Nation boards

[Terame]

At the end of the day forums and games should bring people together.

A forum/board that provides a 'meeting place' for each country for discusions on beta testing - organizing gaming sessions based on the many missions posted here, etc.


eg.
Swiss Forum
German Forum
US Forum
Australian Forum
English Forum

Thoughts? Just seems a logical progression for this great site

[macguba]

hmmm .... well its hard enough getting beta testers with one global board .....

I don't think there is any need for national boards.    There is a case for language boards (German, Arabic, etc) but I don't know if there is any demand.   Maybe we'll find out.  

The Ed Depot already hosts resources not in English.

Totally agree that OFPEC should bring people together.

Edit:  I'm writing in a personal capacity here, not as staff.

[Artak]

In addition to those above, why not also have

Finnish
Swedish
Danish
Norvegian
Jiddish
Arabian
Hungarian
Mexican
Whatever

It's all about where to draw the line.

OFPEC has drawn the line to English only and it seems fine to me.
The way I see it is creating multiple categories for different languages only separates people and certainly not bring them together.

This is my personal point of view of this matter.

[Terame]

hmmm .... well its hard enough getting beta testers with one global board .....

I don't think there is any need for national boards.    There is a case for language boards (German, Arabic, etc) but I don't know if there is any demand.  Maybe we'll find out.  

The Ed Depot already hosts resources not in English.

Totally agree that OFPEC should bring people together.

Thanks MacGuba
I'm not suggesting translations of the site (being a YaBBSE admin myself I know the work involved - YUCK!) but just a place to go to talk to people close by that are also members of this site.

These would simply be a forum added within a category - hey you could call them the local "pubs" eg the Brussells Pub etc.

I think logically that five people or more would me needed to justify the admin to want to to get his clicking finger over to "add forum" but that number is a pretty arbitrary/pick it out of the sky number. Perhaps an admin could suggest this and base it on the replies this thread gets

In addition to those above, why not also have

Finnish
Swedish
Danish
Norvegian
Jiddish
Arabian
Hungarian
Mexican
Whatever

It's all about where to draw the line.

OFPEC has drawn the line to English only and it seems fine to me.
The way I see it is creating multiple categories for different languages only separates people and certainly not bring them together.

This is my personal point of view of this matter.

I guess the admins (read powers that be ) could decide that English be used so that if they chose to monitor the categories they could. I was not thinking of languages as much as getting the members more social.

It's more for those times when you positively absolutley have to game with someone in your timezone, and hey if you meet someone local on the site and want to organize a lan game all the better.

I'm really lin the "Pub" analogy, the Pint of ale a good converastion about OFP addon #4356 and instead of a pool table a lan table  ;D


I guess at the end of the day 1 the popularity of this suggestion and 2 the admins will decide this one. I'll just cross my fingers :cheers:

[Sefe]

While we consider your suggestion (like we consider every serous suggestion by our visitors), I see two main obstacles for the idea:

1. The focus of the site. The OFPEC always was and still is a purely editing related site. Ie. it is focussed at the OFP editing community, not at the OFPgaming community. Hence, organizing gaming sessions would distract from the main focus of the site. The reason for our limited focus is that we want to fill our niche as best as possible and focus all our resources on this target.
The editing community itself is an international one. A script written by a Swiss requires the same know-how as a script written by an Australian. In this context, the justification for nation boards is not clearly visible to me.

2. Nation/region specific boards require dedicated resources. While the problem of granting enough technical resources can be solved rather easily, the big problem are the human resources. A (for example) Swedish forum will require enough Swedish-speaking staff to moderate that forum. And that would still leave another issue unaddressed: Our global moderators, who are responsible for the forums as a whole, wouldn't be able to supervise the boards in a language they don't understand. For example, none of our global moderators speaks Swedish or Finnish.
One characteristic of the OFPEC staff always was it's internationality. We have staff from all over the world and so we can say that we are a truly international site. Our language is English but our focus is not a certain country. I'd rather vote for keeping this internationality and not split up the forums in smaller - and due to their different language - nescessarily seperate parts (and all the organisational problems that come with it). Especially since those parts would be similar in their content and only differ in their language.

[Terame]

I have to say I am surprised that language has taken center stage. It wasn't mentioned in my proposal  ;D

I think it safe to say that members of this site are able to exchange thoughts in English or they wouldn't be here.

As for gaming sessions. I should have gone into more detail as that has been taken out of my intended direction...

A forum/board that provides a 'meeting place' for each country for discusions on beta testing - organizing gaming sessions based on the many missions posted here, etc.

I meant not for a general gaming venue but one directly linked from the missions here... Perhaps an example will get my thoughts across better.

"David" has been trying to get beta testers to look at his script. He goes to a "pub" that beta testers use to comment and organise these testing sessions in an organised way (not the Gamespy - I'll play anything with anyone style) also they are in a timezone where if his beta raises interest he can get feedback straight away. The internet's immediacy is one of it's strengths

As with any of my posts, I'm happy to be corrected and happier still to get feedback, just want to make sure we're all on the same page. I'd hate an idea get shunted because I haven't explained myself in a concise manner.

