"Contributors" Page On the Dragon Cave Website

[Shokomon]

I would like to propose a page for "contributors" to the main Dragon Cave Website

 

As in a page that lists all the artists, writers, and conceptors that contributed to Dragon Cave Dragons whether it be through artwork, writing, or establishing lore.

 

Then, you could go to the specific "contributors" page and see what they worked on in total?

 

For example, you could click on the name "Odeen," and see all the dragons they worked on. Or you could click "Nakase," and find the she did various illustrations for dragon habitats. 

 

Or you could click on "TJ09" and find that he is head editor/author/manger/designer/basically-bossman, and thus, DragCave itself wouldn't exist without him.

 

Those are just little blurbs though. 

 

What do you guys think?

 

Yay? Nay? Suggestions? Crits? 

 

--

Original design

• This was supposed to be written in context of the "Dragon Encyclopedia" where the various contributors were framed as editors/authors/artists, and you would find the page listed in the Encyclopedia.

 

Suggestions

• Maybe a cutoff point for who counts as a contributor: Definitely people who made dragons (artist, writer, conceptor), lore for the site, and maybe event organizers (they tend to be artists already involved with the site)?

• A separate page for minor contributors such as, but not limited to those who participated in the Festival of Eggs, Trick or Treat, or other DC events and maybe event organizers that aren't artists/writers/conceptors (if they don't qualify for the above section?)

• Location Suggestions:

  • A link at the bottom of every page, found next to the "Terms and Conditions" and "Privacy Policy" links

  • Original: Listed in the encyclopedia

  • A link in the Help page

 

--

A branch off from this thread:

 

Edited May 19, 2019 by Shokomon
(2019-05-19) Changing the OP to make it more of general page rather than one specific to the encyclopedia

[Keileon]

I could totally get behind this. The only problem I can see is in cases like the most recent Festival of Eggs, where there were a bunch of user-submitted things and a good number of people involved aren't actually involved with the site on a regular basis.

[Shokomon]

9 hours ago, Keileon said:

I could totally get behind this. The only problem I can see is in cases like the most recent Festival of Eggs, where there were a bunch of user-submitted things and a good number of people involved aren't actually involved with the site on a regular basis.

 

It should probably be limited to major involvement with the site itself, rather than one time events.

 

Maybe a cutoff point. 

 

Definitely people who made dragons (artist, writer, conceptor), lore for the site, and maybe event organizers (they tend to be artists already involved with the site)?

 

What do you think?

[Keileon]

Yeah, I can see that working.

[Kakaru_of_DOOM]

What is the problem with including one-time contributors? I know a lot of people were interested in the FoE egg credits. 

 

If it is a serious concern, perhaps there could be two sections - one for 'major contributors' who have done big things like dragons and the second for 'minor contributors' who have done little things like easter eggs/halloween treats? And/or minor contributors could opt out, though I can't think of a reason why someone would be willing to share their art but fear to attach their username to it.

 

(Disclaimer: I may be biased on this topic, being one of the FoE egg contributors and feeling rather proud of my work.)

[Shokomon]

1 hour ago, Kakaru_of_DOOM said:

What is the problem with including one-time contributors? I know a lot of people were interested in the FoE egg credits. 

 

If it is a serious concern, perhaps there could be two sections - one for 'major contributors' who have done big things like dragons and the second for 'minor contributors' who have done little things like easter eggs/halloween treats? And/or minor contributors could opt out, though I can't think of a reason why someone would be willing to share their art but fear to attach their username to it.

 

(Disclaimer: I may be biased on this topic, being one of the FoE egg contributors and feeling rather proud of my work.)

I think the issue is sheer number of Festival of Eggs (FoE)/Trick-or-Treat (ToT) contributors, especially if the Festival (and possibly Trick-or-Treat) is going to have a contest every year.

 

That will be a lot of people who contribute an arguably small amount to the site. 

 

Though, a separate page would probably be better. How would you frame it though? The Contributors page is meant to frame the various artists/conceptors as literal contributors to the encyclopedia. (At least that is how I imagined it.)

 

Both FoE and ToT are non-canon events completely separate from the Dragon Encyclopedia. I believe most events on DC are non-canon even if the places or themes or people in the events are canon. 

Even releases could probably be considered the discover of new dragon species, which is why it takes awhile for them to appear in the market and encyclopedia (rather than real-life reasons of avoiding spoilers and just the time it takes to create the entries on the site.)

