I am okay with that idea. I'm mainly not keen on having 400 members on the smaller HW branches, and all the other side effects that would come along with something like that.

Ness... how do you tell people apart as it is? The problem isn't telling us apart, it's keeping straight who is who. We're not all going to be the same person, if that's what you're worried about.

Ah! Thank you Vanya. but I still vote negatively, for now.

Some great discussion here, awesome points.

From all my reading through this thread, here are my thoughts:

I agree with Jonathan's idea. Something like Google where you have a "Google Account" but you use it to "sign in" to different branches of Google. I think that would be ideal, and would work really well. It would serve to unite all of HW a lot more, and at the same time, still keep the uniqueness and separateness of each forum. With so many different realms coming into being for HW, I think a single account for the works would be most useful, save having fifty different accounts for the one world. I think this would also make things a lot easier on new members that might stumble upon each forum separately and - maybe - never realize that there are more than one.

For the same reasons Azlyn stated, I would not like the forums to pool their chatrooms into one. I remember trying the one chatroom when things were having a tech change, and I didn't like it. You feel detached from the world of each forum; somewhat stranded, with no other options if you want to have a chat with a smaller group of people. A whole new chatroom for all the boards to participate in would be a much better idea, in my opinion. That way members who are partial only to one forum or another can mingle together, and yet they can still return to their own forum's chatroom when they wish to.

However if these tech changes will mess up how each forum's statistics are measured, I don't think I would vote for the change. I wouldn't want something new when what we have now works for everyone.

Those are my thoughts, anyway.

I honestly and truly don't believe it would affect statistics. It would only change how we measure statistics; not the numbers themselves. We could use a new system, a better system, a system we should probably upgrade to regardless. We're not going to reduce data. It will still be available, just in a different container.

Well if that's the case, I'm all for it.

Bush, I need to test to make sure, but I'm pretty positive that sign ins will be like Google's, sort of. =)

As to the chat rooms...please consider any talk about the chat room purely hypothetical - that's not even something we have plans to change in the near future - it's simply something that would benefit from the single login if we should make plans for it in the future.

The more I look into it the more sure I am that we're not going to have any problems with statistics - they will be essentially unchanged. Again, I have to double-check this with test forums before I can guarantee it, though.

Andrew

That would be great, then. As long as ranks can be different, and I can still use my stats for research purposes and general info, then there really aren't any negatives, since I think the name thing can be taken care of with the suggestion I made earlier (at least I'm hoping, because that would be inconvenient, though not insurmountable).

I voted no, for basically all the reasons everyone else has already stated. I like things perfectly well the way they are now.

I'm all for this if it's going to be similar to how google works...that's one of my favorite things about google, you only need one account for email, docs, etc, etc,...so I'm going to say yes, I think I'd love this a lot (and be less intimidated about joining the other forums).

I havest not time to read through all the comments on this thread, so I am just going to toss out a couple of quick thoughts.

Firstly, I really, really like the idea of a "big HW bar" that allows us to navigate between all the different functions from any given page. That'd be amazing. Same for unified chat.

Secondly, I'm generally in favor of matching usernames for clarity.

Thirdly, yes, a switch like this would be messy. But if it's better for the forum growth in the long run by making HW a more cohesive entity, then it's worth the change.

Fourthly, thank you for bringing up this topic and looking into it, Andrew.

As to the unified bar, I just wanted to throw out that that'd only be possible with a single login =) At least, to the extent of what I'd be able to do.

Andrew

I read that SF and HF posts by standalone accounts could be affected. By standalone, you mean accounts by people that have only that one account?

Would posts from here be affected, too?

No posts would be affected. All that means is that posts made on the old, standalone HF and SF accounts would still be there, but you won't be able to log in on the account that posted them.

Andrew

I don't understand what you mean by standalone accounts. Do you mean that I would lose everything on my Lady Elanor account on HF, and SF? I could see them but I couldn't do anything with them? And I'd lose all the information on it and have to start over completely?

*sighs*

Without setting up test forums I can't know for sure what you'd be able to do with your old SF and HF accounts. I do know that your posts will not be lost and may even be able to be credited to your new account, with some working =)

Andrew

Sorry, Andrew. I don't mean to be a pain. I just wasn't understanding.

