Justin Law is new RP Mod

Since we moved Cat to Calendar forum, we needed a new RP mod. Princess was to fill that roll along with the Art forum. But we know that Princess isn't really into RPs nowadays.

So Masu and I picked someone who is. Justin Law.

He's been dedicated to several of the RPs without having dropped out of them, and he's currently working on the revamped Persona 4 RP as we speak. Which is the largest and most active RP we have.

So congratulate him in his blue-nameness.

Congrats James.

Oh wait I should probably make a Calendar Mod icon.

CONGRATULATIONS!
By the way... what's an RP? sorry...

roleplaying game.

We had a pokemon one for a while before it died.

PokeTrainer RED wrote:CONGRATULATIONS!
By the way... what's an RP? sorry...

Role Playing.

Actually you should try it Red. You may like it

Sounds interesting what do I have to do?

Well first you'd have to sign up your character: give a name, basic description and whatever else the RP requires. Then you just have to post in the topic as if you were acting out a role in the story. Interact with other characters and develop your own. That's pretty much it.

And also. Thanks all. I'll do my best and what not.

Almost said happy birthday, but uh, yeah, congratulations.

No offence, but do we really need anymore mods or staff members? I mean there is like probably 25 active users at BEST and that's even stretching it, and we have Rozen, Lyle, Masu, Kilvas, Catbread, Yuffie, and now Justin. That means more than about 25% of the active forum is staff members. Little excessive, don't you think?

Also, the fact that the top 5 posters are all staff members. I'm not saying any of them need to be replaced or taken off, or don't do their job, but really is this necessary? The top 20th poster only has 142 posts.

Isn't there more issues worth addressing than adding more staff to an already over staffed forum? Like perhaps making a less eye straining skin, and banner? Maybe finding ways to advertise the site so it'll grow? Perhaps trying to come up with a strategy to make the forum appeal to more than the fans of a series of games that a lot of people haven't even heard of?

Now I don't know this Justin kid, and I'm sure he's a fine individual, and this isn't anything against him, but I feel like there are more pressing matters at hand than this...

Well, Justin is Branded Blade. And Masu and I have been working on ways to promote the site.

A lot of what you're saying is true. So don't think I'm doing a 'I'm admin so fall in line' post via Jyosua style. (Cept when it came to his IRL friends the little pansy.)

We've already modified the skin to be less sharp to the eyes. (I can't really imagine a darker green that wouldn't make text unreadable) And you're really the only one that has voiced a complaint about that.

Also, Yuffie(Bishop) isn't really a mod. He just has his own group. He's more like a confidant than anything. Someone who acts as a third party when Masu and I are at a severe disagreement and neither want to change our positions.

One of the things Masu and I are working on is giving the mods more tasks to do that will promote the forum, or at least encourage activity. So while the mods right now aren't really doing much, that's probably going to change by Juneish. We've been tossing ideas back and forth all week so far, and we've even considered cutting down some of the staff members. But for now, it's all in the idea phase.

No staff member will be cut before Masu and I have a talk with them. So don't start freaking out if you think you're going to be cut. It's just an idea we've been tossing around.

Well really, if you want more people to come here, things have to go through MASSIVE overhall changes.

I may be the only one complaining about the skin, but that's perhaps because anyone who comes and sees it just leaves. It looks unprofessional and kind of repulsive to be honest. AT LEAST have more skin options, people like customization.

Secondly, the staff need to act more professional. I mean yeah, joking is fine, but it's hard to take you all seriously a lot of the time. Especially when you have to have someone as a third party when the two main admins don't agree on something. You guys are divided, that kind of system will never be able to sustain itself.

This forum is too narrow subjected, it alienates potential members.

Plus I want to hear some of the ideas that are going to be implemented to advertise the forum, the site has been around like 2 years, and it's about as active as when it started, maybe a tiny bit more?

We're working on things at our own pace.

To be perfectly honest, I rather like the quiet small community-like feel to the site. I of course would like more members, but no more than 300. Once Serenes got past that, things started to seem like a big ol cluster-fuck.

There's no way for us to measure how many people leave because of the harsh background, and honestly I don't see any problem with it. I'm personally not too good with the forum mechanics, (I'm more of a human resources and creative ideas guy) but I know Masu is working on a few things with the background and skins to make the site load easier for people using Wiis, PSPs, etc etc.

We're not really divided at all. Masu and I disagree at times, and Bishop will jump in to lend his opinion, but even in our more heated arguments Masu and I always listen and understand what the other has to say. And we're not divided at all. We both want the success of the forum.

