mxyzplk
Explorer
I wanted to mention and invite everyone to a new roleplaying expert Q&A site, RPG Stack Exchange.
The Stack Exchange sites are a novel new format that have been rampantly popular in the computer field - Stack Overflow for programmers was the first, and others followed (Super User for users and Server Fault for sysadmins). They've opened it up to other fields, and a proposal for an RPG-based one quickly got enough votes to go into open beta.
SE differs from a normal online forum in that it is for questions and answers only, and the community votes answers (and questions) up and down to determine which are the best. Users with enough "rep" can edit questions and answers, wiki-style. Thus questions can get asked only once, and the answers refined over time (as opposed to in forums, where "it's off the front page, it's like it never happened"). The site then serves as a permanent knowledge base - Google a technical question, and the SE sites are now generally ensconced well at the top. It doesn't compete with forums like this one in terms of being a community and having discussions, but the format makes it way better for organized gathering of knowledge.
It's great for RPG creators/authors/publishers/editors - though pure product promotion in and of itself isn't allowed, you're the kind of experts that people love to get answers from, and you don't have to deal with the signal to noise or get caught in flame wars. RS Conley from Bat in the Attic is already using it to good effect. It's a very efficient use of your time, you can subscribe to tags you want to see, the site can email you about answers. Questions like this one looking for steampunk supplements for d20/D&D3.5/Pathfinder are perfect questions to answer with links to your products.
Anyway, just wanted to encourage people to come check out the site, I think you might like it! (It's free, and you don't even have to register unless you want to gain rep.) So far the game coverage has been very wide, from loads of D&D 4e to OSR stuff to GUMSHOE to Mouse Guard.
The Stack Exchange sites are a novel new format that have been rampantly popular in the computer field - Stack Overflow for programmers was the first, and others followed (Super User for users and Server Fault for sysadmins). They've opened it up to other fields, and a proposal for an RPG-based one quickly got enough votes to go into open beta.
SE differs from a normal online forum in that it is for questions and answers only, and the community votes answers (and questions) up and down to determine which are the best. Users with enough "rep" can edit questions and answers, wiki-style. Thus questions can get asked only once, and the answers refined over time (as opposed to in forums, where "it's off the front page, it's like it never happened"). The site then serves as a permanent knowledge base - Google a technical question, and the SE sites are now generally ensconced well at the top. It doesn't compete with forums like this one in terms of being a community and having discussions, but the format makes it way better for organized gathering of knowledge.
It's great for RPG creators/authors/publishers/editors - though pure product promotion in and of itself isn't allowed, you're the kind of experts that people love to get answers from, and you don't have to deal with the signal to noise or get caught in flame wars. RS Conley from Bat in the Attic is already using it to good effect. It's a very efficient use of your time, you can subscribe to tags you want to see, the site can email you about answers. Questions like this one looking for steampunk supplements for d20/D&D3.5/Pathfinder are perfect questions to answer with links to your products.
Anyway, just wanted to encourage people to come check out the site, I think you might like it! (It's free, and you don't even have to register unless you want to gain rep.) So far the game coverage has been very wide, from loads of D&D 4e to OSR stuff to GUMSHOE to Mouse Guard.
