Membership One account for everything or account per character?

[Sadrienne 242]

1 hour ago, Gota said:

Is this similar to that? https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/7708-linked-accounts-post-as/

I'm starting to see that vBulletin was an absolutely horrendous choice for an RP forum *sigh*

 

It is similar to that, just for a different software. I have the plugin you linked, and I love it. @Morrigan is also working on a different mod for IPS that allows you to run multiple characters from one account, each with their own signatures... but without having to register separate accounts. Looking forward to seeing that, and it will be an RPG Initiative exclusive!

 

I have player accounts, and then my members register their characters as separate accounts (that we use Adriano's Linked Accounts/Post As mod to tie them all together). I like the distinction between player and character.

 

Also, yes. IPS is the best choice for an RP board. Just sayin'.

[CovertSphinx 710]

I can do either or, but i prefer one per character because I usually run acolades and groups and stuff that need the individualized attention.

[Deep Sea 326]

I always prefer one account per person, because I'm forgetful and passwords are hard.

[StormWolfe 557]

For me, the ideal would be one account / one email period and then you create your character bios and are able to choose which character to post as, complete with avatar and link back to the bio.

 

Nova comes closest to this of any RP venue I've ever seen. Once Nova has completed it's upgrade and release of the totally revamped system (Nova NextGen), I might even go running back to it for that reason. 

 

This is the biggest drawback I've found with IPS. I love all the neat features, but I'm just not able to manage learning all the in-and-out coding for the wonderful Pages feature and I loathe the account linking option since you have to have a separate email for each account. With the way it works, you have to have 'fake' email accounts for your character accounts and hope everyone remembers to only tag or communicate with you via your OOC account. It it weren't for that, I'd likely move my other two sites off Nova and onto IPS.

 

Don't get me wrong, I am not dissing IPS! Its features far outweigh the two drawbacks. If they'd find a way around having to set up separate accounts for IC writing and do a Pages for Dummies option (i.e. easy out-of-the-box options), it would be totally perfect for storytelling RPGs.

 

Of all the free options, I'd still choose Nova.

 

Of all the paid options, IMHO, IPS wins.

[Gota 45]

The fake e-mail thing is the exact same problem I have with the IC social network - but at least you don't need to actually have the e-mail there and can bypass it. Still, wish there was a better solution for that.

[StormWolfe 557]

@Gota

 

I actually set up a domain on my server to use just for our 'fake' email addresses. I create a character email account and then forward it to the Player's real email account. This does work off and on. Sadly, it is not reliable and is a royal pain in the rear to troubleshoot. I don't know enough about adminning email to make it go right all the time. Some members get all emails and some don't.

 

I keep contributing to Morrigan's character mod here in hopes she can get that up and running. That will solve all the character subaccount issues from the sound of its description. 

[Gota 45]

I've already forgotten most about the character mod. What are the exact differences with the sub-account plugin?

[Morrigan 1,826]

The character mod is a true pseudo account mod. It will allow you to choose from characters in a drop down when creating a post or replying and it will replace the template on the left and the signature. It'll have faux groups for all of your OCD separation needs, it's own account list etc.

 

Actually need to work with my developer and get started on this. I'll poke my BF about it again today actually.

 

It has some extra features that will include the ability to share accounts (so you can have NPC accounts shared between Staff members if you want) and a few other things. The coolest thing is you will only need your outer account.

[StormWolfe 557]

@Morrigan

 

*sighs and whimpers*  I can't wait!

[Gota 45]

Something the site I came from also had was the possibility to have multiple avatars per character, where you could choose one when posting, although I would be fine without that since my characters only have 1 avatar, anyway

Edited April 29, 2018 by Gota

[Lucky Cat 83]

I really (strongly) dislike how disorganised one-account-for-all-chars feels. Not only do I need use a posting template to show "heeey, this is my chaaarrr" (which I don't like either), but looking through one account of hundreds of threads and posts to find specific one is such a hassle. Even if a site seems amazing and up my alley, I don't join it if it's one account per player. I've tried numerous times and I just don't like it.

 

 

Like the others, I really like Jcink's switch account system while having an OOC/parent account. I never need to log onto my character's accounts for anything, I can just organise and post everything as my chars from my OOC. (And if I ever select the wrong char, it's super easy to correct it.) No templates necessary, everything is nice and organised.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Lucky Cat

[Val 28]

On 4/30/2018 at 6:46 AM, Gota said:

Something the site I came from also had was the possibility to have multiple avatars per character, where you could choose one when posting, although I would be fine without that since my characters only have 1 avatar, anyway

 Being able to choose a different avatar per-post would singly win me to that platform, ngl. This is something that's always been at the back of my head of something I need in my life. Post templates can sort of cover the gap, but I admit I prefer to avoid them.

[Terion 10]

I started out doing one account with multiple characters underneath it but then came across some site using subaccounts and was like, "I love it, that's a fabulous idea, where can I get some of that." And that's part of how I started learning how to run a board with SMF.

 

Now I have my myBB board which uses Enhanced Account Switcher to tag everything together as Master/Attached accounts and I literally just went through the hassle of figuring out how to get my header account selector and the under-a-new-post account selector to work together without one throwing a javascript error. That way people don't have to scroll all the way to the top to change accounts if they forgot.

[Dragon 673]

I prefer the account per character method because it allows for more character post customization with avatars and signatures, especially the way that @Morrigan created things over on DBD. It's absolutely fantastic - all of the profiles are specially coded per species, so our  werewolves, dragons, shapeshifters etc all have unique profiles that display the necessary information about them.

 

It is also set up so that you don't even have to log out and create a new account upon bringing in a new character. Our members just have to click a button, fill out the required fields and submit - it auto links to the parent account from there. So there's no log out log in rigmarole whatsoever. 

[Elena 546]

On 4/29/2018 at 8:49 PM, Deep Sea said:

I always prefer one account per person, because I'm forgetful and passwords are hard.

 

I use always the same password for all the accounts. And you need the main account's password mostly, because you are posting for the characters accounts from the main account  Post as ...  It is a life saver to have a main account and character subaccounts  Long live jcink for this, because invisionfree didn't have this possibility!

 

Some people were mentioning also fake e-mails. I hate this. Use your real e-mail, because the administrator might need it for further correspondence! And you can use the same e-mail for all the characters, it's just something to tick when you make the board, as far as I remember...

Edited May 5, 2018 by Elena