On Forum Titles and Roles - Important!
- Thread starter Lex
- Start date
Flare
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- Flare
I'm interested in helping with the icon creations idea, although I'm worried my art program (now a free thing, it ain't no photoshop, for example) might not handle the small sizes very well. Also I can be slow but hopefully my workload is lessening this week so 
Just trying to get more motivation back.
Just trying to get more motivation back.
Lex
Administrator
Any work on those is appreciated but one of the things I mentioned before is that it'd be cool if we could keep them VII themed - I'm not sure how to do that and still have them represent what they're supposed to represent, though that's what the text on hover feature is supposed to achieve I guess.
If there were just 5 we could just do different coloured materia orbs but the way I see it we have:
Admin
Mod
Donator
Community Manager
Staff Emeritus?
Content Creator
Contributor
And we might need others. I guess we could make the forum staff themed differently, like maybe a Buster Sword icon for Admin and something similar for mods, whereas the rest could be the different materia orbs (Green, Blue, Red, Yellow, Purple).
If there were just 5 we could just do different coloured materia orbs but the way I see it we have:
Admin
Mod
Donator
Community Manager
Staff Emeritus?
Content Creator
Contributor
And we might need others. I guess we could make the forum staff themed differently, like maybe a Buster Sword icon for Admin and something similar for mods, whereas the rest could be the different materia orbs (Green, Blue, Red, Yellow, Purple).
X-SOLDIER
Harbinger O Great Justice
- AKA
- X
Something like the Shinra diamond logo for Admins, the SOLDIER symbol for mods, AC wolf-thing for Donators, etc. seems like we could mine FFVII for semi-relevant things that we could still represent as little icons that, even if not totally clear visually, would fit the theme, etc. in the way you're talking about (since I'd argue that different colour of materia alone wouldn't be a sufficiently clear indication of what's what – since colourblindness and such would make those difficult to quickly distinguish).
X
X
Mother
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- B
I'd love to chip in to make some brand new, shimmering shiny icons too.
No worries and totally understandable! I suppose I don't mind relinquishing some dumb inside joke rights
B said:
3. So I'm against this idea purely because the idea behind the new AKA field is for everyone to have one name they go by. I'll use Carlie as an example because she's been a serial name changer since the dawn of time but idk if her forum name has ever been "Carlie" (it might have been actually, I'm not sure). So rather than an "AKA field" it'll be a subtitle centered right underneath the username. Users will be able to change it if they really really want to, but the idea is to have one name everyone goes by. It's been a complaint since the beginning of time here that people changing their names makes it hard for others to recognise them, and even with the AKA field that can be difficult. The new idea should solve that issue. I don't really see a reason for folks to list every single username they've ever had if they pick and stick with a solid AKA, since that's something we've historically had problems with (you know who you are
No worries and totally understandable! I suppose I don't mind relinquishing some dumb inside joke rights
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Claymore
3x3 Eyes
Ok. First, I just want to reiterate generally that saying that something needs to be kept private does not mean that it has any sort of negative connotations or malicious undertones whatsoever. Working in private does not mean that the Content Creators - who, you know, are simply working on content strictly for the community - are out to overthrow the forum leaders, form super tight cliques in order to gang up on anyone, or generally turn their noses up at other members.
At the moment the only special powers or recognition that Content Creators have is that they are on a Discord chat sever that anyone could join if they actually really wanted to contribute. 
It was already made clear, right from the start, that anyone joining would need to contribute in some way or they would be removed from the group - now I can see that the main reason this was suggested in the first place is because of this fear from the past that seems to permeate the forums.Certainly, there are specific projects that will have a much greater impact and surprise for the community if they see it once it is completed, and not in drips and drabs. For example, there is something stunning that a group are working on at the moment that would lose absolutely all of it's impact if you saw each and every part of the Art and example clips that they are working on. And we've already talked about the important news and scoops that we might manage to get first that should be kept under wraps while being worked on quickly. That also means without a lot of input in order to get it done fast.
Keeping content private is not automatically a bad thing. I see the compromise suggestions of keeping things private on a per-project basis, or having naturally open things like threads and suggestions open (in order to avoid the above), but that doesn't tackle the other issues, as that is not the only reason why content creation should be kept private. I'm talking about the actual flow of creativity, and I'll come back to this a moment.
There should also be no real debate about being inclusive either. It was an issue I raised right off the bat of the first project that was worked on within the new setup - the need to ensure that as many voices within the Content Creators were heard as possible in a project. But that has limits. Whoever is running a particular project has to ultimately make decisions and get on with a project. Balancing so many different voices can be hard, and there is a fine line between doing so and not staunching any and all creativity as well.
However, even with all of that, everything is made is inclusive as possible. Let's take the VII Best as an example of the entire inclusive process that was done:
* As project leader I fielded the topic to the community
* All nominations suggested by the community were put into a poll
* The poll was redone several times in order to accurately reflect the community's thoughts and final rankings
* The writing team got involved and developed a script based on the community comments
* Issues were raised about obtaining permissions, so permission was sought from the community about their comments being used within the video
* Our voice-artists got involved and created the voice-over audio for the project
* The art team got involved to create artwork for the project
* The VII Best intro was devised
* Feedback on that intro was taken onboard and changes were made to it
* The first version and complete run-through of the video was made
* Everyone pitched in with feedback
* A second version of the video was made
* Everyone pitched in with feedback
* As project leader, I had to field those comments, take in some majority thoughts on music changes and aspects that should change whilst also keeping my creativity and vision for the video
* A third version of the video was made
* Finally, Lex had his input as both Site Director with changes that should be made (in order to maintain a standard and quality across all projects) and his own personal thoughts
* A fourth and final version of the video was made
* And actually a fifth after an error was noticed but it was already uploaded and gaining YouTube comments by that point
Look at how inclusive all that was.
