I'm still working on companions and fixing up a few other things, but what I'm proposing now would be a much quicker and easier change I could do in the meantime. It mainly involves three points. 1. Merge Northern Hyrule + Southern Hyrule + Eastern Sea into one forum called Hyrule. The only reason there seems to be separate forums is to enhance the feeling of geographically separate locations. Secondly, it could be a somewhat arbitrary reason to split up the "main RP" area across several forums. This seems a little odd in of itself, considering the 43 Southern Hyrule threads and mere 8 Eastern Sea threads pale in comparison to the 94 dungeons or 132 Northern Hyrule threads. Anyway, merging these forums would slim down the main index, and enable us to put a pinned thread or two in the "canonical" RP area, which brings me to my next point. 2. Scale down the Quest Bureau. In the new guide thread I'm making, I intend to describe basically, "how to quest." Instead of necessarily needing to post a formal thread ahead of time, the purpose of a quest could just be exchanged in the cbox or the RP Discussion forum. (I've literally never had a quest bureau thread rejected unless the treasure calculation was off, and usually by the time someone realizes that, the quest has already finished anyway.) Thus, the "Quest Bureau" forum would be reduced to a pinned thread in the Hyrule forum. In effect, whenever a quest needs to be "graded," someone from that quest would post such in the QB thread--with vital details like participates, treasures, and a brief summary of the quest's goal. (If you participate in Ylisse, this may sound familiar to you.) This would achieve a couple points. First, role-players wouldn't need to post excessively just to get a quest graded. Just one post in that thread, not a separate thread. Secondly, it would enable Staff and particularly generous Veterans to be able to quickly see what needs to be graded, making it more convenient for them, while simultaneously enabling questers to get their quests graded in a more timely manner. 3. Make a Dungeon Bureau (thread). Basically, copy-paste the QB thread mentioned above, turn it around so it functions for Classic Dungeons, and then put it in the Classic Dungeons forum. Thoughts?
I'm for these changes. I think I suggested most of them in some form back when Toko was still in charge, but it seems he never really did anything with any of them. I don't really have anything to add to this, although we should be sure to make absolutely clear that Quest Bureau is now only for grading. Maybe merge the new Quest Bureau and the Dungeon Bureau, too?
I kind of like the 3 RP threads being separate, as it provides a sort of organization feel to it. If they were one thread it would feel kind of cluttered, at least to me. However, that probably wouldn't be much of an issue. It would look a lot nicer on the index, though. As for changing the quest forum to a thread, it sounds great to me. Edit: As for merging the Quest/Dungeon Bureaus, I feel like that'd be a little complicated, at least for newer members, if it was in Hyrule. It could work fine, but if we merge them, it should go in Role Play Discussion, I'd say.
I think it's better to keep the areas of Hyrule separate, as it does help with the feeling that they are different regions. I think the reason why there's so little threads in the south or at sea, is because there simply aren't a lot of characters in those areas, and it used to be hard to find a way to those areas, especially to the Eastern Sea, as not a lot of characters had boats or other means of crossing it. Also, but that's mainly a personal reason, there is a lot more to do in the north, as most towns/dungeons/landmarks are located there. I am all for point two. It's a bit of a hassle to first post in the QB, then wait for acceptation and then start the thread. I can confirm from Ylisse that having just a thread were people post their finished threads works well. I also think that it might be better to merge the quest and dungeons bureaus, but, as Eev suggested, put in the roleplay discussion forum. That way it gives a complete overlook of what has to be graded.
I'm kind of liking these ideas, though I do sort of like the idea of separation of the areas. Is there a way to make them into subforums in the propose Hyrule forum to sort of make it look nicer?
It seems like the majority of people--or at least a sizable amount--would prefer to keep Northern/Southern/Eastern areas separate, so I guess we'll keep it that way for now. Considering that, it might be best to do what BP/SM suggested, and just point a joint Quest & Dungeon Bureau thread in the Role-Play Discussion forum. This is... actually another reason I want to change the Quest Bureau. When I initially designed it, you didn't have to "wait" for someone to approve a quest idea. You could even finish a role-play, then make it into a quest, and then post it as such in the quest bureau. But at some point, that was either changed or forgotten by a lot of HC members. In any case, this change would indeed streamline that whole process.
It was never a rule I don't think, people just seem not to know/forgot. I personally post the quest for organization purposes, but don't care about it being approved.
My thoughts and opinions as ordered: #1 - I, like many others, prefer the separate regions, as it helps with organization and scale. #2 - I've never waited for a quest approval before starting, mainly using them to help organize RPing and what-not. It will be nice to have a thread to go to when you need something graded. #3 - Like above, it'll be nice to have.
I also prefer separate regions, but I also like what UD suggested about it too. If possible, I'd go with his idea. As for the other two, I'm in favor, aye.
