The Suggestions Thread

[DoctaC]

I feel like having all the sports split up on the home page when the forum is still small is a little weird. For Football, Baseball, and Basketball there is only one thread, and there are zero for soccer. I think they would be easier to access if they were all just under one section for sports fan fiction, where you didn’t have to click on each individual sport from the home page.

Hopefully this makes sense it was kinda hard to describe lol

I do wish to do a soccer thread but I'm a bit curious as to whether we can use real life stuff as the basis for it or not.

Yeah I think that's fine. I'd pm a mod first though.

[Thunfish]

I feel like having all the sports split up on the home page when the forum is still small is a little weird. For Football, Baseball, and Basketball there is only one thread, and there are zero for soccer. I think they would be easier to access if they were all just under one section for sports fan fiction, where you didn’t have to click on each individual sport from the home page.

Hopefully this makes sense it was kinda hard to describe lol

I do wish to do a soccer thread but I'm a bit curious as to whether we can use real life stuff as the basis for it or not.

Yeah I think that's fine. I'd pm a mod first though.

Cheers, mate. Think I'll do that.

Uh... you lot might want to add some rules at some point in an easy place for people to see, while we're at it.

[NoE38]

I do wish to do a soccer thread but I'm a bit curious as to whether we can use real life stuff as the basis for it or not.

What "real life basis" do you mean? As long as you come up with the logos and most of the storyline, it should be fine.

Uh... you lot might want to add some rules at some point in an easy place for people to see, while we're at it.

The site is just in the beginnings, so we're still working on the rules and whatnot. They should hopefully be up soon.

[Thunfish]

I do wish to do a soccer thread but I'm a bit curious as to whether we can use real life stuff as the basis for it or not.

What "real life basis" do you mean? As long as you come up with the logos and most of the storyline, it should be fine.

I intended to tell the story of a new soccer league that would take the place of the MLS once some sort of corruption scandal took it down. It'd feed itself from teams of the lower leagues at the time albeit under new identities and the eventual MLS team that would make the jump somehow, so I did consider getting some of the actual logos that the MLS teams used at the start and go from there, but if I need to make them from scratch too, it's cool.

Otherwise, I can just write some other stuff if that's deemed no good.

[NoE38]

I do wish to do a soccer thread but I'm a bit curious as to whether we can use real life stuff as the basis for it or not.

What "real life basis" do you mean? As long as you come up with the logos and most of the storyline, it should be fine.

I intended to tell the story of a new soccer league that would take the place of the MLS once some sort of corruption scandal took it down. It'd feed itself from teams of the lower leagues at the time albeit under new identities and the eventual MLS team that would make the jump somehow, so I did consider getting some of the actual logos that the MLS teams used at the start and go from there, but if I need to make them from scratch too, it's cool.

Otherwise, I can just write some other stuff if that's deemed no good.

That seems fine. We just want topics that people actually put time and effort into. Do try and make some identities from scratch though.

[Thunfish]

What "real life basis" do you mean? As long as you come up with the logos and most of the storyline, it should be fine.

I intended to tell the story of a new soccer league that would take the place of the MLS once some sort of corruption scandal took it down. It'd feed itself from teams of the lower leagues at the time albeit under new identities and the eventual MLS team that would make the jump somehow, so I did consider getting some of the actual logos that the MLS teams used at the start and go from there, but if I need to make them from scratch too, it's cool.

Otherwise, I can just write some other stuff if that's deemed no good.

That seems fine. We just want topics that people actually put time and effort into. Do try and make some identities from scratch though.

Gotcha, will do!

[RoughRiders9]

Hello all. Glad to be here in this new forum! Is there an acronym for this place already? AHS? I suppose it is. Alt Sports? Etc. 

Anyway, I had an idea for this forum, if you don't mind? One of the things that bothered me a little bit about the SFF over at CCSLC is that there often would be brand-new users who only have like 3 or 4 posts and would make a brand new thread saying that they'll start something but they never go anywhere. It happened a little too often. Low-effort posts by newbies. I mean, I understand everybody has to start somewhere, which is fine. But I feel maybe they should earn it first? Something like unable to make a new thread if you have at least X amount of posts, and to ensure the posts are good quality, make a character requimrent so it's not like people would be "cool logo. go tigers" or whatever. 

I just want this forum to have a good discussion or good following instead of just a spamfest. 

Does all that make sense to anybody? I hope I'm not sounding too strict. If I am, let me know and I'll be happy to modify my idea or chuck it altogether. It's open for discussion. 

Thanks all!

~ RR9

EDIT: Like a few other users already said, I just want peopel to put in the time and effort to make sure this forum is good-quality. 

[MyTeamIsDr.Pepper]

Hello all. Glad to be here in this new forum! Is there an acronym for this place already? AHS? I suppose it is. Alt Sports? Etc. 

