We need a new forum

I think we should stick with this forum, I'm comfortable with it, I like that it isn't flashy, it's simple. It's a bit cluttered but it can be cleaned.

Setting up a new forum and having all the information we need transferred is not hard. As much as you guys may or may not trust Kruggly and I, we established and managed an entire forum just fine.

If we start with a new forum we can also bring all of Olden's new lore and make a Wikipedia page that's not only easy to navigate, but pleasant and professional. Kruggly and Jacque made a master piece out of their nation's wiki.

A simple change can suddenly make it feel more fantasy-ish and comfortable.

Reager wrote:

A simple change can suddenly make it feel more fantasy-ish and comfortable.

Yeah changing the default language to elvish tends to achieve that.

It's called going into the admin panel, changing the forum theme and color scheme, and having someone edit a new banner picture / logo. New forum!

I've built a forum like this from scratch before, and let me tell you, it's no cakewalk. Getting everything set up is easily several days of tinkering in between time you go out and have a life - and that's before the horrifying project of transferring threads begins. Cleaning up these forums would take less time, and if the format is that badly in need of a change, there's a surprising amount of ways to achieve that.

You could let me and Kruggly set up a forum, use this one in the mean time, and see how you folks like the change.

Plus that way we can make an Wikipedia that's way easier to traverse. I wouldn't mind giving it a shot.

Zaku wrote:

You could let me and Kruggly set up a forum, use this one in the mean time, and see how you folks like the change.

Plus that way we can make an Wikipedia that's way easier to traverse. I wouldn't mind giving it a shot.

I will admit, the idea of a wiki is tempting. But I remember when Desertia tried one of those - it was hardly used, and became a dump for lore no one really cared about. The problem is, if you categorize a wiki to make it organized, you've just cloned the forums. Same categories, subcategories, and "threads". They have to somehow be better than the forums.

Once Kruggly and Jacque are on they can show you what they did with their nation, it's amazing what they've managed to achieve. It'd make lore SO much better then what we currently have. We wouldn't need to clutter the forums with it anymore, we'd have a wiki just for Lore and even character pages if people would like.

Rants don't solve a thing, OA. ._.

What Zaku said about making it into a wiki- I really like lore in a wiki format because it just seems to work miracles. It takes any confusion and hyperlinks you to the answers :V. Additionally, you can externally link it up to the main commuinity site- like me and Jacque did in the example wiki below (cause we sorta linked it with Olden but decided very strongly to never put it in after we took it in a new direction (thanks to creative assembly lul)).

A wiki never feels cluttered cause if you do it right, everything's in a neat, unified format that's easy to access- the antithesis of the scattered old lore threads on Olden.

If you care enough, you can gander at the Kazoshu wiki purely as an example of how the lore would be set out.

+Support for the wiki idea. As long as there's no vandals, wikis are an amazing idea.

God knows of all communities Olden would be the one to need a wiki, especially with all of this new lore.

I like the new forum idea, but disagree with wiki. I'd love to see your guy's skills and ability to create such a lovely page, but at the same time having a wiki would kinda strip the forums of their point. If we then moved characters to the wiki, the forums would ultimately serve us nothing other than to just have an announcement thread.

Jack wrote:

+Support for the wiki idea. As long as there's no vandals, wikis are an amazing idea.

You could make it so only registered and approved users could add content. Which would really fix that issue.

Reager wrote:

I like the new forum idea, but disagree with wiki. I'd love to see your guy's skills and ability to create such a lovely page, but at the same time having a wiki would kinda strip the forums of their point. If we then moved characters to the wiki, the forums would ultimately serve us nothing other than to just have an announcement thread.

And we all talk on it, we apply for characters on it.

A wiki would do us good, and we could all work on it- that is, everyone who owns a piece of lore could transfer it.

Me and Jacque would be all too happy volunteering to be some kinda moderators over the whole thing.

For wiki, the pages would be too dull, no color to the words to make them stand out. Not as much customization at all. Not trying to be a bummer, just don't like the wiki idea.

You can do all that with a wiki.

Reager wrote:

For wiki, the pages would be too dull, no color to the words to make them stand out. Not as much customization at all. Not trying to be a bummer, just don't like the wiki idea.

Like Zaku said, that's all do-able with a wiki.

Though you don't need to make words stand out with colours, really. The sections are clearly marked, and there's pictures. The exact format pages are in can be transferred- only we'd have content tables at the start of the pages and hyperlinks everywhere.

At least give it a shot, man.

I agree with the wiki idea myself, it's easily disposed of if the people do not prefer it.

It does not require to be flashy or any of the sorts, it's simple, comprehensible and organized, if it goes well.
I'd say we should at least make a poll about it, and see what the general consensus is of the denizens of Aeria.

Also the fact I just looked for a lore page and couldn't even decide what section it'd been posted in...

I wanted to get a last community opinion on the wiki idea, since it appears we're moving in that direction. Krug, Zaku (and Jack?) took the time to create an example for us, which I thought looked good. See for yourself.

http://theaeria.wikia.com/wiki/Occitan

Pat wrote:

I wanted to get a last community opinion on the wiki idea, since it appears we're moving in that direction. Krug, Zaku (and Jack?) took the time to create an example for us, which I thought looked good. See for yourself.

http://theaeria.wikia.com/wiki/Occitan

I like it. Doesn't mean we need a new forum, but I like it.

The new forum and a wiki are separate ideas. We can have one without the other.

If we are really refusing to get a new forum can we at least get a clean up?

Remove the tons and tons of threads we don't need, remove the countless pages of nonsense, get us a proper URL (that doesn't market the website as 'stuff') and if we go through with the wikipedia clear up some space in the IC board by either archiving or deleting the 'lore' (if we can even call it that) section.

I'm in the middle of writing some new lore now, and I'm leaving it exclusively to the Wikipedia - in the event that we refuse to use a nice and organized wiki for whatever reason then I'll port it over, but only then.

Like I said, one can be accepted without the other. I think the proverbial jury is still out regarding the new forum, though I'd personally prefer the cleanup idea.

Let's focus on the Wiki idea for now.

I never said we didn't need a cleanup. Hell yes we need a cleanup. I'd be willing to do it myself if I had access to the admin panel.

and then I'd delete EVERYTHING MUAHAHAHAHA