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Wes

Wes

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Recently Star Army was reviewed by Distant Fantasies. Some of the comments were negative, calling the site "deceptive" and some were untrue (such as needing a login for assistance when IRC is available and we are one of the only RP sites with phone and text support.

I want you guys to help me digest this review with your comments and then we can come up with a plan to address the reviewer's concerns.
 
Re: Unkind Review

May need to look at other RPGs this reviewer has looked at and compare. Just a quick thought in the morning.
 
Re: Unkind Review

Honestly, this review might be slightly misinformed, but I personally didn't take anything away from it that struck me as unkind or abrasive. Perhaps the author simply didn't find easily digestible information in a few moments, and gave up. Being relatively new here myself, I can attest that the site *is* rather daunting at first, and the character creation process is a little confounding for someone starting fresh with no connections whatsoever.

With that said, however, I should point out that it didn't take me very much digging to find Wes's email address and contact him directly with things I wanted clarification on, and he was very helpful in getting me started. I'm not sure where that concern came from, other than simply either not looking long enough, or in the right place, particularly with regards to the assertion that you need a login (I corresponded with Wes in several volleys before I ever made an account).
 
Re: Unkind Review

Aside from a couple mistakes, she is correct about the organization. I mean, I can navigate because I've been here forever, but if nothing else, the home page should link to an explanation of how the forum itself works until you can sort it out better.
 
Re: Unkind Review

I don't think the review is that startlingly negative, overall it remains positive and understanding barring three issues.

- Plot information not being readily available
- Could not find contact details for admins without having to log into something else
- Not archiving threads as they're closed

Number one is probably more indicative of the crowded nature of the wiki itself. New players are plastered with a lot of information very quickly, this process tends to bring out the meticulous and determined players but drive off those that are probably more spontaneous. Not sure how to fix this one any more than what has already been suggested.

Number two, I'm not really sure how to address this one. Logging into things? Really, that difficult? Maybe this person really hadn't discovered Wes's email and phone details, but this still seems like a nit-pick.

Number three...I dunno, we've always archived plots all at once, probably to help alleviate our already paperwork flooded GM's and busy admins from another onerous responsibility. I don't know how this could be construed as deliberately deceitful beyond the reader thinking they could post in any thread they liked only to realize it was a dead thread. Really, I got nothing on this right now.
 
Reading the review this guy seems to have hit the same stumbling blocks as I did when trying to create a character.

Point 1) There needs to be a bit more of a comprehensive list of item prices in all currencies. As I'm still not sure what I actually DO with my KS that I have.

Point 2) We need some way of finding equipment easier. I only found the Type 33 data-pad because I specifically searched for datapad.

Basically what it boils down to is that we need an essential "What you need to know" page that points out major events in galactic history and gives a sense of perspective. This page needs to link to those such as "The Engineers Guide" so that the newbies know what the basics of their character job is. And possibly a list of equipment that suits their profession other then the standard GI.

I think this would clear up a lot of the confusion about the RP and possibly increase the influx of new players. Admittedly this is all straight off the top of my head. So it may not be all that well thought out.

Hope it helps :D

EDIT: By a page explaining the pertinent events I mean one that goes into much more detail then the current Timeline which at least in my eyes is very dry in its delivery. I think it should be done much more in the style of someone writing a book on the history of each of the major powers. It would help hold readers attention a lot more and also be easier to read.
 
Maybe a fundamental problem was the reviewer was expecting many active threads in each RP forum but plot forums usually only have 1 or 2 active threads because mission threads are chronological.
 
On the Admin section of the review
From what I can tell, the reviewer didn't seem to click on the "Learn More" link on the Home page. Since all the contact information is located in the "Who We Are" section of the linked page.

On the Deceiving Comment
I don't think this comment was meant as a negative quip. It's true that some of our threads start later in the year, but that's normally because most of our plots tend to take an entire year to complete (sans a few examples). The use of the word 'deceive' seems to be more describing the scenario than actually claiming the board itself is deceitful.

