On Out-of-game Communication and the Forum Shoutbox

Would you like the internal shoutbox to make a comeback?

  • Yes

    Votes: 11 36.7%
  • Indifferent

    Votes: 11 36.7%
  • No (please explain)

    Votes: 7 23.3%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 1 3.3%

  • Total voters
    30

AlexanderH

Waiting for 2028
#1
It's 2019 and the nature of the kingdom is greately evolved from the way it was between and including the years 2005 and 2008. MyVMK remains the only public multiplayer remake of VMK. There are some things MyVMK lacks compared to VMK, and there are things MyVMK has that VMK never did. Increasingly, the excellent documentation of every facet possible of VMK is outdated. The previous text links to a ".zip" file of the Disney Online Worlds wiki of the original game, archived in 2015 August. Much like other information on the original game, that website has since gone offline.

Today, the kingdom is a place that can be accessed from nearly any device, thanks to the Javascript rewrite of the game, released in early 2018. Because it's not just mice and keyboards that are used to play anymore (in other words, more input devices work), the game itself naturally is adapted.

Out-of-game communication back in the days of the original VMK would have largely been on unofficial forums (including https://www.vmkforums.com/ and https://www.micechat.com/ ). Today, however, things are more connected, social, and fast. Below is a list of what I believe to be channels related to MyVMK. Any mistakes or lack of completion in this list are welcome to be corrected either by letting me know in the replies or by the staff editing this post.


The main concern of this post is the forum shoutbox. The forum shoutbox was a feature for a while. It started around the same time MyVMK opened, then was closed in 2014 August. It reopened briefly in 2018 but was closed due to lack of popularity and bugs.

During the times without the shoutbox, users have created their own unofficial chanels of instant-messenger-like communication. Notable examples include one a friend of mine created but wasn't allowed to share on the forums, and another one was created by former staff member Elizabeth in 2016 January. The most notable example, of course, though, is the Discord server.

Here are some links to some threads some people have made relating to the forum shoutbox:
https://forums.myvmk.com/threads/shoutbox-removal.27890/
https://forums.myvmk.com/threads/shoutbox.29134/
https://forums.myvmk.com/threads/the-shoutbox-is-back.30417/
https://forums.myvmk.com/threads/the-shoutbox.76273/

As far as I can tell, the most recent word from the staff about a shoutbox is the following post by HOST_Nala:
Maybe if enough people want it back, we can make a new one.
Personal opinion: I would appreciate the revival of the internal forum shoutbox eventually. To the staff, please feel free to take your time in making it bug-free. Or whatever you like, since this is your community.
Useful opinion: What the above post seems to indicate is that it is not 100% guaranteed that we will never have a forum shoutbox again. Who knows? Maybe the staff are cooking something up right now and it's just not been made public yet. Is this the case, because the link to the shoutbox remains at the top of the forums?

All in all, I would appreciate more information on this matter. It has been several months that the link to the shoutbox has been at the top of the forum. Politely, what is the current state of events?
 

Amy

Well-Known Member
Head Administrator
#9
i wrote an in-game shoutbox that can be accessed out of the game too via the website, with different channels and such. the idea was to link it to a discord as well so you could also get on it on there after confirming your account, just never launched it or wrote the discord link-up. if there's enough interest we might consider going forward with it.

also could i get a copy of that DOW archive
 
#11
i wrote an in-game shoutbox that can be accessed out of the game too via the website, with different channels and such. the idea was to link it to a discord as well so you could also get on it on there after confirming your account, just never launched it or wrote the discord link-up. if there's enough interest we might consider going forward with it.

also could i get a copy of that DOW archive
This sounds pretty darn awesome, I second this
 
#12
I chose no because they tried to revive the SB before. Didn't work great, nobody used it. There's no point trying to revive SB 3.0.
i wrote an in-game shoutbox that can be accessed out of the game too via the website, with different channels and such. the idea was to link it to a discord as well so you could also get on it on there after confirming your account, just never launched it or wrote the discord link-up. if there's enough interest we might consider going forward with it.

also could i get a copy of that DOW archive
Well, the revival of the SB died because we all moved on to Discord, so why not make an official one?
 
#14
Discord annoys the heck out of me.
There are too many tabs and side conversations. Too much going on.
I'm lazy. I need something simple.

In my humble onion.

Edit: Discord makes me feel like @CoralHibiscus ' sig.
Yeah discord’s not for everyone. If Amy is able to make it so the new SB is linked to a discord like she thinks is possible, it could be good for all of us. The people who don’t like discord can use the SB and still chat and respond to those of us on the discord.
 
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