PlaneShift
Fan Area => Fan Art => Topic started by: Gamingstaff on April 22, 2007, 03:38:17 am
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Hello all! I have posted several topics in this forum before so a few of you should know me. I create websites for many many games, for some their main websites, for other just fun fansites for people to hang out, but I wanted to open a new opportunity for you and me.
A planeshift fansite -- Yea or Nay
Things this fansite would contain --
• Behind the scenes interviews (I have them for all sites I make)
• Fan made stories, imaging, etc.
• Updated news
• I have a coder that in my opinion is the most amazing coder of all website codes (PHP, XHTML, HTML -- the basics, and also Perl and some of the more advanced junk). And he can come up with some amazing things that you the members can request (examples: A server status, when they are up and when they are down, a list of top players, a list of the top roleplaying "people", an automated character creater, etc. etc. etc.
• Forums where people are free to write, hang out, play games and the likes
• An online staff of planeshift helpers (not official, people I hire myself) who will be online 24/7 (this is a little iffy because this kind of work is hard to produce)
• A page specifically for roleplaying (recent stories created by members)
• Hopefully a place where people are able to create their own blog of stories on the site.
• Also hopefully much much more.
A list of replies is no longer needed.
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This forum already has a section for fan fiction and player-written stories.
Edit: Why the heck are you keeping track of the number of replies?
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After writing a reply twice and erasing what I wrote before sending it, I'm simply going say that basing off of your posting history and what we "know of you", I'm quite skeptical.
Not saying that you shouldn't go ahead and make one. But there have been quite a few other fan sites created in the past and I'm not really seeing anything new from your vague post that would set yours out from them.
Perhaps you should provide examples of your previous work.
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Yeah previous work PLEASE, thats what ticks me off most when people say they have done websites and are doing one i might be interested in.
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We already have the PS Supersite (http://aerobless.ae.ohost.de/pssupersite/html/intro.html) (http://aerobless.ae.ohost.de/pssupersite/assets/images/test-banner-2_5-sec_final.gif) <-- I made that one ;D
and the PS wiki (http://pswiki.xordan.com/index.php/Main_Page)
A main page (http://www.planeshift.it)
and some sort of second main page???? (http://www.hydlaa.com/)
some german site (http://www.yliakum.de/) (A shame for me I'm not that good in german)
a Forum (http://www.hydlaa.com/smf)
and a lot of guild sites (http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?board=18.0) contributing to PS
[correct me if I forgot some site :-[ ]
:whistling: Do we really need a new one?
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Mods please don't delete the links, these are for showing purposes only:
http://www.shadow-grove.com -- My site made for the game Shadowbane
http://www.gaming-vortex.com -- Me and my brother did this one for fun
I don't really want to give out more links for the sake of privacy, but that should show you plenty of my work.
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Personally given the nature of this game and how our devs like things done i think a site like this is not needed and would only give us more problems. We have very strict rules about what can be public and if we have a major site that we cant control [like the one you are suggesting] it might have content that our devs would not like public. We also have a lot of people that like these forums and use them every day it might be more of a deterrent to have another ps fan site to go to where they might find info about a problem they are having. There is also no way for you as you are not part of the ps team [dev/gm/ or forum mod] to know if what is posted is fact or not so you could be spreading rumors about things that are could hurt the game.
just my $.02
I do think we have enough ps fan sites and this forum does a great job that anything else is a lot more then what we need and could spread the community out even further then it is already.
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Hi,
If you really have the resources and amazing coders, I would instead prefer that you update/contribute to the following websites to match the main PlaneShift site theme and layout:
http://laanx.fragnetics.com/
http://laanx.fragnetics.com/register/newaccount.php
http://laanx.fragnetics.com/nexus/newapplicant.php
http://www.planeshift.it/guide/en/index.html
Currently, they are outdated and really clash in style with the main web site.
If you could pour your skills and resources into that, it'd be a far greater contribution, in my opinion.
Thanks. :)
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Although I agree with most people here and think the current amount of PS websites are plentyful as well as good, I must say your work is great Gamestaff mister. Looks good.
I have a second note though...
a few people here seem to disagree with you making a website. I suggest you find Karyuu on these forums and ask about what you can or can not publish, and then have a go at it anyways if you so desire. It seems you got the potential. And allbeit the demand is low, I would still like to see what you had in mind.
hurray for creativity and initiative.
