Concept: the invite

[fer]

One of the core concepts for folk is that it's by invitation. However, rather than just have new players show up, right from the start I thought we could turn the invitation process into something fun. My original idea was that you'd send your friend a URL, and that's all. What they'd find would be something like this (look for the link, it's on the page): http://www.ferstaberinde.com/folk/invite/

Assuming the person is intrigued, they'll send in an email to a google account which a few of us have access to. We send back a standard response, which explains how to register on the forum, and all the other critical stuff they'll need. Or something like that. It isn't intended to be an application or screening process - the assumption is that we trust extisting players to invite other good people. However, it is intended to make the act of being invited a little more involved than just being handed a few IPs, or creating an account on the forum. After all, we want people to value an invite.

What do you guys think?

[mort]

I think it is worth trying a novel approach like that Fer

[Lor]

This seems pretty cool, but I wonder if it might be a little contrived?

Bearing in mind I'm hugely drunk right now.

[Xiathorn]

I absolutely agree with this. However, I think it might want to be a little bit easier to find the link. I actually had to check the page source to find the bloody thing. Maybe I'm just shit though - it's more important that we retain the feel of this than worry about how easy it is - after all, the inviter can just tell the invitee to "click on the underscore"

[fer]

This seems pretty cool, but I wonder if it might be a little contrived?

Heh. Fair criticism. Would you junk the whole thing, or edit it in some way? I was just trying to create something a little different from the usual experience of finding out about an ArmAx group, and add a little humour.

Bearing in mind I'm hugely drunk right now.

I was drunk when I thought it up. Hungarian beer, is, frankly, dangerous. Dangerous!

[Tigershark]

I like the idea. Agree with Lor (i must be drunk too) that execution needs some polishing.

[Lor]

On reconsideration, I think "contrived" is the wrong word to use. I was a little worried that this would become a bit of a "test" of perseverance, or ability at finding hidden links - which it clearly isn't intended to be.

I really like the concept as a landing page for new recruits. I like the idea of a hidden link, but as much as I hate to agree with Xiathorn (that catamite) I do think the link on the first page needs to be more obvious - I myself didn't find it the first time =)

[Xiathorn]

I think if the invitee is actually on hand to assist, then that's all good. I really like where it's going in general. It would be neat if we could do an equivalent of asynckeystate in PHP, but I think that's potentially out of bounds of that horrible failure of a language. Javascript can probably handle it though, or a flash system. If it was possible to hit "enter" to progress it'd be golden, but with the current state so long as the invitee is able to say "click on the underscore" then I don't see any problem.

In keeping with the thread, however - I am supremely drunk right now, having dropped out of an ST session because A) Girlthorn went insane due to alcohol and weed abuse, B) I can't see anymore. So take everything I say with a pince of salt! (Comments regarding the universal application of this advice will be met with extreme violence.)

[Headspace]

I would make the little link bigger. It took me a few minutes to figure out that I was intended to click on it. Otherwise it has the appearance of an oldschool game that you'd load off a disk or tape, which I assume is what you were going for there. That's pretty cool.

[fer]

Alright, I've updated the invite pages:

• The underscore link has been replaced with a bright green elipsis on a new line (it also flashes in FireFox)
• The game is named as Armed Assault: Operation Arrowhead
• The helper application is named as Teamspeak 2
• The email address is given as: folk@ferstaberinde.com
• The email address is actually a graphic (to protect it from spam)

As before, check it out at: http://www.ferstaberinde.com/folk/invite/ (you may want to refresh the pages to fluch cached versions). Ready?