Mateus (and other servers) Takeover?

[Skae]

On Discord.

 

Discord is more the IRC / Skype / other real time discussion group killer.  It's really good for what it does.  

[.....]

 

While I agree with all you had to say about Discord, fact is that people do use it as a forum replacement - even though it is fairly bad for most of it.

 

Discord is great for chit-chat which makes people use it, but then people use it for everything else too - probably because they don't want to use more than one site.

 

It is not what a community needs, but apart from a few old farts like myself nobody seems to worry or care about that.

 

As mentioned, for Omega everything happens on the Discord, and almost nobody appear interested in using anything else - despite how lousy Discord is for 90% of what it is used for.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

I don't know much about the Discord API, but I do know that IPS has a nice REST API that -might- allow for cross-posting one day. Such is beyond my current programming skills, but if we can get Discord bots that feed data into Discord, it seems like it might be doable in reverse to convert discord messages in specific channels into posts or something.

[Erah'sae]

*offers fistbump to Skae for being another old hat*

 

I don't know much about the Discord API, but I do know that IPS has a nice REST API that -might- allow for cross-posting one day. Such is beyond my current programming skills, but if we can get Discord bots that feed data into Discord, it seems like it might be doable in reverse to convert discord messages in specific channels into posts or something.

 

It's not hard to do but discord is very noisy.  People tend to do sentence length messages instead of full post length resulting in a lot of posts.

 

It'd probably be better to record a days worth of chat logs from a channel and post them in a single html searchable post if you really want to go down that road.

I do have some older code that does that, but I'd need to bring it up to date.  (It doesn't respect deleted / edited messages and rich embeds break it)

 

Discord's api can be found here:  https://discordapp.com/developers

[Unnamed Mercenary]

*offers fistbump to Skae for being another old hat*

 

I don't know much about the Discord API, but I do know that IPS has a nice REST API that -might- allow for cross-posting one day. Such is beyond my current programming skills, but if we can get Discord bots that feed data into Discord, it seems like it might be doable in reverse to convert discord messages in specific channels into posts or something.

 

It's not hard to do but discord is very noisy.  People tend to do sentence length messages instead of full post length resulting in a lot of posts.

 

It'd probably be better to record a days worth of chat logs from a channel and post them in a single html searchable post if you really want to go down that road.

I do have some older code that does that, but I'd need to bring it up to date.  (It doesn't respect deleted / edited messages and rich embeds break it)

 

Discord's api can be found here:  https://discordapp.com/developers

 

What I was thinking was like grabbing their Character Directory, and FC-Linkshell Directory, and the housing directory. Those all appear to be fair-sized text chunks, which could just feed into some designated threads or so. ...I'm not sure if we could post as users or not. ...I know there's some support for Discord integration, but it might not have that functionality.

[Erah'sae]

 

 

 

What I was thinking was like grabbing their Character Directory, and FC-Linkshell Directory, and the housing directory. Those all appear to be fair-sized text chunks, which could just feed into some designated threads or so. ...I'm not sure if we could post as users or not. ...I know there's some support for Discord integration, but it might not have that functionality.

 

Poke me at some point this weekend (erroch#5348 on discord if you don't see me about) if you can get me into the other discords we can see what we can propose about using them as an application of record for the directory listings.

[Maril]

Just to add an anecdotal note, we did use to have server-specific forum-categories - I believe at the time it was Balmung/Gilgamesh and Other, however as time went on the sections were closed - the reasoning among others being that having specific debate categories for servers seemed to make people think that the RPC was mostly Balmung-centric since Balmung's forum-category was getting the most activity. There has been an ongoing focus ever since on making the RPC appeal more to communities outside of Balmung within the system limitations we have, and as I see it (as a person, not a moderator) there never has been a clear cut intention to keep the forum balmung-only. 

 

What I hear in the debates I've seen and participated in around and about is that people either: 

- Can't be bothered using a forum or find it difficult 

- Think that the RPC is only for Balmung

- Think there's a lot of drama on the RPC 

- Have not heard of the RPC 

 

For the last two, I can't help but wonder if people have gotten so used to saying that things are this way because it's just what you say - Where there isn't put any attention into updating the opinion. Specifically about things being dramatic here, I would say in the last 1-2 years there has been a notable decline in topics that explode, and an increase in even difficult/volatile topics being discussed in a respectful manner. Comparing it to other places (Like Tumblr) makes the RPC look like an idyllic farmhouse on the countryside. 

