[Inquiry] Established Family Backgrounds

It came up in an admin discussion that current organization of our EFBs is a tad chaotic, and we would love to remedy this to make it easier for everyone to find specific EFBs.

Some of the suggestions we've had are:
- separate sub-boards for each class
- sort efbs by family name instead of the complicated thread titles (i.e. [1 - Pureblood - Influential - Sparklypooland] Shingalongadingdong)
- make several lists that separate efbs by class, surname, and location

But now we want to hear from you! Throw some of your ideas at me and we'll work hard to implement the idea that's most convenient for everyone.

I definitely prefer the complicated titles to family names, and the reason is because usually when I look through EFBs I'm trying to figure out what other families are in a certain class and country rather find than a specific EFB (which can be done through search), or get examples of what lines of work have already been established in a specific class and country or what would be appropriate ideas for a given class level. If we sort by family name they'll all be thrown together and it'll take thirty times as long to comb the list. I'm wondering if maybe instead of the employment and name directory the way it's set up (I may say this because I never use it, but if people do it doesn't need to go) it can be done alphabetically instead, to solve the find a specific EFB problem?

In some common countries (England, Ireland, Russia, France) it might be beneficial to have a board for just that country; I know sometimes it's a hassle to go through and find EFBs in a range of classes in a certain country; however it makes no sense to have a sub-board for a country like Latvia or something, so I don't know how that would work. Lists might come in handy there, although that sounds like a lot of work for you guys o.o

They're already separated by class in the current setup so maybe a list of all EFBs (with links which also sounds like a hassle) by surname and then another list by country (preferably not alphabetically arranged but geographically arranged? >>). I guess the main thing is it sounds really intensive for you guys and that's a bit rough.

My honest opinion is that I believe the EFBs are unnecessary for families any lower class than upper-middle.

I get that people want to keep track of pureblood families, family businesses etc, but I think the lower classes could just be added to one list, like the model list, instead of having a separate EFB for every family - a lot of which are empty anyhow.

I think it could be easier if they were in subforums for the different classes, but keeping the area in the title is handy for search reasons.

Cas has a good point there with the empty EFBs. My only thing is like, how do you keep track of family connections in that case? There have to be some families with lower than upper middle status with a bunch of relations and it's nice to be able to figure out who's related to who in a brief manner? Idk. I guess halfblood relations don't have a mechanism like that so it's not really necessary...

I really want to write an EFB for the Trickett fam. Just because there are like 2938402984 of them, even though they all have the Trickett name haha. xD

I don't really know what to add here because I've only ever written one EFB and don't have many characters that have them. There are a few families that are in the lower classes that have a bunch of relations and I agree that it's nice to keep track of who's related to who.

Separate sub boards for class sounds good though.

I'm not against sub-boards for class, I also just kind of think that they're already arranged that way so that isn't as important as some of the other organizations.

Geography, I'd really love to see that: something like

Durmstrang Area
     Scandinavia
          Norway
               Families
          Sweden
               Families
          Etc.
     Baltic States

And so on.

And then a list alphabetical so you can find an EfB without knowing anything other than the name. Especially if someone is like "you can use the ______s" and you're like the who? What class country line of work what?

I have too many purebloods >>

Buttt again, it depends on how difficult and time consuming setting stuff up would be, sometimes. 

The thing about the EFB listing is people rarely comb through them to PM someone and ask about a family. More often family connections arise when someone posts in their sandbox and someone else offers their families. I typically see EFBs as far more informational, as in you need to know for a thread or someone has already offered, than things used to actively search for connections. This may just be me though.

I was looking for a connection recently for my WIP pureblood line, and after looking through the EFB subforum for about ten minutes, I gave up trying to do it that way. The sheer amount of stuff in there is overwhelming and you don't know who is active and not. In the end I just looked for characters I knew were active instead. It's not an easy way to find a connection.

Right, proven wrong then. Thanks for the info Cas. I guess we all use it differently XD

The activity thing is a problem, but I don't have any idea how the board would deal with that. Maybe EFBs oughta be archived too...

Maybe EFBs oughta be archived too...

We've been archiving EFBs for characters we've been archiving, unless there's an active character attached to that line.

Okay. Then yeah, activity isn't something really fixable, imo. Archiving is going back two years, right?

Archiving is going back two years, right?

Correct.

There are still plenty of characters and EFBs that can be archived, however we're simply going from a specific date. (There were a few who missed being archived by a few days.)

Right. And there's really no other fair way to do it, and MH is a place where we tend to take our time (unlike those sites where people get archived after two weeks o.o) and return after big hiatuses, so...

To be honest that's probably why I prefer the sandbox method of connections, because at least they're active enough to notice your request.

This is pretty off-topic though, so I'll stop rambling

I definitely prefer the complicated titles to family names, and the reason is because usually when I look through EFBs I'm trying to figure out what other families are in a certain class and country rather find than a specific EFB (which can be done through search), or get examples of what lines of work have already been established in a specific class and country or what would be appropriate ideas for a given class level.

Completely agree.

We've been archiving EFBs for characters we've been archiving, unless there's an active character attached to that line.

Slighty off-topic, but I noticed the Malfoy, Black and Rosier lines are gone, but they were there just recently, probably within a month or two ago... so they were probably moved in the archive.  But with Draco being sorted, will they be coming back?
Unless Michaela doesn't want them. ^^

Another idea we had been discussing was linking EFB in character sheets. Thoughts on that?

I already do that with mine. ^^
I wouldn't be opposed to them having a designated section in the sheet, if that's what you mean.

Slighty off-topic, but I noticed the Malfoy, Black and Rosier lines are gone, but they were there just recently, probably within a month or two ago... so they were probably moved in the archive.  But with Draco being sorted, will they be coming back?
Unless Michaela doesn't want them. ^^

The Rosier line is archived, yes, but the Malfoy and Black ones aren't.

The Rosier line is archived, yes, but the Malfoy and Black ones aren't.

Really?  I must be blind... I can't find them. :/