That's something I've been thinking about this morning. I do post updates to Reddit sporadically, but honestly I really hate Reddit's format and I don't think it really fills the same niche as a forum thread either way.

I've been thinking it might make sense to make a development blog or something where I can post smaller more regular updates, and then dump new editions or expansions to Reddit?

I've also toyed with the idea of making a Discord server for this hack, but I'm wary of that because moderating a Discord community seems like it could turn into a headache incredibly quickly.

Open to suggestions!

@Tom Cruise Any self-run thing with user-input will run into the moderation headache unfortunately.

A blog is great if you have mostly 1-way communication (you posting updates), but it makes it hard for community members to post suggestions/replies (which is not necessarily required, mind you, just up to you if you think they're useful/worthwhile). There's comment plug-ins (Disqus, for example) which provide some minor moderation tools (automatic keyword blacklists, no guest posting, etc.), but you'll still need to do a little bit of setup and moderation cuz no automated system is perfect.

You might actually look into setting up a Patreon. Have like $1/$5 tiers for people to throw a few bucks at you, but post publicly so content isn't locked behind a paywall? I think as long as you do something to incentivize the $5 tier (say "Proof-reader access, help me polish the text and see early updates!" like a couple other creators do) you should be okay. Not quite a forum replacement, but I think the moderation would be easier than doing something yourself.

Discord is good too, there's some useful bots to help with moderation (automoderation, keyword blacklists, point systems to track "good and engaged users"), and you can use roles to delegate some moderation to volunteers. You can use a role-bot to put a little bit of a buffer against bad-faith users (you must react to rules and roles with specific emoji before being granted a role that allows posting, fully automated), just enough of a hassle that trolls usually don't bother. I use YAGPDB to handle this, but Mee6 and other bots are available.

A blog would work, if you can draw attention to it through other other channels.

Discord might work too. I don't know if there's a Genesys specific Discord? You could maybe catch a ride there and get a separate channel in it?

1 hour ago, Veruca said:

Discord might work too. I don't know if there's a Genesys specific Discord? You could maybe catch a ride there and get a separate channel in it?

https://discord.gg/87JswhqYqT

Yeah I'm semi-active in the Genesys Discord. Would be a bit cheeky to ask for my own channel though, no other setting gets that kind of treatment

I'm thinking the mix of a blog to contain all my updates and then just keeping engaged on Reddit, Discord, etc is probably the best alternative I'm gonna get to forums without giving myself a lot of headaches.

13 hours ago, Tom Cruise said:

That's something I've been thinking about this morning. I do post updates to Reddit sporadically, but honestly I really hate Reddit's format and I don't think it really fills the same niche as a forum thread either way.

I've been thinking it might make sense to make a development blog or something where I can post smaller more regular updates, and then dump new editions or expansions to Reddit?

I've also toyed with the idea of making a Discord server for this hack, but I'm wary of that because moderating a Discord community seems like it could turn into a headache incredibly quickly.

Open to suggestions!

If you're wary about moderating, I've experience as a moderator. I've been running one of the oldest SWRPG Discord servers (we've been going for about 6 years) and I have an EXTREMELY small discord server for the Deathwatch additions to your conversion. If you want, I can change the server to 'Genesys - Warhammer 40k' and it can encompass your Dark Heresy base game, and then branch into both Deathwatch and Rogue Trader.

I can also potentially store this stuff in an AWS s3 bucket, so size wouldn't be an issue.

How about using GitHub? https://pages.github.com/

Github is very programming specific. I'm not sure if it's the right place for this.

10 hours ago, MosesofWar said:

If you're wary about moderating, I've experience as a moderator. I've been running one of the oldest SWRPG Discord servers (we've been going for about 6 years) and I have an EXTREMELY small discord server for the Deathwatch additions to your conversion. If you want, I can change the server to 'Genesys - Warhammer 40k' and it can encompass your Dark Heresy base game, and then branch into both Deathwatch and Rogue Trader.

I can also potentially store this stuff in an AWS s3 bucket, so size wouldn't be an issue.