 

Either way, how I see it is that you have to be the change you want to see in the world. This is especially true for a place like a forum. Instead of subscribing to old ideas, you could opt to go "So what" and post/participate anyways, essentially. If other people see a more diverse group of servers-under-the-avatars involving themselves in the debates then you may just inspire others to jump in too. 

 

I think that the coming upgrade of the RPC is going to help support a positive change, by giving us additional possibilities to support the community how it is now, not how it used to be. 

 

*Just putting an extra disclaimer into noting that this is my personal opinion and not my opinion as a moderator, no hats.

[Zen]

It's really going to depend on perspectives on the importance of this topic. I've been RPing over 20 years and my roots are purist, in that I find it most enjoyable to use roleplay to find roleplay. Around 5-6 years ago, more communities moved into using OOC communication via forums, while the new generation of RPers at that time desired to know someone OOC before they RPd with them. This nearly killed my enjoyment of RP. I enjoy winding up a few characters, tossing them on a stage (so to speak) and see what happens when they start interacting with others. That's my joy and too much OOC kills RP, IMO.

 

I tried the forum thing for about five years and grew to hate enjin since so many used it as a platform for passive-aggressively attacking each other. That's when I lost all interest in interacting with people on RP community forums for any depth. I also learned in this time that if I want to meet people that share my RP style, I need to engage in that playstyle.

 

Mateus is the first RP community I've come across in a while where I can organically seek out RP and interact without needing to "sell myself OOC" in order to get people to RP with me. 

 

When I was brand new, I used these forums to figure out the pulse of the RP communities. When I learned Mateus had a Discord and healthy Tumblr community, I was happy. While I rarely post in the Discord, I do use it to find out about events. It was a weak point for the Mateus community for a while. Several people have come up with working solutions and are trying to find a way to keep events updated. We now have an event Discord. I haven't joined that yet either because at the end of the day I still have a strong preference for using RP to find RP... sort of thing. I use Tumblr for creative expression and have some 30+ blogs I've created over the years for various characters, guilds, and OOC interests. Discord and Tumblr are both on my phone. 

 

Being old school, now that the opportunity is there to get away from "OOC selling myself", I jumped off of forums and enjin quicker than a bee is attracted to honey! That's what works for Mateus.

[Nodem]

As I'm one of the few on Mateus now that posts here on a regular interval, I'll toss some things in.

 

The Calendar really needs a revamp of some kind in order to sort between servers. I admit I haven't tossed my event up there on the RPC Calndar, but the site is still very Balmung. One event would be stared at and cause confusion for people. No joke, I bet somebody ON BALMUNG would show up. I've seen evidence of this sort of complaining on Tumblr. Even when my event listing clearly said "MATEUS SERVER" in the message.

 

STICKING WITH THE CALENDAR:

Mateus does have an event calendar and an event listing discord.

 

Here's their Tumblr:

 

and here's a direct link to the calendar:

 

 

On discord

I feel Mateus has TOO MANY Discords some nights. Norm stuff and people wanting to run stuff their way I guess. There's also now an Enjin website for Mateus, which I didn't join because I don't want to keep track of so many websites. But that's just me.

 

 

RPC TIME!

A lot of people seem to be gravitating away from the RPC for one reason or another. Some just heard horror stories, some just don't want to be tied to this site, etc etc.

 

I've heard of even Balmunger's that have stopped using this site as a whole as well. A lot of the RP community, from my perspective, rather use other means then the RPC. (IE: Tumblr, Discord, Just In Game)

 

 

 

 

All I can think of... *faceplants*

 

 

EDIT:

I just wanted to show the evidence of what I've been seeing, and why I'm perceiving things like I am. This is the RPC's event calendar. There are 7 Events this week listed, including the one that does not exist anymore. I'm looking at you Mystic Runestone!

 

Now let's compare it to the Balmung RP Calendar.

37 events listed for this week!

 

 

It's not just Mateus RP'ers not coming here anymore. I can't pinpoint the why's, but they just aren't.

[Erah'sae]

As I'm one of the few on Mateus now that posts here on a regular interval, I'll toss some things in.

