HOLF Players' Guild Forum

Welcome to the Players' Guild Forum. This site is intended to provide an easy way for Guild members to communicate with one another, post commentary on HOLF events, vote on opinion polls, participate in a player demographic survey, and maintain your Guild profile.

The test of this software suite will be used to determine if it should be used as part of a re-work of standard portions on the Historical Online Learning Foundation web site. There are several features that need to be examined. The first feature is the blog feature to make it easy for players post comments directly to the web site and not have their InBox cluttered with non-gaming event email traffic. The second modification is an adaptation of the "forum" feature to provide an easy-to-access method of posting commentary by players without having to go through the GA. The use of the webform feature for the player survey & profile and the software that supports the opinion polls are not adaptations from the software's original design.

To use these features there are several actions required by the player.

• First, a player must create an account for this web site. To use this site Players must create an account for themselves. Click on Create New Account in the right column and follow the instructions. There will be some time involved in this process as your application for an account will be reviewed and approved by the Forum manager. This involves several email notifications and associated processes. Please be patient.
• Second, as part of the account creation process, the player will be directed to fill out a series of general questions for his web site profile and asked for some demographic data. The answers from these general questions is used to populate the online web site members' profile that is found under the Guild Forum members link on the site navigation bar (on the right side). Site members can also upload a picture or graphic file for display with his member profile. If one is not uploaded, the web site default picture is used. The data from the demographic questions will NOT be posted for public access. They are asked for use by the Foundation to gain a better profile of the users of its products and are not for general release. The Foundation will follow all privacy protocols and safeguard this data.
• Third, the player is asked to fill out HOLF-event background & interests survey, the Guild Registry Application (see under Primary Links). This is a simple webform program that feeds a database only accessed by the HOLF Board appointed Guild Registrar. The only action the player does is fill out the form and receive a verification email of his input. These player submissions populate a database that will be used at a later date to construct a profile of the "typical" Players' Guild member for the Guild Dispatch and other Guild publications that evolve out of this web site.
• This site uses a standard online blog program to allow members to post to the Board of Directors' blog (Directors' blog). Guild members make new entries using the add new comment feature found after you click admin's blog or read more.
• The discussion forums are also standard site software. There are three general forum categories on this site:
  • The Guild Forum
  • HOLF Events & Activities
  • Office of the Registrar

  Under these general categories are five functional designed discussion forums. These are listed under the headings of The Commissioners' Forum, The Officers' Club, Civil War OnLine, Napoleonic Wars OnLine, and Players Guild Records. All Guild Members can open and read entries in these discussion forums and post comments or respond to comments in that forum.

• The opinion polls presented on this web site are salient game design questions or areas for future development that have risen over the conduct of the extended Beta testing periods that occurred during 2004-2008. Most questions are generally decided by the designer(s) but these polls are a method to allow the Guild Members to make their preferences known in these subjects.
• Once you have created your account, you are encouraged to utilize the navigation bar within the right hand column to visit those site areas listed as "Primary Links" as well as explore those links listed under your Forum account ID name at the top of the right hand column. Once you are familiar with these links and what they enable you to do within the construct of this site you will be able to fully participate in all aspects of the Players' Guild Forum.

This site is a work in progress and will undergo evolutions as we discover more about the capabilities of this software.