Linkshell Classification System

[Kylin]

Does anyone think we should change the way in which linkshells are categorized in the linkshell listing? It seems that it's becoming increasingly lop-sided as of late. Just about every RP shell is starting to classify itself as "heavy" due to the ability to have multiple sidepearls for OOC and the like. I believe the only two "light" RP shells listed aren't even active anymore either by the looks of it.

 

Does anyone have any ideas on how to organize them differently? Or do you think it should just be left alone?

[Smiling River]

One of the problems with the current system is itâs self-ranked. Meaning a shell can classify itself whatever it wants. I am not sure how to get around that but Iâve been in linkshells before where the classification seemed off. I am sure that each LS has reasons for picking âheavyâ in this instance, but I wonder if the RP content is consistent within that category.

 

Maybe we just do away with the classification all together and just list as much info as is available about each shell? Or maybe go by % OOC generally over the pearl(s)? I am not sure how this would work since the 2 pearl thing really messes things up⦠since I can see people claiming that they do RP while there is a lot of chatter in the OOC shell at the same time, so they essentially manage both IC and OOC at once. Personally I donât understand how thatâs possible, but maybe itâs just me.

 

Another idea is to break up the heavy category into OOC pearl and not. Maybe some info about how often the OOC pearl is used⦠because I personally would consider a LS on the lighter side if there is tons of OOC convos but very few IC ones, but the IC ones are technically âheavy.â

 

Food for thought.

[Momo]

I posted in the Forum Advert thread as well, and I think I mentioned this a bit in there, but I would love to explore it more here as well! I totally agree, we need a new system with as few members as we currently have active. Taking into account what was said above, I agree that perhaps it is best for now to reorganize until we get more members in the coming months so that we can have something to work towards when the time comes, and maybe go back to this setup if it is plausible, or different one that accommodates larger numbers while working better in general.

 

I also will come back with this: Let's keep our community strong in any way we can! If that means cutting down the number of groups to make stronger groups already active, then I think we should contact the group heads, and seriously consider it. If that blows some people's tops, let's come up with something else. Individuality isn't as important right now as keeping this community afloat until we get 2.0 and PS3 release, so that people having something to find when that happens. I am certainly not saying anything here as a must, but I feel it is imperative that we start some sort of dialogue on this front?

 

Okay, so right now we have 3 classes: light, medium, heavy. As Oskar said, each of the "Heavy" LS have an OOC ls to work with as well, so let's consider getting rid of the levels altogether, especially since Kylin said that some of the groups still listed aren't active as is. We have one level of group here, somewhere between mid-heavy range, with OOC linkshells to boot the members into activity when RPing isn't happening. That in itself is a god coping mechanism for groups who having dwindling activity in RP, who maybe don't want to work with other groups to gather strength. I could suggest maybe a community run "Light RP" shell, if there are indeed members out there who need light RP instead of the medium to heavy stuff, though I don't see as much evidence from what we have that the need is there.

 

I don't mean offense to you either Kylin, but waht about communication with the leaders of each group? You said you weren't sure if some of the groups were even still active, so I am just wondering how much you keep in contact with some of them? If it isn't much, then maybe have a new mod, or a mod that is active right now, go ahead and start keeping a list of the contact information for each head of group, including emails so that if they don't frequent here as much, you can get ahold of them somehow? I know that is sort of invasive, but I don't think it is a lot to ask for this community to keep going as a whole wherever the new features of our world take us.

 

Okay, as usual with me...there is a lot here, so I will leave it at that and check back here soon! Let's get this party started yo!

[Mtoto Wamoto]

I'm all in favor with changing the way the current linkshell organization system is.

 

As it stands, there are a total of 13 linkshells listed on this site. Of them, 9 of them are registered as heavy, and I've personally never seen either of the light linkshells ingame. Ever. From my personal standpoint, I had a bit of difficulty deciding what category my shell fell under. It really was a coin toss since we fell into both catergories in a way because of our style of play (balance between RP and OOC endgame content).

 

Oskar brings up a valid solution by abolishing the classification system altogether and simply listing as much detail of the shell as possible. Perhaps we could have a set of keywords listed and if your shell has any of the listed, they'd select them and bullet list them for potential members to get a quick and simple understanding as to what kind of linkshell they're looking at.

 

As an example:

 

Sentinels' Ark

• [*]Role-play - Mature Themes/Violence/Strong Language

[*]Weekly Scheduled Events

[*]Linkshell Storyline

[*]OOC Dungeons/Raids/Primal Fights

[*]Heavy Website/Forum Usage

[*]Voice server for OOC chat

[*]No OOC pearl/No OOC in IC LS chat[/list:u]

 

Again, this is just an example format, but it gives the reader a solid view as to what type of RPLS they are looking at. I'm sure that many other linkshells could fit the above example, but that's where you begin adding the points that set your linkshell apart I suppose.

 

On a similar yet departing note, we've had a recent surge in RP shells cropping up in the past few weeks. Many of them are returning shells and there are a few new shells being formed alongside. My concern (I include myself in this batch of 'new-jacks') is that this is going to spread out the already thin community we have left. Perhaps a community meeting with the linkshell heads is in order as Momo suggested and discussing what we can do to keep our community strong and alive. Having so many leaders around can be a curse and a blessing because we're spreading our resources thinner than they need to be.

 

Anyways, just my two cents on the matter.