Thumbs Down button on posts. I expect mknote's posts will be plagued with these.

Basic IQ test on the forum signup sheet?

Introductions reintroduced in some form or another: while the lack of an introduction forum has forced several people to introduce themselves by posting a story in the WBA, there have also been random "Hi, I'm new!" posts popping up in random topics across the board.

 

How about a minimum number of posts before reccing fics in For Review?

 

I'm sure that this has been suggested before, but I haven't read any mention of it.

I think that any story currently in the library that's resided there for more than a certain period of time (say, a year) should be removed and put back in For Review for it to remain in the library. Or discarded, since so many of the old fics simply aren't any good by today's standards.

I'm not suggesting we do this every year - as a one-time thing it should work just fine, since the standard of excellent writing (what is a 4.5-5), technically and stylistically, will likely not increase as it's fairly high already.

In addition, I feel that some fics that got dumped in the Recycling Bin don't deserve to be there, and could very well make it into the library. There are various reasons for them not making it then while they could now: rabid Ginny-hatred which has been toned down slightly, and other such things. Similarly, newer fics in the Recycling Bin which have had their score voted up past a 3.5 should be moved into the library.

 

Restrict thread making privileges in the "For Review" forum to people with post counts above a certain number. It doesn't have to be high, and I would be fine with something around 50. I'm not sure if there is a correlation or it's mere coincidence, but with the intro subforum closed, there has been a large amount of 1 post users posting shitty stories in that thread. And while it is fun to haze a random, that person is a random and it's not as fun as tearing apart a story that a well known member is putting up on the chopping block.

 

I'll agree with the minimum post requirement, but I don't think it has to be a particularly high number. The idiots such a measure would filter out are the kind that join, immediately post their story, then either leave forever or only reply to the flames that follow. If the minimum post number was 25 - maybe as low as 10 - it'd be too much effort for the vast majority. And 10 posts are enough to identify and chastise/banhammer the determined ones. Some are going to slip through no matter what, but it would cut down on the One Post Wonders.

Some basic resize options would be nice (ie: forum width normal, wide, and wider so the forum doesn't look so cramped on high-resolution monitors, a few different text sizes, maybe post text width, etc, nothing particularly finicky). I knocked together a stylish script that's got everything pretty much where I want it, but it's still got a few weird bits here and there, and I'm sure the less code-savvy users would benefit. DLP really does look nice in full 16:9.

 

I've seen a couple of InvisionFree forums with an arcade. Can you do this with vbulletin? It would be cool to have. We can all compete against each other in Tetris :3

 

I don't like the idea of requiring a minimum post count to submit stuff in For Review.

It's too fun to bash bad fanfiction that's posted by noobs there.

 

Well we already have Pokemon tournaments going on, just not in-board.

Yearly voting on what stories have overstayed their place in the library would be good, for sure. Have a suggestion thread where people put up stories they think shouldn't be in the library any more, then have a vote on the most common ones.

I don't know if it can be done, but how about a chat box built into the forum? Kinda pointless since there's IRC, but could be funny to have.

 

You can already downvote old stories and comment on them to bring their lack of quality to attention. What I think was being suggested was a total purge to finally deal with all the shitty stories from '05 lying around.

 

Small thing. Maybe some icon on the monthly contests for winners below a person's post. Kind of like the icons for AIM and whatnot. Would be pretty neat, I think. The arcade idea seems pretty cool also. That way we could waste even more time on DLP. .

Maybe an option to have more avatar pictures available instead of just on at a time. Or maybe you could choose between three or so for your post. Not sure how others cycle through them, I'm assuming it's one file.

 

Yes, that's what I was suggesting.

Random shit like the following, of rather dubious quality:
http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=6019
http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=132 (lol, sorry Shezza, but this is crap)
http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=1820
http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=282 (lol, ugh)

And other stuff like that...

 

Threads with sub-threads in the WbA section, so we can read the chapters posted in WbA sequentially without having through go through all the comments in between updates.

The writer can have the main thread (which only they, and I suppose moderators have access to) for posting updates to their story uninterrupted by comments, replies, and discussions, which would automatically go into the sub-thread, which will show separately to the OP.

 

Personally, I think something like this is a great idea.

 

Maybe make some of the sub-forums collapsible.

http://i358.photobucket.com/albums/oo30/SlowRabbit/DLP.jpg

The announcements are getting a little bulky, and it might be nice to open up a few things without having to load another page time and time again.

 

That's the way Santi does his own thread, except all discussion is relegated to the Library thread. Obviously this would work as a modification of that, but I support the idea.

 

Yes. Absolutely this. Do not want to be spammed with the large blockey tl;dr of the announcements I've already read every time I open a subforum index. Make them collapsible please.

 

Yeah, but it would it really be that beneficial? I mean, the WBA section's entire point is that DLP gives it's input on the story, sort of like the a beta. Separating the discussion from the main story...I dunno. Santi's story attracted a lot of retards, so separating that works out quite well. But aside from that, there haven't been any useless comments "moar plz" (well, not that many) in WBA without offering any genuine critisism. I like reading WBA section just for that. And if I want to read the story uninterrupted, ff is there for that.

 

This is a terrible terrible idea. The library would constantly be empty in this case. And For Review would never be empty. Not that it is anyway.

But why is it a terrible idea? Heres why: Who here is the exact same person you were when you started reading fanfics? Do you still have the same ideals of quality?

Also the biggest reason why: Who here can read a story and ignore the cliches, and not bitch about them? Anyone? I know I can't.

So tell me: When did Multi-Compartment Trunks became a cliche? Who was the first person to use Professor 16 Year Old Potter? Have you ever read a story and thought "Wow! This is amazing, too bad it uses so many cliches!" and then noticed it was from before that idea was a cliche?

So my personal vote: No. No redoes. What is in, is in, regardless of current standards.

 

I like the thumbs down option myself, it sounds like something we could use moderately. I also do like the required post number thing in For Review thread. It's getting somewhat lame that new people are somewhat ignoring everything else in the thread (or they claim ignorance, which really does happen), and then post stories that wouldn't make it here.

Having a post # requirement would make the new users visit the rest of the site so they could get a better feel of the better quality stuff here.

We could also have the choice of different color schemes, though I do love the green color scheme it's on now; other people probably don't like it.

Maybe we could bring back the rep system, but restrict it this time instead just like the thumbs up uses?

Something else I'd love to see, is who voted on what stories, and gave them what score. Some people won't reply in the thread, feeling that other people already said what this other person thought of the story. If this is already put in, I don't know where to see that.

I wouldn't really care for a chat system either way, I probably wouldn't use it. I already don't use the IRC.

This I want! I really think this should be used. This way we don't have to look through 3 pages just to look for the next chapter of the story.