Posted by Kim on October 15, 2017, 10:15am
Thank you to everyone who joined me for office hours this weekend! If you couldn't be there, here's a recap of the Q&As that happened.
I'm loving all of these new updates to the site, the addition of the whole OOC separator thing and the fact we can now add people to PMs is making me pretty happy.
I am SO GLAD to hear that! I have felt like the past 30 days have been pretty productive ones for the RPR. Some big breakthrough type features.
Kim, I was curious about self advertisement when it comes to things we make and sell. For example, I run an etsy shop for crochet hats. I was wondering what your opinion would be if I were to sort of advertise my shop in the arts & creativity board?
That is an excellent question. You are absolutely welcome to occasionally advertise your RL hand-made wares, or digital art services, especially if they relate to the interests of our user base. My general stance is that if you're a member of our community, people are going to be interested in knowing what's going on with you, and any businesses or creative talents that you have are definitely a big piece of your life and of interest to others. We do ask that advertising not be the main thing you do in our community, and certainly not the only thing. It should be one part of a well-rounded community participation. Does that make sense?
Has there been any new developments for @ mentions? o:
There's been a little bit of movement there, in terms of determining what the user interface for such a feature would look like and how it would be pulled off. It's not yet built, but it's definitely getting higher on the list!
Do you and the site moderators actually role play?
Yes, all of us were RPers long before we were site admins or moderators, and all of us continue to do so. Some of us are more prolific than others. Personally, most of my RP this past year has been at real life tabletop games or LARP (Live action RP, where you put on costumes and actually act out your characters IRL)
I have ironically had less ability to do text-based RP since starting the RPR. I find that almost every free moment I have when I'm in front of a computer, I end up answering bug reports or doing moderator activities or building new features for the RPR.
When will the October Trick-or-Treat event start this year? o:
What is that?
Our Halloween event is Trick or Treat the forums.
It's a super fun event that allows for lots of quick scenes and introductions between characters who would have never ordinarily met one another. Basically, some people will put up topics on the IC forums with "Trick or treat" in the title, to indicate they're open to everyone. Then you can come in with ANY of your characters from any time period or genre and ring their doorbell. If you trick or treat the forums, you'll also get accolades in the form of classic halloween candy for your profile. You can also trade that candy in to Moa for pretty stuff like fall leaves after the event is over.
Is there a chance for more payment methods in the future?
Thinking mostly of "paysafecard" though I don't know about its popularity in the rest of the world
Maaaybe. It's definitely not something that will happen in the next six months, though. We're more likely to get an on-site currency before then.
What are those Friday prompts for? Like what do you do if you wanted to do one of the prompts?
They're there for the taking! You can use them in any existing RP you have, or invite friends to start a new RP based on them with you. Or, maybe they will inspire a new character or world idea for you. They're really just there to get your imagination going. You can change them however you want or use them as is.
If you could be any of your o.cs, which one would you be, Kim?
Oh boy, that's a hard question to answer. I don't think I would be any of them, honestly! Even the coolest ones have deep flaws... Although... I have some flaws, and I can't cast magical spells so maybe I should rethink this
Out of your characters so far, which would be your favorite, Kim?
I've liked most of them for different reasons, so it's an apples to oranges comparison, but the one I'm enjoying playing the most right now is a character for a Star Trek table top I'm in. It's set just after the time of Captain Kirk and co. I am Irene Imzadi, half-betazoid captain of the Constellation class USS Sagan. It's one of the few tabletops I attend in full costume.
Kim, I was actually curious if there has ever been a question or suggestion for the ability to do small status or blog updates on our activity feeds. This could give users a fast way to update all of their friends on their friends lists that they're going to be away for awhile or something major or even small personal updates.
Yes, this is a popular suggestion. I've so far not implemented it due to a variety of factors (Moderator burden, the need for specific privacy controls, confusion over whether you're posting as a character or your user and how privacy settings would interact with character friends and character anonymity, the fact that the notifications system on the homepage is twitchy as all heck and requires at least two weeks of deep meditation on a mountaintop before I can make even the tiniest of changes to it), but I see the use and I suspect we will have it at some point.
Do you plan on creating a mobile app for this site?
No, definitely not. My aim to make the mobile version of the site as app-like and responsive as possible.
More on that here: https://www.rprepository.com/community/newspost.php?post=477Would we get differnt site skin layouts in the future?
I don't currently have any plans to offer different site skins, as it would require longer build and testing cycles for each new feature, and I don't want to do anything that would extend the wait time on adding/fixing other features. I know that some people really want this because of eye strain sensitivity and having trouble looking at the bright white text boxes. I think there have been some workarounds found in the past, like browser plugins. I can't recall their names, but I bet someone here knows.
A note from IlexysCrowe: Oh! Since I have really sensitive eyes, I recommend Deluminate--it's available on Chrome and Firefox, and it basically makes everything with a white background dark, and adjusts/inverts palettes for easier reading.
How difficult was it to decide on the colour scheme of the site? It's nice and calming for me. I love the different shades of browns and tans.
We had a slightly harsher, darker color scheme when the site first opened, but we were always aimed toward sort of vellum-and-parchment, because I tended to think of high fantasy looks for RP sites (even though we offer all genres). Over time, I wanted to make the site feel lighter, and increase the contrast between background and text to make it easy to read for people with less than perfect eyesight. I eventually settled on a palette of off-white, faded teal, rusty red, and deep leather colors that made me think of old books, worn adventuring boots, and slightly tarnished metals.
