Ideas/implementations for the Forum

[Linknerd09]

But what we have is an award for members who have stuck around for three years or longer on ZD, which will probably be called Elders (is nothing else is decided upon)

So at first we have the traditional award medals

These images I think it's great for this award.

And here are some of the smaller forum post icons for the Elders grouping. I could not decide between something birthday/anniversary looking or something showing off the more elder title.

I like this one for the small icon elder

And some of the smaller icons for the Milestone award.

This one is perfect!

And here are a few more stylized ideas for the Milestone showing off someone who posts often.

This one perfectly represents people who posts often.

Here are a few things for the 3 year anniversary/elders award

Like these two

This is just my suggestion/opinion. I want others' suggestions/opinions too.

 

[Ronin]

• 10000 forum post count
• 10000 Wiki edits
• Site Staff for 2 years (these drop like flies; they needed to be awarded)
• 10 articles published for the ZD Main Site

Also, regarding the 10000 forum post count award idea... no one has ever made that many posts in the history of ZD. That's like... a very outlandish number. A few thousand I can understand, but 10,000 is unprecedented. I'm not sure that it's a good idea to award people for having large post counts is a good idea, either. I personally wouldn't support it, but again, whatever the majority wants is fine.

I agree with Nicole. Not to cut down your efficiency Alit--you've offered several great suggestions--but 10,000 posts is exorbitant. If we were to go with this post count award, then the stipulation would need to be brought down a few thousand; none of this Over 9,000! conception. Personally, I'd support a 5,000 post milestone.

So at first we have the traditional award medals

The Blue Medal or Wreathe seem good to me.

And here are some of the smaller forum post icons for the Elders grouping. I could not decide between something birthday/anniversary looking or something showing off the more elder title.

I like the triple hourglasses.

And some of the smaller icons for the Milestone award.

The Star medal.

And here are a few more stylized ideas for the Milestone showing off someone who posts often.

The Reader[?].

Here are a few things for the 3 year anniversary/elders award

I did not think about it before but I kind of like the eternal flame idea for it.

Out of these I really think the Hourglass is most appropriate. Eternal Flame is also good, but seems more fitting for some type of contest. Maybe we could salvage it for now and comtemplate other events to go with it.

 

[Majora's Cat]

First thing's first, I thought we were getting rid of the Golden Afro? Or at least changing the icon from Mases' afro, because it has nothing to do with actual post quality. It seems that everyone wants the awards icons to actually match the award they represent, and the Golden Afro doesn't really do that. I guess it was funny, but it now needs to be either removed or replaced.

I also agree with Thareous that an hourglass would work best for this proposed Elders idea. However, I think we could expand on post count awards. For other forums, 10,000 is a very attainable number, and if this version of the DGN Forums sticks around long enough, people will reach that number. Now if I remember correctly with the Experience system when I first joined, there were different awards given to a person for attaining different post counts. The memory is foggy, I don't know if it worked like that, but regardless I think it's a good idea.

An award could be given out (assuming it's not automatic, which severely limits the number of awards that can be given out for different post counts) for achievements like 1,000, 2,500, 5,000 posts and even 10,000. The Star medal could have different colors to represent the different achievements post count-wise.

Edit: I forgot, these are a little old, but I'll leave them here:

Spoiler

I thought that this had to be written down somewhere for the public eye to see, so here goes:

Djinn has always been pitching around a lot of ideas, one of which is the inclusion of special social groups characterized by their own sub-forums. On Zelda Universe they're known as Clans, although a lot of members on the forums seem to oppose the concept, I think something similar could help dispel some of the tension and help members relax with like-minded people. ZU's populace (for those who want to participate in Clans) is split into the Nayru, Farore and Din Clans based on a fun personality test. Based on your responses, you will be placed in one of the three and will be given access to a private sub-forum where other members of the Clan post threads.

These threads are pretty much the opposite of serious but still stay within the boundaries of the rules. Now I know the idea of dividing up the forums sounds bad, but really these social groups don't do much, if anything to ruin the unity of the community. They're placed near the bottom of the forum index and are decidedly less active than other parts of the forum. What makes them great is that the threads are a blend between what we know as Forum Games and General Discussion - members feel free to post discussions about how their day went or about oddly specific subjects like pickles without the apprehension of a mod cracking down on them.

Now of course I don't think such social groups are necessary, but they might be something members will enjoy.

Spoiler

A few nights ago, Djinn, Locke and I discussed how the personality tests could work. If anyone is familiar with True Colors tests, people are categorized into four colors: Blue, Red (sometimes Orange), Green and Gold. To give you all the gist of it, Blue stands for generally compassionate people, Red (Orange) represents someone who likes to have fun and courageous, Green stands for someone who values logic, is mentally strong and an innovator, and Gold represents a person who follows the rules, works hard and is goal-oriented.

None of the four True Colors are negative in nature and would group people together in a way to avoid conflict. And our community is mature, so I'm sure we wouldn't have many problems within the groups. I also suggested that if the True Colors personality types are to come into play, they could be represent (at least in the Zelda series) by certain races. For example: Gold = Sheikah, Blue = Zora, Green = Kokiri, Red/Orange = Gorons. Although now that the forums have become the Dungeon Gaming Network and cover three franchises, this might not work.

