Views on Starting an RPG Ad Site

[Stannes]

It was mentioned in the 2/14 meeting that perhaps it would be a good idea to start an neutral RPG Advertisement Site since many of our old advertisement sites such as RPG Library and pbem.com are no longer active. The idea is to get awareness of our games out there and create a new, large base of players to choose from by advertising other fleets and possibly cross-genre games as well. Commander Rhimer has volunteered to construct the site. Other suggestions were:

*Forum threads where COs and players can discuss game relevant topics
*Approaching other fleets to help adopt a 'goodwill between fleets'
*Artist areas to help people doing game related art meet and interact/offer services
*Enforcement of the 'Independently owned' feature so that no fleet can fuss over ownership.
*Player looking for simms threads

What are your suggestions? Thoughts?

[Treymiar]

* Universal Player Profiles. Kind of like a Jobs.com where you upload your resume.
* Library of participating Sims.
* Indie Sim roster/portal/resource.

* Fan fiction area for stories based upon missions. Short stories, novels, poetry, haiku.

"We hear no signals,
Wolf 359 is ahead,
Our fleet is dead, Jim."

Okay, that is an unworthy, unprofound example. But at least it's proof that Trek Haiku is possible.

* News area for announcement of Trek conventions, etc.
* Star Trek Club links. (I was member of Defiant in Alaska back in 90's).
* Library of Links to Trek fan fictions.
* Links to Trek Facebook & Yahoo Groups.

{edit - A lot of those things can be accomplished in forums.}

At the onset, I wouldn't want to stray from the Sim-focus of the site. However, the more we network with Trekdom, the more exposure our site would get.

- PSF

[Travis]

I keep missing these darn meetings.

[Joe_Rhimer]

@Treymiar:
Good ideas, but remember this is not meant to be a Trek-centered site, nor is it going to be affiliated with this fleet or any other. It'll be an independent site that is cross genre and always will be. The idea is being all inclusive so we can broaden the player base that we have in this community already. Forums and profiles and all that... it may happen at some point, but not just yet

[DCaplinger]

Greetings all. For anyone who does not know me, I am the current Fleet Commanding Officer of Bravo Fleet. I thought I'd come on here to get involved in this discussion to let you know, speaking only for myself at this moment, that I'd support this idea 100%. I'm fully for Intrafleet cooperation. Each of our fleets have enough differences in them, that I do not believe we are in competition with each other. I find we are more in a complementary position, and having a common place to advertise open places that remove all the politics is a grand idea.

I would personally like to invite the PFCO to contact me either on the email address provided in the account I've registered here, or via my official fleet email at co[at]bravofleet.org. We have a member of the Bravo Fleet Admiralty that is following this conversation closely, and once you guys get a better feel for what you think might work, she'll present it to the BFA so that we can take a look at it. Once again, speaking only for myself right now, I'd support it completely. The days of every fleet being argumentative with each other should be behind us. At the end of the day, it's a game, and it's supposed to be fun. We have no qualms with PF and we would hope that with all the changes we've made in the 3 years since I took over as BFCO, that PF would have no issues with BF. If there are still issues outstanding, I want to work on fixing them so we can mend fences and build a good working relationship with each other.

Best regards,

Darian Caplinger
-aka-
FAdm Oliver Tidwell
Fleet Commanding Officer
Bravo Fleet

[Treymiar]

Wow.

[Treymiar]

Suggestion - Artist Permissions

Some artists require securing their permission before using their graphics.
Some say no way. Some say yes, but only if you credit them and include a link to their site.

Could RPG Universe/Multiverse have an area to list artists and their preferences as we encounter them?
Besides being a good faith gesture on our part to honor artists, it would become an artwork resource.

- PSF

[Treymiar]

Addendum

Annnd, for a first contribution to said list, I should like to present Virginie Ropars (in France).
Check out her art that I'm using for character avatar on USS Apollo:
http://apollo.pegasusfleet.net/index.ph ... aracter/14

Is that cool or WHAT?

Virginie wants:
• Ask her for permission. (She is fluent in English)
• If she gives the okay, Then you must add credits with the picture: Name & Website Link.
• After displayed, email her a link so that she can see.

Google her work. She has some artwork that would make awesome Trek character avatars.
http://mimundodecarton.com/wp-content/u ... /v-r-1.jpg
http://www.lilavert.com/blog_lilavert/w ... Dolls5.jpg

- PSF

[DCaplinger]

Hey, I don't know what kind of assets you guys have or are using, but I own a web hosting company with a very nice dedicated server. I'd be happy to host this kind of site for free. Of course, I think it would only be right that leadership from the major players who agree to cooperate with this kind of system would or at least should be granted access to the backend so they could add pages or details for their fleet without having to run to someone else to do it.

D

[Treymiar]

Indeed, it is only right for hosts to be at least co-Admins.

I say that, though, haunted by the epic Jconserv disaster.
Once it was one of the largest forum hosts in the world (as I understand). One day, the plug was pulled without warning. I lost my first USS Yorktown site and also a Battlestar Sim to which I'd contributed heavily. While I do keep backups and didn't lose a tremendous amount, it was still a wide scale disaster for who knows how many people.

Hosts should commit to Warning of pending shutdowns And enable site users to download both sites and underlying SQL databases.

- PSF