LFG/ad/site wackiness

First let me say that I am loving Roll20 and its usefulness in presenting my campaign. Thanks so much for making this wonderful tool available. That being said there are a ton of issues surrounding the ease of use that show classic programmeritis from my point of view and need work. Just so you know I am a programmer and systems architect with more than 30 years of experience, so I am not just grouching here. In a system like this, ease of use is literally everything. Functionality goes unused if it is not intuitive, simple to use, and truly useful. So this post covers only the first impression basics with the LFG system. 1) Right off the bat, I do not care about seeing an extensive application style filter form. Chunk that please. Anyone coming is interested in a game system 1st and foremost. That is 99.99% of the issue. That one filter says it all. So it should be just a list of game systems that link to sub-lists. Done. You can have an extensive filter from there but that brings up the other filter criteria. 2) New games vs old games. I find there is a credible distinction between new and old games. In other words first cut selection vs replacement player selection. Really, this distinction can be handled by a related criterion, activity. If a game is bursting with internal messaging activity then its likely that game is current. Filter the lists resulting from the selection in item 1 above by activity. Most recent is fine, but, along with that some traffic weighing indicator is ideal. I have never liked the look indicator as traffic. New posts AND EDITS since last visit indicator would be ideal. 3) If ANYTHING deserves a form, that would be the GM's ad for the game. Present the would-be lunatic (sorry I mean GM) with a proper form to fill out for an ad. Remind them what fields are relevant. Just off the top of my head: 1. Roll20 Userid of GM 2. List of preferred methods of contact for this game in order. (Google Hangouts) 3. Contact information associated with #2 above like (Google ID) 4. Game system being used including version. 5. Number of players CURRENTLY needed (not total - goofy). 6. Roles for players currently needed (1 per player needed) 7. Indicator for whether or not the day of play has been determined yet. 8. Day or DAYS of play, if known. 9. Indicator for whether or not the time of day of play has been determined yet. 10. Time or TIMES of play, if known. Include DURATION for each time. 11. Indicator for whether or not voice/mic capability is REQUIRED for players. 12. Chosen voice method (Roll20/Skype/Teamspeak/Ventrilo/Hangouts, etc) 13. Campaign Home Page Link (<----- SO NEEDED so players can read your information/application threads) 14. Required familiarities list (<----- Explains what the required skillset is) 15. Recommended familiarities list (<----- Explains what new or campaign specific information is a good idea to know) 16. GM Philosophy/Campaign Style indicator (<------ This should go right on the ad and an attempt should be made to qualify this so that applicants and GMs don't waste each other's time. Roleplay vs Combat/ Intrigue vs Tactical/ Silly vs Serious are all huge issues. Yes, this can be explained in detail in the Campaign home threadgroup, but, having a quick indicator here will help immensely. 17. External posting requirement indicator - shows players that some non-session roleplay and participation is required. There are a ton of players that rule out any campaigns requiring this. This helps filter that up front and get the right people together. 18. External posting requirement method - Other site pbp, email, skype, etc. 19. Closing date for the ad. 20. Planned duration if any for the campaign. 21. Application process link. (<--- Usually a link to the GMs own list of requirements for a proper application submission. Could also be a template or link to a template). 4. Game invites from the GMs point of view should be possible via: email (as-is) and certainly Roll20id (missing). It's just plain silly that Roll20id is missing. And, no, the Invite to campaign button on their message posts is not enough. 5. The loss of messages within your system, aggravates the issue of re-contacting would-be players unnecessarily. Right now I have 4 users that contacted me about a full game and no way to figure out who they were because the messages were read and dismissed. They should still be reviewable. So now I have to make another game add and count my players for a total when I know I want 2 new players and could care less what the total is. 6. The means of launching an ad for a game is obfuscated at best. There should be a clear and separate button or link that says simply, LAUNCH NEW AD FOR THIS CAMPAIGN. The first ad launch should force the above form on the GM. Subsequent ad launches should allow the gm to review the form above as already filled out and make changes (typically only to the roles and number of players being currently requested, so put that up front on a re-ad). 7. It's worth reiterating that a link to the campaign home page threadgroup should be navigable by would-be players. I spent weeks preparing an acclimation and campaign setting information threadgroup only to have the ad not allow players to see it. Silliness. If there is some concern about letting prospective players see or post there then each threadgroup within your campaign should be editable as to whether or not it allows prospective players to see/post within it as opposed to existing players. In fact that is a good idea in general in terms of campaign threads and threadgroups. Allow the GM to specify access based on Roll20 userid or existing player/unknown player status (both). 8. Some of the above functionalities may be present to some degree but it is the ease of use and quality of those functions as delivered that needs work. You guys are making awesome strides and I want to see you build on a firm foundation, not a frustrating one. 9. Creating threadgroups within a campaign home page is ideal, rather than just lists of threads. People need structure to manage all the information. You also need a new post and edited post indicator methodology within threadgroups and threads. Making this hierarchy drag and drop is also ideal for ease of organizing. I could go on an on but for now I will just see what your response is.

