The future of Felarya

Greetings everyone.

We are here to speak about the future of Felarya. For this discussion, everyone is unbanned and the thread WON'T be closed by any means, so please keep a civil tone. I want everyone to put their cards on the table, so to speak, and say what they have to say. If you are from DA and don't have an account here, please create one if you have something to say. If you hate me, say so, but don't forget to tell WHY. ^^

I think we are arriving at a turning point. I recently had some serious discussions and I think there are a lot of misunderstandings and unchecked things that have accumulated in the community. The recent events pale in comparison to these misunderstandings and are merely a reflection of them.

It's about what Felarya is about, its very nature. I will give you my take on that.

I see Felarya as a personal project open to public. It's very personal, being based on a personal fetish in the first place, and on my characters that I drew again and again. They slowly acquired personalities, names, and a life of their own through their bios and little comics.

Then Wowandwas proposed to use a Google module to keep track of ideas concerning the universe. And then Elportero proposed to have a wiki about it. This is really where things began to increase in pace with everyone proposing ideas and adding to the world. I was including work and idea from people to make them happy.. to build a sense of community... and in return I was happy to draw more of Felarya for them and having the universe grow.

Now the wiki is a wonderful tools but it also has some BIG drawbacks. It creates resentment and jealousy. And at a point I began to really feel it put me into the uneasy situation of having to be the person deciding who is in and who is not... Thus making friends but also enemies... well the word is too strong, let's say people who resent me and think I'm an asshole.

Felarya grew faster and faster to a point where I became worried that it was becoming too big too fast, to the point where there were so many ideas submitted that I was worried that if I wanted to give long, detailed, helpful comments for each of them I would have had to drop my job and go in Felarya full time...

Then came the manga and I feel things began to get really sour starting from there due to money being involved… Let me state my first aim with the manga. I was seeing lot of fan fictions that depicted Crisis and others in a ways that were not really accurate, and it bothered me because some people began to hate Crisis because of that.

My first motivation for the manga was to put out the vision of Felarya as I see it, to say: *this* is the real Felarya, especially after the Crisis and Scarecrow affair... And of course to have Crisis and others live a big adventure that would help develop them even more as well as the universe. It wasn't about making big money...

I'm not drawing or creating Felarya to make a profit from it.. this has never been and never will be my objective. The day it happens will probably be the day I stop.. If you remember, before the manga, I didn't make a cent from it, besides some donations and the occasional prints bought on DA. No, I draw for Felarya because I'm fond of those characters and it makes me happy to make them live... It went to a hobby from a passion.

Anyway, tensions began to get serious. The universe was becoming way too big, and pulled into too many directions by too many people... That's where things got nasty and forum politics came into play.

Lately I sense Felarya being pulled away from me, which makes me deeply uneasy and defensive because yeah, I tend to be possessive of my work. I tried to act in regard to that, hence the disclaimer about ownership of ideas for example. This is not me trying to rob members of community of their work... certainly not. I'm not this kind of person... It was just to state again that Felarya was my universe in the first place... to make this clear again. I didn't imagine it could create so much resentment among some people. I'm slapping myself for that now.

And now here we are... the community is fractured and there is a very bad atmosphere going on, and I’m uncertain of the path ahead. After some serious discussions here and there I'm now considering the options ahead. One of them is making a reset of sort...
To have the wiki shrink dramatically back, to where there is only ideas of my own... and to close the universe somehow... to have it return to where it started: private.

And to make a BIG apology to everyone saying: "OK having Felarya being open was a mistake from the start.... I should have gone alone." It's obviously a very extreme measure and one I would not like to take... but it's on the table. This wouldn't be the end of the community, but it would make lot of things non official, left to people.

You see, when I said in another thread that I would rather start over again rather than conceding any sort of creative control over Felarya, I was really serious... this type of project where you have so much community involvement is new for me. I'm usually a loner in my work and used to do so. People are very welcome to help this universe grow, but I want to retain entire control and ownership on it.. Call me a control freak if you wish, but this is really the sine qua non thing... Something absolutely indispensable or essential. Yet, I don't want people starting to think I'm robbing them of their ideas either..

