Can we get a "Sticky" thread to post Professions?

[Catlyn]

Mongo?

Could you make a sticky thread where people could post their Profession, what usefull/popular things they can make, and the Materials lists for those items?

The we could have could just find someone that can make what you need, get the materials for it, mail it to a crafter, and have them mail it back to you.

[Kevin]

Mongo?

Could you make a sticky thread where people could post their Profession, what usefull/popular things they can make, and the Materials lists for those items?

The we could have could just find someone that can make what you need, get the materials for it, mail it to a crafter, and have them mail it back to you.
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This is exactly the kind of information sharing I was getting at when I posted this thread But I was hoping to get some more input and ideas flowing there before things started to just happen and we got disorganized again. :)

[Roland]

This is exactly the kind of information sharing I was getting at when I posted this thread  But I was hoping to get some more input and ideas flowing there before things started to just happen and we got disorganized again.  :)
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Nothing disorganized about wanting a Professions thread at all, although I thought we had a sticky already that did that. Or was it put into our Account names? I swear we've already started something like this from the very beginning...

[LochnarITB]

Or was it put into our Account names?
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There was encouragement to put the profession and level, along with the LL nick or main, in the player note on the guild tab of the social window. Some of us also include the info in our sigs. There are two problems with that, at least for me. First, I'm lazy and rarely remember to update the levels in either place. Most important problem though is that it doesn't say anything about which of the desirable items you can make. I doubt that anyone has the full boatload in their profession, even if they are capped for the profession.

[Catlyn]

Mongo?

Could you make a sticky thread where people could post their Profession, what usefull/popular things they can make, and the Materials lists for those items?

The we could have could just find someone that can make what you need, get the materials for it, mail it to a crafter, and have them mail it back to you.
[right][snapback]78802[/snapback][/right]

Guess not, eh?
Jebuz... WTF? What would be so bad about a sticky thread so people could communicate what they can do for the benifit of all?

Or would that push us over into the dreaded OMGTWE'REAGUILD status, and be too much direct involvement of the board in guild matters?

[Tal]

Guess not, eh?
Jebuz... WTF? What would be so bad about a sticky thread so people could communicate what they can do for the benifit of all?

Or would that push us over into the dreaded OMGTWE'REAGUILD status, and be too much direct involvement of the board in guild matters?
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Ask him in a PM - he might not have answered because he has been thinking it over. :) Or he may be deferring to me who is deferring to him who is deferring to me who is...

;)

[Jarulf]

Ask him in a PM - he might not have answered because he has been thinking it over. :) Or he may be deferring to me who is deferring to him who is deferring to me who is...

;)
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I think the idea is good. As long as one stick it to posts about what capabilities one have and that is it. The it gets managable and easy to search and so on. If someone need more info, requests or such, one handle it in game or through PM, should be simple enough, sort of a info page with all chars as well and servers one play on.

[Kevin]

I think the idea is good. As long as one stick it to posts about what capabilities one have and that is it. The it gets managable and easy to search and so on. If someone need more info, requests or such, one handle it in game or through PM, should be simple enough, sort of a info page with all chars as well and servers one play on.
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And here is another problem. I've been thinking about this for awhile I started my thread and then I never followed up with implementation ideas. Part of the reason for that is the best implementation is not stickied threads for some of this stuff. A little weblication database would be much better for searching and organizing. However there is a lot more front end design and set-up work in that.

But you have a database with all the smithing recipies. Your smiths can then check off what they know. Someone can now select that recipie and it will query and let you know which smiths can make it. If people keep it updated it also spits back their current smithing skill level so you can see who is most likely to get a skill-up from it.

I'm not saying that forum posts couldn't work, but well I keep side tracking myself with ways of doing it that would be more user friendly and reliable and that take much more effort to get started. :) I lose sight of the the more practical best application with current tools. :)

[Darian]

And here is another problem. I've been thinking about this for awhile I started my thread and then I never followed up with implementation ideas.  Part of the reason for that is the best implementation is not stickied threads for some of this stuff.  A little weblication database would be much better for searching and organizing.  However there is a lot more front end design and set-up work in that.
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Kalamere is going to hate you, because now as soon as he's done with the Quest Tracker on the Carpe Aurum website, I'm making him do this too, and I'm going to tell him it's your fault. ;)

(We already have a profession tracker, but I didn't think to tie it in to actual recipes for some reason, despite how logical a step that was. Come to think of it, I may actually have more of the work involved in doing this...)

By the way, you're all more than welcome to utilize the tracking tools on the CA site (so long as you're on Stormrage -- I think we could tweak things to make it available to multiple servers, but I don't want to get ahead of myself... if that changes, I'll be sure to mention it).

