Please post any questions, comments, suggestions, concerns or the like here.

Also, if you'd prefer, emails can be sent to me at frpol@shannararose.com -- or shannara@shannararose.com.

I just wanted to say that this is a great idea.

I only have one concern, and it may just be me being paranoid or playing the devil's advocate. I am concerned that people making donations will start to expect preferential treatment or expect woof and his crew to jump when they ask for something.

My feeling is that my donation is just that, a donation with no strings attached. I don't expect anything from my other donations. For example, if I make a donation to the local high school band, I am not expecting them to show up and play a concert for me.

I'm just happy to be a part of helping keep RPOL up and running.

The only reason that names are being posted is to make sure no funds go awol and it is transparent...

Perhaps we should make the donation posting private?

You bring up a good point.

Donations are just that - donations.  It doesn't purchase any preferential treatment.  It just (hopefully) makes it easier for woof/jase and those who help him keep this site up and running for all of us who enjoy it.

Noone who donates should, in my opinion, expect anything more.  I certainly don't.

(Although I would still offer to bribe the dice roller into liking me. -- but that's a bribe.  Totally different situation) :P  Disclaimer: The statement about the dice roller is a joke, and is not to be taken seriously

I wish I'd thought of that with the dice roller.

Is there any need for anyone other than the admin group to see who's donating money?

Unless someone asks that their donation is kept private, I'd like to publish the names monthly or quarterly along with the amounts.

That way, people can doublecheck that they sent X amount, and X amount was received.  It provides reassurance that the $$ is getting to where it was intended, and is being passed along.

I intend to email everyone who donates thru the paypal account, and I will also email any who send checks to the US collection point -- IF they provide me with an email address.

Deserved or not, at a similar site during fundraising, there were some questions as to how much had been received and whether the donations were used as intended.  I'd like to eliminate any possibility of that happening here.

Another possible option would be to have the list of donations available for any who request to see it.

I think the list of donations itself should be public, but people should be able to request privacy if they want to.  If they want to donate, then that's their business.
They should be able to ask for an e-mail "receipt" if they want to be sure the donation got through.

Donations should still appear in the list though, perhaps tagged as being from "Anonymous".

Gorgeous - thanks guys, that makes sense to me - hadn't considered the receipt thing.

I have no problem with the list available to the general public being listed under 'Anonymous' for those that request it.

However, if no such request is made, I'd like to list the rpol user id.

Maybe instead of Anonymous, you could give them a number so they won't confuse their donation with some other Anonymous source?

That's a good idea.  Just assign them a number if they request anonymity... yeah... I like that.
Although long-term Prisoner fans might object (LOL).

"I'm not a number, I'm a free man!"

Question..

What would happen (gods forbid)  if Woof should become disinterested in Rpol.  would the Friends of Rpol take over the site completely?

The FoRPoL would send an elite team to subdue woof, and use extreme brainwashing techniques to change his mind.

The hope is that with a bit of support that won't happen.  Unlike some people Woof doesn't seem to be too proud/arrogant/stupid to accept support from others.

Nope...

If woof loses interest then the site dies...

He owns the code, he owns the site...

Unless he GPLs it that is...

If I lose interest in the site I'll hand the code and administration over to RoRPoL.

Woof - Thank you.

While I  have known that for a while, its  nice to hear it  said publically, and will put the minds of  many people at rest.

I  hope it  will be a long, long time (if ever)before you lose interest in gaming and RPoL -  not only  would we lose a brilliant admin, but it would be a personal disapointment to me as well.  I  enjoy playing alongside you  too much to  want that to happen.

Hey - just  seen the  numbers comments!  I want to  be No6  :)

That's real good John! How are you supposed to be anonymous when you pick a number??

Definitely good to hear.  At least my donation won't be wasted like it was before *grumble grumble*

Didn't manage to back out of it? Stop payment? Anything?

I donated through Amazon..  and when I went to cancel it, the transaction record was deleted (AKA he already removed the donation funds, probably because a few donations were removed, and he wanted to keep what he could)

Sorry for your losses, Onion-ole-pal.  For what it's worth, I appreciate your help with the portraits... as do many others that pass their gratitude through 'portraits@rpol.net'.  Any money you decide to donate as well is doubly appreciated.

Heres a question:

Is FoRPoL going to expand?  As in get more people to take donations and stuff?

I'm pretty sure you guys could handle it, but, it'd place less burden on you if you had more volunteers, to do the paperwork and stuff.

*Note:  No, I'm not volunteering.*

I have no idea why, but, I was curious for some reason.

We have deiberately  written the rules and constitution so that  we can expand later, for three main reasons.