And you'll hear the ideas once we cement them. As well as every other member. First we're putting things through the staff and tweaking ideas. We have a lot of ideas, and not all of them are good, and we'd like to refine them before we make it public.

Masu and I probably don't act seriously enough. But that's the kind of people we are. And right now things are pretty busy in our lives between school, work, and our own personal relaxation time. While we care about the forum and it's success, it unfortunately has to take a back seat when bigger issues in our personal lives are on hand.

We only have 25 members? Jeez... shows what I know.
Anyway I like the laid back chat with friends feel of the site. If you're really concerned about numbers I could mention the site to my friends, though I'm sorry I don't have many. I think as long as no one already with us leaves it'll all be good. Make it and they will come or something like that. 'Sides I never played Tales, and the number of mods doesn't seem wrong, just the lack of people. Only question I got about Justin is if a new mod will mean the RPs will see more activity cause I wanna try one. Altogether I think finding new users by word of mouth and other casual means will help keep things comfortable between everyone.

P.S. make the background red, oh and I think we are now first on google so that's good right?

PokeTrainer RED wrote:We only have 25 members? Jeez... shows what I know.
Anyway I like the laid back chat with friends feel of the site. If you're really concerned about numbers I could mention the site to my friends, though I'm sorry I don't have many. I think as long as no one already with us leaves it'll all be good. Make it and they will come or something like that. 'Sides I never played Tales, and the number of mods doesn't seem wrong, just the lack of people. Only question I got about Justin is if a new mod will mean the RPs will see more activity cause I wanna try one. Altogether I think finding new users by word of mouth and other casual means will help keep things comfortable between everyone.

P.S. make the background red, oh and I think we are now first on google so that's good right?

Exactly. From the people on this, they've said how they like how the site is more of just a "gathering of friends." Yeah it would be cool for it to be big but im not really interested in having some huge ass fuck place with +2000 members and such. I like the numbers to be at a point where everyone can know everyone beyond just knowing the username

Also yeah, we're gonna pick up activity in the RP forum.

Deidara wrote:To be perfectly honest, I rather like the quiet small community-like feel to the site. I of course would like more members, but no more than 300. Once Serenes got past that, things started to seem like a big ol cluster-fuck.

Actually, that was the best period of the forum. You know, the one we all enjoyed, summer of 2008 and all. It just starting getting huge when it went over 500, and even then it still wasn't that much of a clusterfuck.

Guys, you are being ridiculous now. You're basing this forum on SF, which if you were paying attention, you're not making an accurate basis. SF failed, so you're trying everything to stop from being like SF? Basing this forum off of another forum is only going to make it more and more like it.

Secondly, you're forgetting SF didn't fail because of the member size. It failed because the staff failed to accurately address problems brought up by members, and that half the staff was just for show. The only reason the member size could even be brought into accord would be the merge with FESS, but that again had nothing to do with member numbers, it had to do with the fact that Jyo just LET the people from FESS act like they run the site. I can't ever think of a time where a complaint was that there were too many people.

Let's not forget even with the 100+ active users on SF, most of us still knew everyone there, but there was just enough to meet someone new now and then to keep things exciting.

Plus if you're going to focus on having an insanely small community, then get rid of some staff members. No offence guys, but if you're going to just model the site off of SF, then just go back to SF. This site ISN'T SF, and the more you base it off of the ideas and concepts of SF, the more like SF it will become.

Stop remembering what SF "used" to be like, because you're stuck in the past. This isn't SF, and nor does it ever need to be like SF, don't let your experiences with Jyosua and douchebags at SF stop you from PROGRESS.

Think outside the box here for a moment. This forum is based on a set of games not REALLY that popular. I mean I never even heard of Persona before I met you people, and I still don't know what Blaz or whatever it is called is. Literally, no one I know has heard of Persona, and half of them haven't heard of Tales. That being said, is there successful Tales and Persona communities? Yes, I checked them out a while ago. Why are they successful though? Because they decided progress was better than being afraid of their members, and they went out and made their site grow. And that's just it, you guys are basically showing us that you're AFRAID of the members. You're basically flat out saying you can't control them if they're over 300, and you need 7 staff members to watch over 20 people.

You need to EXTEND the site. Get more people interested. Really you're not proving you're better than Jyo at all, at LEAST Jyo isn't afraid of progress. So if you're going to base this all on shit from SF, at LEAST succeed where Jyo failed.

Why not have MEMBERS tell you what they want to see? Don't just keep site promotion in the shadows for the admins to deal with. That should be public knowledge. Members should be an active part of it, that's the problem with SF, Jyo just did shit and never told anyone beforehand. Who better to know what they want to see than the members? Word of mouth at this point has proven the best method of advertisement for this site so far, so take that into account.

