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What are your favourite features on an RP?


Agatha Harkness
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During my rounds of checking through roleplays to join, and ideas to make, I was wondering a lot about features. When looking at a site there's always some handy feature that helps us with our roleplaying journey or needs. Some features have become really helpful, and others we might have lost in update errors and wait for them to return. So, I wondered about the topic of site features and your most favourite or helpful ones as member (though staff perspectives are also welcome).

 

By features I mean those extra perks: like post/thanks, tagging, alerts, etc. I am not talking about coded/theme features like sidebar sliders, or miniprofile format settings and post content. 

 

What are your favourite features on a site?

What feature do you miss that is currently broken/unavailable?

What makes the features helpful / likable for you?

 

What are your favourite features on a site?

I love the tagging feature and couldn't be without it. It means even if I haven't subscribed to a topic, I know I will get an alert due to the tag and be able to keep track of my threads. I can look into my alerts to see where I've been tagged and know when I owe a post. I also appreciate the account switcher so much, it saves logging out, remembering passwords, logging in, sometimes being sent back to the home page and having to navigate where I was last. If in the middle of a post I can just select alternative account in the drop down to post the content with. It saves a lot of time. 

 

What feature do you miss that is currently broken/unavailable?

The like or thank you one had been faulty for a bit and removed from resource forums. Sometimes I don't need or want to reply to a post but would like to hit the like post button to applaud the content. 

 

What makes the features helpful / likable for you?

Time saving. TBH if it saves time to roleplay then it's super helpful. A lot of features are there to help make roleplaying life easier and this is without the benefits as a staff member. I only just heard about automated messages you can add on some sites and the variety of Discord widget (w/e they're called, hooks, widgets, bots? idk) and some of those look pretty helpful too. 

Edited by Lady Croft

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Well, a past application I used for roleplay spoiled me completely on certain features. I am now hopelessly enraptured with certain ones that we use today.

 

What are your favourite features on a site?

  • Auto-Everything: Automatic thread trackers, automatic playby lists, automatic IC timelines. Anything that makes a list that is a convenience for my members and that I do not have to spend time updating.
  • Built-in Affiliate Manager: Other sites can add their link and upload their 88x31 affiliate button without me having to do anything beyond check that they've added our button to their site and then approve theirs. Sweet!
  • Single Account/multiple characters: This feature takes account switching a step further. Only one actual user account is required and we can add as many character profiles to it as the site allows. Each character has their own bio-sheet and can be used via a convenient dropdown in the posts. Sweet!
  • Shared NPCs: This probably should be listed as shared supporting characters - the ability to share NPCs with specific members.
  • Discord Integration: Easily get feeds from our sites to a specific Discord channel. Eliminates the need for email alerts since people can see tags arrive in our Discords.
  • Joint-Posting: A convenient way to share posts with other members for such things as writing dialog. This keeps the site from having so many shorter posts as two or more characters converse.

What feature do you miss that is currently broken/unavailable?

  • Between the two forum platforms I use, I can honestly say that there is very little I miss. I guess I would say the ability to add extra fields on IC posts to generate post headers, the who/what/when/where or even the pre-defined post fields that loads the opening post in a thread with those fields. But it's a minor miss. Our sites have great tagging systems so we can utilize those.

What makes the features helpful / likable for you?

  • Convenience and Time-Saving: This goes hand-in-hand for me since I am a solo admin on my 3 sites. Ditto for any site I join. I want to concentrate on writing and story-telling not tracking stuff and updating lists. On the sites that I run, I want things to be smooth, easy, and convenient for my members for the same reason. They should be focusing on the story, creating great characters, and writing not having to maintain trackers and lists.
Edited by StormWolfe
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Someone somewhere went to sleep and dreamed us all alive.
Dreams get pushed around a lot, and I doubt if we'll survive.
We won't get to wake up, dreams were born to disappear.
And I'm pretty sure that none of us are here.
~ None of Us Here by Jim Stafford ~

 

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A lot of what Stormwolfe said TBH but I'll do it exclusively from a member's point of view.

 

10 hours ago, Lady Croft said:

What are your favourite features on a site?

 

  1. Well done account switchers. Most of them really aren't well done and don't associate accounts. I like having the OOC and IC separation without feeling like everything is segmented and disjointed. I loathe, for example, getting tagged on a sub account in jcink when I have a very clear request to just tag my OOC account. I also loathe chasing down other players accounts, especially when plotting with them and I get "Oh my character so and so would be great to RP with this person, you should check them out" and then having to go dig. I like knowing the player and seeing all of their associated characters.
  2. WYSIWYG Editors. Not a common favorite but first and foremost I code for a living I don't want to code more on my hobby that is supposed to be about writing and I really love to CTRL+B something and it's bold instead of typing out:
    [b]this is bold[/b]

    It's tedious and just takes up time.

