Please Read and Reply Ladies and Gents
First, let us tell everyone Happy New Year and that we hope everyone had a safe and happy holidays. Secondly, we apologize that certain updates are going to be delayed (the Monthly Round up and the Calendar update will not come out until Thursday due to modly work schedules and LJ acting up.)
Which brings us to the real reason for this post:
We have, in the past, asked for opinions on moving to a new platform as a game. Because of Livejournal's continued blackouts and down time we've come back to this topic between ourselves and started to seriously consider the amount of time and work that would be involved with moving (recoding the journals, reorganizing the information pages, updating things in general. Which, by in large, is something we are intending to do regardless.)
Having discussed this among ourselves, we've agreed to turn to the players for their opinions. Below we will list the pros and cons as we see them for staying on Livejournal and for moving to Dreamwidth, Insanejournal, or Scribbld. The comments will be screened, so we will also be asking people to essentially vote for their preferred choice. Please list your preferences from Most Preferred to Least Preferred. If you list them in any other way, they stand a chance of being misread.
Options
Livejournal
Pros:
1. The most obvious benefit is that we are already here. Journal codes will not have to be redone, the hassle of moving will be negated.
2. Paid Times that have been currently purchased will not be lost; and livejournal accepts a lot different forms of payment.
3. Livejournal is an actual company, when compared to the other platforms. This gives it a lot more technical support with some aspects of day to day things.
4. While getting smaller, does still have an active RP base.
5. Resources- such as layouts, and a wealth of other graphic journals. It also has a number of advert communities where we can go to attract new players.
Cons:
1. The outages are becoming, as best we can tell, more frequent and often during the hours a number of players are most active. They also seem to be lasting long.
2. There is a constant change with coding, and new changes to layouts (friends pages, comment pages, profile pages). While not a deal breaker, it does cause trouble with coding from time to time.
3. Paid time is expensive when compared to other platforms; and is also slated to change within this first couple of months this year.
4. More and more players are reluctant to join a game located on LJ due to the unreliability of the site.
Dreamwidth:
Pros:
1. This platform has an import feature that will make moving information and icons much easier than with other platforms.
2. Currently does not require invite codes to create journals; it is also currently where a large majority of RPers are currently located.
3. Paid accounts are slightly less as best we can tell; for example: $3 gets two months paid time, and upgrades you to a 100 icons instead of 30.
4. A growing RP base that continues to expand; which means more chances of pulling in new players.
Cons:
1. This is a significant lack of resources for coding and RP based uses. While it has a lot of basic journal layouts that are, generally, much nicer than Livejournals- if you want to use your LJ layouts, it will take a lot of extra work on your (or someone will to help) part.
2. One player has pointed out that DW does not accept Paypal to buy paid time. If this is your primary method of payment, it could be a hassle for you.
3. Will require time and effort to be put into rebuilding table codes- meaning that simply c&ping tables over will not work as well when it comes to DW as it does with other journal platforms.
Insanejournal
Pros:
1. The biggest advantage to Insanejournal is that it has 100 free icon slots for basic journals.
2. Resources, resources, resources. Currently IJ is one of the best places to start if one is looking for anything dealing with RP resources. From Icons, to table coding, to just about anything you could want- it can probably be found there.
3. Coding is easy on Insanejournal due to the fact that it runs off of the old LJ open source codes and has modified very little when it comes to the core coding. This means that you will not have to retool profile codes and the like.
4. Paid time gets users 250 icons. Here is a breakdown of the features. You can also just purchase Userpics, if you want to go down that road.
Cons:
1. Because of a large surge in people moving to IJ at a more rapid rate than the servers can support- you now need codes to move over. This is not a game stopper (one of the mods has a perm account on the site, and thus can generate 12 codes right now, and will be able to generate five per month), however it will make the move a slower process. ETA: Tasha also has a lot of journals on IJ, and as such has offered to help provide codes as well. Will would greatly reduce the amount of time needed to move. ETA 2: Scy is also based out of IJ and also has a lot of codes to offer up for the possible move, and has offered to give them out. As such, this con is really...a non-con in a way. But might hinder bringing in fresh blood. Hard to tell at this point.
2. A lot of the base layouts for LJ have to be imported to IJ much like they have to be imported to DW. Because of this, layout coding will take a bit of work. Generally speaking, most people feel IJ does not have a very 'pretty' look- without some work. And there are ads, though they are generally confined to comment pages and profile pages.
3. Depending on the paid time/user pic options chosen- it can be just as pricey as LJ.
4. Can be a bit glitchy and slow.
5. Does have RPs on it, but is not a general mecca for RP.
Scribbld
Pros:
1. Pretty stable as far as things go, but this is largely due to the small size.
2. Slightly less expensive than Livejournal if a year of paid time is purchased (20 USD), and you have the option to just purchase extra user pics if you have no need for the other options offered with paid time.
3. Ad free, even if going with a basic account. Basic accounts start with 50 icons, too, so purchasing paid time for all accounts might not be necessary for all characters.
4. Also fairly easy to code with, and generally a very nice platform.
Cons:
1. Small is small. There isn't a lot there, and convincing people to play there might be a bit of a trick if we want to bring in new players.
2. There really aren't a lot of cons, outside of it being small- but it also lacks in resources, and other things we are very accustomed to in higher traffic journal sites.
---
If you have other pros and cons you think should be listed, mention them with a comment. Like I said before all comments will be screened first. Please make addition Pro/Con comments separate from the voting comments, though. I will likely unscreen them and/or just delete them after I add the pro/cons to the list.