Appreciate the offer, but if I do end up running a Discord for this I'd probably want to be running it myself (although I'd definitely appoint moderators if the number of members justifies that). I've moderated communities before and I'm reasonably comfortable with it, but I'm also conscious of the fact that smashing together the Genesys and Warhammer 40k fanbases in one place is liable to turn toxic incredibly fast, I can forsee a lot of nasty clashing opinions there. I'll give it some thought!

23 hours ago, tapanther said:

@Tom Cruise Any self-run thing with user-input will run into the moderation headache unfortunately.

A blog is great if you have mostly 1-way communication (you posting updates), but it makes it hard for community members to post suggestions/replies (which is not necessarily required, mind you, just up to you if you think they're useful/worthwhile). There's comment plug-ins (Disqus, for example) which provide some minor moderation tools (automatic keyword blacklists, no guest posting, etc.), but you'll still need to do a little bit of setup and moderation cuz no automated system is perfect.

You might actually look into setting up a Patreon. Have like $1/$5 tiers for people to throw a few bucks at you, but post publicly so content isn't locked behind a paywall? I think as long as you do something to incentivize the $5 tier (say "Proof-reader access, help me polish the text and see early updates!" like a couple other creators do) you should be okay. Not quite a forum replacement, but I think the moderation would be easier than doing something yourself.

Discord is good too, there's some useful bots to help with moderation (automoderation, keyword blacklists, point systems to track "good and engaged users"), and you can use roles to delegate some moderation to volunteers. You can use a role-bot to put a little bit of a buffer against bad-faith users (you must react to rules and roles with specific emoji before being granted a role that allows posting, fully automated), just enough of a hassle that trolls usually don't bother. I use YAGPDB to handle this, but Mee6 and other bots are available.

Currently I'm in the process of setting up a Wordpress page with a comments section enabled, which has nested comments and all that fancy stuff. I'll see how manageable that is.

In terms of Patreon it's something I've considered in the past but there's a few things which make it unappealing to me.

• I prefer this conversion to be as freely accessible as possible. It's a niche thing already, paywalling my updates (even if the actual PDFs are public access) could risk shrinking an already small community into non-existence.
• If I'm taking people's money I'd want to be providing steady, regular updates. As some of you who've been following me for a while might have noticed, I'm pretty bad at that! I don't think it's fair to ask for people's money for my content and then not release something for six months straight.
• Copyright is potentially a problem. I know a lot of 40k fan projects chug along on Patreon just fine, but I am a little wary that once I turn this from a free fan thing into a profit making enterprise that GW or C7 lawyers might get a bit grumpy with me.

I also just don't really need the money, I work full time in a very stable industry that pays reasonably well, so I don't really need to supplement my income (although extra money would certainly be nice to have). Turning this project from a hobby into a side gig could be more stress than it's worth.

Anyway, here's my Wordpress for now, still setting it up so it doesn't have all my content on there yet. I'm going to try and archive this forum thread too before the forums go down, lots of useful feedback in here over the years that I think is worth preserving.

16 hours ago, Tom Cruise said:

Appreciate the offer, but if I do end up running a Discord for this I'd probably want to be running it myself (although I'd definitely appoint moderators if the number of members justifies that). I've moderated communities before and I'm reasonably comfortable with it, but I'm also conscious of the fact that smashing together the Genesys and Warhammer 40k fanbases in one place is liable to turn toxic incredibly fast, I can forsee a lot of nasty clashing opinions there. I'll give it some thought!

Not a problem. I think the understanding that this is a Gensys conversion would do much to subside much of that. If you have a change of heart, and you do end up making a server, I will throw my lot in helping out with moderation. I've found discord is awesome for collaboration.

@Tom Cruise As an update on my additions to your Deathwatch piece, here is what I've got so far:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OTQTH5IqtT3Ur7AtLGhlgxJMRWQy_S0WWA8i001pR8o/edit?usp=sharing

Just in case it slipped by anyone in the last post; I've moved things over to Wordpress for now, and that'll likely be the home for all future content.

Go ahead and subscribe to https://dhgenesys.wordpress.com (currently in the process of registering a custom domain for it, which will be Genesys40k.com) if you want future updates. Today I made a little post going into some potential rules changes for psychic attacks, as they're a little wimpy at the moment.