"Too Many Forums"

[RedPhoenix]

Envi's suggestions look really clean. I'd keep Ewrimo and One Shot as separate forums but dang that would be so much easier to scroll through and get a lot more eyes on stuff that's languishing in dead boards currently.

Incidentally if you need someone to move stuff around, rename things, unsticky things, etc. to help clean up the forums I'd be happy to volunteer to do it.

[Timeless]

I don't think merging the small and big group games into one section would be a good idea, especially since the big group games which have their own subforums would basically overtake the smaller group threads. Like for example, if you look here in the Extreme section, you can clearly see how only the Extreme Big Group have many subforums, and you'll see down below one single thread which is basically 'drowned' out by the many subforums.

Now secondly, I feel like we have to keep 'General Chat', mostly because it is a place for new members, as in Non-Forum Members to 'linger and play around' during their approval process.

Thirdly, I think the LGBTQA corner should stay. It's a safe place for the LGBTQA community to discuss and talk, and I wouldn't want that safe space to be taken away.

[Nymphadora]

I agree with a lot of what Red said, so I'm going to go a different direction just to provide some variety. I think some boards can be smashed together. Others can be turned into one-stop-shop stickies. Others can be removed entirely. Lemme spin up a drastic chop-chop.

• Section Name (blue headers)
  
  
  • Main Forum
    
    
    • Sub-Boards

Food for thought.

Current Boards Important Stuff Rules and Announcements In Memoriam Old R&A Permabanned Members Help Tutorials Introductions Introduction Archives Held Introductions Elliquiy Blogs Adult Roleplaying Requests One on One / Solo GMs seeking groups GM’s Corner Groups seeking GMs Non-Forum RPs Non-Adult Sandbox Non-Adult Storytelling Non-Adult Roleplay Requests Non-Adult Roleplays Members-only non-adult forum Non-adult archive General Chat Elliquiy U Off Topic Forum Games/Socializing Debates Politics, Religion, and Other Controversies Discussion of Dialogue Dialogues Art and Literature Available for Commission People who want work done Literary Discussion Ewrimo Storytelling Forum Storytelling Archive Choose Your Own Adventure Storyteller’s Cafe Poetry Forum World Building Art, Media, and Music Finders and Seekers Forum Contests Forum Contest Archive Elliquian Herald and Post Newspaper Archives General Sexiness O/o Legates O/o Lords O/o Ladies O/o Lieges Completed Tales On Topic System Gaming and ROleplaying Support and Advice for the Struggling Making Ends Meet Employment Resources SAS Discussions Fundraisers Apologies and Absences The Good and the Cuddly Birthdays and Anniversaries The Bad and the Ugly Adult Socializing Red Light District ApprovedBox Cardboard Villainy LGBTAQ Corner Legates/Lords/Ladies/Lieges Only Important Information One Shots Light Solo Small Group Exotic Exotic Small Group Big Group Bondage, D/s, S&M Solo Small Group Exotic Exotic Small Group Big Group Noncon Human Solo Human Small Group Human Big Group Human system solo Human system small group Human system big group Noncon Exotic Exotic solo Exotic small group Exotic big group Exotic system big group Exotic system solo Exotic system small group Extreme Solo Small group Big group

Suggested Changes Important Stuff Site Information Help Introductions Introduction Archives Held Introductions Roleplaying Requests & Discussions One on One Group Games Non-Forum Games Discussion (worldbuilding/gm) Roleplaying Boards Light Bondage, D/s, S&M Noncon Extreme Completed Tales Art and Literature Writing and Literary Discussion Art, Media, and Music User Index Ons & Offs Apologies and Absences Socializing Forum Games Life Discussion Red Light District Legates/Lords/Ladies/Lieges Only Important Information Debates Politics, Religion, and Other Controversies

I'm a fan!
What would be great is like buttons Dunno if that's even possible though

[Vekseid]

Let's see.

I am thinking of moving (back) to a two-column layout for the forums. "General" forums on the left and the creative writing forums on the right.


Public Forums

Going from @RedPhoenix 's suggestions:

Old R&A -> Will get removed from view after we make sure nothing needs keeping.

Computer Problems -> Has been merged into Help here. With board-level alerts things are easier to track now.

Tutorials -> Before I merge this we should go through what should be kept as a sticky here.

Blogs -> I keep trying to make something of this. >_> Ultimately I think it serves a purpose for individuals' thoughts that aren't meant to strictly be conversations per se.

GM Subforum -> Divide between worldbuilding, system gaming, and off topic as appropriate. Move stuff to the first two as appropriate then I can manually merge the rest into off topic.

