Feature idea - epochs

[Melooon]

Heloooo, I have an idea for a forum feature based on the request by @arcus here: https://forum.melonland.net/index.php?topic=7.msg55638#new

My idea is Epochs! This is an expansion to the Dundee Mode time format (a summer day). Essentially allowing for member created epochs. Epochs are a short text like "the day bob graduated" and would be appended to Dundee Mode timestamps (e.g. posted on: the day bob graduated).

It would cost swap credits to set a epoch (to stop spam) and the cost would gradually decay.

So for example: it might cost 1 swap credits to set an epoch if none are active, and if someone wanted to overwrite it that day, it would cost them 7 swap credits, but the next day it would be 6, then 5 then 4 etc. After 7 days the epoch would decay and return to "a summer day" if no new epoch is set.

Essentially time on the forum would be based on events that members want to create or remember

An epochs tab would be added too, listing all past epochs as a kind of rolling log of forum history 

What do you think?!

[chilblands]

Sooo correct me if I'm wrong, I'm guessing how this work is something like picking one date from a calendar and renaming it with credits? If yes then I think that's a fantastic idea! We need more function with artefact points now that we have welfare.

Also, reading the original thread, I agree that more description is needed. I saw you linked to Aboriginal season calendar, it's really descriptive. Example from Little J & Big Cuz (children Aboriginal TV show) "when the baby finches leave their nests, and when the wattle blooms, and when the river starts to get warm". So I think "Epochs" align more with your original intention. BTW "Dreamtime" are stories not time, passed down oral stories of how things are, my favourite is Tiddalik and the Rainbow Serpent. I turned off Dundee Mode because... I live in Australia and it's the opposite of my season Australia is really big, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have their own "country" (over 500) so they all have different traditions, stories, calendar, customs, languages, etc... not all calendar is the same. Similar to how the web have people from different countries.

I think options to select the range of dates and naming it would be cool like "when pollen start being violent" or "when ibises start migrating to the train station". Something like naming and selecting your own season based on your location.

[poesu]

I like it! The actual date should be able to be seen though, say, through a click and a hover.

[Melooon]

I'm guessing how this work is something like picking one date from a calendar and renaming it with credits?

So this idea initially is a forward log only: When you set an epoch, it starts immediately, and you don't know how long it will last before another member overwrites it, there are no overlapping epochs and they don't repeat again. It's not intended as a renamed calendar, it's more like a journal or a log. Its active as long as people are active, but it goes silent as soon as people stop writing into it.

So I referenced dreamtime because time is a story in this idea. When you read a list of epochs, your are reading backwards through a series of member set events that exist outside of any recognizable time or date.

[arcus]

I really like it, although, overlapping epochs should be allowed, possibly rotating the older ones out or having a faster expiry on the older ones when there's currently multiple. Sometimes there's multiple events going on.

I agree that the defaults should be changed. Even with the issue of them not being geographically neutral, if they're mapped to the Gregorian calendar, then they're not in sync anywhere in the world. Maybe allow members to go back and edit empty epochs as well? Or use the current moon or current moon phase instead.