Thanks!
~Mods.
Which brings us to the real reason for this post:
We have, in the past, asked for opinions on moving to a new platform as a game. Because of Livejournal's continued blackouts and down time we've come back to this topic between ourselves and started to seriously consider the amount of time and work that would be involved with moving (recoding the journals, reorganizing the information pages, updating things in general. Which, by in large, is something we are intending to do regardless.)
Having discussed this among ourselves, we've agreed to turn to the players for their opinions. Below we will list the pros and cons as we see them for staying on Livejournal and for moving to Dreamwidth, Insanejournal, or Scribbld. The comments will be screened, so we will also be asking people to essentially vote for their preferred choice. Please list your preferences from Most Preferred to Least Preferred. If you list them in any other way, they stand a chance of being misread.
Options
Livejournal
Pros:
1. The most obvious benefit is that we are already here. Journal codes will not have to be redone, the hassle of moving will be negated.
2. Paid Times that have been currently purchased will not be lost; and livejournal accepts a lot different forms of payment.
3. Livejournal is an actual company, when compared to the other platforms. This gives it a lot more technical support with some aspects of day to day things.
4. While getting smaller, does still have an active RP base.
5. Resources- such as layouts, and a wealth of other graphic journals. It also has a number of advert communities where we can go to attract new players.
Cons:
1. The outages are becoming, as best we can tell, more frequent and often during the hours a number of players are most active. They also seem to be lasting long.
2. There is a constant change with coding, and new changes to layouts (friends pages, comment pages, profile pages). While not a deal breaker, it does cause trouble with coding from time to time.
3. Paid time is expensive when compared to other platforms; and is also slated to change within this first couple of months this year.
4. More and more players are reluctant to join a game located on LJ due to the unreliability of the site.
Dreamwidth:
Pros:
1. This platform has an import feature that will make moving information and icons much easier than with other platforms.
2. Currently does not require invite codes to create journals; it is also currently where a large majority of RPers are currently located.
3. Paid accounts are slightly less as best we can tell; for example: $3 gets two months paid time, and upgrades you to a 100 icons instead of 30.
4. A growing RP base that continues to expand; which means more chances of pulling in new players.
Cons:
1. This is a significant lack of resources for coding and RP based uses. While it has a lot of basic journal layouts that are, generally, much nicer than Livejournals- if you want to use your LJ layouts, it will take a lot of extra work on your (or someone will to help) part.
2. One player has pointed out that DW does not accept Paypal to buy paid time. If this is your primary method of payment, it could be a hassle for you.
3. Will require time and effort to be put into rebuilding table codes- meaning that simply c&ping tables over will not work as well when it comes to DW as it does with other journal platforms.
Insanejournal
Pros:
1. The biggest advantage to Insanejournal is that it has 100 free icon slots for basic journals.
2. Resources, resources, resources. Currently IJ is one of the best places to start if one is looking for anything dealing with RP resources. From Icons, to table coding, to just about anything you could want- it can probably be found there.
3. Coding is easy on Insanejournal due to the fact that it runs off of the old LJ open source codes and has modified very little when it comes to the core coding. This means that you will not have to retool profile codes and the like.
4. Paid time gets users 250 icons. Here is a breakdown of the features. You can also just purchase Userpics, if you want to go down that road.
Cons:
1. Because of a large surge in people moving to IJ at a more rapid rate than the servers can support- you now need codes to move over. This is not a game stopper (one of the mods has a perm account on the site, and thus can generate 12 codes right now, and will be able to generate five per month), however it will make the move a slower process. ETA: Tasha also has a lot of journals on IJ, and as such has offered to help provide codes as well. Will would greatly reduce the amount of time needed to move. ETA 2: Scy is also based out of IJ and also has a lot of codes to offer up for the possible move, and has offered to give them out. As such, this con is really...a non-con in a way. But might hinder bringing in fresh blood. Hard to tell at this point.
2. A lot of the base layouts for LJ have to be imported to IJ much like they have to be imported to DW. Because of this, layout coding will take a bit of work. Generally speaking, most people feel IJ does not have a very 'pretty' look- without some work. And there are ads, though they are generally confined to comment pages and profile pages.
3. Depending on the paid time/user pic options chosen- it can be just as pricey as LJ.
4. Can be a bit glitchy and slow.
5. Does have RPs on it, but is not a general mecca for RP.
Scribbld
Pros:
1. Pretty stable as far as things go, but this is largely due to the small size.
2. Slightly less expensive than Livejournal if a year of paid time is purchased (20 USD), and you have the option to just purchase extra user pics if you have no need for the other options offered with paid time.
3. Ad free, even if going with a basic account. Basic accounts start with 50 icons, too, so purchasing paid time for all accounts might not be necessary for all characters.
4. Also fairly easy to code with, and generally a very nice platform.
Cons:
1. Small is small. There isn't a lot there, and convincing people to play there might be a bit of a trick if we want to bring in new players.
2. There really aren't a lot of cons, outside of it being small- but it also lacks in resources, and other things we are very accustomed to in higher traffic journal sites.
---
If you have other pros and cons you think should be listed, mention them with a comment. Like I said before all comments will be screened first. Please make addition Pro/Con comments separate from the voting comments, though. I will likely unscreen them and/or just delete them after I add the pro/cons to the list.
Thanks!
~Mods.