Hello, Missed me? no, too bad.

Hello, so i've been gona for a while again and probably most of you don't remember me anymore. Anyways i haven't had much time to dedicate to WDA like it is called now nor did i feel like devoting time to it, let's face it yu-gi-oh hasn't been a priority lately and it doesn't excite me like it used to.
Anyways down to bussiness, i'm going to be plain brutal. The academy looks horrible:

-1. the theme and the layout just feel wrong, looks too complex, too many links everything, i bet 90% of the people that stumble upon the academy just by looking at the home page they get sick of all the confusion and leave.

-2. Custom Ranks are ok, Custom colors are ok, Having every single topic look like a rainbow due to every single member having their custom rank and color is not ok it looks awfull and makes having a custom rank no longer be a special thing not to mention it ruins the overall roleplaying, out of the 100% members of this academy how many actually have a rank that fits the academy? Remove custom ranks and colors, increase the requirements to having one and force it to actually some background. Lets not give the guy the rank of King of Blue eyes when he doesn't even run a single blue eyes dragon while there is someone else who actually uses that card at a competitive level, thats dumb!. A good idea would be to add Fixed ranks like: Master of Darkness and make it a competitive thing, for instance t have the master of darkness rank you must beat the previous master and during the duel only Dark monsters can be used.

-3. Trolling and QQing, its normal that when the academy starts to derail that the amount of trolling increases, to fix this we really have to promote constructive posts and punish trolls, i'm not sure if it is possible but giving a reward for when someone posts a reply with more than 100 letters and if someone abuses that method to get the reward punish him.


-4 Constructive punishments: Instead of bans or warnings, lets face it a warning for a trol post is still overkill, make it like whenever someone post a troll reply they lose 10% of their credits.


For now that is all don't let this post die,

Sincerly,
Ahty

But some of us don't use credits that often and wouldn't mind losing some.

of course if someone keeps trolling around they would get more serious punishments

Aquila37 wrote:

Hello, so i've been gona for a while again and probably most of you don't remember me anymore. Anyways i haven't had much time to dedicate to WDA like it is called now nor did i feel like devoting time to it, let's face it yu-gi-oh hasn't been a priority lately and it doesn't excite me like it used to.
Anyways down to bussiness, i'm going to be plain brutal. The academy looks horrible:

-1. the theme and the layout just feel wrong, looks too complex, too many links everything, i bet 90% of the people that stumble upon the academy just by looking at the home page they get sick of all the confusion and leave.

-2. Custom Ranks are ok, Custom colors are ok, Having every single topic look like a rainbow due to every single member having their custom rank and color is not ok it looks awfull and makes having a custom rank no longer be a special thing not to mention it ruins the overall roleplaying, out of the 100% members of this academy how many actually have a rank that fits the academy? Remove custom ranks and colors, increase the requirements to having one and force it to actually some background. Lets not give the guy the rank of King of Blue eyes when he doesn't even run a single blue eyes dragon while there is someone else who actually uses that card at a competitive level, thats dumb!. A good idea would be to add Fixed ranks like: Master of Darkness and make it a competitive thing, for instance t have the master of darkness rank you must beat the previous master and during the duel only Dark monsters can be used.

-3. Trolling and QQing, its normal that when the academy starts to derail that the amount of trolling increases, to fix this we really have to promote constructive posts and punish trolls, i'm not sure if it is possible but giving a reward for when someone posts a reply with more than 100 letters and if someone abuses that method to get the reward punish him.


-4 Constructive punishments: Instead of bans or warnings, lets face it a warning for a trol post is still overkill, make it like whenever someone post a troll reply they lose 10% of their credits.


