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Prodigal
 
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Last Login: Yesterday @ 2:17 PM
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Champion
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Friday, November 07, 2008 11:08 AM
Posts: 350,
Visits: 1,612
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| Making it a slightly less blatant advert for one of the Board Admin's non existant, as yet, lrp system might be nice as well.
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Live roleplaying's greatest cheerleader...
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I've only skimmed past it once and have now book marked the actual forums, so I wouldn't even notice if it changed.
_____________________________________________________
RL: Mr Sofar
Curved core weaponry and bespoke stuff.
ShelfordFX
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Nothing to see here.
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 2 days ago @ 3:23 PM
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Visits: 1,947
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I initially failed to see how this is a support request. Perhaps the initial request was "Please update the homepage more", thanks! Duly noted, and we aim to, just to explain why it hasnt, the forums as they SWELL From maelstrom, have a whole host of features you guys really havent seen yet, but they run minimally in the background, and up to now, sucked up masses of resources, i've worked constantly since our launch to get on top of this problem, we now have this under control, allowing us to make headway in other avenues. Apologies for the wait, but its really the best we could do.
However, let's clarify, we're working on tools to update the frontpage to make it a less involved process than it currently is, an update is due just about as soon as i've finished clearing up the niggles that our recent software updates have presented us with. So, a working forum is really my first concern, if the frontpage ever doesnt change for a while, assume that 20+ hrs a week have already passed on things people would really complain about if they didnt work.
I restate, that we want to get to the stage where it changes every few days.
Rich: regarding the banners, the only people to ask for advertising are the LRP Awards. Allens banner is there, and well deserved, perhaps I should explain my reasoning here:
Rule7, in financial terms, costs quite alot to run, even based on maintenance, our traffic figures are much higher than paggas were [35gb so far this month]) our resource usage is pretty massive for a webapp, because we've started enabling more and more features, and more are to come in the future, for the user bennefit mostly.
In terms of development and maintenance, the site has sucked up ALOT of my free time, read: Nearly All. Now, currently in terms of donations or offers of support, we've made about 34 quid, which by my estimation leaves us considerably out of pocket. Allen funded the entire period to the end of July personally, I have now picked up the costs and am working myself to fund Rule7 for the remainder of the year.
So, Allen gets a Banner. I dont see how thats so bad as he gets (and moreover asks for) little else from Rule7, nor do I myself. People have insisted that "We dont like GoogleAds or Random Banners" this would pretty much pay for Rule7 if we set it up, but as we're trying to do all we can to keep the experience at the highest possible quality for the user, we're looking at other avenues to cover our costs, this again is more time and effort.
If someone were to come to us with a "Hey, I run an LRP related Website/Company, can i advertise on your website?" we'd happily come to a reasonable arrangement for that space. I'm quite angry that after the time, effort and money thats gone into making Rule7 and providing it free, and continuing to try and push the limits of what we offer, people would complain at promotion for one of the founders other projects.
Ed: Quite Right, RSS Feeds are nice, they're on our todo list to incorporate them and such, also looking at the best way to offer RSS from Rule7, we're now possibly in a position to offer this for at least some forums, if not all. However bandwidth affects would have to be looked at, as we dont have an infinate supply of bandwidth. Suggestions of this nature are always welcome.
Up to now its really just been me looking at all this stuff, now the CORE issues, that extra pairs of hands couldnt help with are nearly resolved, we'll be finalising this version, and ill be drawing up the development plan for the next phase, and hopefully bringing on more extra pairs of hands to take different features in different directions.
Rule7: I just work here.
EOS: I just work there too.
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Champion
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Friday, November 07, 2008 11:08 AM
Posts: 350,
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| I am reasonably aware of the cost of maintaining this sort of site, and a level of gratutide must be extended to the people who do pay from their own pocket to run it. But Pagga (which you cite as an example) ran for >5 years with no ads, banners, or anything chargeable. it did not use it's reputation or infamy to help progress the games of its runners or their friends. As a community forum which was launched off the coattails of the closure of pagga, and which contains a large number of the same users, it may rail against the common opinion of your user base. This isn't pagga, and i respect that, however a degree of the reputation and respect that was built for pagga comes from the fact that the board remained firmly (and sometimes obtusely) apart from a link to any specific lrp system. This strikes me as a mercenary and nepotistic stance to take from the off. If you want to move this discussion to another part of the forum, feel free from my perspective, this maybe should be in Muggers ally ;-)
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Nothing to see here.
Group: Administrators
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This is not a discussion for Muggers Alley, because its not for debate.
As i've made perfectly clear a few times previously, the operation and running of the site are not up for discussion or debate. We do our best based on the feedback we receive, and the resources we have. We do not directly debate it, because all those that make a contribution to operation of the site, are in on the loop, and have been before we ever built the site. What we do try to do, is to offer out to the community requests for feedback where we feel it may severely impact them.
The staff team as a whole agreed Allen was welcome to a banner placement to raise awareness of his game. In short, he asked, the team thought it was fine, so it's there. When I get around to working out banner ads for commercial and non-commercial entities, and weighting their appearences to make things fair (charging commercial entities a small fee for advertising is an otpion to recover some of our costs), we will, then all systems that currently get a message board of their own (Free, and will remain so) can be inserted into the banner rotation system if thats what we decide to do, if we decide that a forum per system is enough and we want the Banners to be non-system related, that too is what will happen.