 

 

I just wanted to show the evidence of what I've been seeing, and why I'm perceiving things like I am.  This is the RPC's event calendar. There are 7 Events this week listed, including the one that does not exist anymore. I'm looking at you Mystic Runestone!

 

 

Yeah, the lack of the calendar being in use here for Balmung is likely a bit my fault....  I've been poking on occasion Unnamed Mercenary on ways to get around that in the future.  A good number of the calendar events I pull for the Balmung RP Calendar comes out of the events forum but they don't make calendar entries here because it's double work.

 

Speaking of which, keep your eye out, there's a certain someone working on something for Mateus that isn't me.  I've been tossing code snippits their way.   I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of it.

[Erah'sae]

It's really going to depend on perspectives on the importance of this topic. I've been RPing over 20 years and my roots are purist, in that I find it most enjoyable to use roleplay to find roleplay. Around 5-6 years ago, more communities moved into using OOC communication via forums, while the new generation of RPers at that time desired to know someone OOC before they RPd with them. This nearly killed my enjoyment of RP. I enjoy winding up a few characters, tossing them on a stage (so to speak) and see what happens when they start interacting with others. That's my joy and too much OOC kills RP, IMO.

 

(other good stuff here, read up)

 

"That's my joy and too much OOC kills RP, IMO."

This.... 1000x this....

 

 

Yeah, I've been around probably a bit longer, and I agree, I don't like doing RP on forums and the like.  I do think forums are great for coordination, OOC lore discussions, getting the word out about events and as as public IC message board.  (even 30 years ago [hell, I feel old now] we had a BBS / mailing list for those purposes for the two LARPs I was dealing with).

 

I really can't do the pre-planned RP, I feel so lost and theirs this little voice in my head yelling at me for metagaming the characters.  I could get on a soapbox about the death of the virtual world concept and our move towards the fixed vignette style of RP but that really begs another topic all together.   

 

Us living world folks are still out there.  Don't despair too much.  My last rant on it elsewhere brightened a few others to the concept, maybe... just maybe... our open world RP will blossom again.  (I'm a hopeless optimistic)

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Yeah, the lack of the calendar being in use here for Balmung is likely a bit my fault....  I've been poking on occasion Unnamed Mercenary on ways to get around that in the future.  A good number of the calendar events I pull for the Balmung RP Calendar comes out of the events forum but they don't make calendar entries here because it's double work.

 

The bolded part. So much. Not to mention the various pitfalls and bugs in the built-in calendar that make it a pain for many users. (Like, "guess the timezone in use" and "recurring events only show up the first time they're made" on the front page, which is about 95% of people's calendar use on the site.)

 

(stuff below is generic reply. I'm too lazy to doublepost)

--

 

Even still though, I never understood why people never just...added a prefix? Like "[Mateus] Event Name", "[Omega] Another Event Name", or so. It kinda goes back to what I've already said above. Persion bias in thinking the RPC is/was "only for Balmung" is at it again. And a lot of things that could change that perception, which would work just fine on the existing site aren't made use of.

 

Not to mention the RPC calendar predates all of the alternatives by years. Things like the google calendars which then make nice tumblr/discord posts came -way- later and nateually have customized features designed for their specific uses.

 

--

 

The calendar in IPS is a bit smarter and has better core features for getting events to display nicely. I'm still playing around with what will end up on the front page because that has to be set by an admin. It'll probably be set up similarly to now, where the main page displays an RPC-hosted list of entries, since we need some sort of sane limit to the number of entries displayed. Or like now, it'll just grab the first 5 entries from all calendars and display that.

 

--

 

Another edit. This is what one possibility could look like on the relaunch. I've continued to ask for feedback so that we can have something polished that will get used.

 

 

As a general reminder, the test site is live, but logins/content creation is limited to Patreon users and those who opt-in to keep bandwidth/usage low as this is paid out my pockets to host.

[ExAtomos]

It's really going to depend on perspectives on the importance of this topic. I've been RPing over 20 years and my roots are purist, in that I find it most enjoyable to use roleplay to find roleplay. Around 5-6 years ago, more communities moved into using OOC communication via forums, while the new generation of RPers at that time desired to know someone OOC before they RPd with them. This nearly killed my enjoyment of RP. I enjoy winding up a few characters, tossing them on a stage (so to speak) and see what happens when they start interacting with others. That's my joy and too much OOC kills RP, IMO.