The first, is to help people who can't make credit card payments.  At the moment  we can take payment by cheque (check) in US Dollars, and are opening an account to take UK sterling.  We might be able to take payments in Euros through the UK account but I am not  sure.   However, those accounts  will only  be able to take funds in the designated currencies, as the commission that we would pay on currency exchange through the banks will (in some cases) almost  cancel out the value of the donation.  Ideally we want people to  contribute via Paypal, because our commision rates  will be lowest that way -  and more of the onation  will actually  get to Woof to help fund the site.

Secondly, we  want to be able to help Woof with other things.  There is  scope for more  work to be done on the FAQs, the F-RPoL website etc, and there is no way that we can do all of that.

Third, we want redundancy.  If  something happens to  any of us, we need cover so that things don't fail.  Eventually, I  hope there will be enough people involved that  should someone leave  we  get  seamles  cover for the role they perform for us.  Eventually, I am  sure, all of us  will move on to other interests and games -  BUT  hopefully that  will be many many years in the future.

HOWEVER, we want to  make sure the systems that we have are working properly before we do that.  We have tried to set up systems that are transparent, and secure -  which  will make  sure that  your  donations do go to the right place at the right time.  Once  we are  happy with  what  we  have got  in place, then  we  can  start looking at ways to get other people involved.

If we have different country representatives... shouldn't they have a means to talk to their country members?  Should we dedicate some messagebases to them here in this game/forum?  One for US players, one for Canadian, one for UK, one for Aussie, one for ... um... Timbuktu... etc. etc.

I am not sure we  have a large enough community, ATM, for  country discussion boards -  but that is certainly  something we can look at.

However, I  tend to see Country Reps as the people who carry out administration for  FoRPoL in those  countries rather than as representatives of the members in those  countries.  After all, Country Reps are appointed by the Committee to  do its  work, rather than eleced by the country's users  to represent them on the committee.

Well, they do things differently over there with the Queen's right hook so close at hand.

I've got a US Embassy made up for Group 1.  I have Kabin and Despyzer added ... and any other Americans want in, they're going to have to ask... cuz I don't have EVERYONE's address.

Actually, I rather hoped that  we could all be one big community, there is (IMO) way to  much national politics  goes on in the big wide world, for us to  have to  have it  here, we are after all one big community.

Country Reps are only liable to be in place for those countries where we have a financial interest in having a country rep. ie there are  enough people  who  need to  contribute by Check.  Who represents people from countries where we  don't  have Country reps?

BUT -  IF you are  going to  go  for  democracy, then it needs to be done properly, Reps need to  be  elected -  and I will argue strongly against constituencies being organized on nationalitic lines, as I  really don't think they are appropriate here.

The purpose of the Country Reps is to vote on the matters at hand, not just for the financial benefit.  I re-read the description of the Country Rep.  When items go for a vote, the reps vote on it.  When new board members are elected, the reps vote on it.

If you don't want reps to be identified nationally, then they shouldn't be called Country Representatives. Simply "Player Representative" would suffice, and then keep the "Country" associated with the "Treasurer" title.

Scratch that US Embassy idea.  I've been vetoed.

And seeing as how I do not understand what a Country Rep is... I'm going to resign from that title.  But I'll gladly remain Secretary.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:04, Fri 27 Sept 2002.

Vetoed?  Thats a bit  harsh ...  Stil perhaps  Country Rep is a misnomer.  I always  saw it  as Representing FoRPol in that  country -  rather than representing that country to  FoRPoL.

Originally the role was called a 'Prefect', after the Roman tax collectors and French/Swiss regional administrators.  BUT that was vetoed after lots of  people said it was confusing and sounded too much like an English School  ...

So  what is the right title  for someone to carry out the business of FoRPoL in a country?  Any offers?

Sub director?

Sub collector

how about commitee rep zone x   (where x = a country number)

Country Contact would be fine no?

Particularly if you explained it was only for the purposes of depositing money into a bank account held in that country before sending the money on to the main account?

John, you can call it whatever you want.  A representative to us in America is someone who votes on issues based on what their state's concerns are.  We vote those suckers into office quite often... and vote them out if they don't represent us well.

You are having only 'Country Representatives' voting on issues in the meetings.  If they aren't voting for their country, then they aren't representing their country.

If it is solely for the monetary benefits that you are seeking these people, then I'm a bad choice for that position anyway, as you well know.  I'm not into politics, John.  I'm very opinionated, and sometimes extremist.  I wouldn't be a good representative of my country unless I got their input.

So, considering I've been voted Secretary, and I'm leading the Portrait affairs, that's plenty on my plate.  Get someone else for this representative slot.

