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[Elana]

Fry, Jiro and I were discussing an idea of a way to encourage guests to join and new members to post. The idea is generally that we start "teams" of new members, maybe named after Tamagotchi characters (e.g. "Team Mametchi" or "Team Kuchipatchi"). They join teams by posting in a particular thread. Each thread starter might include some sort of requirement or challenge for joining the team, like, "The first ten new members who post a true story about their Tamagotchi will join Team Mametchi" for example. Everyone who joins a team gets a personalized sigtag (designed by Jiro, thanks Jiro!). All team sigtags are identical aside from the name of the member. Once a team is full, i.e. the allotted number of members has been reached, the thread is locked.

Once teams are in place, we can maybe play Colisseum games, like trivia or essay contests, and we can win points for our teams. Maybe an extra section can be created on the board for this purpose.

This will make new members and guests feel more included right away, and give them things to start writing about as soon as they join, and people to meet and make friends with. Then it'll be easy to convince them to start posting logs and planning hatches.

What do you think?

[Jiro]

I think it's an awesome idea

haha

[Priestess of Syrinx]

Are there signature size rules on this board? I know all the other forums I've read have rules that limit signatures to roughly the size of one 'sigtag' to stop people from having ridiculously long signatures. People usually like to have their personality reflected through their signatures as well as their avatars.

Also, I've never seen a divided forum end well. Maybe I'm not looking at the right forums, but all the boards I've seen which have some way to divide members (whether moderator-controlled or made by members) end in board wars.

But if it isn't mandatory, I think it could be a good way to introduce new members.

[Elana]

Are there signature size rules on this board? I know all the other forums I've read have rules that limit signatures to roughly the size of one 'sigtag' to stop people from having ridiculously long signatures. People usually like to have their personality reflected through their signatures as well as their avatars.

Also, I've never seen a divided forum end well. Maybe I'm not looking at the right forums, but all the boards I've seen which have some way to divide members (whether moderator-controlled or made by members) end in board wars.

But if it isn't mandatory, I think it could be a good way to introduce new members.

These are all excellent points, and I'm really glad you voiced your opinion!

The board's programming has a character limit on the size of the signature. As for the size of the graphic, I'm sure Jiro will do something tasteful. It might end up looking more like a long, skinny bar rather than something chunky. There can always be open discussion about what kinds of signatures are expressive and what kinds are just clogging up the boards.

What do you mean by "board wars"? I should hope that everyone here is mature enough to understand that friendly competition is just in good fun. If any conflict arises, we can determine if it's due to a troublesome individual who doesn't belong here, or if the project should be scrapped as too inflammatory.

The teams are totally not mandatory. In fact, I didn't envision any of the regulars really joining any of the teams, unless as a 'team captain' or something like that (i.e. thread starter). The idea is pretty much totally about getting new members to post.

Maybe if we're worried about conflict, we can make the competition less direct, or friendlier. Fry and I were also kicking around the idea of "post of the month" awards, when people vote for the most enjoyable or informative post of the month by a new member. Maybe that would be a way to distribute points among teams.

We came up with the idea of sigtags to mark team membership because we were trying to figure out what kind of incentive we can offer to join the team. At first we were thinking about draws or giveaways, but we would obviously prefer something instantaneous and without monetary cost. This is all about giving people a reason to post and get involved. If you can think of something better, I would love to hear it!

[Mimitchi]

Are there signature size rules on this board? I know all the other forums I've read have rules that limit signatures to roughly the size of one 'sigtag' to stop people from having ridiculously long signatures. People usually like to have their personality reflected through their signatures as well as their avatars.

Also, I've never seen a divided forum end well. Maybe I'm not looking at the right forums, but all the boards I've seen which have some way to divide members (whether moderator-controlled or made by members) end in board wars.

But if it isn't mandatory, I think it could be a good way to introduce new members.

There are size rules on this board... basically it is whatever LM or I deem as "too much". When such a thing happens (and it does happen quite often with new members) we take care of it in PM with the person and it gets handled quite quickly. I do have some rules about sig tags in the rules, but they are more of guidelines. I do prefer more banner like tags (such as I have) but I keep an open mind to creative ideas as well.