  3. Automatic lists, especially if they are sortable.

 

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What feature do you miss that is currently broken/unavailable?

 

I tend not to play on sites that don't have the features I'm looking for so I really can't answer that. A lot of free sites that have little control over their data tend to lack many features that self hosted sites are able to accomodate.

 

Quote

What makes the features helpful / likable for you?

 

Time saving, ease of use really. I want to spend most of my time roleplaying, not fussing.

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19 hours ago, StormWolfe said:

Well, a past application I used for roleplay spoiled me completely on certain features. I am now hopelessly enraptured with certain ones that we use today.

 

What are your favourite features on a site?

  • Joint-Posting: A convenient way to share posts with other members for such things as writing dialog. This keeps the site from having so many shorter posts as two or more characters converse.

I have never heard of the joint-posting, could you explain it a little more so I get what you mean. Im curious how that works. TY

 

@Morrigan

Oh anything to save code is great. It's why using BBcode to throw templates into is so handy too. Just click, type, done. Or control+b which can be quicker than typing or scrolling up to click the options bar. 

 

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4 hours ago, Lady Croft said:

I have never heard of the joint-posting, could you explain it a little more so I get what you mean. Im curious how that works. TY

 

Joint Posting is a feature that allows multiple individuals to write/edit the same post. It's great for dialogue because it skips having several short posts, or many long posts. Instead of a conversation spanning pages, it can take place quickly and efficiently in one post. It's basically a shared post.

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Okay, so I've been meaning to respond to this for days (okay, since yesterday but it feels like days), but today's the first time I actually have the time to do anything. There are lots of features available to forum users that span several platforms.  As it's been stated in another thread, I prefer my software a little more modern than what is generally available, and I think this is the perfect opportunity to tell others why.

 

What are your favourite features on a site?

  • Member blogs. To me, this is an opportunity for members to create blogs, associate them with a character, and write that character's thoughts and feelings out. 
  • Clubs. This means less work for me. Rather than having to create additional forms for character businesses, groups, etc., players can simply create a club, where they can manage their own forums, and this option can be used to create several forums within the club to flesh out the description of their business, group, etc.
  • Character management programs. While I appreciate the ability to link accounts on several platforms, it's honestly a hassle that I loathe. If it weren't for account switchers, I'd go mad with having to log in several times throughout the day. However, character switchers only do so much. I personally prefer platforms where you create a single OOC account, and add characters from within, as opposed to an account for each character.
  • Easy to navigate ACP. So, the ACP for many forums tends to be convoluted as hell. In this case, the program I use for my site, has an easily laid out ACP, with a search option that is great for finding what I'm looking for when I need it.
  • WYSIWYG editors. Yes, I stole this one from Morrigan. Honestly, for the exact same reason.
  • Automatic listsI stole this one from Morrigan too, but here's why: with some of the more modern programs, you do not have to create playby/faceclaim/member directories on your own (if you're a site owner). Instead, these can be automated and it's pretty awesome. 
  • Reactions. I like to see how others react to my posts, and I'm sure that's pretty common.

 

What feature do you miss that is currently broken/unavailable?

  • Depending on the platform, reactions simply aren't available and that makes me a sad panda. (From what I heard though, they used to be.)
  • That's honestly probably about it. I mean, I will play on a forum that lacks my preferred features if I find a group I want to join badly enough, but yeah.

What makes the features helpful / likable for you?

  • I may sound like a parrot here, but it's the convenience and the simple fact that I do not have to micromanage everything. Yes, I am able to moderate, but for the majority of it, aside from the general area forums, players can help build the city on their own. 
  • I can just click a person's profile to see which characters are theirs, too.
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8 hours ago, Lady Croft said:

Oh anything to save code is great. It's why using BBcode to throw templates into is so handy too. Just click, type, done. Or control+b which can be quicker than typing or scrolling up to click the options bar. 

 

I think you misinterpreted me. I'm saying having to use BBCode at all is a downer.

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13 hours ago, Morrigan said:

 

I think you misinterpreted me. I'm saying having to use BBCode at all is a downer.

 

I did. lol 

 

And adding: Favourite features....those reactions. Whilst i've only seen them used here as far as I remember they're wonderful. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've realized after making my new game that mobile friendly is a must. A lot of people do write on their phones.

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