For now that is all don't let this post die,

Sincerly,
Ahty

-1
It's hardly different from how TWA was though, in fact it's hardly different from how all academies are. Yes we have many links, that's because there are many places, otherwise it would be a labyrinth to find the places or we'd have to dump them

-2
It may be annoying to some, but we either allow custom ranks or we don't. Even if you up the requirements, if a member wants a rank, they'll manage to get it, and considering it's a small community the same result will be reached. Yes, the King of the Dark World may not be the best dark world player around (no offense) but that much for most ranks is up to personal judgment, which will mostly fail and will not be objective. In the end we can't go through tests every time someone asks for a rank. Besides, I can't tell if that guy really is qualified to be a F.A.I.T.H. pilot even if I tried to... So in the end, what you are asking for here is, drop the special ranks or make them only obtainable by tournaments, etc. because they don't deserve it, which will only happen if people agree to it, up to the rest.

-3
There is hardly any trolling here, we have failtrolls but they fail at it, regular trolls are actually constructive. You may be getting this a lot in introductions, but it's not really there, it's just people being in love with the term "troll" lately as the new cool thing and not knowing what a real troll is.

-4
I don't see any issue with how we have been dealing punishments, I'd say they have been fair, can you bring up relevant examples? And yeah, people dont care for credits.

1- For one i prefered much better the way the old "recent posts section" was.

2- If you up the requirements yo actually force people to work harder for them, which forces them to interact more with each other, increasing the chances that they will stick around after they reach what they wanted, not to mention that this is a dueling academy not a generic forum is it? if you want a forum with a theme you have to keep things under that thing otherwise you lose all sense of roleplaying and it ends up becoming a generic forum with a yugioh subsection and not a yugioh forum.

3- I just brought that up because i saw this http://www.worldduelingacademy.com/t1583-anti-trolling-movement.

4- I don't know how far the tools admins have at their disposal go but some creative punishments would be: - Forcing a Rank drop. - Removing priveleges to post in certain sections temp/perm. - Removing Avatar priveleges. etc. Just to add more overall diversity. For example the warning system is ok but you're not really going to give a warning just for a minor offence, so you end up not punishing minor offences.

Overall creativity is what i'm asking for.

Aquila37 wrote:

1- For one i prefered much better the way the old "recent posts section" was.

2- If you up the requirements yo actually force people to work harder for them, which forces them to interact more with each other, increasing the chances that they will stick around after they reach what they wanted, not to mention that this is a dueling academy not a generic forum is it? if you want a forum with a theme you have to keep things under that thing otherwise you lose all sense of roleplaying and it ends up becoming a generic forum with a yugioh subsection and not a yugioh forum.

3- I just brought that up because i saw this http://www.worldduelingacademy.com/t1583-anti-trolling-movement.

4- I don't know how far the tools admins have at their disposal go but some creative punishments would be: - Forcing a Rank drop. - Removing priveleges to post in certain sections temp/perm. - Removing Avatar priveleges. etc. Just to add more overall diversity. For example the warning system is ok but you're not really going to give a warning just for a minor offence, so you end up not punishing minor offences.

Overall creativity is what i'm asking for.

-1
So all the issue was the latest topics? Isn't it just nostalgia in the end... Anyways, among staff and members it was discussed and found more convenient to be able to view the recent topics while chatting. You could have found the appropriate topic too since you went through the news.

-2
And again, I say, even if the requirements are upped, we are brought up to your initial problem. This is not solving what you just brought up, it's a side effect that can be done for pretty much anything people want. Boosting activity is something we are always trying to do. "Force" is a word I'd rather not use.
Whether ranks are yugioh specific or not is up to one's personal judgment, but having ranks be yugioh specific (that is what I perceive your suggestion to be, I am not sure what exactly you are saying), is something that cannot be implemented, for the simple reason they are extremely rare and there is no reason to force them. Boulder Canyon is not yugioh specific, neither is Lava Lagoon or Everfrost Peak or Sky Acropolis. That isn't because we are not a yugioh forum but it's because not everything can be a yugioh card, and I am sure most would not want to be forced to use a yugioh card for their title. Yes it is a yugioh forum, but alone the arguement is invalid, the forum revolves around yugioh, that doesn't explain why the ranks must be yugioh related.

-3
Who said the author knew what a troll is? WDA, as TWA was, is too child friendly an academy, so there is overreacting on the term troll since we don't see real ones around.

-4
We have done those and I find the punishment system to be used fairly.

My friend, you're trying to alter a system that works... It is not flawless, but it works. Just relax and enjoy the academy because we're here to have fun and play card games (ON MOTORCYCLES!).

For example why not instead of giving him a custom rank, allow them to use a custom userbar in their signature? everyone could still get that unique thing they want, and things would still look organised with everyone having the rank of their dorm. While we are at it, what happened to awarding people userbars as "trophies". Like you said credits are underused so a better reward would be userbars since they kinda function like trophies and trophies are always cool.

The point i'm trying to get to is: When someone looks for a yugioh academy they are looking for a yugioh roleplaying forum and to be honest thats hardly what this forum feels like.

That's probably because it's not a roleplaying forum. It's a yugioh community, we're here for the card games, if we are here to be a yugioh character, the roleplaying section is down there.

And they can already put userbars, nothing is stopping them to make and use them, since their sig is up to them. So that again comes down to dropping special ranks entirelly which again is up to the members of WDA to agree to.

Athy wrote:

The point i'm trying to get to is: When someone looks for a yugioh academy they are looking for a yugioh roleplaying forum and to be honest thats hardly what this forum feels like.

^ This is utter crap, people do not go to Yu-gi-oh! Academies to find a role playing forum, they go to a Yu-Gi-Oh! forum to find people who are also interested in the card game and have more opportunities to duel them, share information about new cards, decks and strategies in the game. Events are run as nothing more then competition between the academies members.

As for everything else you have said, you sir clearly have no skill in running a successful academy, you do not change something that works, you do not change a system that the large majority of members of the website enjoy or like all because one person (in this case you) decides to have a sook about it, if you don't like how the places looks then your are on your own, if you dont like custom ranks that match then don't buy one, if you don't like every topic being made a different color then click on the topic that you want to view faster so the color disappears.

A whole site does not have to bend over backwards to cater to your needs or wants. If you want to post actual suggestions how about posting things that need to be changed because many people don't like or care about it, do not try and change something just because it doesn't suit you and you alone.

lol

[REDACTED]

The Joker wrote:

Athy wrote:

The point i'm trying to get to is: When someone looks for a yugioh academy they are looking for a yugioh roleplaying forum and to be honest thats hardly what this forum feels like.

^ This is utter crap, people do not go to Yu-gi-oh! Academies to find a role playing forum, they go to a Yu-Gi-Oh! forum to find people who are also interested in the card game and have more opportunities to duel them, share information about new cards, decks and strategies in the game. Events are run as nothing more then competition between the academies members.

You are contradicting yourself if you trully belive what you said why do you try to set a roleplaying envirement when they join by testing them and them place pacing them in a dorm?
Theres no point in setting the initial RP feel if you don't folow it through, it is just going to disapoint people that just joined. you either make this a social forum for yugioh discussion where you can meet other players or you make it into a roleplaying playing forum where you make the people of the forum feel like their part of an academy. Having a hybrid, in my opinion, simply does not work.

"My opinion", is the key phrase here. You are free to see things with black and whites and absolutes, but you are trying to apply your own black and whites and your own absolutes simply out of application of vague ideas in an already existing system. They are being tested so that their level will be known, it helps with interractions, and seperating them in dorms creates groups again creating interractions, but to say because we have elements we should go all the way and make this an rp forum is a vast exaggeration, especially when this system isn't simply functioning correctly just here, but in all other similar forums.

It feels like you wish to innovate, but there is absolutelly no reason to innovate all over our faces. Why does it have to be WDA to change in the first place? I, and everyone else who is on this forum for what it is, will surely pass on mutating something we all enjoy, and to be honest there is no reason to mutate an existing system with ideas completely different to it. If you want an rp academy, forumotion allows for free hosting, you are free to make one, this one already exists and is what it is.

P.S.: My title is yugioh related btw, it refers to a well known yugioh player.

Al-Bhed wrote:

"My opinion", is the key phrase here. You are free to see things with black and whites and absolutes, but you are trying to apply your own black and whites and your own absolutes simply out of application of vague ideas in an already existing system. They are being tested so that their level will be known, it helps with interractions, and seperating them in dorms creates groups again creating interractions, but to say because we have elements we should go all the way and make this an rp forum is a vast exaggeration, especially when this system isn't simply functioning correctly just here, but in all other similar forums.

I'm not applying my ideas because i do have such power, i'm merely showing my opinion, of course if the majority doesn't like it, then i can't put my opinion foward. It's is through debate that progress emerges.
Not to mention that like i said in my 1st post you give players a dorm yes, you put them in a group so they can socialize better, but then again for a cheap price they can remove themselfs out of that group by getting a custom rank. Remember that the one thing that keeps new players around in a forum is friends, and by allowing everyone to deattach themselfs from a group by simply allowing them to be different you're making it harder to create bonds.

The difference between changing and mutating is that mutating will usually happens so it pleases the existing comunity and you end up disregarding what new members would think about it. Changing implies having both existing and possible new members in mind.

Athy wrote:

I'm not applying my ideas because i do have such power, i'm merely showing my opinion, of course if the majority doesn't like it, then i can't put my opinion foward. It's is through debate that progress emerges.
Not to mention that like i said in my 1st post you give players a dorm yes, you put them in a group so they can socialize better, but then again for a cheap price they can remove themselfs out of that group by getting a custom rank. Remember that the one thing that keeps new players around in a forum is friends, and by allowing everyone to deattach themselfs from a group by simply allowing them to be different you're making it harder to create bonds.

The difference between changing and mutating is that mutating will usually happens so it pleases the existing comunity and you end up disregarding what new members would think about it. Changing implies having both existing and possible new members in mind.

1. By applying I did not mean applying them on the academy successfully, that would not have made much sense in the context anyways. You are applying the vague idea that everything should be in 1 way, of absolutes simply from a single point of view, in your thoughts without much else to base it on nor giving much consideration into the actual results either.

2. Making a custom rank does not remove one from the group, they are still part of it and the point is not forcing them into it but having them able to feel part of it which is accomplished. If they wish to forget that is their business but we would not force them into acceptance of the group itself. Please ask them or know the situation before making such assumptions.

I believe there is one thing that makes people stick around, and that is the community itself. I believe that if your current community is satisfied and if this is a place one wants to be, the goal is achieved. Displeasing the current members means displeasing the future members with similar practices in the future when they have taken the title of current. And displeasing is not the only concern in this case.

This forum is what it is, and we are here for it is what it is, and we stay here because it is what it is. RP may prove more popular like hardcore tour oriented yugioh may prove more popular, like yugioh training grounds may prove more popular, like memes may prove more popular, like skyrim is more popular, like soccer games may prove more popular. What is the point and what is to be gained by changing into what is more popular or what people are looking for every time instead of making a new one in that way? Are we business that thrive for popularity to cash it into profit and are willing to ditch or displease our current members and people who are looking for what we are now, in the process? We are what we are and we would be absolutelly retarted to drag all our members into something completely different just to look for other members for absolutelly nothing to be gained since we would be repeating the process next time someone had a "brilliant" idea. Every time before you guys make suggestion run through your mind and completely ask the simple question: "Why? Why would we do that?"

It should be common sense to people and I am baffled that we even have to discuss this here and try to prove for one more time that 1+1=2.
If you go into a forum, don't ask them to make it an entirelly different forum. If you want an entirelly different forum, either find one that is how you want it or make one. Does this sound so insane guys? Is it that I am somehow alone in believing that the above makes perfect sense? Please tell me if that is the case, I am really curious.

P.S.: I find it amazing how returning staff members only need to be here for 3 hours before they completely understand that the current staff is doing everything wrong, they know better about the place they just came in than the staff that is constantly working on it and they have the solution to all of life's problems, after successfully identifyind all of them of course. Apparently being absent makes you insanely more intelligent than the average staff member.

