Looking For Paid Group Forum Section

It's getting to the point that it's hard to use the Looking For Group forum section due to the massive numbers of paid games a few people post there. Since the search function for the forums seems to be in complete disorder as to how old posts in the search results are (and generally only newer posts matter in Looking For Group), I'd suggest just making a separate forum section for paid games. Those that want a paid game have no trouble finding one, but those like myself would prefer not to have to scan every line for [Paid] and then have to ignore what seems like well over half of the posts in Looking for Group. And even then I find paid games that fail to properly label themselves as such. It's getting to the point where people seem to feel they have to label games as free. I suggest eucher the seperate forum section or vastly improving the search function to the point where it organizes by date and allows you to leave anything with the word "paid" in it out of the search.

+1.  Paid games need a separate forum.  It's ironic Roll20's own customers have monetized players better than it has.

Agreed. Thank you for the +1. Surprised this didn't get way more already.

I always vote for this, but it always closes without enough votes. The thing of it is, there doesn't even need to be a separate forum, just a check box to see or not see paid games, with the choice being saved (or opt in if it's not saved). I ended up making a custom chrome addon (as a joke, really) just to not have to see paid games, since they've taken over LFG forum.

How many votes do we need?

Just 10. This is the first one I've seen reach it :)

Yeah for the peace of the forum.  +1

+1 !! Been scouring the LFG forum for the past few days, I'm actually interested in both free/paid games, but it's all very cluttered in there.

Could we also add a forum for Looking for Paid Game? People can post what their looking for in a paid game.

I would agree paid games should be on a different section than free.

I actually think this is part of the problem. If I hire a moving company, I expect them to arrive in a truck with the company logo, they may have some sort uniform work-clothes etc. IT will LOOK distinctly different than if some of my friends helped me moving. We expect paid services to be be clearly separated from the rest of the world.  In the forums and in the LFG-listings, paid games look exactly the same (apart from a small red text) and people will tend to assume that the service is equivalent of a free game.  ...and this leads to many heated debates about why anyone would pay for this, if they can get the same stuff for free. I would suggest to not only give them separate sections in the forums and LFG-listings, but also give them a new design.  -If things are different they should look different. (as a workaround: I would really recommend any p2p GMs to make a webpage.  It is a nice way to collect relevant information but it also makes you look different from the free-gamers.)

Just gonna add that sharing a forum with paid DMs seems to encourage many of them to break guidelines and slip into my messages to offer to let me pay them for their services. Not okay. I don't want anyone feeling it's okay to contact me whos not just here for the love of the game. The last message i got was from someone that didn't know anything about the setting we wanted, didn't know how to use roll20, and was demanding money because they are busy and we are strangers. What the actual #$@% is wrong with some of these people that they think this is acceptable behavior?

Good to hear Bianca, the main looking for group Forum is just crazy with usually at least half of them PtP, and free GM's and gamers threads just don't stay past a day or so before being shoved to the 2nd page and beyond, with a lot of Paid GM's posting and reposting again and again.  Thats fine as long as we get a separate subforum but otherwise to much of a disruption for us regular GM's and players with just the 1!! Tom

I am so happy to see this got the necessary points!   PLEASE  separate Paid and Free games.  They need to be completely different forums, and there needs to be active punishment (warnings, bans, etc) to those who advertise paid games to people seeking free games.

What exactly is the holdup? What needs to be researched? Just add another forum.

This please

Any news on this? A glance at LFG shows how bad it is.

Sure would be nice to have something happen soon. I recently tried to use the LFG forum and got nothing back but harassment from so-called DMs trying to squeeze money out of me. This shouldn't be the norm in any community or website that is attempting to be functional.

Dain S. said: Sure would be nice to have something happen soon. I recently tried to use the LFG forum and got nothing back but harassment from so-called DMs trying to squeeze money out of me. This shouldn't be the norm in any community or website that is attempting to be functional. I would temper your expectations if you're looking for something soon - suggestions frequently take years to be implemented, if it all.  Your best bet is to find a way to use the existing features/functionality offered by the system.  I.E., if you're being harassed by users, report those posts to Roll20 staff.  If you post looking for a group and specify that you are not interested in paid games, that will help to reduce (but not eliminate) DMs running paid games from reaching out to you.  Ignore those that post paid games when you have specified you are not interested in paid games. Best luck, -Adam

For what? They are breaking a guideline, not a rule. Yet another issue with what you are calling a system. They frequently don't even read my post before harassing me, asking multiple questions that would have been answered by the OP had they read it. You are probably just trying to be helpful, but your posting to suggest I just deal with it how it is isn't helpful to anyone. Adam Caramon said: Dain S. said: Sure would be nice to have something happen soon. I recently tried to use the LFG forum and got nothing back but harassment from so-called DMs trying to squeeze money out of me. This shouldn't be the norm in any community or website that is attempting to be functional. I would temper your expectations if you're looking for something soon - suggestions frequently take years to be implemented, if it all.  Your best bet is to find a way to use the existing features/functionality offered by the system.  I.E., if you're being harassed by users, report those posts to Roll20 staff.  If you post looking for a group and specify that you are not interested in paid games, that will help to reduce (but not eliminate) DMs running paid games from reaching out to you.  Ignore those that post paid games when you have specified you are not interested in paid games. Best luck, -Adam

Dain S. said: You are probably just trying to be helpful, but your posting to suggest I just deal with it how it is isn't helpful to anyone. Got it - best of luck in having this feature you have requested implemented quickly. -Adam

I run both paid and unpaid games and I'd love to see this feature implemented. There's already a lot of clutter on the forums; players looking for groups/DMs, discord servers, Westmarch style games, etc. I've even seen a game advertised recently that doesn't use Roll20 at all, but just theatre of the mind over discord.  It would be nice to filter out exactly what I, or my potential players are looking for. My paid games fill up fast, I don't need to spam the forums and harass people to get players. I think the filters could be improved in general, but at a minimum, people should be able to weed out paid vs. unpaid games.