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The thing with our community is that it's pretty small, and centralized around the official board and website for the most part :) We don't have thousands of active players who would need their own "space" with a big fan website, so my concern is nearly the same as yours - based on what I've seen, chances are it's not going to be used much. A lot of what your fansite proposes to offer can already be found here, so offering it elsewhere as well really has no purpose...
Instead of trying to make such a large and general fansite, perhaps you may want to do something with a more specific goal. Many people here for example would really appreciate having a website dedicated to PS art. There have been some attempts, but none have stood out. Aside... I was thinking yesterday that josePhoenix needs to take a firmer hold of http://ps-mc.com/ and really push it to an active status, so perhaps you can work with him to turn it into something polished and cool-looking :) Expand the sections, keep it updated, etc. I'm going to bug jose about this either way.
I'm definitely not a fan of squashing artistic desires, but I believe your goal is to give to the community and see your toys being played with. I just doubt that you will see the audience and most importantly the number that would make all your efforts worthwhile. I think we can put off a big fan website like that until this game has a larger playerbase. Thus, I'm with Xanacru - if you help improve some current sites and projects, you'll still get to put your skills to use and help make or maintain something useful.
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All this does is remind me of the bbb.
Make Kada come back! :P
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Don't bring up PS-MC! It's currently an embarassment >.<
I have great plans for it (incorporating much of what the original poster suggested), but I won't have time to start work on them until the summer. Currently there are only two bits of PS-MC both operational and worth seeing: http://qdb.ps-mc.com/ and http://devcast.ps-mc.com
So... I'm with Karyuu and Xanacru. The current sites should have a single consistent design (even if it isn't mine (http://www.ps-mc.com/psredesign/3/index-cleaned.html) :[ ).
josePhoenix
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Maybe if you dont have time Jose you could enlist the help of the 'original poster' (euphemism for 'im sorry, I already forgot your name') and make it something that really stands out and has consistent, periodic updates. I honestly dont think your site is know very well around the community tbh.
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After writing a reply twice and erasing what I wrote before sending it, I'm simply going say that basing off of your posting history and what we "know of you", I'm quite skeptical.
Judging people by their post counts is a big mistake
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Now about whether a new fansite should go or not...
Personally given the nature of this game and how our devs like things done i think a site like this is not needed and would only give us more problems. We have very strict rules about what can be public and if we have a major site that we cant control
There is no way to keep a community at the palm of someone's hand, this "closed-source" and "centralize everything" approach really is something that although achievable while the game has a small group of people, will become too heavy and impossible once it grows, for now it might work, but it will start to show its flaws soontm(although a keen eye may see them even now). I don't agree with this position, not at all(in fact, it actually bothers me a bit), and would like to see more fan-sites and such. You do not develop a game to put everything about the people who play and write about it over some people's control, unless you wish to make its development close and open it for the public only once it reaches 1.0 .
The thing with our community is that it's pretty small, and centralized around the official board and website for the most part
@Gamingstaff: Just do not be impressed if almost nobody visit your site right now, this game has yet to attract more people, and that will take some good time, and some good actions to happen, so if you can just keep the site there until it happens, there is nothing wrong on having the thing built before people visit it intensively.
I say yes for this idea. ;)
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Personally given the nature of this game and how our devs like things done i think a site like this is not needed and would only give us more problems. We have very strict rules about what can be public and if we have a major site that we cant control [like the one you are suggesting] it might have content that our devs would not like public.
For example, the Planeshift library (http://www.bandfabrik.de/lib/).
All the spoilers are available on most guild websites including lists of all the trainers, primers on all the different spells, complete deconstructions of the character generator, and all quest solutions.
As planeshift becomes bigger, fan-made websites will be unavoidable.
After writing a reply twice and erasing what I wrote before sending it, I'm simply going say that basing off of your posting history and what we "know of you", I'm quite skeptical.
Judging people by their post counts is a big mistake
He said posting history, not post count.
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ps-mc should be great thing if they havent whole forums filled with porn ads.
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ps-mc should be great thing if they havent whole forums filled with porn ads.
There are ways to prevent this from happening, and other ways to prevent spambots from registering on a forum too(allowing guests to post is usually a bad idea).
And when all of these fail, :ban: the spammers!
For example, the 2 forums I have set up never got any spam threads or posts...