You are going to have to update your web page definition for that term... whatever it ends up being.  And you need to decide who's voting on what anymore if all these representatives are for is for collection purposes.

Maybe you should open those meetings up to the public and let the players who are interested vote on the topics that go before the board.

out of curiousity - what issues are we expecting to come up with that require democratically elected national representation?

I mean isn't our job to make woof's life easier, collect the money, and pass it onto him so the site keeps running?

I must be missing something here, but I just can't see why we need to have an admin engine that seems to be creating work and problems for itself

Isn't it better to work the bugs out of the system before you HAVE to rely on it for something important?

John, why not just call it a board member?

I just worry that we're losing sight of the end game in the details.

There are more important things to worry about. Like me getting more players in my game. Through threat of violence if necessary ;)

Board member sounds good to me.

And, personally, IF there are any votes to be cast, I'll be considering what others have to say about it and not just my own opinion.  (assuming that I'm voting).  I also think that anyone here should be able to voice his/her concerns about any FRPOL issue however they want.

I don't think we need to worry too much about all this - let's not complicate things and stir up the buncha hoopla that 'elections' *shudder* seem to create.  If there's an issue, get it out there and talk about it.  Compromise, to me, is better than voting any old day.  And, quite frankly, I don't expect to be voting on a lot.

If things come up that cause me to resign (or be 'removed') as treasurer/collection rep (whatever), I have the responsibility mindset that will make sure I give enough notice that a smooth and easy transition can be made with whoever picks up it up.

Now ... I vote with Jhael.  Let's not complicate things any more than is ABSOLUTELY necessary. :P

I'm not complicating a thing.  I was seeking to clarify the position.  Now it doesn't matter.  Problem solved.

Dollsy ... *sigh* .... No, leaving annoyed feelings, which is definitely what I'm 'hearing' in your post, isn't problem solved.

Guess that I'll just go back to my collecting and holding funds til woof gives me a yell as to what to do with them.

I'm annoyed at a number of things... and I don't intend on being a part of an Inner Circle.  It would make me a hypocrit.  IMHO, John needs to change the structure to allow the public in and permission to vote.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:18, Fri 27 Sept 2002.

In the UK a Rep is a travelling salesman - they represent the organisation they come from.  Simple as that.

More over -  we have not started a democratic organisation -  we  have  started a group of  people to  help RPoL  in what ever  ways they can.  The current position is that there are four Friends of RPOL -  me , Doll, Shan, and BBR.  No one  else  was at the meeting that formed the society.  According to the rules  we accepted between us  only those  four  people have a vote (ATM), although we deliberately  made it possible  to add more people as we went along.

Nor is FoRPoL  set up as a user community  for getting information between users and the RPoL Admin - they manage they successfully on their own.

FoRPol  is there, as a formal organisation, soley to  collect funds - and at the moment it  does that on the back of Shannara (in the US) and me (in the UK) - we are using our credit cards to guarantee and back the paypay accounts, and bank accounts  opened on the strength of Shan's IRS  number and my  credit record.

So I am lost as to  why we  should make it  more democratic or  how it  could be  seen as part of an inner circle.

As to the 'Country' role -  I  don't  care  what  we call it -  it is  there primarily so that people can open bank accounts in the Friends of RPoL  name, in their own country, if  we want them to.  Its  always  good to have two reps  so that  there is  someone local to  keep an eye on what is happening  with any local accounts.

That's what I thought, that I was here to keep an eye on Johnb and make sure he stayed honest ;o)

Seriously, I think it's a good idea to have two representatives/grand-high executioners/supreme pooh-bahs, whatever you want to call them, in each country.  That way if more than one signature is needed for a bank account or whatever, then there is somebody already set up to help out.
Same goes for if the main rep suddenly went senile (well Johnb is getting on a bit), or (heaven forbid) died, you need a second named person to step in and sort out the bank account.
The title doesn't matter, somebody is needed to organise bank details, and it's better if the people doing it are familiar with the local system of banking.

So, you can call it "A guy who knows a bit about Country X banks and financial stuff", or you can call it "Country X rep".  Does it really matter, so long as the money gets through the system to where it's needed?

Hi guys,

Is there a place where the minutes of the meeting, or at least an outline of discussion and decisions made/tabled, are posted?

I can see a need for care, since we are separated by a common language, of how we interperet certain words.  Being an Enlishman relocated to Arizona I know some of the problems - particualrly when I asked a lady colleague here if she had a "rubber" I could borrow.