1. Hello

2. Welcome back

3. Idc about the rest.

1. you're still implying that i'm forcing my idea while i'm only exposing it and not mention that i never mention that you should commit 100% , all i asked was to bring some of an actual academy rather than a social forum.

2.While not mechanicly removing a person from a group giving them a custom rank gives them the idea that they are diferent and unique and evenually they deattach themselves from that group.

you talk about displeasing the current community but i didn't even mention that, i mentioned a pleasing the community WHILE having future members in mind its different.

And why shouldn't i try to change something i've spent some of my life into? its a retarded thing to say no, its like saying all americans should leave the US instead of fighting agaisnt SOPA.

Athy wrote:

1. you're still implying that i'm forcing my idea while i'm only exposing it and not mention that i never mention that you should commit 100% , all i asked was to bring some of an actual academy rather than a social forum.

2.While not mechanicly removing a person from a group giving them a custom rank gives them the idea that they are diferent and unique and evenually they deattach themselves from that group.

you talk about displeasing the current community but i didn't even mention that, i mentioned a pleasing the community WHILE having future members in mind its different.

And why shouldn't i try to change something i've spent some of my life into? its a retarded thing to say no, its like saying all americans should leave the US instead of fighting agaisnt SOPA.

1. I have never once implied that this is anywhere near close to being applied or happening, or that your ideas will be applied since they are as they are, trust me on that, not gonna happen. But in order to discuss your ideas I must make a hypothesis of their application because that is what we are discussing, it's not a complicated concept.

2. You are making assumptions, that by the way are wrong, in the little time you have been here you are not able to tell that, in the very long time I have been here I can tell the exact opposite is true.

Go through your own topic and see how much the community is pleased.
Again, I am not giving the reasoning of a grand philosopher or anything, I will say, people are here because this place is what it is, why would they want it to be something completely different? Again, not that hard to understand.

You shouldn't change it because it is what it is, if you owned it it would be one thing, but if I wanted to make it in a PES forum, mina wanted to make it in a Sailor Moon forum, rjuto wanted to make it in a tournament posting forum, digi wanted to make it into an irl yugioh discussion forum and frost wanted to make it a kctau branch forum, none of us would be right despite the time we spent here because it is what it is, if you want another forum make another forum, is what I am saying really that insane?

Speaking of which, why again didn't you try to do that while you were a staff member before, when you actually could push for that?

Athy wrote:

1. you're still implying that i'm forcing my idea while i'm only exposing it and not mention that i never mention that you should commit 100% , all i asked was to bring some of an actual academy rather than a social forum.

2.While not mechanically removing a person from a group giving them a custom rank gives them the idea that they are diferent and unique and evenually they deattach themselves from that group.

you talk about displeasing the current community but i didn't even mention that, i mentioned a pleasing the community WHILE having future members in mind its different.

And why shouldn't i try to change something i've spent some of my life into? its a retarded thing to say no, its like saying all americans should leave the US instead of fighting agaisnt SOPA.

1. oh but you are forcing your idea unto us. "Exposing it" is a supplement to your "forcing unto us." This place still has many academy elements, even more than most out there at this time and age.

3. re-read al's post. Our intentions for having our current structure does please members and will always please the majority.

You can try to change WDA but look into the possible opposition you may have. The outcome of all of this. Is it worth it?

You know what, because apparently, explaining basic logic to adults, fails hard, here's how we'll do it.
Ahty, go in site suggestions and extensivelly and accuratelly describe the changes you want to be done on the forum. No random stuff, I'll just delete the spam, if you have ideas explain them to us, take your time. Then I bring it up for discussion and voting in the members, you can sell your side, we can sell ours, everyone is happy. That ok?

*clicks and looks who was being emo and left temporarily* oh you, idk you '-' welcome back and its too much to read what you posted o.O cba

Princess of Darkness wrote:

*clicks and looks who was being emo and left temporarily*

Iiiii smelly hypocracyyyyy!

Anyway.