Why did I come up with this idea?
I was actually using techniques I use in my day to day business (coordinating hosting and web sites for overseas clients) and also in my work with kids with disabilities.

One of the biggest hurdle in any new project is getting quick reliable feedback from more than one or two volunteers. Not unlike an actor's academy and a critic's academy. Better to shoot yourself in the foot (ouch what a pun!) to asmall audience than thrust it into the public eye and be dashed for your first script...

My proposal is more to have a clean line from concept-beta-test results-working add-on/script.

I was wrong to ere on the side of brevity in my initial proposal and won't do so again, as I don't want to be thought of as someone who is looking to inadvertently rob the site of it's individuality or focus but rather to enhance it's ability to allow scriptors (and would-be script writers like myself) move along in the development of addons and scripts more quickly.

If I had joined this site to game I would have left around an hour after I joined.

See what happens when I don't ere on the side of brevity? Bloody long post :wow:

[Terame]

I have kept this seperate so that if it is taken the wrong way it can be removed without affecting the core desire of the original idea...

Addressing resources:
I didn't address this because I felt that as geogprahy rather than language was my emphasis then it was a moot point.

However as this site receives many posts and in keeping with a toally "Script the whole script and nothing but the script" line; would an unnoficial, seperate forum based site be an alternative solution?

Devils advocate time
In which case this thread could be a proposal for a sister (or ugly cousin) site which is devoted to people interested in scripting but also looking to test what others are doing and learn in a more hands on way?

If this is more appealing then hopefully someone will volunteer their efforts in managing such a poposed ugly cousin site. CleetusCousinOfOfpec.com[/i]

One of the fringe benefits of my position is I can allocate traffic and storage on a range of servers from London to Sydney to New York, manpower for inital creation could also be looked after but the key would be reliable conscientious people to moderate the site.

[Sui]

Hey terame

From what I gather you weren't necessarily talking about language, but about just having a separate forum for each nationality?

In my opinion (by saying that, I mean that this isn't necessarily site policy ) it would act to disperse the community, rather than almagamate it.
Also there is the (as Sefe said) very large issue of finding moderators to mod the forums, as you put a group of people in there that all speak the same language (Finnish, Dutch, Australian - tie me kangaroo down sport ;D ;D etc.) they will naturally start speaking that language as well as english.

Anyway, it's a well intentioned idea, but I don't think it would get the execution the idea would deserve, as I don't believe we have the human resources to action it properly

[Terame]

The question has to be asked here I wish it weren't to a moderator...

Did you read the previous post?

::feels like he is talking to the wind here::

[asmodeus]

Hello Terame!  

I definately read all the posts here and if I understand you correctly, you want to have seperate boards that already exist but are based on ones' location, so that they can find people to test scripts and missions "real time" with..  Right?

If so, I don't quite understand the need for it.  Maybe if we had 100,000 members and needed to break it up more, but at this point why not just put everything in one big melting pot and let everyone help everbody?  

Or did I totally miss the point?  (that happens sometimes w/ me...)  

Asmo

P.S>  Not everybody in the same country has the same hours..  I worked night shift and was on the computer at the same time as people from other countries, not mine!  

[Terame]

I've been having a chat with one of ourdevelopers and he's got some ideas - I wil post a link for the admins' perusal.

In the meantime I'll watch the replies to see which way to go...

[Wolfsbane]

I understand where you are coming from and what you mean.
(I hope)

Currently, it is not something we will be looking to pursue, as we feel our current system is more than adequate for all nationalities and purposes.

If people want to achieve arrangments for Beta-testing teams for various timezones or whatever other hurdles, the option is there to source these players / resources theirselves.

As much as we would like to, we cannot provide everything for everyone, and as it goes, I think things have been good so far with regards to these issues.

As long as everyone pulls in the right direction as one big group, I see no reason to look at splitting things up.

[Terame]

I understand where you are coming from and what you mean.
(I hope)

Currently, it is not something we will be looking to pursue, as we feel our current system is more than adequate for all nationalities and purposes.

If people want to achieve arrangments for Beta-testing teams for various timezones or whatever other hurdles, the option is there to source these players / resources theirselves.

As much as we would like to, we cannot provide everything for everyone, and as it goes, I think things have been good so far with regards to these issues.

As long as everyone pulls in the right direction as one big group, I see no reason to look at splitting things up.

Thanks for giving the idea a once over.

What about the "ugly cousin site" idea - ie not contrlled by but affiliated with ofpec

That way you don't have to worry about resources (personel, storage or bandwidth) and if it doesn't work you remove any link and there's no egg on your face?

I like win-win situations, and this would seem to be one... ofptestithere.com cleetuscousinofofpec.com (j/k with names but you know what I mean - I hope)

[Wolfsbane]

 ;D

I know what you are meaning, but for various reasons, anything like this, cannot be affiliated with OFPEC. By all means look at creating your seperate idea, and promoting it as your own, we'd certainly link to it, but all affiliation with OFPEC would be requested as avoided.

Sounds daft, but we have our reasons.

*Hushed whispers in the darkness*

[Terame]

OK as long as I'm not creating something that is already on the drawing board here. That would be the only situation which would mean it would be a waste of resources.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll get the whip out and get some guys working on a platform