I have to agree I see this less as a democracy or republic. It is a place somone has taken the time to set up, and asked for assistance to keep it going, quite fair.  As a donating player, I have no particular "rights" to anything - I am just helping to keep something I am enjoying going.  If it stops being fun, then the donations stop, so as a dynamic it will affect the decisions of the owner(s).

The best we can expect is a forum and, because of the potential volume for "input", it would be proper to have an organised conduit system to keep it under control.  It may be that each coutry does need a representative, and eventually a regional reps - may this break down to state/county/big city reps - who knows?

Just as an aside, a representative in UK could be a salesman representing his company, it is also what a Member of Parliment is supposed to be doing for his constituents.  In the US it is also a saleman term, but applies to the person chosen to represent the contituents of a State in Government.  Same thing in many ways, just a different use of nomenclature.

As Yoda might say "Common language, separated by, are we"

Anyway, let me know how I can help.

Peace,

Raymond : )
This message was last edited by the player at 20:13, Fri 27 Sept 2002.

Well, if you need two people for financial reasons from each country, you're missing quite a few countries.  And I cannot do anything financial, so someone else is needed.  Voila.  That's pretty much what I said from the beginning.

Razewun, the notes of the meeting are on the web site.

Doll -   you are one ofthe best scrutineers in the whole of the obline gaming community -  and you can do that within the comitment level you  set out originally -  and I  hope you continue to  do that.

I  think our biggest  country is the US - and  it is an especially responsible position  making sure that shan does her job properly (not the I  doubt her in the least) .  But I  can't think of anyone who is better at  tying us  down to  proper behaviour  :)

I could help with the banking in Australia.

I am a banker in  Perth, Western Australia, Woofs home town.

I can get the group a fee- free account for donation purposes in Australia (which is a big deal given that Australia is the second most expensive country in the World for banking).

Let me know what I can do.

Sounds bloody good t' me, lou!

Sorry, I must be a real dummy but could some one explain the practicalities of making a donation, I imagine that somewhere on the net is a form I can fill in with my card details and such, where should I look?

Nevermind, found it, perhaps there should be a note of the FoRPoL web page on the 'how to donate' thread.

Alphapred -  done

Lou -  will be a short  while before  we  can deal  with your offer :)  BUT  that  doesn't  mean  we have forgotten you  :)

Thank you kindly sir.

So ... for the "Friends of Role-Play Online" group, you sure are a rather unfriendly lot.  There should be more socializing going on... more reminders about the Paypal stuff... more thoughts on raising money and seeking volunteers.

I know Shannara's got a busy RL situation.  But what about you, John and you BBR?  Too busy as well?  Who's minding the shop?

Currently holding the meeting in a board on this site.  Because of RL difficulties (not just for Shan) we decided to do it this way instead of by chat this time (it was just too difficult to get a time when people could all be present).
As for the rest of it... some of it is already being dealt with.  Wait and see.

*sigh of relief*

Glad to know you're still alert.

Being alert is good. Just don't through spagetie at me.

Still working on both a set of FAQs, and on a set of possible graphics for Woofy to use as he sees fit. Not sure if Spike sent the last batch (Never did get feedback from Woof on them, *grin*), but I'm working on a new player's FAQ at the moment, and wondering if I should bother cleaning up the GM's FAQ that's no doubt at the bottom of Beginners by now.

Well do people still even look at those? I do I just try to act wierd. But I mean that the epople that just now get in rpol do they notice them? When I first started I didn't even see it.

Cartman:

Hopefully that will be resolved, and the FAQs be a mandatory read before people make new accounts, *grin*. That, would solve nine tenths of any troubles we have right then and there.

Oh I would like to qout that games that will couse should be in adult. Because there is a digimon game that does this. Im just cocerned that if a child gets on sees the word then uses it at home the parents may do something. Or then again it could just be a semi problem.

Sorry I didn't get back to you Nams!

I thought they were all good, with the possible exception of the red ones being too dark.

Touching up/finding a replacement for the thread icons would be a good area to target.  At the moment they're transparent gifs with fairly well defined image borders so they work on all the colour schemes (well, they work well enough...)

Forcing people to read the FAQs would be a good idea, however it'd spoil one of the nicer things about RPoL... how easy it is to join.  Well, IMHO.

I may do just that before I wander out, Woof. I've got a few ideas for new message/no-new. I'll take a look at the present sizings on them, then put something together.

Woof;

I'm almost done with a dozen or so possible new indicator graphics. They're simple, and perhaps a few bytes each. Ah, compression...

F-RPoL (the financial arm of this forum) held its latest meeting in December 2002 - the full minutes are published on the website at http://www.hclub.fsnet.co.uk/F-RPOL/ then select the 'Meetings' and 'December' links.