I'm sure this has already been said but I can't really be bothered to make sure each point made is one I has anyway

Athy wrote:

too many links everything, i bet 90% of the people that stumble upon the academy just by looking at the home page they get sick of all the confusion and leave.

So you'd rather have no links to anything? That wouldn't be a very good forum....
Additionally, everything would be not-there. I mean, if you look there you have everything availiable to you. You can see what goes where.
Introductions go here.
RP goes here.
News goes here.

As oppose to having to hunt down a whole load of things which is what happens if we lose all the links on the homepage. Honestly mate, if you just put up with it for a bit even though you don't like it, you'll get used to it.

Athy wrote:

-2. Custom Ranks are ok, Custom colors are ok, Having every single topic look like a rainbow due to every single member having their custom rank and color is not ok it looks awfull and makes having a custom rank no longer be a special thing not to mention it ruins the overall roleplaying, out of the 100% members of this academy how many actually have a rank that fits the academy? Remove custom ranks and colors, increase the requirements to having one and force it to actually some background. Lets not give the guy the rank of King of Blue eyes when he doesn't even run a single blue eyes dragon while there is someone else who actually uses that card at a competitive level, thats dumb!. A good idea would be to add Fixed ranks like: Master of Darkness and make it a competitive thing, for instance t have the master of darkness rank you must beat the previous master and during the duel only Dark monsters can be used.

You mean put random bogus restrictions on people that want custom ranks and stuff, therefore meaning nobody wants a custom rank?
Then overcomplicating titles and having the warning that if you buy a rank it might be taken off of you if some random guy beats you with some random dark deck that nobody else saw?
Remove all ranks and stuff as well? The ones people have paid for?
The ones GFX artists spent hours making for people?
Force all of people's creativity to be WDA-themed so that people can roleplay outside of the big "Roleplay Section"? ;P
Sounds like some efficient points right there bro.
As much as I like to see member opinions I think you might be going a little bit off-track on that one xD

Athy wrote:

-3. Trolling and QQing, its normal that when the academy starts to derail that the amount of trolling increases, to fix this we really have to promote constructive posts and punish trolls, i'm not sure if it is possible but giving a reward for when someone posts a reply with more than 100 letters and if someone abuses that method to get the reward punish him.

You mean uh, count every word in every post anybody does? o3o"
By teh way, we have very little in the way of trolling. One person that people actually like does it. And doesn't even do it well. It's usually failtrolling and people laugh at him.
Other times people just laugh at the trolls anyway.
Really, it's not that big a problem.

Athy wrote:

-4 Constructive punishments: Instead of bans or warnings, lets face it a warning for a trol post is still overkill, make it like whenever someone post a troll reply they lose 10% of their credits.

Not much to do with credits anyways... I mean, if I lost all my credits I wouldn't really care, and neither would trolls. It's nice to see people bringing ideas up though xD

By the way I think there are 2 suggestion boxes for this post. Your re-introduction can go in the big "Introductions" thread, and all these suggestions can go in the "Suggestions" thread. Additionally there's another post recently up put by staff because nobody was using the other one.

All of these things are literally three clicks away.
Click.
--> Main screen
Click.
--> Suggestion box
Click.
--> Suggestion thread

Or:

Click.
--> Main Screen
Click.
--> News
Click.
--> Not a Joker Topic thread.

There we go.
Also, I'd like you to take a look-see at the members posting here. They're all quite obviously happy and content with the way the site is, yet for some reason you are ignoring all of them and only choosing to respond to staff.

Aside from all this stuff, I'm happy to see you're back.

Al-Bhed wrote:

You know what, because apparently, explaining basic logic to adults, fails hard, here's how we'll do it.
Ahty, go in site suggestions and extensivelly and accuratelly describe the changes you want to be done on the forum. No random stuff, I'll just delete the spam, if you have ideas explain them to us, take your time. Then I bring it up for discussion and voting in the members, you can sell your side, we can sell ours, everyone is happy. That ok?

i will do so when i have the time and the willpower to do so. Also, i did push for this things when i had some power that whats originated the RP section.

Hai fish