Prides

[Zeke]

I think this is a sick idea but as everyone mentioned, it can go downhill really fast due to the amount of drama that takes place on forums like this. I dont know if the staff-run prides are absolutely neseccary because if the leaders are chosen by the staff, they should be able-bodied and just enough to run their own pride. BUT Im not saying that having a few mod-run prides isnt a bad idea.

I think this should be put through a trial period because of its great potential yet I do agree that it could potentially start breaking up the forum. The only thing is that during the trial period (if it is to happen) there would have to be more than a couple prides in order to see if this can really get that badly out of hand. But just like the chatbox, which has been taken away a few times, I think that this could be permenantly put into place through trial and error and be a fun, new part of the forum

[Panda-chan]

I dunno if it's just me, but I feel like I'm missing the point here. What purpose exactly do these prides serve? I know OP said something about members having a place to chat amongst themselves but isn't that what the chatroom/Den/Members Dens are for? In other words, what's the purpose of having so many enclosed, secretive prides when we can just discuss things together as a forum?
Related to that is another downside - the whole password thing. It's going to be quite a hassle keeping members of each pride informed of the password and making sure they don't spill it to another member by accident (which is bound to happen eventually). It'll be especially confusing for members that are part of multiple prides, since they'll have so many passwords to remember.
I'm not trying to ruin this idea for anybody, in fact, I think it sounds really fun. If the mods decide to implement this, heck I'm all for it. But as many others have said, this has great potential to either instantly fly with the members or stir up a terrible crapstorm.

[FlipMode]

[quote="Amanda"]In other words, what's the purpose of having so many enclosed, secretive prides when we can just discuss things together as a forum?[/quote]

Simple answer; because it is fun and as YFWE suggested we could have fun events that pit the prides against each other. I get the whole point of a forum may be that it is supposed to be one community but this wouldn't be replacing the main public forum, just an addition to it

[quote="Amanda"]
Related to that is another downside - the whole password thing. It's going to be quite a hassle keeping members of each pride informed of the password and making sure they don't spill it to another member by accident (which is bound to happen eventually). It'll be especially confusing for members that are part of multiple prides, since they'll have so many passwords to remember.[/quote]
In the politest way possible; I did say in the OP that members would only be allowed to be in one pride, at the very least one at a time.
Now, I know there is theoreticaly nothing to stop people from joining more than one at this time, but if the staff were willing to make it an official forum offence then people would still think twice about doing it. And even if not it is as simple as changing the password, informing the "double crosser" that they have been exiled and informing other members of the new pass :) it shouldn't be too difficult with a little bit of organisation.

[YFWE]

I almost think of the prides as something much more from a role-playing or discussion standpoint than anything. For instance, say someone might start a pride that's like a 'Movie-Lovers Pride' (BECAUSE LIONS LOVE MOVIES AMIRITE), and that's primarily what they discuss. Or not. Etc. etc. It might seem dense and kinda like 'why?' in theory, but in practice, I think it could serve far more purposes than one might think now, especially if we put our heads together (or the staff does) to think of something. The contests between prides are just a start. I'm sure we could think of other things.

At the same time, I wouldn't expect THAT much discussion to be in these prides'... 'dens,' for lack of a better term. They could be used for planning when/if these contests happen or if the pride leader needs to say something... or heck, they could be used for the RPing like what happens in the member dens already. I think that individual pride leaders could definitely cultivate fun activities, polls, discussions, whatever, inside to make things less dreary. And in one sense I'd like for these not to be password-protected, but if we want to be anal about others joining in and/or messing with people, that might be necessary. Or the normal board for the pride could be visible, but a special section could be password-protected for things only the pride members themselves should be able to see.

At the very least, something along the lines of what TLKPF does with their member groups could be doable. But I'd think we'd want these to mean a little more. One possibility would be taking out the Fanfic Writer/Fan Artists, etc. groups and replacing them with these prides, but I don't know if that would sit well with a lot of members here.

tl;dr: I think the idea definitely still needs a lot of input from folks and more developing, but I still think there's something to this. We just gotta figure out what, work out the kinks and all that.

[Thegeni99]

this would be interesting, but maybe it'll work if we only make it rp style, like that members can really get into their lionistic part of their lives, and then the member dens can serve their purpose?

[TheRoguePrince]

This is a interesting idea, but as it has been stated, drama is gonna go through the roof when people have more differences to compare themselves with. Amanda is right when she says that the password thing is bound to get muddled somehow. I like "Prides", but if it's just gonna be another clan based popularity contest, we should just forget about it. I say this because I don't want to have another fight happen here. People don't need another temptation to go to war with each other. Come on guys.

[Ushujaa]

is this idea kind of like guilds for role playing games or such?

[FlipMode]

[quote="Ushujaa"]is this idea kind of like guilds for role playing games or such?[/quote]

I guess that is a pretty vague description but yes, along those lines.

[Ushujaa]

it sounds very interesting and I've seen other sites do it before. In order for this to work i agree that the staff would have to choose pride leaders and on top of that the staff would have to mediate the requirements in order to get into a pride, now that doesn't mean the pride leader would have no say in it but still they would have to discuss it with a moderator before it becomes a requirement for their pride, they should give several reasons why its a good requirement.

i think that MLK could handle this, while it may have its ups and downs when it comes to drama we stick together through it in the end.

it could definitely add something new to the forum and personally i'm all for it.

[FlipMode]

Okay it seems like the majority would be at least interested in seeing how this would pan out before it is officially interested, thanks for the feedback though everyone and keep it coming! I am going to discuss it with the rest of the staff at some point and see about hopefully getting something along these lines implemented.