In short - We decided to appoint a publicity manager to help us raise funds, to open an Australian bank account, and to change the Country Rep title to Country Coodinator. The rest of the meeting was making the appointments etc.

We asked Jaime to take over the vacant US Country Coodinator role - and I am pleased to say he has accepted the role. We also asked Lou to take on a role as Australian Country Coodinator and open an Australian bank account on our behalf. Again I am very pleased to say that she has accepted the offer.

A donation question;

Do you accept paper money orders. Not a wire-transfer, but an actual "anonymous" check-style money order. I can provide it in USD, Aus-dollars, or British Pounds, Euro, whatever.

*grin* I dunno.  I tried to cash a Canadian postal money order once and it took me five banks to find one that'd do it ... then they made me wait 2 weeks for the money, like Canada wasn't going to pay up or something.  :-)

We're not talking Canadian fund, *grin*. We're talking about a lovely means of essentially, producing a universal cheque in the local funds.

Yeah, mine was written in US Dollars, but that didn't make any difference.  But, hopefully, the people here aren't stuck in small towns with doofabim running the banks.

Yep  We take  all sorts of  money :)  although we prefer you  don't send  cash   -  thats  just  too tempting, especially when the pub is only a step away ...

Errrrr  no  that  wasn't  what I  meant ...

There are THREE adresses in the 'Donations' thread in this  forum  to  which  you can send paper donations.  One in the US, one in the UK and the third in Australia, you  should choose the address that  matches the curreny  you want to send.  That way we don't get charged exchange fees.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:02, Tue 18 Feb 2003.

If anyone wants to send anything 'paper' to the Aussie account, I can exchange the foreign amount without fees (staff priviledges) so feel free to send them to the address given in 'donations'.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:28, Thu 20 Feb 2003.

Eek... all the threads are disappearing ... everywhere!

Repent ye sinners for the end is nigh!

Is it time for further donations? I am willing to contribute to help solve this problem if it requires more funds.

You just let me know. I will also hit up the members of my games as I am almost certain they would all help out if they are in a situation where they can.

-B

Frater, there is no set time for donations.  Send what you can, when you can, and jase will use it as required.  :)

Just remember, the last thing we want is for people to feel pressured into donating.

Personally, I have set up a standing order  (regular payment)  for £1.50 per month  :)

Now I  just  don't  have to  worry about it ...

i have an idea for the dice roller that would be darn useful- multiple rolls.

users would click a 'multiple rolls' button [to avoid people unfamiliar with the new feature being confused, and also for convencience], and this would open a popup window. there would be 10 rows, 2 columns of fields. the first row would be the roll [2d10, 1d20-3, etc.] the second field would be the 'reason for roll'. after all this, would be the 'and optionally select' section, for having special rules like dropping lowest, and such.

this would be useful for people rolling multiple stats at a time, multiple attacks, rolling attacks and damage at once, and so on. when the results appear in the log, they would appear as they do now, each result on its own line, perhaps with some sort of grouping to show that the dice were all rolled at the same time. the way i said the interface would work is just a suggestion, if someone has a better idea for how it would work, fine.

and if this has already been brought up, i apologise.

edit- and if this is an innaproprate place to post this, i also apologize.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:46, Thu 08 May 2003.

That question would be better asked in General, where Jase is more likely to see it.

okay, cool. i'll post it there. thanks.

Well, I do believe I'll follow the popular trend of bugging out of certain public threads.

If anyone has a question for me or needs me to do anything, I can be reached here or at shannara@shannararose.com.

I won't be accessible thru Community Chat, nor will I be reading or posting in General.

:P  I don't guess I'll be missed very much.  Jase, if you read this, might it be possible, sometime, to make 'general' a board that can be taken off the sticky list as well?

If not ... nevermind.  :)  I'll just exercise self discipline ... perhaps rewarding myself with chocolate every time I feel the niggling temptation to read but don't.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:36, Sat 10 May 2003.

I've just stopped reading certain threads in Community Chat and General. I find I can ignore most of the inflamatory rubbish that way without missing out on the threads and information I do want to see. No sense penalising yourself for someone else's bad behaviour.

I don't have that kind of self control.

I can't stand seeing people acting like jackasses without saying something -- and I don't want to be the kind of person who would accept it in silence.

As long as this kind of behavior is acceptable, I'll just confine myself to areas where I have some control -- Games that I can leave, games that I DM and can therefore darn well moderate, and this one (at least 'til it spills over in here.)

There's nothing in Community Chat or General that I want to read bad enough to have to 'ignore' them, and my blood pressure will likely improve if I just stay away.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:55, Sat 10 May 2003.

