I've been putting thought into this.
I would like to see everything that we do online done on-site for a few reasons...
It keeps us within the Breeniverse. We're a community. This should be our home... That's the biggest - the huge one! But there are others...
If we work in chat:
- we have (hopefully - not having been in there, I don't know the software) a way of archiving the chat so that we can keep an ongoing, postable record of the solve process;
if anything needs to be looked at for any reason, server records are readily and immediately available. Needless to say, we would need posted, well understood chat rules, stating that the disclosure of personal information is strictly forbidden in the chat area, as it is on the forum.
I would want to see the chats
scheduled, with moderators there who do the captures/uploads to the forum/board (or an area of the LGPedia, or...?) perhaps, and who keep things on topic. I have a hunch we would need more than one mod in the chatroom to keep things pointed the right direction. Having steered plenty of chatroom conversations, I would like folks to realize that there is going to be some off topic conversation - a little nudge from the mods to remind folks about those wonderous IM programs that developed with chat and everything! (who'da thunk!) will work...honest...
I would like to see the captures uploaded with a bullet pointed list of solves attached for those who'd rather not wade through - but that's just me...
Anyway, I haven't been in the chat here. I understand it's been glitchy and slow. I also understand it was down, and it's up again - has it been tried since it's been back up? Is it still not wonderful?
On the forums:
I like chat for some things (the immediacy is great), and forums/message boards for others (I'm a HUGE fan of forums myself - a "BB Queen" from w-a-y back... <snicker>). We can visit here... That's what the General Discussion area is all about. The Parallax area (and the previous similar areas) are for getting down to The Solves and Solutions. I'd like to see a lot of work going on there.
Personally, I don't think we have a bad group of mods here. Before anyone starts throwing tomatoes, I know from firsthand experience, what a damnably hard job they have trying to be evenhanded.
Basically, my rule of thumb was always that if you managed to piss
everyone off or
no one off in any given situation, you've done the job pretty close to right...because then you've achieved a compromise state. That's not an always thing. Sometimes, you really do have to just deal with one side...but as I told my grandgirlies last night, there are
always two sides to
any issue... You're just not seeing what the mod is doing on the other side - any more than you necessarily want the "other side" to see your conversation with the mod...
Anyway, I have a tendency to ramble... <rueful grin> I've a hunch there's going to be chatter in the Parallax area...but if you have a couple folks whose job description includes the honor of wielding The KickAss Tachyon Broom and Sacred OpAphid DustPan, you know things'll get cleaned up quickly... Allowing a wee bit of chatter in the first place is friendly and is less likely to project that elitist attitude we'd rather not have in the first place. Carefully deflecting it (with humor, with kindness) down to the discussion threads...that would be the way to go...
The ARG itself:
Y'all are percolatin' with ideas here!
Multiple PMs - this is an excellent idea! We get more puzzles and possibly more TYPES of puzzles, since we have more types of input. (no boos on this next) I would like to see Glenn work on the
writing here, as he does have the storyline in his head, and this will give us the continuity... Multiple PMs will also give us puzzles more often...and that was a cause of some consternation earlier, I think...
Love the vid of drops happening, the vids that appear to be public access, the groups with copious drinking and debauchery - uh, was there a drop involved there, or just drinking and debauchery...I'm up for either...and we have a couple acres for the pitching of tents...for left coastal drink&debauch events...
<imagining the look of those tents if pitched after the drinking and debauchery commence> (I'm also pondering here what my partner's going to think...he's still wondering about this whole LG15 thing! <snicker>)
Quick Disclaimers:
As I said somewhere else, I've run communities online since the late '80's (long and long before Al Gore ever considered inventing the Internet <snort>), including a large gaming community that contained Warcraft II, Magestorm, Splatterball, Darkness Falls, and a bunch of other really neat stuff on AOL and GameStorm...
I have never done an ARG before. I love puzzles. Math scares me. Deagol's avatar cracks me up on a regular basis. So do several others...but I most associate him with math puzzles <chortle>. Charlie and Candy Mountain gives me serious nightmares.
Ramble? I think this is a record, even for me! <shudder>
Diane, or cher, or even chershaytoute, but "Hey, you!" works, too...
WWggD - let's make the Breeniverse a better place to live...
Thanks to giddeanx for the coolest personal glue stick ever!
W! awesome post chershaytoute!!!