Bringing URPG back to its former glory

There's been a lot of really constructive feedback so maybe we are ready to move onto more finer and less kind of "pit every suggestion/idea/comment" here stage. I think if anyone wants to undertake their own kind of committee or anything they should make a thread and others can weigh in there. I think @Smiles ; wanted to do a new instalment in the mentor apprentice stick (v awesome) and maybe someone wants to do the welcoming committee, or a less urpg-heavy-more-fun group that organise movie nights/isketch/cah/tc/etc?

So yeah if anyone wants to branch off with their own ideas I think we've reached that point, so go for it!

 

I can register a urpg room on cytube for movie nights

 

Okay, so I've been following this (and other conversations) regarding the URPG and ways we can advance our community (and the system) forward. I appreciate everyone's feedback and ideas on how we might accomplish this. By working together, we can make these visions into reality.


Welcoming Committee

I think this is definitely a great idea that we can easily implement. We have a number of helpful and friendly members in our community which would be happy to guide new members and I think that by reaching out to those who sign up, we can address to concerns at once.

A welcome committee will help us solve the "learning curve" issue. Simple and complex questions can easily be addressed by our veteran members and we might be able to avoid some members "giving up" when they have a willing guide.

Secondly, this could encourage more members to stick around because of these early friendships. I think most of us stick around because of the community and friendships we share with each other. Sure, the game is enjoyable (FFA FTW), but a lot of the enjoyment is enhanced by the fact that we're friends with each other. And Friendship is Magic.

The way, I generally see this working (and this is an idea, not the final format), we create a thread for the Welcoming Committee and allow interested members to sign up. The committee will have a leadership structure (including a staff member) to help determine direction (i.e. how best to help new members). Additionally, leadership will be responsible for ensuring the committee members remain active and to add/remove people as necessary. The committee reports directly to the URPG Staff.


Outreach Team

This was mentioned before (most recently by Ataro), and I think we should implement and expand on the scope of what this team can do.

The Outreach Team should be focused on ways we can draw members into the URPG. Whereas the Welcoming Committee helps members who sign up for the URPG, the Outreach Team works to lead members to sign up in the first place. This is more than simply linking members (though it can include this).

As I see it, the Outreach Team should cover all aspects that draw members to the URPG. That includes collaboration with the forums in which we have branches (BMG, PWN, PXR). To a certain extent, we do so already (especially on PWN and PXR), but we could do more. And a lot of the coordination has often come from the forum leaders, not URPGers (or both, technically, since Felly and I are both URPGers). We can do better.

The Outreach Team should be comprised of members who are interested in this kind of work, especially those who are willing to talk with and befriend the Moderators and other leaders of the various forums. The URPG is unique because it offers a variety of sections, many of which have parallels in our host communities. Because of these similarities, we have the opportunity to create a link between these sections, perhaps in the form of events or new types of activities (RP Missions). We simply need to take a step forward.

As a side note and a point of clarification, Syn is correct. The BMG Staff do not dislike or are suspicious of us. I have access to their staff board and I see what they say. They simply do not know us as we have not had many interactions together. It's time to change that by reaching out.

As Ataro said, sometimes it's the simple things that matter. On Pe2K, we did indeed use to post in the welcome threads when new members joined the forum. We'd invite them to check out the URPG. I think we need to continue this tradition. It will bring in new members and demonstrate our investment in the communities who host us.

We should create a thread for members interested in being a part of the Outreach Team, which will also need leadership like the Welcoming Committee. I think the members will need to discuss areas of specific interest to focus on and then come up with a plan of attack. These members will be given the authority they need to carry out these plans.


Fun Brigade

As has been mentioned many times before, URPGers enjoy a lot of casual activities that aren't directly related to the URPG system. I'd name them all, but there are far too many to list here. It's not a new phenomenon either. I remember quite a few random side games people did in my first few years in the URPG.

Well, we might as well expand on this in a little more organized fashion. Hence the Fun Bridgade!

This group's task is simple. Do fun stuff. They'll be responsible for planning/hosting/encouraging entertaining activities for URPGers (and really anyone else who wants to join in). This will likely cover a number of activities and topics and is pretty open to interpretation.

Organization for this group can be rather loose, but should have a level of leadership. I think a calendar should be created to help track planned activities and let people know what's coming up. Perhaps we can do this for the entirety of the URPG.

(Also drafted Fawkes into the Fun Brigade. gg)


Optimization Team

Part of the URPG's problem is that it has gotten too big. Literally.

No, I'm not suggesting we start hacking stuff off. That's crazy.

Rather, I'm proposing we make things easier for new members (and older members) to navigate around everything here.

