Post by Admin on Jul 1, 2012 13:09:24 GMT -8
This was taken from an awsome writer named Malamyn. Thank you so much for making this article! It helps out lots of other admins and role players alike!
1. Thou shalt not use music, annoying pictures, or flashy Java
Music, large pictures, and flashy java (especially anything that messes with my mouse pointer) do not make your site cool. They make it annoying and worthy of a beating. A severe one. If I wanted to listen to music on my computer, I would download songs that I actually like and play them. If I wanted to look at multiple pictures of horses, I’d buy a book. And if I wanted to kill myself, I’d find every flashy java code I could and assault myself with it. Please, think of the puppies.
Now on the matter of pictures, it is true that graphics can improve the aesthetics of a site. That is graphics which is not the same as pictures. Graphics have been digitally manipulated to blend into the layout of the site and add ambiance, not distraction. Here’s a good rule, if you had to find it using a search of your favorite animal, don’t use it.
2. Thou shalt not put links in the wrong order
Your application link should come after your site’s history, rules, and any other content that you would like your members to have read before joining. It’s really not that difficult of a concept. Seriously, it’s not. Just for once, try to use logic. It may hurt your brain at first but I promise you’ll get used to it.
3. Thou shalt not center thy text
If you don’t know how to use block quotes or tables in order to restrict the size of your block of text, then you don’t deserve your site. Centering your text makes you look like an amateur. Why would I want to join the site of an amateur when there are so many other professional looking sites to join?
4. Thou shalt not use tiny font or low contrast font colors
“I use tiny font because it’s the only way to fit all of my text in there!” This is the most contradictory statement I’ve ever heard. Seriously people, are you not listening to yourselves? If you have so much text that you have to shrink to fit, you have too much text. I know, I wrote the book on writing too much. There are two things that make text too hard to read: Small font sizes and large blocks of text. So tell me, what planet are yall from? How small do your brains have to be to think that combining both of these problems will not cause severe pain in the eyes of your potential members?
And to those of you who further complicate things by using a font color which doesn’t contrast with your background, die. Just… die.
5. Thou shalt not waste space
There is no rule that states your application should have more than 3 fields. Name, e-mail, description. In fact, if you have no standards, you could just do Name and E-mail. Now that I have assuaged your fears, you may cease to add unnecessary fields to your application which make it needlessly long and obnoxious.
There is a rule however (that I’m making up right now) that you should not bore me to tears with unnecessary information. It takes time and effort to make pages for your public and private content, don’t waste your own energy. I am giving you an excuse to be lazy here. Since this is the most subjective of my commandments, I will not elaborate any further. Just remember, be lazy. ^^
6. Thou shalt not have more than one scrollbar
If this isn’t self explanatory, nothing I say here will help you.
7. Thou shalt not use the second person in fiction
The second person is used in direct address only. I am using second person in this article because I am addressing you, the site creator. However when the second person is used in fiction, in the countless intros I have seen, it is used to “draw the reader into the story”. However usually the reader is dragged in kicking and screaming. If you can’t write a good enough intro in third person to draw me into the story, using the second person won’t help you. It’s called power playing. And you forbid it in your rules! Hypocrites. All of you.
8. Thou shalt be considerate of all screen resolutions
One day I will conduct a poll to see how many people actually use 800 by 600 screen resolutions. My guess is it’s less than a fifth of all RPers. So why do people insist on torturing us with layouts that only look good on those resolutions? A good site designer is mindful of all browsers and all screens. This is difficult, but it’s not impossible. I promise. The key is percentage rather than pixels. Yes, it does mean that you will most likely be unable to use those free layouts with pretty graphics and fancy CSS. But it also means that you will have my blessing, and I count more.
It also means that your members will not be irritated by large areas of blank space surrounding itsy bitsy blocks of text. Which means that they won’t go blind. Which is good for you because blindness isn’t conducive to RPing.
9. Thou shalt be mindful of navigation ease
One of the RPing greats, Sparticus, once gave me the greatest piece of advice on a rating/review ever. “Have a link to all of your public pages as well as a guest login and application on every single one of your public content pages.” RPers are lazy. They don’t want to continually hit the back button in order to navigate their way through your site. Most people understand this and thus have a navigation bar that appears on every page in their private layout. Why in the hell they think the same good logic isn’t necessary for the public layout is beyond me. Develop a navigation system that is idiot friendly (a tall order I realize) and lazy people friendly. And repeat after me: I shall realize that multi boards are not inherently easy to navigate. Multiboards have one fatal flaw. They do not link back to the area you were in, they only link back to the area listed first (board id 1). This means that you have to get off your lazy bum and actually include links within your navigational system to the different Multiboard areas. This should be your mantra: Less clicking = Happy RPers.
The tenth commandment was made for there website so I'm going to make up my own hehe
10. Thou shalt not create large affliate buttons
This is what annoys me the most. Do not make an affliate button that exceds over 88x31. Seriously, just because its bigger, doesn't mean everyones going to go to your site. Don't add all those flashy special effects and what not. Its a button! All it does is send them to your site. Just because it's different doesn't make it special.