Non-Adult Section-> Stories, RPs, and 'Big Game' archives will become the public section of the Creative Writing side on the right column. "Member's Only" will get merged into Light (People were using that for non-sexual RP for years), and the requests board will get merged into Solo Requests.

Elliquiy U -> Merged into Off Topic

Forum Games -> The purpose of this is to get it out of search results. It serves a valuable technical function so plan to keep it.

PROC -> Have merged the subforums back in. They hadn't seen use in a decade.


Creative Writing Forums


Merging the groups with subforums into those without just isn't tenable. It becomes unusable for regular players.

Merge Human/Exotic.

Merge all non-public big boards into one forum. I can setup an autoarchive/archive script.

"One on One" and "Small Groups" will be merged into "Single Active Thread".

Games where active play is occurring across multiple threads should request their own forum. I may make something to automate this. At least in part.



Private Forums

Storytelling, CYOA, and Poetry will go into Creative Writing, above.

A big giant reaper stick for a lot of these. Some of it can wait until the above settles. Non-Public forums will have their categories labelled accordingly.

[RedPhoenix]

That all sounds fantastic!!!

[Wistful Dream]

When you say big boards, what are you meaning?

[Karma]

Love it. The previous layout was so huge I kinda stopped looking at most of it. Might make it more fun to explore the site this way!

[Vekseid]

When you say big boards, what are you meaning?

The originally >1,000 post rp boards.

This would open it up to anyone who has enough players to need coordination and has multiple RP threads active.

[Wistful Dream]

Okay, so... I'll admit my brain is slightly fried by work today but what precisely would this mean then -

Merge all non-public big boards into one forum. I can setup an autoarchive/archive script.

All big groups would be in one spot, regardless of rating? Wouldn't that be an issue for people trying to avoid certain content?

Granted I'm reading your comment as taking all big groups/boards and merging them into one spot, like, One Shots, but for Big Groups. Is that not what you mean?

[Rayne]

Non-Adult Section-> Stories, RPs, and 'Big Game' archives will become the public section of the Creative Writing side on the right column. "Member's Only" will get merged into Light (People were using that for non-sexual RP for years), and the requests board will get merged into Solo Requests.

Sorry when you say rps and archives will become public, you don't mean that any completed stories will now be publicly accessible for non-members correct? 


Also honestly I already felt the extreme big board subboard list has been out of control ever since the change on post limits for them, so having more big boards in one place seems like too much. And does that mean every game would want to add a prefix of Extreme, etc in front of their game so you know what you're wandering into? 

Merging one on ones and small groups also seems a fast way to bury one on one threads. But maybe I'm used to seeing small group games with a dozen threads. 

[Vekseid]

Sorry when you say rps and archives will become public, you don't mean that any completed stories will now be publicly accessible for non-members correct?


Also honestly I already felt the extreme big board subboard list has been out of control ever since the change on post limits for them, so having more big boards in one place seems like too much. And does that mean every game would want to add a prefix of Extreme, etc in front of their game so you know what you're wandering into?

Merging one on ones and small groups also seems a fast way to bury one on one threads. But maybe I'm used to seeing small group games with a dozen threads.

The part you are quoting is referring to the already-public RPs on the forum.

Nothing currently private is going to be made public without an explicit warning, and that is never going to include anything in roleplays or storytelling.

I am thinking about making the 'System Gaming' forum public. That is about the end of it.

The purpose of putting the Non-adult stuff in the role-plays column is to give new members more of an idea of what to expect. Also, being at the top, they will likely get a lot more activity and thus new members would have more places to participate for those games or stories that were open to them.

I will automate archiving/unarchiving big groups so it doesn't get so bad. If we get into a situation where we have so many active group games we need to rethink this... I will be happy to have and discuss solutions for that problem. Archiving won't interfere with posting so we can tighten it down to a couple days if we need to. 

Regarding labelling Light/Bondage/NC/Extreme, I am rethinking the merger so it won't be necessary. Since I'm the one designing the index there is no particular need for me to have those boards displayed in a normal fashion. This will also allow members to ignore those categories they don't want to see.

Small Groups that continue in Single Active Threads should be following the rule of those forums. IE no OOC chatter thread and only a single IC thread at a time.

[Envious]

Wild idea #2

Put everything in a pre 2024 archive and start with shiny and new empty boards.

[Unholy]

I was reading this and wanted to chime in. Just posting here to say I really like removing the human/exotic distinction. I also like the idea of removing the system/freeform distinction.

For big groups regarding folding that stuff up but making ratings clearer--if people are worried about ratings, it could be requirement to alter the big group subboards in the new organization with the rating included with the game's title? A bit awkward of an idea but it would ensure the ratings are visibly clear at least.

