Goals of website - Discussion

nzLARPS
#1

This thread is to determine what we want our website to do in the future and look at the resources the hosting service NZLARPS go with will need to have to achieve these goals.

Some questions that need answering:

  • Are we going to offer projects space on our hosting site? Do we want them to be able to change their projects website?
  • How many people do we want to have access to the website to change it?
  • What kind of and how many databases do we want on the website?
  • How much storage space do we need/want to have?

If you have any other ideas of what should be on the website or other questions we need to ask please feel free to post.

#2

I’d like to see logged-in users be able to add events to the calendar and edit the events they’ve added, and for administrators (i.e. the committee) be able to add, edit and delete events, projects and affiliates. I think the mini calendar on the homepage is handy for quick reference, but a fuller calendar with full details of the events would be a good addition to the site. I’ve been working on enhancements in this direction for the last few days. The follow-up to that will be enabling users to register for events though the website, and event organisers to see who has registered and record who has paid. That’s something I’ve been meaning to implement for years, but it takes some work and I’m just getting to it now.

I don’t think the website is much use to experienced members of the community as things stand, but I think the additions above will make it much more useful.

In terms of the questions:

  1. A number of projects and affiliates already have hosting on the website in sub-directories, and edit their content via FTP. This is good in terms of flexibility (they can build anything they want in HTML), but does limit the usage to people who can work with HTML and FTP. We could look at ways of providing a simpler alternative for those who don’t want to do HTML

  2. I assume that it would be good for the site administrators (i.e. the committee members + any designated web monkeys) could edit the site. Right now that’s only possible if they have FTP access and want to edit the PHP/HTML.

  3. Depends what you mean.

  4. Space isn’t a big issue. It’s handy to have a few GB storage available so that we can upload big documents that need to be shared (big as in Photoshop files, not just rules documents). But apart from that, space is only really an issue for Diatribe (because it continually expands and now allows image attachment).

#3

Following my post about the financials from last committee meeting minutes, I was wondering about the idea of how to build up payment trust. My thoughts turned to Trade Me, where people have a rating. Good payments add up, and bad or late payments get marked against the person. Could this be applied to the membership database? It would mean more data entry by the organiser/treasurer after each game, which I guess no-one would be leaping at the prosepect of. But then people would be able to build a personal financial history, which would help GMs of games to ascertain whether to take the risk of letting someone play, if they have a history of saying they’ll pay later, but not actuall doing so. If it were open, then then incentive is there for people to pay on time, to build up their rating.

Also related to this would be a quick guide to experience - if a new GM gets lots of people, they would be easily able to tell if they’ve done lots of NZLarps games, or are new to the hobby, based on their rating.

Perhaps this concept is not necessary for the size of the community as it is at the moment, where the GMs work with word of mouth.

#4

[quote=“Hannah”]

Perhaps this concept is not necessary for the size of the community as it is at the moment, where the GMs work with word of mouth.[/quote]

totally, its unnessicary and a bit mean atm. maybe if we get like over 300-500 members.

#5

Something is necessary. It’s not just about recent events, we’ve had problems in the past with project runners not handing over the proceeds and participants not paying for events, and I think we need a policy on non-payment so that everyone knows what the consequences are.

I think a reputation system like Hannah suggested is too complex for our needs. Instead, I suggest a “no pay, no play” system.

People who are behind in payments could be marked in the database, and barred from participating in, or running, any larp that is a project of NZLARPS, or taking advantage of NZLARPS membership discounts at any larp that is an affiliate, until they make payment.

Being behind in payments could be defined as:

  • Failure to pay in full within two weeks of attending a larp that is an NZLARPS project or an affiliate with an NZLARPS discount available.
  • Failure on the part of NZLARPS project owners to pass on profit from project events within two weeks of the event.
  • Failure on the part of society officials to pass society funds to the society within two weeks of receiving them.

Sometimes life does get in the way, and it can be complex for project owners to work out finances after an event, but two weeks is more enough leeway.

While this may seem “mean”, what is actually mean is those of us who pay our way and execute our financial duties having to pay the way for those who are unreliable with money. It should also be clear that NZLARPS will not just bar non-payers from events, but will continue to come after them for the money. It’s not about punishment, it’s about making sure people know where the boundaries lie, and making sure that other members of the community don’t have to pay extra.

We may want to split this discussion into a new topic, as it’s not specifically about NZLARPS web presence.

#6

I just brought up the idea since talk was being made about databases and access to them etc. It was more of a brainstorming idea, or something to think about in the future.

I’ve mentioned before about having a wiki, but then I’m not an IT person, and don’t know what’s involved with it all. Its just hard to find solid information about resoruces available, such as gear shops, locations on forum style interface. It tends to get lost down amongst other newer posts. I suppose search works, but I often find it easier to browse. Just another idea… is that what Muppet was asking for or not … sorry for rambling if its not. :wink:

#7

I think Muppet’s asking for brainstorming, so you’re on the right track.

Steve Shipway started putting together a wiki, but there wasn’t much uptake of it. I think the problem is that between Diatribe and the NZLARPS site, people can’t be arsed with another different-looking website with random half-completed info on it, they don’t bother to visit it.

What might work is making the NZLARPS website more open to additional info somehow. Perhaps it could have a “Resources” area, with multiple categories and articles within it that users of the site (i.e. people with logins for the database) could add and edit. That way it will look like part of the existing site, and will be easily accessibly to anyone to view.

#8

I feel this is very irrisponsible thinking. There are various members of the community who find it difficult to attend events and are essentially pier pressured into attending. Resulting in them being forced to pay late. Having a public system like this will result in many people simply not attending and thus a drop in players. Not to mention the risk of embarresment of people finding out about their financial situation.

There are various people who ow NZ larps money and at this time it is the responsibility of the treasurer the President and the GM of the event to chase those people up. It is not and will never be the responsibility of the membership to follow up on it which will almost definatly occur if the information was made public.

On another note - a more easily and updated membership base would be appreciated so that GM’s both affiliate and other may confirm if somone really is a member when they apply for their discount.

#9

This is a good idea, and something I can incorporate into the event booking system I’m working on now. When players & crew book an event, the event organiser can be informed by the system whether they are current NZLARPS members.

If we wanted to implement the “no pay no play” system I suggested above, while keeping it discrete, then the event booking system could pass on the information that a player who is booking an event is currently suspended due to non-payment to the event organiser. Or the system could prevent them from booking due to suspension, so that the event organiser wouldn’t be informed, keeping the suspension entirely private from everyone except for the committee. So anything is possible.