And I owe a big apology anyway because obviously I didn't see this coming.. I wasn't suspecting all this resentment and I didn’t see the cause of it... looking at things only from my point of view. Yet looking at it now, it seems evident. I have been a big fool with this one.

Misunderstandings are the source of conflicts. Now I have a better understanding as to why some people seem to think lately that I'm an asshole who is using others...

So yeah, this is my point. You can also ask yourself what you would do if you were in my shoes. Believe me it's not simple at all.

Now I'm turning to you people. I want to know your opinion about all of this, and I will listen to all. Please empty your bags.

Let's start by establishing one important fact: EVERYTHING here is being blown out of proportion. This whole big drama war is one giant, congested, tangled ball of misunderstanding.


First of all, I can promise you, for the third time, no one wants to take Felarya from you. Some folks can argue that that's what I said I wanted, but then again, I think I know what I said, what with me being the one who said it. And I don't think half the community would've agreed if that's what I was asking.

There's a lot of drama spouting "The community is sinking!" or "Communists want to steal Felarya!"
That's all BS. The community wasn't sinking. It was just getting unstable due to personal grudges getting in the way of getting things accomplished. And the whole stealing Felarya thing was probably one or two morons misreading the statements and being unfortunate enough to have very loud mouths.

The heart of the problem is this: You wanted Felarya to be ultimately yours, but you still left it open for anyone and their grandma to post ideas. Yes, you added ones you liked to the wiki eventually, but you didn't communicate with anyone. You rarely stepped up and said, "Hold on, I don't think this fits with the setting, and here's why:" You never really provided guidelines for what suited the feel and what didn't.

For instance, I notice you stated you like Felarya to be ultimately comedy, so the aspect of casual murder never caused problems with the audience. Problem is, the audience didn't understand this quite so much, so they start writing dramas left and right. And the more drama fans wrote, the more new fans thought it was integral to the setting.

You know what you want. That's good. You just never really communicated well with the people who are helping you.
I know you want it to be ultimately yours, and no one seems to have a problem with that. But you still need to acknowledge the people who help you, not only to make them feel like their work matters, but to also communicate the direction you want the work to take.

When Felarya was young, this wasn't as much of a problem. There were early guidelines you posted that were fairly easy to understand. Problem was, as it grew and fleshed out, these guidelines were forgotten.

What I recommend is that you not push any reset buttons or anything. Instead, you should post some public and very detailed bylaws for what Felarya is and should be. Make sure fans can see this and have an understanding of what it means.

I notice the community seems divided as to what Felarya is. Some think it's a day spa for cute predators to eat silly humans. Some think it's a savage land to be overcome by a human-level hero.
The way I remember it, it's a savage land where no one is on top, and that's the way it stays.

That's something you ought to clarify to the public.


I realize you're busy and if you discussed EVERYTHING in detail, you'd be faced with more work than any human should have to go through.

But at present, communication is still pretty sub-par. And if my constant using of the word didn't make it clear, communication is the root of the problem.
You don't need to close off Felarya to the public. Isn't being open what allowed it to grow so fast? It's just that with such flimsy guidelines, it grew out of proportion and no one really knows what it is anymore.

The Manga is actually a GREAT step towards fixing that problem. But in addition to that, you should probably post something detailing your vision.

And I'm not saying you should explain everything you do or don't like. What I'd do is only get into an analysis if someone posts an idea that is either REALLY good or REALLY bad.


Like I said, this is all just one big miscommunication. Somewhere along the line, ALL of us made mistakes in some form or another because we didn't understand what was going on. But I think if we're all willing to just suck it up, apologize to one another, and agree on how to prevent this from happening again, we SHOULD be able to pull through and get this thing back on its feet.

