Templates Needing Creating

[Cherry]

This whole concept will only work if I can make different threadlist templates to create different looks. So I'm going to have to design all these looks.

This include threadlist needs and the showthread needs. Hopefully also with a list of options that need to be created in thread creation to pull it off.

[Cherry]

My Characters - Landing Page

This page could be the Characters forum only showing the logged in player's threads (aka character sheets).
Template should have the avatar, the character name, thread number for easy copy&paste, edit, and delete at minimum. I also like the idea of adding an option in the character thread creation for a personal author note only visible from this page. Age and the like seems extra, but different genres could have different colors maybe?



Thread Options Needed
Private Player Note
Avatar
Thumbnail?
Additional optional images?
Character Name
Age
Pronouns
Occupation
Trait One
Trait Two
Trait Three
Relationship Status
Appearance
Personality
INSERT CUSTOM (Could be a textarea to let people create their own sections for getting more specific such as likes, strengths, favorites, etc.)
History

custom css?
hide author? (so far I can only see a way to make this work if i can make it hide these posts in search, otherwise it only serves to hide on two pages)

[Cherry]

Player Games
I'm not sure about how I want to organize player games from a like a "My Games" type of perspective yet. But this category will have several sub templates.

Player Game Directory
This will be a section in the "Games" area where players can browse player created games. Ideally a category landing page with a ribbon of maybe contest winners or player nominated spotlights. Could also have a randomizer of all games. Could have newest made. Etc.

Player Game Forums? I don't love the idea, because it requires more moderation work on my end to keep up with dead games, but if I don't make them forums then I can't assign moderators to the games, which would limit their ability to control their games and defeat the point.
- Game must have at least 10 active (10+ posts) or completed threads in the game area to qualify for forums.
- Game must have at least 5 individual players signed on to participate to qualify
- Game must be ready to start at time of application. Game makers will have one week max to get setup. Games not setup in time will be removed and all requirements are doubled. (If you have 5 people signed up and have done 10 threads already, you should have had plenty of time to get all of the details in order before applying for a forum, and it will all need to be approved before the forums are created anyway.)
- See if we can make it so any changes to the approved game info must be approved by a staff member before it can go live
- Game owner must commit to weekly login minimum. Game owners offline for 3 weeks will forfeit game ownership to next in line mod. If no mod exists, the players will be allowed to vote for a replacement or disperse the game. Game owner will be banned from creating new game for a minimum of 90 days. This process will not be automatic (could set up the "game maker" member group to maybe change to inactive after a set amount of time). Players may need to alert admin to start the process.

Player Game landing will need to have a number of specific information that can be used on the threadrow. Like Game Name, Rating, Genre, Open/Closed, Game Admin, etc. A thumbnail graphic should be used for the browsing page. A default should exist per main genre (maybe coded so game name is on top of it with an option to hide it?)

A player game thread will need to hold the content for the landing page for the game, so there should be some basic info there about the game admins, rules, claims, discord, and the like. These could be textareas that the game maker edits directly. I kind of like the idea of it all being in one place to edit, esp if the assigned mods can edit it. (Since site staff would have to approve all changes, maybe make things like the rules, plot, rating, and hard specifics in one thread and then put the other stuff like links, discord info, skin related stuff (that doesn't need approval to change like template choice. all game related images should be approved), etc could go in another thread that way staff doesn't have to approve every little change but can control the big ones.

Player Game Forum Tree? All could be optional. Could just be a list of the threads and nothing more.
- Staff Only (maybe do this as a password protected forum instead of fussing with permissions? would making it a password mean we couldn't put the landing info there to be used?)
- Story Development
- Character Development
- Game threads? (should that be a separate forum in the category or just in the main area. maybe make it dependent on template chosen)


Thread Options Needed
Game Name
Game Maker
Moderator One
Moderator Two
Genre
Rating
Application Requirement
Open/Closed
Plot
Rules
Extra Info Boxes?

[Cherry]

Games

The games section in general will need to be organized somehow. I was thinking maybe put genres available on a ribbon at the top so people can quickly click through there, a section with maybe a simple list of the last 5-10 threads posted, and a link to the player ran games. Not even bother listing all the genres like some long forum list page. I always hated just scrolling through forum links like on an index. Only long lists should be threads.

Would like for games to have thread template options. Maybe 3 different template choices to start at least? Something minimal, default, and graphic heavy?
- could have a cellphone option too for texting. would that be better as a separate forum so the templates can also have more choices? probably

Threads will have the first post be a thread form that will gather information about the thread such as setting, plot, desired max characters?, etc. The first post will not contain the player's first post as the character. It will serve as a header for the page so that people can easily identify what the game is about without reading through a bunch of posts first.
- This will also also allow me to code the post on the back end to control the post template used. Using the plugin to let first posts be carried over to each page of the thread, the header coding can be on every page.
- Include warning that player should have first post ready before starting the game and that they will need to post again. Make sure forum setting allowed back to back posting without the timing in game areas only.
- Can even let game maker choose a background and basic colors, but might be too far.