 

(Also Disclaimer: I'm technically in the same category as you as both a participant in both the FoE and ToT. I guess for me, it's not as important... BUT you should be proud of your work! You worked hard on it!)

 

Edit: Though that does beg the question of whether or not to include event organizers that aren't artists/writers/conceptors or TJ? 

Edited May 10, 2019 by Shokomon

[Fiona]

While those who contributed to the site have every reason to be reason and right to be proud of their contribution I don't think the encyclopedia is the proper place for acknowledgement. If you look at what is there now, it's all content as if the real world doesn't exist. It's written from an in-game perspective and the names and contributions of the people contributing are out-of-game.

[HeatherMarie]

1 hour ago, Fiona said:

While those who contributed to the site have every reason to be reason and right to be proud of their contribution I don't think the encyclopedia is the proper place for acknowledgement. If you look at what is there now, it's all content as if the real world doesn't exist. It's written from an in-game perspective and the names and contributions of the people contributing are out-of-game.

 

I kind of have to agree with this. While it's a wonderful idea to have a page to acknowledge everyone who has contributed to the site, I don't think the Encyclopedia is the right place for it. 

[ValidEmotions]

Well, why not? 

 

There are contributors who wrote all of the information about a dragon breed into the Encyclopedia who wasn't responsible for the sprite/artwork. I think it's fair to give them credit for their work, their time and energy, on the very page where people are to find it. Just like artist credits are given at the bottom of a dragon's bio (which I think so also including a credit line for the contributor that wrote the description of the dragon).

[Shokomon]

14 hours ago, Fiona said:

While those who contributed to the site have every reason to be reason and right to be proud of their contribution I don't think the encyclopedia is the proper place for acknowledgement. If you look at what is there now, it's all content as if the real world doesn't exist. It's written from an in-game perspective and the names and contributions of the people contributing are out-of-game.

 

12 hours ago, HeatherMarie said:

 

I kind of have to agree with this. While it's a wonderful idea to have a page to acknowledge everyone who has contributed to the site, I don't think the Encyclopedia is the right place for it. 

 

That's why I wanted to phrase this a people who contributed to Encyclopedia itself, and why I am reluctant to include event artists.

 

Even if we are looking at this from an in-game perspective, someone had to put the Encyclopedia together. It didn't just manifest itself. Someone gathered the notes, drew the pictures, organized the book layout, coordinated everything, etc.

 

Every artist, writer, and conceptor does that essentially with every addition of a dragon to site. So why not have just a list of everyone who wrote the book, because they, essentially, wrote the book? 

 

 

(Though, imagine if the book just wrote itself, like it descended from the heavens. 

 

"HERE IS THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF DRAGONS, BLESSED UPON YOU MORTALS BY GON, THEMSELVES." 

 

Lol)

Edited May 11, 2019 by Shokomon
typos

[Sundew]

I had assumed that the encyclopedia was written by the player character themself, instead of being a collaborative effort between other humans. We need to personally observe dragon behaviors in order to unlock/write down notes about them. The unlocking doesn't make as much sense if the encyclopedia becomes something prewritten by a group of people.

 

Would it make sense to have a link to the Contributors page at the bottom of the page, around the same place the artist credits go? Not replacing them, but in addition to

[HeatherMarie]

1 hour ago, Dew said:

I had assumed that the encyclopedia was written by the player character themself, instead of being a collaborative effort between other humans.

 

Same here. The way the text is worded seems to support that idea. On the Account Settings page: View detailed observations about dragons you’ve seen or raised.

On the main Encyclopedia page: The Dragon Encyclopedia shows all of the breeds you have seen.

Our actual scroll is described as a record each user has made, the Encyclopedia seems to be much the same.

[ValidEmotions]

Yeah and the artwork of the dragon is supposed to be something the PC/scroll owner has drawn but we still give the artists their credit where it is due.

 

Why shouldn't we do the same for the contributors who put in the hard work, time, and energy, to write the descriptions/encyclopedia?

 

Why not. Give. Credit. Where. Credit. Is. Due?

[Sundew]

 

1 hour ago, ValidEmotions said:

Why shouldn't we do the same for the contributors who put in the hard work, time, and energy, to write the descriptions/encyclopedia?

 

We're not saying "Don't have a contributors" page, we're just bringing up that the encyclopedia might not be the best location for it.

For location I did suggest the bottom of the page, around where the artist credits are already listed

Edited May 11, 2019 by Dew

[Kakaru_of_DOOM]

I hadn't even noticed the 'in the encyclopedia' part in the first post. I was imagining a separate region of the site as well, perhaps linked down at the bottom next to 'terms and conditions' and 'privacy policy'?

