Plans for the forum and where I'd like to take MelonLand

[Melooon]

Hello! Firstly Im going camping tomorrow so I may not reply to this thread right away, but I wanted to share some thoughts about the forum and the MelonLand project as a whole, and open those thoughts up for discussion so everyone can add their own!

I've been thinking about what I'm interested in at the moment and what kind of opportunities the forum offers and I realise its still quite difficult to find the correct space to discuss my own interests like supporting 3D websites, games and virtual worlds. I'm also thinking about difficult crossover subjects, for example a laptop is technology, but its technology that I use to create art so really it should be more possible to fuse those discussions.

It can be VERY difficult to design the forum boards in a way that makes sense to people and that provides spaces that people feel comfortable sharing ideas and encountering new ideas 

I think subjects I'd like to support more are:

• Messy hand crafted sites ~ verses formal homepages and template sites
• Virtual worlds - e.g. world building, 3d modelling and sound design
• Indie games - similar to virtual worlds but more focused on worlds with game mechanics
• Strange art and web craft tools - such as old software and unusual tools ~ verses standard things like IDEs
• Communities ~ Creating and supporting micro web based communities and exploring web cultures

These are all subjects that I'm really passionate about and I enjoy discussing and I think thats shared by many people here!

So with that in mind my first step is to review the board layout to make sure we actually have the best spaces for those subjects and I have a draft new layout here!

Code

- World Wild Web
	- Forum Info & Questions *forum hub area removed*
		- Everyone Site & Guilds
	- Life on the Web
		- Hyperlinks *to be replaced later with a separate site*
	- Web Crafting
		- I need Help
	- Web Projects *for sharing wip or finished projects*
	- Web Crafting Materials
	- Communities & Webrings
- Virtual Worlds
	- World Building *This is a new board for general world building / game making*
	- Video Game Projects *for sharing wip or finished projects*
	- World & Game Materials
- Arts & Craft
	- Thinking & Ideas *Expanded to broader creative discussions*
	- Art Crafting *focused on digital and traditional craft*
		- Technology *moved from web to art*
	- Art Projects *renamed Gallery ~ for sharing wip or finished projects*
	- Writing & Stationery
		- Blog Zone
- Interests Zone
	- Life on Earth!
	- General Interests
		- Music
		- Cinema
	- Video Games
	- Fun & Forum Games

Some boards are renamed; you'll notice some are discontinued (in the case of discontinued ones posts will be archived or moved to other boards) ~ this is a draft layout and if you have suggestions, concerns or alternate ideas, please do share them!

I think following this up I'd like to expand on a series of tutorial and suggestion threads going into topics like:

• What are the game engines people here recommend?
• How exactly do you get into 3D stuff on homepages?
• How do you setup emulation for old art programs?
• How do you setup creative digital workspaces?
• What exactly is a virtual world?
• How to build 2D worlds, both on sites and as games.
• etc!!

I also wanna take a moment to shout out @GlitchyZorua in particular who has done a staggering amount of work on the Wiki and really makes be believe that we can do more with the wiki as a way of documenting projects and creating guides  I'd encourage people to add their own guides to the wiki, and to add guides to their own sites and link them on the wiki tooo.

I also wanna shout out a few people who have come to me with suggestions and opinions related to the forum, both good and bad. I wont name you all incase you don't wanna be named ~ but I really appreciate the feedback so far and I've tried to integrate it into my planning as much as possible.

New MelonLand projects:
Supporting all this are a few MelonLand projects that I have in mind:

• I want people to be able create their own mini Everyone Sites for special subjects - e.g. an Everyone site of zines etc
• I want a link directory to replace the Hyperlinks board, this would be better suited to a custom script than a board. I'd actually like this to be an expanded replacement for MelonTown.
• We will prob setup a webring hosting service for people to create their own webrings.
• 3D support was added to the Everyone site a while ago and I'd like to improve this.

ANYWAY, I think that'd most of whats on my mind ~ I suppose none of it is radical, and most of it fits into what you already know of my posting here; however its helpful to put it into words and let people add their own 

[KrazyKoen]

I think almost all of this is great. My only concern is the removal of the Greetings and Introductions board. I think it's been a helpful board for newcomers and has had valuable discussions on it from what I've seen. It'd be sad to see it go.

Have a nice camping trip btw!!

[Corrupted Unicorn]

I don't know how reasonable my idea is, but I'll put it here anyway...

Think we could have a space dedicated to original characters? A space to talk about them & develop them?

My theory is, not everybody has a world, or a game, or a similar "larger scale" creative project in mind; but significantly more people (not daring to say "everyone") has at least one character 

I'm the kind that starts with characters first and then builds a world around them (not the most recommended option but hey it's there) and I think there's many people that give charas priority as well (if fandom tells me something). Perhaps it could be a good idea to have a board with a focus on characters. We could have writing prompts, character design tips, topics to talk about how our OCs evolved thru the years, little OC-based events or prompts (make a zine! make a playlist! make a ref sheet if you don't have one already!) and just chat about the little guys that pop up in your mind and end up staying.

I think it could be a good way to let smaller ideas like this grow into bigger projects, if the artists choose to go in that direction 

...is this basically what Artfight does, tho? 

[boreal_cryptid]

(if i can add my message too, then i just wanna say that i would be glad to have such board here too!)

[Melooon]

My only concern is the removal of the Greetings and Introductions board

Sooo basically we have this issue that when people join they have three places to post greetings - the greetings boards, their forum profile and their everyone room! It's a lot of work! The greeting board also sets people up with the expectation of interaction, and Im seeing less replies on that board these days, plus it tends to lead to conversations that are hard to follow in the future (e.g. someone new wants to discuss video game X, but that game is only discussed on someone else's greeting post from 2 years ago).
My plan is to focus people more on introducing themselves on their forum profile and having a thread that announces new members in some way.

Think we could have a space dedicated to ORiGInAl ChaRAcTerS?!??

This seems like a good plan, I do see a lot of discussion about that around the place!

[loren]

hi! i'm logging in and posting for the first time in forever to say that i really like the sound of this! i think i remember there being more of an emphasis on virtual worlds/gamemaking when i first joined the forum (or maybe just more active users who happened to make games?) and it was one of the things that made me want to be here. i hadn't made any games of my own back then, but reading discussions of the topic really inspired me! this announcement makes me excited to participate again.

My theory is, not everybody has a world, or a game, or a similar "larger scale" creative project in mind;

also i want to push back against this theory a little. more specifically, i disagree with the framing of world building and game making as large scale creative projects. worlds and games can be tiny! a single room, a garden, a little pond... they are all little worlds, and they're fun to make! but perhaps i'm getting ahead of myself—this could be a topic in one of the new boards!

edited to fix a typo

[GreenTea]

I like the changes! While I'll miss the introductions, I did notice that there's less replies than when I joined. And to the subjects you mentioned, I really like the idea of further exploring virtual worlds in particular. As someone who has an interest in it, but not much exposure, I'm interested in more discussions or guides about how others approach them. Anyway, thanks for the update, I look forward to seeing how it continues to unfold.

[Melooon]

I have completed most board reorganisation now! I'm still in the process of moving topics though; for now I kept only World Building verses splitting it into World Building, Character Creation and 3D Modelling ~ mainly because its still a small board and there's no need to split it up just yet, but we can do that in the future as needed!

Lemmy know if you spot any issues or have feedback! Also please take a moment to create some threads on the new boards 

EDIT: Also for those wondering, the greetings topics are still archived here!