General Suggestions

[The Skarzs]

I think the General Discussions board would be a good place for a topic like that.

[Wylder Treejumper]

No, more than just a topic, a whole board with indexes and topics of it's own!

[Osu]

It seems to me that's a little too specific and small a topic to justify the addition of an entire board; recipe topics fit very well both in the General Redwall discussion board and the fanworks.

There have been several recipes shared by users on this forum already. Why not make a topic to act as a recipe directory of sorts? You might carry out your recipe-approval event in it as well. Such a topic could also act as a good gauge of how popular an idea like this might be for any possible considerations on the staff's part in future.

But for now I think an entire board dedicated to the subject is a little overkill. Great idea all the same!

[Lutra]

Personally, I like the idea for organization.  Seems like we may have to talk about it some more.

[Wylder Treejumper]

I just think it would be easier to organize if it had it's own board.

[Osu]

The forum staff are officially in discussion for it!

[Wylder Treejumper]

Awesome! I tried so hard to find an active Redwall cooking site, and... They don't exist...

So, I figured that meant it was time to start one!

[rachel25]

I have a suggestion! How about a Roleplay award? What we could do is, make a sub-board in the OOC Discussion board, for all the completed roleplays, of the year, then maybe on the Forum Anniversary, or a name day, or something, an award would be given to a roleplay. Based on, how creative it was, how well organised it is, how well the character sheets were done, on the quality of the players posts, and so on, and so forth.
I think this would be a good idea because, it would encourage people to stick in Roleplays, and to finish them. Also it would encourage people to work a little harder on their posts, making sure everything is spelled right, and makes sense.
The award would go to the roleplay, and all the people in that roleplay, would receive the award, to put in their signatures.
And after the award has been announced, the sub-board could be cleared out into the completed roleplays board, and then it could all start again.
The roleplays would have to have to be started, and finished by a certain time though, to stop confusion.

[Cornflower MM]

That sounds like a great idea, Rachel! What do you Mods think?

[Dannflower Reguba]

       I'm no mod, but I would like to point out some potential issues. This idea would get rather confusing quite quickly. It would also add another level of competition that could raise some ire. On top of all that, it would clog the awards area pretty quick. Not a bad idea, mind you, but a bit difficult to deal with.

[rachel25]

How would it cause confusion? And also, the RP community isn't huge on this Forum, so lots of people would be in the same RP. Also, why should it cause envy, and such. Then being a season namer, could cause envy. But it would be a yearly thing, so lots of people would have a chance at the award. And how would it clog up the awards area? I really don't understand.

[Osu]

Hey rachel, interesting suggestion! Here are my thoughts on the subject: first off, I don't know that an entire sub-board would be necessary in such a case; we can see by the dates on the posts when a thread was started and completed. As far as the idea itself goes: would a reward that is only presented once a year be as much of an encouragement to post when there are already monthly forum awards, intermittent roleplay tournaments, and dueling events which grant their RP prizes much sooner? If a few users were to join the forum shortly before the award was to be given out, completed a short roleplay, and received the award, would those who roleplayed throughout the year or who worked on much longer threads feel slighted by the newcomers?

Personally, I like the thought of anything that might encourage users to complete their roleplays, improve post quality, or increase posting at all; but I'm not familiar enough with the roleplaying community here to gauge whether or not such an award as you suggest would make a difference in activity or post quality; certainly, I think you're on the right track. I'm sure BrookSkimmer will have something more useful to say on the subject.

I think it's also worth mentioning that the staff have brought up an idea for a 'featured thread' type deal, but it hasn't gone very far beyond being brought up for discussion as yet. Since receiving some kind of award for participating in such a thread is just another facet of that, I'll be sure to mention it when next it's brought up behind the scenes, if nobody else does.

[Cornflower MM]

That's a good point, Osu. I see both sides, the RPewr side of this, and the Mod-sh side. Both have good points.....Perhaps some careful planning? It really IS a good idea, and I'd love to see it happen, but at the same time I'm cautious. Hence, perhaps careful planning.

[rachel25]

I get your point Osu. Really it was just the skeleton of a plan, and I was hoping you Mods could take it further. I'm glad you've taken it into consideration.

[BrookSkimmer]

That idea has been tried in recent history, it didn't take off so I shelved it for now. It was the "featured RP" idea. That doesn't mean it won't be brought up in the future and possibly re-worked for another try.