I've been following you around for 2 Years. I've enjoyed Felarya rather thouroughly. While Crisis and Anna (I think even she was created with input from a fan) Were always stars in my book, I've also enjoyed very much the other fan characters that others have created. More big names, I know, but Fiona, Katrika, Garnet, Aurora, Nix, Voilet...I could go on forever and it wouldn't be enough. I think ultimately the "creative control" should be in your hands. I know I sound like a suck up, but without the initial creation of Felarya, where would most of these characters be? Still sparks within imagination, I'm certain. I still think you should leave Felarya open, though. I believe you need the fans so much as they need you. Ultimately, I think the downfall in all this is exactly what you said. When you're off the computer, when you're not in Felarya, you're only human. Felarya should be a passion, but not an all consuming one. (apologies for the pun) Whatever your decision is, I'll stand by it.

And Gregole really put this better than anyone could have. Really. He did.

First things first- I'm glad you are taking the time to examine this situation from many angles and trying to find and solve the cause of this resentment by talking, a very good first step. As per the argument between possession I will just say it as I observe it from the outside: everyone is just taking it a little too extreme on both sides. As for the ownership thing when I look at it, as upon first coming upon Felarya- first thing I see is you still own the place Karbo and you are calling the shots in regards to the cannon. Now going deeper than that there are many contributions to it by the community, and they are noted on credits and the like when you look around. I hear more recognition or something is wanted but how to establish that or something I'm not sure how it's to go about or how so I'll stay out of that. Point of the rambling is- everyone is being overdefensive on it, from my point of view, which of course is just an opinion and of course could be wrong as well. Talk it out and solve it but be objective heh.

As for the tensions caused by the wiki, though it may not be outright stated- yes I feel it does create some tension in some cases. There are many great ideas, characters, and the like not in the wiki but that doesn't make them any less great for not being in there. Another opinion of mine on the topic: once again people are just taking it a little TOO personally. It is a wonderful thing to expand and inform people of the very diverse world of Felarya too though, I would be disappointed if the ultimatum was to drastically cut content and remove many good things from it. It's there to help illustrate this lively world I've come to really love I feel, not just some thing to mark one thing or another as 'official'.

As Zalzas was saying in a far more eloquent post before: remember why we came to Felarya and appreciate it for what it is. As for me, I can vouch I came here to have fun and enjoy taking part in this world. If I happened to add something by some rare chance that got into the wiki, cool, but it's not going to be the driving force behind me being here.

I would just like to point out that this thread here gives me so much hope right now.

Casey has come back, and put up a truely epic post that I think sums up this mess, and our problems better than I can say. This is how we should be, people. This proves we can all talk and discuss things like adults.

The fact is, fights will happen. Even the best of friends will fight tooth and nail over the stupidest shit, but you know what? They get over it. They realize they were both in the wrong, and they become better friends because of it. I think that is kind of the situation we have found ourselves in. I truely believe that this whole mess is born from a huge misunderstanding, that has been made worse by frustration and personal bias on all sides.

Karbo, I really think your concern about losing creative control is unwarranted. No one can take that away. You are the only person who can write a story set in the "real" Felarya, and you control what makes the canon. Everyone else's stories are essentially fan-fics set in this world. You really do have pretty much complete creative control over Felarya, and NO ONE wants that to change. You have done a great job with it, especially lately with the mangas. They really are a bright spot in this community.

But this thread gives me hope. We all helped to cause the mess that has unfolded recently, and its going to take an effort by all of us to make this right. This is a good start, people.

I think a reset is the worst possible solution. Felarya is such an amazing world BECAUSE of all the ideas that helped to make it. The best thing we can do is to do what we're doing now. Discuss this matter like adults and try to begin patching over old wounds.

Its time to make things right, and I think this thread is a good place to start.

While I would not like to see Felarya closed to fan input, I understand your feelings quiet well. I do not want anyone to be kicked out of the sandbox, but I want even less to have it taken away completely.

I do not know at what point making a contribution that found its way into the wiki became a measuring stick, but it did happen, at least to some people. Maybe it’s the very nature of the beast. I’ve seen people use the “my character is in the wiki” as a type of validation or even status symbol against others. You even had a group setting themselves up as self-appointed gatekeepers to “try and keep the crap out.” However, this would happen in other ways even if the wiki did not exist. It would happen even if this forum did not exist. The only way to remove it completely is to do as you say – push all fan input aside and concentrate solely on what you want out of Felarya. I personally think, at this point, that would be a huge mistake.

