Inviting Lurkers To Participate

[Vargr1105]

Is there a way to make one sub-thread on a campaign thread open to anyone so lurkers checking the game could manifest their opinions?

While I don't lurk in any games myself I know some people do, and sometimes I even get PMs from a lurker about one of my campaigns.

Oftentimes the lurkers are GMs themselves, and I feel it would be nice to have a forum on a campaign (should whoever is running it wish so) where they can state their piece and exchange ideas. It would also be nice for GMs to know how many lurkers they have. If their game is popular enough to commandeer an audience then they must doing something right.

[AQuebman]

This would be cool but the lurkers could also just shoot a PM to the DM unless your talking about sharing the discussion with everyone within the group.

[thirdkingdom]

You mean maybe something like a questions/comments thread about the games? "Why did you do this?" "I like how that happened or you handled that" kind of thing? I've been toying with the idea, actually, of doing a kind of actual play thread in one of the subforums about the game I'm running, give my thoughts on some stuff, allow the players to chime in kind of thing. Maybe there could be a subforum for that, call it "Analysis and Queries" or something.

[Alethan]

It is probably possible to add a sub forum under the RPG Discussion. From there a thread could be made for each game where discussions regarding the game could be made.

From a mod's point of view, however, I don't know how much I like the idea. I see it as a spawning area for bad feelings between users. Granted, probably most discussions and comments will go as the OP suggests, but I have faith in human nature and wouldn't bet a dime against the possibility of people using the threads to be critical of other players or of how a GM is running a game. Or of a player or GM taking a comment the wrong way.

That's just my opinion, of course. I'll initiate a discussion of the topic with the other mods and see what they think.

[ToniXX]

I say that it's not a bad idea, but that we let GMs decide if they want this or not. If they do, we can set up a special forum for such discussion. Setting it up outside the campaign forums is much easier from permissions point of view, and easier on the forum moderators.

So, if you're a GM and are interested in this idea, shoot me a PM and we'll set something up.

[hedgeknight]

From a mod's point of view, however, I don't know how much I like the idea. I see it as a spawning area for bad feelings between users. Granted, probably most discussions and comments will go as the OP suggests, but I have faith in human nature and wouldn't bet a dime against the possibility of people using the threads to be critical of other players or of how a GM is running a game. Or of a player or GM taking a comment the wrong way.

Agree 100% > as a GM, the only comments I want on my game are from my players. I don't need a "zoo crew" chiming in their 2 cents whenever they feel like it, good or bad.