[Luke]

Many of you should know by now that Larva has retired and I have taken over as admin. If you haven't seen his topic please read it here. This is a big responsibility for me to take on, so it may take some time for me to adjust to these responsibilities. Rest assured I will do everything I can to keep Ultima running smoothly, and improve upon it where possible.

First I want to let you guys know that I don't speak Spanish very well. My wife speaks fluently and she will help me with some things. I am learning, but I will have some difficulty.

I have administrated forum communities before. The last one I administered has over 1,000,000 posts and 15,000 members. I started it from nothing and worked it into a thriving community, which is now being run by trusted friends. My former experience should benefit me here, but there will be challenges. The first is that this is an actually game community, not a fan-site. The second is that there is more than one language, so I will have trouble communicating. But as I have learned in the past, relying on feedback from the members and help from the staff helps make a great community.

The biggest thing I want to improve upon is the language barrier we have here. One of the things that makes Ultima a great place is having so many people from different places that speak different languages working together. I don't want to "split" the community at all, but I'm sure there's some things we can do to make communication easier, whether it be in-game or here on the forum.

Please share your ideas below of what we can do to make communication easier, keeping in mind that what we do has to keep the community whole.

Thanks,

Luke

---

Muchos de ustedes ya saben que Larva se ha retirado y yo soy el nuevo "admin". Si no han visto el mensaje de Larva, leer lo por favor. leer lo aqui. Este es una responsabilidad grande para mi, entonces voy a necesitar un poco tiempo para acostumbrarme a estas responsabilidades. Voy a hacer todo lo que pueda para asegurar que Ultima sirva bien, y mejorarlo cuando sea necesario.

Primeramente, quiero dejarles saber que no hablo Español muy bien, pero mi esposa puede comunicarse bien y ella me va a ayudar con algunas cosas. Estoy aprendiendo, pero es un poco dificil para mi.

He administrado comunidades y foros en el pasado. El ultimo que administre tiene mas que 1,000,000 mensajes y 15,000 miembros. En el principio aquel foro era muy pequeño y ahora es una comunidad grande, la cual es administrada ahora por algunos amigos intimos. En otras palabras, mis experiencias con este sitio me van a beneficiar aqui, pero habran algunas dificultades. El primero es que este sitio es una comunidad de un juego y no un sitio de fans. El segundo es que hay mas que un lenguaje, entonces voy a tener dificultades con comunicarme con todos ustedes. Pero, como he aprendido en el pasado, escuchando a las opiniones de todos los miembros y ayuda del staff puede contribuir a una comunidad grande.

La cosa mas grande que me gustaria mejorar aqui es la barrera linguística que tenemos aqui. Una de las mejores cosas acerca de Ultima es que tenemos personas de culturas y lenguajes diferentes trabajando juntos. Yo no quiero dividir la comunidad, pero estoy seguro que hay cambios que podemos hacer para que la comunicacion sea mas facil, sea en el juego o aqui en el foro.

Por favor, compartir sus ideas abajo.

Gracias,

Lucas

*para todos que hablan Español, perdonenme por favor por mi traduccion horrible. gracias por su paciencia- La esposa de Luke

This post has been edited by Larva: 20 February 2010 - 01:01 PM

[semsax]

For now i can say we need a active mod/gm english speaker. Most of the gms can translate english-spanish / spanish english and Elision can translate portugues/english and spanish.

My idea is to have ACTIVE gms/mods in lobbys and forums who can translate. maybe french will be needed too cuz i had seen users who speak it (I can understand it but not talk it/write back so good }, Also make a new area on forums for other lenguages.

This post has been edited by semsax: 20 February 2010 - 01:14 PM

[R.A.V.S.O]

well I'm bilingual, but I don't think I cut it as a GM.

but if you see me around I can help translate.

[dessens]

Ok boss if you think we need another translator i knew of someone that fits with this description and i asure you is a trustworthy person,about the more active GM/MOD is a good idea 'cuz i can only be a few hours in the lobby per day and i dont speaks portuguese but like i said i have this person who helps me with that someday i will introduce her to this community of course if you think is correct

[Luke]

One of the things I've found about running a forum is that too many sections on the index page can cause confusion, so they're less likely to post. While branching out to other languages would be nice, adding a whole new section on the index page would add to the problem we already have.

I've been looking at the way the sections are now, and I see that many of the secondary forums under each language rarely get used. So what I'm thinking about doing is having 1 area per language, then with the lesser used sections have 1 for all sections (at least for now).

This is how I'm thinking about laying things out:

|-[Ultima]
|- News and Announcements
|- Game Events
|- Bugs and Feedback

|-[Phantasy Star Online]
|- [General] (Category)
|--- English
|--- Espanol
|--- Brazilian
|- Guides
|- Teams

|-[Off-topic]
|- General


It's much slimmer, and I believe that it draws the focus where it needs to be. Also thinking about making "Guides" a category and having different sections for different things, like "Controllers", "Quests", etc... Hopefully some adjustments like this will encourage more people to post, and attract more new players.

Would also be nice to use something like MediaWiki for guides, but we can worry about that later.

What do you think?

This post has been edited by Luke: 20 February 2010 - 03:43 PM

[R.A.V.S.O]

great

It IS a lot nicer-looking when you put it that way, but I believe you forgot the anti-crime topics
(which I believe they should go on the ultima section)

but that's up to you to decide,

by the way. If you didi alter the whole thing up, would we still keep the shoutbox?

thanks for actually reading all of this.

[Luke]

That's just the forum layout. I'm leaving the shout box where it is.

[dessens]

Sounds great it will be more easy for the user to found what they are looking for so it sound good for me

[R.A.V.S.O]

go for it then, I support you

[KartonCua]

I think the forum is good atm, 1 section for spanish,1 for english and other for brazilians.
It dont need repairs,but only is my opinion.

Luke, on 20 February 2010 - 11:54 AM, said:

*para todos que hablan Español, perdonenme por favor por mi traduccion horrible. gracias por su paciencia- La esposa de Luke

And dont worry about your spanish, is really perfect ^^

PD: Remember, is only my opinion

This post has been edited by KartonCua: 21 February 2010 - 10:53 AM