New forum specific rule: Interlinking game threads

[Rawhide]

In order to help prevent confusion, reduce unnecessary reports, and decrease moderation time, we're going to implement a temporary rule for all the IC and OOC gaming forums. This rule may be updated at any time and without notice, as we iron out the specifics, so please check back frequently.

The opening post of any game thread, be it IC, OOC, or otherwise, must include links to every game related thread (i.e. no orphaned threads where people cannot trace the connections).

Notes: Including a link to the Recruitment thread is optional, though it may still be beneficial and, at the very least, the Recruitment thread should have a link to the OOC thread once the game starts. Likewise, you don't need to link every thread in the Dice Roller forum, instead please link to the currently active Recruitment and/or OOC thread in the first post when creating the thread, or any new post when updating the links.

If a particular thread is not for players to read, you may want to make a note of that in (or next to) the link and/or opening of the thread. The purpose of any thread that is not pure IC, OOC, Dice Rolling, or Recruitment must be explained in the opening post of the thread and optionally in (or next to) the links to it.

Feel free to put these links in a spoiler box if you want (though please label the box).

There's a lot of currently ongoing games, and it's going to be a while until everyone notices the rule and remembers to implement it correctly, so enforcement of the rule will be us gently reminding you to update your threads.

I'm going to keep this thread open for any questions.

[Genth]

Does this rule apply to spin-off Recruitment threads? For example those situations where a potential GMs response to a request doesn't meet the needs of the original poster, but there is sufficient interest from other players to open a seperate recruitment thread.

[Corey]

I suggest that the rule be slightly modified to be:


The OOC thread should link to everything else in its first post.
Everything else should link to the OOC thread.



That would ensure that everything connects to everything else in at most two hops.



Not many edge cases would need to be added to that simplified form.

[Rawhide]

Does this rule apply to spin-off Recruitment threads? For example those situations where a potential GMs response to a request doesn't meet the needs of the original poster, but there is sufficient interest from other players to open a seperate recruitment thread.

I'm sorry, I don't quite know what you're asking here. Could you rephrase?


I suggest that the rule be slightly modified to be:

The OOC thread should link to everything else in its first post.
Everything else should link to the OOC thread.

That would ensure that everything connects to everything else in at most two hops.

Not many edge cases would need to be added to that simplified form.

That was considered, and may still be considered in the future of this trial. But we do want all of the links available in all of the threads. If there's a lot of links and the game master wants to keep them tidy, they can be put in a spoiler box (please label the box, though). You can also create the list only once then copy and paste it, it doesn't really matter if a thread links back to itself...

Also, it wouldn't change the edge cases. Recruitment threads are often abandoned after a game is fully recruited, and if they're abandoned there's no need to link to them from the other threads. Threads in the Dice Roller forum still can't be edited. Plus, not all games have an OOC thread, and others might have multiple.

[Saintheart]

It might be worth clarifying whether opening IC and/or OOC posts must have links to previous OOCs or ICs closed only due to thread length limits.

I interlink already just because I like to sometimes read back on my own threads, and some of my threads have 2 or more OOC threads already purely because the first OOC thread hit 50 pages and we had to start a new one. What can I say, people are chatty.

[Rawhide]

Only active threads must be linked in all other active threads, but we would recommend keeping a list of links to archived threads somewhere appropriate.