Would the Google calendar be available for viewing (only) if you don’t have a gmail account? And would it be feasible/plausible/realisitc for the National Secretary to look after the calendar, and for people running a game to check with the Secretary before announcing a game? Hopefully it shouldn’t slow things down too much, although (thinking out loud) it wouldn’t solve the problem for non-NZ LARPS games, I guess…
Either way, someone is going to have to take responsibility for adding the non-nzLARPS events, it’s just a question of who and how.
what is this… i dont even…
I’ll do it on a medium-term basis. I’m this close to developing my own calendar to keep track of my own stuff, so it’s not that much more effort to include everyone’s stuff.
But I’m hopeful that down the track there’ll be a smarter solution using Science! Or at least php 3.whatever-friendly scripts or what have you.
If you’re happy for me to add stuff to the calendar please add me (amphigori at g mail dot com) as someone who can edit events on that calendar and I’ll start populating it with stuff.
the OWOD setting / NMET system game
The Phoenix Rising is a long-running Vampire chronicle in Auckland that used to be part of the international “One World By Night” organisation but has recently become independent, as mentioned here.
The group is an affiliate of NZLARPS, and has forums here:
If we want to keep this Google calendar up to date, how about making it editable from all the official committee member Gmail addresses (national and regional)? That way when new committee members get access to their email they will also get access to the calendar, so that anyone on the committees can update it.
On top of that, the personal Gmail addresses of any kind volunteers like Jackie who want to help it up to date could be given access.
That’s what I was trying to suggest Ryan, thanks 
I’m also currently experimenting with this online calendar system seems to have some nice functionality:
Can I just say - I am glad this is finally having some potential movement. This kind of chatter has occured before so please - this time - carry it through.
Not @ Amphigori - you are actually organised. More at the people you have to lean on to get anything done.
[quote=“Xcerus”]Can I just say - I am glad this is finally having some potential movement. This kind of chatter has occured before so please - this time - carry it through.
Not @ Amphigori - you are actually organised. More at the people you have to lean on to get anything done.[/quote]
It makes me wonder though, if you are truly so concerned about the issue, why did you not step up yourself and offer to help like Jackie did? This community is run on people who volunteer their time, and for all its faults, NZLARPS does a really good job at helping run larps in New Zealand.
[quote=“Nikki”][quote=“Xcerus”]Can I just say - I am glad this is finally having some potential movement. This kind of chatter has occured before so please - this time - carry it through.
Not @ Amphigori - you are actually organised. More at the people you have to lean on to get anything done.[/quote]
It makes me wonder though, if you are truly so concerned about the issue, why did you not step up yourself and offer to help like Jackie did? This community is run on people who volunteer their time, and for all its faults, NZLARPS does a really good job at helping run larps in New Zealand.[/quote]
Yes it does Nikki - that is a very good point. Infact - I feel that the people who volunteer their time to help NZLARPS do a very good job. It is for this reason that I have not stepped forward to assist.
If i had the spare time and felt I could do it justice then I would have done so.
HOWEVER - I do feel that by pointing out the issue and creating action I have infact done a service to NZLARPS by creating action where previously there had been none. Isn’t it better to inspire people than to do a shoddy job?
Jackie, that looks cool. Would be much easier for people to see straight away which dates are taken.
So the Calendar is a google calendar?
IS it controlled by a google account?
Can we add commitee member addresses to it?
Is there an email address for it?
How about when people decide dates the email "nzlarps.calendar@gmail.com" and someone is in charge of it?
I’d be more than happy to look after the calendar.
There is a current Google calendar Chris, yes.
Ryan and I have both suggested what you’ve also suggested, that multiple people are given access to the existing calendar so it can be updated.
I’ve also presented an alternative calendar that I’m happy to keep updated (see previous posts).
Thanks Jackie,
I saw you were happy to do something medium term, I like your calendar too, but feel that something NZLARP’s controlled would be better.
Just for continuities sake. I don’t expect you to suddenly give up larping or anything, but theres the “Bus Syndrome” to consider
Honest question - are their some specific advantages of this alternative 30boxes calendar over a Google one?
The reason I ask is that the committee uses Gmail and Google Docs already for some society matters, so there might be some synergy in also using the Google calendar. Also, I guess Google is pretty reliable and likely to continuously improve their calendar.