I agree about the division among forums never being good, that is why I asked Elana to post this publically so everyone could talk about it. It's a very good point.

My thought is... I'm not so sure the idea would work at all since it is targeted at the folks that sign up and never post, they just like to read. By looking at the poll directed at lurkers, I can see the new folks have a hard time just clicking a small button to answer the poll at all. (ref: http://mimitchi.com/vpets/index.php?topic=786.0) But this idea might motivate them differently.

However LM and I have always been good at keeping an eye on things and have yet to see any fighting, yet alone a war, break out in our small community. If it was implemented and it did cause problems, we would remove it before it escalated, that's just how we are 

[Mimitchi]

I've been thinking about this idea and thought... how about a more simplified version? Would a monthly/weekly/whatever Trivia contest or other type game be something that might be fun for everyone? Maybe not to totally replace the team idea, but... perhaps it's something that might be of interest? (not to derail, it is just something that came to mind while I was in the shower tonight).

Trivia and other types of word games would be fun on here.

Anyone have any thoughts?

PS: after rereading what I wrote above....I realize I came off a bit too sharp or harsh in my wording. If it was read like that, I apologize - as seen from my incorrect bday wish post - i really should not make posts on the board late at night cuz I look like an idiot the next day. I think the team idea is a good idea, I think we just have to hammer out the details. 

[Mimitchi]

Anyone else have any thoughts on this topic? Everyone is welcome to talk about the Team Idea or the trivia idea I had or any new ideas that may come to mind. This totally an open forum conversation - even to all you new folks ^.^

[K-StateFry]

Everyone has said some very interesting and important things, which by they way, is one of the best things about this board.

If we were to do the team thing, as Kat said, we should really make sure we set the rules/guidelines for it and make sure we make it as flawless as we possibly can, so as to prevent anyone feeling jealous or cheated or anything of the like.

I would love to do a weekly trivia(or some other kind) contest, even If I couldn't make every one. But if we did it weekly, we might need to make the trophies smaller so they don't make the signatures huge.

So I say we just continue this discussion until we have everything planned and figured out, we've already had alot said in the first  several replies. 

[TigerLily013]

Everyone has said some very interesting and important things, which by they way, is one of the best things about this board.

If we were to do the team thing, as Kat said, we should really make sure we set the rules/guidelines for it and make sure we make it as flawless as we possibly can, so as to prevent anyone feeling jealous or cheated or anything of the like.

I would love to do a weekly trivia(or some other kind) contest, even If I couldn't make every one. But if we did it weekly, we might need to make the trophies smaller so they don't make the signatures huge.

So I say we just continue this discussion until we have everything planned and figured out, we've already had alot said in the first  several replies. 

I'd be willing to make "winning sigtags" smaller if it was a weekly thing, but I would prefer a monthly thing or every other month kinda thing. I dunno really, I honestly neverminded the events being played out by ear as long as everyone had at least a month's notice so they could go for it you know?

Also kat your original wording on teams and how it could some conflicts was worded well and wasn't harsh at all. I've seen the teams thign go down and it would be fine for a while but then 2-3 people get a little too big for the britches, people took sides and it was just a mess. I definitely wouldn't wanna see that here.

I honestly believe events planned in advance with the timezones and such are just right for this place. Not too complex, no overthinking, nothing too overdetailed. Just a come-on-in, say hello let's have some fun kind of thing.

[K-StateFry]

Alright real quick, Elana and I were discussing this in the chatroom:

What if we had a trial run of this? If we could set up two teams of like 5 or so, consisting of some frequent posters and a few slots for some newer ones. Just to run through it to see how it goes and to show other members and people that have not signed up yet how it will hopefully go.
It would be like having beta testers for a game, we'll use this to try and spot any problems we could potentially have if/when we do the actual team thing.

This would be to test out the competitions, unless you guys would really just rather not do that?
If not then I still think it would be cool to offer sigtags/team names for people to sign up.