As someone who runs both paid and unpaid games this is a great idea! 

I see your forum Poll has been up a while so did that help Roll20 make up its mind about splitting the forum for Paid Looking for group be it a GM or players and non paid GM's and player yet? Please give us something for feedback in a timely manor Roll20!! Thanks Tom

Any further information here?  Really don't want to see this idea die, and get swept under the rug

Haven't heard anything yet except for what you see above. Feels like the solution is simple and they are just dragging their feet.

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the LFG filter already have a check box that filters out payed games? This already exist as a feature so you suggestion is a little redundant ya?

Vouru, the forums are sometimes more useful than the LFG tool, especially for people who aren't entirely sure what they want to play, and just like to browse what's recent. However, with 50% of posts being advertisements for paid games, it makes for a lot of noise. Two very simple solutions, either having a separate forum for paid games, or having an opt-in checkbox to see paid games (and requiring paid game posts to select that they are paid, would eliminate this noise.

That's fair, a flair system with filters does sound useful for forum posts.

The lfg forums and find games feature are entirely unrelated...

Indeed, but it's more efficient to use the find game feature which also solves the paid game issue.

Not in this context... They have different uses.

How about this instead? Might be more broadly useful: <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/10382601" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/10382601</a>

Both would be good, but no. Not instead. The search feature has way too many flaws for that to be helpful to the same extent.

The search feature is 1000% more useful than trying to trawl the forums for some random game. Just use the checkbox. Done.

STILL waiting for this Roll20, any update as its been more than a while now and NO updates on this please....... Thanks Tom

+1

Teller said: The search feature is 1000% more useful than trying to trawl the forums for some random game. Just use the checkbox. Done. There are so many things wrong with the search feature that asking for this is more viable. The search feature isn't useful at all in its present state and would require a complete overhaul to make it useful. Ideally we'd have both a functional forum and a functional search feature, since they'd serve different purposes (some people just want to browse and don't have something specific in mind to look for), but I'm picking my battles. I suggest posting elsewhere to put forward the idea of making the Search feature not a broken POS. They aren't mutually exclusive.

Still waiting Roll20 on a responce on this research your doing on this........ on the first page out of 50 threads on there 25 Paid Games......... 13 Games looking for players for Free 12 Players looking for games, no Paid or Free mentioned This is getting way out of hand here me thinks Also note all the extra clutter in the titles these day as well........ Tom

As it has been mentioned a few times. The forum section makes it easier to find -new- games.&nbsp; New, as in I-can-join-at-session-zero Sure, nothing prevents a user from spamming the same game multiple times, but then that is visible via the user-profile

And another 2 weeks with not a chirp from Roll20 on their "research" on this........ Still waiting Roll20 :) Tom

There must be something else going on here. For some reason unknown to us peons, the powers that be do not want to make this simple change. Just add another forum for the paid games already. I will continue to recruit players solely on discord until then.

The technical part is not the trouble. That could be done in a few hours. My guess is that this is included in a larger picture about how to handle p2p. The current untouchables-solution ("we tolerate you as long as you make it abundantly clear that we have nothing to do with you") is an indication of a very strained relationship. Especially when compared with the people who are selling their art (n stuff) on the Marketplace.

Jens F. said: The technical part is not the trouble. That could be done in a few hours. My guess is that this is included in a larger picture about how to handle p2p. The current untouchables-solution ("we tolerate you as long as you make it abundantly clear that we have nothing to do with you") is an indication of a very strained relationship. Especially when compared with the people who are selling their art (n stuff) on the Marketplace. Yeah, it is very clear that what they are researching is how to do this without potentially losing revenue.&nbsp; Still sucks, when it really is a simple solution.&nbsp; Just split the forums, which like you said could be done in no time at all.

My guess is that they are actually full of it and not planning on doing anything at all.

Cheluvahar said: My guess is that they are actually full of it and not planning on doing anything at all. Oh how I wish you were wrong...&nbsp; But we both know the reality here.&nbsp; Toss a 'researching' tag on the topic and forget it.&nbsp; I bet they have their "top men" on it.

It is becoming discouraging that this has been looked at for months with no word on any progress. I believe the abundance of pay to play games in the forums are impacting new player perceptions and roll20 is getting less new blood as a result. It may not be statistically relevant now but I have noticed a drop. If I am correct then other services that can match the VTT of Roll20 may gain an edge simply by providing easier ways for the inexperienced (who are more likely unwilling to make a monetary investment without test driving things first) to access free games through search features and separated forums. From a purely financial standpoint I can see a reason to 'hook' (for lack of a better term) new players who will then begin purchasing books, be willing to pay for games or pay for subscriptions.

They did mention a forum restructuring in the last Roundtable on Twitch but no details or time line so far, lets hope this will be one of the changes Tom

I think part of the problem is how delicate the situation is. As it stands now they don't want to touch upon paid DMing as to not be liable in any capacity. By making a section specifically to advertise paid DMing it could be seen as them condoning the practise and in the same turn becoming liable for moderation, abuse, and fraud that could come of it.