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[Mizhara]

Hmm, for forum sections (especially if we're doing it on the same url), we should keep it lightweight at least to start with. I'm thinking a simple IGS clone, maybe with specific faction sub-forums. (Min, Cal, Fed, Emp). Actually, that's a bit too heavy-weight for a forum subsection already.

Let's just say a section named Intergalactic Summit Mk2 the Pre-sequel the Reveangencening with the Politics, Current Events and Socializing forums in it?

If we're doing it on the very same url, how are we going to separate characters and Backstage posters though? I would have thought we'd need a separate forum for this kind of thing.

Moderation: Entirely OOC. Every mod comment would simply be a faceless functionary handing out a warning and doing the moderation work. Entirely faction unaffiliated/neutral, no name or face to place on it. No need to give the excuse for IC claims of bias because the moderator is known to be a loyalist of some sort.

[Silver Night]

Well, either we would have to have everyone sign up all the characters the want to use on a new forum, or we would have people just sign up new characters for existing alts on Backstage in addition to the ones they already have (which is allowed already, for people who want to be able to participate OOC and discuss things they have done on different characters but want to keep private whose alt they are. We can see IP addresses for moderation, so we would be able to tell if people we trying to astroturf in the rest of the forum by talking to themselves.)

Edit: I personally wouldn't even mind if people wanted to have a totally unaffiliated identity for OOC use (there are a couple people who do this, currently) plus their character names registered. Again, I don't think it would be very different than the situation with a separate URL, except everything would be in one place.

[Mizhara]

Bit of a pain to keep logging in and out for different forum sections, though. I understand what you're getting at with the possible under-utilization but I'm not sure it's the best idea. Might clutter backstage up a bit more than it already is and a separate site (on the same domain) would be a bit easier to deal with from a user pov. Would also make for a better overall experience, since that could be expanded (in time) to be a full on In Character galnet portal hosting news services (Jandice's stuff for instance, and Gutter Press) and other nifty IC things in time.

For now, just an IGS clone with actual moderation... in time, an aggregate of the best the RP Community can deliver in character. Imagine.

[Silver Night]

You would have to log in and out anyway?

The moderation model you suggest sounds like a good idea to me.

[Mizhara]

When using multiple characters sure, but I think many would be like me and primarily post on one character mostly, which'd mean just staying logged in on that character on that forum and occasionally logging in an alt account for an off-hand post and go back to the main. If it's a subsection of this forum, it'd mean relogging every time you go from IC to OOC and back again. I know I'd get real tired of logging in and out all the time, and chances are I'd mess it up and post IC on the OOC account and vice versa.

Anyway, that's a minor gripe and not necessarily too important.

[Silver Night]

I can see your point, and the other issue I could foresee, from a forum mechanics side is that there isn't really a way (as far as I know) for reports to be available to any mods who were only mods in that section (rather than the whole forum). I don't know that we would have enough volume of modding where it would be a real logistical issue unless it was like, a run away success or something.

I'm not sure those outweigh the negatives, in my mind, associated with setting up a whole separate forum.

[Morwen Lagann]

Well, either we would have to have everyone sign up all the characters the want to use on a new forum, or we would have people just sign up new characters for existing alts on Backstage in addition to the ones they already have (which is allowed already, for people who want to be able to participate OOC and discuss things they have done on different characters but want to keep private whose alt they are. We can see IP addresses for moderation, so we would be able to tell if people we trying to astroturf in the rest of the forum by talking to themselves.)

Edit: I personally wouldn't even mind if people wanted to have a totally unaffiliated identity for OOC use (there are a couple people who do this, currently) plus their character names registered. Again, I don't think it would be very different than the situation with a separate URL, except everything would be in one place.

It would be far simpler to just set up one of the API plugins and have people have one account that they hook characters into.

I think that use of usergroups can also handle IC/OOC posting - you can just put all API-linked characters on an account into a "characters" usergroup, and the non-character (ie, main account name) into a "players" usergroup. Only allow members of the "characters" usergroup to post in the IC sections, and... boom? It should work, in theory. Might need some testing to get it to work, though.

Also, another subdomain wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea even if it is some work. I don't think we really want to slap this directly into Backstage as an extra set of subforums - it seems like things would be too crowded, and though this would be more or less invisible to most users, speaking as a moderator I know I'd rather have the reports from an IC section that follows a different set of rules from the main portion of the forum going to a separate area from where the reports from OOC sections of the forums go.

[Havohej]

Subdomain creation is negligible in terms of :effort: required.

API, however... I've never worked with it, would need someone versed in that to do the work unless you know of a currently functional API mod for SimpleMachinesForum software.

[Silver Night]

If people are liking the subdomain idea, I'd be open to it - and it seems like that's the feeling so far. Assuming our technical folks are cool with it.

[Mizhara]

Can I just say you're all being far too reasonable right now? It's weird. Also, do let me know if there's something I can do to help. You know, other than the fact that I know fuck all about websiting the intertubes.

[Jace]

Can I just say you're all being far too reasonable right now? It's weird. Also, do let me know if there's something I can do to help. You know, other than the fact that I know fuck all about websiting the intertubes.

I resent that. I am never reasonable. Also, I detect a you people attitude there even though you never said it. I take offense.

[Louella Dougans]

does the api tell forum mods what other characters would be on that API ?

[Anyanka Funk]

Even if it does. You can use a seperate API for each character if you need to be sneaky.

[Milo Caman]

does the api tell forum mods what other characters would be on that API ?

You can tailor APIs to show only one character/a limited set of information, etc. For verification, all you'd really need would be an API with an access mask of 0 linking to the character.

Of course this won't stop the tinfoil hat-esque people who won't register APIs anywhere for fear of IP address harvesting to prevent spy alts on alliance forums and such.

I might be able to put something together re: an SMF API plugin when I can find the free time. Bit more versed with PHPBB plugins and structure than SMF, so would probably take a while to do.

[Morwen Lagann]

does the api tell forum mods what other characters would be on that API ?

Your IP address does this already.