Over all, it's a decent review that misses a few points here and there. Not every review is 100% perfect.
 
We should put a link at the top of the page that goes to a Mibbit applet somewhere on the wiki. It should be called: "Support and Social Chat" or something of that nature. What I mean to say is that it should be named in a way that indicates it is somehow helpful to the over-encumbered newcomer.

When they click this link, they're taken to the Mibbit applet and all it wants is a name and they can go ahead and start talking. Tech savvy players will recognize it as an IRC client and quickly load up their own IRC client; other players will be able to talk at length using it.

That way, no one can say the IRC is hard to use or get to.
 
Potential players may not want our site installing software on their system

In general the review is good. The deceiving comment is not really true, long lived plots like the Eucharis have items that go back to their beginning. We aren't going to hide them while the plot is ongoing.

As for the not able to find the active plots. That's a result of the change from having the useful links across the top and in a drop down. Can't please everyone.

However there are some areas, like this one

viewforum.php?f=180

All but two of the actual topics are from 2008.
 
Compared to other RP site reviews I've seen, this review is quite tame in comparison and not actually negative. I do agree that perhaps we should consider having a guest forum where guests can post, possibly asking questions about the forums (it is true that the majority of the RP forums I've been to actually DO have that, and they police it quite stringently if you know what I mean in order to combat spammers)

Maybe try this and put a few peeps in charge of moderating it.

That being said, there might be other ways we can potentially improve upon the site - although we'd need more critical feedback from those on the 'outside', since those of us on the inside don't often see the problems or the flaws as we become desensitized to them.
 
These worries, and Zain's comments, remind me of when I first joined. I had a lot of the same problems when I was looking around. I even mentioned them and Wes asked me to tell him what I'd had trouble with.

While there is tons and tons of information about this setting, and it is organized fairly well once you know what you're looking for, it is rather inaccessible for a new player. There really needs to be a page that just paints the universe in broad strokes and explains the general story. Hopefully with a small section at the bottom that tells you the current state of affairs. As few technical, in-universe terms and links as possible on this page, so you don't wander off trying to figure out what a certain term means.

I was stuck on the New Player Guide for a while, as I randomly discovered page after page of info in the wiki. I was so overloaded with information that I didn't notice the link to the actual character creation page, which is a bit more helpful, until much later. You might strip the New Player Guide page of most of the links to anything but the creation page, to funnel new people there more smoothly.

The plot page seems like it will be helpful to people who are already established in the game, who want to check up on other groups. To me, it's just a jumble of random names and numbers. Clicking on a ship gives you more info, but most of it is still too specific and actually has too much information. Most of them start out describing the ship itself, the crew and lots of technical jargon related to its creation and assignment. Great for people who know what that means, but it's just another jumble to me.

The plots associating with a ship is a good way to handle it. But, either the main list of plots needs to have a summary on that page for each plot, or the main page of the plot should ONLY be about the plot. With a link to the actual ship and crew inside of the plot. It's more important to me to have a general idea of what is going on with that plot/ship than to know the ship's registration number.

But, in general, the information overload is the biggest problem. I was so interested in small details that I wound up missing the big picture.
 
I don't think we need guests. Guests are so 2000. We live in 2013.

I can understand the whole "deceptive" comment even though I don't agree with that sentiment. Perhaps you should somehow emphasize the "View active topics" list and make it more prominent. Maybe alongside the subforums but as a hotlink rather than a standard forum category.
 
View active topics really does seem under-utilized.

This review seems really positive! I'm not seeing the problem here.

Are we able to archive threads within a subforum?
 
I use the "View Active Topics" all the time, it's actually the page that SARP directs to on my favourites bar since it's so useful. I can see for miles and miles with it and remain on top of whatever I set my attention to.
 
Seems good. He pointed out the information overload problem, which I always thought should be looked at more seriously.

The sidebar/chat box thing...for some reason that's a big thing on most sites, especially ones you find there. It just leads to people chatting all day 'in character' without actually posting. Less effort, immediate reward.
 
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