Dimentions - Designing A New Website for Roleplaying

[Tynach]

Hello, world!

 

I'm in the process of creating a new website, designed from the ground up for roleplaying. Most (perhaps all) roleplaying websites right now use an existing forum system of some sort - Simple Machines Forum, PHPbb, Invision Power Board, vBulletin... There are many out there, but essentially they all are the same concept - You have forum topics (or 'Boards'), and in each one you can have topics. Inside topics, a user creates a textual post, and more users create more textual posts. This is an oversimplification, but this is essentially what all forum websites do.

 

For roleplaying, this actually works out fairly well. A person can make each post a description of what their character does, and they can wrap out of character posts in parenthesis. Each topic represents a roleplay, and each board can represent roleplay topics (science fiction, fantasy, modern, or any other genre).

 

(TL;DR: Forums are not designed FOR roleplaying; expand for some examples. I wanted to keep this in, but it felt kinda... Commercial-y - which is not what I wanted to portray.)

 

However, forums were not designed FOR roleplaying. For example, if a user wants to be multiple characters, they have to either awkwardly create multiple accounts (and probably play each character in a separate web browser and window), or creatively describe each character's actions. Now, this isn't really TOO much of a problem... People can always do a classic chatplay and put in, "character: Dialogue!", or they can create eloquent paragraphs describing multiple character's actions, like you would in a story. However, a user may generally use the same character in multiple roleplays - and it can get tiring to describe or introduce your character in every. Single. Roleplay.

 

Sure would be nice if the forums let you manage multiple characters, and have a web page for each one, eh?

 

On a forum, a board can contain multiple topics - there can be as many roleplays as the users want. However, there is no further ability to group those roleplays. You can't create multiple, related roleplays and group them all in one place, to help other users find all the roleplays within one 'Roleplay Universe'. You have to kinda say, awkwardly, "This roleplay is in the same Universe as this other one..." and give a link to the other roleplay. If you're on a website that frequently deletes topics (such as Neopets' Neoboards), it may be impossible to link to one of your former roleplays.

 

On Neopets, some of these things are solved by pet pages and user lookups. You can give detailed descriptions of your roleplays and characters on many pages, even on many accounts in case you have too many... And you can even link to them within Neopets since it wouldn't be an outside website. However, the pet names never really matched up with the character or roleplay names - and if it does, it starves someone else of using that name for their own character (how many 'bob's can there be? One).

 

On Neopets, since topics are deleted frequently, it's difficult to keep something up long enough to need a 'search' feature. Within a forum, such a feature comes standard... But it generally searches through the text within the database, as opposed to searching for topics that match your interests. For example if you're looking for a science fiction roleplay on a forum system, you may type in 'science fiction' into a search bar... However, some science fiction roleplays may not even include the text "Science Fiction" in them anywhere. For example, they may say 'sci-fi' or they may even just say something like, "This is kinda like Doctor Who..." or whatever. Anyone may be able to TELL it's science fiction, but it may not include that text.

 

 

My new roleplay system is designed from the ground up for Roleplaying - Per-user character management, Roleplay grouping by 'Universe', an advanced tagging system - that allows for the creator of a roleplay to add various labels onto a roleplay that are used for displaying search results - which not only speeds up searching, but also helps find roleplays you WANT (though depends on the roleplay creator actually tagging their roleplay properly - which, my interface ideas should help with and encourage - though I'm not to the phase where I'd be implementing or testing those yet).

 

I plan on releasing the source code to this website as some sort of Open Source license, though I've not yet decided which one I'll use. While the (partial) goal is to prevent the need for a bunch of different RP websites for each roleplay/roleplay Universe, I don't like to limit anyone... And I also like people to know exactly what's going on in the background - not only for others to help improve it, but also to be as transparent as possible. This service will NOT be commercial, and I won't charge anyone for using it if I can help it (though if I need to, I may have a donations button available).

 

Right now, I've got a very large chunk of the SQL database completed. I'm using MySQL right now, though may move it to PostgreSQL in the future. I also have a very rough PHP framework developed for this, that works as a sort of templating system with support for 'modules' to be built into each page.

 

I'm looking for anyone who can help in any way - PHP code, MySQL development, artwork, styling, etc. And most of all, I want:

 

Opinions! Thoughts! Ideas! What features do you want? How should I handle posts? Should each post be assigned a character, and let people choose 'none' for paragraph-styled roleplays? Should each post be allowed to be assigned multiple characters, and leave formatting to the roleplayers themselves? How should I handle friends/friend groups (right now I've somewhat emulated Google+'s Circles, since it was easy to implement)?

