BG Help Wanted Forum?

[Mojo]

I'm curious to know how interested people would be in a help wanted forum section where people could post about their common ambitions. A recent but perhaps bad example of this would be the dude looking for help with Aegis. A more appropriate and probably successful example might be a player posting their jobs who is interested in joining/forming a small cliquey Abyssea group. It might be nice for people who come to BG to learn more about the game but haven't had any luck finding other ambitious players. I know there's like a cross server section or whatever, but the game has changed so much that the original ambitions of that section are completely inadequate for modern times.

[Gwynplaine]

Totally.

One of FFXI's most long-term and fundamental flaws is how it always focused on players teaming up to get anywhere, while simultaneously being unhelpful and shitty for finding people.

[Colenzo]

Yeah, I could see something like this being very helpful.

[Sho]

Seems to be a cool idea. Sites with server forums, like KI and Alla, have gone on the decline since the advent of BG, so a Help Wanted Forum would be beneficial to the BG community. Job forums with in BG may (or may not) be beneficial as well.

[Niiro]

You'd need a subforum for each server for it to be worthwhile, otherwise things would just be too hard to find and too much would just get lost in the confusion. That's a lot of forum space to monitor so it would likely become just an unsupervised mess of inanity.

While it's a good idea I just don't know if enough people traffic BG on any given server for it to be of any real use. Lord knows BG isn't the most welcoming of newcomers who don't read the simple forum guidelines/stickies before mashing the new thread button.

Ha, maybe when making a new account they could add one of those clauses like when you install software, have it briefly detail the function of each forum and massively highlight the RQT/What's better threads, and give an idea on what does and doesn't warrant a new thread. Would help mitigate a potential influx of posters and maybe lessen the amount of mine for fish threads.

The Noob's guide is there but I just looked at it and it doesn't really mention anything about the actual functions of the different forums nor the RQT. Not to mention it's not pointed out to you when visiting/signing up to the forums.

Make it like a forum contract that automatically pops up when making an account so no one can say they didn't know better, make them check a box or something before they can continue.

"I have read and understood all of the above information and agree to not be stupid under pain of ban."

Hm, that would be a good thing to add regardless of adding a Help Wanted forum.

[jimbobsonofgod]

why not just rename the cross server application and Cross Server Looking for LS/Members
To something like a Help Wanted section and a Looking for Slaves to get me gear threads instead?

[TacoTaru]

I think it's a good idea and I see it's use, but I'm not sure how much I would actually use it. I don't think you'd need server specific forums as it could operate just as the Cross-Server thread has for years now. Server: Request.

[isladar]

I would be absolutely thrilled if people used X-Server for these kinds of things.

[Sho]

<Subforum stuff here>

Yes indeed, which is why I worded what I said in such a way. I'd never mention creating server forums, that would just be a huge mess. However a forum for "Help Wanted Blah Blah" would be a good way to consolidate all servers into a set, where people could post a topic on where they are from and what they want to do. Example: "Carbuncle Server: Looking to Spam Salvage for Alexandrite"-- any one from my server would then inquire within.

Also why I went 1/2 on separate job forums as well; the forums wouldn't be well supervised imo.

[isladar]

Job/server specific forums are a mess, not only functionally but visually. The X-Server Looking for LS/Members forum has always acted as a place for "hey I need help with [event/thinger/doofer]", and I would very much encourage people to make use of it for such. However, as with other things there is only so much you can do to point people in the right direction.

As for the Noobs' guide, while it does not break down what-to-post-where, as that'd be an essay in and of itself to try and cover each scenario, it says very specifically if you don't know, ask. Once again, though, there's going to be a degree of RQT-syndrome associated with that. The kind of person who would ask would read up, and kind of person who wouldn't, well, wouldn't.

[Purrloin]

In before one of the server forums becomes the "New! New Advanced" forum.

[Yugl]

If the cross-server forum serves that purpose, I would at least rename it to resemble its purpose. Many notions of cross-server imply that the posts are not limited to one server; hence, why you can receive applications from different forums. In fact, if we cleared it one of those subforums out and renamed it "Server specific Event: Looking for members", you would meet the demands of this thread easily. No need for sub forums for each post as long as people put "[Server] Need help with O hat".

[Gwynplaine]

I'm not a fan of individual server/job forums. They never seem to garner enough content to be worthwhile, and they merely attract a few viewers plus the handful of lifeless 10-year-olds-at-heart who live to bicker on the net. (not to mention do BG peeps really want to moderate that b.s)

[isladar]

Clarified the name of the Cross Sever: Looking for LS/Members forum and made an addendum to the addendum sticky.

[barber2006]

One of the biggest problems is keeping it timely. For instance, I'm about to farm nin body seals. The tiger is tremendously easy to 2 box but I still want to team up with people after rdm/whm stuff since a) they can grellow and b) we can split the cost of pops. But in 3 days that ship will have sailed so if it is in some subforum that only 6 people check weekly it's just not going to do any good. Sounds good, but hard to get enough traffic without it being a general nuisance to the current boards.

[mcb]

One of the biggest problems is keeping it timely. For instance, I'm about to farm nin body seals. The tiger is tremendously easy to 2 box but I still want to team up with people after rdm/whm stuff since a) they can grellow and b) we can split the cost of pops. But in 3 days that ship will have sailed so if it is in some subforum that only 6 people check weekly it's just not going to do any good. Sounds good, but hard to get enough traffic without it being a general nuisance to the current boards.

i would imagine something like that would be best left to jeuno shouts, while the forum would be for longer term stuff.

[Francisco]

I see neither substantial harm nor use in it... I'd forsee it becoming a forum of people posting "I need this..." with no one really caring or willing to team up with that person.

[Lovex]

why not just rename the cross server application and Cross Server Looking for LS/Members
To something like a Help Wanted section and a Looking for Slaves to get me gear threads instead?

I laughed. Imma a bitch, so my opinion prolly doesn't matter but, "looking for people to help me fund my aegis!" type sections dont seem very productive to me.

I guess it could be a positive section if its being used for recruitment...oh wait.. We already have a section for that.


No.

[Byrthnoth]

I think this kind of thing would have been more useful a few years ago when a larger number of people per server viewed these boards. Now something like this would only be worthwhile for events that people are willing to server hop to do, like farm Empyreals with a competent and dedicated group, maybe making Salvage superteams when that event becomes popular again, etc.

[isladar]

Well, now that it's settled that it's totally necessary and totally won't work, I think we're done here.