Feedback wanted for IRC suggestion

[Abigail Nightwatch]

Hello all. I realize I am still new to Santharia, but I have an idea to submit that I believe has been thought of once before. I have however a few possible new ideas how to do it.

The idea is to have an IRC channel "Santharia Tavern" if you will. The concept obviously follows suit with many of the other role playing chat rooms across the web, however, in keeping with Santharia's desire to maintain the integrity and calibur of our beloved role playing, a few guidlines would be in place. There are many ways to work this on many aspects.

Moderators; we could devise a system of checks and balances to keep moderators constantly hovering over this chat, ensuring that play goes as it should, having to get volunteers to moderate, perhaps not needing to meet the same intense criteria as for the posts, but some criteria non the less. Perhaps even have shifts assigned so as to always have a moderator present. This however, would get manautness.

My suggestion is instead make it as it should be, just like in the army, everyone is a safety officer, here, everyone is a moderator. This of course is under the pretense that a 'moderators' job in the chat is to ensure rpers are abiding by the golden rp code, the ten commandments if you will. You might have assigned moderators who don't nessecarily have to be present but can be notified about any discrepencies.

Also, another angle is to have players submit requests to participate in the Tavern chat. This would provide the ability for nominated mods to screen participants and go over the assigned rules before play begins or is allowed.

As the idea is simply for a tavern setting, story mods are not nessecary in this case. It is simply a place for one to take their character to interact live with other Santharia characters, a common place if you will. We already have an OOC place for our members, why not the same thing for IC?

Storylines; This I would suggest would be something left between players, something occuring during their interaction and time spent together. By reviewing their CD's and RP ability before granting access to the chat, we can ensure that golden rules will not be broken. There may be cases where players wish to get together to participate in a live storyline, but this should be something worked out with the designated chat moderator and submitted in the same way a complaint might.

Rules aside from golden rules;
Descriptive and informative play; no short 1-5 liners.
EVERYONE is a moderator. See something wrong, copy paste and submit it to the designated moderator(s).
Give other players time to react to your actions. It's not a race, it's RPing.
Unless otherwise specified, Tavern help are free NPC's not to be killed or harmed. Just pay attention to your surroundings. If the barkeep just went to the back to prepare a meal, don't have the barkeep pouring your drink at the same time.
No trashing the tavern!

These are just a few suggested ideas for rules based on a few things I've seen in other chat room RpG's that successfully kept the integrity of their chat going. Sure you get a few bad apples, but that is bound to happen.

Also, you may wish to allow this for titled characters only. Further enforcing the approval system as well as submission to participate.

Lastly, if the idea is in fact spawned and the need for moderators presented, please post here if you would volunteer to be one of the many to keep the peace and uphold the RP golden rules.

I shall begin by being the first volunteer.

Also, please leave feedback and comments, and ideas or suggestions on this idea, good or bad, better ideas or what have you. Let's stregthen the already strong bond between our role playing community.

[Erián'melór]

I think it would be a great idea, as long as it is properly moderated. Also, you might want to consider such a thing as a post that is too long. This thing is going to be live, and it could get confusing if everyone wrote three paragraphs for each post. Of course, you don't want posts to be too short either. I think you should try to find a medium, as in longer than five lines, but shorter than twenty five lines. That is only an example, the mods will be the ones to decide what lengths are appropriate. Also, make sure that the players understand that time is needed in order to write a good post. It would be even more confusing if people just randomly post instead of responding to the posts of those that have posted before them. I hope this makes sense. Anyway, its a great idea and I will be the first one to refuse to be a mod of the IRC tavern. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but I don't have the time needed to dedicate to this project. Though I might drop in every now and then, if this idea is approved.  

Erian Melor~The spark of life rests upon the edge of a knife.
~Elf Age Calculator
~Measures Converter

[Gararion]

interesting little idea you have you, which has inspired me to write a new script if wanted.  What type of script?  Basically a waiter.  I have played in a Tavern-type IRC channe before and notice when it comes to ordering drinks and food, sually you don't have a desinated waitor/barkeep.

Though is someone is volunteering for this job, then I wont write the script.

[Luca the Thief]

Great idea Gar. Before finding the "haven" of Santharia, I myself often frequented chat-based roleplaying. The content itself was medicore at best, poor compared to the system we have here, but I think it has a serious chance of flourishing with the right upkeep. A few more things:

- Along with the "everybody is a moderator" rule, I would just like to tack onto this that it should be widely enforced that characters must have an approved CD. If not, things start getting very detached from this world. I personally beleive that if something is to be associated with Santharia, then it should be Santharia.