 

I tried the forum thing for about five years and grew to hate enjin since so many used it as a platform for passive-aggressively attacking each other. That's when I lost all interest in interacting with people on RP community forums for any depth. I also learned in this time that if I want to meet people that share my RP style, I need to engage in that playstyle.

 

Mateus is the first RP community I've come across in a while where I can organically seek out RP and interact without needing to "sell myself OOC" in order to get people to RP with me. 

 

When I was brand new, I used these forums to figure out the pulse of the RP communities. When I learned Mateus had a Discord and healthy Tumblr community, I was happy. While I rarely post in the Discord, I do use it to find out about events. It was a weak point for the Mateus community for a while. Several people have come up with working solutions and are trying to find a way to keep events updated. We now have an event Discord. I haven't joined that yet either because at the end of the day I still have a strong preference for using RP to find RP... sort of thing. I use Tumblr for creative expression and have some 30+ blogs I've created over the years for various characters, guilds, and OOC interests. Discord and Tumblr are both on my phone. 

 

Being old school, now that the opportunity is there to get away from "OOC selling myself", I jumped off of forums and enjin quicker than a bee is attracted to honey! That's what works for Mateus.

 

 

"That's my joy and too much OOC kills RP, IMO."

This.... 1000x this....

 

 

Yeah, I've been around probably a bit longer, and I agree, I don't like doing RP on forums and the like. I do think forums are great for coordination, OOC lore discussions, getting the word out about events and as as public IC message board. (even 30 years ago [hell, I feel old now] we had a BBS / mailing list for those purposes for the two LARPs I was dealing with).

 

I really can't do the pre-planned RP, I feel so lost and theirs this little voice in my head yelling at me for metagaming the characters. I could get on a soapbox about the death of the virtual world concept and our move towards the fixed vignette style of RP but that really begs another topic all together.

 

Us living world folks are still out there. Don't despair too much. My last rant on it elsewhere brightened a few others to the concept, maybe... just maybe... our open world RP will blossom again. (I'm a hopeless optimistic)

 

I'm squinting a bit cause I know I'm older than one o' yas. Online RP was pretty much relegated to chat sites and forums from before mmos were a thing. No one in xiv that I've met in the past four years uses forums as their main RP venue. What we use it for is things like knowing to go to Mateus in the first place. Lore dumps, static communication like event notices or FC ads , as well as a place to put info about your characters to see if you can find someone who plays similarly to you in game (if you choose to) are things that a site like this are good for. Back when tabletop was it, we'd post notecards saying we were running a game on thursdays (or whenever) on the bulletin board of the local gaming store.

 

This site and any like it are tools like the bulletin board, nothing more.

 

I've been mulling over the discord thing. At first, the ephemeral nature of it left me scratching my head over why it was replacing a site such as the RPC. I'm still head scratching to a point, but I think the ephemeral nature is technically how it self-maintains. No one has to do any cleaning since any group who came and went has their FC info too far in the past to find. Old events are just scrolled past. It's a bit more reactive, people can post "Hey, I play during these weird hours, anyone else?" and others can respond as they see fit, instead of a proactive "Lemme check and see if there's a FC/LS for late night players". I feel the second would be more guaranteed in one sense in that you'll find the group's info while the first could just garner a bunch of "uhhh... I think I may have heard about something, not sure." BUT, if the thread isn't updated (a problem here), then it's not useful either.

 

This is, of course, going off my own experience with different servers as I'm not on the Mateus one(s) specifically.

 

Regarding the calendar, yeah the RPC one is... unfortunate. ; u ; I do hope the new site will resolve this issue, as you mentioned.

 

And yes, I've heard noise since starting this thread about people avoiding the RPC either due to hating Balmung players or Balmung players having heard of/experienced drama here and just avoiding it completely. My thought about the separate sub forums was a way for players on other servers to... frankly... not have to see Balmung posts that make them irritable. ^^; As to the latter, I'm not entirely sure how you phoenix out of that. I've led an FC out of the ashes, but we didn't have to deal with any bad rep, so I'm unsure on that.

[Erah'sae]

<-- oldish fart.

 

Too tired to quote properly this morning:

 

ExAtmos, yeah, we're on about the same page with the OOC stuff.  My comment was more I keep seeing more pre-OOC planning of characters / etc.  More info then I want to know, pre-scripting plot-lines, etc.  What you're talking about has been around, for me, for as long as I can recall.

