[quote:c4ddf8db9a="Garner"][quote:c4ddf8db9a="chrisjordan"][quote:c4ddf8db9a="Kat_in_the_Hat"]
I think role-playing threads should be ok in the 'Boardanian Role Play Group' Board. Even if they aren't started by Garner :P[/quote:c4ddf8db9a]

Could you be more specific about 'role-playing threads'? You mean threads based on proper roleplaying games played by board members, or slapstick *whacks Bob* stuff?

The 'Boardanian Role Play Group' board should be for the Boardanian Role Play Group. That doesn't mean just for the people who are involved in the current campaign, because I think it's already been said somewhere that future games will be open to anyone in the community who wants to play. I think that forum should be for discussing or writing about the current BRPG campaign or planning/suggesting stuff for future BRPG campaigns.

However, I don't think that it should be filled with threads where someone has decided it would be fun to start a roleplay where someone writes a bit with their character, and then someone writes another bit with [i:c4ddf8db9a]their[/i:c4ddf8db9a] character and so on. I think roleplaying like that should be elsewhere. Maybe in a forum of its own (because I'm personally not to keen on having numerous threads like that in the Boardania forum)?[/quote:c4ddf8db9a]

You know, I found that original comment to be quite snarky. If anyone's got any problem with me having started a role play group, I'd like to know WHY? And let's not hear any more of that "Only people Garner invites" bollocks, because it's patently not true.

Now, I don't like the kind of message board role playing that chris described. We've tried it in the past before, and it doesn't often work very well with us. There are other sites that do it better and where the entire community is built around it. Buzzfloyd used to post on a Discworld role playing site, and it used to be pretty good until the intellectual average on the site nosedived with an influx of bad role players. Ba is part of a couple of other communities where they do super hero and other role playing games.

I have no problem with this sort of thing existing on our forums, provided its confined to specific threads, does not spill over onto other threads, and hopefully doesn't showcase anyone's emotional problems, like we saw with a certan lycanthropic disaster a while back.

Personally, I don't want it cluttering up "my" role play group forum, but I wouldn't object (much) if it were in a sub forum.

Since these things aren't very common, i don't think they'd clutter up the "Boardania" forum, and that's where they'd have gone on the old site.[/quote:c4ddf8db9a]

I didn't mean to be snarky. And I don't have a problem with you starting a role playing group. If it sounded that way, then my apologies for not explaining myself.

I also don't have a problem with anyone starting a roleplaying thread, whether its to write in a story-like fashion, personal character development, or random weirdness. (Whacking Bob, however, is shameful.)

I wouldn't even have a problem with saying, only Discworld/Boardania-related roleplays.

I do, however, have a problem with a role-play group, however official it may be, claiming rights to be the [i:c4ddf8db9a]only[/i:c4ddf8db9a] one allowed. And saying, in the FAQ, no roleplaying allowed, when there is a role-playing group alive and kicking. And that particular group was started by Garner and therefore, is above reproof, which is fine and great and whatnot. But that doesn't mean that any other people who would like to roleplay but aren't interested in the particular group that already exists (ok, and maybe I'm the only one) should be kicked out of the show.

Now I don't think that roleplaying will be a big deal. But I do think that banning something you don't like simply because you feel it is below your intelligence level is a big deal. If saying my roleplaying is ok but yours is stupid isn't snarky then I don't know what is. Especially when it's contained on one thread that you don't even have to look at if you don't want to.

P.S. snarky apparently means [i:c4ddf8db9a]Irritable or short-tempered; irascible.[/i:c4ddf8db9a], according to dictionary.com. I feel this is misused. Sarcastic, yes. Angry...no. [/i]

I can see your point, Kat, but you are talking as though roleplaying were banned outright. Now, the actual rule (which probably requires revision) is: [i:de3a4024ab]No roleplaying/ pool parties etc, except where confined to one thread.[/i:de3a4024ab]

We have never said roleplaying shouldn't happen, only that it should be kept confined, so that those who are not interested don't have to look at it. On the old boards, the BRPG was all in one thread; here we can make forums to confine things, which is great, and should be considered in this rule. Now, we might want to say that we should have a roleplaying forum and make the current BRPG forum a sub-forum within it. We could then put all RP threads in there.

Any thoughts? Or should this go in a separate thread?

I think there's a bit of confusion between role playing as is in RPGs (no, not rocket propelled grenades), Dungeons and Dragons and such, and larking about playing a role, as in pool party threads where we pretend to hit each other over the head and carry on a story as if we were all in a particular place that we invent as we go along.

Now I know they both sound very similar, but the first one is organised, with depth and background and a plot; the second one is just made up as we go along, no rules of play or anything like that - just messing around.

I think we need to reword it so there is no confusion, stop calling the second one roll playing all together. I also think we should make a silly forum for this, e.g. The Looney Bin, and say something along the lines of: If you must post email jokes or act out silly scenarios, please could you do it in The Looney Bin (or whatever). It doesn't have to be harsh, we can also move threads into this place that turn into this type of thread - I imagine badgers and moneys may be fairly prominent in there.

