The Great URPG Cross-Post Initiative

I've observed that, of the three forums where URPG currently resides, one forum has by far the most activity, while the others seem to bring in lasting members more consistently. I believe others have noticed this as well. I'd like to propose one idea with the intention of boosting activity across the board.

The Great URPG Cross-Post Initiative

Any content-creator in URPG may cross-post their work to the forums where the work was not originally submitted, in return for a small monetary reward. In order to be eligible for the bonus, the work must be clearly marked as a cross-post (to avoid confusing graders/curators). The author may claim their bonus immediately upon posting, but must clearly state they have done so in the post.

Some thoughts:

Like the Monthly Theme in the Art Gallery (which you should all totally participate in), the original post would not need to pass in order for the content creator to claim the reward. This does open up an opportunity for abuse, but given the low response to the monthly Art theme so far, I don't foresee this becoming an issue.

Until now, it has been tacitly considered taboo to post in a story/art thread unless you are the original content creator or the grader. Since cross-posts are not meant to be graded, they could be used as jumping off points for discussion! This opens up the opportunity for even more activity. For example, the post that generates the most buzz in a given month could earn an extra reward. Then someone from URPG times gets to come along and write an article called "URPG Buzz" detailing the big discussions of the month. Or something like that, just spitballing here.

What are some ways we can expand this to sections other than stories and art? In the National Park, for example, a ranger might cross-post a particularly cool excerpt from a Park run, where both ranger and trainer get the reward (since they both produced the content). Battling is a little tougher since the only things close to content-creation in that section are exhibition matches, which are rather cumbersome.

I'm imagining a new kind of battling content. If y'all have spent any time on Smogon, you may have seen people post annotated copies of their Pokemon Showdown transcripts, where the poster describes the thought process that went into each decision. Some of these were really well-written and fun to read! Obviously I've only got the basis of an idea here, but I think it's something we can work with to make it fit the URPG. For example, we'd probably want to, uh, encourage people to write about more two-sided battles to avoid hurting feelings. This is the sort of thing that could also spark discussion and be posted to all forums. Plus, it would be another way to introduce new players to our battling system.

The main idea here is that x-posting is a zero-effort job, so people are more likely to do it. While some may balk at the idea of essentially giving out free money, I feel that the potential increase in activity is worth it. Even content that gets cross-posted without sparking discussion will make the content sections on all three forums look more active, which is important for attracting new members. I'd also point out that in order to take advantage of this program, people do still have to create the content in the first place, so they are putting in work even if the act of cross-posting itself isn't particularly grueling. We could also impose a limit per month to encourage content creators to repost only their best content.

In keeping with the spirit of this post, be sure to check out the conversation on our other forums!

 

I will admit that as I started reading this post, I was pretty against the idea totally. Now after some thought, I find myself fairly indifferent to it. I really loathe the idea of rewarding people for little to no effort. I wouldn't call it "activity" to copy/paste a thread to another forum. Fake activity, maybe, but reward-able meaningful activity, no.

However, I do sympathize with the goal of this. "Fake activity" as I called it earlier for lack of a better term, is still something that--as you pointed out, Elrond--would encourage more people to check us out on other forums. Despite this, I think the better way to go about the relative drought on other forums would be to encourage people to post there instead. For example (this is just a random idea), if you have X amount of passing Stories/Art on X Forum, you can earn an X Rank Pokemon that the other 2 forums don't offer or something along those lines. Whether or not we go with that specific idea at all, the point is to give people a reason to add more variety to the forum on which they post. I realize this may be a bit more complicated, but I think it would be a better alternative to what I personally see as debatably effortless (and abuse-able) monetary gain.

 

[insert Swift's first paragraph here, it's pretty accurate for my feelings too]

If this is something you all would want, I still have full transcripts/chat logs of several Elite Four battles and the Champion battle (as well as a couple FFAs, but those are probably less interesting overall) saved in various places. I could probably try to insert my own thoughts, or at least what I can remember/guess of them from when the battles actually happened. It might be more difficult to get my opponent's thoughts, not sure if I have any from people who are still active.

