State of the Sanctum State of The Sanctum — September 2024

[JamesMartin]

Good evening Sanctum Dwellers!!

We have been working a lot in the background these last couple of weeks and so this is going to be a long one!!! A few changes will affect most users, while others will give you some new tools for expression!!

1. New BBCode!!

First, a much requested piece of BBCode has finally been added to the Sanctum (special thanks to our friends at Black Dahlia, who saved me a lot of work getting it functional)

The new Div tag, at its most simple, allows you to create boxes. Though simple on its face, the ability to add long lists of parameters allows for a degree of user modification that is almost unmatched. By simple use of code, you can change everything from the width, to the colour, to the position, to the shape. You can create gaps to see static images behind or blocks of text arranged however you want.

Too many examples would bloat an already long announcement, but @Jumbled, resident colour wizard, has put together a thread containing several templates you are free to use.

[Div=Parameters Here] Content Here [/div]

Or just use this button on the editor!!!


Just a few examples (scaled down for sanity)!!!

2. A New Chatroom !!!

We know our chat can get... high energy, from time to time. (A lot like saying fire can get warm). We've also heard from members who, while they enjoy the concept of engaging with chat, they tend to avoid it as a result of some of that energy.

At the same, we don't really have any desire to rewrite the whole culture of General Chat (and doing so wouldn't work anyways).

So our compromise is a new chatroom, The Lounge.

This new chatroom, accessed by using the Browse Rooms button in chat, covers all the same ground as general chat, but with two additional rules:

1. Chat is for chatting

2. Roleplay is absolutely forbidden beyond single actions

What this means, in practice, is that while we will allow one-off actions, we will not allow response actions. This will be enforced strictly—single warnings, followed by being kicked from the room. The purpose is to allow a place for people to carry on conversations, not without mayhem (we know our users ), but keeping it to a minimum will be our priority

3. Forum Reworks!!!

In the past few days, we've undertaken a bit of a project to rework some aspects of the forums.

Some of this is purely superficial—many forums have been given thematic names to better suit the Sanctum's oeuvre. About Us is now Our Folklore, Site Resources is The Smithy.

We have also cleared up some old lingering issues. Why did men seek adventure while women seek companions? Because eight years ago, I really wanted the forums to have different names. Now? Men Seek Fortune while Women Seek Fame and the awkwardly named "Gender unspecified" bears a spiffy new "Adventures for All"

Which brings me to the big one.

Early on, our plan for the Sanctum was a literature theme, leading to two names for our roleplay forums: Poe's Corner and Mark Twain's Table. Here's the thing, (I hope you are listening past self) : Those names don't actually make sense. Sure, maybe Poe is known as a horror writer and darker than Twain, but Twain isn't exactly Mr. PG-13 and both names might well mean nothing to those not raised on American writers.

Which is to say, the time has come. Poe's and Twain's are no more.

Now, Poe's is "The Dark Alley", while Twain's is "The Starlit Garden". As the names imply, the divisions have not changed. Alley will be for more adult stories, while Garden will be for stuff that is strictly PG-13

On that note, we have also begun to consider whether the time has come to add new roleplay forums. As it stands, The Dark Alley now absorbs the overwhelming majority of our stories and we are far bigger than we ever expected. We are thus considering ways to further split those stories—the idea of doing so along genre lines has been brought up, as have a few others. If you have suggestions, let us know!!

4. New Forums (and Melee reborn because I am scared of the mermaid)!!!

As part of the reorganization, we have added two new forums to absorb content that was always somewhat awkwardly placed in others.

First!!! We now have a forum specifically for seasonal threads. Fairs and Festivals!!! Decorations, costumes, contests, our Secret Santa and anything else designed around a specific time of the year/

In the Scriptorium (now a category focused entirely on writing resources), we have both a new forum and a reborn one

The Gallery now provides a place for people who enjoy working with code to Test, build Templates and Tutorials for others to follow

Secondly, at the request of @..Olivianna.., who has put a lot of hard work into keeping what was formerly Sanctum Melee alive, the forum has been reworked.

Where previously, Melee was a pure critique forum, the new Forum, The Wishing Well, has become a much broader writing help forum. You can, of course, still get your work critiqued there. But you can also request help editing, brainstorming or just ask for tips on how to improve!!

5. Updated Intros

A fun little addition I thought some of you might enjoy!!

Intro threads now come with twelve prefixes to choose from, in order to let us know what kind of people have entered our happy home.


And of course, if any of you have a preference, feel free to find your own thread and make the swap!!

6. The Outer Sanctum

The Outer Sanctum is well underway and while I will not reexplain all the details of the project (We have a thread for that!!!) I will once again thank the staff who made it possible, as well as all the members who have already signed up and started stories!!! OS is off to a phenomenal start and I hope we'll see even more stories soon.

Anyone who is hesitating, now is the time to jump in, because this world is ever evolving and it waits on no one.

7. Site Headers

An old issue, finally fixed, titles and the information below them should now be properly visible on all themes!!

As always, please report any bugs, visual glitches or other issues, either here or in The Rathaus, our tech support forum

​

And of course, don't think I haven't noticed the date. We'll have Halloween plans aplenty for you next week!!! Thank you one and all for everything you have made possible and I hope the work put into these projects shows just how much we appreciate it.

Regards,

Your Sanctum Admins​

 

[MioBrave]

For any wondering! To join other chat rooms Click the "Browse Rooms" button at the top. Then look to the right hand side And hit Join Room.
It will add them to the top, like how you can see I have multiple open.

 

[selcouth]

eeeeee !!!! i've been waiting for div containers forever, you have no idea how happy this makes me !! ♡ i've already posted one, but i'm so, so looking forward to updating more of my old templates and making new ones w this :D

Spoiler: first of many ♡

feywild; in-character post template​

​

 

[decadence]

Oh, you guys have been busy! Love the new changes and just everything that has been worked behind the scenes

 

[Seravian]

The new changes are lovely :) Keep up the great work, everyone!

 

[Vasara Glyndark]

I will ignore any thread using that new BBC code no matter what. I will quit any game if one person uses it one time. They are a god-awful eyesore. I hate it so much that I will create a signature on here just to advertise I will not participate in any thread where they are used, and anywhere else I can find.

EDIT: The response has been very different from what I have experienced at other places that used this or similar.

 

[Rose for the Hunter]

@Vasara Glyndark I want to ask... why?
It doesn't really affect you does it? I am asking out of pure curiosity here as I have never known someone to be so strongly opposed to code.

 

[Vasara Glyndark]

I want to ask... why?
It doesn't really affect you does it? I am asking out of pure curiosity here as I have never known someone to be so strongly opposed to code.

As I said, they are an eyesore. On the last site, I saw use them, the coding was such a cluster fuck every single line had two or more different types of code, and one had four or five different types of code. Trying to read the CS was such a pain in the ass if I was going to even bother with it I would have had to use Word's replace feature to remove all the code just so that I could read what I actually needed to include in the cs.

Looking at the template provided in another thread linked to earlier in this thread, I see it has become even worse.

The ones that have multiple tiny scroll boxes are a crime against humanity and the people who use them should be treated as such. There was one that had a scroll box so tiny words would be split up across two or more lines depending on the word. For instance, humanity would look like this:
hum-
anity

When these are used people put way too much time into making them pretty instead of functional. If a person sacrifices functionality in favor of design then I have absolutely no use for that person or their design.

It does affect me, I know what the code looks like and I cannot and will not disassociate the code from the end result. I know the code is there, the code being there is offensive.