1. Thou shalt not use music, annoying pictures, or flashy Java
Music, large pictures, and flashy java (especially anything that messes with my mouse pointer) do not make your site cool. They make it annoying and worthy of a beating. A severe one. If I wanted to listen to music on my computer, I would download songs that I actually like and play them. If I wanted to look at multiple pictures of horses, I’d buy a book. And if I wanted to kill myself, I’d find every flashy java code I could and assault myself with it. Please, think of the puppies.
Now on the matter of pictures, it is true that graphics can improve the aesthetics of a site. That is graphics which is not the same as pictures. Graphics have been digitally manipulated to blend into the layout of the site and add ambiance, not distraction. Here’s a good rule, if you had to find it using a search of your favorite animal, don’t use it.
2. Thou shalt not put links in the wrong order
Your application link should come after your site’s history, rules, and any other content that you would like your members to have read before joining. It’s really not that difficult of a concept. Seriously, it’s not. Just for once, try to use logic. It may hurt your brain at first but I promise you’ll get used to it.
3. Thou shalt not center thy text
If you don’t know how to use block quotes or tables in order to restrict the size of your block of text, then you don’t deserve your site. Centering your text makes you look like an amateur. Why would I want to join the site of an amateur when there are so many other professional looking sites to join?
4. Thou shalt not use tiny font or low contrast font colors
“I use tiny font because it’s the only way to fit all of my text in there!” This is the most contradictory statement I’ve ever heard. Seriously people, are you not listening to yourselves? If you have so much text that you have to shrink to fit, you have too much text. I know, I wrote the book on writing too much. There are two things that make text too hard to read: Small font sizes and large blocks of text. So tell me, what planet are yall from? How small do your brains have to be to think that combining both of these problems will not cause severe pain in the eyes of your potential members?
And to those of you who further complicate things by using a font color which doesn’t contrast with your background, die. Just… die.
5. Thou shalt not waste space
There is no rule that states your application should have more than 3 fields. Name, e-mail, description. In fact, if you have no standards, you could just do Name and E-mail. Now that I have assuaged your fears, you may cease to add unnecessary fields to your application which make it needlessly long and obnoxious.
There is a rule however (that I’m making up right now) that you should not bore me to tears with unnecessary information. It takes time and effort to make pages for your public and private content, don’t waste your own energy. I am giving you an excuse to be lazy here. Since this is the most subjective of my commandments, I will not elaborate any further. Just remember, be lazy. ^^
6. Thou shalt not have more than one scrollbar
If this isn’t self explanatory, nothing I say here will help you.
7. Thou shalt not use the second person in fiction
The second person is used in direct address only. I am using second person in this article because I am addressing you, the site creator. However when the second person is used in fiction, in the countless intros I have seen, it is used to “draw the reader into the story”. However usually the reader is dragged in kicking and screaming. If you can’t write a good enough intro in third person to draw me into the story, using the second person won’t help you. It’s called power playing. And you forbid it in your rules! Hypocrites. All of you.
8. Thou shalt be considerate of all screen resolutions
One day I will conduct a poll to see how many people actually use 800 by 600 screen resolutions. My guess is it’s less than a fifth of all RPers. So why do people insist on torturing us with layouts that only look good on those resolutions? A good site designer is mindful of all browsers and all screens. This is difficult, but it’s not impossible. I promise. The key is percentage rather than pixels. Yes, it does mean that you will most likely be unable to use those free layouts with pretty graphics and fancy CSS. But it also means that you will have my blessing, and I count more.
It also means that your members will not be irritated by large areas of blank space surrounding itsy bitsy blocks of text. Which means that they won’t go blind. Which is good for you because blindness isn’t conducive to RPing. 9. Thou shalt be mindful of navigation ease
One of the RPing greats, Sparticus, once gave me the greatest piece of advice on a rating/review ever. “Have a link to all of your public pages as well as a guest login and application on every single one of your public content pages.” RPers are lazy. They don’t want to continually hit the back button in order to navigate their way through your site. Most people understand this and thus have a navigation bar that appears on every page in their private layout. Why in the hell they think the same good logic isn’t necessary for the public layout is beyond me. Develop a navigation system that is idiot friendly (a tall order I realize) and lazy people friendly. And repeat after me: I shall realize that multi boards are not inherently easy to navigate. Multiboards have one fatal flaw. They do not link back to the area you were in, they only link back to the area listed first (board id 1). This means that you have to get off your lazy bum and actually include links within your navigational system to the different Multiboard areas. This should be your mantra: Less clicking = Happy RPers.
The tenth commandment was made for there website so I'm going to make up my own hehe
10. Thou shalt not create large affliate buttons
This is what annoys me the most. Do not make an affliate button that exceds over 88x31. Seriously, just because its bigger, doesn't mean everyones going to go to your site. Don't add all those flashy special effects and what not. Its a button! All it does is send them to your site. Just because it's different doesn't make it special.