You seem to think their is some sort of Subversive plot to use Rule7 on the back of Pagga to promote one game more than any other, essentially what you're complaining about, is a space saver (you may note that the banner does not go anywhere currently). It is not a permanent resident. I'd also like to point out that the banner is for Allens short movie he's making based on his system, and in no way does Rule7 promote his system more than any other, merely his efforts at making an LRP movie. (again... because he asked...)
As you stated, we are not Pagga. We have no aims to be Pagga, our ideas are very different, we are different people, and we want to provide alot more than Pagga did in terms of features, and as a resource in general for the LRP Hobbie. We will be aiming to recover costs, this has been in our mind since the initial brainstorms, when we have a firm idea of what we want to do, i'm sure we'll be inviting feedback on that. We offered to the entire pagga community to sign up to contribute to Rule7's design from its first stages, about a dozen or so contacted us, and of them about half remain active. Incidentally when I mentioned Pagga, my intention was to clarify that we've already far exceeded their resource consumption and general usage at present, when we open up our featureset further at the next announcement, this will grow again. I was not citing them as an example of what we aim to do. They did a great job, and people seemed to enjoy Pagga (I was not a Pagganaught) We're now working in our own direction taking with us the lessons that the Pagga creators learned in their tenure.
In summary, your opinion is noted, but I and the team only have so much time, and can only take things one step at a time, we have no bias, and if we hear from other systems requesting a bit of ad-hoc promotion, we'll see what we can do to help them out. Thus far, Amber from the LRP awards was the first to ask, and you may note, she received a Banner, and I beleive support from Allen in writing articles for LarpGuide and promoting the US hobby.
In summary, If you just wanted to make a criticism I see your point of view, and it's noted. If what you're wanting is to help make the site better and contribute, and you feel we arent doing it correctly, then perhaps applying to be staff, by contacting myself or Allen with a note mentioning relevant Skills, the amount of time you can contribute, and what you see yourself working on/contributing to the site, if suitable you can then debate the developments with me like the rest of the staff do when a new feature enters my scope, and is up for discussion. Now would be ideal timing, because I'm about to create the next development plan and worksheets for all those interested in working on the site for the next version. So there's plenty to go around.
If you arent prepared to contribute, and what we're doing really isnt good enough for you (I genuinely have noted your criticism and will be raising the Banner System and a clear policy on it further up my priority list), then you are of course, like everyone else, more than welcome to not use the site at all, its entirely at your own discretion.
*EDIT*
That all sounded a bit serious, which is an unfortunate affliction of mine, i'm afraid the corporate suits all day every day 45hrs a week tend to cause it. If you have suggestions for further discussion, meaning you have some views on how we can improve the site, rather than a longer list of things we're doing wrong and/or a desire to Debate with me whether we should or should not do them (like a PM i received 10 reasons why I should give users X, Y & Z), please feel free to PM me and we can discuss them, im always interested to hear insight from users with a different point of view, doesnt mean i'll do it, but I will listen.
*SECOND EDIT*
Also, questions, if you have questions or curiosities about exactly what DOES go into the site, contacting me is fine. It might even help us build a Rule7 FAQ of stuff Users really want to know, but we dont tell them.
Rule7: I just work here.
EOS: I just work there too.
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Champion
Group: Basic Members
Last Login: Friday, November 07, 2008 11:08 AM
Posts: 350,
Visits: 1,612
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| I am defeated by your wall of text In summary Fair enough, it's your ball and your yard. If i want to kick about, I have to play by your rules  I don't have the time, energy or inclination to put into helping out on rule7. I was a mod on pagga from nearly day dot and that ate too much time. good luck with moving forward with your subversive plot for TWD by messageboard ;-)
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Overlord
Group: Administrators
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Ed Fortune (7/31/2006)
OK, the front page of Rule 7 doesn't seem to change that often. I understand that it's a bit of promotion, but to be honest, I'm now so used to skipping past it I probably wouldn't notice any stunning change.
Any chance of say a 'top topics' feed on the front? Maybe an RSS feed to the latest articles in LRP Guide as well?Some excellent thoughts Ed, although it'll take a little time. As you're aware, and in a better position than most to appreciate, this sort of stuff does take some man hours, most of which are in short supply atm. However, thank you for the thoughts, we'll do our best to look into them. Rich (7/31/2006)
I am reasonably aware of the cost of maintaining this sort of site, and a level of gratutide must be extended to the people who do pay from their own pocket to run it.Yep, £300 in total I think this year, although that may not include the software licenses, an advert I think is a small burden to bear, but if you think differently, and its a common view of the user base, I am happy to have it taken down. So far you're the only person to make a comment. We do have a complaints procedure, and I invite you to use it if it offends you. I have no interest in the slightest in annoying the userbase here and am happy to bow to the wishes of the team in any respect. To be honest though, if we got that kind of contribution from anyone else, we'd be offering advertisment. Besides, you do have the option to bypass it by heading straight to the forums. The front page is a work in progress. It won't stay the way it is, and doesn't do nearly the amount of things we want it to do yet.
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