Arguments, jealousies, and juvenile behavior aside, Felarya is what it is because of you and because of your fans.

One of the things that makes Felarya such an interesting place is the very fact that you allow fan input – and that input actually makes into the setting. The basis may have been on personal fetish, but it’s grown to be a great deal more than that. I’d hate to see this most rare of features lost.

rcs619 wrote:

But this thread gives me hope. We all helped to cause the mess that has unfolded recently, and its going to take an effort by all of us to make this right. This is a good start, people.

It's giving me hope as well ^_^ I think we can use this thread to really clean things up and hopefully have the community start on a new, fresh basis.
I think this idea of having guidelines of sort is a nice start.

GREGOLE wrote:

Like I said, this is all just one big miscommunication. Somewhere along the line, ALL of us made mistakes in some form or another because we didn't understand what was going on. But I think if we're all willing to just suck it up, apologize to one another, and agree on how to prevent this from happening again, we SHOULD be able to pull through and get this thing back on its feet.

I agree with that.. . It's obviously not easy to say for me because lot of harsh words were exchanged but.. yeah I give you my apologies.
I have my part on this mess.. I acted blindly, without considering another point of view rather than mine, and from then became more and more stubborn and defensive. I now don't think you had bad intentions regarding Felarya ...

Quote :

I agree with that.. . It's obviously not easy to say for me because lot of harsh words were exchanged but.. yeah I give you my apologies.
I have my part on this mess.. I acted blindly, without considering another point of view rather than mine, and from then became more and more stubborn and defensive. I now don't think you had bad intentions regarding Felarya ...

Well, I won't deny that there have been times where I was unnecessarily harsh, or let my frustration cloud my judgment, and that has caused things like this to go on for far longer than they needed to. For that I am also sorry.

GREGOLE wrote:

When Felarya was young, this wasn't as much of a problem. There were early guidelines you posted that were fairly easy to understand. Problem was, as it grew and fleshed out, these guidelines were forgotten.

What I recommend is that you not push any reset buttons or anything. Instead, you should post some public and very detailed bylaws for what Felarya is and should be. Make sure fans can see this and have an understanding of what it means.

That is a very sensible suggestion. I agree completely.

A "reset" might do more harm than good. But a clear set of guidelines on what Felarya is all about would be useful to everyone. It would prevent Felarya from veering off in contradictory directions that you (Karbo) are not happy with ; it would help contributors know what they're doing ; and it would make it clearer what the bases for canon are.

Of course, each of us is still going to bring his or her own approaches to Felarya. Goodness knows we see it, appreciate it and contribute to it in different ways. We have a variety of preferences, types of inspiration, fantasies ; call them whatever. And that's probably good. The style of Zoekin's stories is different to Ravana3k's or timing2's, for example. That kind of diversity enriches Felarya and makes it even more appealing. The idea, as I see it, is to find a balance between promoting creativity and setting certain limits and pointers.

I imagine that if you set out guidelines, we'll have questions about them. The questions and answers that follow would help clarify things. Of course, I would suggest that the guidelines not be [i]too[i] restrictive, but in the end, it's your world. And it's not as if those who disagree with your view on Felarya would be forbidden from writing or drawing ; it would simply establish the limits of potential canon.

Aww! You guys are going to make cry! Its so nice to see friends getting along again. I would give you all a hug, but people don't seem to like it when i hug them when i am not wearing any pants.

seriously, I am so proud of all of you right now. I feel, happy. YAY, happy fun times are here again!

This all in all has been an Interesting turn of events. However GREGOLE worded it best.

GREGOLE wrote:

Some think it's a savage land to be overcome by a human-level hero.
The way I remember it, it's a savage land where no one is on top, and that's the way it stays

I agree and second this, as this what i was when I came in. This why I like Felarya and why it kept getting idea after idea, and why I'm still here. It's the reason why still spark out idea and return regardless how long I may have to be out. (even if do miss a lot) It is the unique freedom that is keeps bring people in.