Anyway, I thought I'd take the initiative and put the idea down for Djinn.

Spoiler

I was looking at Zelda Universe's forums and found a nifty little section called the "Creativity Corner". This is where its creative collaborations and competitions are held, and I think that the former could be a great addition to the DGN Forums. Listed here are all the collaborations on ZU, and I think that users would really enjoy things like "Draw a Forumer", themed art collaborations and comics. Now all these things revolve around art, since doing something similar to this in writing would basically be a Roleplay, and it's a bit more difficult to string together collaborations of music and other art forms.

Basically, I'm thinking that every month or two, a thread post is made stating the theme of an art collaboration. Then members can feel free to post their works based on the theme in the thread at any time over the given time span, and then the works will (maybe) be compiled and posted on the front page. ZU featured Monthly Hourly Comics, but I think that it's too oddly specific and requires too much effort. Maybe instead of that, members can sign up for a comic collab and then post in a pre-determined order with no strict time limits. They build off of each other to create a few panels each (preferably six), and when it's finished it could also go up on the main site.

As for "Draw a Forumer", I think this could provide some comedic entertainment for the whole community. You won't necessarily need to provide a picture of yourself, members can just draw what they think another person looks like! This could help people bond and might potentially be the most hilarious thing ever. Like I said before, a thread could be posted and then members are free to draw whoever they wish to. As for graphics, however, it's a bit more difficult to imagine how graphic art collaborations would work, but this is just an idea anyway.

 

[Djinn]

I made these two because I like the laurel wreath look, again for the milestone poster thingy.

 

[Linknerd09]

I made these two because I like the laurel wreath look, again for the milestone poster thingy.

I totally like the right icon. It matches to its description.

 

[A Link In Time]

Alright, these are the award images I'm giving a shout out to:

 

[Hachi]

Just a quick note on the clan idea.

ZU has had them around forever, and I've been on a couple of forums where they've tried something similar and.. it just turns out kind of lame. :c Plus, with the groups and such now, it is kind of an outdated idea as regular forum members can create rivaling groups if they really wanted to, and if they create something that fails it's really no big deal...but if something is officially backed by the forum staff and fails it's more public. (Plus if they ever get removed there will be loads of BAAWWing and blaming other members, no matter how much of a flop it is. in other words- DRAMA)

Also, as far as that community subfourm is concerned... we already have something very similar. The only difference is that is explicitly requires that they must be competitions of some sort. Right before that forum popped up I was throwing around the idea of trying some sort of new community art "competition" for lack of better words, but instead of competing with other artists it was more about practice and building towards personal improvement. Once the forum came along, that idea just sort of fell into limbo because it now there was this forum specifically for "Community competitions" and the main draw was getting rewards, and I didn't want it to be all about "here u get a gold star under your avatar for winning".

The point I'm trying to make, but might not be doing a very good job of is: The clear answer is to just broaden some definitions of what is allowed in the forums we already have and let the forum members go wild. When you start micromanaging forums it starts to get silly. Great example is this: We have a community forum that's been around for quite a long while now. Awesome, community stuff goes here. That seems pretty straightforward. BUT WAIT, lets just limit that first forum to newbs and tutorials and staff stuff. Now we need a community forum specifically for competitions! Because...? Because! BUT WAIT AGAIN- We need another forum for community collaborations!

Does something seem a bit off about all this? These are all essentially the same forum, just with very specific purposes in mind. This might seem like it's just keeping things more organized, but in reality it's just isolating aspects of the forums. The competitions would prolly get far more traffic if they were not secluded to the near bottom of the forum. And guess what? We've already had an art collaboration! And ironically it wasn't held in any of the community forums. That goes for the first Secrete Santa that I ran a few years ago that I posted in the forum games. And the original golden key awards was started by regular members (I'm pretty sure at least). It really doesn't take having to make new subforum and creating a new usergroup to create entertaining events on the site. Just give the forum members a place to do these things and they'll do all the hard work for you. Then we can come up with our OWN ideas, we don't need to resort to copying ZU... Ew.

TLDR: Just change the name/purpose of the competition forums or Community Area and bam, we have a place for community projects.

 

[Djinn]

Actually my original intent was to use the competition forum for more than just the community competitions alone. I did want things like other member contests, and things between members if they ever wanted to come up with something to be held there as well if they wanted to.

And there have been a couple collaborations held in the fanworks section and community section. It's more of an either/or situation where someone wants to hold them in that regard. And it is true that the community section has mostly become a spot for new members to make an intro thread. Other things do pop up in there occasionally.

 

[DeletedUser9]

For some reason I'm having trouble finding what Hachi is replying to, but I agree with what she's saying; no to official groups or clans, and just make it clear to people that the Competitions section is broad.

