marcmagus
Posts: 168
5/13/2015
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Alexis wrote:
If this thread devolves into people meta-grumbling about PM requests, we can either (a) give up our hard work and livelihood for free (b) get the mods to step on the meta-grumbles and PM requests. What would you do in our place?
In an effort to avert the Haunting at the Marsh-House thread devolving into a meta-discussion I am creating a home for that discussion.
I hope that's both ok and helps the other thread return to its topic to whatever extent there's still discussion to be had on it. I presume we all agree that it's desirable for FBG to earn a living making their game.
The idea has been floated a few times that it would be nice to have a forum area restricted to Exceptional Friends, where the rules on spoiler-posting could be somewhat relaxed. This seems elegant from a user perspective, although working out rules to make sure it didn't devolve into something that reduced incentive to purchase back-issues of EF stories or other stories would have to be avoided. On the plus side, it could be billed as another EF benefit.
I suspect, however, that the current forum software can't readily permit automatic access control to certain areas of the forum based on the qualities of a linked account. Depending on how difficult it would be to add such a feature, we're probably looking at something expensive (which means less new content as dev-time is shifted, or something) or more likely a complete non-starter.
May I suggest a couple of less disruptive alternative ways to handle such a situation in the future without developer intervention required?
1. Some kind soul could volunteer to accept PM requests for additional details. Then rather than everybody cluttering the thread with "please PM me too", it could be handled via PM. As long as that person didn't get overwhelmed.
2. We could spin off a separate thread just for the PM requests. It would get it out of the way of the thread discussing the new content.
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marcmagus, a scholar of the Correspondence of some minor note and bold explorer of the new Unterzee.
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Kade Carrion (an_ocelot)
Posts: 1372
5/13/2015
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If it were _easy_ to link such a thing to current EF status, maybe--but there's Fate-locked stuff that isn't EF, so forum norms could still use changing, and I strongly suspect that it isn't easy to restrict a forum to current-EFs-only, which means not worth it as there's a lower-tech solution available.
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Alistair Cray
Posts: 114
5/14/2015
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marcmagus wrote:
As Alexis pointed out on the Marsh-House thread, that can be handled, if inelegantly, by noting the material rewards in the "notes field" of the journal. People would have to start getting into the habit of doing so, of course.
(Pensively) That would mesh well with my idea of a "black box" Chrome extension for FL..
To the drawing board! (Sweeps aside Zubmarine blueprints)
edited by Alistair Cray on 5/14/2015
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Fallen London profile
My browser extensions:
Chandlery | Playing Favourites
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Kade Carrion (an_ocelot)
Posts: 1372
5/14/2015
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Ian Hart wrote:
However, some people also want to be able to talk about the fate-locked content in an easy to access way. My understanding is "the IRC" is the only way to do that currently, and I think a better method could probably be arrived at.
Cross-posted: again, it seems to me people have been unnecessarily cautious, and discussion that is mildly to moderately circumspect should be just fine. I suggest we try to do better for June's EF story and see what improvements we can make right here.
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Social Actions: send them to Kade Carrion (she/her; no Tournament of Lilies, please). an_ocelot has gone NORTH and cannot benefit from social actions!
Possibly-Useful Things: Spreadsheets and hints and link collections, oh my.
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Kade Carrion (an_ocelot)
Posts: 1372
5/13/2015
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I think once people accept that linking and general discussion are allowed, we can encourage a forum culture that (a) splits up discussion on Fate-locked stuff and (b) talks in general terms -- the bit about the eyes was really creepy, the choice seemed a little hard because I didn't quite feel I had enough context, I'm really nervous what the hint about the explosions is going to lead to.
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Social Actions: send them to Kade Carrion (she/her; no Tournament of Lilies, please). an_ocelot has gone NORTH and cannot benefit from social actions!
Possibly-Useful Things: Spreadsheets and hints and link collections, oh my.
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BlakeTheDrake
Posts: 237
5/13/2015
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an_ocelot wrote:
There's really no need for that. Alexis said echoing is fine and linking is fine. All people need to do is echo and link in thread, the end.
There might not be any NEED for it, but it would still be rather nice. The whole idea of the House of Chimes is that it's an 'exclusive meeting-place' for Exceptional Friend. It would be only LOGICAL if that extended to an exclusive forum where the discussion could move a bit more freely. No?
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One of these days, I will remember to record interesting things in my journal...
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/BlakeTheDrake
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Kade Carrion (an_ocelot)
Posts: 1372
5/14/2015
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Ian Hart wrote:
[ . . . ] So here is the information I think we need.
[ . . . ]
6) What is an acceptable level of security to confirm you bought the content?
Toper wrote:
7) Should it be possible to openly discuss the material rewards of Fate-locked content?
I still don't see how "echo to your own journal, put the material rewards in the title of the journal entry, link to those entries in the forums" doesn't solve these problems.
Seriously. Alexis said,
Folks, it's fine for you to echo the information to your journals (and use the notes field to store the reward). It's fine for you to link to your journals. It's also fine for you to discuss the endings.