 

This includes everything from roleplay-specific criteria, to things you expect from any forum-styled chat system - moderator privileges, HTML (or BBcode) in posts, character pages, single or multiple Universe pages, etc. This is a pretty big project, so absolutely ANYTHING, no matter how trivial it seems, it helpful.

[Xepha]

Hi there :)

 

Just a couple thoughts on the fly (It's early in the morning and I'm trying to reboot my brain still!)

 

The best way to get user feedback is to take the code as it is now, and let a group of user beta test it. Let them give you the feedback that you need, even if your project is in early stage. Alpha or Beta test depending on where you are exactly on your project.

 

For multicharacters... maybe you could go with something in AJAX (add a character to your post by clicking here, and it generates a second input box underneath the first one.)

 

From what you wrote, I guess you want to allow people to tag their roleplay or to put them into pre-defined categories (or both)... which seems like a nice idea.

 

On forums, you can have global moderators and area specific moderators. That depends how big your site is and how active your users are. You won't be able to tell it right away.

 

If you want do allow your user to use HTML, there are additional security issues to deal with. So just be aware of that. That's the reason why it's such a pain on Neopets to do petpages and lookups. Neopets filters of blocked words are always growing to patch their security holes.

 

Best of luck with your project. :)

[Tynach]

Hi there :)

 

Just a couple thoughts on the fly (It's early in the morning and I'm trying to reboot my brain still!)

 

The best way to get user feedback is to take the code as it is now, and let a group of user beta test it. Let them give you the feedback that you need, even if your project is in early stage. Alpha or Beta test depending on where you are exactly on your project.

 

For multicharacters... maybe you could go with something in AJAX (add a character to your post by clicking here, and it generates a second input box underneath the first one.)

 

From what you wrote, I guess you want to allow people to tag their roleplay or to put them into pre-defined categories (or both)... which seems like a nice idea.

 

On forums, you can have global moderators and area specific moderators. That depends how big your site is and how active your users are. You won't be able to tell it right away.

 

If you want do allow your user to use HTML, there are additional security issues to deal with. So just be aware of that. That's the reason why it's such a pain on Neopets to do petpages and lookups. Neopets filters of blocked words are always growing to patch their security holes.

 

Best of luck with your project. :)

Hi! Thanks for dropping by, I was beginning to think nobody would. And, I'm answering this early in the morning, so at least we're on the same page x)

 

The problem with that, is that it's not usable right now. I just have a raw database - to put test data into the database, I have to manually run "INSERT INTO rp_posts VALUES (NULL, 3, 4, 'I can\'t wait to try this out!', 'yes');" into a command line. I have a tiny bit of PHP done, but right now all that does is niftily let me wrap any PHP file inside another PHP file - for a nice, good templating system. It can somewhat access the database, but only to check if usernames/passwords are correct... It doesn't even have a way to sign up otherwise.

 

Yeah! That's really what I was thinking - along with tags. Something where it'd have a nifty little 'instant search' thing, so you could type a tag/character name, hit 'Enter', and it'd drop you down to the next one - and you can repeat. I've not tried making it yet, so I don't know how hard it'll be... But it should be doable. Google has done more complicated stuff in the past :P

 

I thought about the whole 'categories' thing, but I decided to just merge that in with tags. Tags will be both pre-defined, and user-created. I'll have measure put in to help prevent duplicated similar tags (like 'neopets', 'noepets').

 

Yeah, so far I've created an 'admin_group' system, and each group has different permissions. With the lack of clearly-defined categories (which I may still put in later), it doesn't seem to have any specific areas to moderate.

 

Yeah, I'm aware of this... Especially with Cross-Site-Scripting attacks. I'd have to only allow certain tags, and then I'd have to run it through a regular expression or something to get rid of any 'onclick' type of thing. Or, I have to find out how to use bbscript instead... But meh.

 

Thanks! I have a feeling I'll need it.

[April]

I think this sounds like a fantastic idea. I have tried to find a great site to start a roleplay on besides Neopets, but no such luck. Yours sounds great.

 

I don't know too much about websites.

 

But I just wanted to say that despite not having a lot of feedback I feel that this is a great idea and would definitely take a look once you have the site up. :)

[Tynach]

I think this sounds like a fantastic idea. I have tried to find a great site to start a roleplay on besides Neopets, but no such luck. Yours sounds great.

 

I don't know too much about websites.

 

But I just wanted to say that despite not having a lot of feedback I feel that this is a great idea and would definitely take a look once you have the site up. :)

 

Well it's still in the design phase, so as a roleplayer, you can most definitely help with ideas - what would your dream roleplaying site include? Anything at all would help.