For the One Shots section renaming...does it need renamed? I'm not entirely sure that the One Shots title is insufficient. It still sorta works. (Completed Tales by definition have a clear beginning/end, as does Poetry, Storytelling, and to some extent CYOAs do too in their intent I think? Alternatively could be renamed to Creative Writing & Roleplaying to reflect the diversity and included in the topic? I am BAD at names.)

[Al Terego]

Merging the requests subforums does not make much sense without tags.
People are usually interested in playing against specific genders.

If anything, merging the O/Os makes more sense.

[Nowherewoman]

I do think that the 'Human' and 'Exotic RP sections of the various subforums should be merged together though. I would go so far as to say the entire 'Bondage' forum of the boards could be merged into 'Light' too.

And then do what with those games/members who (unlike myself, personally) are into the harder side of BDSM? Directing them to the Extreme section seems misguided to me. BDSM!=snuff or extreme violence. But a great deal of the culture really doesn't fit under 'Light', IMO.

Agreed that, troublesome as it is, PROC should stay. Otherwise I'm afraid the discussions that take place there will simply metastasize elsewhere, requiring even more moderation.

I also think that folks looking for 1-shots are looking for a different level of commitment and complexity than the regular boards, but removing/merging that forum wouldn't be a catastrophe, if it were deemed necessary.

[Vekseid]

If it's going to be half of the layout six versus four extra RP forums aren't going to be the end of the world. My main concern is one shots may be confusing, but there is plenty of time to wait and see after all else is done.

[Wistful Dream]

NWW has a good point... I wish there was a forum option that wasn't extreme but covered for more out there things.

[Rayne]

Yea honestly while we are on the subject clarity on the categories might be great.
I've always understood the break down as follows:
 light - vanilla, romance with no or little kink
Bondage - bdsm, kink, still fully consensual
Non con - anything non con or dub con with any mix of kink
Extreme - any kink that's on the heavy end, hard bdsm, intense pain play, monsters, tentacles etc.

Would this be an accurate read? I think there's enough difference between each category, if this is accurate, to keep them apart. Somebody into bondage but not noncon isn't going to want to accidentally stumble into reading the wrong thread.

[Vekseid]

Yea honestly while we are on the subject clarity on the categories might be great.
I've always understood the break down as follows:
 light - vanilla, romance with no or little kink
Bondage - bdsm, kink, still fully consensual
Non con - anything non con or dub con with any mix of kink
Extreme - any kink that's on the heavy end, hard bdsm, intense pain play, monsters, tentacles etc.

Except for Extreme you are fairly close. Monsters and tentacles were what 'Exotic' was for, and 'hard' BDSM/intense pain play still goes in Bondage.

Light - the generally accepted limit of kink is spanking/ass smacking here, at least in terms of pain scale. Kinky things may happen but nothing worse than the ordinary bumps you get when a bit overenthusiastic in bed. It is also now for roleplays where no sex at all is involved.

Bondage - Mild to intense pain play, but yes, fully consensual. There is some overlap with Light here, but the idea is in Bondage you should be prepared for things to go quite far. The line is drawn at mutilation, disfigurement, and graphic character death.

Non-Consensual - Rape and dub-con. Within sense. An RP doesn't need to go here because the long-term partners involved went into their situation a bit tipsy; as in real life, we still consider that consensual.

Extreme - @Greenthorn 's pitch to me when the category was being made was a feeder rp in which a woman would drink the slurried remains of her lovers. I've written about a minotaur flaying an elf alive while it fucked his betrothed, the blood of his agony mixing with that of her former innocence. Dolcett is where women are carved up and cooked as meat. In short, if none of the other categories make you blink, there should still be a good chance you read one of these and go "What the actual fuck, author?" This usually involves graphic disfigurement or death, but e.g. scat also goes here, and there are other things that may make a reader retch.

[Rayne]

Ah... So then I believe a good deal of us are probably overusing extreme currently. 😅  

[RedPhoenix]

I definitely do but it's just easier to toss everything in there just in case and not have to worry about moving it later.

[Wistful Dream]

So, would Bondage cover monster sex, blood play, violence in fighting, and the various things that could happen with magical sex?

[RedPhoenix]

Yeah maybe Bondage needs a more general name while we're changing things. Like "Kinky" or something? I do a lot of stories that involve non-bondage kink so it feels wrong to put them in vanilla but they're nowhere near extreme or non-con either.

[Al Terego]

Except for Extreme you are fairly close. Monsters and tentacles were what 'Exotic' was for, and 'hard' BDSM/intense pain play still goes in Bondage.

Merge Exotic and BDSM as "kink"?

Vanilla, Kink, Non-con, Extreme.

[Lomesa]

Don't know whether searchable forum tags would be feasible to implement, but I think it could make for much more specific categories for both requests and RP's and make specific content much easier to find.