Like Shannara, I have decided to withdraw from the General and Community Chat boards, and for pretty much the same reasons.

 I would just want to figure out why one post changes an entire board. I am now trying to answer the questions for people and leaving so no one argues and changes the subject. I think that people shouldn't say something about anything else in a board that doesn't relate to the question. Plus if they want to talk about what they said then they can make a different board.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:37, Wed 25 June 2003.

On page 90-93 they have an article on Online Gaming and list some websites. www.rpol.net was not on the list though playbyweb.com is, as well as others.

I would like to email Dragon Mag and advise them about this site - which I feel is head and shoulders above the others.

Is that ok?

I'd be honoured, thanks!

Done.

If anyone else wants to contact the editor to get an Editorial comment in the Salemail section of the next issue just email to: scalemail@paizo.com

FYI, I am currently in the process of changing web hosting providers and domain registrars.

Therefore, there may be a delay in my receiving notification of donations made thru paypal while I wait for the transfers to resolve.

If anyone sends a donation during the next week or so and I don't get it listed in the Treasurer Information thread quickly, please give me a yell here.

Thanks. :)  *grumble* *changing web providers* *grumble* *darn incomprehensible instructions* *grumble*

Since jase may be in the market for a dedicated server,  Here's a couple I've come across, from people who also use the servers.

www.battleon.com  is a Roleplaying website that uses FLASH, and quite a lot of bandwidth and such, as you could imagine.  They use www.korksoft.com  for dedicated servers.  I've also had www.serverbeach.com recommended to me by a friend.

I believe he is talking about buying a server (big box that goes ping) and hosting it himself. I also think he may have found "the one" so don't worry too much.

Knowing Jase, he will post an update sometime soon with some more information.

elSpike (who cant be bothered modding down as his internet connection is too slow today)

Due to a change in my work environment I am now looking for a place to host RPoL.  Buying a server and collocating it somewhere is a lot more expensive than dedicated hosting, both in terms of startup and monthly costs, strangely enough.  So I am now looking at dedicated server offerings.

The best one I have found so far is;

http://nazgul.sagonet.com/servers/bargains.php

Alas it doesn't come with a second hard drive or backup, but nothing under $99 a month seems to anyway.

Current funds would pay for this for a bit over 2 years.

I suspect that should there be ongoing costs, there are those of us who would keep it payed for.

Indeed.

And if people put in a bit now and then, then I am certain the cost for each person will be quite small while the sum in the end will be large enough.

I for one would be more than happy to put in a bit every few months.  :)

The power plan from here also looks good;

http://www.serverpronto.com/compare.shtml

And it includes 2gb backup a month.  Alas RPoL currently using 3.5, though it does compress pretty well.  (c:

*grins*

Would RPoL be interested in  re-selling some of its space?  I  currently pay  for  domains and webspace -  I  would  be prepared to close the accounts I  have got and xfer the stuff to the RPoL  server -  and  pay you a similar amount on a regualr basis.

I understand there might be  extra startup costs -  and if they aren't too high -  would be  prepared to pay those.

So maybe -  RPoL webservices?  :P:P

(its an offer of a way to help share the RPoL costs if  you finish up with more space than RPoL needs)

Absolutely, I'm not sure if I'd want to do it for every user, it depends on how easy it is to setup and keep track of payments I guess, but yes.

Which is why I'm also wondering if the former offer would be better because of the extra bandwidth.  We shall see what else comes out in the wash.  (c:

Nice idea there JohnB... :)

If you need more people for that, jase, then you could count me in on it too. Right now I have minimal traffic to my site, it is only the portrait generating traffic, really... But then I haven't opened up official either! ;)

Maybe that also would solve the problem that some people seems to have with the female portraits...
This message was last edited by the player at 17:24, Sun 13 June 2004.

I'm sure that there wouldn't be a problem with sufficient donations. We saw how willing people are to donate when jase raised the issue of buying a server. As soon as there is a real reason to donate I'm sure the money will come rolling in. :o)

Speaking of images ...

Can I delete my backups of the images now?  Its  going to be time to  have a tidy up of my hard drive soon  :)

I got a copy of them on my drive (and a CD). Thought it was for the best!

But I will leave it to The Man Himself to say yes or no to you so I won't be sitting in a rain of Wizbangs from Oz or some such... ;)

Sure can.  I've also got a copy.  Delete away.

i dont get this thing!!!isn't this supposed to be a "RolePlaying" web page???all that i see from the names of the threads are donations, donations and more donations!!!what would making a character sheet be useful for in this thread?!?!
This message was last edited by the player at 04:25, Sat 13 Nov 2004.

That'd be because THIS board isn't an actual game, but a forum for those who want to help keep the site running.

