Raid sign ups

summary:

Signing up to raids on the website rather than through GEM

Raid sign ups

Cutsdean 1199401199|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hello Chaps,

I have noticed over the past few that hardly anyone posts on this forum. I think this is a big shame, TS is good and in game chat is alright too but it doesn't come close to a good forum.

I think half the problem is that we don't need to come to the website for anything, I rarely come here and if i do it is to post a quick "i will be away for a few weeks". Maybe a solution to this is changing raid sign ups from the GEM sytem to a website based one. It has a number of advantages which are as follows

1. More people will use the website and forums
2. People at work can change their commitments to raids (i.e you don't have to log on to the game to sign up of remove yourself)
3. Gem puts you into a "first come first raid" list, this is highly unfair to those who log on after the raid has filled up. Also if you have a raid full of DPS and no healers or tanks you have to let down people who were in that first 10. The fact that europe has time zones it means that people in Greece or Germany get home from work and sign up before those in Portugal or the UK. Having a web based system removes the need to log on to sign up and doesn't make it first come first served based. The raid organisers then can select the raid group from players around to get a viable group, not a group that is picked from those who were fortunte to get home from work quicker than others.
4) details for a raid on a web page can be far more detailed than the GEM system, you can specify what the raid whats to achive, how long it is running for etc….

Now this isn't a go at any of the leadership or anything but just what i think is a clear solution to 2 areas that need work. a) the lack of activity of forums and b) raid group sign ups i) both fairness and ii) raid group continuity.

Feel free to pick holes in my argument, maybe by looking at thise we can find an even better suggestion……..that is if anyone reads this!

Cheers

Scott

aka hacked cuts

Re: Raid sign ups

NifFinnoliaPriestine 1199438916|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Sorry u got hacked Cuts hope your account get well soon xx

Yes I agree with you. A sign up in a raid table at the homepage is a good way to do it. There can be an explaining text like "this event takes 2 tanks, at least 1 warlock", or "this is a very hard dungeon which is new to us. Therefore you need to have to have completed dungeon x and have xxx gear to get a raid slot", and so on, which would bring the reasons for the choises when the participants in the raid group is chosen into the open. In my opinion visibility is a good tool to prevent missunderstandings and people feeling left out or bypassed.

Also I agree that it probably would make the website more populated, which we also would benefit from. This is a great reaource for communication and information, and that is why I am a bit notoric in sending anyone who asks questions to the webpage rather then answering them straight ahead.

Finally I agree that it would give people from all timezones equal posibilities to sign up for a raid "in time". People can sign up from work or a friends house or wherever they are, they don't need to have acess to the game, just to the internet. So I am all with you on this.

Hope to see you back soon :)

Niffie

Re: Raid sign ups

NifFinnoliaPriestine 1199458161|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I saw something similar:

http://webscripts.softpedia.com/scriptScreenshots/Raid-Planner-for-World-of-Warcraft-Screenshots-37891.html

Re: Raid sign ups

Gyanna 1199717787|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Personally I like the idea of using the forum for raid sign-ups. I'd love to see the forum have a bit more activity, and it would be a natural place to discuss how the raid went as well.

Re: Raid sign ups

Cutsdean 1199440169|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

check out http://www.revolutionwow.co.uk/ the raid section, it's called phpraider. I'm sure there are better systems out there but this one seems to work well. Think you have to log in to see it properly, I have an account with them still so message me if you want to have a look around.

Cheers

Re: Raid sign ups

Ittybitty 1199700415|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi Guys, this is an issue I have been trying to solve for some time now (Like nearly 2 years)…and phpraider is about the only one that you can use for this that can accurately keep a data base and calender for sign ups….The unfortunate thing is that 1/ you need someone who can work with php files and 2/ you need actual private web space to upload it too. It cant work with this site on wow-wikki. So unless there is a volunteer that knows how to use these files and is willing to commit themselves to it and has his or her own web space this system wont be able to be used.
I have in the past asked around for help with this, but so far haven't met anyone in guild that can do it, or at least when we have discussed this issue at meetings =) But on the other side yes it would be great if this could be achieved, because I do know this causes a lot of grief for the runs.

And yes the damn forum, which I check every day btw, is like a dessert, sad to see as it is a great way to communicate and keep on top of things or just for a bit of fun as we all know =) Itty

Re: Raid sign ups

Oak 1199781553|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I do think I got a server that will process php somewhere.. I'll check my web accounts today and if so set some space aside.

Re: Raid sign ups

Ittybitty 1199863192|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

That would be great if you can Oak…because for me it has been an on going headache for quite some time…anyway I am not going to go into the technical details of php files, but yes my own web servers wouldn't support them either and after that I had tried several different places and still no luck…I do know a way it can be achieved but for that you need to own an static IP and domain and have a permanent web server on-line then you can set your own permissions…etc etc. Well I am not prepared to maintain that guys, sorry just for WoW, as much as I love you all. Itty

Re: Raid sign ups

Cutsdean 1199882567|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Well you shouldn't have to itty, i get confused with all this internet mumbo jumbo so i'm no good!