[Kevin]

By the way, you're all more than welcome to utilize the tracking tools on the CA site (so long as you're on Stormrage -- I think we could tweak things to make it available to multiple servers, but I don't want to get ahead of myself... if that changes, I'll be sure to mention it).
[right][snapback]79006[/snapback][/right]

dunt dunt duunnnnn!

And the worms are wriggling. Just another example of the the strange little spot the lurkers are in. To quote Bolty in the thread I keep refering too

And if we DON'T set up a forum for a server that has a high population, we risk the inevitable: that players will drift off of this site for wherever else it gets hosted. If you're actively involved in a guild matter like that, there's a good chance that the guild affairs will take precedence over the site for which it was founded. The Amazon Basin is a guild that basically broke off of a Diablo II fansite (guess which one? No, not this one smile.gif) and became a huge entity in of itself. I'd hate to see the Lurker community get divided like that.

And here is the invitation to do just that. It's not the same situation Bolty refers to. Darian was just being friendly and open because he likes playing with Lurkers, he's honestly trying to help and there is a place that has done much of the guild work already. I know that and I think that is pretty damn cool too. But I started thinking to myself, yeah I could use the carpe arnum website stuff. Then I thought to myself that I'd probably start spending more time at that site and hey they are good people, heck I've been playing with several of them anyway for quite some time. Heck they contribute at the lounge too but since I'm using their resources why don't I just join their guild, it's just easier for me to track my stuff that way. Darian's quote was just a great example of what Bolty was talking about. Just a good illustration of some of the points so I used it. :)

It's innocent, there were no ulterior motives from anyone in that hypothetical and Darian's post I quoted has none either. I had similar thoughts to that one before Darian's post that prompted me starting the other thread. Heck I've been asked by people about the feasability and/or ease of using some other web host to make a stormrage.lurkers.whatever domain/site in the past.

I just feel this crossroads we are at, and while I don't think anything heralds the "death of the Lurker Lounge WoW content" this group will choose some path to follow that will shape the future of the site one way or another. We'll go down a path with or without discussion about it or conscious choice either. I think we can survive and thrive as a community that isn't a guild but plays in a guild. I also think we could surive and thrive with the same set of ideals as a site that embraces a guild but isn't about the guild. There are probably other ways to go that I'm not seeing either and I'm trying not to repeat myself from the other thread too much. I personally don't think it matters too much how we go as I've said the way I get enjoyment from the game can survive under several different support structures. What I like about the Lurker Lounge probably won't be horribly affected either by most paths either. But my nature still wants to poke and prod at this issue. Even if I'm making it bigger than it really is. :)


Edit: Typos will be the death of me!

[Darian]

But I started thinking to myself, yeah I could use the carpe arnum website stuff.  Then I thought to myself that I'd probably start spending more time at that site and hey they are good people, heck I've been playing with several of them anyway for quite some time.  Heck they contribute at the lounge too but since I'm using their resources why don't I just join their guild, it's just easier for me to track my stuff that way.[right][snapback]79036[/snapback][/right]

EEEP! I wasn't even thinking about opening a can of worms here... :blush:

That's a valid point, to be sure. And as you note, no ulterior motives; in fact, one thing I had Kalamere do a few weeks ago was to include a "guild" field in the character info specifically so that our friends who aren't in Carpe Aurum would be able to utilize the tools without feeling like they have to be IN Carpe Aurum to do so. Initially, it was just going to be for us, but to me it seems much more efficient to make the tools available to folks we interact with on a regular basis.

As far as people drifting away from the Lounge... hell, I'm the guild leader for CA, and I spend probably ten times as much ...err, time here as I do on my own boards, mostly because our boards are boring, and that in turn is because a lot of our folks don't tend to be posty types. (Quite a few CA members read here, but don't post.) I don't see it happening, and I hope I'm right.

I just feel this crossroads we are at, and while I don't think anything heralds the "death of the Lurker Lounge WoW content" this group will choose some path to follow that will shape the future of the site one way or another.

I'm not so sure about that. Shape the future of the Lurkers guild on Stormrage? Possibly, even probably. But the Lounge itself is something more than that.

[Sabra]

Maybe what Lurkers needs is a little space of our own for the guild, our own little corner of the virtual world, before we derail the WoW section of the Lurker Lounge. That way we just do as we please and don't have to wonder if we can have stickies, etc.

When you take a look at the average number of posts in The Crossroads pertaining to guild "stuff," welllll ... you can say what you like. It's closing in on 40% guild info one way or another.

I've been an admin for years for a legit gaming community that began as a D1 strategy site when the old Blizzard DSF was closed down. It's pretty much dead there now. Just a bunch of old friends yakking about the day to day. There's room there and the freight is cheap, like around $70.00 a year, which I already pay anyway.

Just offering, and if you want to know more, give me a PM. I could get the ball rolling on that pretty fast.

