09-25-2010, 10:26 AM
Hm, I only see these topics just now 
Anyway, I have thinking about activity a lot, so please bear with Dr. Tsrill's theory about life, the NSverse and everything for a moment.What kind of places/communities are popular? I don't roam the internet far and wide, but: Facebook is insanely popular. Specialized sites like NS or Elfwood are reasonable popular. Sub communities of those rise and fall fairly quickly. NS or similar games is much more popular than micronations. World of Warcraft is far more popular than forum-based free form roleplay. Games are generally more popular than communities. Word association is by far the most popular forum game. Based on these examples, what would make a place popular?1. Generally, people like to talk about themselves2. Generally, people prefer "pre-made acitivities" (I also like to call them "point-and-click activities).For many people, a place like NS is a short distraction from their day-to-day activities. A place with simple decisions within an existing and limited rule-set (as NS has to offer) is then appealing, a place that requires to create a rule-set from scratch, not so much. We, as we are here, like to get a bit more out of this place: build a community, make friends, build a network, practice skills (e.g. debating, leaderhsip, web development), get experience you can't get elsewhere easily (law making, politics, diplomacy). The trick is thus to lure people from the first group into "our" kind of activity (hm, that sounds a bit dodgy, but you know what I mean 
)So what we have to do (in my opinion) is to create activities with a limited set of rules (that still allow for some decision making, of course), while having a clear channel to getting in charge of those activities. Now this is a big fake, so some examples of things we had going in the past:- The SP market place: this was basically an organized role play system. Not a lot of rules, but still a given setting to direct peoples thoughts- SPAA (Awards ceremony), functioned both as a roleplay with a given,restricted setting, and also an opportunity for people to get their ego tickled.- Poll of the Week, the options are given, all you have to do is drive-by voting. It can't get much easier than that.- Word of the day: people were encouraged to use the WotD on the RMB. Worked for a while, but had too high maintenance.- SPFA: "Soccer simulation" where people could sent three settings and based on that a match result was calculated. Ultimately failed because it was running for too long, so apparently there is a 3. Generally, people like a place that offers enough change to keep them interested.- Badger racing: Somewhat similar to SPFA, but in a much shorter timeframe, and thus hugely successfulSofar my theory on activity...
Anyway, I have thinking about activity a lot, so please bear with Dr. Tsrill's theory about life, the NSverse and everything for a moment.What kind of places/communities are popular? I don't roam the internet far and wide, but: Facebook is insanely popular. Specialized sites like NS or Elfwood are reasonable popular. Sub communities of those rise and fall fairly quickly. NS or similar games is much more popular than micronations. World of Warcraft is far more popular than forum-based free form roleplay. Games are generally more popular than communities. Word association is by far the most popular forum game. Based on these examples, what would make a place popular?1. Generally, people like to talk about themselves2. Generally, people prefer "pre-made acitivities" (I also like to call them "point-and-click activities).For many people, a place like NS is a short distraction from their day-to-day activities. A place with simple decisions within an existing and limited rule-set (as NS has to offer) is then appealing, a place that requires to create a rule-set from scratch, not so much. We, as we are here, like to get a bit more out of this place: build a community, make friends, build a network, practice skills (e.g. debating, leaderhsip, web development), get experience you can't get elsewhere easily (law making, politics, diplomacy). The trick is thus to lure people from the first group into "our" kind of activity (hm, that sounds a bit dodgy, but you know what I mean )So what we have to do (in my opinion) is to create activities with a limited set of rules (that still allow for some decision making, of course), while having a clear channel to getting in charge of those activities. Now this is a big fake, so some examples of things we had going in the past:- The SP market place: this was basically an organized role play system. Not a lot of rules, but still a given setting to direct peoples thoughts- SPAA (Awards ceremony), functioned both as a roleplay with a given,restricted setting, and also an opportunity for people to get their ego tickled.- Poll of the Week, the options are given, all you have to do is drive-by voting. It can't get much easier than that.- Word of the day: people were encouraged to use the WotD on the RMB. Worked for a while, but had too high maintenance.- SPFA: "Soccer simulation" where people could sent three settings and based on that a match result was calculated. Ultimately failed because it was running for too long, so apparently there is a 3. Generally, people like a place that offers enough change to keep them interested.- Badger racing: Somewhat similar to SPFA, but in a much shorter timeframe, and thus hugely successfulSofar my theory on activity...