Secondly, this site is HIDEOUS. Yes I know I'm the only one complaining about it, but that may have to do with the fact that like... There's only 20 people or so here? Plus, where're the main page? This is just a forum? What incentive do people have to come here? No offence guys, but it looks like you have no web design knowledge, or graphic abilities, so why not instead of appointing another mod for something pointless that another mod could do, how about appoint someone who knows how to code? Hell even just having them teach you is enough. I took two years in web design, and my girlfriend is like a fucking web design Goddess, I would be more than happy to build or to teach. You guys forget, although I'm an asshole and like harassing you, I don't just do it because it's amusing. I do it because SOMEONE needs to call people out on bullshit.

Christ, give me like a week or two with one of the staff members and I can have them coding in a short time. Hell, send me Kilvas or Catbread, as they seem like they show the most promise for it. If you had a main page where you actually OFFERED information about the games, it would help EONS.

You guys don't think this looks too bad, but look again. I can't even READ most of the forum buttons they're so poorly made. I can still see parts of the background the images were cropped from in the banner, and it looks cluttered as fuck. No consistency. This skin is too... amateur looking. You guys may harp on SF, but their skin looks better than this.

I mean $10 says you're going to tell me I'm wrong in some form, or just be like "stop causing drama you bitch", but seriously, if I was a staff member, I'd have whipped this place into shape in a matter of days, no joke. Not to toot my own horn, but I have a lot of confidence in my abilities. I've helped run sites FAR larger than this, and FAR larger than SF. The last forum I made it to admin to was over 20,000 members, with over 5,000 active ones. Go ahead, call bullshit, I have screenshots of it and I'm prepared to throw them down. I also worked on Shadowgrounds back in 2004 when we got up to like 500 active members. I also helped moderate Adapt's Refuge which had also around 500 people. So I KNOW what I'm talking about, and willing to prove it.

I don't know SF, so maybe I shouldn't talk, but as long as those 7 admins do their jobs properly the only thing missing is people right? Since you sound experienced you can help with that, ya? I guess if the site looked better it wouldn't seem like the staff is just dicking around with a back burner hobby. You got some good points, and though I like the site so far, theres always room for improvement. Would I like more people and a smoother site? Yeah. Do I know how to do anything like that? nope sorry. Ima noob, but if theres something I can do, tell me.
Anyway this thread was to announce Justin not argue, so know I support your ... I'm gonna go with "enthusiasm"... know that i support your enthusiasm for bettering the site so start a thread in a different section and I'll help if I can.
P.S. like i said im a noob at forums so i hope im not overstepping here when i ask everyone not to take this topic in the wrong direction

Your Concern is really cool and all Cynthia, and thanks for all your suggestions and pointing out whats wrong but, yeah. Priorities. Im just doing what I can atm. I know its not much, and I know it looks like nothing, but trust me (or dont, whichever you decide) when im at work, im repetitively thinking of what I can do. I get text messages on my cell from Lyle about ideas, we talk about shit on XBL and MSN all the time. But lets be real, a fucking internet site is most definitely NOT on the top of my list when im attending college, working TWO full time jobs, and am moving out soon. I WANT to do as much work on it as I can, I TRY getting on as many times during the day as possible to talk to staff about shit, but theres a limit when im doing what im doing now. I can assure you the site will improve, but it wont be anytime soon. You'll just have to bear with us on that, or give up on us and go to a better site. Sure i'd love to learn coding to make a main page, but I just dont have time for that right now. Also i'll take into account about you and coy offering to help make one, but i'll have to really, really, REALLY have a long talk with the staff on that one. Also, Kilvas might, but trust me, catbread wont pull through, I know him IRL. He starts a project, then starts complaining about work and drops it 20%~50% though.

Cynthia, like I've said before, I'm not good with technical aspects of the forum. So that really just leaves Masu to do stuff like that. Which I'm sure he's only half good at stuff like that, and is still learning.

Before you start telling me I'm not fit to be an admin then, let me tell you what I DO do well is human resorces. When we have issues like this, Masu usually tells me to respond first, because I can tend to keep a more level head and respond respectfully. Like in this case. If Masu was to post before me, his post would be one long swear with a few anus references.

We may make the site have similarites to SF, but we're not modeling ourselves after them by any means. We liked the summer 2008 SF, and we want to model our forum after that, but SF is completely unrelated to that. It could be any other forum and we would want to model ourselves on that kind of atmosphere.

