The Glade 4.0

Okay, looking through the beta site (which will be wiped), I'm doing some quick testing and scouting on the org registration process and what it entails.

First off, like for user accounts, there are two publicly visible variations of the name: There's a "Name" field and a "Spectrum ID" field. The name is what shows up more prominently when browsing organizations on the website. The Spectrum ID must be URL-friendly (because the org's homepage is \org\spectrumid) and shows up below and dimmer than the Name in org searches and whatnot. Spectrum ID's must be unique (unsurprising, given their role in URLs. Capitalization is sufficient to differentiate), contain exclusively URL-legal characters, and may be up to 10 characters.

Next, the founder is prompted to select an Archetype. These show up as a searchable field and affect default rank and role names. These can be changed, but I'll summarize them by type:
Organization: Ranks (Master/Expert/Veteran/Experienced/Regular/Recruit) Roles (Founder/Officer/Recruitment/Branding)
Corporation: Ranks (Board Member/Director/Manager/Senior/Middle/Junior) Roles (CEO/Executive/Human Resources/Marketing)
PMC: Ranks (Colonel/Major/Warrant Officer/Sergeant/Private/Recruit) Roles (General/Officer/Recruiter/Marketing)
Faith: Ranks (Chamberlain/Exarch/Overseer/Adept/Disciple/Initiate) Roles (Prophet/Elder/Missionary/Evangelist)
Syndicate: Ranks (Chief/Captain/Enforcer/Patched/Soldier/Thug) Roles (Boss/Lieutenant/Recruiter/Communications)

Each also has an icon associated with it, that's visible in the list sorting. I'm not sure if this is customizable later, but in case it's not: Organization is a sphere divided by meridians on two axes, white on blue; Corporation is a double-lined "C", gold on blue; PMC is 3 horizontal lines within a circle, white on green; Faith is a pair of cupped hands (that could be mistaken for/interpreted as stylized wings) within a circle, light blue on darker blue; and Syndicate is a white skull on red.

The next step is selecting "Commitment", Primary Language, and Role Play. Commitment is Casual/Regular/Hardcore, choose one. Role Play is Yes/No.

Then, the registration asks you to define your primary and secondary activities from a list (Bounty Hunting/Engineering/Exploration/Freelancing/Infiltration/Mining/Piracy/Scouting/Security/Smuggling/Social/Trading/Transport).

Finally, there's a 300 character box to "Enter a short phrase or slogan for your organization. This will be used as your organization tagline and can be edited anytime."

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Next up, searching. The Org portal has some built in search tools, which is a nice idea. Available fields are:
* Commitment (Casual/Regular/Hardcore)
* Role Play (Yes/No)
* Size (Small/Medium/Large) - Searching "Medium" as of this posting shows orgs ranging from 10 to 35 members. The largest "Small" I see is 9. Large has 2 listed, at 51 and 113 as of this posting. I'm remarkably okay with the scope and mindset reflected by these apparent breakdowns.
* Archetype (Organization/Corporation/PMC/Faith/Syndicate) - Selected at org registration.
* Activities (Bounty Hunting/Engineering/Exploration/Freelancing/Infiltration/Mining/Piracy/Scouting/Security/Smuggling/Social/Trading/Transport)
* Primary Language (big drop-down list)
* Recruiting (Yes/No)

Aside from Primary Language, all categories allow multiple checked fields. Unfortunately, checking multiple fields in the activities doesn't search for unions of the selections, but will instead return anything you've checked. I'm going to leave some feedback on this; it'd be nice to search for combinations and even include the option to exclude certain activities.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Okay, now that I created a test group, it appears that everything but the Spectrum ID is changeable (and the size is automatically assigned based on member count). There are some additional fields and whatnot that can be entered post-registration. It's actually pretty slick. I'll probably break out a few new topics so we can discuss how we want to brand ourselves.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades