Can't we all just get along? Part II (joining the rpg conferences)

Jun 15 15:19 UTC 1997

Recently, I and the fairwitnesses of several other conferences have been
discussing combining our conferences.  The greatring, rpg, videogame, and mud
conferences all discuss various angles on the same topic, and are all
suffering due to lack of membership.  While the individual conferences cover
slightly different areas--as wide a spread as stage combat and mud
programming--all relate to the same basic idea--games involving some sort of
imaginary character or setting.  It is my belief that they could be combined
succesfully, and one active conference is better than four dead conferences.

This would be a fairly major change, though, and requires the support of the
members of these conferences.  So, I will request that this item be linked
into all the relevant conferences, so this idea can be discussed.  If there
is a positive response, and when any bugs get worked out, I will ask cfadm
to create a new conference, link in any important (and still-active) items
from the old ones, and retire the old conferences.

Please post any comments, suggestions, threats, etcetera, here.

response 2 of 62:

Jun 15 16:04 UTC 1997

I for one, have already agreed to the merger.  However, I do think that we
should come up for a name for the amalgomated conference.  Unfortunately, I
do not have any such proposals.

response 4 of 62:

Jun 15 21:22 UTC 1997

Well, I agree with this idea: if some people really have some problems dealing
with the discussions they're not interested in, they can just ignore them,
instead of keeping all these seperate conferences.

response 6 of 62:

Jun 16 00:23 UTC 1997

I read mud, greatring, and rpg but not video games.  I also finally learned
to use .cflist.  Doesnt matter to me whether they merge or not.

However, for new people, it would be far more convenient to have them all in
one cf.  *Grin* took me 7-8 months to figure out unix and .cflist.  I figured
out the forget command in about 2 days.

response 8 of 62:

Jun 16 03:59 UTC 1997

The true purpose of the merger is that the conferences are all suffering from
lack of use.  If we band together, we won't necessarily get the kind of
traffic that each particular fw is looking for, but at least the conference
will thrive.

response 10 of 62:

Jun 16 16:42 UTC 1997

If the conferences combine, couldn't the combined conference with a new name
or the name of one of the constituents have aliases for the names of the
[other] constituent conferences?

response 12 of 62:

Jun 16 16:58 UTC 1997

mergng works

response 14 of 62:

Jun 17 19:09 UTC 1997

well i haven't heretofor read any of those conferences
and probably wouldn't read some of them anyway, I think
combining them to get a larger particpatory group is
probably a good idea sas hey do contain a common theme.
(and I have been meaning to look at the ones with the rpging going on)

response 16 of 62:

Jun 20 15:58 UTC 1997

Combining these conferences is an excellent way to combat the "lack of
critical mass" problem.

response 18 of 62:

Jun 22 20:54 UTC 1997

As of now, greatring has begun to twitch a little, and the others are more
or less dead.  This is the real reason we're joining them--hopefully, together
we can reach critical mass and hold onto members.  When we do, and activity
starts up, please join us.

response 20 of 62:

Jun 23 14:01 UTC 1997

If the fairwitnesses are all in agreement that they'd like to
merge the conferences, and you're not getting howls of protest
from participants, then I see no reason why the merger shouldn't
happen. 

On the principle that the way conferences conduct their business
is the business of those conferences, I don't really see a need
for a full-blown discussion in Coop either.

response 22 of 62:

Jun 23 21:32 UTC 1997

Oh? Where is it linked to at the moment?

response 24 of 62:

Jun 25 13:46 UTC 1997

coop and greatring.  The hope was that we could get rpg and videogames in on
the discussion, as they would also be affected.  Ideally also mud, but mud's
sole fw has been reaped...