And why some many try to mold it into something they have seen before. It's the reason why I still don't care what anyone says, I support the un-written ANTI-DRAGON Laws. As shown by Karbo and GREGOLE, or the ANTI-GOD MOD laws.

It's a lot of thing that make this place special, and why I'm glad to be apart of all of it. Win, Lose or Draw your all cool in my book. But that is just my two cents. Keep on doing what you do GREGOLE, Karbo and the rest of all you that I have come to know and love.

Well, let's see...

First of all, everything has been, like Casey said, blown out of proportion. There has been misunderstanding from every side of the so-called conflict that isn't actually that - just misunderstanding. There has been a lot of exagerations and thus a rare atmosphere has been the dominant thing lately. But we're getting through it and seeing some light at the end...

Second, the whole wiki thing. The wiki works as a good reference for people meeting Felarya the first time and also for getting information needed for stories and so. Why people are jealous because their ideas aren't in there... well... not all of us are jealous or raging. Nothing I've created for Felarya is in the wiki, so? I'm not going to think Karbo is an asshole and an enemy of mine because nothing I made is there. He has the last word in this: after all, Felarya is his creation.

Also, I'm proud of what I've achieved, be it or not in some wiki, and I thank the people who supported me and gave me useful feedback. You know who you are. ;P

So why are people upset then? Maybe because they think that their effort has been wasted. They think "just a pat on the back isn't enough" and they might be right in some way. People like constructive criticism and know what people think of them in both the good and the bad things they did. This way, they know their work has been worth at least the effort to try and make it good enough to catch people's attention long enough to make them interested in it in some way or another. Problem is: there are too many ideas about Felarya and keeping track of everything is really hard.

So actually it isn't a matter of being or not on the wiki, but of having some kind of recognition for the work they did. Constructive feedback and actual interest in their work, that's what we all want, after all - and I've got some, and so did some others, but there are other people who don't feel like that.

Now the third matter I'd like to give my two cents... The ownership...

Karbo, I don't know how you think it looks like people want to take Felarya away from you, but I don't see that actually happen. You are the one who created it, you decide what's canon and, overall, it's your work. People can offer you their ideas and they know it's your world, if some people think it's a community thing... well, then they've missed the message.

Another thing is the whole fact of the guidelines. It's clear that some of us are missing the point of what Felarya is... at least, I think I never got the feeling 100% accurate to what Felarya is, but never was told why I was wrong. This links with the feedback part and it's true. We need some guidelines to know what Felarya actually is. I know the comics are intended to serve like that, and they are a great way, a very nice beginning, but more is to be done and specified.

Of course, I know this means tons of work and all that crap, but it isn't like Felarya has to take all your time. You have plenty of it (time) to think of the current direction and how to improve it based on the feedback given here.

Finally, the reset... Is it good to start over? I don't know... the canon is there, the non-canon is over there as well. Just think of what us readers/watchers/writers/whatever have to say and make your choice. It's your world anyway... and if you want to keep it and at the same time improve it, good... if you think of starting over, as I sadi, it's your world, and I can pick my characters and reinvent them for something else - after all, they aren't official, so it's like they never existed... Fine, OK, I was kidding about that last part. :V

PS: This is just my opinion. I can be completely wrong, but I'll appreciate any corrections.

Well I'd say you have done well in awakening to the reality Karbo. As I stated in a note, you proved me wrong. Most people hate being wrong, but in this instance I was begging for myself to be wrong about you. So to that, I give you my respect. Well done.

Now, regarding the wiki, the google doc, and the forum altogether, I agree with Elportero when he said it himself that you were making this world too big, too fast. I admire your vision, but your method was not well thought out before you gave the go ahead to begin growing the community. Personally I believe if you spent another year taking a few minutes or an hour a day, you'd be able to properly plan out how the world was meant to be in your own eyes. When this world became too big, I wasn't sure myself if having you as the only leader would be a smart choice. When you get more fans involved in your world, it becomes necessary to bring in more people to help. You still could have made it where your choice overrules the other 'leaders', but those 'leaders' would also be able to follow large groups and give them whatever recognition they desired. Having those leaders make sure they had good judgment in writing and drawing would be essential to continue the already fast-paced growth of your world.