 

Alternatively, if you want to put the credits into the encyclopedia, I think it would make sense to add a 'holidays' page in the 'Lore' zone (where it currently has 'elements', 'magic', and 'world'). That would have the added bonus of helping new users be aware of impending holidays – I know I missed my first holiday on the site because I didn't know there was any reason to log on during Halloween. But that might be a seperate suggestion...

[ValidEmotions]

I think the credits should go at the bottom of each Encyclopedia page, just like the artist credits. Where else should they go? It easily helps identity who worked on what breed and is easy to find. Credits should also go on each individual dragon's personal page. It's just common sense here.

[Sundew]

48 minutes ago, ValidEmotions said:

I think the credits should go at the bottom of each Encyclopedia page, just like the artist credits.

 

This is already confirmed to happen: 

 

The suggestion in this topic is 1 page with a list of all contributors, not a few people mentioned at the bottom of the page like we usually have

[Shokomon]

13 hours ago, Dew said:

I had assumed that the encyclopedia was written by the player character themself, instead of being a collaborative effort between other humans. We need to personally observe dragon behaviors in order to unlock/write down notes about them. The unlocking doesn't make as much sense if the encyclopedia becomes something prewritten by a group of people.

 

Would it make sense to have a link to the Contributors page at the bottom of the page, around the same place the artist credits go? Not replacing them, but in addition to

 

12 hours ago, HeatherMarie said:

 

Same here. The way the text is worded seems to support that idea. On the Account Settings page: View detailed observations about dragons you’ve seen or raised.

On the main Encyclopedia page: The Dragon Encyclopedia shows all of the breeds you have seen.

Our actual scroll is described as a record each user has made, the Encyclopedia seems to be much the same.

You know, I never registered it as such. Probably because when I think Encyclopedia, I think multiple authors and editors complying all the information into one book.

 

If it is just the player writing the book, wouldn't Dragon Journal be more appropriate?  As we, the player, are writing down the notes and observations of the dragons we see in our book, rather than a bunch of people working to compile information about a given subject into short articles of knowledge. 

 

 

In any case, the current suggestion is to have this as a more general list posted elsewhere on the site as opposed to one associated and framed in the context of the Encyclopedia? Where would the link go instead then? The Help Page? A free floating link hidden somewhere? 

 

4 hours ago, Dew said:

We're not saying "Don't have a contributors" page, we're just bringing up that the encyclopedia might not be the best location for it.

For location I did suggest the bottom of the page, around where the artist credits are already listed

Like a Link labeled "Credits" at the bottom of each page? 

 

I feel like it should have designated place rather than squeezed at the bottom of the page next to "Terms and Conditions" and "Private Policy."

 

How often do you actually look at the bottom of the page? Especially when there isn't a dragon release going on?

 

[Stromboli]

4 hours ago, Shokomon said:

Like a Link labeled "Credits" at the bottom of each page? 

 

I feel like it should have designated place rather than squeezed at the bottom of the page next to "Terms and Conditions" and "Private Policy."

 

I like this idea, actually. The bottom navigation, along with the links for the T&C and Privacy Policy, is where I'd expect to see something like a site credits and contributions page.

[RealWilliamShakespeare]

I would really like something like this :3 It's sad to me that concept creators don't get credit for their dragon idea because they didn't do the art for it, so it'd be really nice to honour that in some way!

[Shokomon]

On 5/11/2019 at 9:08 PM, Stromboli said:

 

I like this idea, actually. The bottom navigation, along with the links for the T&C and Privacy Policy, is where I'd expect to see something like a site credits and contributions page.

Okay so two for that idea.

 

It seems at least that people like the idea of a Contributor page, but not necessarily one in the Encyclopedia for various reasons.

 

I'm going to need to change the OP a bit.

[Shokomon]

And updated the OP to reflect the current suggestions.

 

Any more additions? Comments? Crits?

 

[Keileon]

lol I'm notified every time you update the OP now

 

I can get behind the "credits link at the bottom of the page" idea yeah. Seems the most reasonable option.

[Marrionetta]

I wouldn’t be opposed to DC having its own mechanics and credits info in-house as opposed to requiring an independent, hit or miss wikia. From what I understand that independent fan repository is down to a single administrator. I think it might be time we offer the playerbase info here instead. Convenient one stop information shopping

 

I like this idea.