[quote:8514d2dcff="Maljonic"] [snip]....as in pool party threads where we pretend to hit each other over the head and carry on a story as if we were all in a particular place that we invent as we go along....[snip][/quote:8514d2dcff]

Thank you Mal! Now I'm off to do more research on the Thunderspork.

May I also make a suggestion about the "joke" area? What about The Fools' Guild instead of Looney Bin? Whatever it's called, I think it's a good idea to have a seperate area to keep the email jokes and Pool Parties (now I know what they are).

Lastly, going back to the FAQ suggestions, I know it's early days and certainly not something that needs to be put into place now but ....... What do the Elders think about the Babelfish-type thread/post for Newbies? I know that one was created on the old board and I think that it was felt to be a good idea. Unfortunately, the Elders had to correct a lot of it as it had been created by a Newbit for Newbits.
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EDIT: grammar[/i:8514d2dcff][/size:8514d2dcff]

I must confess, I don't know what you're talking about, Freya. What's a Babelfish thread?

Babelfish is a language translator on the internet, and a translating fish in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Gallaxy.

Freya means to make a page to translate all our terms into plain English, such as Pool Parties, Boardania, Tripod et cetera...

I think it's a good idea, but I also think it would be a good idea to make our FAQ understandable to anyone right away, without the need for a Babelfish.

For the record, the rule about no roleplaying stems from the rule about not posting in character.

I'll spare the history lessons about what happened on the old site, but the rule originally pertained to 1) role playing on the boards, particularly rampant 'pool party' claptrap, 2) role playing as copyrighted discworld characters.

History lessons aside, it is worth mentioning that during the compromise that confined the roleplaying to one or two threads, only a small percentage of the community at the time participated in it, and virtually all of those who did would later become known as the 'Axis Posters'.

So, another reason to be wary of roleplaying is that it's always been favored by trolls or people who would become trolls.

[quote:79a7458d18="Maljonic"]Babelfish is a language translator on the internet, and a translating fish in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Gallaxy.

Freya means to make a page to translate all our terms into plain English, such as Pool Parties, Boardania, Tripod et cetera...

I think it's a good idea, but I also think it would be a good idea to make our FAQ understandable to anyone right away, without the need for a Babelfish. [/quote:79a7458d18]
Thanks, Mal. I knew what a Babelfish was, but didn't understand what Freya meant by it. I also think that if those terms are to be used in the FAQ, they should be defined there. However, if they are not used, it would make sense to include a glossary of common Boardanian terms.

[quote:26f7b6d1e7="Buzzfloyd"][quote:26f7b6d1e7="Maljonic"]Babelfish is a language translator on the internet, and a translating fish in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Gallaxy.

Freya means to make a page to translate all our terms into plain English, such as Pool Parties, Boardania, Tripod et cetera...

I think it's a good idea, but I also think it would be a good idea to make our FAQ understandable to anyone right away, without the need for a Babelfish. [/quote:26f7b6d1e7]
Thanks, Mal. I knew what a Babelfish was, but didn't understand what Freya meant by it. I also think that if those terms are to be used in the FAQ, they should be defined there. However, if they are not used, it would make sense to include a glossary of common Boardanian terms.[/quote:26f7b6d1e7]

My thanks, Mal, for explaining my post so succinctly in my absence. That is exactly what I meant but I didn't make myself clear. My apologies to Buzzfloyd. I look forward to reading the Glossary in due course.

I don't meant to labour a point, but I'm racing to catch up with 3 days of posts here...

[quote:899461012f="Garner"]i don't think that a moderator is supposed to carry any extra authority *because* they are a moderator, and there are plenty of people who are vital to the community that aren't mods, yet who should be listened to just as intently.
[/quote:899461012f]

I never meant that mods should be the only ones with opinions. I just meant that if one of us mere mortals was to make a decision which affects someone else, it would be best to go through a mod, or at least make sure we have some support. I think you should beware of having a rule which blatantly hands out authority to anyone who wishes to grab it!

The thing is that the mods are also mere mortals. We never had moderators before, and it's been important to us that, now we have them, they are the servants of the community rather than the rulers of it; in other words, the mods do what the community wants rather than vice versa.

So, in other words, everyone [i:dd234ddc29]does[/i:dd234ddc29] have the authority.

I agree with the suggestion of a joke area. This community has always had an ambiguous attitude about pool parties, email jokes, etc. with some people saying they're not allowed, and others saying that people should be able to enjoy themselves, and those that don't want to read them can just avoid them. This has led to arguments.

With a joke thread, people who want to will have the opportunity to post in them, and others will have an easier time avoiding them.

I have been on other message boards that are full of email jokes mixed up in the general discussions forum. It is particulary annoying when the title of the thread makes it look like someone is discussing an interesting topic, but when you bring up the thread it's just an old email joke that you read 3 years ago.

Should we have a Fools' Guild then, or should we have a vote on the name?

it could read something like:

[quote:93556f102d][b:93556f102d]The Fools' Guild[/b:93556f102d]
For all topics way too silly to be in the Boardania general discussion section, such as larking about posting as a character and pretending to hit each other, email jokes and utter nonesense.[/quote:93556f102d]

P.S. It could go directly under the Boardania section, to show it's kind of loosely connected and not to associate it with the proper roll playing section further down?

I like the name Mal.

it is the only name that is appropriate. let it be done so.