This is of course how I would handle it if this was on me. I am not one to fully open my world to the public until I have everything prepared. Now whether or not this would work we'll never know. I will say though that this idea of mine would also end up with an inevitable failure as there is no telling if the 'leaders' created would bring corruption with the power they have into the world. It happens, it's what always happens when you have large numbers of people. This is how societies in general fall. The more people, the greater chance corruption can spread.

Karbo, you have acknowledged your mistakes and I thank you for that. Now don't bother with a reset button. Maybe if you did that about a year and a half ago it would have been fine, but I don't recommend you consider that motion now, or ever for that matter; but that is of course my opinion in this matter.

I am glad though to see things beginning to mend themselves. I never wanted to see that thread divide the community, and I hope that we never have to see it again. Unfortunately that's asking too much when you have a world with so many people.

I don't have much else to offer tonight, but I'm willing to bet after a well deserved rest we can all get back on track to doing what we love.

I'm kind of worried about the series now. When this stuff started happening, I thought it was just a momentary flamewar thing. But this thread makes me start to worry...

Nothing's going to go away, is it? I love this series, and I'd hate to see something bad happen to it...

I don't know what you're worried about, things are suddenly looking up for Felarya. :3

Edit:










* crickets chirp *

Well it's good to see things working out in the end, I'm happy we can be one big happy community again!

/end cheesy dialogue

anyways as for the wiki thing, you shouldn't do a complete reset, what's there should stay, and a reset should not be done. As for expanding the wiki, I would say get a bit of a council thing going with the people who make large contributions to the community. This should make a bit more restriction of the way of what goes into the wiki.

Well I'm glad that the Crisis seems to have been averted. (Ha ha ha, see because Crisis is also the name of Crisis the Naga, HA!)

Anyhow as for my thoughs,

I'm glad that I've been allowed to write about the world of Felarya. I've written stories and what not before the ones I wrote about Felarya, but I've never felt confident enough to show them to anyone much less post the online. But once I stumbled upon this community and noticed the varied amount of people and stories written about this place, I not only became inspired to write, but I felt this place was welcoming enough to newcomers that I could post them without fear of getting comments such as 'U R STUPIDD' or 'STFU NEWB LOLOLOLOLOL' and so forth. And from my experience I was correct in my expectations.

Essentially the point I'm getting across here is that Felarya and its community has been a great boon to my own self expression in a way.

Now as for the question for the question of the Wiki and whether it continues on its path or gets a 'reset' I've got to admit I'm fairly neutral here. Mainly I've used it to make sure I'm getting the facts of Felarya straight, or as a quick refresher of say, what a particular region is like, what animals live where and so forth. I guess from that perspective I'd hate to see the Wiki go, mainly because searching through the forum to find out what plant does what or exactly how to spell 'Alcazath' would be kind of a pain, rather than anything else.

And now to express an actual opinion!

The thing mentioned in this thread that I most whole heartedly support as a good idea is the establishment of some Felaryan Guidelines!

I think that would be the best way to make sure that peoples ideas and stories, art, and so forth match what Karbo had originally intended for Felarya, rather then some misguided presentation of it that they might have encountered while traversing the net and so forth. Really, that's a great idea and congratulations to whoever suggested it.

Karbo wrote:

To have the wiki shrink dramatically back, to where there is only ideas of my own... and to close the universe somehow... to have it return to where it started: private.

Somehow? How? That would be difficult, not to mention that people would resist.
If you shrink the wiki back (apart from making my job a lot easier) you would be getting rid of many good ideas. Things like Silent Eric's plants and the additions to Negav by various people really help flesh out Felarya. They don't really change any fundamental things.
If Felarya is reduced to a private world well, that's your choice... But it leaves so many people high and dry. It would change Felarya much more than anything so far.
I agree with Gregole, setting clear guidelines would really get things back on track.
In recent times (and a bit further back), people had to make estimates of what would fit in with Felarya.
Guidelines would really set the level for what fits in.
Karbo, please don't close Felarya.
You have the right to retain ownership.