Slippery slope is that the guild supports these boards so much, so what happens if Lurker "presence" is somewhat reduced here, due to another area of operation being created? (This may be a totally subjective question, since I'm not a big poster or reader of forums anymore. When I was, it was a non-issue to hop from one to the other.)

[MongoJerry]

Guess not, eh?
Jebuz... WTF? What would be so bad about a sticky thread so people could communicate what they can do for the benifit of all?

Holy cow, you know that I do have other things to do like take finals, look for an apartment, and look for a summer job, too, right? I don't always read every message that gets posted immediately. That's why we have more than one mod. Sheesh.

There's a lot to consider regarding this issue, actually. I hear you that the Lurkers on-line guild on Stormrage is getting big enough that perhaps having something that facilitates communication among Lurkers on that server would be helpful. On the other hand, a sticky post at the top of the Crossroads wouldn't be the best way to handle it for a variety of reasons, chief among them that it wouldn't "benefit all" but would instead only benefit those Lurkers who are on Stormrage. The Crossroads is a place for all Lurkers to come share their experiences. It wouldn't be appropriate to have server-specific sticky threads here.

Regarding "40% guild info," that's definitely an exaggeration that only appears that way because of two factors: 1) Some recent heated discussions on stuff happening on Stormrage and 2) The recent bad habit that some people have been getting into of creating seperate threads on the same topic. The first factor is valid and perhaps a mechanism should be created to better enable communication among those on the Stormrage server. The second factor, well, perhaps it's time for us mods to start cracking the whip and lock spurious threads when they start appearing.

[Kevin]

EEEP!  I wasn't even thinking about opening a can of worms here...  :blush:

That's a valid point, to be sure.  And as you note, no ulterior motives; in fact, one thing I had Kalamere do a few weeks ago was to include a "guild" field in the character info specifically so that our friends who aren't in Carpe Aurum would be able to utilize the tools without feeling like they have to be IN Carpe Aurum to do so.  Initially, it was just going to be for us, but to me it seems much more efficient to make the tools available to folks we interact with on a regular basis.

As far as people drifting away from the Lounge... hell, I'm the guild leader for CA, and I spend probably ten times as much ...err, time here as I do on my own boards, mostly because our boards are boring, and that in turn is because a lot of our folks don't tend to be posty types.  (Quite a few CA members read here, but don't post.)  I don't see it happening, and I hope I'm right.

I'm not so sure about that.  Shape the future of the Lurkers guild on Stormrage?  Possibly, even probably.  But the Lounge itself is something more than that.
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Agree agree. I don't think the specific example is a real issue. I just saw it as a good example of things I've been thinking about. I also haven't looked at the CA tools so I don't actually know what they can or can't do. :)

The Lounge itself is much more than just Wow, but how the members of this site view it's purpose will be affected some by how much we embrace (for lack of a better word, formally accept?, provided information about?) the guilds. I know there are guild members who really only used the boards for guild related things as it is. So the amount of encouragement or discouragement of things of that nature will impact how much people may post, what kind of content they may or may not work up. Might not be a big impact, but there will be some. :)

[bonemage]

Here's a simple solution to what I view as the bulk of what is needed for guild/server specific stuff. Right now we have "The Crossroads", "Strategy & Game Mechanics", and "Gnomeregan". A 4th subforum would fill this need. However, I think it's important that this subforum be open to all servers, not just Stormrage (though the lurker Stormrage population is worthy of some stickies). "The Crossroads" is general infomation, and following my suggestion would keep it more related to general discussion of the game and also story-telling, but applicable for all lurkers. Right now, a lot of "The Crossroads" is devoted to things that may be classified as N/A to many lurkers as they play on different servers. A seperate subforum consolidating those types of topics will clear up the clutter and make it easier to find the type of information anyone is looking for. "The Crossroads" won't be filled with instance planning, making it easier to not have to filter through those posts when looking for other topics. For those that like to work with the lurkers on their server, they now have one place to look. A sticky for professions on Stormrage is not really appropriate in "The Crossroads" (IMO), but it IS entirely appropriate in this newly imagined subforum. I can't imagine a seperate subforum as being difficult to setup either, (correct me if I'm wrong) so there isn't undue burden on anyone.

Other thoughts I had pop into my head related to this:

- I can't think of anything that isn't stupid for a name, suggestions?

- Subforum rule - All postings should start with the server name, making it simple to know if the post relates to you or not.

- Stories on instances that have taken place should be posted in "The Crossroads" so other lurkers can read, rather than in the planning thread. Reading stories, after all, is not server specific.

- Planning threads can be deleted after the appointed time has passed to keep things clean.

[Catlyn]

- I can't think of anything that isn't stupid for a name, suggestions?

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