Voting for Starmourn

Xiru

I remember an email going out saying this would be helpful, and since we have the forums open, why not get more votes going so more people can find us?

http://www.topmudsites.com/vote-starmourn.html

Coenzyme

Nice! I just voted! 

Ataniiq

10 hour reminder set :awesome:

Xiru

We'll need to really attack this on September 1st, but for now it's nice to see us on the list again.  

Tenda

Eh, I feel weird about voting for a game before actually playing it. Don't let me stop you though.

Xiru

Fair enough!

Scathain

Yeah, similar with Tenda, I will need to play the game and see how I like it before I vote for it. Currently IRE is 1 for 5 for me (tried 5 of their games, liked 1 of them).

Ataniiq

Scathain said:

Yeah, similar with Tenda, I will need to play the game and see how I like it before I vote for it. Currently IRE is 1 for 5 for me (tried 5 of their games, liked 1 of them).

Which one @Scathain?

Scathain

Ataniiq said:

Scathain said:

Yeah, similar with Tenda, I will need to play the game and see how I like it before I vote for it. Currently IRE is 1 for 5 for me (tried 5 of their games, liked 1 of them).

Which one @Scathain?

Midkemia Online. Never got into any of the others, but loved Midkemia Online, played it for 8 years, with 3 alts worth mentioning.

Ataniiq

Scathain said:

Ataniiq said:

Scathain said:

Yeah, similar with Tenda, I will need to play the game and see how I like it before I vote for it. Currently IRE is 1 for 5 for me (tried 5 of their games, liked 1 of them).

Which one @Scathain?

Midkemia Online. Never got into any of the others, but loved Midkemia Online, played it for 8 years, with 3 alts worth mentioning.

@Scathain I am truly sorry for your loss. 

annys

Still pushing on tms? I'm curious why IRE doesn't push harder on other sites, too, or how valuable that site even is. Afaik, tms is owned by aard or some such, which is a part of why it's always on top there.

Even so, I wonder how many people actually use tms. I certainly never did. Just as an example, mudconnect.com has been my personal go-to for a while, but IRE's presence there is almost nothing.

Xiru

I found Achaea through TMS so I've always been partial to that, even after Aardvark took over. But mudconnect.com is good too and I don't know whether or not they've registered Starmourn over there.

annys

Syaja said:

I found Achaea through TMS so I've always been partial to that, even after Aardvark took over. But mudconnect.com is good too and I don't know whether or not they've registered Starmourn over there.

They have not, though there are a few forum posts made to promote it, mostly concurrent with the blog announcements. And they don't seem to keep up with the active listings for the games that are actually online (though I don't know what that actually involves? Perhaps there's nothing much to update)

It just always felt like a wasted opportunity. There's opportunities to leave reviews (but perhaps no way to verify identities/characters or something for reviewing incentives or something?) Like, I remember rewards/promotions being doled out on advertising/review/etc. attempts on IRE's own website, facebook, and even on kongregate at one point. 

But by and large, most of the promoting these days just seems to be "Vote on TMS!" like that's all there is. It seems so odd to me.

TextWench

annys said:

It just always felt like a wasted opportunity. There's opportunities to leave reviews (but perhaps no way to verify identities/characters or something for reviewing incentives or something?) Like, I remember rewards/promotions being doled out on advertising/review/etc. attempts on IRE's own website, facebook, and even on kongregate at one point. 

But by and large, most of the promoting these days just seems to be "Vote on TMS!" like that's all there is. It seems so odd to me.

I've asked about this. The general response is that the advertising they tried didn't result in enough new players to justify the effort/expense. 

I've used both TMS and Mudconnect throughout the years. They both have different benefits/downsides.

Xiru

http://www.topmudsites.com/vote-starmourn.html

The month has reset for those voting.

Edited to add: This won't last but it's awesome. 

Ataniiq

That's awesome!  

Qitorien

Still third! And we've got some "Out" too which means people are going from TMS to Starmourn!

Aurelius

annys said:

Still pushing on tms? I'm curious why IRE doesn't push harder on other sites, too, or how valuable that site even is. Afaik, tms is owned by aard or some such, which is a part of why it's always on top there.

Even so, I wonder how many people actually use tms. I certainly never did. Just as an example, mudconnect.com has been my personal go-to for a while, but IRE's presence there is almost nothing.

Mudconnect's ranking system is basically worthless because it's not on the front page, and for the most part only people who vote go to it (those people aren't going to be converting to another mud for the most part). It's more useful there to have updates to the listing, or to have forum threads on the front page talking about your MUD. TMS is more useful because its rankings are put front and center.

 In both cases, though, 'useful' is pretty relative. They are tiny sites, but aside from reddit they're really the only sites about MUDs that have any traffic any more.

That said, we want Starmourn to be as well-known in the MUD community as Achaea is, so the impact of having Starmourn up towards the top of the list is a lot higher than with our existing MUDs.

Qitorien

We're 12th! Let's get back into the top ten!
Also, does anyone know if it's every twelve hours from when you voted or every twelve hours starting from a fixed point of time? (E.g. 12pm and 12am).

Aurelius, do you want us to keep pushing right now or would it make more sense to pace ourselves so that hype builds more later? Arguably, the best time for the highest hype is right before the game opens.

Ataniiq

@Qitorien

From the records of Sarapis Himself @Aurelius

"You can vote every 12 hours. Topmudsites will not tell you if your vote counts or not, however. To be sure you're getting two votes counted a day, it's ideally best to vote about every 8 hours.