 

I agree with Elrond on this one - not so much about the monetary rewards, but cross-posting is definitely the right approach.

Swifty, unfortunately I really don't see your idea as being any better, because you're still rewarding people for no effort. If I've written X number of stories, I'm going to be posting them somewhere. If I post them on a particular forum I get a Pokemon. Zero additional effort, and it doesn't boost activity either, it just moves it.

Cross-posting is about spreading the effort that has already been made and sharing the content to more people. Members who primarily use PWN might miss content posted on BMG and vice-versa - cross-posts make sure that people on all forums are aware of the content being posted.

 

I agree with this. I would like to have an opportunity to discuss art/RPs/stories on other forums (like PWN which I favor over BMG). I think it's kind of a neat concept but I have no idea how it would go in practice.

 

@Ash K.: I'd certainly love to see content like that come to URPG in the future!

@Everyone:

I see the concerns about giving away monetary rewards for no effort, and I agree that it's probably not the best way to proceed on this initiative. On the other hand, I don't agree that cross-posting is "fake activity." Or rather, I assert that it's "fake activity" only insofar as the original content has been posted twice. Since there are different groups of people who frequent the three forums, however, any discussion that the re-post incites is going to be entirely unique activity.

I'm pondering three important questions as part of this effort:

What kind of content do we want to see cross-posted?

My original ideas were stories and art, but there are other opportunities other there to bring discussions to our other forums. For example, if someone posts something worth discussing in URPG General Chat on BMG, someone might come along and post it to PWN saying, "So people on BMG have been talking about X recently..." This could extend to Trainer's Court, as well, of course. (I've already posted this to all three forums, for example.) Who's going to be responsible for culling this content and making it visible everywhere? Can we just hope someone will come along and do it? Where else do we have opportunities to increase visibility to URPG activity on all of our forums?

What kind of activity do we want to create through this initiative?

My example answer for this question comes from my original post. Traditionally, the original post for a story is reserved for just the author and grader. Re-posting a story to other forums opens up an opportunity for other players to read stories posted to boards they don't frequent and it creates a place for everyone to discuss the story. Both authors and readers could benefit greatly from reading each other's constructive criticism and insights.

How are we going to get players to participate?

While I hear the concerns others have posted thus far, I do emphatically believe there needs to be some sort of incentive if we want to affect actual change in our community. It doesn't have to be monetary, and it doesn't have to be immediate. Another approach might be something like, if we as a community accomplish X, then Y. It's true that the act of re-posting does not require effort on its own--so why don't people do it already? There's got to be something--even if it's just a little something--but if we want this initiative or something similar to be successful, we need a way to sweeten the pot more than "pretty please with sugar on top."

 

I was never against Cross-Posting in the first place, I just meant that cross-posting alone probably wouldn't be enough to give a noticeable increase in activity. My idea wasn't serious, it was meant to be an example. My point was that each forum should have its own unique content, which would encourage people to be more active on other forums. Maintaining a presence on all three forums at once (especially when only one really gets attention) is the part that turns me off to cross-posting personally. It's just too much for me to keep up with all at once if I have three different discussions on the same topic. If other people are able to do this, then I encourage them to do so. I think that some people may also have the misconception that cross posting isn't allowed for things like Stories and such. I like the suggestion of posting tags for cross posted content so that people can figure things out.

As for your third question, I think that you'll find things are a bit too tricky there. It would mean having to quantify activity in some way, which is more than a bit difficult. If you offered a flat rate (not necessarily of money, but whatever you decide to go with), things would be just too abuse-able.

