My roommate (Alpha) is a writer. I enjoy killing him with work, and maybe Nexxy..... They need more regular work as is.

And here I was just thinking of helping out the writing team... :<

It's an interesting idea, giving the NPCs an ask blog of sorts... I'll bring it up to the writers!

Edit: Oh. Well. Seems one already knows. :P That's what I get for leaving my post window open for ten minutes.

lol. Well, Tiva's motivations aside, more things for staffies to do seems like a generally positive thing,as long as they want to do it. :P

I wouldn't mind doing it so long as my school schedule permitted. Gotta love those essays and papers! Seriously though, if it got more users interested I game for giving it a try.

(I use sarcasm a lot...wish there was a better way to convey it short of saying it or patterning speech a very specific way or someone knowing you well enough to discern it)

Yes Coda, one of us knows about it. xD I can bring it up to Nexy and Suze for a pitch though and we can talk amongst ourselves...all...4 of us besides the overlord and his minion.

I'll volunteer to help when I can (Similar to Alpha). I'm not the best artist or writer, but I can do both.

I can also write from time to time, but like I said before, we gotta find a willing (and very good!) artist first.

If you've always wanted to do a webcomic, then just do one? It can be like a fanfiction... though I guess in this case it'd be fancomic? o3o

I used to be on an avatar site (that's closed now cause the lead admin/pixelist/owner got too busy) and there was a user that made a fanfiction based on users on the site. :3 You could do something like that?

...was just about to say that, actually.

But then...that's just Lawtan's personal endeavor, and not really Trisphee's unique site focus...

I like the ideas brought up in here. Nice brainstorming, guys. *nods*

Just leave us alone with Staff..... Alpha hates my rambling.

I'm sure we can come up with something else if Law wants to do that on his own? We have time, as Toho has said Tris has stuff to clean up first before it should even think about moving onto centrepiece focus.

But that's just my two cents. o3o

I'm glad we can still brainstorm new ideas. That's why I love Trisphee, we're like a huge family that always wants to help each other.

>__< I think I mistook Taletha's endeavor, actually...

But, I'll work on the coding, arting, and possibly see about the Trisphee layering preview.

Sounds cool, Lawtan! :'D

The fact that we have moveable layers... I wonder if it makes it harder or easier for that. Hmm...

Hey now, if everyone is willing to pool together to make it happen, I don't see why we can't. Thing is, when I was discussing it earlier, I didn't actually mean to fire you all up about it so fiercely...lol. Does that make me...charismatic? >:3

Bur anyway, I mean there's already a couple of artists on Smack Jeeves looking to collaborate with a writer (though, doubt they're expecting a team of writers). That's a good place to start as any other. Or you can always just post "team of writers looking for dedicated artist!."

Usually stuff like that would be ignored, but then you just link this site and tell them its for this, and well...yeah. Kind of a decent portfolio exposure. ;)

Oooookay I'm coming into the end of this guys but I was reading and typing madly into notebook to try and get ideas out of my head. So despite my best efforts what you read below may be jumbled and crazy. I'm sleepy so that usually happens but apparently my better rp ideas happen then as well since those ideas are the ones I'm RPing now xD

Commence Jurinjo's Rambling Section!

Avatar Site isn't a good definition I agree. Most people don't know what that means and I'm usually embarassed to explain in real life. If only it were somehow "cool" but then the avatars would have to be the icing and not the cake. People don't come running when you say "ICING!" But scream free cake and you got yourself a crowd. Anyhow this analogy makes me want cake xD

This is shameful but I've been here just after beta ended I believe and you know what? I haven't read a single one of the stories/events. It so huge and intimidating for me. And I not only read books but roleplay. n,n;;

Teletha I love your idea! ...mostly.

