Suggestion: Roleplaying Praise Subforum

[Synnono]

Hello forums denizens. Just something I've been thinking about lately:

The forums have a lot of complaints boards. We have public spaces in which to request that people be banned, have their behavior reviewed, and their characters officially criticized, in both IC and OOC contexts. That's fine, and I believe that those functions are important to maintaining a community of quality, but I also feel that it places a spotlight on players having negative interactions with other players.

I also believe that it is intimidating to new players to see so much attention placed on these boards. I don't have analytics since I don't administrate the forum, but I feel as though the complaints section is possibly the most active place on the site next to applications, which bothers me from a standpoint of community. Early on when I started to post, I used to check the complaints boards after rounds just to see if someone thought I or my characters should be getting in trouble for some reason. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I don't think that I'm the only one who has that sort of experience as a new user.

With that in mind, what I'd like to suggest is not that we modify the complaints boards, but instead put up a subforum dedicated to positive interactions that can live alongside them. Players who have a really good round, or conversation, or experience as the result of roleplaying with others can come to this forum to tell us about it, and give the person who made their time fun a little public credit. It might give us some insight into players and characters we haven't yet met, or some ideas for interacting with people in ways we hadn't previously considered (within the bounds of metagaming rules). My hope is that with a spotlight like this, we can cultivate a supportive environment on the forums that will reward enjoyable roleplay a little, and encourage more activity throughout.

I'm not entirely sure of the template, but it would probably go something like:

BYOND Key:

Character Name:

Date:

Players/Characters Involved:

Description of scene or interaction:

From there, the thread can discuss the interaction, or provide additional detail with posts from involved players. Do you folks feel that this is a thing worth doing? I'm ignorant of the time/effort involved, but I think that it would be nice thing to have around.

Edited January 1, 2016 by Guest

[rrrrrr]

you put waaaaay too many words to suggesting an anti-incident reports subforum

oh and this idea sucks, people shouldn't be awarded for not being shit

[Guest]

Players can put up positive threads about people on the General Boards. It's been done before. There doesn't really need to be a focused place for that really. It's not really something that's done to an extent where it filters out everything else.

[MagnificentMelkior]

While the idea of lauding people for great performances is noble, I don't think it warrants a whole thread most of the time, and thus not a full subforum. I say this because I can't imagine there being any real discussion going on after the opening post in a lot of cases. So if someone is really great and you want them to have a whole thread, make one in general. But otherwise, this could work as a megathread. While that doesn't present the appearance you want people to see on the forums, I think that's just a consequence of player/incident reports having a more physical reason to exist. If you think you can get the ball rolling, why not make a megathread for this?

[Tenenza]

I joined this server because Incog made this thread way back.

As a result of Incog's ill thoughtout decision, you are now stuck with me forever.

Good job Incog.

[Mofo1995]

you put waaaaay too many words to suggesting an anti-incident reports subforum

oh and this idea sucks, people shouldn't be awarded for not being shit

I don't think it is very fair to say that this would exist to award people solely for not being shit. Most people roleplay average at best, and therefore not shit. Every once in awhile you have people who roleplay poorly and warrant complaints, and yet no praise for a good day's work when someone performs roleplay above average. All though yes, this was a very verbosely written suggestion.

All though, with all of that said, I think praise for good roleplay could possibly turn out to be more rare and less trafficked than complaints for bad roleplay, so making a forum for it might make an underused area of the site. Maybe we could just make a general forum for feedbacks and ratings where people could praise/criticize each other without calling for executive action to be taken against their fellow players. Or maybe just what's already been suggested, making individual threads to praise people on the general forum. I actually like the idea of a megathread since I also think it would be hard to have conversations beyond the first couple of posts.

[Synnono]

Maybe we could just make a general forum for feedbacks and ratings where people could praise/criticize each other without calling for executive action to be taken against their fellow players. Or maybe just what's already been suggested, making individual threads to praise people on the general forum.

 

This could also suit the purpose, more or less! Right now, I believe Tenenza moved all of those threads to sit in the Personnel Database section, which might be a little more IC-leaning than what was suggested here. A section within that forum, or within General, would suit the purpose too.

Also, I agree that the OP was wordy I feel as though if I'm going to suggest something, I'd like to justify it too. Thanks for reading it despite!

[UnknownMurder]

you put waaaaay too many words to suggesting an anti-incident reports subforum

oh and this idea sucks, people shouldn't be awarded for not being shit

 

People are awarded not being given a ban for not being shit.