Prof.Nekko wrote:

As for expanding the wiki, I would say get a bit of a council thing going with the people who make large contributions to the community. This should make a bit more restriction of the way of what goes into the wiki.

I've suggested something very similar to that before. I don't think it would be implemented because it would mean releasing creative control to others.

Well I mentionned this reset option because I was becoming direction-less and unsure which path to take from here...
But I really prefer to not think about it, this would obviously be bad for the community as a whole...
And now the air is cleaning itself and we are breathing better

By the way I think we can thanks mostly two girls for that : Terra, whose arguments touched me deeply, and...

Laurathethief ^^ Yes, I know she got a bad start with some people here, but she means good She actually defended Casey's case to me...


Ok I will definitely get to work on those guidelines. It won't be easy because we must find the right balance between too permissive and too restrictive, but I agree that they are needed ^_^

Fine then! And don't worry: if there are things that I've created that clash with your guidelines, be sure I'll try to fix it the best I can.

Firstly, I agree that some guidelines will be very helpful.


Secondly, here are some ideas for (partial) solutions for two of the problems we are having/appear to be having. I'm not sure that any of these things will actually be all that useful, and most of them have obvious drawbacks, but I figure that it can't hurt to mention them anyway... might spark an idea or two. Also, don't be surprised that a most/all of these ideas are technical in nature. Most of them are very similar to the way programmers solve similar problems, and of course programmers will solve problems in a very technical manner.



On the problem of "canon" and losing a sense of creative control:
Felarya may benefit from having multiple levels of "canon"... lets say four levels, plus a special level. Things at "lower" levels override things at higher levels.
Level 0: "Absolute Canon", stuff that Karbo personally wrote/drew/says-is-canon. Is in the wiki.
Level 1: Stuff that other people wrote/drew/suggested that Karbo agrees should be canon. Is in the wiki.
Level 2: Things that many people think are a good idea.
Level 3: Ideas that not many people (yet) think are good ideas.
The special level:
Level ∅: Ideas that Karbo has explicitly forbidden.

The multi-level approach allows both absolute control over canon and what Felarya is (levels 0 and 1 (and level ∅)), but allows for others to expand Felarya in ways not currently covered by canon (levels 2 and 3).


A possible use case:
An idea is posted on the forum (and thus starts off at level 3), people think about it, offer constructive criticism, and it is improved.
By some process (voting maybe?) it gathers enough support that it is promoted to level 2.
At some point Karbo sees it and likes it enough that he promotes it to level 1. (If he didn't like it that much though, it would just stay at level 2 forever, and of course he could promote a level 3 idea straight to level 1 if he liked it enough.)


Another possible use case:
An idea is posted on the forum.
Nobody likes it.
It stays at level 3 forever, or gets deleted.

A third possible use case:
An idea is posted on the forum.
Karbo hates the idea with a passion.
He "promotes" it to level ∅, and it is then explicitly forbidden. Level ∅ (∅ is the NULL symbol, by the way) is the definitive way to say "Felarya is NOT this."

Advantages:
Allows absolute control over canon by Karbo.
Allows the community to expand Felarya in ways that are not covered in canon, without removing absolute control.
Good ideas that people know about will bubble up towards the top.
Bad ideas will stay at the bottom, or will be forbidden.

Disadvantages:
Possible "override" problems; changes to higher levels could cause stories written before those changes to contain errors.
"Vote buying" or "vote whoring". The possibility exists of cliques or voting blocks forming to either unfairly promote or (less easily) suppress an idea. (This problem exists in any vote-based system, and these groups couldn't affect canon.)
Good ideas might get overlooked and not be promoted. (Rare, but possible.)


See http://www.theforce.net/swtc/faq.html#3 for an example of "multi-level canon".



On the problem of feedback from Karbo:
It has been said that the lack of feedback is a problem ("You rarely stepped up and said, "Hold on, I don't think this fits with the setting, and here's why:""). An idea may be seen and considered, but when no feedback is given then from the idea creator's point of view it doesn't appear that anything has happened at all. A multi-level canon system like described above would help provide some general feedback, though not specifically Karbo feedback.