 

On the subforums, I wonder if the new site could save filters.  (aka don't show these tags, only show these tags) then we could get the best of both worlds.   Visibility for those that want it, the ability to filter for those who don't want to see stuff that isn't theirs?

 

On an earlier community site I helped maintain we had similar issues.  We had a faction divide with one faction being far more active than the other.  To attempt to deal with similar complaints we'd split up the forums into separate areas for each faction but it, in some ways, exasperated the problem.  Folks would log in and see "There's 85 new posts for Faction A, and only 10 for Faction B.  The site caters to Faction A."   Maybe a good filtering system would alleviate both perceptions? 

 

I don't really know a good answer to it.

 

I am hoping that if this other Mateus specific calendar gets rolling and they start curating the event feed for that server that it can become the application of record so to speak for Mateus events and also feed the new RPC's calendar.  I'm really hoping it has the same level of success the Balmung calendar does in reaching varied audiences.

[Aife]

I can only speak for myself but as an event runner I don't use rpc a lot to advertise because I feel like advertisement using the balmungrpcalender and tumblr is enough. The RPC just doesn't seem like a resource many use anymore. I will admit if my events are feeling a bit low numbers wise I have in the past threw up an advertisement on rpc but otherwise I don't bother. When I talk to people in the community about where they see advertisements for events they mention seeing them advertised on discord or tumblr, not rpc generally.

 

The voice I hear in the community on balmung is- "I avoid the rpc for x reason" which is kind of sad cause it's still a decent resource for networking.

[Stormfalcon]

Regarding Discord vs the forums here, I think part of it is that Discord also has mobile clients available that can make it easier to keep tabs on while you're away from the PC or PS4, or if you're a PS4 player, you can have it going on a smartphone or tablet while you're playing on the console.  It's a bit more convenient that way.  It is possible to read the forums on a smartphone, but you'd have to flip the screen to landscape and zoom in a bit to make it readable.

 

However, I see the two as filling two different needs, as others have pointed out. The forums here are great for lore dumps and much more detailed discussions.  The Mateus Discord, on the other hand, is a much more free-wheeling on-the-fly chat that can bounce from topic to topic.  On the other hand, I do see more Mateus event postings there than I do here, and that's a bit unfortunate.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

 

This is, of course, going off my own experience with different servers as I'm not on the Mateus one(s) specifically.

 

Regarding the calendar, yeah the RPC one is... unfortunate. ; u ; I do hope the new site will resolve this issue, as you mentioned.

 

And yes, I've heard noise since starting this thread about people avoiding the RPC either due to hating Balmung players or Balmung players having heard of/experienced drama here and just avoiding it completely. My thought about the separate sub forums was a way for players on other servers to... frankly... not have to see Balmung posts that make them irritable. ^^; As to the latter, I'm not entirely sure how you phoenix out of that. I've led an FC out of the ashes, but we didn't have to deal with any bad rep, so I'm unsure on that.

 

I would definitely recommend giving the new site's layout a poke and feedback. Like any conversion, some of the things we have working well now may not have a direct correlation in different forum software. In IPS, tags and prefixes appear to be a little newer, but are definitely a start in a good direction. We can and probably will make some sections require them, and any topic/thread can add tags.

 

For the calendars, it may almost be wiser to deprecate the events forums in place of pure calendar use now that they support threads. Or with the better site-application integration, posting RPC-internal links means getting a fancy integration block with details and information. (Works for all the things like forums, blogs/articles, gallery, etc).

Example: https://ffxivrp.org/calendar/event/1514-beg-people-for-feedback/

 

The only thing I can't seem to get working is leaving a comment on imported events. ...but that might also be because they're imported. In that case, they'd make handy lists, but conversations would still need to take place elsewhere. But that might work well in unison with the google calendars and linking to threads/calendar entries.

 

On the subforums, I wonder if the new site could save filters.  (aka don't show these tags, only show these tags) then we could get the best of both worlds.   Visibility for those that want it, the ability to filter for those who don't want to see stuff that isn't theirs?

 

On an earlier community site I helped maintain we had similar issues.  We had a faction divide with one faction being far more active than the other.  To attempt to deal with similar complaints we'd split up the forums into separate areas for each faction but it, in some ways, exasperated the problem.  Folks would log in and see "There's 85 new posts for Faction A, and only 10 for Faction B.  The site caters to Faction A."   Maybe a good filtering system would alleviate both perceptions? 