[tintytiny]

Er, I'm pretty sure this has absolutely nothing to do with this, and I hope it doesn't bother you. But 'Dimentions' should probably be 'Dimensions', unless you wanted it spelled that way...?

[April]

Well it's still in the design phase, so as a roleplayer, you can most definitely help with ideas - what would your dream roleplaying site include? Anything at all would help.

 

I'm not too sure. I mean a lot of roleplay sites I've been on just have forums you join in on.

 

I like how we roleplay on Neopets and get involved in groups/guilds.

 

Most of the sites I've been on make it extremely complicated to start your own roleplay.

 

My ideal site would just be simplistic and easy to navigate really. I apologize I can't offer more advice or thoughts. I'm the type of person that needs to see something to think about it. I'm a very visual person. xD

[Tynach]

Er, I'm pretty sure this has absolutely nothing to do with this, and I hope it doesn't bother you. But 'Dimentions' should probably be 'Dimensions', unless you wanted it spelled that way...?

That is, in fact, intentional. In my own roleplays about traveling between parallel Universes, I use the term 'Dimension' as a reference to a 'global axis' on which matter can travel. I use the term 'Dimention' to refer to the infinite number of parallel Universes that my characters travel to. The idea of my roleplaying site, is that there will be a multitude of possibilities - infinite number of Universes to join and create. Hence the name 'Dimention'. Also, since it's not a real word, it's copyrightable (if I want to go that route with it - I'm not sure I do).

 

I'm not too sure. I mean a lot of roleplay sites I've been on just have forums you join in on.

 

I like how we roleplay on Neopets and get involved in groups/guilds.

 

Most of the sites I've been on make it extremely complicated to start your own roleplay.

 

My ideal site would just be simplistic and easy to navigate really. I apologize I can't offer more advice or thoughts. I'm the type of person that needs to see something to think about it. I'm a very visual person. xD

Aand, you were just extremely helpful! I hadn't thought of making a guild-like system, but I can see the benefit - right now I've got a way to group/associate roleplays by Universes, but guilds are not always about one Universe in which to create multiple roleplays - it can just be groups of friends.

 

Interesting idea - I'll have to think of a good way to incorporate that.

[April]

 

 

Aand, you were just extremely helpful! I hadn't thought of making a guild-like system, but I can see the benefit - right now I've got a way to group/associate roleplays by Universes, but guilds are not always about one Universe in which to create multiple roleplays - it can just be groups of friends.

 

Interesting idea - I'll have to think of a good way to incorporate that.

 

I've searched for lots of sites trying to find one with a neopet like set up.

 

It's simple to me and really creates a family like feel.

 

But do keep us updated on your site! I would love to see it when you get it started. :)

[Tynach]

 

I've been adding some triggers and other things to get settings to work. I've also started to work more on the PHP front-end, so that I can get a rough, preliminary website that allows you to sign up, post roleplays, and so forth. Right now that part has been set back a bit since I had to re-write my database connection system - as I realized that while the old one was INCREDIBLY secure, stable, reliable, and allowed for error tracking, it required for EVERY SINGLE DATABASE QUERY to exist in ONE FILE. Which meant, that even on the little 'Welcome!' page that does almost nothing, it had to load ALL of that stuff into memory. Yuck. It also had tons of lines of code that made it look a little ugly (but easy to use).

 

Instead, I might put common queries that the whole site uses into one file for almost all pages to reference that, but for most queries, they're just going to be kept on files that need them.

 

Edit 1: And, that was rambling.

 

Basically! After roughly half a month of me freaking out about how huge this project is now, I finally came to terms with myself and started fleshing out the site itself - hopefully the end result of this will be a beta site people can use to provide feedback.

 

This also means I'm kinda looking for a host. If anyone here has a hosting solution I could use for free, that would be super. I've got one myself, but I'm sorta... Using it for something else at the moment (or rather, not using it for anything, but because I told a massive number of people to go there, I have to keep what's up there up there for now). Optimally, for a host, I'm looking for PHP/MySQL (with support for InnoDB table format), and hopefully something running on Linux. Debian or Redhat is fine, though I'm slightly leaning toward Debian because it was my first distro.

 

Aaand, more rambling x3

 

Edit 2: Oh yeah! I got the PHP to spit out BEAUTIFUL looking HTML code, even with loop-generated tables :D So, it may not look pretty in a browser (simple black and white theme, divs for layout and tables for showing tabular content), it'll look AMAZING in a text editor :D TAKE THAT GOOGLE!!!

 

 

tl;dr

 

WOOOOOO!!! PROGRESS!!! Also, needa host (but not immediately)!