Idea: Use the Pokewalker to Promote Non-Modded Social RP

[Toogee]

Somewhat related to this suggestion on recruitment pains, I see the Pokewalker board is largely inactive. Having tried my hand at posting recruitment ads, I am unsure how realistic it is for a large number of members to use this. At the same time, I'd like to see more social opportunities to help build the world and character relationships.

My proposal: repurpose the Pokewalker to encourage more social RPs/escapades. It would be the same structure we have now, but 1 ad = 1 post of a certain word count. Here's a rough draft of some rules:

How it Could Work:
1. Set up your Pokewalker, as described in steps 1-2 in Pokewalker rules thread.
2. Start socializing! Get together with at least one other player and create a social RP thread.
3. When the thread is finished, each player posts a link along with the number of their posts made in their pokewalker.

Preliminary Thread Requirements:
1. Threads must follow Rules and Guidelines. Otherwise, it does not count.

2. The thread must involve at least two players/members in a non-moderator role*. In other words, 1 player can't solo a thread with their multiple characters. That won't count.
*Obviously, mods can participate as players, just not as moderators.

3. This only applies to unmodded social RPs and escapades. Threads with stat battles do not count towards Pokewalker.

4. Threads started prior to this update do not count towards pokewalker.

Proposed XP Breakdown
LVs 1 - 14: 25 Posts = +1 Lvl
LVs 15 - 24: 40 Posts = +1 Lvl
LVs 25+: 30xp per Post
Every 100 Posts = 1 Mystery Gift

Where each post has minimum 200 word count or whatever the moderation team deems appropriate

[Tarlar]

I like the idea ^^ Since more incentives are apparently needed

I'd like to keep it seperate from the ad pokewalker though, as its made for people to try attract new members, and we need new ones to keep things going. Most members are dragged away due to real life at some point.

I'm not sure about the rewards, mostly the mystery box I think, but I have a hard time in general to see when something is fitting or too easy/too hard, so I'll leave that part to someone else

[Toogee]

On rewards: Yeah, I basically took what was in the existing Pokewalker rules and replaced "ad" with "post". I wasn't sure what the RP post equivalent would be to posting an ad.

On separate pokewalker: That's fine. Or the rules could be updated for a combination of ads and RP posts. That way, we wouldn't have to create an entire new board for this.

[Caramell 🍬]

I would be ok with this. My notes

- No to escapades. They have their own rewards which give levels and exp for completing. This would be double dipping then, which I'm not a fan of.

- Minimum ~100 word for post to count would be fair. I believe that's roughly all we ask or used to for posts (of course quality over quantity). Anything shorter would be disqualified based on how far from the goal it was, to be fair. Like I'd be ok with 95 words still being allowed, but no to a 50 word post.

- and to be sure only your individual post you wrote in the social would count for you.

[Lamont]

Agreed on not re-purposing Pokewalker away from ads. Advertising is incredibly important for the long-term survival of any site. If we didn't have incentives for everyone and anyone to participate in then it would have to fall on mods as yet another task on their shoulders.


Why not just use Escapades exactly?
Do what we did for our anniversary event and just expand it to allow trainers to be the focal point? That's really the only difference right now between a 'social' and an 'escapade'. The 'socials' in the anniversary were essentially escapades and I think it worked fairly well.

I don't like setting min word counts. We don't do it for anything else and 100 words isn't really anything so it might as well be completely open. And if we just use the existing Escapades setup then words per post doesn't matter in the grand scheme of the evaluated story anyways. This also avoids abuse of social threads for progression and encourages 'finishing' a story, which just giving flat rewards for x-number of posts doesn't.



The biggest problem with assigning any sort of reward scheme (whether the Poke Walker or Escapades or something else idea) is that then it's turning something that expected Zero input from mods to now require a mod at some point. Escapades are already very unloved from the modding side. So for this to work we'd need more mods that are willing to actually evaluate stories instead of it just being left to me most of the time.

[necroix]

I would be more than happy to take on the review of social rp threads. My understanding would be it would be less a review of the story (like escapades are) and more just a review when the thread is complete between members. We could set up a request thread or what have you for them to post in when they are finished and then I (or whoever) can look at it make sure that it is actually a social thread and not just grinding for XP etc and then just archive the thread and give the rewards.

I actually do agree that a word count should be put in place because I really don't want Socials to end up an okay I'll post two sentences and you post two sentences and we just go. That will be using socials in a way it's not meant to be used. We could always test how it goes and then if it does get overused we could put a limit on how many levels could be earned like this, but I don't think it's necessary at the moment considering that we are trying to promote social threads.

