The New Forum Categories

Hi everyone

I've completed the first pass through to revamp the forum categories; it's a lot different than it was, so I wanted to explain what I was trying to accomplish and then get your impressions.

I'm a firm believer in both the power of first impressions, and that how you organize and present information speaks volumes about goals, atmosphere, etc. So what I was trying to do with the new forum categories was achieve a couple of things.

1) Simplify the forums and adopt a more coherent organization. We had added a lot of forum categories with the best of intentions, but the result had been that it was often difficult for new members to find relevant information. There was also a lot of duplication of effort, with issues being discussed in several different locations. Prospective recruits and guests will not notice much different in this respect, but the members area has been pared down to only four categories. The purpose of all these changes is to ensure that our discussions are more focused and that we can respond more effectively to what has proved to be a dynamic and challenging game.

2) Rework the forums in a way that was more representative of the RP interests of the society. I wanted new recruits to feel that they were not just joining a society but an environment, and an environment that was contiguous with the world of the Caribbean as it is portrayed in the game.

3) Use the tone of the forum descriptions to convey some of the things that I personally value about the society but which I think we also want to convey as desirable qualities to prospective recruits: a sense of fun, an interest in a more mature approach to gaming that is sometimes reflected in our discussions and subject matter (those of you who aren't yet members won't believe where the Confederacy is currently headquartered, for example), an interest in some of the darker aspects of human nature (reflected in a lot of our stories for example; we're as interested in the romantic myths of this period as anyone, but we go quite a bit deeper and range more widely, I feel).

4) Clarify to a greater extent the different roles of the three RP forums in particular (RP discussion, player stories, and interactive RP) and indicate the level of RP expectations associated with the different forums.

So let me know what you think.