There are plenty of games listed in the other categories shown on the main page.  1,853 active ones at the last count.  Check out some of those and I'm sure you'll find something that grabs your interest.  :)

oh, im sorry, now i have read what this is about, sorry for bothering

I have noticed that despite numerous new posts on the General RPOL forum, that you keep the number of posts below 5000. Is 5000 a max number of posts allowed in a game? If so, what is a good hint on lowering the number of posts without deleting them? Does archiving threads lower the number yet still allow you to KEEP and READ them? I ask because my game is growing rather quickly although still below 3000 posts at the moment.

Thank you for any help or suggestions.

Powderkeg (or just PK)

Please re-post using the Request Access link in the Heaven forum for an official answer -- this board is for FoRPoL, which is a group of people who raise money for RPoL but do not run it ;)

Heaven is where you can contact the site moderators and the site administrator.  I don't want to do policy discussions in FoRPoL's lovely area of the board ;-)

Is there a moderator with the name 'SageBahamut'?

I see you already have done so, but just so my two year-old information from the last post is updated, rMail is the way to contact site moderators about anything to do with the site. ( /rmail.cgi )

On the rMail Compose screen, there's a checkbox for "to/cc Moderators" which sends the rMail to all of us.  There's also a list of moderators in the notice in the General forum:

link to a message in "General Forums"

We're also listed in the General FAQ under "I need to speak to a Moderator": /help/content.cgi?t=faqs&page=generalfaq
This message was last edited by a moderator at 14:36, Tue 18 Nov 2008.

I don't want to post in the wrong place, but after perusing the boards, this is the best I can think of that would probably fit.

I was thinking about the layout of the boards, and I'm not sure if this is possible or not... but if others would find it an improvement, and its possible, would it be possible to have the most recent post in a given thread appear at the top?

Again, I apologize if this is out of place, or been answered before, I used the search, but nothing came up... and I thought it might be a reasonably decent idea.

Thanks.

Hi cagedsoul,

This board is run by volunteers who collect donations for RPoL.  That's really the only thing it deals with.

You can post ideas in the General RPoL forum or the Technical Discussions forum, or (preferred) on the beta site: http://beta.rpol.net.

But, to answer your question, RPoL is designed for playing narrative games on, and so is designed to be read from beginning to end, with the most recent posts at the end of a thread since they are a continuation of the previous post (much like the "most recent" pages in a book are at its end, not its beginning).  Most people do not read pages from bottom to top, and so posts are not layed out that way either.

I know jase has answered this directly somewhere, but don't be able to seem to find it to link you to.
This message was last edited by a moderator at 03:33, Tue 16 Dec 2008.

Quick question - I notice that server costs are $100/mo, and you're sitting on about $1500 right now. So what are donations being used for? Buying jase pizza? (Not that that's a bad thing!) Just curious if the donations are actually... helpful.

(Related, is there a reason these funds are sitting in paypal instead of an interest-bearing account??)

Donations are used only to pay legitimate server costs.  Not pizza (we had enough trouble persuading jase to accept money for the server).

Yes, donations are helpful.  Having a surplus in the account gives RPoL a buffer, in case costs increase (as they have, several times since this board was set up), or in case donations slow to a trickle.

As it currently stands, if all donations stopped today, RPoL would have a little over a year to find an alternative method of meeting its costs, rather than having to tell people, "Hey, if we can't raise a hundred bucks by tomorrow, we're closing down." (then having to repeat that next month, and the month after that, etc... ) which is the way some sites appear to operate.

Also note that, if the site is forced to move to a new server host, there is typically a set-up fee involved which is equal to several months worth of server costs.

For example:

So having a buffer is a good thing.

For future upgrades RPOL must include some new features for editing messages. As an example an option to justify the text and manage paragraphs. Some players will like to obey the good rules of writing and we must agree that read an well written text is much more pleasant.

Nonethless this will add much more immersion since we can give to our adventures an appearance of a tale's book.

Thanks in advance.

p.s.: sorry for bad english, since it was not my native language.
This message was last edited by the user at 19:14, Sat 23 Oct 2010.

Please post your suggestion in the RPoL Development forum: link to another game

This forum deals only with the financial upkeep of the site, and is not the correct place to post suggestions for possible future development.

This message was deleted by the user at 04:12, Wed 08 Dec 2010.

This message was deleted by the user at 12:03, Sun 30 Oct 2011.

I am getting the same errors in my game link to a message in another game

Please rMail the admin, or post in the thread in General for reporting problems since the site update: link to a message in another game

This message was deleted by the user at 12:09, Sun 30 Oct 2011.

