How Old School Forums Came to Have Workshops
Jul 27, 2017 10:01:41 GMT -5
robkuntz and Mighty Darci like this
Post by The Archivist on Jul 27, 2017 10:01:41 GMT -5
BTW a little historical footnote, did you ever wonder how the RPG forums for old school D&D came to have Workshops?
Here is a post from The Drive that illustrates what was going on before their were Workshops on Forums.
Thanks, if I thought everything I was posting was useless and without merit I would not bother posting to begin with. I have plenty of things to do without intentionally wasting my time.Another posters comments
To this post she replied
A while after this most of the threads were deleted from the forum in question and everything was then moved to another forum where a project for Mythological & Non-Mythological Creatures of all kinds was created with many threads, this entire project was deleted from that forum 2 or 3 years after she passed away IIRC.
She also created a second project on that forum and the project still remains although her name has been sanitized/censored/redacted from the site. Titled Worldbuilding - Ideas and Resources and the forum section is called
SPECIAL PROJECTS.
After this poster had been gone for a few years the first forum also created a Workshop area and at last count that forum area has 2391 threads with 45,340 posts and all of that was grudgely created after this poster from The Drive was no longer around, but she was the pioneer that showed the need for it.
From that first forum Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:53 pm (The Workshop on the forum was created on a few months after the creative poster was run off the forum, having been made unwelcome.)
Then on Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:12 am
Here is a post from The Drive that illustrates what was going on before their were Workshops on Forums.
Wed Nov 09, 2005 8:12 pm
Well I started to post in the Classic forum something that was specifically an OD&D project and was informed that it was not appropriate for the Classic Forum (added new mythological monsters) to OD&D with OD&D style stat lines and descriptions. When S_________ kindly moved it to the General Forum for me, I was then told by some that instead of posting it so others could comment on it I should finish it first and then post it. In order to have my initial comments all together in an index thread, I added a few placeholders posts so I could fill them in over a planned period of about 1 week. This was because I can't stay on here for the number of hours it would have required to do that all at once. I was told that that was offensive. As for completing it before I posted it, if I thought I could do a good enough job of that without any assistance, I would. Being as how I do not believe that I know it all and that other input will contribute greatly to the finished product I wanted to post it and get input from as many people as possible. That project has a home now and I have posted a bit to it and have probably 20,000 words to add to it. I am hoping that other people add about 40,000 or more words to it in the discussion.
Well I started to post in the Classic forum something that was specifically an OD&D project and was informed that it was not appropriate for the Classic Forum (added new mythological monsters) to OD&D with OD&D style stat lines and descriptions. When S_________ kindly moved it to the General Forum for me, I was then told by some that instead of posting it so others could comment on it I should finish it first and then post it. In order to have my initial comments all together in an index thread, I added a few placeholders posts so I could fill them in over a planned period of about 1 week. This was because I can't stay on here for the number of hours it would have required to do that all at once. I was told that that was offensive. As for completing it before I posted it, if I thought I could do a good enough job of that without any assistance, I would. Being as how I do not believe that I know it all and that other input will contribute greatly to the finished product I wanted to post it and get input from as many people as possible. That project has a home now and I have posted a bit to it and have probably 20,000 words to add to it. I am hoping that other people add about 40,000 or more words to it in the discussion.
I'm none the wiser as to what's going on here.
L____________, you post a lot of new and generally interesting topics. I'm distressed that you seem to think that people don't want you to do that; this came up in the classic section also, and I didn't understand it there either.
I hope that I speak for most other people here (or at least I hope that most will agree with me) that the topics you've posted have not been unacceptable.
L____________, you post a lot of new and generally interesting topics. I'm distressed that you seem to think that people don't want you to do that; this came up in the classic section also, and I didn't understand it there either.
I hope that I speak for most other people here (or at least I hope that most will agree with me) that the topics you've posted have not been unacceptable.
As I noted I had a completely OD&D topic run off this forum because it was not welcome in the Classic forum or in the General forum. And yet just look at some of the stuff that is in the General forum right now. I am confused!
I've got to address this one issue that until now I haven't been able to say much about. It's about this thread: Mythological Creatures of all kinds
I can't find a fault in it or as to why it was moved. In fact, since I've been casually going through my Dragon Archives I came upon some old articles by Jerome Arkenberg that was set on expanding some information on gods in D&D (The original 3 book set of old). I've only read these listed:
The Dragon #12 - The Persian Mythos by Jerome Arkenberg
The Dragon #13 - The Japanese Mythos by Jerome Arkenberg
The Dragon #16 - Near Eastern Mythos by Jerome Arkenberg
The Dragon #19 - The Mythos of Australia in Dungeons & Dragons by Jerome Arkenberg
The Dragon #20 - The Mythos of Polynesia in Dungeons & Dragons by Jerome Arkenberg
The Dragon #27 - The Mythos of Africa in Dungeons & Dragons by Jerome Arkenberg
Granted they were put in THE VARIANT section of the magazine but what he wrote was still relatively concurrent with OD&D. I just can't see why that one was removed to general.