Just as an added thought, would we extend this to socials done in housing as well, since they don't get any rewards or bonus (unless the housing does that naturally) or would it just be on the normal board progression?

[Lamont]

By just doing set post amounts instead of grading a story you are committing to potentially a lot more work with the proposed breakdown. Someone will have to come up with a new set of scaling and rewards. The Pokewalker is not a suitable scale for posts. Reminder that each page of a thread is 15 posts.

Also, what if it's a pretty great story but is only 20 posts? They just get nothing then? Or maybe it's a superb story but only 30 posts. It'd be rewarded the same as 25 100 word posts with no regard for the RP. As Cara mentioned (but for word counts) quantity does not equal quality.

How will levels/EXP be assigned when socials are using 10 pokemon in each post?

There are a lot of variables & situations that come up in social posts that Escapades are already built to handle. I don't see a purpose of composing a brand new, very similarly purposed, system instead of just using the thing that already exists with minor modifications.

There isn't a need to setup a new request thread. The Moderation center is already used for that.


*Edit: forgot about the estate Q! I don't see why they *couldn't* count. Social's a social. Estates are just a different setting than the normal Johto board areas.


More edit random thoughts: fluff weirdness around the x-number posts versus escapade... if the social is like 30 posts of two trainers having a nice conversation over tea, why would pkmn be getting exp?

[Pixel]

Honestly, I don't see exp making sense here.

HOWEVER, if the solution is to help with recruitment woes, then wouldn't that be less directed at exp and more at milestone items? LIKE, no need to review posts for content...quantity over quality here. But X number of posts for X reward to encourage social RP, and members interested in the milestone system would have to track their own posts.

Like...
100 social posts (200 words or more each) = 1 rare candy
500 social posts (200 words or more each) = Lucky Egg
1000 social posts (200 or more each) = Evo Stone.

Etc, etc.

+shrug+

[Lamont]

Social posts def not on the table as the replacement for the recruitment system ;D Writing a social post here doesn't exactly advertise ZZ and bring in new members.

I think the only relation of this proposal to Adverts & Recruitment was just the Pokewalker itself. The proposal is about giving rewards for social RP to encourage more people to do social RPs.

[Toogee]

Lamont There are a couple of statements that you made that I'm not clear on if you could clarify:

The biggest problem with assigning any sort of reward scheme (whether the Poke Walker or Escapades or something else idea) is that then it's turning something that expected Zero input from mods to now require a mod at some point. Escapades are already very unloved from the modding side. So for this to work we'd need more mods that are willing to actually evaluate stories instead of it just being left to me most of the time.

There are a lot of variables & situations that come up in social posts that Escapades are already built to handle. I don't see a purpose of composing a brand new, very similarly purposed, system instead of just using the thing that already exists with minor modifications.

I may be reading this wrong, but these statements conflict to me. If a system is not easy for the moderator to use, than it is not built to handle this. I certainly wouldn't suggest reusing a system unloved by the mods.
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At the end of the day, my thinking was that promoting unmodded threads would slow down the modded threads and make moderation more manageable. If that's not what this does and ends up being another chore, don't implement this.

[Lamont]

It's not that it's unloved, I'm mentally burnt sorry. Just trying to answer what I can. It's just that Escapades are relatively new and mods have generally been scared of 'doing it wrong' so they avoid it until more examples are around, or the threads get overlooked cause there is so much other stuff to keep track of.

Escapades also just generally go the same way as socials. You get a few rounds of posts in and then your partner disappears or gets to busy to continue. Everyone wants to group thread, but they are def risky :3 So even adding reward incentives to socials like we've done hasn't really changed the uptake and downsides of group threading.


Implementing anything to encourage more non-modded threads doesn't slow down modded threads so far as we've experienced. They do not replace journey's, they are an addition that is generally only undertaken by those with the extra time. So they would probably always be an additional mod task to look at.

That doesn't necessarily mean your idea shouldn't be implemented though ftr. There could definitely be something there to improve the appeal of escapades.

[Toogee]

Thank you for the response. I come from pokemon RPs that were all social and anime-style battles, so it takes some getting used to a community that's not as focused on that. I appreciate the insight on how players generally interact with the world.

Since Escapades/social RPs are still newish, the best thing I could do is start making social RPs and see where it goes. If more RPs pop up, then maybe revisit this system. I am a big fan of using existing systems that work for new things, so I agree with Lamont that the Escapades system is a better template for this.