Anyway, I had an idea for this forum, if you don't mind? One of the things that bothered me a little bit about the SFF over at CCSLC is that there often would be brand-new users who only have like 3 or 4 posts and would make a brand new thread saying that they'll start something but they never go anywhere. It happened a little too often. Low-effort posts by newbies. I mean, I understand everybody has to start somewhere, which is fine. But I feel maybe they should earn it first? Something like unable to make a new thread if you have at least X amount of posts, and to ensure the posts are good quality, make a character requimrent so it's not like people would be "cool logo. go tigers" or whatever. 

I just want this forum to have a good discussion or good following instead of just a spamfest. 

Does all that make sense to anybody? I hope I'm not sounding too strict. If I am, let me know and I'll be happy to modify my idea or chuck it altogether. It's open for discussion. 

Thanks all!

~ RR9

EDIT: Like a few other users already said, I just want peopel to put in the time and effort to make sure this forum is good-quality. 

That's definitely something we're looking into! We all want the best out of the creators and commenters and are trying to limit spam.

[~Bear]

Hello all. Glad to be here in this new forum! Is there an acronym for this place already? AHS? I suppose it is. Alt Sports? Etc. 

Anyway, I had an idea for this forum, if you don't mind? One of the things that bothered me a little bit about the SFF over at CCSLC is that there often would be brand-new users who only have like 3 or 4 posts and would make a brand new thread saying that they'll start something but they never go anywhere. It happened a little too often. Low-effort posts by newbies. I mean, I understand everybody has to start somewhere, which is fine. But I feel maybe they should earn it first? Something like unable to make a new thread if you have at least X amount of posts, and to ensure the posts are good quality, make a character requimrent so it's not like people would be "cool logo. go tigers" or whatever. 

I just want this forum to have a good discussion or good following instead of just a spamfest. 

Does all that make sense to anybody? I hope I'm not sounding too strict. If I am, let me know and I'll be happy to modify my idea or chuck it altogether. It's open for discussion. 

Thanks all!

~ RR9

EDIT: Like a few other users already said, I just want peopel to put in the time and effort to make sure this forum is good-quality. 

I agree, at least with the post limit to start a topic. Nothing too crazy though, and we might need some more threads for people to comment on without spamming before ones enacted. I don’t know if we necessarily need a character limit or if that’s something that can even be done. Like you said, however, it could help with higher quality posts.

I’ve played around a little with the features through Boardhost myself. Here are some ideas I have that I think could help give a little more personality to this place:
1) Adding different ranks - this isn’t really applicable as of right now cuz the post count isn’t that high, but maybe down the line there could new ranks for ppl with 50 posts, 100, etc. As of right now we have New Member which changes to member when you hit 10 posts (not counting Mod or Admin).
2) Editing the header - the header is a little basic currently. Now personally I’m not too great at HTML, but maybe someone with more coding expertise could help? Another thing that could possibly help is...
3) Forum Logo Contest - ....a logo! Now, there would have to be participation, but maybe we could get some designs and then have a vote, with the winner having their logo featured on the header. Not only would it help with design of the forum, but it might be a fun community event to get people involved.

This is all I have for now. Let me know if y’all agree, cuz these could sound a lot better in my head than they do typed out.

[Steelman]

Hello all. Glad to be here in this new forum! Is there an acronym for this place already? AHS? I suppose it is. Alt Sports? Etc. 

Anyway, I had an idea for this forum, if you don't mind? One of the things that bothered me a little bit about the SFF over at CCSLC is that there often would be brand-new users who only have like 3 or 4 posts and would make a brand new thread saying that they'll start something but they never go anywhere. It happened a little too often. Low-effort posts by newbies. I mean, I understand everybody has to start somewhere, which is fine. But I feel maybe they should earn it first? Something like unable to make a new thread if you have at least X amount of posts, and to ensure the posts are good quality, make a character requimrent so it's not like people would be "cool logo. go tigers" or whatever. 

I just want this forum to have a good discussion or good following instead of just a spamfest. 

Does all that make sense to anybody? I hope I'm not sounding too strict. If I am, let me know and I'll be happy to modify my idea or chuck it altogether. It's open for discussion. 

Thanks all!

~ RR9

EDIT: Like a few other users already said, I just want peopel to put in the time and effort to make sure this forum is good-quality. 

Good to hear from you RR, glad you're here. Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated! We're in the process of establishing guidelines and every bit helps. I think we can make this into a stable and legit community.

[Steelman]

Hello all. Glad to be here in this new forum! Is there an acronym for this place already? AHS? I suppose it is. Alt Sports? Etc. 

Anyway, I had an idea for this forum, if you don't mind? One of the things that bothered me a little bit about the SFF over at CCSLC is that there often would be brand-new users who only have like 3 or 4 posts and would make a brand new thread saying that they'll start something but they never go anywhere. It happened a little too often. Low-effort posts by newbies. I mean, I understand everybody has to start somewhere, which is fine. But I feel maybe they should earn it first? Something like unable to make a new thread if you have at least X amount of posts, and to ensure the posts are good quality, make a character requimrent so it's not like people would be "cool logo. go tigers" or whatever. 

I just want this forum to have a good discussion or good following instead of just a spamfest. 

Does all that make sense to anybody? I hope I'm not sounding too strict. If I am, let me know and I'll be happy to modify my idea or chuck it altogether. It's open for discussion. 