One of them requires a dual login/password(general login to access the site/forums, and user login to post on the forums)
In the other one, no guest permissions to post, etc, and PHPBB2 has some built in ways to prevent spambots too.
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Replies have exploded but please take time to read this one reply I am making as it is very important.
1. Shadow-Grove (one of my website's) I started with a game with only 2000 players. I brought almost every single one of those players to my site because I have been doing this for the past 4 years of my life and I know how people think and my major is going to be in marketing. I have to make my site "needed" by people. My theory -- Find one thing you don't have that I can offer, and boom I have my first few members. Second step after getting a hundred or so members = expanding your goals and creating new ideas that the real website didn't even think of. step 3, improve step one and two. Step 4, never, ever, ever stop updating, renewing, and producing new stuff. Have a new thing added to the site every week, be it an interview, a piece of art, a guide etc.
I followed those steps with SG and I now get close to 10 new members a day, and I am about to break the barrier of 2000 players on this game because people have gone to my site and picked up the game and used the info on my site to get started and get into the game enough where they invite their friends.
I am not saying this is foolproof, because nothing is really ever foolproof, but I know that if I find everything that I just listed, I will be known for my actions. I might only be known by 100 people (which compared to my other work is very very small), but I am still appreciated. Basically I make myself and my site irreplaceable. I created guides on SG that the company who made the game didn't even think about, and people now treat me like billie joe armstrong from Greenday for it. I do not do any of this for fame though. I do all this mainly for fun and because I need to have a good resume for business when I go into marketing, and the more sites I have that are 100% successes, the better I do as a marketer.
If you would like proof that I made these sites, you can do this:
Post in the Comings/Goings forum on the SG forums, ask who created the site. The people will tell you Mike Hart (who is me). If you want to make sure Mike Hart is me, send me a PM on the forums saying these exact words:
"Are you the Gamingstaff that plans to make a planeshift website if all goes well?"
I will answer you with these exact words:
"Yes I am the Gamingstaff that plans to make a planeshift website if all goes well."
If that doesn't convince you then you are messed in the head hehe
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Why would you want to spend all this energy making a fan site better than the real site, when you can instead work your wonders on the official resources we have? Instead of making a kickass separate website, please provide additions or thoughts on our current to push it to the best it can be. If we don't have some feature on the forums or the site that you feel should be there, voice your opinions and we'll see what we can do together.
We have less than 500 players active in the game, easily - why draw them away from the official sources when their numbers are so low? I suppose this is what I don't understand right now. Put your thoughts into helping us expand our current and already available material, and you will be appreciated far more than making a giant fan site for a game with such limited content right now.
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I don't mean to offend sir Gamingstaff, but going off of your past posting history (referring to your opening statement in your thread starter) and what we know of you, to me, at least, it kind of sounds like you want to go to all this trouble becuase you want to be in charge of something and becuase your application, as it were, for a mod spot on these official forums were turned down, ( http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=28434.0 ) you now wish to create a site of your own and try to move the community to your site, so that you can be in control of something.
You'll have to forgive me if this isn't your intent, but that is what it sounds like to me.
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It seems to me that the only thing you could provide that this site does not is spoilers and the copyright holders have made it plenty clear that they do not want those readily available. This site is not perfect but it serves its purpose quite well.
One thing you will notice about this site is the absence of advertising, a very good thing I think. I see you have advertising on your site and that kind of goes against the PS philosophy as I understand it. You are free to create your site if you want but I do not know how much cooperation you will get from the community.
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This is my third edit: Neko, I didn't even know I got rejected haha. I thought my post had been deleted because it had been pushed down past the first page. The last reply I saw on that topic was the link to the application section of your mainsite....
To neko:
That is 100% the opposite of my goals. I have a busy schedule and I am very abrupt when I post topics on the internet and I usually put together a plan and then put it underway all at one time. Basically I had been thinking about this for a while and then I got on the forums, asked about being on staff, and then posted about he site, simply because I was thinking about the site and a good way to start off is to be on staff.
It is one of my greatest fears in life the people will think that I do things just to... well do things and be in control of people. Please, my friends, do not think of me like this. I promise that all I want is to provide a fun place for people to hang out, and if helping out here is how I can do that I don't mind at all. But I do know that the reason you thought that of me is because I am used to running the show and probably came around to you guys that way. It would be kind of like the person who originally made planeshift going onto the game runescape and then wanted to make another game or website for runescape.. obviously because of past experiences, leadership comes out in the posts he will make. So what you read might be me just being used to the one running everything, and when you do that is is very hard to become a member of other sites.