While I love the idea of such a webcomic it would require an dedicated team paid just to them. Not to mention the writers and consistent art style. Then again a consistent art style can easily be thrown out so long as quality is kept consistent (Gaia does this for their comic well). The beginning of such a story for Trisphee though...my brain is full of different ideas. Immediately I am thinking drowtales right now as an example towards this end. Which in my mind is a successful webcomic with a rich fictional world I want to learn more about. If you don't know of it recommend checking it out real quick. It is primarily a webcomic and a good one. Now it's a full blown world with non-canon comics on the side where players can nominate choices and vote what happens next. Moderators sometimes curbing the excitement of the users to keep things from derailing. There's also a RP comic feature I was part of for awhile. I have my own drow in scene apparently pole dancing xD And before I left they were looking into creating a "game" for the RP comic or something. It was still in the planning stages so I'm not sure how it panned out. So as success goes I personally think drowtales sets a lot of good examples towards Taletha's idea despite drowtales not being an avatar site but a place primarily drawing in geeks and roleplayers (erotic fiction section of that site aside aheh ^^; )

I was a moderator once for another avatar site. While I wasn't intricately involved with monetary stuff I got enough of it to feel the weight of trying to fund an avatar site. Hiring artists in particular is difficult. Because...of reasons I'm not going to bother you with.

Random thought: incorporating people is done by artix. Admittedly it's usually all staff who get characters they do use item ideas created by users and they get creditted in game.

I see a big problem with the above ambitions is losing sight of this Trisphee we love. And well what is actually do-able? And what's do-able without essentially rebooting the site from ground zerio?

Also regarding games I loved the community-ness of games on Gaia. Most friends I ever made was via jigsaw puzzles. <3 With inflation in mind though does Trisphee want to award aurum for completetion? Probably not. But just a though what about token items? Token can't be traded and users can be limited to just the neat things in the token shop. (like a gift shop for gaming). Such an idea though might need some restructuring of the token shop and system but they would be minor. To keep inflation balanced. Afterall token items can still be traded.

That's the thing I have to put out. If we go through with this, we'll have to start from scratch. No one is gonna want to read the comic if the prerequisite is several volumes worth of story. It'll have to be completely re-done, and you know what, maybe that's exactly what it needs: More accessibility.

In any case, I'll mull over this further for a day before I open up a dedicated thread to actually get some people in on this (It was Law's idea! ...Kind of!).

Yeah, I think starting from scratch would be the best idea. Besides this way you'd be able to have control over the entire story from the beginning.

Honestly though, I'd read every chapter when I have the time. :) I'd especially be interested in reading it if what you guys did was take the Trisphee world and rather than using NPCs, used users that wanted to be a part of the story. ;)

^This idea. Totes to this idea.
(Tried to say that earlier in messages, but headache made my head...speech...thing not work completely.)

Lol. >_> That's pretty much the same idea I had: The people are the characters! And what they do, how they act, their role in the story is directly based off of how they interact in the forums. :3

So let's say we get an uber persistent troll pissant who keeps creating alts only to be banned: We have the comic's resident subject of abuse and torment!

Or...me, a totally badass mentor figure who scalps and takes names. >:3

Well then, looks like the two of you are gonna have a fun time observing and putting this together. :) I wish you both(?) the best of luck with this project or whatever you wanna call it. :P

Only here a day (supposedly) and already brainstorming a hurricane xD

That's what I was trying to get at about a beginnging. The artist of my fav comic (Calvin & Hobbes) once said something about writing himself into a corner. Anywho...does this mean y'all are going to read through all that story stuff o.o

No offense, but hell no lol. A nicely (whole lotta) condensed version would be nice though, since I imagine you guys will want to keep some of the ideas and concepts.

I wonder how many people actually have a clue what the fictional world of Trisphee is like? I rememeber an event some time back really incorporated the world into the items and npc and stuff. There was a lot of stuff and it was kind of neat yet hard to read.

Someone said something about continuity hiccups earlier and a way to address them but again I wonder what use it is when I, and apparently man others, aren't aware of what Trisphee is like...hmm so what is there to brain storm about the comic exactly? ;>.> I feel like a downer and totally not a contributor

There's nothing to brainstorm about yet since I didn't really take the plunge in planning anything out yet. :P

I'm tired lol, and I just want to lounge around tonight til I pass out. Tomorrow after I get my work stuff done, then I can start gathering heads together.

