While this is a site, on the web....
Would we ever see a .com site for this down the line?
A place people can come together, maybe read up on whats going down community wise across servers or server of choice for said project, making it a hub

I thought about making this thread. Just wasn't so sure because I have a history of over eager suggestion making.

Anyway, I think this is a good Idea. Is it necessary? I don't know, I think the forums might do just fine as long as we don't need to put some news feed on or something like that.

But I feel like it might be needed in the future. For better organization, for better overview. We could put sort of a welcome message on top of it (I feel like this is missing here - sure, we have the "say hello" forum and Ty posted a thread too in there but it feels like people might get a little lost if they get on this forum for the first time), have a chat room, vent server, some information and certainly other things will be needed too (maybe a member list with char name, server, guild, faction - something like that as well).

And I am almost certain we will have all sorts of people with different talents who can help us with that kind of thing (graphic wise, domain wise, programming wise and whatnot lol).

And to get it out there (again): respectingaming.com is actually available it seems
(sure seems like a more accessible url too)

Most of the things you're talking about, Grome, is not that hard to implement on this site. There's even a tool for news feeds.

Although I do understand the reasoning and it would be easier on the organization side of things (I used to run a .com site with forums) I'm not sure it's needed as of yet. And personally I'm not even sure it's okay to create a site that's gonna be dependant on donations. You can't force people to pay and the ones that will gladly donate are often a minority and I feel it's unfair a few select people are gonna pay for everyone. But that's my personal view and I might be wrong

I understand, run our guild website and pay for it myself

In answer to this, I have given it some thought.

I am tempted to create a more offical .com site, and paying for it does not really bother me either, I would have done it straight away, but there was no way of knowing we would have the kind of response to this that we have ended up having.

I am sure we could do something like this, I think it could be kinda neat, I have worked on a fansite prior to this, sadly it kinda went down the drain after New Year due to bad management and terrible man management, shame it had so much promise, some of you may even have heard of it? It was called TOR-Aid?

I won't lie though, when it comes to site design, I would have to bow to someone like Selven, who has done such a fantastic job with this place But I would love to do a more serious site if other people were up to doing it as well.

The thing is, to do something like that, you would need people who would be willing to give up some of their time as well, we would require more moderators, perhaps article writers, all sorts really.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to do this, but in order for us to do it, and to do what your asking Darka, and do it properly, it would require a few others who would be willing to help and contribute to it

I don't doubt that some people would spend the money on it, but as Selv said it usually is a minority. Some cannot/won't pay for a website for various reasons, most of which I'd say were quite valid.

It'd be very interesting, and I think it'd be a lot of fun.

I think we should discuss the benefits and the downsides some more and what we feel it'd really bring to the RIG community.

And ideas of how to populate said side, sections and such, even if we don't do it right away (or at all.)

I think it's not a bad idea, but obviously there is a lot to iron out back and forth.

We'd have A LOT to consider, and it's a lot of work for Selven that people need to think about. Unless others are willing (and I'm sure they are,) to chip in. We could get it done should we really feel the need to, and I'm not opposed to the idea as long as we either do it right and it doesn't take away from someone's life over it.

Thinking this through a bit has landed me on the "fun side". But, I think we definatly need to hear what everyone has to say about it. I certainly won't "allow" Ty to pay for our fun!

I allready PM-ed Selven about this option but...
Maybe Guildportal has something to offer us.
Thats easy for me to say though...i have been a Guildportaloholic for 5 years now
It has lots of options to build something we would like to visit and it has build in Guildchat and personalchat.
Only negative side, on a non-sponsored website, are the adds and the limit on forum creation (10 max) but the rest is pretty good.

I don't mind either way...You guys decide, and, I'll back you all up!

Well, count me in for anything! I'll help in any way I can and I would be willing to chip in money too, if needed.

Actually I would really want to participate and think it could be fun.

We shouldn't have any problems with anything as I'm sure everyone's combined efforts can create something utterly amazing.

I'm gonna post again to summarize what I think are the advantages of this later.

If money is no problem to Ty then why not?
I know how annoying lack of payment can be if you are relying on it,

First thing we need to ask is there anything that can be done ona site that cannot be done here on the forums?

I would have to understand more distinctly why a formalized site is needed before I'd support or disagree with such said site. I guess the real question I have is what would a new site have that this one does not have and is there any reason that this site can not have those features that are percieved as missing? At this point I am neither for nor against a more formalized site.

I don't think we need a formalized site, yet. Pretty much everything we need can be done with the forum and "add-ons".