To bilbous:
All my sites are different, and I would like everyone here to know that I never even START a site before I have contacted the creator of the game or the owner of the current site. I have done that with Shadow-Grove and they gave me full rights to put up ads and do what I want.
Also, to maybe prevent further questions that may be unnecessary, I am very used to all of this and probably everything you throw at me has been thrown at me before, but please do not take that as overconfidence, I basically its like if someone gave me a rotten apple and I had never seen a rotten apple before, so I ate it, but then when other people try to offer the same thing, I know not to go there.
BTW I use a lot of stories like that to help people understand easier.
P.S. One of the reasons I applied for staff is because you are probably the 3rd group of people in a row to say the "We already have this why do you want to offer what we already have" ordeal, so I figured I would go ahead and apply before I got totally murdered on these forums hehe.
Fourth Edit: Another thing I have thought about is that from what I see you aren't too interested in a fan site, so I am not going to make one and since you would not like me on staff, I don't know if I can make the time to freely contribute (before someone slams me for saying that, the reason I wouldn't have time is because I only really want to do something if I am wanted to do it, and you guys don't seem to accept my ideas too well here ^^ which is fine with me, I understand that his is the internet and nothing more, so you can offend me if you would like, I have tough skin). But now that I know that you don't want a fansite, the question is do you even want me to be part of a contribution to this game? I love the game, I like the site design you have used for the site, but I already have 4 sites that are active and have maintenance required every day, so I don't have much time for volunteer work, but if the spot ever presents itself, I would like to contribute through things such as moderation or helping with website maintenance.
So basic outline of what I just said:
• I do want to help but my speciality is websites and forums so if I am rejected to help with those I do not know what else you would want me for
• I am not saying this topic is done for, I would like to know if my skills can be used anywhere, and my actions result on whether you say you can use me or you can't use me. As far as you trusting me, I really think that I have said enough where if you still think I just want this to be in control, please just think that and do not flame or try to offend me for it (neko I do not think you did because you were very polite in your post), but I know that such things can lead to hard feelings, and I would really rather just avoid that. If you do not approve of me, please keep it to yourself, it really does me no good to hear it coming from you because I already know that I am judged by everyone around me and my actions can't always change the way people think of me : )
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As stated, we don't need any more moderators at the moment - and when we do, we will pick from someone active in the community who I have seen participate in events and discussions, and be an overall good poster :) I'm not going to go picking people from thin air, no matter their credentials. I hope this doesn't leave you too dissatisfied, as that's not my intent.
When it comes to maintaining the website, that's solely up to Luca. We may get a few other developers doing that in the future (or so several of us would like to see) but generally, control of the site is going to stay within the team :) Which isn't to say that people can't contribute with ideas and proposals and designs - we'll gladly look them over and see if they can be implemented.
I love the game, I like the site design you have used for the site, but I already have 4 sites that are active and have maintenance required every day, so I don't have much time for volunteer work [...]
You seem really busy, and every single one of us volunteers here freely too, so.. :) Decide how much you can do. I highly encourage you to make contributions, but I don't think we're going to approach begging, exactly. If you can help out in any way, as I said perhaps concept out some modifications to the current site or the way it's managed, take a look at PS-MC and make some proposals, etc. You're thinking on a really grand scale right from the start, and that's not what we need right now.
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Now these are the kind of replies I need ^^
I do not "need" any thing really on the internet except things that will look good in real life, but as far as wanting goes, it is more of a thing that I would enjoy doing. What I mean by that is I can be totally accepted, rejected, or both, or neither, and it doesn't matter too much to me, I just usually want to know which it is.
So as far as I can see, you are fine on everything and (of course your not begging.. in fact if you did do that I would definitely say no haha) no one is really needed at the moment to improve at the current standards that I am thinking of. I do not know if I can invest time in posting here everyday etc. just because not only do I have internet stuff but of course there is also my job in rl and school etc. etc. so what I am thinking is that I will check up on this place and read a few posts about twice or three times a week and maybe cut in if people need help on something that is my speciality. But I will keep on playing the game, I do think it is lots of fun... er... I am not used to roleplay, I guess I am having fun playing........ your world?