Here's a post from back in 2011 where I talked about my rationale for the current site design: https://www.rprepository.com/community/newspost.php?post=85
Oh! And just for fun, here's one where we got our current logo, from 2013: https://www.rprepository.com/community/newspost.php?post=217
It's also very colorblind-friendly!
Being as friendly to as many visual disabilities as possible was definitely in my mind! I've also heard from some completely blind users that the site works well with screen readers, which I've always attempted to make true but have not had great ways to test, personally.
What kind of music do you use when building up a character?
Usually, I find the soundtrack to a movie that has a similar feel to the kind of character I want to build.
What's your favorite feature?
One of my favorites is still the Forum Chat. I don't know that I've ever seen it's like elsewhere!
An Epic Week only feature that I adore is Walruses defending their masters in battle.
what is the all hallows eve rp post about? i glanced over it but,still
Do you mean this one? https://www.rprepository.com/community/newspost.php?post=556
It's a pretty light hearted event meant to allow for extremely rapid-fire scenes between characters that would normally never meet. It's often ripe for comedy. I would recommend reading the news post more closely than a glance over, it contains a lot of specifics.
Can I host more than one trick or treat topic?
No, this year we're asking that each person host only one trick or treat topic. You can visit as many as you like, though!
Question about trick and treating! Are we shoehorning ourselves if we have fandom ocs? I'm thinking of using my Star Wars OC, who is not a human one.
Much like some say that Halloween is the day of the year that the barrier between the spirit world and ours is at its thinnest, the trick or treat the forums event is *very* loose when it comes to genres and settings. Many characters will suddenly not bat an eye at characters hitting them up for candy that possess impossible technology or are from a race they have never heard of before.
I personally like to Trick or Treat Darth_Angelus' Star Wars characters with my Star Trek ones every year...
How does it work with characters? Do you use one? If you're allowed to use more than one, are you allowed to go to the same house more than once via using different characters?
You don't have to stick with one character to trick or treat. You can use a different one for every topic you visit. You can even send a second one into the same topic after your first one leaves (although you'll only get one candy accolade per topic you trick or treat, regardless of the number of times you trick or treat it, which is fine - you'll just be there for more mini RP scenes.)
If you host a tick or treat area, can you still trick or treat?
Yes, absolutely.
Is there any kind of required amount of hours when you host a trick or treat topic?
Not exactly. These are the rules for hosts:
You can earn a jack-o-lantern accolade if you host a Trick or Treat topic for at least seven days, between October 14th and October 31st. You must respond consistently to all trick or treaters until either they post leaving, the event ends, or you close your topic to new trick or treaters with a wrap-up post. If you simply stop responding before the 31st, you may be disqualified from getting a neato pumpkin! However, you are strongly encouraged to keep your Trick or Treat topic open until the end of the event.
If your trick or treaters stop responding or for some reason you don't get any, you'd still be eligible for the pumpkin accolade just for making the offer.
How do I host one?
From the news post describing the event:
Quote:
If your character is ready to accept IC trick or treaters, please first read the rules. Then, post up a topic in one of the IC forums using a topic title like this: Trick or Treat: Your Character's Name Here
Describe your character's home, then sit back and wait for the IC trick or treaters to start rolling in.
Describe your character's home, then sit back and wait for the IC trick or treaters to start rolling in.
is there a certain amount of words or paragraphs you have to use?
Absolutely not. People are allowed to write whatever length they like for the trick or treat event. That goes for both hosts and visitors.
I've noticed that RPR has its very own world map: Do you ever plan to have a more in-depth map one day? Or even host a contest for artists to draw their own rendition of the realms of RPR? I know it's totally optional, and not everyone has to follow it for a more open experience, but it's still a nifty idea for Epic Weeks and what not!
That's a really interesting idea for a contest. I will for sure keep that in mind for next year.
The RPR map was actually something that Darth_Angelus doodled up after he'd been making RPR fan films, with archetypal characters he imagined would live inside Server. He had decided that those characters lived in a cohesive world and wanted to represent it, especially as he and I began working on production of The Bug War, a film he produced for an early Epic Week that took place in the world of the RPR. We've slowly added on to it over the years, but it's one of those things that usually only comes into play every once in a blue moon - about once a year during Epic Week, and not always then.
why does every new post sound like a picture being taken in chat?
The sound for the chat posts is actually a stapler... It just seemed sort of fitting, with all the paper textures used on the site. I sort of imagined each new post was like a new piece of paper being stapled on.
I don't know where the IC forums are...
Go to the Forum page: https://www.rprepository.com/community/forums.php
Look under the title "IC forums". There are three of them.
Can a character trick or treat at more than one house at the same time?
Yes, sure.
If someone's character has already replied in a trick or treat topic, can my character also come by?
Yes, of course!
I have a nexus-styled pub thread already running in the IC forums. I have a ton of my characters posting as different waiters and waitresses already. I want to do a separate Trick-or-Treat version of the pub for my trick or treat thread, but would it still be okay to post as multiple characters in the thread to keep up with the demand? Or can I only post as one character?
You are totally welcome to use more than one character to host a single topic! We're just asking that you not create more than one topic to host trick or treaters at a time.