Master Plan of Ideas Chatter

#1

I am not sure you know how happy I am to see this!

First. I know you are all volunteers in this so any and all help is going to be awesome. But with the pledge support, I am going to put on my management/task master hat on a little bit and get this moving. I am thankful beyond words so, Braveheart style, I had my say, you guys raised your axe....let's charge this mother fucker.

Here are my initial suggestions based on the replies

Strolen
Concentrate on the webpage building at this point.
Final ebook copy. I will figure out that damn InDesign program and create the final ebook.

Valadaar
Editor - He has got this first book rolling on
(we will all jump when you need help of course)

With the first ebook will come the name we brand ourselves with. Website has that, but if we publish, what do we want to call our collaborative team? Citadel Publishing? Strolenati Print? Not important, but we will need to decide.

(AG + Chaos + Val) + Muro + SE
random generator
http://citygenerator.morgajel.net/citygenerator
See the other random's that drop down from the plus in the top left

manfred has an awesome start with his generators http://strolen.com/random_generators

However, they currently sit as an add-on plug-in almost. They don't fit into the site.

Started this thread on the Generators: http://strolen.com/guild/index.php/topic,6717.msg80459.html#msg80459

All
Map Challenge
I loved this idea by SE and would find a way to put it on the main site if possible.

There is that google map thread somewhere about this map challenge. Will find it and link to it. But if we could get a google map of a fantasy world. Then enable people to pin locations on it which will link to subs. THAT would be frick'n amazing!!

4. And I dare you to tell me this isn't badass: So we have Decathros right. So what if we put that on a custom google map (example: http://map.web2summit.com/ http://worldofmapcraft.com/) and then we can map the hell out of it with submissions. (Imagine doing that to your own world???!!!) I think that would have a separate subscription fee, not sure all the work needed to make that a reality BUT I WANT IT! And this would be a lot of work to do, especially with a custom map for somebodies world. This might be a one-time pay type thing for the labor involved. Who knows, more research needed.

ART
I am looking for quality art. Not 1st edition cartoon art, but a style or theme that we like. We don't need custom art. A lot of deviant art is available share alike so we just have to link to the author. (elfwood?) I don't necessarily want to do that though. If we use art, I want to ask permission and develop a relationship. Especially if they are awesome. I am comfortable paying for art within reason. No budget at the moment but it will be worth it in the long run so I am willing. Art will have to be agreed on by all of us though. It is super important in my mind. If you find some artists, share them with us so we can all chime in our thoughts.

OTHER STUFF
These are just ideas. If you have the passion for something, DO IT. SE is working on a stand alone ebook module which will be awesome. If your thoughts or tastes go a different direction and you have a passion to do it. Then DO IT and let us know how we can support and help you. Scras, I am sure you have something tossing around ebook wise. I don't care if you want to sell it or give away. Do what you are motivated to do and we will make it work. I think we will all help with it. And I am happy to pledge the help to put the final ebook together into a nice format. Art for these too! Honestly, if you all have something you want to sell, that would be AWESOME. Johnn and I have done the research how to make that happen so we have some ground work. Citadel Publishing (we need to name ourselves by the way) here we come.

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Duplicated this list from the other thread

I will just continue the list since it is an excellent start.

And I also agree, levels are earned, not bought. That is not to say that unearned features could not be used as incentive for a cost. Not talking hoh, golden etc etc, but the favorites at level 1 for instance. Allowing more votes as a level one subscriber. As we have gone over, anything that you can currently do now shouldn't be affected. The only thing that might be affected is to entice people to register, but it would be still free and that is still undecided too. But as far as subscribing, we are talking enhanced features and/or unique features that we come up with and decide are not core.

Not Core Features Meaning could be based on subscriptions
1. Regions or Campaign Manager as it will turn into. For those that want to make it out of their OWN content, free. But if you want to use it to organize other people's submissions in something you want to use yourself, that could be a subscription benefit? For this I want drag and drop organization in categories you make up. So if I want them organized by type, or location, or in order I want to use them...etc.
2. Enhanced Random Generators. Again, those that contribute to these would get access to them, but would be a great benefit with subscription too. These would be more polished, full page randomized content to fill city/towns/dungeons, that type of thing. http://citygenerator.morgajel.net/citygenerator is pretty awesome.
3. Advanced Author Panel (I have a list of improvements to the Citadel profile, most you will get but maybe more detailed stats)
4. And I dare you to tell me this isn't badass: So we have Decathros right. So what if we put that on a custom google map (example: http://map.web2summit.com/ http://worldofmapcraft.com/) and then we can map the hell out of it with submissions. (Imagine doing that to your own world???!!!) I think that would have a separate subscription fee, not sure all the work needed to make that a reality BUT I WANT IT! And this would be a lot of work to do, especially with a custom map for somebodies world. This might be a one-time pay type thing for the labor involved. Who knows, more research needed.