EDIT: Also, since when do we have to give everything an incentive? If you want URPG--or yourself as an individual in the community--to be more active, then you should be cross-posting anyway. If you want extra feedback on your story then cross-post it. If you want more opinions on an idea then cross-post it. If it's not worth cross-posting in your eyes, then don't. Your incentive to cross-post this thread was wanting more opinions, for example. If you don't care about URPG being active, then why would you care about earning things in it that require you to be active to even use?

 

I like the sentiment of sharing content and encouraging discussion, but I don't think a system for cross-posting will produce the effects you want to see.

Players have always been able to talk about creative content with other people. Many authors encourage others to leave comments in their story in the author's note. Then there are authors who ask for suggestions and comments in the URPG Stories Chat and Feedback thread, and many who engage in fruitful discussion from there.

Cross-posting is productive in theory, but if that's the only thing that changes then we'll just get the same stories and art pieces reposted throughout all three forums, with no comments or suggestions being tacked onto them (unless encouraged by some sort of reward system, and I'm concerned that will turn into an abusable spam session for the rewards). I've been reposting updates for Writing Competitions across three forums and sometimes I never receive a response or an inkling of interest. We have to get to the root of the issue.

If we want change in the community then it has to start with the members themselves. Investing our members more in our three forums, and not just this neat shiny awesome place called URPG, is the place to start. And I definitely agree with Swiftie in that each forum should have its own unique content - each member body is different, and we should be encouraged to reach out of our comfort zone and make friends with these different members (URPG and otherwise).

I'll go further and say that I don't think it's bad that BMG is the centralized forum (and yes this is coming from one of the admins of PWN). People like centralization; I think we naturally prefer having a gathering place for major ideas and topics. There's a reason I posted the After Hours RP discussion here, and now a reason After Hours is solely on PWN. This isn't the comeback of the "centralize URPG onto one board" argument - All three forums are amazing and wonderful and each has its own set of perks: in BMG's case, it's the centralizer. We should celebrate the differences and discover them.

Why don't we create some sort of centralized update platform to share the creative content? A social media, or some built-in update system into each forum. Something that transcends the forums themselves and helps us recruit more members by sharing out content and creating discussion beyond forums and AIM.

 

I agree wholeheartedly.

I do like this idea -- I noticed that After Hours had been kept to PWN. What other kinds of new unique content can we create on the various forums? Actually, I think that should be more of a grass-roots effort. For example, if one group of users on BMG were particularly interested in mentorship, they might build up more content around that idea, while PXR members might have another forte, etc.

This guy's still reserved.

 

I get a "page not found" error on your link, but I quoted and saw it was Reddit, and I agree it would be cool to share out there, but the question is do we want all of our creative Content shared to just one centralized form of social media, or do we want several sites at once? If it's the former, then I don't think Reddit would be the best option over things like DA or tumblr.

 

Whoopsie daisy! I'll go back and fix the other one too; not sure how that happened.

I think it would be cool to let URPGers decide what content they want to see on Reddit, sort of like how Reddit already works. So if I write a story, for example, I wouldn't go and post my own story on Reddit, but Smiles might come along and say WOW THAT'S SO AWESOME and post it. It would also be a good centralized place to post certain types of discussions. We could think of it as a centralized URPG General Chat. I see that going two ways: Best-case scenario, it becomes the hub for URPG discussion and shared content. Worst-case, it becomes a fourth forum instead of the three we already have, splitting the discussion even further. How do other people feel about it?

 

I like this idea since it promotes posting on the other forums, and that's something I've been in support of for a while. Not because I admin PWN, but because I feel like all the branches of URPG deserve recognition. To be honest, I may have never even noticed URPG had a branch on PWN had I not heard about it from other URPG members. I believe I was on BMGf when URPG expanded here, but I was probably all caught up in my own bubble to not notice. But on PWN, I probably would've never even known about this wonderful, crazy place had I not heard about it.