 

[Wolf Sage]

I have a suggestion: I think that the designs of medals or whatever should stick to a dungeon theme. I can't post them here, because I'm using a tablet, but what I am referring to are the hourglass, the torches, and sage/mage/wizard medals, etc.- they all seem to fit the overall dungeon theme in a way that universally represents Zelda, Darksiders, and Pokemon. Some of the medals are exempt, however, as they are universally ambiguous and they don't necessarily [need to] adhere to the dungeon theme. (Examples include the cupcake, the clock and the quote ones)

Aside from that, the medals that you've presented are pretty neat, Djinn. Though, it'd be awesome, in my opinion, if (at least) the majority of them stuck to the dungeon gaming theme, as opposed to a hodgepodge-y mess ala ZU's smileys. X3

Also... (and I am not sure if this was already mentioned), but I think that medals should be awarded to those who have made contributions to a "specialized" part of the forums (i.e., Zelda Theory). Building off that, there could also be a medal awarded to those who provide the most advice in the advice/help threads and so on... Although, it'd take someone or a group of people to monitor the actions of the prospective awardees for this idea to work...

 

[Ganondork]

A small idea that's been bothering me for a little bit; a Dungeon Gaming Network app. It could be pretty broad, focused on the main pages for the most part - the notifications on the app when browsing your various apps would have signify new posts on the sites. Of course, this would mean there would need some configuring; not all of us tune into each site, so choosing which sites - Zelda Dungeon, Darksiders Dungeon, etc. - would be important. If applicable for the individual, forum notifications could also show up.

While the front page would be where the app takes you - also something that would require configuration - you could go to every other page on the sites. For those of us who have an Android, Blackberry, or iPhone, using the internet for DGN is a bit of a nightmare, but an app would alleviate this, just as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr have done.

I know it'd take some programmers to do this, but I doubt it'd be difficult to find people good at this type of a thing. I think that for those of us who use Androids, Blackberries, and iPhones it would be an enormous help.

 

[Majora's Cat]

A small idea that's been bothering me for a little bit; a Dungeon Gaming Network app. It could be pretty broad, focused on the main pages for the most part - the notifications on the app when browsing your various apps would have signify new posts on the sites. Of course, this would mean there would need some configuring; not all of us tune into each site, so choosing which sites - Zelda Dungeon, Darksiders Dungeon, etc. - would be important. If applicable for the individual, forum notifications could also show up.

While the front page would be where the app takes you - also something that would require configuration - you could go to every other page on the sites. For those of us who have an Android, Blackberry, or iPhone, using the internet for DGN is a bit of a nightmare, but an app would alleviate this, just as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr have done.

I know it'd take some programmers to do this, but I doubt it'd be difficult to find people good at this type of a thing. I think that for those of us who use Androids, Blackberries, and iPhones it would be an enormous help.

ZD already does have an app, I believe the first time you access the site from a mobile device, a notice comes up that suggests getting the application to make browsing easier.

 

[Djinn]

I have a suggestion: I think that the designs of medals or whatever should stick to a dungeon theme. I can't post them here, because I'm using a tablet, but what I am referring to are the hourglass, the torches, and sage/mage/wizard medals, etc.- they all seem to fit the overall dungeon theme in a way that universally represents Zelda, Darksiders, and Pokemon. Some of the medals are exempt, however, as they are universally ambiguous and they don't necessarily [need to] adhere to the dungeon theme. (Examples include the cupcake, the clock and the quote ones)

Aside from that, the medals that you've presented are pretty neat, Djinn. Though, it'd be awesome, in my opinion, if (at least) the majority of them stuck to the dungeon gaming theme, as opposed to a hodgepodge-y mess ala ZU's smileys. X3

Also... (and I am not sure if this was already mentioned), but I think that medals should be awarded to those who have made contributions to a "specialized" part of the forums (i.e., Zelda Theory). Building off that, there could also be a medal awarded to those who provide the most advice in the advice/help threads and so on... Although, it'd take someone or a group of people to monitor the actions of the prospective awardees for this idea to work...

Well the greater challenge there is finding enough various things that correspond to the award. Getting some ideas together for the Milestone award is tough when trying to find some type of symbol that symbolizes someone who happens to post a lot. Then it comes down to the same old familiar things like a quill pen which we use for the Wiki groups and the book for article writers. It does not leave a lot leftover. If you have any other ideas that could work then post them here and I could probably make them into an award medal easily enough.


And I was fairly certain there was an app added to ZD since it was suggested a couple months ago. I am not totally sure on that but I do recall it being brought up a while back.

I have been looking for some suggestions on some other award ideas. Although it might be tough to find something like best theorist without some form of competition or something like it. I suppose something could be implemented like having various medals around like best theory, most helpful, etc and leave it open to suggest that medal be given to someone.

 

[Djinn]

Here are a couple more large award medal icons we could use for things

The smaller ones are a bit easier, I have pics of basically anything that could be those. We just need to finish this up and get these in place already. It has been a couple weeks now and I think we just need to make a decision now.

 

[A Link In Time]

Everything in the second row looks great. I'm especially fond of the first, second, and sixth medals in that row. The upper medals appear to plain although perhaps we should use on the replace the current bland Community Competition winner ones, this one being the closest fit to the current: