To Move Or Not to Move
Hello, CNC. As you know, LJ has recently undergone massive site updates and for many players, and for many reasons, this is making the site extremely difficult to utilize. As such many games, including us here, have been weighing the pros and cons involved in keeping our game hosted here, on Livejournal, or relocating to Dreamwidth.
This will likely be the first of a few discussion posts, so please bear with us. Before we make a voting post, we would like to clearly outline the options we're looking at, and the pros and cons to both. We're very interested in hearing player feedback and we're very open to either decision, but it's not a decision that can be made lightly.
Without further ado, here are the pros and cons to moving as we've compiled them; please feel free to add to either in the comments if there is something we've overlooked.
PROS (and cons)
► Accessibility; many people have been having trouble getting the site to load since the updates have been instituted, and many people have been suffering headaches and other physical pain symptoms brought on by the changes. CNC's custom layout may be a viable workaround for some, but additionally may not be deemed worth staying for if the rest of LJ is considered unusable. The most pressing matter on this front relative to CNC is the issue with long comment threads.
► On the other hand, just as there are players who have difficulty accessing LJ, there are players for whom the old LJ code (and thus, DW's code as well) does not load as well or as fast as the new LJ code. Whether or not this is an inconvenience or if this results in a complete lack of functionality is something we would require feedback on.
► With the amount of communities and RPers moving over to DW, moving with the community will likely serve the game better, than staying somewhere where the RP community has dissipated. Cross-game/OOC relations would not suffer, and off-game communities such as memebells would be easier to engage with in one place. Additionally, if the RP community relocates that is where people will make new accounts and settle down, and thus where the majority of new players will pool in from.
► Just as a stronger community there would make it easier to thrive, a stronger community remaining on LJ would make dealing with the cross-website divide more difficult. Additionally, memes that rely on impulse and/or frequent account creation such as test drive memes or dear_mun style communities would be more hindered by the invite-only system and thus make recruiting new players or castmates more difficult.
► Customer service; it is evident already that DW's staff is very helpful and willing to accommodate us LJRPers as best as they can, while LJ has a history of unhelpful and questionable customer service and as we know, has more changes planned for LJ's layout. It can be assumed DW will do all in their power to make the transition smooth.
► Given that DW is newer, and smaller, we cannot predict if it will be stable enough to hold the massive influx of RPers coming from LJ, even if they have spare servers on hand and they have successfully accommodated at least one big game. Hosting one large game is very different than hosting three, or five, and given the speed and size of CNC as well as the amount of content we produce in posts, logs, and comments (and assuming other large games have comparable output), it's impossible to tell at this time if DW will be able to sustain this influx of content and users over a long period of time. LJ if nothing else has a history of content stability and on DW if the site cannot handle everyone, we risk losing whatever content we produce there. (If you are pro-moving the game but are also concerned about the potential for the site to buckle, moving in a month or two after things have settled is an option, in the event that "moving" is the decided upon choice.)
CONS (and pros)
► Due to the size of CNC and the amount of entries and comments it has, spanning its three year history, importing the communities entirely at this time or any time in the immediate future will be impossible. (Although it may be possible in the future.) To relocate to DW would be to leave behind much of history of the game on LJ -- we can salvage entries but not the comments, which make up the majority of the play. This will make back-reading more difficult for "stalker" or "informed" characters, as well as making cataloguing one's own game history with regards to posts and logs more difficult to organize, let alone the histories of other characters, characters that have dropped, and previous plots and their aftereffects.
► Workarounds could be arranged to explain why the communicators lost three years worth of data, the worldbuild posts could be edited to reflect plot changes (or at least there could be an OOC plot post to summarize) and the communities on LJ could be linked in the game's profile so that players have an easy reference as to where to go if they need particular information. Any further organization would be at players discretions.
► Due to the nature of invite-codes on DW instead of LJ's free/open account making service, application cycles may need to be less frequent to account for how many invite codes we as mods can request at a given time, or application cycles may require a "cap" on how many people can apply in one week. Additionally, the lack of open account making may turn off prospective new players because of the hassle and closed community feel to the website, even if codes are not difficult to obtain.
► DW is very accommodating to game mods, and will provide us codes for our current playerbase upfront. Presumably, negotiating a certain amount of codes per app cycle would be more than feasible.
OTHER THINGS
► There are as far as we know, people on both sides of the fence regarding this matter, meaning that no matter what we decide we are likely to lose some players. Some people refuse to stay on LJ any longer, and some people don't want to uproot what they have here to move. Both opinions are fair. Please keep in mind one person's right to prefer one site to the other in your discussions, we want to accommodate everyone possible. Thus, player accommodation goes into its own category.
► There is a feature to LJ-Login that allows for using DW accounts.
► Paid time; some people favor moving because their paid time is expiring soon and would make the transition easy without having to spend more money on LJ. Some people have just renewed their accounts and want to wait them out before moving sites. As mentioned above, please respect one person's right to consider this in their decision.
► Layouts and HTML capabilities; although some workarounds have been devised, DW has fewer available layouts for use and more limited HTML capabilities, making coding more difficult.
► We have also discussed the possibility of moving the game to a site separate from LJ and DW both, such as scribbld or insanejournal, but we feel both sites are less viable alternatives and the cons to either site would not make such a move worth it. Pros include, mostly, open account making and more free icons at onset. Cons include a lack of RP community (hardly anyone else will be moving to either site, if anyone), accessibility and aesthetic issues, uncertainty about either server's capacity to reasonably accommodate our game, and general discomfort from many people about insanejournal's "asylum" premise. However, we will certainly hear out any players that would prefer one of these options.
Please let us know how you feel! Opposed to staying? Opposed to moving? Have a preference but will stay with the game either way? No preference? Whatever it is, we want to hear from you. Comments on this post are screened so that everyone can say their piece without feeling pressured, and we will post an unscreened discussion post in the next week or so as a follow up.