 

I don't really know a good answer to it.

 

I am hoping that if this other Mateus specific calendar gets rolling and they start curating the event feed for that server that it can become the application of record so to speak for Mateus events and also feed the new RPC's calendar.  I'm really hoping it has the same level of success the Balmung calendar does in reaching varied audiences.

 

IPS's tag/prefix system appears to be a little feature-lite compared to what people might be looking/hoping for. It appears to be getting an upgrade in IPS 4.3 due out "soon" according the developers. I don't think it supports a blacklist of any kind, but perhaps that'll change. For an easy glance of what clicking on a tag will do, here's one generated for Mateus' tag/prefix: https://ffxivrp.org/tags/mateus/ It's more like...a filter of ALL activity, as viewed through the advanced search page. I'm not fully satisfied with it as the only solution.  Supposedly, 4.3 will let people filter a forum by tags/prefixes, so I'm hoping that will work like I think it will.

 

Currently, the only section that seems to do filtering nicely is the "Clubs" one, which is the FC/Linkshell Hall replacement. The links themselves aren't very pretty, however. When we take the upgrade into production, I plan to make these all one by one and in the order we want, so things can be a little more intuitive for users wishing to create a custom filter link, should they choose.

 

[link=https://ffxivrp.org/clubs/?f1[0]=0&f2=1&f6[0]=0]Example link that parses really sloppy[/link]

f1: the "server" field. It's 0-indexed and the first entry means "Balmung" in this instance.

f2: the "activity" field. It's a yes/no filter at this time. This does mean chronicling/archiving listings is something user-controllable and we may have to alter RPC policies on how it works if we end up with a disproportionately large inactive list. (Something to be considered down the line.)

f6: the "is this a free company or linkshell" designator. It's another 0-indexed list should additional group designations happen, like the newfangled cross-world chats as an example. Like the current halls, a listing has to be one or the other. I couldn't find a nice method of allowing both AND having it filterable.

 

To remove the filter, one can just remove that field. It also supports say, looking at Balmung and Mateus listings together. (Although making filters for this has some overhead because I've added/removed/changed a bunch and the fields are all weird now.)

[Talamh]

I completely agree with Zen Ares.

 

It's far more enjoyable to find someone in RP to RP with. It's far more interesting.

To quote one of my favorite movies; " The deepest friendship often comes through a chance meeting. " 

 

Of course, if I am talking to someone OOCly and then they sporadically want to RP without establishing anything, I will be taken completely off-guard oftentimes and be unsure of where the heck to even begin. Sometimes it's good to just lay a small foundation if it's someone you started talking OOCly with, I personally feel.

 

---

 

As for the whole, discord-tumblr-forum stuff, my personal take-away on this is that I can't stand Discord when it comes to groups and servers. Always seeing the red icon of judgement on the discord image bugs the hell out of me - not to mention before I disabled sound, or even far far worse, people who obsessively need to speak on microphone all the time. The few times I've joined some discord server, I eventually just as quickly leave it because the people can never shut up :frustrated:

 

Tumblr.. I'm not sure how that'd work. I guess one could use it to record the events itself in a form of storyline. That'd be nice.

 

But forums yeah. If you're in a serious guild / fc and they make a forum, and you want that kind of connection, it's a no-brainer to join that forum in my opinion. Though naturally this can have issues of it's own, people after all, are people. Say the wrong thing to the wrong person and drama may unfold and if you're not a good leader, that one drama can be enough to taint it forever.

[Dawnstar]

Personally what bothers me about the move to Discord is that it feels so hard to get into as a new player. You have to already know the Discord exists, AND who to contact about joining it, and how, in order to have access to it and its information.

 

And I've found that really troublesome. For example, as an EU roleplayer I would love to know what is going on on Omega, but I am having real trouble finding this information. A google search brings up no forums and mostly posts that are 6 months old. The official omega forum on the XIV website barely has any posts related to RP, and I was not able to easily find a post about any RP resources that might exist. For new players, this is a problem.

 

That to me has always been the upside of a forum. If I type "XIV RP" into google search, this forum will be one of the first hits, and it's the same for most other MMO's who maintain similar resources. So even as a complete newcomer, I can find out where I need to go. And now I feel like I can't.