But like I said, I am not dismissing this post, because for all I know someone could come in here late and say hey we need this certain page redone so I am gunna stick around for a while and see how everything unfolds.
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I keep offering you suggestions on what you can do right now, but it doesn't look like you're taking them... :)
Your specialty is web design and maintenance - so tell us what you think would help us out. What site features or pages or content, in your experience, would elevate our website further. Make suggestions - you've got to have some, you were going to do an entire other website with features that we supposedly don't have. Your involvement here doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing deal.
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of course your not begging.. in fact if you did do that I would definitely say no haha
Just an important note: these types of side-comments are not a good idea if someone wishes to be well respected and liked in a community, or at least in most of it.
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of course your not begging.. in fact if you did do that I would definitely say no haha
Just an important note: these types of side-comments are not a good idea if someone wishes to be well respected and liked in a community, or at least in most of it.
I am sorry I don't quite understand... I was just making a friendly "joke" about his statement on "we are not begging". I do not see any harm in that.
And Karyuu you recieve my deepest apologies, it is 1 AM right now and I am going to have to reread every single post in the morning because I have a very foggy head atm (just from being sleepy, but I have work to do). I will specifically pull out your replies and read them carefully tomorrow.
As for as things I think should be added to the site, I will list a few things I know have worked for others in the past:
• A monthly/weekly poll. Probably monthly but if people get bored, weekly. You would ask things like what is your favorite roleplaying race? etc.
• How many users online atm playing. If you do not have the coding for that I can bring one of my guys in to do it and PM the code to someone.
• I should put this one up top because it is VERY important ::: Making sure your site is compatible with all computer systems and browsing applications. I am running safari on mac and I cannot click the links on your site, in order to get to different places I had to right click and open in a new tab. Safari and Internet Explorer are the hardest to comply with I have found.
For this late at night... or early in the morning rather, I think I have to stop there and go to bed, but I want to make on last note:
As far as a fansite goes, completely forget it, I am not doing one. And though I can't control you, I would enjoy not having any controversy in posts. If you would like to tell me that I don't look legit or that I seem cocky or something, I would be very happy to talk to you in PMs about it (I will not blow up or flame or anything in those PMs).
Good Night Planeshift :P
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of course your not begging.. in fact if you did do that I would definitely say no haha
Just an important note: these types of side-comments are not a good idea if someone wishes to be well respected and liked in a community, or at least in most of it.
I agree. Being liked is definately more important than being honest.
•How many users online atm playing.
laanx.fragnetics.com
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of course your not begging.. in fact if you did do that I would definitely say no haha
Just an important note: these types of side-comments are not a good idea if someone wishes to be well respected and liked in a community, or at least in most of it.
I agree. Being liked is definately more important than being honest.
Honesty comes better in homeopathic doses, and sometimes rules force people to be dishonest too. Also omission is a different thing from lying.
@Gamingstaff: I thought it was not a joke, you should've put a :whistling:, a >o) or a ::) after the comment as a hint then.
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Honesty comes better in homeopathic doses, and sometimes rules force people to be dishonest too. Also omission is a different thing from lying.
Following rules for their own sake is called Fascism. Sometimes there are higher principles one should follow.
Omission is different from lying, but that doesn't make it honest.
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•How many users online atm playing.
laanx.fragnetics.com
I meant like for that number to be on the main site (www.planeshift.it/) not on a separate website.
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•How many users online atm playing.
laanx.fragnetics.com
I meant like for that number to be on the main site (www.planeshift.it/) not on a separate website.
Do you know what fragnetics is?
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It is what the game server is hosted on. That is not the community website though.
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It is what the game server is hosted on. That is not the community website though.
It's one of the community websites. It used to list not only who's online, but who had the most advisor points, duel points as well as who had the highest strength, agility, etc.
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•How many users online atm playing.
laanx.fragnetics.com
I meant like for that number to be on the main site (www.planeshift.it/) not on a separate website.
I wanted the same thing, so I looked into it. It would be possible to 'scrape' the info (or have the laanx site generate a file containing that number), but since it is on a different server the data would either have to be pulled with each request (increasing response time and bandwidth use) or cached (making it outdated quickly). So, imo, there are more reasons against than there are reasons to do this.
josePhoenix