- On that note, should the chat-idea be integrated, we might want to choose a location of sorts for this tavern. Somewhat like the city games we have running. Where will it be? What kind of people frequent it? Will the outside area be playable?

- How many 'official' moderators will we want? I'm thinking along the lines of anywhere from three to six.

- More of a technical question, but what are the guidelines for created a permanent channel? Do we have to contact the sysop(?)? Pay any money? Is the bot entirely ours (er...yours. I'm about as useful as a syrofoam anchor in those respects ) to program?

But I love the idea. Though I've learned to prefer forum-type roleplaying, there's nothing like a good live swap to get the old brain back on it's toes.

Contact me: or all us admins:

[Gararion]

Quote: How many 'official' moderators will we want? I'm thinking along the lines of anywhere from three to six.

 Not usre how many you'd want, but I would need to be a moderator to ensure that the bot works correctly

Quote: More of a technical question, but what are the guidelines for created a permanent channel? Do we have to contact the sysop(?)? Pay any money? Is the bot entirely ours (er...yours. I'm about as useful as a syrofoam anchor in those respects :biggrin ) to program?

 Creating a channel is free, making it a permanent channel is jut as free.  All you need to know is the proper commands to do such a thing.

Once we decide on a place to hold the "Tavern" then I can create a channel and set it up, then begin workign on the bot.

As for the bot, yes, it would be entirely ours(mine) to program.  Though, if it comes to a time where I can't be around, I'll create the bot in a manner where it can be installed easily on anyones computer which uses mIRC and willing to leave a copy of mIRC running on their system.

[Abigail Nightwatch]

Gar, I have cable internet and can keep an open connection to run the bot as a backup if ever needed for if or when we get this Tavern off the ground, that is if it is approved. I also do run mIRC on my comp.

[Kalína Dalá'isyrás]

My fear, as with any open chat roleplaying like you have suggested is that it is extremely chaotic. Even with moderators, things can get out of hand VERY quickly and with people constantly coming and going with bad connections and other things like that, it can easily go haywire.

The Santharian Dream ~ Role Playing Basics
Character Creation Guide ~ Restrictions and Age Calculator

[Gararion]

Abigail:  As long as I am around, you wont need to worry about the script not having a active connection, unless I lose hydro.  I have DSL, so internet connection wont be a problem.  As well, I would like to keep the script on my end untill the time comes that I may have to leave, as it will allow me to make updates without having to send updates to several people.

Kalina:  True, that is one problem that we may face, though I doubt it.  I mean, Santharia is not a place that has a lot of IRC members.  Even if we pick up a few additional IRC members, which would be a good thing, one thing to keep in mind is that our channel wouldn't be like other IRC channels where one player may play several of their characters at the same time.  this is one rule I think we should consider, a person only being able to play a single character of theirs at any given time.  No multi-clienting.

[Kalína Dalá'isyrás]

It still sounds like mass chaos to me. I have tried to do that chat roleplaying thing and starting up in the middle. It is insane ><

The Santharian Dream ~ Role Playing Basics
Character Creation Guide ~ Restrictions and Age Calculator

[Darien Gulath]

Hm Gar is it also able for you to write a script or something that keeps players from spamming, Like.... Only being able to post once in 2 minutes for example. That would fix a part of chaos and also disables players to spam.

And maybe an editable script to give a summary of the story at on which place, event etc. etc. is happening once they join (Should be possible i guess)...

My remaining concern is if someone screws up with a "chatpost" then it should be deleted. But i guess this isn't possible and also creates a chaos factor of confussion (and this WILL happen, i am sure of that)

And final most important,... Do whe actually have ENOUGH players to participate? Because i don't think 6 mods would be enough for 24/7

[Abigail Nightwatch]

Really I don't think the chaos issue is going to be nearly as severe or large scale as it is for other various chat RP's. I assume this chat can be restricted to Santharia members only, so right away that aleviates half the chaos. Then they have to be titled characters as well, which aleviates yet more chaos. On top of that, the everyone is a moderator theory will help to quell more chaos still and require less needed personel for maintaining. We already have a high calibur of members that are strongly encouraged to follow the RP golden rules. Finally, I don't think enough credit is being given to the solid environment created here that discourages spam and chaotic RP. The Administraters and Moderaters have done an excellent job ensuring order, and I think that due credit should be given to them and recognized, and I feel it will most certainly reflect in an IRC RP chat Tavern.  