I'm going to move this to the Suggestions forums.

Present system seems to work fine, we are not signing up for health care here...

I second this petition, it's much better written than I could manage and strikes all the things I have seen accurately plus identifies more. Great ideas.

Put a timer on the ad so that they can't remain up there for years like some ad are and you got my support.

Excellent addition Doom. An inactivity timer on the campaign would be ideal.

I read the whole post, and the best suggestion from this that could make a good addition to Roll20 to me is "threadgroups" (which I call "subforums") on the campaign forums. So the GM could divide up, say, "Threads About New Characters", and "Threads About Places". As a workaround, the post author can append a bold tag word (such as [PLACE] or [CHARACTER]) in the subject line of the post, to help it stand out in the category. Another workable option is to use another site for your forum needs, and just post a Link to your external forum in your Roll20 Campaign Forum, to make it 1 click away for your players. Hopefully these ideas will help. They work for me. Point #8, I agree: most of these functionalities are already present on Roll20. I understand you would like them presented differently, but you can already accomplish nearly all of these requests with the existing features. Here are some of the ways to make it work for what you asked. Request #1, do you mean the search form options on the LFG? All the form fields are optional. You can choose only a Game System and leave the other fields blank by default if you wish. Zero added clicks. You can even leave the System blank, for example if someone wants to find all games on Tuesday regardless of game system. Request #3, that list of what you as GM would present to Players; or what you as Player would like to see explained from prospective GM's: any-all of that GM form information that you wanted can be typed into the free text box, OR into a forum post, for either your LFG listing, or your internal private Campaign page for members only. Request #4, just copy the Invite link and Message it to the Roll20 ID person who you want to invite. Request #5, just click on your name at the Top Right > Click Private Messages. It takes you to your Private Messages Inbox and the past messages you received are still there unless you specifically clicked "Archive" to file them away. Request #6 just click the button that says "Looking For Players Listing (CREATE)". It means the same as the verbiage you wrote for the button, just used different words. Request #7, If you have text information on your Campaign internals, that you want to crosspost on your LFG ad: just copy-paste the tidbits of text you want from your internal Campaign to the LFG (free text box, or make a new thread, which you can make a sticky thread so it stays at the top if you wish). Happy adventuring!

As a new user of Roll20 and a pretty NON-tech savvy one at that, I would also like to see GM's indicate in their recruitment ads whether their games will require a cam and/or mic-headset (points 11/12 in the OP) and, ideally, include search options for those factors: webcam needed, mic-headset needed, text only.

wow.. this is a must! i'm new to the site -- literally, my 2nd day now... and that form to create a game ad is something that -needs- to get implemented. #4 - game system; a must, AND should be limited to a small list, or even a single choice. too many ads just hitting -every- system, just fishing #5 - i think current total is important as well as the number needed. if there are like.. 17 players in the campaign, it looks a little strange.. #6 - this might be optional. or perhaps specify certain roles, and then if you select "any" as the next role, all roles after that are snipped. ie; 1: Fighter/Tank.. 2: Healer.. 3-5: Any role #10 - times of play needs a timezone tag, and (assuming they are different) a listing of the GM's timezone. #19 again might be optional. i agree that 'dead' ads should be removed if they aren't maintained, but for a small group playing a niche game it might simply be necessary to always be on the lookout for new players. #21 could be a text box; room for a link if desired, or auto-populated with "Start a post in the group if you want to join" in addition to the form as described, a minimum of say.. 500 characters? in the description box seems necessary. there are way too many ads out there which boil down to "ermagerd! sign up ppl! wan2play anything! *add every game tag*" incorporating something like this would be of great benefit to both sides of the game. the GM is forced to communicate at least the basics about his campaign... which in turn assures that the players -have- those basics, and are able to make an informed decision about whether this is the campaign for them... which in turn saves -both- sides time, effort, etc of signing up players who are there for just long enough to discover that "this is all going so horribly wrong." of course it will never be perfect, but this would be -many- steps in the right direction.