What else is needed? What am I missing that people want to complicate this so much?
edited by an_ocelot on 5/14/2015
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Social Actions: send them to Kade Carrion (she/her; no Tournament of Lilies, please). an_ocelot has gone NORTH and cannot benefit from social actions!
Possibly-Useful Things: Spreadsheets and hints and link collections, oh my.
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genesis
Posts: 924
5/14/2015
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an_ocelot wrote:
What else is needed? What am I missing that people want to complicate this so much?
Effectively several improvements to the journal (Which, admittedly, Alexis said might be in the pipeline. But not for a long while). Off the top of my head, the things that the current system is less than ideal in accommodating:
1. If you forget to echo. I am sometimes so excited about the story that I clock "Onwards" before I realise that I forgot to echo a particular story. You can't "go back" or "undo" and so if you missed the moment, that's it.
2. The title field is small and is intended to also fit the title (which in some cases, actually forms the opening of the text and so is not easily discardable). This is not *usually* an issue but has been an issue more than once for me.
3. Journals are not searchable, which means that unless you are on top of the game the content drifts away. Only last month I PM'ed several people who had advertised on the forums that they had received a Christmas card from the Bazaar. I spent over an hour fruitlessly browsing their journals and never got any responses to the PMs.
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Keeping track of incomplete content and loose ends in Fallen London
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Kade Carrion (an_ocelot)
Posts: 1372
5/14/2015
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genesis wrote:
an_ocelot wrote:
What else is needed? What am I missing that people want to complicate this so much?
Effectively several improvements to the journal (Which, admittedly, Alexis said might be in the pipeline. But not for a long while). Off the top of my head, the things that the current system is less than ideal in accommodating:
1. If you forget to echo. I am sometimes so excited about the story that I clock "Onwards" before I realise that I forgot to echo a particular story. You can't "go back" or "undo" and so if you missed the moment, that's it.
2. The title field is small and is intended to also fit the title (which in some cases, actually forms the opening of the text and so is not easily discardable). This is not *usually* an issue but has been an issue more than once for me.
3. Journals are not searchable, which means that unless you are on top of the game the content drifts away. Only last month I PM'ed several people who had advertised on the forums that they had received a Christmas card from the Bazaar. I spent over an hour fruitlessly browsing their journals and never got any responses to the PMs.
Cool, thanks for helping me understand.
1. Crowd-source. Come to the forums and ask people to link if you forgot something. Encourage and thank people who regularly echo and link.
2. I've never come across this limit, so I don't know what it is; possibly that might be a relatively easy technical thing for FBG to change, or maybe not.
3. Better forum norms: separate threads for specific content, link _at the time_ now that it's clear that we're allowed to. People have been unnecessarily cautious about this--someone has actually PM'ed or emailed me to tell me I shouldn't have echoed stuff, just echoed it! If people link in the forums at the time, then it will be more searchable.
(You can search profiles via Google--restrict it to fallenlondon.storynexus.com--and since the forum isn't fully searchable, search that by Google too. I'd suggest we crowdfund an upgrade to the forum software, but honestly Google works fine for my purposes.)
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Social Actions: send them to Kade Carrion (she/her; no Tournament of Lilies, please). an_ocelot has gone NORTH and cannot benefit from social actions!
Possibly-Useful Things: Spreadsheets and hints and link collections, oh my.
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Kade Carrion (an_ocelot)
Posts: 1372
5/14/2015
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(Come June, I will put my echoes and links where my mouth is, naturally. As some of you may recall, I have a passion for documentation . . . )
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Social Actions: send them to Kade Carrion (she/her; no Tournament of Lilies, please). an_ocelot has gone NORTH and cannot benefit from social actions!
Possibly-Useful Things: Spreadsheets and hints and link collections, oh my.
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MadmanAtW
Posts: 231
5/13/2015
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Also, sometimes people are curious about the material rewards and stat changes from taking various actions in Fatelocked stories, and that can't be ascertained by looking at linked journals.
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http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Xoricco
Accepting any social actions except the Affluent Photographer. Would appreciate warning of dupings/betrayals/rats.
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marcmagus
Posts: 168
5/14/2015
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MadmanAtW wrote:
Also, sometimes people are curious about the material rewards and stat changes from taking various actions in Fatelocked stories, and that can't be ascertained by looking at linked journals.
As Alexis pointed out on the Marsh-House thread, that can be handled, if inelegantly, by noting the material rewards in the "notes field" of the journal. People would have to start getting into the habit of doing so, of course.
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marcmagus, a scholar of the Correspondence of some minor note and bold explorer of the new Unterzee.
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Diptych
Administrator
Posts: 3493
5/14/2015
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Well, it only takes one person to do it! Well, one per option, I guess, but we're community-minded folks, I'm sure we'd have all the relevant links posted fairly promptly.
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Sir Frederick, the Libertarian Esotericist. Lord Hubris, the Bloody Baron.
Juniper Brown, the Ill-Fated Orphan. Esther Ellis-Hall, the Fashionable Fabian.
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