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December 03, 2005
Light a Single Candle
Levi Kornelsen of the intriguing Perfect20 (pdf) project asks, "Why not do theory on RPG.net?"
Comments
I wish him luck but I find that I can only make good of use RPG.net when directed there by an outside link or when it turns up in a Google search for a topic of interest.
Chris Lehrich has a discussion over in his LJ which laments the loss of the Forge as a theory-discussion forum. Personally, I think he overrates the functionality of the moderation at the Forge, but I suspect he's right when he implies that RPG.net isn't going the take up the slack.
For moderation, I believe the single most important factor is not editorial facilitation (except in the broadest sense) but a simple commitment to respect. In my opinion, thread-policing as commonly found on the Forge is harmful because it breaks up lines of conversation, making it difficult to follow side discussions; it can also turn into a subtle form of censorship since the relevance of a given side discussion to the main point is often subjective, or apparent only in retrospect. (There may be technical solutions to this issue. Whatever its faults, Usenet benefits from the ability of people to change thread subjects while maintaining a logical link to parent threads. And of course blogs allow everyone to say what they want, and to moderate outside commentary as they see fit, while allowing readers to pretty much ignore anyone they don't feel like hearing from.)
The Forge probably does a somewhat better job than RPG.net of encouraging respectful behavior (which isn't saying much--plus quis custodiet ipsos custodies?). However, the biggest thing going against RPG.net is that it doesn't even have a forum labeled for theory. Furthermore, people need to come to discussions with a recognition of the breadth of roleplaying in terms of both systems and goals, and frame their contributions accordingly. Ironically (but for very good reasons) I don't see that happening in a general RP forum, though I would be very pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong.
Posted by: Elliot Wilen at Dec 3, 2005 6:56:20 PM
Huh,
I was just going to say that RPG.net formus are a festering cesspool, but perhaps Elliot said it a little more elegantly.
Posted by: Tom at Dec 3, 2005 11:17:11 PM
RPGnet does not WANT a forum for theory. I approached the admins about creating a Theory usergroup (those funky little opt-in forums like the Toys & Collectibles forum) back when I was still trying to do the Theory Thursdays. It was turned down flat. The sentiment seems to be that it would inevitably be a nest of vipers.
Theory inevitably ruffles feathers and draws poo-flingers of one stripe or another. A big general-interest forum like RPGnet isn't going to support much that's useful.
Posted by: Mark Woodhouse at Dec 3, 2005 11:18:04 PM
How could a meaningful dialogue begin on RPG.net about anything without a search function to look back on where the conversation has been and where its going.
That, and its a wild west Deadwood of an RPG forum.
Posted by: Judd at Dec 4, 2005 9:01:09 AM
The lack of a search function killed RPG.net for me. I'm with Judd on the idea that it's particularly damaging for theory discussions.
One of the things that tells me is that RPG.net is probably too big and wild to be a good host for a theory forum.
Posted by: Ginger Stampley at Dec 4, 2005 10:07:31 AM
The fact that RPG.net wants *all* non-design RPG discussion in a single forum pretty much broadcasts their desire to keep out anybody with special interests that they want to talk about. You've got to have a pretty wide interest in RPGs to find the forums there useful. I'm pretty sure that's by design.
Posted by: Lee Short at Dec 4, 2005 11:46:23 AM
Also, there are a number of other RPG forums on the net. Probably one of these would love to host the discussions. There's Gaming Outpost, and The Master's Council (which does in fact already have a Theory forum, IIRC -- it's just not used much).
Posted by: Lee Short at Dec 4, 2005 11:49:02 AM
I didn't know about the Master's Council. http://www.skyseastone.net/masters/ (formerly elsewhere).
Posted by: Elliot Wilen at Dec 4, 2005 3:27:46 PM
I didn't know about the Master's Council
I think we should invade. I've always wanted to be a barbarian invader.
Posted by: Lee Short at Dec 4, 2005 4:28:33 PM