An enhancement suggestion: Re-sizable edit character window

When editing a character sheet the current window that is displayed is on the small side. It would be nice if one could re-size the window within the contents of the browser. Alternatively, I'd be happy even if there were some select options to make the window height larger so more of the character sheet could be viewed at once.

You'd probably have better luck to post suggestions in the RPoL Development forum. :)

I'm blaming this one on my age. Thanks. I opened up a post in the dev forum.

Where are the character sheets for fourth edition?

Character sheets are stored in the Heaven forum: link to another game .  If we have a 4e character sheet, that's where you'll find it.

How often are the FoRPoL Account updates made?

They're made, basically, whenever I get around to it.  Sorry that there's not a better answer but it's the truest one.  I try to do it around once a quartr, so we're probably due another one.  *sigh*

And updated.  Thanks for the reminder.
This message was last edited by the user at 18:04, Sun 15 July 2012.

Shannara, is it possible to donate in honor of someone?  Like donating $5 in honor of so-and-so GM(s)?  Or is that strictly prohibited?

You can do so, of course, but at best I will list your name or Anonymous (GM user name) in the donations list without other details.  I won't use donations to try to get around the site's prohibition on a public kudos list - and the only reason I will go the above route is that is what we did when some users donated to Unicef through RPoL to thank the lovely person who rescued our data when the host company mixed up servers during a move.

Hope that helps.

Somehow I thought you would say that, Shannara.  =)

Edit - but I think that's what I wanted to do anyway, if I'm not mistaken, right?  My name wouldn't show up - it would just say Anonymous - but if I wanted to donate in honor of, say, cruinne, it would say "Anonymous (cruinne)"?
This message was last edited by the user at 13:24, Tue 18 Dec 2012.

I try to be predictable. :)   Yep, that is what I mean, but if you decide to do so, make sure you put in the donation info that you want to be listed as anonymous.  Otherwise, I try to put some sort of identifying info on the list just so the donor will know that the donation was received.

I have been a member of RPOL for some time now and I'm always logged in. Recently I wanted to change my password but can NOT remember what my old one is. Is there an admin who might be able to reset for me or at least find out what my current password is?? Please RMAIL me with any answers. Thanks you!

I have a suggestion, I wonder what everyone else thinks.

What about a feature for the GM where he's able to set up what a players next roll will be (sorta a  advanced Fudge feature)?

You might as well tell your players not to bother rolling in the first place then, if you need to rig their rolls ahead of time.  Unless your goal is to make your desired fudging of player results more believable by removing the chance the might roll too well/too poorly for your liking.

That and if such a feature existed, how often would players trust their dice rolls anymore?  It's a big difference between saying "Oh, your roll of 18 totally missed/Roll of 3 totally Hit, we swear", and reaching across the virtual table, taking the dice out of their hands, and saying "Nope, mine."

EDIT: vvv

While you are correct, the opening post makes no mention of the Fundraising aspect at all.  I think some of the confusion is this thread can pop up on it's own on the sticky list (at least, it did for me it seems), which does not indicate the fact it's on the fundraiser board unless you already know FoRPOl means that.  Just a suggestions thread.  I know I had to double check that myself after the fact.
This message was last edited by the user at 03:23, Sat 11 Oct 2014.

Meanwhile ... if you want to make suggestions for RPoL, it's likely best to use the RPoL Development forum.  This forum is just about fundraising (and its run by people who don't code the site).

RPoL Dev: link to another game

This message was deleted by a moderator, as it was the wrong forum, at 13:39, Fri 15 Sept 2017.

Is there a way to block someone without reporting them to the mods?  The person in question has not, to my knowledge, broken the site rules.  I'm not looking to increment their abuse count.  They simply went off on a friend of mine over a very small detail.  I'd prefer to avoid that landmine by avoiding any games this person runs.

We have exchanged no rMails, I'm not trying to abuse the feature to get the last word, I'm trying to avoid the first word.
This message was last edited by the user at 23:49, Sun 17 Sept 2023.

There isn't any way to block somebody on RPoL, except for rMail, and that only prevents them from rMailing you.  It does not prevent you from seeing their games or ads.

if said person advertises a game they own it will give their user name in the ad thread.  Avoid them.  You could do a game search by this person's name om the GM part and it will show all their games so make a list and avoid them.  So sorry you had this problem.  As to playing with the person in another person's game ever again, you have no way of knowing that they do not run a character in other games they do not own.  : (

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9

I was reading through the RPoL rules again, and I noticed something that's probably unintended.  Rules As Written, D&D/Pathfinder Bards aren't allowed to have sex, because Polymorph is on their spell list.