Re: Raid sign ups

Lamyah 1199967663|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I installed phpRaider. It requires also MySQL database as well as Php. But it was quite easy to install though.

It may take a while for the new hostname to spread to your ISP's nameservers, but feel free to try to register accounts. I will add some fancy permissions for us officers as i see you register.

Oh, and the most important thing. The address is http://unity.illu.net/

last edited on 1200048046|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by cronoz + show more

Re: Raid sign ups

Gyanna 1199984097|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Seems to work! I've registered successfully as Gyanna. Nice one.

last edited on 1199984113|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Gyanna + show more

Re: Raid sign ups

cronoz 1200048418|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I have added a link under RAIDS on the top menu bar - click on Raid Sign-up to link to the webpage

Re: Raid sign ups

Lamyah 1200052222|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

That's nice.

I created an "initiate" group to be the default group for a newly registered member. We need to figure out who goes through the registrants or should we just allow full member privileges for every new user. Maybe we should.

Initiates can see the raids but can't sign up nor can they create characters. Members can create characters and raids and sign up to raids.

I have no experience of this tool, so we need to figure out how it will serve us the best.

Re: Raid sign ups

Cutsdean 1200069966|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Legend, I should post more often about things like this. Things get done lol!

I signed up btw, but am awaiting rights to create charactors.

Cheers

Scott

last edited on 1200070134|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Cutsdean + show more

Re: Raid sign ups

Ittybitty 1200303372|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Good stuff Lamyah, wish I had known a year ago you could do this sort of stuff. Thanks it will be very helpful =)))

Re: Raid sign ups

Lucklas 1200930537|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hiya just to let you know that I haven't been on properly for a while because I have had a daughter (yes I have definitely checked and there are no Murloc features there), she is called Daisy (not Onyxius the Crackler) and she was born 6lb7oz and is now 19 days old (barely a level1 although badboris would be expecting a level 70 in that space of time!).
I haven't Raided for over a month mainly because around raiding time I am trying to get the mother fattened up with food to help feeding and also helping wherever else I can. I have managed a couple of late heroics with Hidalgo tho and am definitely hoping to make the gemmed Gruul's run coming up. I am also on my Mage a little more (nearly lvl40) as it is easy to dip in and out of (ooer).

I have only just recently read the ideas on this forum and agree with Cuts comments and good work Lamyah on the Raid Signup Pages.
I also do think getting people to visit the website is important.
One of the problems with information is getting it into the Wiki which isn't easy with certain sites. At least if you can't then Cronoz will put up links to the information as he has done with the Raid Sign Up Trial Pages. Once on these pages like the phpRaider one perhaps we can get people to go to our Website from there. I don't know how customisable the pages are but I assume you can edit the pages like most html so something like a banner picture displaying 'Unity Forum' which directly links to Latest Posts when u click it may be an idea. I have been hoping for webpage planning for awhile, you should hopefully be able to put so much more info in and maybe links - read here for Strategy on Gruul/check here for gear prereqs etc!

So what other information may people be interested in. Well the only ones I can think of are two others.
Some people like Armory, these following pages do a good job of collating and displaying information from there such as the Guilds Character Stats, Reputation and the Professions we have:
Sortable Character Stats
Reputation
Professions
Perhaps we could have a Guild Stats page which lists these three links (I know we already have a Link to the top one though called Guild Stats!)
The other is this page here that lists some of our Raids, I'm sure some people will be interested because you can measure your performance on here, you can also directly compare yourself with another of your Class to see what they are castings etc. and you can see what the baddies are doing.
Unfortunately only my Raids (some of them) are there but if anyone wants to send me their Combat Logs (only from beginning of raid to end or beginning of boss fight to the kill) then it's actually onyl a 5 min job to get the pages up.
Also do not take these figures too seriously, the goal is for the Group to perform and people may be given certain jobs (e.g. crowd control) that change their dps or be conserving mana for a special part of the fight and other such things. At least I have concentrated on boss fights, putting up damagemeters at the end of a raid is fun but doesn't account for a lot of situations, afk, deaths, people taking it easy during trash (writing in Guild Chat - I won't mention any names because Nif I do then Itt may cause upset a bitt), healers dpsing during easy trash etc.

So what else can we put on here. Is there any functionality in the wiki to set up something like a weekly Vote???
"Should we have some sort of Sheep Doctor to deal with the trauma inflicted after a good 5 seconds with Stelli (Animals have feelings too Mr Big Staff)" will obviously bring a 100% Yes response but there are other matters which may be more in question.

Re: Raid sign ups

Olly 1200937748|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Congratulations for Daisy!!!!

Really pleased for you.

Oh, and some good ideas.

Re: Raid sign ups

Gyanna 1201009828|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Congrats on the new sprog Lucklas. :)

In regards to the web site and forum, I was wondering if it would be worth collapsing the forum categories a bit. If you look at the forum page you see several forums without posts for hundreds of days… if they're not being used, why keep them? Some are obviously crucial like recruitment and so-on, but the class and quest forums for example aren't really needed. I think people have other places to go if they need help with those.

I'm just thinking that if we funneled what little traffic we have into fewer places, the forum might liven up a bit.