I can't find a fault in it or as to why it was moved. In fact, since I've been casually going through my Dragon Archives I came upon some old articles by Jerome Arkenberg that was set on expanding some information on gods in D&D (The original 3 book set of old). I've only read these listed:
The Dragon #12 - The Persian Mythos by Jerome Arkenberg
The Dragon #13 - The Japanese Mythos by Jerome Arkenberg
The Dragon #16 - Near Eastern Mythos by Jerome Arkenberg
The Dragon #19 - The Mythos of Australia in Dungeons & Dragons by Jerome Arkenberg
The Dragon #20 - The Mythos of Polynesia in Dungeons & Dragons by Jerome Arkenberg
The Dragon #27 - The Mythos of Africa in Dungeons & Dragons by Jerome Arkenberg
Granted they were put in THE VARIANT section of the magazine but what he wrote was still relatively concurrent with OD&D. I just can't see why that one was removed to general.
I hope you don't mind, but I quoted this post in its entirety and posted it to the Mythological & Non-Mythological Creatures of all kinds thread so the info won't be lost when this thread is locked and deleted.
She also created a second project on that forum and the project still remains although her name has been sanitized/censored/redacted from the site. Titled Worldbuilding - Ideas and Resources and the forum section is called
SPECIAL PROJECTS.
After this poster had been gone for a few years the first forum also created a Workshop area and at last count that forum area has 2391 threads with 45,340 posts and all of that was grudgely created after this poster from The Drive was no longer around, but she was the pioneer that showed the need for it.
From that first forum Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:53 pm (The Workshop on the forum was created on a few months after the creative poster was run off the forum, having been made unwelcome.)
Welcome! This new forum has been created in more or less direct response to our recent discussion of posting "customs" on ___________. _______________ commented that hostility toward "long" posts would likely stifle creativity.
Thinking about it, I realized some of our creativity was already held in check by the posting customs of the other forums. Forums are created, I said then, for the purpose of communication, not publication.
Not here, though. Bring me your magic items, your spells, your towns and villages and dungeons, yea, even unto entire continents or even whole worlds! This is the place where big things will get done.
Sure, if you are trying to work out the details of one or two or perhaps a handful of spells, head on over to the appropriate edition-specific forum. But if you're working on something much bigger than that, this is the place.
Thinking about it, I realized some of our creativity was already held in check by the posting customs of the other forums. Forums are created, I said then, for the purpose of communication, not publication.
Not here, though. Bring me your magic items, your spells, your towns and villages and dungeons, yea, even unto entire continents or even whole worlds! This is the place where big things will get done.
Sure, if you are trying to work out the details of one or two or perhaps a handful of spells, head on over to the appropriate edition-specific forum. But if you're working on something much bigger than that, this is the place.
Hmm. This keeps coming up, so here is a bit more detail:
The Workshop was created to meet a specific need. You see, a few years back, a couple of posters made many others angry by posting numerous long materials threads in the various edition-specific forums. Those who got angry about it did so because the materials threads cluttered up the forum, making it hard to find active discussions; this was an issue of customs rather than rules, so it was hard to moderate the issue. I stepped in and explained how the customs worked... namely, that such long one-person posts or threads were considered rude.
_________________ replied to me, pointing out that DF is a place for old-school game fans to meet and share. There should be a place, he argued, for such threads. He was right.
So the Workshop was formed. It is specifically meant to absorb those long materials posts. Ideally, many of the threads would be complete adventures, perhaps not as detailed or polished as actual DF publications, but usable by others. Posts that are meant more to discuss something than to create something (planning sessions, in other words) are discouraged... they belong in the relevant edition-specific forum rather than the Workshop. If a discussion erupts into actual game materials, it can always be moved or reposted to the Workshop at that point.
The Workshop was created to meet a specific need. You see, a few years back, a couple of posters made many others angry by posting numerous long materials threads in the various edition-specific forums. Those who got angry about it did so because the materials threads cluttered up the forum, making it hard to find active discussions; this was an issue of customs rather than rules, so it was hard to moderate the issue. I stepped in and explained how the customs worked... namely, that such long one-person posts or threads were considered rude.
_________________ replied to me, pointing out that DF is a place for old-school game fans to meet and share. There should be a place, he argued, for such threads. He was right.
So the Workshop was formed. It is specifically meant to absorb those long materials posts. Ideally, many of the threads would be complete adventures, perhaps not as detailed or polished as actual DF publications, but usable by others. Posts that are meant more to discuss something than to create something (planning sessions, in other words) are discouraged... they belong in the relevant edition-specific forum rather than the Workshop. If a discussion erupts into actual game materials, it can always be moved or reposted to the Workshop at that point.