Personally, I’ve always preferred the idea of building our own calendar that is integrated with the NZLARPS website database so that game runners can list and edit events themselves, it can handle game registrations and will know who is currently a member for that purpose, only game runners can see the registrations, etc. Such a calendar could in theory also list non-larp events of interest. However, it’s quite an undertaking to program a web calendar that can compete to any degree with the appearance and functionality of something built by a company like Google (and I’d end up being the person making the undertaking), which is why I haven’t pushed that opinion very hard. In fact, the event lister I’ve built that’s on the NZLARPS website almost reaches these requirements already. The two main things I think are missing are 1) it doesn’t look like a monthly calendar, it looks like a list of events 2) it doesn’t handle recurring events.
I think it’s inevitable that events will be listed in multiple places, and not necessarily a bad thing as it may reach different audiences. We have:
- Event notices here on Diatribe
- Event listings on the NZLARPS website
- Events posted on Facebook
- The (disused) Google calendar, or some replacement
- Selected events listed on whatislarp.co.nz for promotion
- Events listed on nzrag.com, especially Wellington ones
- Events listed on the Wellington larp email list
There’s a lot of redundancy, but any extra advertising that makes one more person likely to hear about an event and attend seems good to me.
The problem is when an event organiser wants to know what events are happening, to plan their own. For that purpose, what’s needed is at least one calendar that is completely exhaustive and always up to date, listing every known event of interest to larpers. The only two options there are an extended version of the calendar on the NZLARPS website (to include non-larp events and to show them in calendar layout) or something like the Google or 30boxes calendar. So I think it would be best to do revive the Google (or 30boxes) calendar now as the exhaustive listing. If at some later date the NZLARPS website calendar is updated to meet all requirements, we could always shift to using it then.
I’d like to see the Google calender back in use, with update abilities from the commitee members. It keeps things closer alligned and easier to pass control from old members to new. Theres enough functionality in google to incorporate wellington and auckland larps. Colour coding etc.
Some LARPs are run without NZLARPs affiliation - but are advertised in various places. We can’t exactly force these things to adhere to requirements. But for all projects run in conjunction with NZLARPS should be listed on the calendar. This could be part of the requirement of the appropriate commitee, when they approve the budget, or confirm details, that the Calendar is checked and therefore there is no clashes.
I’d prefer the Google calendar too, that’s why it was my first suggestion:
"As a suggestion, you could start by giving access to all the GMs of games that are run regularly, people who run games frequently, and the NZLARPS officers.
If people who don’t have access to the calendar want to add their one-off event (or an event that they think the wider community would want to know about, like Armaggeddon) they could email the marketing officers (or make a request on Diatribe) and request that information is put on the calendar."
Anna’s feedback was:
“I think it would be easier to investigate a calendar solution that doesn’t require so many hoops and if-thens.”
So I started looking for alternatives. (But I still think the Google calendar idea, as outlined above, is OK).
But, I also agree with Anna that there’s got to be a smarter way to do this using technology. Surely there’s got to be some sort of calendar add-ons for php forums that would allow members to update and maintain a calendar. Anna suggested there used to be something like this when it was still using php 2.whatever. Ryan, this is probably falls under your area of smarts.
We’ve always just listed these events in the Google calendar and the NZLARPS website database anyway.
There will inevitably be some clashes, it’s the sign of a flourishing larp scene. In Auckland, there are regular larps running on every 1st, 2nd and 3rd Saturday of every month. It’s not like every other larp can be expected to always avoid such prime calendar real estate. All we can do is try to minimise clashes, to give players maximum options.
Personally I think we need an exhaustive calendar so that game runners are fully informed when they schedule their event. It would also be advisable for there to be talk between game runners (behind the scenes at the minimum - we already have a private forum for this purpose) when they are considering dates, in case two groups are thinking of the same date but haven’t told anyone. But in the end, event runners can choose to plan for a date when another larp is already running. They are the ones who run their larp, not NZLARPS, regardless of whether they’re a project, affiliated, or non-affiliated.
A calendar integrated into Diatribe is a possibility that I’ve considered on and off over the years. There may be third party phpBB3 modules that will provide this. This would presumably allow logged-in Diatribe users to add and edit events. However, I have some reservations. One is that third-party modules can be difficult to maintain, especially when we update our forum with new versions of phpBB, and may have adverse effects on our forum. It’s also possible that they may not our needs well or look nice. Some investigation would be needed.
It may also be possible to use a Google calendar, but display it inside Diatribe. Google tend to be quite good with that kind of thing, and I’ve seen some solutions of this type out there. But it would still need people using Gmail logins to update it, and I’m not sure how we’d make it look nice or usable within the forum.
Personally, I don’t see the difficulty in using a Google calendar with various people and/or roles able to update it, so long as we have a rolling stream of people committed to maintaining it and to handing on the duty when they’re no longer able. The current Google calendar is a “ghost ship” because the captain left the helm. There’s nothing wrong with the ship itself though, as far as I know.