Thank you!
This will likely be the first of a few discussion posts, so please bear with us. Before we make a voting post, we would like to clearly outline the options we're looking at, and the pros and cons to both. We're very interested in hearing player feedback and we're very open to either decision, but it's not a decision that can be made lightly.
Without further ado, here are the pros and cons to moving as we've compiled them; please feel free to add to either in the comments if there is something we've overlooked.
PROS (and cons)
► Accessibility; many people have been having trouble getting the site to load since the updates have been instituted, and many people have been suffering headaches and other physical pain symptoms brought on by the changes. CNC's custom layout may be a viable workaround for some, but additionally may not be deemed worth staying for if the rest of LJ is considered unusable. The most pressing matter on this front relative to CNC is the issue with long comment threads.
► On the other hand, just as there are players who have difficulty accessing LJ, there are players for whom the old LJ code (and thus, DW's code as well) does not load as well or as fast as the new LJ code. Whether or not this is an inconvenience or if this results in a complete lack of functionality is something we would require feedback on.
► With the amount of communities and RPers moving over to DW, moving with the community will likely serve the game better, than staying somewhere where the RP community has dissipated. Cross-game/OOC relations would not suffer, and off-game communities such as memebells would be easier to engage with in one place. Additionally, if the RP community relocates that is where people will make new accounts and settle down, and thus where the majority of new players will pool in from.
► Just as a stronger community there would make it easier to thrive, a stronger community remaining on LJ would make dealing with the cross-website divide more difficult. Additionally, memes that rely on impulse and/or frequent account creation such as test drive memes or dear_mun style communities would be more hindered by the invite-only system and thus make recruiting new players or castmates more difficult.
► Customer service; it is evident already that DW's staff is very helpful and willing to accommodate us LJRPers as best as they can, while LJ has a history of unhelpful and questionable customer service and as we know, has more changes planned for LJ's layout. It can be assumed DW will do all in their power to make the transition smooth.
► Given that DW is newer, and smaller, we cannot predict if it will be stable enough to hold the massive influx of RPers coming from LJ, even if they have spare servers on hand and they have successfully accommodated at least one big game. Hosting one large game is very different than hosting three, or five, and given the speed and size of CNC as well as the amount of content we produce in posts, logs, and comments (and assuming other large games have comparable output), it's impossible to tell at this time if DW will be able to sustain this influx of content and users over a long period of time. LJ if nothing else has a history of content stability and on DW if the site cannot handle everyone, we risk losing whatever content we produce there. (If you are pro-moving the game but are also concerned about the potential for the site to buckle, moving in a month or two after things have settled is an option, in the event that "moving" is the decided upon choice.)
CONS (and pros)
► Due to the size of CNC and the amount of entries and comments it has, spanning its three year history, importing the communities entirely at this time or any time in the immediate future will be impossible. (Although it may be possible in the future.) To relocate to DW would be to leave behind much of history of the game on LJ -- we can salvage entries but not the comments, which make up the majority of the play. This will make back-reading more difficult for "stalker" or "informed" characters, as well as making cataloguing one's own game history with regards to posts and logs more difficult to organize, let alone the histories of other characters, characters that have dropped, and previous plots and their aftereffects.
► Workarounds could be arranged to explain why the communicators lost three years worth of data, the worldbuild posts could be edited to reflect plot changes (or at least there could be an OOC plot post to summarize) and the communities on LJ could be linked in the game's profile so that players have an easy reference as to where to go if they need particular information. Any further organization would be at players discretions.
► Due to the nature of invite-codes on DW instead of LJ's free/open account making service, application cycles may need to be less frequent to account for how many invite codes we as mods can request at a given time, or application cycles may require a "cap" on how many people can apply in one week. Additionally, the lack of open account making may turn off prospective new players because of the hassle and closed community feel to the website, even if codes are not difficult to obtain.
► DW is very accommodating to game mods, and will provide us codes for our current playerbase upfront. Presumably, negotiating a certain amount of codes per app cycle would be more than feasible.
OTHER THINGS
► There are as far as we know, people on both sides of the fence regarding this matter, meaning that no matter what we decide we are likely to lose some players. Some people refuse to stay on LJ any longer, and some people don't want to uproot what they have here to move. Both opinions are fair. Please keep in mind one person's right to prefer one site to the other in your discussions, we want to accommodate everyone possible. Thus, player accommodation goes into its own category.
► There is a feature to LJ-Login that allows for using DW accounts.
► Paid time; some people favor moving because their paid time is expiring soon and would make the transition easy without having to spend more money on LJ. Some people have just renewed their accounts and want to wait them out before moving sites. As mentioned above, please respect one person's right to consider this in their decision.
► Layouts and HTML capabilities; although some workarounds have been devised, DW has fewer available layouts for use and more limited HTML capabilities, making coding more difficult.
► We have also discussed the possibility of moving the game to a site separate from LJ and DW both, such as scribbld or insanejournal, but we feel both sites are less viable alternatives and the cons to either site would not make such a move worth it. Pros include, mostly, open account making and more free icons at onset. Cons include a lack of RP community (hardly anyone else will be moving to either site, if anyone), accessibility and aesthetic issues, uncertainty about either server's capacity to reasonably accommodate our game, and general discomfort from many people about insanejournal's "asylum" premise. However, we will certainly hear out any players that would prefer one of these options.
Please let us know how you feel! Opposed to staying? Opposed to moving? Have a preference but will stay with the game either way? No preference? Whatever it is, we want to hear from you. Comments on this post are screened so that everyone can say their piece without feeling pressured, and we will post an unscreened discussion post in the next week or so as a follow up.
Thank you!