• If you have multiple people in your household voting be aware that duplicate votes from the same wifi network won't count. 
• Note that voting via a cell signal and vs. a wifi network will both count, which is one way of dealing with the above. They'll both count, every 12 hours.
• Same with votes from different wifi networks. Each wifi network can be used to vote twice per day.
• It's one vote per 12 hours per network, not per game. So, you can't vote on a particular wifi network more than once every 12 hours - if you vote for multiple games in that 12 hours from that network, only the first vote will count."

Archer

Aurelius said:

<stuff>

Mudconnect's ranking system is basically worthless because it's not on the front page, and for the most part only people who vote go to it (those people aren't going to be converting to another mud for the most part). It's more useful there to have updates to the listing, or to have forum threads on the front page talking about your MUD. TMS is more useful because its rankings are put front and center.

 In both cases, though, 'useful' is pretty relative. They are tiny sites, but aside from reddit they're really the only sites about MUDs that have any traffic any more.

That said, we want Starmourn to be as well-known in the MUD community as Achaea is, so the impact of having Starmourn up towards the top of the list is a lot higher than with our existing MUDs.

What about some sort of facebook campaign? I'd be happy to like, share, and post on a friends wall. Could motivate with a small credit reward, too. (I'd do it for free, I'm sure a lot of us would).

Aurelius

Qitorien said:

We're 12th! Let's get back into the top ten!
Also, does anyone know if it's every twelve hours from when you voted or every twelve hours starting from a fixed point of time? (E.g. 12pm and 12am).

Aurelius, do you want us to keep pushing right now or would it make more sense to pace ourselves so that hype builds more later? Arguably, the best time for the highest hype is right before the game opens.

I wouldn't worry too much about pushing right now. I mean, sure, vote, but don't kill yourself over it. Ultimately, MUDs are for the long game. There's no one moment when hype matters much more than others. Just a year in, year out constant push.

Aurelius

Archer said:

Aurelius said:

<stuff>

Mudconnect's ranking system is basically worthless because it's not on the front page, and for the most part only people who vote go to it (those people aren't going to be converting to another mud for the most part). It's more useful there to have updates to the listing, or to have forum threads on the front page talking about your MUD. TMS is more useful because its rankings are put front and center.

 In both cases, though, 'useful' is pretty relative. They are tiny sites, but aside from reddit they're really the only sites about MUDs that have any traffic any more.

That said, we want Starmourn to be as well-known in the MUD community as Achaea is, so the impact of having Starmourn up towards the top of the list is a lot higher than with our existing MUDs.

What about some sort of facebook campaign? I'd be happy to like, share, and post on a friends wall. Could motivate with a small credit reward, too. (I'd do it for free, I'm sure a lot of us would).

Well, you guys could share updates from the Starmourn fb account (if you follow it, if not, follow it!). https://www.facebook.com/Starmourners/

Qitorien

Aurelius said:

Archer said:

Aurelius said:

<stuff>

Mudconnect's ranking system is basically worthless because it's not on the front page, and for the most part only people who vote go to it (those people aren't going to be converting to another mud for the most part). It's more useful there to have updates to the listing, or to have forum threads on the front page talking about your MUD. TMS is more useful because its rankings are put front and center.

 In both cases, though, 'useful' is pretty relative. They are tiny sites, but aside from reddit they're really the only sites about MUDs that have any traffic any more.

That said, we want Starmourn to be as well-known in the MUD community as Achaea is, so the impact of having Starmourn up towards the top of the list is a lot higher than with our existing MUDs.

What about some sort of facebook campaign? I'd be happy to like, share, and post on a friends wall. Could motivate with a small credit reward, too. (I'd do it for free, I'm sure a lot of us would).

Well, you guys could share updates from the Starmourn fb account (if you follow it, if not, follow it!). https://www.facebook.com/Starmourners/

Done!
also, Vote Moar!

Qitorien

We're last on the first page, 20th! Vote and pull us back up. Gotta get the word out!

On the plus side, we're still 5th in people using TMS to access Starmourn! It's working; keep it up!

Qitorien

Qitorien said:

We're last on the first page, 20th! Vote and pull us back up. Gotta get the word out!

On the plus side, we're still 5th in people using TMS to access Starmourn! It's working; keep it up!

Bump. We’ve been pushed off the last page!

Ataniiq

Back on page #1 ranked at 20!

Draos

Tenda said:

Eh, I feel weird about voting for a game before actually playing it. Don't let me stop you though.

Same. Happy to vote after getting a chance to check it out, so I'll bookmark this for now.

annys

How much is this helpful, before the game launches? How much does it actually hurt?

I know only that, when I personally am looking at these things, I click on a link for an upcoming game and now I have a stigma. This game already didn't deliver, when I was looking at its promise (as a paraphrased thought?).

If you get even one click per person (optimistic), why not wait until that click is ready?

TNA

annys said:

How much is this helpful, before the game launches? How much does it actually hurt?

I know only that, when I personally am looking at these things, I click on a link for an upcoming game and now I have a stigma. This game already didn't deliver, when I was looking at its promise (as a paraphrased thought?).

If you get even one click per person (optimistic), why not wait until that click is ready?

There is no such thing as bad press? Not that you are wrong. I can see both sides.

While Starmourn didn't deliver on a ready to play game, yet. You can see the company's track record and an already larger than 90% of other MUDs potential player base. Six months down the road when you get bored with whatever game you started today, you may be like "Hey! What about that scifi one from those one guys."

Qitorien

I asked a similar question above and it sounds like the dev team is okay with us continuing to vote and are more concerned with longevity making people aware of Starmourn. That makes sense to me too. Some people might get irritated that it's on the list but not playable yet, but I think most people will probably just bookmark it (mentally, if nothing else) and move on until it's ready. As long as people are aware of the game, I think it's a step in the right direction for most people.