For example, the Getting Started thread should probably be simplified in some fashion. There is a lot of information there and it might be a big overwhelming to people. There is probably a better way to present it (maybe more visuals).

We need to rename the Trainer's Court to Suggestions or something similar.

A lot of our General threads can be top-level and vice-versus. We need to take a serious look at where everything is.

The Optimization Team will help us fix this problem by modifying how the URPG is laid or written out. They will come up with ways that will make it easier for people to join and participate and offer changes that will fix minor and major problems.

And yes, they'll help us come up with a better, more accurate description.


Chat Moderators

Quite frankly, the chats have gotten pretty bad. A lot of the topics and discussions that have occurred there are not suitable for young adults and we've seen evidence of harassment. It is not a friendly or welcoming atmosphere.

We have an amazing team of staff in the URPG. These men and women are some of the brightest and most helpful people around. But even they can't be everywhere. The majority of us live in America, which limits the time frame we're available to watch the chats. Real life challenges come up and sometimes, we just don't have the time to read everything going on.

I think we need to expand the amount of people capable of monitoring the official URPG Chats, both on AIM and Skype. As such, I'd like to implement a Chat Moderator group to help us with this task.

This group of people will be given authority to monitor the chats and encourage positive behavior. For severe infractions, they'll be able to report behavior to Officials and Moderators who will enact sterner punishments.

Because this is a position of authority, the members of this group will need to be trusted members capable of holding themselves to a certain standard and willing to uphold our rules. How we will form this group needs to be determined, and I'm open to suggestions.


Regarding the IRC Chat

I think it's noble that we want to utilize the BMG IRC Chat again for battling and such, but I'm not quite sure I see the point. After all, the first time we tried this, it failed. People simply aren't interested in using this system.

AIM and Skype are popular IM clients that a lot of people download and use on their own. This is probably the reason why we've taken to using them as much as we do, it's convenient. We see members who join who have one or the other.

The IRC is an old system, one that was relatively old (in my view) when I joined the URPG back in 2003. It has it's uses, but I don't know what it really offers us that AIM or Skype don't already do. Yes, members don't really need to register or download a client, but I don't think that's a high barrier for AIM or Skype.

Ultimately, I think that if we really want to use IRC, it has to be for a good reason. I don't think it's any easier to use than AIM or Skype, personally. If we're trying to use it as a way to reach out to the BMG community, that's possible, though I'm not sure how many BMGers really go on IRC a lot.

With everything else that we want to do, I think this probably ranks low on the initiative list.


Final Thoughts

I think that, based on this level of enthusiasm for change, we can really advance the URPG forward to the next level. The groups above are based on the suggestions of the members and are ways of implementing the various ideas. If we like this process, then I will go ahead and begin asking people to move forward with these teams.

The projects for new methods of play, as proposed by BT, Smiles, and Swift; are excellent ideas and I want to see their implementation. The URPG Staff will try to work with them on this matter.

I truly think that we have a lot of good ideas here and I look forward to their completion. I do disagree with Syn about one thing though. I don't think the URPG is at a very low point in activity. I've seen the URPG at it's worst point (1 battle total/day) and this isn't it. I've heard stories about the Yahoo days and all the drama there. We're definitely a lot better off now than we were before. And our best days? They're ahead of us.

Let's create the future.


TL;DR Version

• Welcoming Committee will help new members
• Outreach Team will focus on efforts that lets people know about the URPG
• Fun Brigade will plan and organize entertaining activities
• Optimization Team will improve how easy it is to join and participate in the URPG
• Chat Moderators will ensure our chats remain polite and appropriate

 

I want to go ahead and being implementing these groups.

Post here if you're interested and which groups you would like to help out with.

 

I'd like to help out with Welcoming and Fun Brigade!

 

interested in welcoming committee!

 

fun brigade

 

Outreach and fun!

 

welcoming and outreach n~n !!

 

@HKim

I think the reason the IRC thing failed before was because we didn't see the need to switch from AIM to something more accessible. At that time, it was early in our development at BMG, back when people were still coming to us. I think, now that we are much less new and exciting to the average BMGf user, utilizing the IRC would be much easier for the standard member who doesn't go through the trouble of downloading AIM.

Also, why did the PXR portion of URPG start using Skype? Its just as unnecessary a division.

 

You're right, it's a matter of need when it comes to chat systems. And yes, in the beginning, we didn't use the IRC chat because it didn't serve a purpose. People were just switching to AIM after using it. As far as I know, we did not recruit anyone through the use of the IRC chat. I think the same lessons apply now. IRC chat won't be a place where we recruit BMG members and it's only slightly easier to use than AIM or Skype. I'm not sure it's worth the investment on our end.

