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Post by garrisonchisholm on Aug 9, 2017 20:22:30 GMT -6
This thread is an open discussion to decide how to preserve the stories (After Action Reports) that so many of us enjoy to such a great level, and which in all likelihood are of demonstrable value at increasing the exposure of RTW to new players. I don't know what "history" will say of my PLC game, but I know that I attach extremely high value to director 's Byzantium. I give it enormous credit for raising my zeal for the game even further, and I dare to suggest it approaches the level of "importance" in the story of RTW. I was distressed to discover that due to a policy change at Photobucket, all of the pictures and graphics that had been laboriously uploaded and inserted into the tale were no longer visible. At the very least, this now imposes an unfair burden on an author, having to either A) accept that the pictures are no longer present, B) accept a policy change with the host that compels them to spend money, or C) go to the trouble of re-uploading and re-inserting all of those visual aids from scratch. All of these feel foul to me, and I will be facing the same situation with my PLC story come January. So, my question is this- if there is a "free and reliably permanent" solution on the internet, what is it? Would any server serve this purpose? Secondly, due to the "falling off the page" aspect of Forums (& everything can't be "stickied" or the front page would be all "stuck") I cannot see it, & if I do not know the Author or Title of an AAR I cannot search for it. There may be AARs from 2 years ago in the forum which are great but which I know nothing about! Could we create an "index" of stories, and how would we go about finding and cataloging all of them? Should any tale be preserved, or should there be criteria? These are the questions I hope we can address. Looking at cv10 's AAR with its heavy reliance on its graphical presentation, I hate to think of what would be lost if those images were no longer available. And while I am also thinking of my AAR, I hope everyone sees that I am addressing the genre here, not individual author's works. Here's to a fruitful discussion!
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Post by parrot on Aug 9, 2017 21:26:34 GMT -6
Imgur is free and easy to use. I'd recommend it. There is still the longer term risk that, as you have no control over the decision making process of Imgur, you have no guarantee that it will remain free for external hosting forever.
A stickied index of AARs would be great. Perhaps a practice of uploading a zip file of the full AAR when it is finished would be a good redundancy.
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Post by cv10 on Aug 9, 2017 23:13:04 GMT -6
I use imgur, which is free at least atm). The big thing with it is that once you upload the photos to a thread, you have to be careful, as moving them around in imgur messes up the BB code.
As far as an AAR index goes,perhaps we could prevail upon the Devs/Mods to sticky a thread to the top where linls to each AAR. Essentially, the thread would be an AAR library. As far as which should be preserved, I'd say that each author could put their AAR in it, or any person who felt an AAR worthy of preservation could put a link to one in it. Any tale is worthy of preservation if a forum member deems it so, as AARs are subjective (beauty is in the eye of the beholder). I, for one, would not link my China AAR in such a thread, as I don't think it worthy of preservation (it died in 1907). I don't think anyone (aside from the author of the AAR in question) has the right to tell anyone else that an AAR should not be preserved.
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Post by boomboomf22 on Aug 10, 2017 9:11:06 GMT -6
I agree that this should be a thing, and also agree that the Photobucket event (as I have internally dubbed it) disappearing the pictures on directors AAR is a tragedy.
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Post by williammiller on Aug 10, 2017 9:47:48 GMT -6
I am a bit leery of putting very many more 'sticked' threads in the forum; right now we have 7 such threads (after I 'unsticked' one as no longer needed) not even counting the 2 locked top threads..
If enough players think that a sticked AAR thread is a good idea then I will create one, but let me see how much support the idea has.
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Post by bcoopactual on Aug 10, 2017 11:59:13 GMT -6
I personally would have zero problem with 'unsticking' the ShipName list thread and let forum members determine the popularity of the thread by how much they contribute to it and then re-evaluate whether it should be stickied or not. I would say the same with this thread. We can start by posting links in this thread to the specific AAR threads that we enjoyed so people can find them in one thread. Here's is director 's excellent Battle History of the Modern Byzantine Navy thread that is so popular and for good reason.