If I could weigh in on some of the proposed suggestions:

First of all, there are succinct summaries of each of the event stories found here. I would qualify that as rather condensed.

On a related note, after the Transition event, we... transitioned from using that storyline for our events to a more light-hearted plot involving the shop-keeper mascots of the site, while the former, more involved, story is being published in the Storybook forum periodically. I know the war events were popular, but those were an undertaking of a much better-equipped staff (and a more robust user-base) and we simply haven't had the resources available to be able to stage something like that again yet.

I'm personally indifferent to the web-comic idea, it's not my preferred medium of storytelling but I see the commercial appeal it offers, but as has mentioned several times, that is a significant undertaking and not something Trisphee as-it-is will be able adopt easily, much as we might like to. As a longer-term goal, though, I think it's realistic enough that we could achieve it if all goes well. I'm not sure I agree that it should become the principle focus of the community, however. To me it seems that something of that nature should be supplementary, not the main attraction of the site.

And while I can agree with the suggestions on offer up to that point, I have to go on record as being... aghast, really, at the thought of a user-interactive or user-derived plot for the site. Even just working with the staff-iconic NPCs in the past, there was a barrier in creative control that absolutely impeded our ability to tell the story (both in-narrative and having to hunt people down to get permission for every change to their character), I simply cannot imagine trying to write a plot where every single character was representative of a user on the site.

As a community role-play, sure, I suppose (I'm 50/50 on the idea of sanctioned RPs for the site, the idea, to me, seems unwieldy but there may be a way for it to work) but as the principle storyline, I don't see how that level of audience participation could ever possibly work.

I'm all for adding new features to trisphee, but I think a total revamp of the entire site might be a bit of a stretch at this time, especially since I expect it would be something of a sink or swim move. We might improve things, or we might be nailing the coffin, so to speak.

I'm all for the webcomic thing, sure, but the notion of a story based on user interactions doesn't sit well with me. For one, if what people say or do has the potential to wind up in a story then Trisphee may as well be one digital forum episode of Big Brother, or other such reality TV. This won't concern come people, but to others who are shy or naturally introverted, the possibility may make them afraid socializing in a genuine fashion. People may end up feeling like they are being critiqued or judged all the time for the purposes of entertainment.

Sure, you can say that people that don't want to participate don't have to, but would it be an opt-in system, or an opt-out? Are people on either side of the fence going to be treated differently from each other?

Clubhouse roleplays, story telling groups, fiction, fanfiction etc. are nothing that can't already be done with the set-up we have. Someone of a mind just has to sit down and start something.

It's alright to have something uniquely Tris, but keep in mind that if you get too much into a niche, you limit your potential userbase. You'd have to decide how large or small of a demographic you'd like to cater to.

I don't read web comics. *shrug* I don't think I would come here for web comics. Also, I don't play games, though I liked the Crane game, that was very cool. I have read the stories...but they are old and I am not interested in more of that.

I like the avatar layering system, that is huge to me! I don't go any other place that has a system like this one, or such pretty avatars.

So I am one of the users who comes and goes from here. I do not have a mule. I do not show up just for events, I come just to talk or to make an avatar. Personally, I think you just need some more people talking and buying things and enjoying the community message board aspect of Trisphee.

Your big suits are the avatar layering system and the community message board. So go with them at first.

My suggestions:
1) Change the color so the place looks new, get a new top banner too.

2) Get some people to make some new threads for you at say once per week to start. Award aurum or gifts to the creator of new threads which make it to a couple of pages without spam.

3) Do some re-colors of monthly items. Let the users vote to choose which ones. Do some spontaneously maybe too.

4) Once you have buffed the place up - advertise. Coincide the advertisement with an Event so people come and are exited and buy Runes and you get money for the adverts.

Uma! Such good observations!

I also have to concur that the layered avatar system, tons of item shades/colors, and forum community are the three features that make Trisphee unique on the avatar site scene. The games, story, and comics are all just extra things that make me love Trisphee more.

I know that a new layout is in the cards, we just don't know exactly when. Going forward, I would hope we not only focus on making things pretty, but making them intuitive and easy for anyone to use. Right now we have one menu and shortcut after another, and hopefully that will be done away with.

