Garfest

-Drama
-No, You Mad (I wasn't sad and whiny, I was pissed./quote)
-Don't be mad at me, I didn't think you could do it for some reason - thats why I brought it up. Plus, I SAID I knew you'd say something. I didn't post "I AM NEKO-CHAN AND I AM YOUR NEW GARFEST OVERLORD"
-You crazy son'
-Goodluck if you want to do it.

Okay gentlemen, quit your trolling -- this isn't IB. There's no reason we can't all work together on this.

My bad, I just got a little defensive there.

I know. That's why I said you crazy. But it's all good in da neighborhood. I brought it up without any intention of taking it over but open to helping out.

Conversation to be continued... stay tuned.

Anyway, instead of having the normal forum view, I did a rough mockup of what we can have instead --



EDIT: fuck you too, Imgur >:(

The goal here is to have the server do as much as possible so you guys can take control of the actual moderation (instead of maintaining stickies and everything else). Basically, you've got the current battle displayed on top with the vote buttons, then the bottom half of the page is divided into two columns -- the left is the most recent posts for the current battle's thread (and a quickreply box). The right is a list of the upcoming battles for the next week or so (whatever fits on the page).

Some points --

* We'll be able to just pre-load the system with a set of character name+images; we can have it autogenerate from there :
+ The bracket.
+ The bracket images (or however we lay that out) as the game progresses.
+ All of the battle threads.
+ The battle schedule.

* I kind of want to highlight posts in the battle threads based on how the person voted on that battle (though I imagine it'll be pretty clear). Maybe just on the front page.

* All of the threads are handled by the normal forum software -- the only thing that I think would be beneficial to change is the actual landing page (instead of a raw forum view) and automating some of the tasks.

Thoughts, comments, criticisms? How can we make this as streamlined as possible for both you guys and the users?

Well hell, that's much sexier than my "make a thread for every battle". I don't know if Jake would be okay with this though, last time he wanted to make sure everyone knew it was a community made project rather than a fakku sponsored game. To be honest, I'm more than okay with just a subforum and me making all the threads, would be much less work on the admin's parts as well.

how could you go about leaving it in the hands of non staff, from the looks of it it would require some sort of control and that's not something you can consider without jake's okay.

It is just a suggestion, and a cool one too. Can't wait to put out suggestions until Jacob okays them.

Noticed how post are highlighted based on user's vote. It would be cool to see a thread filled with mixed colors like that. The chart is reminding me of pokemon...

right, and my comment/tms's comment were concerns about issues that may arise with said suggestion. That's how people talk about ideas, someone suggest one and another person explains issues they may see with it.

My bad, it sounded more like you were saying not to discuss it because people were getting ahead of themselves. Don't be so sensitive...

sensitive? Just explained what my comment meant after you misunderstood?

I'd run it by him before I implemented it. It'll still be based on the forum software -- you'll still have a subforum with all the battle threads and stuff, just an extra landing page which is all pretty. And all of the more menial tasks would be automated, so it would be less work on your end.

Having such a system would only be more work on my part, and the cost of me implementing it once (and using it for both the Gar battles and MoteMote) is much less than having you guys do it by hand twice a year.

I strictly don't deal with politics; I don't know what the implications of having it be a Fakku-sponsored game would be. I'm not entirely clear on whether having a dedicated system to handle some of it makes it more Fakku-sponsored than having a subforum specifically set up for it.



Err, I always run every public-facing change I make through Jacob before doing it (aside from bugfixes). There's no harm in discussing a potential new system, then pitching it to Jacob to see how he feels about me implementing it. He's responsible for bouncing those ideas off the staff (and community at large). I by no means want to seem like I'm undercutting you guys.

For the sake of discussion, how was moderation for the previous Gar battle handled?

tms would inform me of changes he needed done, and report things that were unwanted. It was fairly short but almost daily as a lot of drama does seem to pop up during.

Ahhhh, okay, that makes a lot more sense. I was making the false assumption that he was just temporarily made a moderator of that sub-forum.

What kind of changes did he mostly request (aside from the usual reporting functionality)? Was it mostly just sticky/unsticky threads, or was there more to it?

Sticky this, unsticky that, delete this post, tell them to stay on topic, tell them to abide by rules was basically what he did.

There should be a GARfest moderator.

I remember TMS asked to be a moderator last time, it didn't happen though. Garfest should have its own moderator as I still believe it is an open house of sorts for Fakku. There are many post you can see in the subforum where users had less than 50 votes and often did things that required moderator (like post pictures of Yaoi images to make other characters look bad). If it was just Fakku experienced users only, I wouldn't think it needed anymore Moderation than what Global Mod or I suppose you, Waar, could handle. But since it has a lot of outsiders, extra "security" is needed.

yeah, that was proposed to jake the second time TMS wanted to run it but he wasn't a fan of the idea, I don't think a moderator for a month and a half is really required. Not that it changes much but I just dont see that being a viable option.

Well, I can't fix the moderation bits (post deletions and rule enforcement), but I can definitely automate the sticky/unsticky process so that it automatically makes the daily battle threads, sticky/unstickys them, keeps track of the developing bracket and updates a central status post, generates bracket images, etc. I don't know what proportion of the overhead that would eliminate for you guys, but it would at least remove the "oh god need to stay up to put the thread up at the right time" factor.

The fancy landing page is really just icing on the cake. The real timesaver is the automated system which takes care of the bruntwork for you guys.



I think the main reason to have a dedicated moderator would be the whole "maintain this forum as something other than a forum" issue. An automated system would fix that need, I think. There are still the usual forum moderation tasks (deleting bad posts, keeping everyone in line, etc), but I feel like the reporting system can be used to take care of that.

If it was a month and a half - it took much longer specifically because it was only one person doing the event. A dedicated moderator would be able to assist TMS and what not, or if TMS had moderation powers he wouldn't have to act like a 6 year old asking his mom to turn on the oven for him. HE COULD BAKE THAT SHIT HIMSELF.



Yeah that sounds like a lot of work eliminated as well as the problem of last year when people would complain or wonder if TMS was dead since there were no updates. With this automation, no one would care if he was dead.

How long would it take to get all that setup?

Well, to be fair it wouldn't actually get rid of the hardest part; that is, creating the header images for each battle. That was what took the longest, and under this system I'd still have to do it. I like the idea, but I'm just being realistic. It wouldn't be possible to automate a system that could take 2 random images, center them perfectly to the way that looks good and create with no manual interaction.

On the mod topic; the only problem I could see arising by having someone other than the main creator/do-er of the game is a problem that came up last year; when something needed done but no mods were around.