I Think I Am Moving to RPGgeek.com
I am increasingly sad that Google+ is closing down and I haven’t quite found my footing with MeWe or any of the other proposed social media options.
However, I think I have finally found a home and I would invite all of you to join.
I am heading to RPGgeek.com and I think I have a pretty good case for it, having been a heavy user of it’s parent site, BoardGameGeek.com, for years.
1) RPGgeek.com is run by a small company that is okay with being in a niche market. They make money off of ads that are specifically targeted at the populations that use their sites (as much as they can get), their own store that sells items that their population would be interested in, by running their own conventions, their Youtube channel (which could really use some RPG content, and probably would with a larger user base) and through partnership deals and convention appearances.
2) They are not closing shop any day soon. In fact, they have been expanding their full time staff.
3) Community spaces exist tied to the games themselves. Just go to the Dungeon World entry on RPGgeek and you will find forums (that support polls), an area of linked videos, pictures, an uploaded files section (they will host the files, linked items that are part of the games ecosystem (and a process in place to add more to the database), a place to link to relevant websites, a place to link to relevant companies, the ability to find other users that own the same game, and much more.
4) You can subscribe to threads and be notified of updates to them.
5) You can private message people and search their past posts if you like what they have to say.
6) You can create your own communities, which take GeekGold (which you can purchase, but can also be gifted or earn), that have most or all of these tools for your specific community and you have some level of moderation over those communities. Those communities also have their own Calendars.
7) It has it’s own internal blogging platform that you can share publicly. You can even maintain more than one blog (Kind of Like Google Plus’ Collections, which I personally loved). They even have RSS feeds from them and you can link the content to places outside of RPGGeek (you can’t do that on MeWe).
8) You can keep a list of all the games that you own (if you like) and that can springboard into further community connections.
9) You can upload photos, lots of photos, or files AND you can designate “All Rights Reserved”, “Creative Commons”, or “Public Domain” for the licensing of those files.
10) As the RPGgeek population of active users grows, so will RPGgeek.com and with that growth will come more investment in the platform and the network effect of being one of the go to places for RPGs on the Internet. That same thing happened for Board Game Geek. It is the defacto juggernaut in the hobby board gaming space and, for the most part (though I am sure there are counter examples), they have been good stewards of that placement.
11) The platform promotes podcasts. If you have a RPG related podcast, you should add it to their catalog which will then consume the RSS feed and regularly update the site when new shows appear (and you can listen through the site itself).
12) Geeklists are are very flexible tool for all sorts of things.
13) You can sell things through their marketplace and they take only a small cut.
14) You can set up trade lists and wish lists and you can search the site for people looking to buy, sell, or trade the things that you are interested in.
15) They care about gaming.
So, in the coming months, I am going to try switching my stuff to RPGGeek.com. I am morlockhq on it and boardgamegeek.com. I am hoping to add a separate blog for each of my collections, The Dungeon World Gazetteer being the most relevant to this community. Check it out for yourselves and I hope to see you there.
Thanks for this, I did not know this space existed. I’ll check it out soon.
The interface is a tad cryptic at times, but the tools are there. They are improving and modernizing the site design on Board Game Geek and I would expect that that would get ported over over time.
Also shared your post in Meguey’s thread over in the PbtA Community where she is gathering options of places to go.
The main way that I interact with it or boardgamegeek.com – BoardGameGeek | Gaming Unplugged Since 2000 is through the specific game’s pages and those are pretty easy to get a handle on. I also am a member of a number of guilds (think “communities”) and that interface is similar to those of the individual game pages.
You can subscribe to just about anything and those will show up in your notifications when you login.
After that, you can ease into everything else and a google search for “how do I” and “board game geek” or “rpg geek” will usually turn up a relevant answer.
Joshua R. Leuthold link to Meguey Baker post?
https://plus.google.com/111023399555426942490/posts/AghD26UmNBh
plus.google.com – Announce Future Badness Hello everyone! Apparently G+ is morphing slowly out…
RPGGeek is a good crowd. If you already use BGG, you already know how to use the site. If you’re new, there are some great guides.rpggeek.com – User Guide | Wiki | RPGGeek
Thanks Marshall Miller!
I agree.
The site could also do well from an influx of engaged gamers looking for a friendly place to share and collaborate.
A little poking around found this direct link to the DW Forum. Seems a little dead, but mayhaps we can change that?
rpggeek.com – Dungeon World | Forum | RPGGeek
Jeremy Strandberg that’s what an was thinking. The tools are there. They just need an engaged audience. Plop 11,000 tavern goers there and I think the place could really come alive.
What’s the situation with moderation, blocking, etc. I.e. what tools are there to prevent asshattery?
My thinking is that wherever the main posters/ content creators from G+ end up, the rest will follow. For example Jeremy Strandberg Logan Howard Marshall Miller and several others.
I’ve been so preoccupied with grad school lately I feel like I haven’t been keeping up with the DW community, but I would like to see the core of this community all relocated to the same place for the sake of consistency. Glancing at rpggeek just now, it seems a good option as I find the ‘forum’ style to be easy to keep up with. I’ve been participating in a similarly laid out community for soccer fans for years (https://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/) and like the format.
grandoldteam.com – GrandOldTeam
You can flag posts, which the admins then review. I’ve soon seen anything questionable or had reason to flag anything. Posts occasionally get bumped to a separate forum if discussion veers too far from gaming toward sensitive topics. Admins make themselves very available.
If I recall correctly, you get some admin control over any guilds or blogs that you create. Marshall Miller could probably say if I am right or wrong about that.
The big question that comes to my mind is
Is it mobile friendly? Is there an app for that?
I laughed when i read the article about “one of the biggest communities” OpenSim Virtual, will have to find another “home”. We at the tavern have 5x the subscribers….
There is not currently an API, but I do believe there is a developer API. The site works over mobile and the redesign of the parent site is taking a mobile first approach.
Again, they are a small company and and trying to apply their available resources responsibly.
I cross posted this on the MeWe board in case anyone already moved there and stopped checking in here.
Thanks!
Here is a post made to the Dungeon World page on Rpggeek.com that looks like it could have just as easily been posted here.
boardgamegeek.com – The Devil’s Molar – mega-dungeon crawl for Dungeon World |