I like Elrond's idea of each branch representing a certain thing. Maybe a unique thing to each branch? PWN has After Hours at the moment (though that'll be moving to other forums after its trial), BMGf could have something, and PXR could have something as well. We could maybe have some sort of special RP exclusive thing on PWN for URPG, and I think PXR does a lot of art stuff, so something art exclusive there. Not sure what we could do on BMGf, but we can probably come up with something. It's not much, but it's a start. We could link the stuff on the other two forums too somehow so that other members would see them as well in case they don't normally go onto those branches. Having After Hours on PWN has drawn some of the URPG members there exclusively for that, so I feel like it could work.

I dislike the idea of something potentially becoming a "fourth" forum, even if it is Reddit. I like the idea of Reddit, but I dislike the idea of it possibly becoming a "fourth" forum. We're already spread thin enough across three and have enough trouble keeping three active as it is. Having a fourth would make matters worse. I think sharing our works out there would be great, it's just a matter of how. dA allows both art and writing, two parts of URPG, so I feel like that would be a good place to start in terms of sharing our works out to other people. Alternatively, cross posting our works on the art/writing sections of our host forums, kind of like how Sou has done here might be good too, so that you can get critiques and views from other, non-URPG members as well as URPG members.

 

I like the idea of the subreddit being purely used for a feed of URPG content, as it is intended. Post about new stories, E4 victories, new refs, anything notable, but don't actually use it as the home of any new content.

 

Re: Guidelines for the Use of /r/PokemonURPG as a URPG News Feed

It looks like there's a fair bit of support for using something like Reddit as a cross-platform news feed. I'd like to hear some more discussion in favor/against using Reddit to fulfill this purpose. In particular, I think @Felly brought up a good point: Are we looking for a single centralized social media presence, or do we want to expand to many other sites? Personally, I'd advocate for the ladder, since each site has different advantages that may serve us. If you take a new art piece, for example, this is something an artist would submit to DeviantArt themselves under their account, which could serve to bring in members from the larger URPG community. On /r/PokemonURPG, however, we'd expect to see someone other than the original artist post it to say "Hey guys, this cool thing just popped up on a forum you might not check very often. Go check it out!" We're not spreading too thin here because there are different people "responsible" for posting in the two places and with different intentions.

If we do want to move forward with the /r/PokemonURPG idea, I think we ought to discuss who's posting what, and how people are discussing them. For example, we might expect that if Winter or Mikey posts on the PXR homepage, say, for the Art of the Month, they would be responsible for also linking it on Reddit (though even that is up for discussion). But who do we expect to see posting new stories and artwork? In my first paragraph I suggested it should be someone other than the original author, and I do believe that's the right way to set things up. That way, we've got at least a quick pass at curating strong content for the subreddit, instead of everyone posting everything they create. Others might feel differently, however.

We would also need to consider the ability for users to create text posts to start new discussions that don't exist on one of the forums. @Monbrey has opined that we should not use the subreddit as a home for new content, and Felly also expressed concern about the risks of creating a fourth place for discussion when we are already spread rather thin. I agree that we would likely want to limit the ability of users to post things other than direct links to forum discussions, but again, I'd like to hear some more opinions.

 

I think the sub reddit thing sounds good. Share our works with people there and hope they come to us too. The news feed idea, basically. I think people should be allowed to discuss things on it, but I'm not sure how we'd moderate it tbh. I feel like the URPG staff is spread thin enough as it is. I don't think it should be used for new content like Monbrey said or as a "fourth forum," but rather as a news feed of sort that also allows for discussion of the artwork or writing in question or for people to just discuss things in general.

 

I seem to have:
Champion battle challenging Pidge
"Day of the Zap Cannon" (a WAR battle with @Seppe; I'm sure he'll be hard pressed to forget)
Elite Four battle with Synthesis (not 100% sure who was challenging who in this one, could be either of the two)
Elite Four challenge of Xali
Legend Defender challenging Pidge
Elite Four defending from Dinbobot

There's also a full battle between Xali and WTP in the quote thread.

This totally hasn't been sitting in a Chrome tab fully typed up for two weeks, I swear