That's okay. I apologize for being exasperated I'm running on little sleep and I'm frustrated with myself at how few solid answers I can really give

Andrew

Aw, you're doing awesome! *Hugs* You're such a big help; so thanks for taking the time to explain, even when you're tired.

Anybody remember when Varon was accidentally deleted here on HWF? His old posts were still there, but he had to start posting under a new account. So none of his posted information was lost, but he had a new login. I think that's probably how it's going to be with the new logins replacing the old ones. Am I right, Andrew?

It still sounds too messy to me, seeing as how there are no real problems with how things are now.

One problem is that people who only have SF or HF accounts can't use the art gallery.


That doesn't sound very good...

Grace, you're missing the point here. If we lived by the philosophy of "Everything is the fine the way it is now" we would never progress. We'd never discover new things, or move beyond what we have. We wouldn't learn, we wouldn't grow, and we wouldn't improve... We're not trying to fix a flaw, we're trying to make everything even better. There's always a better. There's always a higher star.

And that was extremely philosophical for a technical discussion...

*Applauds Constable Jaynin's extremely philosophical post*

I agree, but I couldn't figure out how to say it, so I'm glad you did.

I know. I wouldn't protest, if it didn't seem so messy. I'm not happy with some of the changes it seems it would bring. But, now you have my two cents, so I'll bow out of the discussion.

FF posts wouldn't be affected? More or less? *Is trying to understand*

From what I can gather, FF posts wouldn't be touched, but the other forums would.

I really like the idea of having a system like Google's: you would log in to one forum, or the Art Gallery, and that would automatically log you on to the other forums---but only the ones you are already a member of. That sounds nice.

Don't feel like you can't say something, Grace. Andrew created this thread for the purpose of forum and member discussion.

Thanks, Airi. It's more that I already said my thing, so everyone knows what I think, so there is no point in me sticking around being stubborn. If I have any new thoughts, I won't be shy about them.

It sounds messy because I have to dip down into tech stuff to explain things and it's really not all as complicated as it sounds, but I can't say things certainly until I get the test forums up.

Andrew

Okay, Grace, just wanted to make sure.

I haven't had time to read through all five pages here, so if this question has already been asked, I'm really sorry.

My rank is different accross all three forums. I'm a Marcher Lord here, and this is where I spend almost all my time. I'm purple or pink something or other on sci-fi, where I venture occasionally, and I don't have a color on Historical Fiction.

How would that be dealt with, with a unified login?

Andrew said it wouldn't affect the ranks.

Wouldn't having one rank across Holy Worlds, like the higher usergroups, and just being assigned certain areas (like if you're not interested in History, not working there) work best?

I politely disagree. Some of our MLs don't even have historical or Sci-fi accounts. Some are not active. We want an active, fluidly working forum team, and if parts of the team are only active on part of it, it's not going to work as well. I'm an HRM on here and HF, but not on SF. Just like Elanor is an ML on HF and SF, but not fantasy. It fits the needs of the forum.

I see positives and negatives both ways...

I suppose there is a difference in "pay grade" between forum-specific jobs, and community-specific jobs. MLs, Council members, are more of a community Job, tasked with running and protecting the community as a whole.

*nods* The unified login won't affect ranks in the slightest, although it's definitely possible to move to a single rank across all forums if that's something that the forum team decides in the future. But that's their decision - I just code the stuff

Andrew

Right. I was thinking it'd be a lot simpler for you. Well, depending on what behind-the-scenes sort of script you're planning on using to accomplish all that.

No. Not at all. A unified rank across all three forums will not be happening, at any time. The forums are not set up to run that way, nor do I feel should they ever be.

I love you.

Ahem, ok just saying.

*chuckles and coughs * Love you too, Elanor.

Okay. Just wondering. If you haven't noticed, I'm a chronic minimalist.

*chuckles * The mention was fine, Eli. I just wanted to nip it in the bud. This type of system would not be good for HW, whereas it could work for other forums.

Right... I guess it wouldn't, as rank in a given community is more or less based on involvement in an individual community. Though of course, *community specific* roles, like the Council, already follow this system, as their concern is for the *whole*, and not the *part*.

Right. Because the Council is unique in their function, and operate for the good of the forum as an entirety, they are universal.