Small Extras that might come from subscription
1. Extra votes (since they are paying, we shouldn't be worried about bad votes and/or spam)
2. Favorites at level 1
3. Extra XP with daily login?
4. Freetext use (again, they are paying so have committed to the site making it safer to allow it)
5. Can challenge
(You see where I am going. Some of the e features that are up levels to protect us from undedicated folks can now be released earlier for those that subscribe. If they are subscribing, then the assumption is they won't be abusing this. And if they do, well, who is to say some other level 2 person is any better really?)

BH Bait:
We are looking for conversions. BH -> Strolenati. Not even worried about subscribers at first. What can we do to get people involved and interact with your content and the site instead of just coming in and taking it. I want a way to increase your chances at getting kudos (XP, whatever) for people using your content. Is there something we can allow for BH to upvote without logging in?

1. Discounts on other sources - RPG products.
2. Campaign in the cloud. Lets gamers store their stuff in private/public submissions. Allow file uploads, lots of options for customizing their pages. Perhaps even a versioning system for character sheets.
3. Access to stock maps.
4. Generators Generators Generators (I like this one. We have a TON of stuff...lists for instance...that we can turn into random generators)
5. Chat clients enhanced with additional rpg tools
6. Editorialized treatment of existing and new submissions. Reviews of such.
7. Gamers news.
8. Personal strolen sites.
9. Strolen.com email
10. Discounts on strolen author's own ebooks - with authors getting exposure on site.
--new--
11. View and read PMs from anywhere on the site. (in a pop-up modal type thing that doesn't interrupt your viewing)
12. Follow Authors - for better notification when they submit something
13. Personal Blog
14. Campaign Blog
15. Better favorites (Thinking pinterest style where you favorite it and it pops up asking in which category. Then fixing the viewing of favorites too. Too utilitarian right now and not useful)

Re: Feature Creep Chatt

#2

Item inspired from MysticMoon, and a sub I have in work.

Aspirations.

You post an aspiration. Someone _else_ has to check it as complete.

Aspirations need to be
SMART (or SMARTER) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria
Strolen's related in some manner
Ideally with deadlines.
Public.

Perhaps part of the Authors page, but collected on a public one showing tracking.

Re: Feature Creep Chatt

#3

I like it. Can immediately correlate it to the current project actually. The Authors page is going to get a HUGE overhaul. I mean humongous. For format, I am thinking these type of things just to show my thoughts.
Something in the style of http://responsivewebinc.com/premium/metroking/index.html or http://startbootstrap.com/templates/sb-admin/index.html

An aside about what we are doing in relation to the aspirations.

I do want to keep most of it private amongst the admins. Not a secret and talk all about it and enlist help from everyone, I just want to keep the core planning stuff and discussion with us. Too many cooks in the kitchen and what have you. We are done discussing stuff. I learned that lesson a little bit with the Johnn experiment. I like full disclosure, but full disclosure to the inner circle. Cast too wide a net last time. So we can discuss good and bad, but I am more interesting in progress than correctness at this point. Easy to tweak and fix down the road. Harder to get things going.

I, personally, don't want to micromanage. I had a more defined list on some things but it is easy to talk from the outside. Whomever takes ownership of the piece will define what they want to do. If I put too many restrictions/requirements it bogs down the creative process and takes away the ownership. I would rather have something working that isn't exactly what I want vs. nothing being done. And something working or finished is just plain awesome.

II like that acronym SMART. I like the deadline idea.

For that, I propose that we should do a weekend update from each process owner on status and goals for the next week. Then we can help as we can or ask pointed questions on progress. Keep the peer pressure going, self-evaluate the process and put some thought into it as we talk about the progress.

Re: Feature Creep Chatt

#4

Re: Art: Remember that MJS is a painter. He loves RPGs, he loves Strolens and he has the skill to help us out.

Re: Feature Creep Chatt

#5

Ok, be able to set visibility, but the idea was a general one for all users, not just admin tasks. Part of adding value to the site.

Re: Feature Creep Chatt

#6

I caught the added value but got carried away in the immediate application and other random thoughts. :)

Is there links to MJS's stuff?

Re: Feature Creep Chatt

#7

I spoke with Mjs.

He didn't have anything online and was rather busy coordinating concerts at the bar he is managing.

He might approach me later on this subject

I caught the added value but got carried away in the immediate application and other random thoughts. :)

Is there links to MJS's stuff?

Re: Feature Creep Chatt

#8

For the mapping, I'd like to suggest http://openlayers.org/ instead of Google Maps. OpenLayers is 100% open source, BSD licensed, and is Javascript based. That means we could, if desired, produce offline-mode versions of the maps as well.

Re: Feature Creep Chatt

#9

Bookmarks?

Different than favorites.

Bookmark submissions that you want to read. Accessible from your profile link dropdown which is onn every page. Probably in a modal so you can close it and stay where you are or click to go to your selection.

If it is bookmarked it will have a button on it that says "Read" or something on the sub to easily remove it from bookmarks. Or something like that.

Author should be able to know how many people bookmarked their sub but not who they are.

Re: Feature Creep Chatt

#10

Good! Similar to collecting ideas.