discussion about backboards

[ikigai.]

[align=center][div style="background=transparent; borderwidth=0px; bordercolor=; width: 500px; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 125%; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; color: black"]okay really this is just going to be a. casual discussion. i love discussion and seeing both sides of the story. i love more than anything open discussions and providing a safe space for people to bring up their ideas. if you oppose the topic, you can freely say so without expecting any hateful/mean comments. all i want is to bring up a topic i have been wondering for a long time. my goal for 2020 is to bring myself to stop complaining about things, and see if instead of complaining i can try and bring about change.

it's been weighing on my chest for a while, and rather than settling with the same answer i've heard time and time again, i want to bring a discussion up about the backboards.
the backboards have been fairly active recently. bp and nd are just as active as bl, and both are more active than fl. i feel like that should mean something in terms of giving the backboards a little more recognition. or at least a spot where they aren't the sub-board of a sub-board anymore.
i've heard on discord a lot that it's because of "activity" on bb in general. however, i personally don't think that's a fair reason for why they're way in the back. it makes it even harder to bring activity to the sweet backboard groups, mostly because they don't get a chance to be seen as easily as bl or fl. in the "most recent posts" they don't even show up unless you click to view the most recent topics, which makes it that much harder to grab a newcomer's attention to the boards. idk. personally, i feel like bb isn't going to get more active, so at least making the people on here happier would be a good place to start.

i'm not even asking for the active backboard groups to get moved onto the frontboard, maybe someday i will, but who knows. i'm simply wondering if we can open a discussion, perhaps find a way so that the backboards are more visible, rather than having to go to the loner lands, then to the unofficial groups, then to a group to discover them.
i mean even moving the active boards onto the front page of the loner lands, taking "ooc discussions" and "group guide" boards' place. both of those boards' oldest threads on the front page are more than a year old, one of them even almost two-three years old. idk i'm just trying to think of a way to make people happier in the bb community. the loner lands itself is a very inactive subboard until you click around to the backboards... maybe there's something we could do, there??
these are all just my own thoughts, i'm not really an expert on creating a website. but i feel like there's potential here.

i'm not here to attack bb, it just seems like this has been a topic that's been waiting to be brought up. i typed more than i thought i would, but i think it would be a good place to start a discussion or for others to bring up their ideas. again, this is a safe space where people should freely be able to express their thoughts and opinions. i want everyone to come out of this discussion feeling at least slightly happier than before about the topic. hopefully that can be achieved, idk.

so tell me your thoughts?? opinions?? your own ideas?
i'd be glad to hear them!!
i love you all sm <3


sorry that this is all just a big old rambly mess. i tried to clean it up a little.

[truce.]

tracking for now until i have time to make a proper reply but you know i support your ideas 100% <33

[Beatles.]

[align=center][div style="width: 400px; text-align: justify; line-height: 12px;"][font=calibri]this!!! has also been weighing on my mind for a long time as well. these are simply my own opinions about the system as a whole so no hating here <3

it never made sense to me that the backboards that are wayyy faster than frontboards are still. in the back
like? what

i think there should be a monthly or bi-monthly rotation to the frontboards, where staff can take a look at how active a group has been ICly and determine the frontboards then.

that's another thing: i never really understood the terms "official" and "unofficial" groups. what makes a group more "official" than another one? what if said "official" group hasn't made 5 posts on their board in a month and the "unofficial" one has been constantly climbing in activity? it's not really fair that an active, deserving group has to stay in the shadows just because they're "unofficial"

tl;dr - i believe the terms "un/official groups" don't make sense and should instead be referred to as frontboards and backboards (in which the frontboards are determined by bi/monthly activity)

[cosmyn]

[align=center][div style="width: 400px; text-align: justify; line-height: 12px;"][font=calibri]this!!! has also been weighing on my mind for a long time as well. these are simply my own opinions about the system as a whole so no hating here <3

it never made sense to me that the backboards that are wayyy faster than frontboards are still. in the back
like? what

i think there should be a monthly or bi-monthly rotation to the frontboards, where staff can take a look at how active a group has been ICly and determine the frontboards then.

that's another thing: i never really understood the terms "official" and "unofficial" groups. what makes a group more "official" than another one? what if said "official" group hasn't made 5 posts on their board in a month and the "unofficial" one has been constantly climbing in activity? it's not really fair that an active, deserving group has to stay in the shadows just because they're "unofficial"

tl;dr - i believe the terms "un/official groups" don't make sense and should instead be referred to as frontboards and backboards (in which the frontboards are determined by bi/monthly activity)

^^ big agree

[truce.]

