Hello, Aleks! I'm not sure if this is a good idea or bad one but we could use twitter to get a sense of what's "the topic of the week". Usually someone has a hot take and everyone chimes in. Maybe we could use that to test if forums do lead to better conversations? Obviously the topic needs to be worth discussing. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe we could do "the topic of last week" and lean into the slowness of forums.
Viewing post in Structured "Content"?
Hey Thomas,
This is a good idea, definitely. I do think we need to be careful of replicating the actual "hotness" (under the collar) of twitter discourse - theory discussions are great until someone makes a declarative statement, like "dice are good/bad" or "playtesting is necessary if you're a real designer" or "systems matter/don't matter" and so on, and people start feeling like others are invalidating their personal design practice or playstyle, but that should be pretty easily avoided by simply remembering to frame things in terms of personal preference as opposed to absolute truth. So falling into the twitter anger trap is probably not going to be as much of an issue with the extra space and time a forum affords, as well as the code of conduct. Hopefully just something keep mindful of, just in case.
When it comes to more topical/news stuff, specifically in relation to bad actors in the industry, I don't want to stifle discussion of that sort of thing so long as it is in keeping with said code of conduct, but would likely leave that up to individual members to start up their threads on. I am personally not one to espouse the "positivity at all costs" mindset, and sometimes the unpleasant things are best exposed to the light, but I'd definitely want to strive to cultivate less of a "hell-site" vibe on here.
That said, what would you say is the hot design/play topic this week (or last, since I agree that keeping too current is not necessary)? I've been a bit out of the loop in terms of the disk horse lately (I am aware of the most recent kickstarter fracas, of course, but that's more in the breaking news/bad actor category).
Hmm, might also be a good idea to have a thread for people to promote their most recent ZineQuest projects?
I agree with everything you're saying, Aleks. It would only be worth doing if we believe that a better kind of conversation is possible - due to the long-form nature of the medium itself and the moderation that's possible. And while people should be able to discuss bad actors, I was not thinking of that kind of stuff when I proposed the idea - I was thinking of design conversations.
Examples are hard but let me give it a shot. Right now, there are some discussions I'm seeing on:
1. alternatives to kickstarter if you're interested in crowdfunding
2. critique in ttrpgs - thinking of the video on zedeck as a great example of something I'd like to see more of (https://youtu.be/J3gsHlnczJM)
What do you think?