 

That being said I can understand why people may not want to use the RPC in particular. Even as a Balmung player, I have had people "warn" me about it. It seems the RPC has a bit of a reputation, probably acquired years ago. I don't see much drama on the forums right now, but I know reputations tend to stick.

And in the end what you need is a resource, but this doesn't necessarily have to be an existing one, or the one that has been around the longest. Making your own can also seem practical.

 

Personally I would be happy with *a* forum for each community, at least.

[Skae]

Personally what bothers me about the move to Discord is that it feels so hard to get into as a new player. You have to already know the Discord exists, AND who to contact about joining it, and how, in order to have access to it and its information.

 

And I've found that really troublesome. For example, as an EU roleplayer I would love to know what is going on on Omega, but I am having real trouble finding this information. A google search brings up no forums and mostly posts that are 6 months old. The official omega forum on the XIV website barely has any posts related to RP, and I was not able to easily find a post about any RP resources that might exist. For new players, this is a problem.

 

That to me has always been the upside of a forum. If I type "XIV RP" into google search, this forum will be one of the first hits, and it's the same for most other MMO's who maintain similar resources. So even as a complete newcomer, I can find out where I need to go. And now I feel like I can't.

 

That being said I can understand why people may not want to use the RPC in particular. Even as a Balmung player, I have had people "warn" me about it. It seems the RPC has a bit of a reputation, probably acquired years ago. I don't see much drama on the forums right now, but I know reputations tend to stick.

And in the end what you need is a resource, but this doesn't necessarily have to be an existing one, or the one that has been around the longest. Making your own can also seem practical.

 

Personally I would be happy with *a* forum for each community, at least.

 

All agreed. Discord does add an extra barrier to entry, but somehow people these days seem to think that web-based forums are outdated somehow - or at least they act like it.

(Personally I think that Usenet is still superior in many ways over all the newer discussion venues, but I have long since given up that fight as lost.)

 

Now for Omega in particular this post: http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=21046 contains a link for the Discord where most of the discussions for Omega RPers currently take place.

The linkshell that post is mainly about is also helpful to join.

[Dawnstar]

Now for Omega in particular this post: http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=21046 contains a link for the Discord where most of the discussions for Omega RPers currently take place.

The linkshell that post is mainly about is also helpful to join.

 

The linkshell hall...?

 

All right, I would never have found that if you hadn't pointed me to it. Thank you so much!

 

Regarding forums being outdated: I would be inclined to agree if the communities that run discords and tumblrs had a reliable way to get the word out to people who don't know about them....That isn't a forum.

 

Edit: Ah, the discord link no longer works, either! Still, I've a name to get in touch with!

[Erah'sae]

Just to give it a little nudge.... info on that Mataus event calendar (and associated discord bot) I mentioned earlier in the thread can be found here:  http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=21224

 

 

Contacts Neneso for hitting release!

[ArmachiA]

I'm in the Mateus Discord but I never really post, I just like to see how the server is doing and... hooboy

 

I have a Discord for my guild (Who doesn't?) but we still have a forum for more permanent things like Events, Character Journals, Timelines, Summaries, etc etc. The Mateus Discord tries way too hard to be a forum. There's a million chatrooms, all of them beep at you when someone posts (I've had to mute all of them, but more seem to pop up every few weeks), the FC and Character section is pretty much a mess. While the FC section is BETTER, the "Here's my character" section of it is really hard to navigate and if you don't put it out there in peak time it's easy to get lost. The discussions are really only for people online at the time and if you don't have a lot of time on your hands, or don't say anything unless it's important, you're going to get lost in the shuffle. I help clarify lore sometimes, but my words easily get lost in there.

 

Discord is super useful, but Forums are still better for a permanent information base. I don't think Tumblr is that great considering how hard it is to shift things around. A lot of those things on the Mateus discord would be much, much better suited for a forum.

 

On in-fighting - That happens, I've seen it happen on the Mateus Discord. It happens on Tumblr almost hourly it seems like. I wouldn't let that stop anyone from joining. Drama is inevitable, I mean... look at the drama we get in game. It's actually pretty sparse here, it's just discussions people can get blunt (Nothing wrong with that).

 

I hope Mateus does consider coming here, this was never a Balmung only forum. It just ended up that way because Gilgamesh died.