RPProject Update 03/04/15: RPPoints!

Alright, so there have been a couple of minor changes I made, and some a little bigger.

First things first:

• The Sporum field in your profile is gone. We all know who each person is, really, and I hope to get people coming in from other places as well. So the section would have been rendered obsolete.

• You can no longer change your display name! Hey, sorry about that. Really. Frequent name changes creates cause for confusion - but fear not. There's more to this update than meets the eye.

• Forumotion's reputation system. This isn't implemented for the sake of any contests or anything, and is simply put in the event you wish to express thanks to a user that has helped you. If this gets abused or played with, it will be removed.

• The point system. Now this is where it gets good. To make up for the lack of being able to change your username at will, and being unable to make your own rank, a point system has been implemented. For 500 points, you can create your own custom rank or title! But wait - alternatively, you can save up, because for 1,000 points, you can change your display name!

Naturally, there are limits to what you are able to change your rank or name to. Rank titles and display names must abide by the rules of the forum and cannot contain explicit swears ("fuck", "shit", "cunt", etc.) or racial/ethnic slurs ("nigger", "raghead", "redskin", etc.) and ideologically sensitive content ought to be approached with caution, and is fully up to the discretion of the administrator changing these aspects of your account. Understand that your request may be denied if it meets any of these restrictions.

Similarly, you cannot claim a custom rank that is already in possession of another user. Nor can your custom rank be named "Admin", "Administrator", "Mod", "Moderator", "Forum Artist", or "Banned". You also cannot claim the rank title of any of the ranks that is capable of being obtained by posting (e.g. "RPProfessional", "Addict", "Top Contributor", "Contributor", etc.).

Anywho, with that out of the way, I'm sure you're wondering "how can I get points, and what is the best way to do so?" It's simple. While on some forumotion-hosted forums, you can get points simply by having an account and you will accumulate points every day by simply existing. This is not the case here. You must be active on the forum in order to earn points. This means posting, making topics, making friends, and even profile comments. Almost any kind of activity can get you points (though some activities, such as private messaging, does not).

Here is a list on how you can get points and where the best places to go would be:

• Rules and Updates: 1 point (posts)

• Welcome!: 1 point (posts), 3 points (topic)

• General Discussion: 1 point (posts), 3 points (topic)

• Intelligent Discussion: 1 point (posts), 3 points (topic)

• Artistic Addition: 1 point (posts), 3 points (topic)

• Suggestions and Feedback: 1 point (posts), 5 points (topic)

• OOC Threads: 2 points (posts), 10 points (topic)

• Fantasy: 3 points (posts), 5 points (topic)

• Mature: 3 points (posts), 5 points (topic)

• Science-Fiction: 3 points (posts), 5 points (topic)

• Other: 3 points (posts), 5 points (topic)

• Technical Issues: 2 points (posts)

• Ranting Zone: 2 points (posts)

• Guest Help: 2 points (posts)

• 1 point per Profile Message

• 1 point per added Friend

As you can see, you get rewarded differently depending on where you post. Posting in the general discussion branch of the forum will earn you 1 point as a reward for participating with the forum's community. You will earn 3 points for creating a topic, since you are then thereby creating more opportunities for the community to socialize. Suggestions and Feedback is an exception to this, because by making a topic, you are offering up possibilities to improve the forum. You also get 1 point for making friends and comments on member profiles for socializing with the RPP community.

You get the most points from activity in the roleplaying branch of the forum. You get 2 points for each post in an OOC thread, as a reward for being involved with the roleplay. However, you can also receive a whopping 10 points for creating a topic in the OOC section. This is because that you have created a roleplay that will pave the way to a great story and plenty of writing in the future. All of the genres have the same point allocation. You get 3 points for every post and continuing the story of the roleplay. You get 5 points for creating a topic in the IC sections.

You do not get any points for posting a topic in the Help branch as it so happens, but don't let that discourage you. You have friends on this forum, and your friends are here to help you. As a token of thanks for their good will, devoted helpers earn 2 points for each post in any of the Help sections.

I am really excited for this system to take place, and I sincerely hope everyone likes it. I want this to not just be something to help encourage and reward forum activity, but also perhaps something of a fun game! If you have any concerns or suggestions, feel free to post them. I'm here to help.

Sweeeet! Break out the coin jar and I'm startin to think of what I want my rank to be...

I'm actually surprised that we all have so many points already. I was expecting that everyone would start at 0.

Frankly, I was wondering why we all had 1 point per post plus a negligible (of an order of magnitude or two smaller) bonus.

(Quick, reset 'em to encourage forum revival, 'cause I'll be among those least affected. Seriously though, they're a clever way to slow down username upheaval, but I see no need to publicly and prominently display them on every single post. That being what postcount is for, unweighted though it is.)

I'll look into that to see if I can figure that out. Also, good call on not showing them on posts. I know for certain that is something I can fix.

EDIT: Okay, it turns out there's no "reset all" for points. I'd have to manually subtract everyone's points.

Okay, so I was able to go through the userlist alphabetically and set point count of every user to 0 one by one. Have fun, everyone!

Remember: you can find your total point accumulation on your profile!

Wheee this is gonna be so much fun :D I've got a point already!

Can I perhaps suggest that we get a tumblr field added under the profiles. It seems a lot of us have them now and if I'm not here it's where I'll probably be.

That there is a done deal.

Patches wrote:

Okay, so I was able to go through the userlist alphabetically and set point count of every user to 0 one by one. Have fun, everyone!

Remember: you can find your total point accumulation on your profile!

MY INTERNET POINTS

"Some big MEANIE on the INTERNET took away my POINTS! Points on the INTERNET! All of that HARD work, GONE!"

Great going, now I have to work my ass off getting back those three hundred something points.

Damn. I really should have changed my username before this switch though. Because I've been considering doing Omnivaliance instead of Omnivalence. I don't know which one I like better.

Omnivaliance seems like a pretty cool name! But I know that whenever I over-complicated my username in an effort to make it something I like, it ended up getting tedious and superfluous to me. Thus why after all this time, I'm still sticking with "Patches".

Just give it some thought, I suppose.

I mean it's just a mix between Omni and Valiance. :P

All of the valiance? Every valiance? Valiance everywhere?

So much Valiance. But you know I mean like Valiant. :P

Valiant work, Patches.

But hey, valence electrons are pretty sweet too.

Okay patches, please explain to me what the check happened with you and eo. Like, what's with the "everything posted before ... Was actually eo." did you guys switch accounts? Or did you pretend to be each other? Are you actually patches. Did you guys swap names? Who actually created this forum. I'm so confused.

Well you see, I created the forum. Sometime around July 14th, 2012, I was going through a rough patch in my life and could not devote a tremendous amount of time to the forum. I couldn't actually "promote" Snowy to be the head administrator, so we swapped accounts, so that he had total control over the form while I got my life together. We never swapped back because we never really had to and it would be complicated and unnecessary.

AKA, I am currently posting on what used to be Eo's old account.

Okay, thank you so much. I was really confused. I'm sorry you had such a rough patch but I'm glad it's better now!

Pfft, that was like three years ago. We all go through hard times. Thanks, though.

Hard times can have a habit,of haunting you years later. There's stuff I said and did one the sporum years ago that sometimes make me want to gouge my eyes out. Figurativly of course.

I always figured it was some sort of movie bodyswap story gone wrong.

Also sweet a point system.

It's nice to see you again, War!