So your pretty much the capital of Trisphee then Toho (remind me that when I start applying for college loans xD.) And your priorities is what it has always been, activity, balance, and a working site.
Now my response is, even before Fen wasn't able to contribute as much time needed the site dropped considerably while all those same ideas were being sought after (when Trisphee lost it's "new" factor), after she became more into her work the activity dropped to the single digits. So what are you planning on changing other than being that capital and free go too guy?

Also one thing I can add to about activity (for something you guys can think about) is chart called the four boxes.

Imagine four boxes

Box 1: Is yourself, family, and all your friends.

Box 2: Your co-workers, peers, and possibly your church. (People you are typically around.)

---------------------------------------------

Box 3: Your community, your town, your presence in the area.

Box 4: The world, everything outside your general area.


Trisphee's main demographic is within Box 1 and 2. Box 3 and 4 is basically outside your circle of friends and contacts, something that Trisphee lacks grasp in. Galla is right on the mark about advertisements because Trisphee needs something that breaks out of Box 3 and 4. What I've been learning about a online game I've been playing is that some people who play the game for the first time do not stay for the game, they stayed because they met me and I was their highlight of their whole weak. Evidence to that is when I stopped playing for a week, that friend stopped playing all together after he spammed messages to me asking when I was on. So while you doll up Trisphee, and do try and break out into other boxes you need to remember that box 1 (which includes Trisphee itself) is always top priority, and that you constantly need to judge if you have enough things going in all the other boxes as well.

And finally, even with people talking and a community (again most important part) is Trisphee being able to immerse the user into the site. I hate using the word immerse because it's used too much for video games, but if a person can't find them-self able to immerse in Trisphee's culture, story, or community they will never stay. So your top priority is getting people here, and pushing them to join and then get them addicted. Then you can find ways to keep them addicted, and then do all those super snazzy things that you want to do.
Most of this you should already know, but I'm just breaking this down so it's easy to follow. I really like the idea's flowing into this thread, so you guys are getting more and more ideas to choose from, go wild!


And sorry that I was the one who pretty much ruined it for everyone. xD I did so intentionally though, I was hoping you guys realized this right away and found a solution because the interactive discussions with NPC's was a lot of fun. I really do want to see more of this in some way, I didn't even post or participate in the last event because I didn't feel part of any of it and had no motivation to get any of the event items. This is just one way to immerse people into the site. I kept saying this for the past year, but think of more ideas like this!

Random thought, and not sure how well it would work but I was thinking about taking something like Jurinjo's colouring book project (with Jj's permission of course ;)) and putting the gathered line art under its own tab where the crane game is so that section expands a little bit. Thoughts? Would you mind, J?

...... wait can we do that? With item line art? Or whatever?

No diea. I just like the idea of having a Trisphee Colouring Book, and using user created work like what Jj's been gathering makes it easier on the art staff.

I WANT EVERYTHING PURPLE.

JJ it's been awhile since someone has used that nickname x3

@Quiet: Well I technically don't own the idea since I took it from someone on Solia when I was a user there I would hang out in a coloring or "draw that avatar" thread because I was bored. I'm fine with it, though my permission isn't needed.

I am bias when I say this but I think a user generated gallery would be better than an official coloring game. I would gladly keep a separate post for Official Trisphee line art for people to color. But then again I do take hiatuses from time to time. Staffers could update my posts for me but do we really want that? Maybe a combination of the two. A space where official line art is kept. Then my thread where users can find various other arts AND unofficial line arts. If the world of Trisphee were to be sufficiently expanded/focused, and shopkeepers relatable there will undoubtedly be people drawing things like that. (another reason I'm for a webcomic buuut that's a another topic lol)

I'd be perfectly happy if the gallery was entirely user created. I like the colouring book idea, and since we already have a game section that's looking a little sparse, I thought that would be a good home for the base drawings. There can be threads and what not for people to show off what they have done. Or, there could always be both, with trisphee based work under the games tab and other stuff elsewhere like a thread, but I'm not sure how much it should matter.