Subject:
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A design idea
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.castle
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Date:
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Fri, 5 Sep 2003 01:16:23 GMT
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Viewed:
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910 times
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I apologize for the length of this post, but I felt it necessary to explain my
idea to the fullest to avoid any confusion.
Much discussion has been put into problems with having one dedicated person
constantly updating Castle World. I agree, such a plan is inefficient and puts
too much of a burden on one individual. But I have an idea.....
(For the purpose of this discussion I will use the symbol CS (Castle Site) to
represent the proposed site, as other names might be reserved)
FTX based website
A lot of the bickering has been about the need for free webspace, yet people
seem to forget we have a great resource right here. We could use the free
webspace granted to members by Lugnet to construct a site.
Embedded Pages
The Lugnet FTX enables users to embed full FTX pages within another page. A
member of CS would simply submit the administrator(s) a link to his or her
webpage. The administrator(s) would simply have to type a little bit of FTX
code to add the new info to the CS.
I imagine this being used in short main character bios and other small info.
This would also be used on a larger scale, however. Take an example from CCC; I
am working on a large list of possible buildings that could be created in a
medieval city to give other people ideas. If I wrote this list out in a simple
FTX page, the new info could be added to the existing CCC page with ease by
Lenny Hoffman. A whole site could be created using contributions from
everybody.
Where Exactly?
A problem does arise sadly. Under who’s name would the majority of the CS be
placed? I don’t think anyone would be willing to give up his or her member
password to a group of administrators. But that creates the same problem we are
trying to avoid: having one person hold complete control. Thankfully, there is
a solution. I believe each section of Lugnet (.castle, .space, .train) has its
own FTX section all to itself. This section could be used. All we would have
to do is make all administrator(s) also curators of .castle. I believe this
would give them access to the .castle section. Obviously, this would require
the agreement of the current curators, and agreement doesn’t seem to be our
strong point at the moment.
What about non-members?
Non-members would not be able to create their own FTX pages, making it
difficult to contribute to the CS. One possible solution would be to say that
one must be a member to participate, but that doesn’t seem fair. Not everyone
is willing to pay $10 to become a member.
Hope shouldn’t be lost though, there is a solution. Individual members of CS
who also are Lugnet members could volunteer to host the contributions of
non-members. They could choice to help many people contribute, just one, or not
at all, depending on the spare time they have.
I envision this happening in the following process:
1. Joe Non-Lugnet-Member decides that he wants to join the CS
2. He looks at CS member pages, seeing if anyone has written that he or she
would be willing to host a NLM’s content
3. Joe contacts one such CS member and they work out a deal. The CS member may
be willing to take the text and picture links, and write the FTX for it, or
(more likely) would ask that Joe construct a full FTX page then send it to him
(so that copying and pasting would be all that needed to be done) Other issues
needed to be worked out would include who should contact admins about the URL of
the content.
4. Joe is happy, and the CS Member has made a new friend : )
Of course, the CS member could tell Joe at any time that he is no longer willing
to continue his services. Joe could likewise find a new CS member is the old
one’s work wasn’t satisfactory. Of course, seeing as we are all polite people,
such issues would be resolved calmly and with little trouble.
What about people with pre-established websites?
Yes, what about people with pre-established websites? It would seem like quite
a hassle to have to create little pages on Lugnet when one already has a site
containing everything on Mocpages, Ozbricks, or elsewhere. There really is no
good solution to this. People could take the path of Joe and find someone else
to do it, or they could do it on their own. It really wouldn’t be to bad
anyway; the majority of their site could stay on its own, very little would need
to be in FTX.
Duties of Administrators
The main goal of designing such a site is twofold; one, to encourage group
involvement, and two, to ease the burden on admins. Admins would really have to
do very little on a day to day basis. If anyone sent a new URL, they would
simply add it to the appropriate page surrounded by a bit of FTX code. The rest
of their duty would basically involve thinking; how to keep the site fresh, new
contests, ways to expand the site in new directions, etc.
A problem I don’t know the best solution to is that of admin e-mail. Where
would members send new information. Would all admins share access to an e-mail
address that all updates would be sent to? This would allow admins to add to
the site at leisure, and allow them to do exactly as much work as they feel able
to accomplish. Now I say I can’t answer this because I have no real experience
as an administrator of any site or organization, so there may be a commonly used
practice out there that I simply haven’t heard of.
Wouldn’t the site look like a random hodgepodge?
I imagine that admins would set a standard for how sections of the site would
be designed, so that members would submit something that looks identical to
everything else. For example, if someone wanted to submit a creature to the
Monster Section, there would be set guidelines for how a creature description
would look. These rules would specify the size of images, the types of stats
needed, how long a description can be, and any other issues the admins deem
appropriate.
But HTML is better
I have to admit, in terms of versatility and jaw dropping graphics, HTML, Java,
and Flash are much better. But does the CS really need flashy graphics,
spinning icons, and drop down menus? FTX is simple yet allows almost all basic
HTML functions. But more importantly, an FTX CS would encourage the very
aspects that make a community function well: Cooperation, Communication, and
Contribution. I’d call it the CCC, but that’s already taken : )
Well that’s about all I can think of. I am sure there are problems that I
haven’t considered, and advantages I’ve failed to mention. So now it’s your
turn. Discuss my idea, poke holes in it, kick me out, whatever you feel like
doing!
~Kevin Blocksidge
My FTX site
As a footnote: I have no bad feelings towards anyone is the .castle community.
I do not want to disrespect any of the ideas others have put forth, and I
support everyone’s plan for a castle site, even when such plans differ from one
another. My idea can be taken by anyone with an interest to create a website,
as long as that person uses it to support the 3 C’s. I believe all are welcome
in Castle.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: A design idea
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| I mentioned something like this in passing once, here: (URL) "Again, with FTX I think we can use the 'cw' sub-newsgroup to achieve the same ends. Am I somehow missing what you mean by 'visually see the stories taking place'? " My point was that (...) (21 years ago, 5-Sep-03, to lugnet.castle, FTX)
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