Now, this entire structure would have been negatively impacted by having the entire community access to all the decisions and thoughts during the creative process. For me, personally, it would be a potential disaster to have every single voice on this forum have an input as to what clip they would change, what music they would have used, at what 0.2 second point they would have faded something earlier, or what transition type they think is best, etc... The structure can't support this. Even Writer's Rooms have a limit for a reason. We are as inclusive as possible within the Content Creators, but expanding to all voices is just an unreasonable request.
The creative process, and everything around that, should entirely be kept private / limited. It is already as inclusive enough as it is. I also don't believe that I am out of line in saying that this almost desperate need to keep everything 'open and transparent' has been a major detriment to this forum when anything at all actually needs to get done.
Ultimately, my biggest fear, in all of this, is that by doing this you could crush the creativity, fun, and the process that we have managed to cultivate so far. All because some people might be scared that something nice is being done for the community, all because it's being done behind closed doors, all because some people might get along and become friends by working with each other, all because of fears from 10+ years ago that still haunt the forums to this day.
Unfortunately, I don't really have any real answers. Halfway measures don't tackle the actual problems of the content creation process itself. Putting it to a vote doesn't even help, because if the heads of the forum believe that there is still an issue in this place with people forming dangerous cliques then such a process is ultimately pointless.
However, not many other Content Creators have spoken up, or seem to be concerned as much as I am with having the creative process being completely open. So I will assume that this is just something I am personally struggling with. In that case, all I can say is that I'll go for the ride and see if this can work.
Roger
He/him
- AKA
- Minato
I generally feel the same way you do on issue. Particularly what Gabe said how this content is made for the community and it would kill the surprise factor if everyone was able to see the creative process, even just the initial brainstorming.
Lex
Administrator
It would be good to get more opinion on the new section, but to summarise my previous suggestion about keeping it as open as possible (because a couple of people working on projects have now come to me with concerns):
- Threads in which active projects are being worked on or discussed would be for content creators only (as "private" as the discord is now)
- The only public threads would be suggestion/ discussion threads, so if someone who isn't currently a "content creator" has an idea, they can make a thread with that idea in that section.
- When a project goes live a public thread will be made in the section for discussion
Sorry if I've been unclear about any of that, but that's my proposal because I do absolutely see the issue with everything being public and I think anyone who's worked on content for TLS can see the issues aswell. But I'm glad you guys are speaking up about this because at the end of the day it's you guys who are putting in the time and effort to make content for TLS.
I do also want to close the creator discord server after the board has been created though. Same deal, making a group of chats in the main TLS server in the same way as they exist on the other one with permissions to access it.
- Threads in which active projects are being worked on or discussed would be for content creators only (as "private" as the discord is now)
- The only public threads would be suggestion/ discussion threads, so if someone who isn't currently a "content creator" has an idea, they can make a thread with that idea in that section.
- When a project goes live a public thread will be made in the section for discussion
Sorry if I've been unclear about any of that, but that's my proposal because I do absolutely see the issue with everything being public and I think anyone who's worked on content for TLS can see the issues aswell. But I'm glad you guys are speaking up about this because at the end of the day it's you guys who are putting in the time and effort to make content for TLS.
I do also want to close the creator discord server after the board has been created though. Same deal, making a group of chats in the main TLS server in the same way as they exist on the other one with permissions to access it.
Lex
Administrator
This is more of a nod to FF innit
Not a bad idea, and I do love me a tonberry
but if we can, I'd really like to just keep all the icons as VII-centric as possible rather than general FF. I'm trying to think of external ways other FF icons could be used aswell, like maybe in the FF boards outside the compilation we have here.
X-SOLDIER
Harbinger O Great Justice
- AKA
- X
Also I vote for a hover title of "this guy are sick!" for e.g. the great old one users,
This is absolutely the greatest idea.
X
lithiumkatana17
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- Lith
I want like a Honeybee icon or something! 
lithiumkatana17
Pro Adventurer
- AKA
- Lith
Channy
Bad Habit
- AKA
- Ruby Rose, Lucy
I can't vote for anyone for admin who dares to use the same text Starling did - how fucking dare you, I am so triggered right now
jkjkjk <3
I think we should definitely utilize our fantastic graphic staff (and token non-staff) members, Fancy, Flare and B to do up a new set of icons for everything. I was also going to suggest different coloured materia orbs for staff groups.
Do we really need Staff Emeritus? It was quite a lengthy list at some point and only a couple of former staff are still around, seems most have left for a reason at some point. We still have Howl, Fangu and Carlie? (who else??) - I get that you want to acknowledge their contribution to the forum at some point or anything but it seems like a 'meh' to me.
Or for other items we could definitely use other FF items or creatures..
1/35th Soldier for our staff?
Greens for newbies/members under 100 posts because they're....green?
Frog for general members inbetween? Non-staff/non-newbs?