[Gararion]

Quote: Hm Gar is it also able for you to write a script or something that keeps players from spamming, Like.... Only being able to post once in 2 minutes for example. That would fix a part of chaos and also disables players to spam.

Yes, this could be done.  Though one thing to keep in mind is the style of gameplay at the time.  Not everyone may wish to write the max lenght in each post.  When it comes to conversation, it may oly take a sentenance or two to get your thoughts accross to the other player or players involved.

Quote: And maybe an editable script to give a summary of the story at on which place, event etc. etc. is happening once they join (Should be possible i guess)...

 Not quite sure what ou mean by an editable script here, though the smummary part may be a little hard.  The best I could do is design it so It will keep a log of each days posts, which could be retrievable or perhaps asked for.

Quote: My remaining concern is if someone screws up with a "chatpost" then it should be deleted. But i guess this isn't possible and also creates a chaos factor of confussion (and this WILL happen, i am sure of that)

 Yes, people will mess up with posts.  But if you put in the above mentioned spam limit, it will give players more time to ponder of the contents of their posts before posting, hopefully seeing the posts of others who s/he is relying to before finishing their post.

Quote: And final most important,... Do whe actually have ENOUGH players to participate? Because i don't think 6 mods would be enough for 24/7

 The script could perform basic modding abilities, though thesemodding abilities can be later defined and ironed out once the actual rules are laid out.

[Rheine]

Great idea.

Me, Gar, and Luci used to do this kind of RP a lot back in the day. Was a lot of fun.

TBH, I prefer chat RP to forum RP... much, much, much quicker. Conversations take minutes instead of weeks.   Overall the RP is a lot more realistic.


But NO spam timer or whatever, please. Some 'posts' might be too large to fit in a single message, and some things might be best separated.


Chaotic? Not really. When it's REALLY busy, then a little yeah. Just ignore anything that doesn't pertain to your character for the most part.

And if you go somewhere else, keep it out of the main room. Start up a new room with just the people in that other area, so that they only see what each other is doing instead of everything. For instance... in a tavern, a group of people go up to a room. They open up a new chat room just between themselves, so they can't hear anything else and no one knows what they're doing up in the room.


Oh, and one more thing...

Quote: Descriptive and informative play; no short 1-5 liners.

Massive amounts of description are the goal of forum RP, not chat RP. While you should try and make sure to keep things detailed, you don't need to be writing a book for chat RP. If you're character is nodding in agreement, there is no need to write anymore than /me nods in agreement.

Also, it's better that things aren't TOO long, in any case, because there is a limit on the amount you can type in one message.

Chat RP isn't forum RP, so long posts aren't necessary, and not everything needs a beautiful paragraph-long description.

-----
"She wants to go home, but nobody's home
It's where she lies, broken inside,
With no place to go, no place to go
To dry her eyes, broken inside."
-Nobody's Home, Avril Lavigne

Edited by: Rheine at: 7/14/05 1:50

[Luca the Thief]

Hmm, I agree with Das (Rheine) on the spam-count thing. It should also be made well aware that the post are cut off in IRC, so this is a currently minor issue to be dealt with (I know some programs automatically cut the post length, but unfortunatley mine is one that does not).

Contact me: or all us admins:

[Gararion]

Indeed Dasson.

*Remembers playing in Broken Dagger with Luci on several occasions*

Also, for those who use mIRC but don't always have sound turned on, mIRC doesn't automatically cut one long post into two, but it will start to beep at you each time you go over the character limit, every letter over character imit grants a single beep when the key is pressed.

Advanced search

[Members]

Members Total Members: 2842 Latest: Jillvalen Stats Total Posts: 214556 Total Topics: 8050 Online Today: 21 Online Ever: 216 (November 30, 2006, 09:08:03 AM) Users Online Users: 0 Guests: 18 Total: 18

[Artimidor]

	Powered by SMF 1.1.21 | SMF © 2005, Simple Machines TinyPortal v0.9.8 © Bloc
Theme based on Cerberus with Risen adjustments by Bloc and Krelia Modified By Artimidor for The Santharian Dream