Closed guild forums

[Vorgas]

I think we should have new forums that are visible for registered members that clearly have a main in MRT, as the recent discussions have shown. I feel many of these should be visible for all members but not outsiders. Anyone agree or disagree?

This would need a new group, I suppose.

[The Deserted Grail]

Member Groups
-No Options Available-

Has to be done by the original Administrator. Alternative way is to put a password on the board, but from what I experimented in Sin'Shindu's forums (and here as well) the password system has its problems. First one being the fact that it's possible for outsiders to hear it and secondly seeing if there's new posts is a bit hard since you always have to put in the password before you can see them.

So who is the one that originally made these forums? Zouwa? We may need to use her account to change the member groups.

[Aroh]

I think Zouwa has the rights but I'm not sure if it was Zouwa or Lywon who did the actual "work". I see what you ment Vorgas, and I think getting the word out to other guildmembers has been problematic, but I have very much liked the openness. I read this forums alot more often than the ones I need to log in for.

[Lywon]

You can make a board that's only open to registered members (Zouwa is the one with the broadest permissions yes, so if it can be done at all, she has the rights). But remember that anyone can register, and it doesn't require admin approval, so that doesn't effectively prevent access from interested outsiders (it might deter some though). I strongly caution against changing this auto-approve setting – I'm pretty sure the forums would never have become as successful if everyone would've had to wait for their access; casual members just couldn't be arsed, most likely. Just see how few posts there are in the BD affairs board for an example – it's useless.

I also like the openness, and in fact I feel there's a tiny bit too much of the behind-closed-doors thing already. This very thread belongs in the open, in the Forums board (I'd move it myself, but since I've been quite inactive lately, some might be offended that I make such bold moves). A bit of secrecy serves its purpose, and the only worthy purpose is event-planning without spoiling it for everyone. But discussing this "political" stuff… I don't like it at all. Take that for what it's worth.

Remember, we can always ban (and unban) people later, if needed.

[Huntress Skyfire]

What Lywon said. The rest of the members deserve to know whats going on.

[The Deserted Grail]

The idea isn't to use the system where we have to accept each and every person who registers, but to modify and use the Member Group system.

I'm personally not sure how it works, but I assume it means that you can make "ranks" that cannot be achieved by simply posting, but must be given to you by an administrator. Basically, there would be one board that would only be available for Mistrunners in case we get tangled into situations like this so that we can use the forums to give information to tribe members without having the whole world know about it.

All other boards (excluding Chieftain's Tent) would be available for all non-registered people and registered non-Mistrunners.

Once again, I'm not certain how the Member Group system works. This is all assumptions so far. I would like to get to try it, or if you (Lywon) or Zouwa would have the time, to see if this can be done.

Furthermore, I believe we have enough reasons to have kept most of these recent things within the Chieftain's Tent thus far. But since this thread doesn't contain any material like that, I also feel it's the best to move it to the open.

[Vorgas]

Right, sorry, should have made it in the open. But yeah, I was thinking along the lines of ranks, that were given out by admins, the way Grail described it...

[Lywon]

Well Grail, it doesn't matter whether it's an approval at registration time or a rank change for confirmed real Misties – in either case, the person is dependent on someone else taking action before he/she can access content. There will be a delay, which will cause a few people lose interest.

But, your second point about closing only one board applies. So if you want a board like that, I'm sure it can be done. I'll ask Zouwa to do it.

Remember that if the new board is to be of any use, someone will need to start promoting all new members to the rank required to access it. This is the responsibility of the Chieftain, or he can delegate it to someone. Just understand that not everyone will be reading that board, even if they might want to. (Of course, not everyone will read the forums at all in the first place…)

[The Deserted Grail]

It's fine, Vorgas. It's better we play safe than be sorry.

I can handle the promoting if we decide to go with that. It shouldn't be a problem, even though it may take a while to go through all active and less active members. Especially when new members join the promoting can be done at the same time I see the person has registered here.

I think it might be the best to keep it a board that's only updated in more or less dire need. As said, with things that should be known to normal members as well, but not to any outsiders. I assume we don't have all that many of that kind of things as long as the system is there, promoting doesn't need to be done in a hurry.

[Lywon]

Hmm, it seems I was wrong. Zouwa added a member group for Tribesman ("2 stars"), but apparently it's not possible to restrict access based on member groups. The options are Everyone, Registered Members and Staff Only (the latter one is in use for Chieftain's Tent).

[The Deserted Grail]

Darn. I was afraid of that.

Oh wait, it might still be possible. See, there should be this feature that allows a certain Member Group to act as special moderators (like currently "Maahe" is a special moderator on the MRT/BD board). So if you make the place "staff only" but place "Tribesman" to work as the moderator, it should allow their access to the board. Could you try that?

[Lywon]

Moderator must be a list of specific usernames. I don't know what effects that has. There's also a possibility to password-protect a board, as with the MRT/BD affairs board.

See for yourself, check out the Modify Board function from the Admin area. You're an admin too, so you have the same access as me.

[The Deserted Grail]

From what I remember I still assume that it should be possible. I remember seeing some boards have "Moderators" group as the board-specific moderator. So if you change the Member Group name of "Moderators" to "Tribesmen" it should work the same way.

I could also be mistaking it for how some other board system works... Well, now that the rank itself has been made, I'll try to fiddle around with it. Let' see what happens.

[The Deserted Grail]

Eck, ran to another problem. If I put "admin" in the "Moderators:" spot, it automatically shows Zouwa as the moderator on the board (as you can see on the newly created The Bulleting Totem board). I assume it would somehow be possible to use that to restrict the area for certain Member Group, but writing "tribesman" or "Tribesman" doesn't seem to trigger anything.

I'll attempt to look it up myself, but In the case you see this before my next reply, would it be possible to look with Zouwa's account if there's some "code name" for different Member Groups?

[The Deserted Grail]

Right, please ignore my two previous posts. It's now done.

The following users have been raised to rank "Tribesman":

- Anura
- Caulath
- Dreamslayer
- Groax
- Hamuh
- Kalamaloo
- Nightcalf
- Nodin
- Proudsnout
- Revàtha
- Sayle Greyhide

The list may seem small because admins (Braves and Elders) aren't in it. Sending a PM to everybody about the matter. Other than that, if you notice anybody missing, please upgrade and add them to the list. Or simply notify me and I'll do it.