Feature request: game listings, How to find an open game more easily Options

[Eyeless Blond]

I was thinking there really ought to be a sticky topic listing new/open/closed games, or even better some kind of automated list with links to new games and status (beginning, open, closed, etc). As it stands now it's very difficult to find new and opening games unless you're good at either chewing through massive amounts of data quickly or are lucky enough to see an OoC thread with fewer than five pages on it. I have a feeling that the gaming forum would be much more popular and convenient if some sort of game registration list were added.

The way it would work would be pretty simple, I think, so long as somebody knows how to program things like this forum. Prospective GMs would first post an OoC discussion thread in the Shadows forum. Then they would "post" a new entry in a moderated subforum or sticky thread. The form would be more limited than these free-form posts: there would be boxes for an OoC thread URL, an IC thread URL, a radio button selector to indicate whether the game is "New", "Open", "Closed", "Discontinuted", etc, and a box with a short teaser for the game, maybe 50 words or less to keep the size of the thread down.

The thread would of course need its own display rules of course, but much of the front-end and back-end could be outright stolen from the forum code. Indeed it would be a good idea to make this as seamlessly a part of the forum as possible, to be as intuitive for prospective GMs as possible.

The more I think about it, the more I like a subforum-based interpretation, with each new game being represented in the listing as topics are listed in standard forums. It might even be interesting, although of course not necessary, to have the option of sorting by date posted or by status (New, Open, Closed, etc.) It might also be a good idea to have the game status be on a timer of sorts, so if a GM doesn't edit the entry to keep it alive the game changes from "Open" to "Closed", but that's naturally a lot more difficult.