[Chaznoodles]

This'll just turn into a circlejerk. No.

[Skull132]

There is research that outright proves positive reinforcement being better than negative reinforcement. Quite a lot of it, in fact

[LordFowl]

Yeah, but don't circlejerks make you go blind? Or is that just masturbation full stop?

[JKJudgeX]

I think this is a decent idea. I don't think it's "shit" to just roleplay a standard round, but it's also not noteworthy.

I can think of many noteworthy RP stories that other players have made amazing with their actions and dialogue, above and beyond the uninvolved side-character with a race-based speech impediment.

People who react accordingly to hostage situations, both as the hostage and as the first responder... antagonists who set up really good situations for people and play a good villain while doing so... a captain actually mulling over a moral decision and discussing it... the security officer who isn't a hardass when dealing with the science department because he's got a casual interest in science... there's definitely an "above and beyond" to RPing SS13 that no player hits every single round, and instead of just saying good job in OOC, I think a few of those rounds i've played in I would have actually bothered to come to the forum and give a shoutout to the person or people who made my 3 hour round an unforgettable video gaming experience instead of just another shift pushing chems or devices over a desk.

[Synnono]

...there's definitely an "above and beyond" to RPing SS13 that no player hits every single round, and instead of just saying good job in OOC, I think a few of those rounds i've played in I would have actually bothered to come to the forum and give a shoutout to the person or people who made my 3 hour round an unforgettable video gaming experience instead of just another shift pushing chems or devices over a desk.

 

This is exactly the kind of behavior I would like to think a section or thread such as this would recognize/encourage. All in all, I want people to be excited about coming here and knowing knowing other people, and recognition is a big part of that, particularly for players who aren't yet part of the community.

I agree that there's a risk the section would not be used as heavily as others. But I disagree that that should be used as justification not to try it.

[Thundy]

I think the only solution is to flood the general page with "Hey, well done McGrill!! " until they give us our own changeroom thread to put it in.

[Zundy]

Can we gave a "Get Gud" sub forum where we can gently advise non-robust players to improve through positive-passive aggressive comments?

[Synnono]

I think the only solution is to flood the general page with "Hey, well done McGrill!! " until they give us our own changeroom thread to put it in.

 

So, I see that you went and DID this. And while I think that's nice of you (and flattering, thank you for the kind words), it might slightly miss the mark of what I was hoping to achieve with the original idea. My belief is that having everyone in their own special thread where they are always the topic of (positive?) feedback encourages more self-gratifying behavior than any kind of engagement - like those re-posting people who try to hoard fake internet points on Imgur. It also highlights a little more distinctly when someone is not as well known as someone else (why does Skull have twelve posts when I only have two!!1!) and a new player might even feel like they shouldn't have such a thread, because they see a bunch of regulars with the topics made by someone they don't really know.

The reason that I imagined the original idea as a forum or subforum with an incident-style layout is that I wanted to call attention to events, and the people in them, and then move on somewhat. Capturing a series of uniquely interesting, fun moments and showing them off would give people an idea of what they can get up to if they look for it, or help create it. As mentioned in an earlier post, even a megathread could get this done, so long as the whole thing wasn't dragged off topic.

 

Can we gave a "Get Gud" sub forum where we can gently advise non-robust players to improve through positive-passive aggressive comments?

 

May I subscribe to your positive passive-aggressive newsletter on this topic? My PM button is just up and to the left, there.

[Thundy]

The reason that I imagined the original idea as a forum or subforum with an incident-style layout is that I wanted to call attention to events, and the people in them, and then move on somewhat. Capturing a series of uniquely interesting, fun moments and showing them off would give people an idea of what they can get up to if they look for it, or help create it. As mentioned in an earlier post, even a megathread could get this done, so long as the whole thing wasn't dragged off topic.

 

I actually agree with you, however since I am currently not in a position to view incidents of good role play I decided to write nice things instead. Also I wanted to alleviate the idea that there isn't enough good stuff to say about people in order not to warrent it's own forum section.

like those re-posting people who try to hoard fake internet points on Imgur.

 

Imgur internet points are real life.

Also get me another post to "Hello world" right now or so help me...

[Guest]

I think the only solution is to flood the general page with "Hey, well done McGrill!! " until they give us our own changeroom thread to put it in.

 

spamming doesn't really pressure staff into a position to do anything

[Tenenza]

Is this still a thing people want?