BTM Relaunch Discussion
Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 6:27 am
So, I have some good news, and I'd like to talk about operational relaunch and what we'd need. However, I also have a habit of getting ahead of myself on things like this, so I want to try and be transparent, and get people's consent before running into walls.
I have other thoughts, like how we could simplify processes, but that’s getting a few extra steps ahead.
What’re folks’ thoughts and feelings?
- The good news is that I received the OK from the admin of the Reddit Battletech discord to share the link there, when we're ready. I also have, near as I can tell, standing permission to share the link on the Reddit itself.
- I am also aware of other communities where we could take a sort of 'We want writers' approach rather than just 'Battletech roleplay'. I think we could do well both for our own community and for Battletech overall if we are able to get, say, fanfiction writers, or Warhammer & Firefly fans into the community. One of the things I love about Battletech is how it covers so many styles. One of my friends got into Battletech because of how similar it was to Legend of the Five Rings. I've gotten people interested with the pitch of "Game of Thrones with Mecha instead of Magic."
- I couldn't keep up with these recruitment drives because, well, it takes a lot of mental energy for me to do that sort of thing. I prefer to write content rather than weasel my way into communities hoping to recruit people. This community is near and dear to my heart, and I want to see it back on its feet, and I feel our greatest strength is our writers and our willingness to help people into the universe.
- I'm by no means saying we should shift our focus away from the Talitha thread; in fact I think if we do a relaunch, the Talitha thread is where we'd begin, and that the end of that thread is the canonical launch of the timeline.
- I got my hands on a blank Inner Sphere map with no faction borders, so I am now an unsupervised toddler with a crayon. We can make whatever maps we want. I’d like to be able to generate our own maps so we can add planets as we wish, instead of having literally thousands of worlds on our map.
- I’m still looking into such a solution; I think I can do it if I get my hands on Excel and grab a certain plugin, and then just run a modified version of Sarna’s compilation of coordinates and dates. I’d run those coordinates, excluding worlds we don’t care about, and add them as we please.
- One project I was thinking of doing was doing a sort of audiobook for the thread. I've got a decent microphone, and, I like to think, a decent voice. If folks are OK with it, I might do a recording of the posts of the Talitha thread and post & share it on Youtube.
- I also have a friend who is an ace with social media, and she said she'd be interested in handling & assisting BTM social media.
- I mentioned using Campfire to track units and our alt-canon, but if we do a site rehaul, I think we could use free Wiki software, and track everything that way, and enable players, writers, and readers to all contribute, instead of overloading site staff.
I have other thoughts, like how we could simplify processes, but that’s getting a few extra steps ahead.
What’re folks’ thoughts and feelings?