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I really like this idea! And it would be good role playing practice with our characters cat_3nodding
I'm assuming it would go in the Barton Town forum? And everybody in one forum? Also, would we give away the theme since it will be close to the ball anyway?

I think this idea could work out well to get people pumped and give them a better heads-up cat_3nodding

I like the idea too.

1. Try not to have walls of text on the first page. It's sad that I'm even saying this but I do believe that the more text there is for people to read before they join a roleplay, the less likely they are to actually read it or even join. I would say this goes for all threads as guests don't have the advantage we have of being able to pre-read it before it goes live [unless they stalk the test forum.]

2. Very large images are less friendly towards people with slower connections and may cause them to feel less inclined to participate. This also goes for post styles. Try to shrink these down to as small as you can without destroying image quality.

I like the idea of putting the F.A.Q. in each thread. Most of the threads have at least one reserved space, or if they don't then they could have some condensed posts to make one, and it would be extremely helpful. Linking is useful, but when they're checking out a thread and already getting a little overloaded with information, links to contests, plot, characters, etc. then following a link to another thread can be daunting.


I half agree with Sachie about less text in threads, but I don't think that every thread should have a bare minimum when it comes to their layout. It would be a hard balance to achieve and I don't think it would be fair to limit hosts and co-hosts on what they can put in their threads, however, walls of text aren't pleasant for anyone. A compromise would be to have the threads done at an early enough date (like Chibi suggested) and to then have them looked over and suggestions made for all of them.


My own suggestions would be:

Uniformity on at least a small scale. A little more organization on what the room "should" include in the threads would make it less confusing for guests. If they were browsing multiple rooms, for example, and knew that they would be able to skip down to the story and plot for the room by going to a specific post, then it would be easier for them to find. The same goes for if they're looking for cast, contests, or plot updates in each room. I wouldn't mean for this to carry over into graphics or images, though... but it would depend on the theme, too.


Less rooms. I remember we had thought that it would be a good idea to have a lot of rooms for the 10th ball because it is a big shindig, and we did 7 for the 9th ball to fit with the themes, however I feel like this stretched our resources a little too thin between rooms. People were having to ask friends to help out in their rooms when once upon a time there would have been plenty of folks applying to co-hosts. I believe there was more than a couple rooms that accepted all, or nearly all, of their co-host and at least one of them was still pathetically short of co-hosts once the ball rolled around. Ideally there should be co-hosts and official role-players in a room so that, if bad things happen, a role-player can step up and take on the role of co-hosts. They would already know the plot, have been helping with planning, and be experienced with the ball as opposed to recruiting someone and needing to bring them up to speed.


I think a manga comic would be a nice touch. We had so much lovely artwork this year thanks to some very generous artists and I wouldn't mind working with them to provide the new ball with a mange once we have decided on a theme and a plot. This would require having the plot sorted out a lot sooner, though, because by the time we had our official ball plot I was too wrapped up in working on my room to offer such a thing.


That's my two cents... for now!

Yes, I agree. No gigantic wall of text. Honestly, the walls of text are not appealing at all, and make me not want to read it, even though I'm part of the ball! x.x

Pictures are always nice, but there should be text, as you and Robayn both said, but not so much everyone is asleep before they finish reading half.

We should have the text to a point where it's clear that this is NOT a completely serious and hardcore adv. literate RP or something. But we should have enough text to convey the fact, yes it is an RP. It is a walk-in RP. But there is a plot. There are contests and games and characters and rules. No, there is not a profile. Yes, you may join. Kind of like just the basic concept for the ball and the room. It's supposed to be fun and enjoyable, not an English class.

But yeah, you're right. You should be okay with reading words if you want to join in on the RP in the first place.

And on another subject, I agree with Robayn about the structure of the threads, if that's what she meant. I think there should be a outline for each thread so we're all matchy matchy. Say the characters and the bios are in the fourth post in one thread, it should not be in the second or the sixth post in another. It just confusing and mismatched.

But yes, it should not be so strict so that each room looks EXACTLY the same as the next. But I'd say just close enough. Like they resemble, but are almost completely different in the graphics, text, coding and whatnot.

These are both excellent suggestions, especially the image size one. I used to have an old clunker of a computer so I feel for the people trying to load all of that.

@Robayn - I especially like your points about fewer rooms, and more of an outline for where certain posts will be. biggrin

@Jeffry - That suggestion about having a brief room summary in the introduction thread also sounds like a brilliant plan! heart