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Post by cv10 on Aug 10, 2017 13:34:21 GMT -6
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Post by oldpop2000 on Aug 10, 2017 15:09:17 GMT -6
I am going to add my two cents into this issue of After Action Reports.....or maybe three cents. First, after action reports, are supposed to be who, what when and where with recommendations for further study. The concept is to collect reports/reviews for a lessons learned program. Here is a link for all to review. Take this information and all of you develop a standardized format minimizing the maps etc. This doesn't mean eliminate them, it means make the document short, sweet and too the point. In other words develop a template and stick to it. It will ease reading, understanding and make it simpler to store for the lessons Learned History. Maybe the developers can help by using the template you have designed and ask whether you wish this information put away in a documents directory. There are plenty of actual AAR's available on the Hyperwar Pacific section website. Here is a typical example. Generally, the higher the level of the writer, the less detail is included. In other words, a commanding officer of a ship might make one like this: www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/logs/DD/dd397-ESols.html. On the other hand, a Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet might make this one: www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/rep/Doolittle/CinCPac-Tokyo.htmlwww.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/call/call_11-33-appc.htm
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Post by director on Aug 10, 2017 20:06:45 GMT -6
I would first like to thank everyone who read 'Byzantium' - I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I did writing. At some point I'll transfer the pics over to another service - there is not a spark of a hope of a chance that I would ever consider giving Photobucket a sliver of a wooden nickel. They promised free image hosting and they lied, so that's it for me.
Rather than another stickied thread, would it be feasible to create a RtW AAR folder? I presume when RtW2 comes out we're going to have lots more good reading, so perhaps we should prepare for it now.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Aug 10, 2017 21:26:31 GMT -6
Rather than another stickied thread, would it be feasible to create a RtW AAR folder? I presume when RtW2 comes out we're going to have lots more good reading, so perhaps we should prepare for it now. This is very forthright thinking, at least finding a solution that would also accommodate RtW2. For my part, I am going to embark upon a labor of love. I will go through each thread in the forum's history and identify every game-story that is written with care and contains a beginning middle and end. For starters I will simply link them here as a practical step. Yes that is a subjective criteria, but I will not be a critic; and if anyone links one that I missed or passed on, that would be fine too. I'll try to get through it in a week (or two, I suppose I *would* be reading them too...). As far as the definition of AAR, I think we should confine ourselves to using that terminology to identify a story since that is what we feel we're reading when we're reading it, whatever the style. I think there is definitely a place for the long-form single post of a "true" AAR, where-in a player identifies and documents a single action which they felt was interesting or fun and worth sharing. Having those examples posted is very useful Pops, thank you! The stories which some write however and more enjoy are certainly beyond the term 'AAR' and yet worthy I would deem to be considered under that same name.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Aug 11, 2017 22:14:26 GMT -6
I believe I have found the very first RTW AAR in the forums! From user Genjeft on August 12, 2015 (last edit date it must be); nws-online.proboards.com/thread/475/end-2nd-austrian-containment-italyAug 12, 2015 at 9:03am Post by genjeft on Aug 12, 2015 at 9:03am "So I started a game as Austria thinking that choosing a small country in a small area of the world would be a good way to learn how to play the game. Italy got aggressive right off the bat and started invading the neutrals in the Mediterranean..." It is of the "classic" AAR variety, describing a single action and how it decided a war, including ship profiles and some other basic graphics.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Aug 11, 2017 22:20:40 GMT -6
However, ccip first brings us what fans of Byzantium will recognize as the "Story format" AAR; nws-online.proboards.com/thread/379/perseverance-determination-japan-aarA long tale with integrated stories, pictures, and graphics, with over 8600 page views. I was right- there *are* great AARs buried there which I would love! ***** "Perseverance and Determination" (臥薪嘗胆, Gashinshōtan) Imperial Japanese Navy AAR, 1900-1925 "This AAR will follow my game playing as Japan with historical resources set to on, and all other realism settings enabled. It uses my own additions to the ship names list. “Perseverance and Determination” was the name of the Japanese naval building program of the start of the 20th century, which increased the size and capability of the Japanese navy - and, among other things, allowed them to successfully take on Russia in the war of 1904-1905. However, in this alternate history, Japan’s naval power has yet to prove itself, and European powers still regard this Asian nation as but another oriental state to exploit in their own ambitions. The empire’s destiny, entrusted to the young Combined Fleet, hangs in the balance…" ********* What a treat to uncover- this will cost me some sleep, and is worthy of high regard.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Aug 12, 2017 11:36:17 GMT -6
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Aug 12, 2017 11:41:02 GMT -6
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Aug 12, 2017 12:00:26 GMT -6
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