9

Yeah, I’m all for just having a sign that points to the forum. Forums are great for stuff like that. I figure the majority of people will ignore organizational and events posts, but a reminder that the forums exist and are useful for lots of things (at login and/or in a public place) would go a long way. n_n

#10

Then, I think maybe the only other thing we need is a section of the forum to put IC notice-board type stuff into? (Which could be one of the existing ones, just say which!)

We’ve got a bit of a celebration coming up on Cascade Island, and we’d love a place to post the info so folks can share it around.

#11

Some sort of notice board system will be needed for more than just this Wolfery realm. So, I think eventually it will need to be something inside the game, that does not require a forum.

My thoughts have been to use the mail system. It has notifications and markers for unread messages. I imagine allowing people to create in-game ‘Notice boards’ inside rooms (kind of like teleporter nodes) that other characters can register. These notice boards would act like mailing lists, so that the owner, or anyone with permission (once we have group access to things), can send mails that will go out to all characters registered for that board.

This way, players can choose which boards they are interested in, and will be clearly notified when there is a new message.

And then we will also have a global notice board which can be used by admins, that everyone will receive. I guess that would be the Park board.

But until we have such a feature, the forum is the best choice in my opinion. I will create a new “Notice board” category, where we could post such things. And then link to it from the board description in the Park.

Does that sound reasonable?

4 Likes
#12

Huh. That actually sounds pretty neat! I like the idea.

#13

I like the idea of a notice board, would we be able to set up player ran events with it?

#14

This is, indeed, the idea—and you can see some examples already posted to the notice board category, including planned events, new-area announcements, and plot hooks.