Thanks all!

~ RR9

EDIT: Like a few other users already said, I just want peopel to put in the time and effort to make sure this forum is good-quality. 

I agree, at least with the post limit to start a topic. Nothing too crazy though, and we might need some more threads for people to comment on without spamming before ones enacted. I don’t know if we necessarily need a character limit or if that’s something that can even be done. Like you said, however, it could help with higher quality posts.

I’ve played around a little with the features through Boardhost myself. Here are some ideas I have that I think could help give a little more personality to this place:
1) Adding different ranks - this isn’t really applicable as of right now cuz the post count isn’t that high, but maybe down the line there could new ranks for ppl with 50 posts, 100, etc. As of right now we have New Member which changes to member when you hit 10 posts (not counting Mod or Admin).
2) Editing the header - the header is a little basic currently. Now personally I’m not too great at HTML, but maybe someone with more coding expertise could help? Another thing that could possibly help is...
3) Forum Logo Contest - ....a logo! Now, there would have to be participation, but maybe we could get some designs and then have a vote, with the winner having their logo featured on the header. Not only would it help with design of the forum, but it might be a fun community event to get people involved.

This is all I have for now. Let me know if y’all agree, cuz these could sound a lot better in my head than they do typed out.

Some great ideas, Bear. I appreciate you taking the time to share them. Every suggestion is being considered right now!

[RoughRiders9]

Glad to hear that everybody likes my ideas! It's definitely still something that we can work on to find a good and fair system for everybody. 

I'm not sure if I'm a fan of the rank idea? I mean, I know this may sound contradictory to what I said, but I don't think posts should matter in ranks, or if there should be a rank at all. I've seen some amazing posts from the best posters and they only have a few posts compared to some spammy posters who contributes nothing with way more posts than the previous.

But again, it's just one man thought. "Internet points" doesn't matter to me at all.

All that matters to me is that a poster has a good enough reputation to be able to start a new thread or whatever. Maybe a new user can still start threads in miscellaneous forums, but if they want to start an Alternate History Sports thread, then maybe it should be approved by the mods? I don't know? I'm not sure how we could implement that anyway. Not sure if that's too strict or not. 

A forum logo contest is a fantastic idea! That'll be great way to get everybody involved.

I know this is a brand new forum and it's early, so I'm fine if we... "ROUGH RIDE" it around for a couple weeks. (Sorry for terrible pun, haha) 

Thanks all!

~ RR9 

[RoughRiders9]

Another topic I'd like to cover, if you don't mind! 

Where do we stand on plagiarism? Now, I will be the first person to say that 100% plagiarism is a HUGE no-no.

However, in my original Solar League thread on CCSLC, I had a few teams with logos that were either ripped from real-life teams, and/or ripped from different clip arts here and there and recolored it, but I always tried to give credit where it is due, usually linking to the original logo/image.

In most cases, CCSLC would just lock the thread because of that. I'm surprised they never did it with mine but I guess since I gave credit, it's okay? I don't know. 

Either way, the reason why I did that sometimes because while I am a graphic designer hobbyist, that's just what I am. A hobbyist. I'm enjoy doing graphic designs stuff for fun and sometimes I don't care if I improve myself or not because it's not the important thing for me. Sometimes I try to improve myself. Sometimes I just want to make a logo to advance the story. The important thing is that I enjoy myself while doing it. So that's why a few of my logos are either ripped from a team and/or copied from a random clip art or whatever.  In other words, some of us are graphic designers, some of us are more focused on the story itself than the logos. 

Does anybody have any thoughts on this? Again, I'm NOT advocating plagiarism. 

Here's an example of what I'm talking about from my original Solar League: 






 

[Steelman]

Good discussion points, RR.

With your Giants example, while clearly you didn't stray far from the mothership, you clearly created it yourself using elements inspired by the original. With your Cubs concept, it looks much more like a straight rip-off though I don't recall how you presented it originally. I probably wouldn't have a problem with that one if the leaves weren't exactly copied. I think you could have done an original version of that pretty easily that wouldn't be a straight copy.

I think the main thing here is less about plagiarism (because frankly we all copy design elements) and more about giving credit.

We want to establish a safe working and creating environment while recognizing we're all of vastly differing levels of skill and ability. Part of "Alternate History" is re-imagining how things could go, so that could include current or past teams and identities. However, if your series is original or purely fictional work, then the concepts need to be original, even if they're heavily inspired. (ala, your Giants concept)

We'll be posting clear rules and guidelines this week to help us establish a baseline around here!

[RoughRiders9]

I wish I was able to link to one of my posts about the Callisto Cubs one from CCSLC explaining why but I had a whole backstory that said the team owner was from Chicago and moved to the moon of Callisto and built a city that's just like Chicago and is a Cubs fans all that stuff. I also originally link to the Chicago Cubs and South Bend Cubs logos in that post. 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts though! I appreciate it. I think you hit it on the head about recognizing that all users have different levels of skill and ability. I honestly think it's okay AS long you give credit to it (by linking to the original artwork).