Programmers often keep track of bugs and feature requests using a bug-tracking system. This allows them to not lose track of a bug or request, and allows them to eventually process it, usually closing the issue with some sort of standard response like "Bug fixed in commit 43435", or "Feature request declined because: .....", or even "Closed, duplicate of bug #33254".

Unfortunately, I am not aware of any such bug tracking system that is designed for a situation like what we have here. Nevertheless, here is how one of the currently existing bug tracking systems could be used.
A person on the forum post an idea, and submits it to the bug-tracker, then posts a link to that "feature request" in their idea's thread.
The submitted feature request is placed in Karbo's to do list, and from time to time he processes items in that to do list, reviewing them.
Eventually he decides on what sort of feedback is warranted, and closes the issue with that sort of feedback.
Anyone wanting to see the status of an idea merely needs to follow the link to the feature request, where they can see how the issue was closed.

A possible use case:
Idea is submitted and ends up in the to do list.
Idea is processed, and found to be a good idea, canon material.
Feature request is closed with something like "Good idea, adding to wiki.", and maybe Karbo goes to the forum to post on the idea's thread.

Another possible use case:
Idea is submitted and ends up in the to do list.
Idea is processed and found to be good, but rough.
Feature request is closed with something like "Good idea but needs work.", and maybe Karbo goes to the forum to post on the idea's thread.

Third possible use case:
Idea is submitted and ends up in the to do list.
Idea is processed and found to be a terrible god-mod-power-ranger-mary-sue.
Feature request is closed with something like "Doesn't fit the feel of Felarya, also is a mary-sue.", and maybe Karbo goes to the forum to post on the idea's thread.


Advantages:
Ideas never get lost.
It is always very clear to Karbo what ideas he has and has not decided on, because the ones he has decided on are not in the to do list.
Karbo retains absolute creative control; there is no filtering or pre-processing of ideas.
Feedback is (eventually) guaranteed.


Disadvantages:
Ideas only enter the to do list if they are submitted there.
Ideas are not preprocessed at all, so he has to look at everything, even the terrible ones.
Bug trackers are not really designed for this sort of use, though they ought to work just fine, they will have useless features and not have useful features.
Requires setup and (probably minor) maintenance.
Requires allowing anyone to submit a feature request into the bug tracker; possible spam problems, plus there is nothing that requires there to be a forum thread attached to that idea.
When an idea is closed, the reason for the closure is not automatically posted to the idea's forum thread, so extra work is required there.

As an amateur programmer, I like this idea. It wouldn't be too hard to implement if we got enough people on it.
I for one would be able to help with setup & maintenance (depending on what is used of course, but I am a fast learner).

I like both ideas Oldman, particularly the multi-level canon.
The "bug report" method sounds good but, if you don't mind me saying so, may need a bit of extra thought into it's working to make it easier on Karbo if possible.

It might be a good idea if each idea submitted had a link to either the original thread or at least a way to let the idea's creator and others know the idea has been closed and what decision has been made.

On the matter of an idea's closing reason not being automatic, if there was perhaps someone whose job was to post the decision on the idea when it is closed in it's corresponding thread/DA page/etc, it would lighten the load just that bit more. I would be willing to do so, although it would have to be someone Karbo would trust to do so without abusing the privilege, as well as being recognised by the community as the person who is distributing the decisions given.
Any disputes to the decisions or the person's legitimacy to distribute decisions given can be relayed to Karbo if it is necessary. Provided people keep it civil, I see few problems with this working.

Does anyone think that will work?

Very quick comment, on Oldman's idea... if we go with it, perhaps there could be a specific thread where all ideas which have reached level 2 are listed, with links to their own threads. This would make it easier to keep track of them, and for Karbo to notice them.

Just something that popped into my mind.

I think this idea of canon level is interesting and intriguing ^_^
you may really have found something here

For the feedback.. I'm less sure..
I fear it the process is too automatic, you can loose a sense of touch somehow..
I'd raher go the normal way here, and try to make additional effort in this regard.

Right now I'm focusing on coming with guidelines.. not that easy ^^;