In regards to our Skype chats, that is based on need, as you said. The majority of PXR members use Skype, not AIM. Hence why our URPG Skype chats are active and used on a daily basis.

 

Is it not unreasonable to believe then, that people only use the BMGf forums will be more comfortable using the built in IRC, instead of creating an AIM account? Personally, I don't feel connected to the PXR URPG community. I don't know who any of them are. We don't seem to be particularly concerned by this division, based purely upon the choice of messenger client, as we don't seem to have discussed it yet. If we are not planning on using a single messenger client for all URPGing for the sake of simplicity, then why would it hurt to start using the BMGf IRC in order to retain more BMGf URPGers?

tl;dr I don't see how you can shoot down the IRC idea while being completely alright with all of PXR URPGers using an entirely different messenger client than the rest of URPG.

 

So after x-amount of time since I came back I finally decided to log onto here and post something.

Back when I joined URPG it was during the Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald era. At that time URPG was incredibly active and if I recall correctly there was a particular month during these years in which PE2K achieved its highest online member count. And Vets at the time I was noob, told me of the history of the URPG and how it was some really neat idea that started on Yahoo... or whatever. And how it blossomed into the awesomeness that the URPG ultimately became. We didn't have all the neat new things you guys have nowadays like the park or the art section.


Decline in activity began somewhere with the introduction of Diamond and Pearl.
I can only guess that the reason for this was due to the advent of Wi-Fi capabilities because previously there was nothing with which fans of the Pokémon games could utilize to interact with one another over the vastness of the internet. Well, there were the Shoddy battle system and the Netbattle programs but they too have fallen to the wayside for what I believe is the following reason:

The lack of connectivity in the pre-DS games required us to go on the computer and find communites such as PE2K or Serebii or BMG, etc...
Places where we were introduced to new people and the RPGs they had developed to interact with one another, over the lack of interactivity of the cartridges.

And now you don't necessarily have to do that. You and your friends now know what Wi-Fi is, you exchange friend codes, and its just you guys battling each other til you get bored and then decide to go kill Zombies instead on XBox Live.

I like the idea of the welcoming committee, but it kind of defeats the purpose of it if there is no one to welcome lol.
But if you're gonna go and give it a try then may I suggest you head on over to the cartridge boards? That's how I got started and introduced to the URPG in the first place.
I was looking for some help in the Mystery Dungeon games, someone answered my question and was like "Oh by the way, you should come check out this URPG thing. Its fun and you get to meet new people."

And that was that

 

I'm okay with using IRC if it means we retain more BMG URPGers. I'm just not certain that will be the case. None of our current BMG URPGers utilize the IRC on a regular basis as far as I know. I'm not sure how many BMGers regularly use IRC Chat.

I could be wrong, of course. If we want to try and utilize the IRC, we can. I'd imagine we'd need a team of people willing to go on there and someone to lead the efforts.

 

I would like to be part of welcoming and fun please!

 

I guess the main point of using the IRC is that it creates a minimal demand on the individuals participating. It makes everything URPG happen in basically one place for them, which may be part of why certain people just don't take to the AIM part.

 

With IRC is it easy to make new chats? I don't know how we'd deal without 50+ chats

 

Fun brigade for me, please! Also, I'm not entirely sure what the outreach committee entails, but the folks over in the Writer's Workshop and I are kind of bros just kidding I probably just piss them off a lot. Although, heads up, the WW is a lot better if you participate in it fully, so don't just dump your URPG stories in there and leave! We need reviewing and chat and shenanigans as well! [/reverse advertising]

 

Just to point out potential forums for the Outreach Team to draw new members in.

• The Garden Grotto (Welcome and Rules)
• HOENN CONFIRMED (Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire)
• Pokémon Video Games
• Bulbagarden Battle Center
• The Fiction Fairground
• The Written Word
• Roleplays and Collaborative Stories
• Art Gallery
• Fun and Games

I'm pretty sure there's some unspoken/hidden rule about just simply posting advertisements asking people to join a certain club or game. But as long as your post is not spam and completely irrelevant to the certain thread, I don't think it will be much of a problem.

The Garden Grotto is perhaps one of the most important forums.

 

Hey, idea about drawing in members from the Fiction Fairground and Art Gallery: Let's post stories and art from URPG in those forums, then link back to URPG in those posts! I'm discussing that idea, as well as a couple others, in this thread:

This one. Right here.

By the way, totally sign me up for the Welcoming Committee and Outreach Team! Whoo, doing stuff is fun!