We're open to member suggestions as well. None of them have GIVEN suggestions however. Even you yourself. You say that there are so many things we can do to alter the site, however you only mention maybe one or two things. The background, and a main page.

#1. The main page requires a lot of work to provide info on the games that WE have to create, and as Masu has said, and I have said, and I'm saying again, we don't have that kind of time in our lives to do that right now.

2. The background, we're workin on. I honestly don't see how you can find this that offensive to your eyes. Unless you're in a non-stop state of a hangover I can't see how the forest green is that loud of a color.

We're a work in progress. Masu and I have plenty of work to do on the site, but we seem to be the only ones THAT dedicated to actually offer and do stuff about it.

I created an entire forum for event suggestions for the members, and not a single person has offered a suggestion.

And before you offer to MAKE the site for us. #1 I don't trust you enough to make you an admin with all the pranks you've tried to pull with TLS and your continuous trolling, #2 We tried doing that with Suzaku (Serene's brother) from the first TC and that ended up screwing us in the ass, and #3 You're the only one who's complaining so profusely about it and if you think we're going to bust our ass to make up to your standards think again.

Frankly Cynthia, we don't care what you think anymore than any of the other members. And you're one person against 24 other people. We've got bigger things to worry about to get things to the way you think they should be.

If you don't like that, either be patient, or take your leave. We won't hold it against you either way.

Actually, I think the forum needs a lot of improvement too. I think I agree with the basic message Cynthia is giving, but I've never been vocal about something unless it was something that was trusted to me, i.e. SE, or if a fair maiden is in trouble and I need to rescue her.

uh

That aside, I'm mostly leaving you guys to learn things on your own. If my aid is ever necessary, just tell me to give you a thorough post on what I perceive to be the problems with this forum, and suggestions on how to solve them.

You could've worded that post better btw, Lyle, it sounds hostile (which I'm sure you didn't mean to).

Lyle, Lyle, shut that mouth of yours for a second and THINK. Please, for the love of Christ read what I'm saying and THINK about it. I'm not AGAINST you, if I was, I'd be trying to make this site fail more. If I was against this site I'd never complain, or call people out on bullshit. I'd let it go on, and let it just slowly cripple the site more and more. So, before you think I'm just around to troll, remember that the things I complain about are problems I have with the site. Hell every time I make a complaint I get some kind of result. My complaint against Kilvas; result: she actually came and spoke with me, and showed me she actually had some courage, and decency. I even admitted that I was so much more impressed with her at that moment than any other. She actually made me think she has more potential as mod than she did before, and I feel because of that, she has gotten just a bit wiser to things going on. So before you just write me off as worthless trolling, listen to what I'm saying and actually think about it.

First of all, no offense, but Lyle, you're not exactly the best human resources guy I've ever seen. You claim that, but then when someone complains, you instigate by calling me a troll, and saying you don't trust me, and throw that deity attitude out there. Fortunately, I don't take your opinion as valuable 99% of the time.

Secondly, yes, I'm the only one complaining, but that's the thing, I know at least 2 other people who find the backround terrible as well, they just don't voice their opinions on it because it's a waste of time telling you shit they seem to think, which I agree with half the time. Plus if you're going to say that the majority likes it, the majority is 24 people, that's hardly a good sized survey. I can go out on the street and find 24 people who agree with me on something in 20 minutes. Plus this forum is such a narrowed topic, it takes a lot of similiar thinking to enjoy it, so really it's not even a fair battle ground. The color isn't "loud", it's UGLY, I never said it was loud. It's UGLY.

Third, No offence MASU, but I'd sooner kill myself than work as an admin with Lyle. I would NEVER want to be a staff member of any kind on this site unless some SERIOUS changes came about.

Fourth, you don't NEED to make someone an admin to have them make a site. Literally, they could make the codes, give them to you, and explain how they work and how to use them. Simple. Plus it's not that hard, I'd rather be teaching people to do this, so that the staff is more USEFUL.

Fifth, Masu I know how you feel, I work as an RA at my campus, go to a private school, homework, visit my girlfriend, go to meetings and clubs, and STILL have time for projects, so really it can be done. It's not an impossible feet, and I would love to work with you. Coding is more useful than just this site, it's a skill you can use in the real world, and if you have a free moment at least once or twice a week, I would be more than happy to teach you how to code. Seriously, if you WANTED I could build you a basic site layout from scratch, and you can upload it and use it with my permission. You don't have to make me an admin, you don't have to give me any kind of authority, I would just teach you how to work on the site, and utilize it.

