[OOC] Breathing Life Back into the White Stag

[WarderDragon]

The White Stag Inn is a great resource for our roleplaying and event communities. It is a place for our character stories and biographies. It is a place to discuss Ultima Lore. It is a place for you to feature and recruit for your roleplaying guild or alliance. And it is a place to share character and guild ideas with people on other servers.

But the White Stag is going unused. And it fails to do the above when there are no visitors or storytellers to keep it active and alive. So as your moderator it is my job to see what I can do to bring life back to our own small corner of Stratics. And while I'm at it see if we can't use this as a resource that benefits roleplayers and roleplaying communities on all shards.

I have a few suggestions that I will soon be forwarding upstairs and would like your opinion on them.

1. Tagging System. I'm going to suggest that a set of RP specific tags be added to help organize threads and posts. Some examples would be: [Story], [Shard Fiction], [Global Fiction], [EM Fiction], [Lore], [Open RP], [Closed RP], [OOC], etc.

2. Reporters. Roleplaying is a major part of Ultima Online. And there is alot that happens related to the lore that spans all shards. I'd like to see a couple new reporters hired to cover roleplaying across all shards OR have a roleplaying reporter liasion from each shard who communicates here on the White Stag about roleplaying news and events.

This might mean creating a Cross Shard RP News Index.

3. Moderators. If traffic increases I will see about increasing the number of moderators so that each shard (Europa, Catskills, Baja, etc.) feels a level of ownership over this.

4. Events Forum. All the shards have one. I might suggest adding one here so that roleplaying guilds can advertise their events across shards.

5. Roleplaying Events. Baja and Chesapeake currently have a Cross Shard Tavern Night where roleplayers from each community come together one night a week to roleplay amongst each other. It alternates back and fourth between the Golden Brew Tavern on Baja and the Iron Bandit Inn on Chesapeake. We also have tours where we invite communities from other shards to tour our establishments and towns (and then go to that shard the next week to tour theirs).

The White Stag on Stratics might be a resource to hold such events on a grander scale and include more shards in events like Cross Shard Tavern Nights and Cross Shard Tours.

Any more suggestions?

 

[Derium of ls]

2. Reporters. Roleplaying is a major part of Ultima Online. And there is alot that happens related to the lore that spans all shards. I'd like to see a couple new reporters hired to cover roleplaying across all shards OR have a roleplaying reporter liasion from each shard who communicates here on the White Stag about roleplaying news and events.

no suggestions, I think you hit it well. I only wanted to stress how much i support that idea above the rest. I think it would do great things for the RP community.

 

[Lore Denin (GL)]

Warder Dragon, I think you have great ideas for moving the White Stag forward. You are doing a wonderful job!!

I have played UO for 12+ years and in role-play long before, yet it wasn't until you read a post of mine and asked to post it here that I even discovered the forum. Now I check it daily! Thank you.

What is the policy on cross posting... If we do a shard specific fiction/story is it acceptable to post it on that shards forum for the "intended" audience and then re-post that here for the greater community?

I do have some other ideas to add but the clock is against me this morning,

-Lore's Player

 

[WarderDragon]

Our moderators have traditionally not allowed duplicate threads to be started on multiple forums. This is to prevent folks from spamming recruitment and event advertisements across every shard. But that doesn't serve the needs of our storytellers and roleplayers well.

If you post on your shard forum you're reaching out to your target audience; but the thread is liable to disappear in a week under a pile of News and PvP Discussions. If you post here you're not likely to reach all of your target audience; but you're thread is more likely to get exposure amongst other roleplayers and storytellers. If you're able to post both on the shard forum of your choice and here you get the best of both worlds.

So for now do it. If it becomes a problem I'll speak with your shard moderator.

 

[Lore Denin (GL)]

ok will do, hope I don't get you in trouble

-Lore's Player

 

[WarderDragon]

Don't worry. I won't.

I'm going to be speaking with the administrators about what we can do to make things more welcoming for roleplayers and storytellers. Not just here but on the main webpage (RP101 and Xavori's Dark Side of Ultima) and throughout Stratics. I'll be seeking folks who can write guides to Roleplaying and Ultima Lore. And I'll be working with folks across the shards to see if we can't use this forum as a springboard to increase dialogue amongst the communities.

Stay tuned.

 

[Brytt]

2. Reporters. Roleplaying is a major part of Ultima Online. And there is alot that happens related to the lore that spans all shards. I'd like to see a couple new reporters hired to cover roleplaying across all shards OR have a roleplaying reporter liasion from each shard who communicates here on the White Stag about roleplaying news and events.

I also agree that this one is a great idea. Even if it's just to highlight good RP snippets.

Another thought I had is that if we can get the tags launched to simultaneously come up with a new PR tag and link to White Stag that we (any of the heavy RP reporters, or any reporters who will join the cause) include both in our forum sigs for a while. "Come grab an ale at the cross-shard RP forum, The White Stag Inn." Something like that.

If we can't get tags, then we just pick a launch date(-ish), coordinate a common tagline (shows unity and professionalism) and go.

I'll be seeking folks who can write guides to Roleplaying and Ultima Lore.

Wait til you see this article on Beh-Lem I'm working on. I'm actually replaying U6 for quotes. Trying to decide to I want to write a much younger Zhah into the fictional part somewhere.

 

[WarderDragon]

I look forward to hearing more about them. Can't wait to see your article.

 

[sablestorm]

What's the tag for roleplaying ideas/tips/suggestions?

 

[WarderDragon]

I'd like to announce the first change to the White Stag. The Index Description. It is a minor one; but one that will hopefully help to identify the purpose of this forum.

"Hail, traveller. Grab a tankard and tell us your story." Discussion of Ultima Online Roleplaying, Lore & Fiction.

Petra Fyde and Brytt are responsible for that one. Thank you both.

What's the tag for roleplaying ideas/tips/suggestions?

[OOC] would be the tag. I might also suggest [Guide]. I don't want to oversaturate it with too many tags when [OOC] and "How to Roleplay a [Insert Race/Ethnicity/Profession/Etc]" are fairly self-explanitory.

But what would you suggest as far as tags?

 

[WarderDragon]

As you might have already noticed we now have a series of shard tags.

I'm leaning forwards leaving it like this and letting folks write [OOC] or [Closed RP] into the title sequence. (I believe we can only have one row of tags; so [Baja][Closed RP] is probably not going to happen.) Will this work for folks? Or would you prefer having a structured tagging system rather than a shard version?

 

[Merci d'Rue]

Hello my name is Merci, from atlantic, I just registered here on Stratics so I am new to these boards. All I can say is I love what your doing here!

Would love to be involved or help out.

The Tagging system is a great idea. Also, the open RP story concept is very unique. I love to write, personally, it would be interesting to have other people join in to run with it or to follow someone elses lead.

Perhaps I will get the courage up to post something but for now I am observing and learning and taking it all in!

Take care all!

 

[WarderDragon]

Open RP used to be much more common here on Stratics and on the guild forums I once frequented. It is almost like telling the first part of a tale and then passing the torch around the camp fire.

Normal rules still apply. You wouldn't describe another characters actions for them. But it is an entertaining form of interaction that people can read and participate in.