[quote author=BEATLES link=topic=22738.msg490197#msg490197 date=1578332784]
[align=center][div style="width: 400px; text-align: justify; line-height: 12px;"][font=calibri]this!!! has also been weighing on my mind for a long time as well. these are simply my own opinions about the system as a whole so no hating here <3

it never made sense to me that the backboards that are wayyy faster than frontboards are still. in the back
like? what

i think there should be a monthly or bi-monthly rotation to the frontboards, where staff can take a look at how active a group has been ICly and determine the frontboards then.

that's another thing: i never really understood the terms "official" and "unofficial" groups. what makes a group more "official" than another one? what if said "official" group hasn't made 5 posts on their board in a month and the "unofficial" one has been constantly climbing in activity? it's not really fair that an active, deserving group has to stay in the shadows just because they're "unofficial"

tl;dr - i believe the terms "un/official groups" don't make sense and should instead be referred to as frontboards and backboards (in which the frontboards are determined by bi/monthly activity)

^^ big agree
[/quote]

ohshit this is actually a genius idea imo and i truly think smth like this should be implemented.
it is essentially giving members the choice to decide what boards they are most interested at that given time and if it's changing monthly/bi-monthly it's constantly giving other boards the opportunity to thrive.

[ikigai.]

[align=center][div style="background=transparent; borderwidth=0px; bordercolor=; width: 500px; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 125%; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; color: black"]!!!!
yes, yes to literally all of this

i agree with you guys on everything. truce took the words out of my mouth imo
plus i also think it would help encourage groups to be more active, so that they would have their chance to be on the frontboard

and beatles literally the naming,, i've thought about that so much before
the groups on the backboard interact with the frontboard groups just the same.
and it's also caused confusion with newcomers too. like i remember someone calling the frontboard "the real game" and the backboards were seen to them as, just as the name calls it, "unofficial."
i think it's amazing that you brought that up!!
you're a genius wtf

[truce.]

Would staff be opposed to ever giving an idea like Beatles’ one a try?? I know it’s a little different to the moral alignment setup that we are used to but possibly trying a rotation based on what’s popular at that moment of time may end up working better than what we already have!! And, worst case, if it doesn’t work then we can go back to the current setup.

I like the idea of the name being changed from unofficial to backboard, especially since I think “unofficial” has lost its meaning in this case.

In terms of reorganising the loner lands board, I don’t know much about running a forum bUT I will have a good think!! I think the ideal would be to remove the “unofficial groups” board entirely and put the backboard groups where ooc discussion, groups guides and unofficial groups are.

Just a suggestion but on the main page, in the new world section, what if we were to make a board purely for ooc discussions?? So we’d have FL, BL, loner lands, private threads and ooc discussion boards on the front page

There can then be sub-boards for each frontboard group and then for backboard groups and loner land groups. It at least removes the ooc bit in loner lands

Or if a new board was made for backboards so it’s separate from the loner lands bc I feel like the loner lands take away from the backboard groups a little??

This is messy and just me spewing random ideas that probably don’t make sense AHDJFKL id need to put more thought into it but. I do think a new board to break up some of the loner lands is necessary since it’s all cluttered there?? This is so messy omg sorry ily all I’m just trying to think of smth that’ll be helpful

[truce.]

Double post but I sketched out the second idea for the layout? It includes BP in case we move it


Top left = frontboards

Oh oh oh I do like this layout a lot imo
It separates things more accordingly and overall neatens everything ??
It may make tnw section look bigger on the front page but then it also organises things in an easier format for navigation imo

[truce.]

Or I mean alternatively?? Make the other rp section one row rather than two? So we have advanced rp and then other rp (fandoms, wilderness rising & human)
So although tnw is still three rows, at least it’s sorta like a give & take situation. Plus the other rp section is not nearly as popular as tnw is so it makes sense ??

[finny.]

quick track while i read through the newer posts