Guys, you're too focused on that Summer at SF, SF is a memory, the more you thrive on that memory, the worse off this place will be.

Listen, I know I can be a brutally honest asshole, and I don't sugar coat things, but damn it, I have better things to do than just bust your balls all the time for no reason. I'm not the enemy here, I'm trying to HELP you. I saw SF, it sucked even before all the bullshit. If you base this site on ANYTHING of SF, it'll just meet the same eventual fate. I've seen some of the most successful forums in my day, and I've studied their ideas and strategies, and I'm willing to actually give them to you with no strings attached, and not asking for any kind of power in return.

Why would I do that? Because SF fucking sucked, and this place is going to become another SF over time. Because I actually have at least SOME respect for you over Jyo.

Look, just hear me out in what I have to say, if you don't like it or agree, I'll leave this site and never return, no loss except 1 active member. Add me on MSN, both of you, I can make it worth your while, TRUST me.

I'm just asking for a little time to show some improvement ideas before you, like for example, maybe a change of banner? The one we have is really cluttered, and perhaps we could have several skin selections, with banners that match those skins (example of a Tales banner idea: )

Excuse me if I intrude on you here, but I'm sure you're not an emotionless killer. You are sentimental and all that, and I agree that moving on from the past is a good thing, so you should know that it's not good to insult people's values like that. Especially such deep emotional ones.

I'm not saying to base this site on summer of 2008, but a lot of us hold dear those memories and love that period of SF. It certainly had a great community, if nothing else.

Nightmare wrote:Excuse me if I intrude on you here, but I'm sure you're not an emotionless killer. You are sentimental and all that, and I agree that moving on from the past is a good thing, so you should know that it's not good to insult people's values like that. Especially such deep emotional ones.

I'm not saying to base this site on summer of 2008, but a lot of us hold dear those memories and love that period of SF. It certainly had a great community, if nothing else.

Look, Nightmare, I understand that is the ideal forum you want to be in, and that's the community you wish for. That part I get, but if you want that to become a reality, then you have to let go of the past. If you hold that memory specifically in mind then it'll just be a repeat of it, and what followed. What I'm suggesting is a new experience; yes memories are nice, but we should try progressing before resorting back to old ways.

Yes, and I did say in my post that moving on from the past is good and I don't support basing this site off SF's golden days. What I'm saying is that they're still things we like and shouldn't be trampled upon like that. I, myself, am not the kind to dwell on the past, or anything like that.

Cynthia, I'm gonna stop talking from an official standpoint as an admin and talk to you on a personal level.

Stop wanting people to think that they care about making it to your standard of performance.

That entire first paragraph just proves how egotistical you are. You may be good at coding and confident in your abilities, I bet that's actually true too. But no one honestly gives a crap about how you think of them any more than the next person does. You're acting like a 5 year old kid who thinks the world revolves around them and if people don't act the way YOU think they should, then they need to have a scolding.

Get off your high horse. No one cares.

If other members have their complaints about the background, they're more than welcome to say that it's ugly. But who cares if it's ugly? Sarah Jessica Parker is ugly, but no one demands she get surgery.

As for the SF 2008, we're not making the site 'SF 2008' we're making it LIKE SF 2008. That's the environment that we are trying to recreate. We know it won't be exactly that, we know we want it to be BETTER than that, but right now, getting to that point is our goal.

Don't talk like we don't have any intention to advance the forum, we do. But we'll do it at our OWN pace. Not yours.

Everything you do is compared to your standards. You don't even THINK that others might have a different opinion to you. Or even if you do, you think that their opinion should be ignored.

Also, I don't get the banner at all either. 1. Who's the random chick? 2. What does 'age of serenity' mean? and 3. Why does the text look like something out of Nightmare before Christmas?

The movie. Not Nightmare the person before Christmas.

And I only instigate you as a troll cause you ARE one. Your previous record on the site has been to show up once every 2 or 3 months, make an entire essay on how Kilvas sucks, or how I suck, we chew you out, you flee, then you start insulting us and comparing us to what YOU can do.

I don't care what you can do. I don't care what you think of me. I don't care what you think of my friends. I don't care what you think of my forum.

I don't respect you as a human, you go from a facade of thinking I'm cool and respecting me, to something like this overnight. You pull the same stunts every time you get involved in an issue, I KNOW you're a troll from some of the stuff you've said for us all to do on SF. You've said yourself: "Let's go troll on them."

And even if we did listen to your ideas Cynthia, it'd be all the wrong reasons. Right now, the only reason why I would consider them is to get you to shut-up for a while. You yell and scream and complain till you get your way.