Can I use the custom profile fields to let players create lists of their characters?
- Characters will be done by thread, so the post number of the character sheet is going to be the way I call the data to the postbit. As of right now, this means people will need to just remember the character number for every post they make. That could be a dealbreaker for some people, so having a way they could generate a list of names to pick through instead of remembering the number would be helpful.
- Would have to be able to use the text area of a custom profile field and players would have to put character names and numbers in a way I could use them for coding a list to use in the custom thread field. I don't know if it is possible, but if not then maybe the thread options can have like a "remember" option.


Thread Options Needed
Thread Name
Genre? (if they are categorized by genre, this would not be needed)
Rating
Post Speed
Game Type
Open/Closed/Ask to Join
Face Claims?
Template Type

[Cherry]

Resources

This area will have the templates and skins and things like that. While some people might not use thread templates, I want an option where people can use their fave templates from whatever resource site they love. I'm hoping to remove the need for things like thread trackers in the games area, but I would still like for this site to have them to offer in case people want to make them anyway or use them on another site.

My main goal is to be a companion to things like resource sites, not replace them. People will have the ability to mark that a template they are posting is just a preview and the code is available on another site that requires membership. This way people can choose to post their codes or keep those codes exclusive to other sites, maybe even their own sites.

I do not want anyone selling on this site. There are plenty of other resource sites that allow users to sell, and players can sell on their own private websites, but there will not be anyone posting skins for sale on this site. Free to use content only. People can not use the resource area to link to content that requires payment. The only place it will be allowed is in the form of people advertising their shops that aren't on this forum.

Resource Forum Tree?
- Character Sheets, Player Game Skins, Game Templates (Make these three stand out over the rest because they are rpgamenet based)
- Coding
- - Forum Skins
- - Site Templates
- - Thread Templates
- - Development Templates
- Graphics
- - Site Graphics - Banners, Pips, Emoticons, Sets
- - Character Graphics - Celebrity Packs, Avatars, Banners, Signatures
- - Graphic Resources - Textures, PNGS, Brushes
- Writing
- - Plot Prompts
- - Worldbuilding
- - Writing Resources
- Tutorials (General catch all because it feels weird to have it in each section)


Thread Options Needed
Name of Resource
Type (diff based on forum)
Light/Medium/Dark?
Rating?
Requires outside membership? (If yes, force image based preview. No code allowed. maybe make this one an option you have to choose before you can see the code option with hidden as the default. can this clear the input if marked yes again?)
Post Content
Code (forum based)
Thumbnail
Image Based Preview

[Cherry]

Community

This one will be a place for players to chat with each other. Wanted ads for games will go here. Separate sections for requested threads not on this site? Or let them just mix in? Can I make an option so players can hide off-site requests?

I'm not entirely sure what I want to do here other than requests. I want people to spend a lot of time on this site, so I should probably make some discussion areas, but with discussion areas comes the needs to moderate what is posted. I think it is important though, so I need to put some time into it.

[Cherry]

Advertising

All I know is I want a board that is kind of like tumblr in that it just shows every post without being links. I think that link based ad sections are pretty one note. I don't know if I want this section to be just for a general ad board or if I want to include something special for player based games? I think I can do a player games ad board in the community area and leave this to just be for the random adverts, but I kind of feel like that would be a waste of a whole major link.

player's that want to sell products should be in this section

a members game board - maybe make member games the landing page and people have to click through to off-site advertising

[Cherry]

Help

I really want to utilize that help page. I think it will come in handy, but it is way too early to put a lot into it right now. Too much stuff is just theoretical right now, so I can't exactly make a guide

[Cherry]

Friends

I have to use the friends feature. I think that giving this site a more social media feel to it is what will make it feel more addicting.

Show friends on sidebar? I'm torn on this one. I think it is a good idea, but I want to see if I can add an online indicator and also allow players to disable it.

Friends should be able to comment on player's profile, or maybe their "social media" style posts.

[Cherry]

Messenger

I want to completely revamp the feel of the messenger so people want to use the pm system more. I want it to work more like a fb messenger type of situation so that people can feel like it is more intuitive and part of the site experience. The current pm system is not very streamlined, so I want to pull it out of the usercp and make it stand on its own.

Might need to see how the alerts will combine with this.

Use messenger style plugin and build from there