Just a thought I had.  I like using the scratchpad in games to take notes, but there is no feature attached tot he general accounts, so I'm always having to use one of my game scratchpads for 'general' notes.

It's been suggested before, and I'd also still find it handy.

link to a message in another game

In reply to nauthiz (msg # 2):

So, would this be like a scratchpad everyone in a forum could share, or just a private scratchpad tied to one's account?

(I'm a little tired right now... pardon if I'm a bit thick.)

The request as it has been phrased in the past, was for a duplicate of the "ScratchPad" feature each player gets when they join a game.

However instead of being tied to a specific game, it would be tied to the individual user account and would be accessed via a link somewhere on the main RPoL page.

Yes, exactly what nauthiz said.  Didn't know it had been a request in the forums for so very long already when I made this thread...

This would actually be very helpful, having a "homepage ScratchPad". Not tied to any specific game, and only accessible on the main page.

I've also wished for this more than once. I realize now that it's a planned item, but in the event it reinforces that it's a good idea, I'll also voice my support for it. ^_^

I wondered at some point whether this was a thing, too, and thought it might be useful to have. Nice place to stash character sheet notes for games that die, so I don't have to use the scratchpad in one of my other games :D.

I know this is an old thread, but it's the most recent scratchpad thread I can find.  Let me add my wishes to a scratchpad linked to the user account, not a game account.  In addition, I would love to see the text editor controls that are available to forum and game posts for the scratch pad.  I know the bbcode and html works because I can manually enter them into my scratch pad and they work.  Thank you!

Could tuck it out of the way in Preferences, if nothing else, to reduce the clutter on the home page.

Moved thread over to the RPoL Development thread which is where jase will look for suggestions.  :>

Personally I don't use scratchpad at all as I'm always on my home PC and use Notepad as necessary, so I'm neither for nor against.

I am definitely for a general user account scratchpad, and suggested it during the changeover (but made the mistake of burying the request in one of the general changeover suggestion threads, rather than as it's own post, so was overlooked.)

Despite using my home computer most of the time as well, I still make extensive use of scratchpad in the various games, and know this would also be used extensively- various parts of the FAQ that bear revisiting, some HTML tips, how to include pictures, links to some of the game-or-player wanted requests or other posts that are not ideal at the time to pursue, but could be when circumstances change, etc.

So, yes, consider this absolutely supporting this request from evileeyore and AugustusGloop! ^_^

So... The Scratch pad... sucks? Why would you want to have a tweet's worth of notes as opposed to just making a game of your own for your notes? Infinite notes. With dates and an organizational structure if you wanted.

While I don't agree that the scratch pad sucks (it's certainly always been more than enough notes for me to have on a per-game basis), I have to agree with Sir Swindle's point about making a game of your own for notes. Or...at the risk of sounding incredibly oldschool, maintain a file of notations outside of RPoL altogether? (Like Skald, I use Notepad or Wordpad, myself, because I find it easier to open something up alongside RPoL rather than another tab -in- RPoL.)

I mean, I'm not -against- the idea at all. An account-wide scratchpad would be kind of cool, but is there really a -need- for it? Speaking only for myself, I think that I'd just wind up having to separate all of the notes by the games they'd apply to anyway, which would make using the in-game version easier for my sanity in the end.

I'd be curious to actually know how many people even use the existing scratchpad regularly, since I feel like a lot of players don't realize it exists...

I think the Scratchpad is extremely limited in its functionality.

What I end up doing as a player, is send a PM to the DM. explicitly declaring ti to be a notes thread.  While I recognise that the DM can now see my notes, that doesn't bother me, since I'm not playing against the DM in any way.  I can then reply to the notes thread to my heart's content, and even organise the notes in a way that's far better than the scratch pad.

What I end up doing as a DM is to create an NPC called The Archive.  I encourage all my players to start a PM conversion with the archive for all their notes.  This keeps all those notes at the bottom of the PM list, which is appropriate, since they don't matter to me anyway.

I'm in favor of an independent space for notes associated with the account rather than within a game.

That would be useful for jotting down any number of things that you might want to have preserved between games.  It's also tied to the site so it's device agnostic.  No worries about whether however you're viewing RPoL has access to whatever external service provider might be the place you currently stash such notes.

I also think you're not technically supposed to create a game just for the purpose of having an archival space, though whether I'm remembering that rule correctly or how stringently it actually gets enforced, I can't say.

Though if that's completely copacetic in practice, that does fulfill the same function more or less, unless you're a user whose hit their current ceiling of available active games they can create and would rather not waste a slot on such a thing vs an active game.

I certainly don't use the thing. If I need to make notes, they go into a doc in my Google Drive, in a folder named after the game in question. I have so many folders from games over the years. To compose posts, I either use the on-site post tool, Notepad++, or a Google Doc.

So, accepting the points raised by other players about the limitations of a Scratchpad and the alternative options, I do that there's an advantage in having it as a sheer convenience factor, especially for individuals such as myself who aren't regularly in the habit of maintaining a Google Drive or who flit between multiple devices when accessing the site.

Personally, having somewhere to scrawl notes which sit above a given game can be very useful - it might be lists of players who you've worked with in the past and might want to approach three years later for a specific game, it might be some information about where certain discussions are on threads, it might be your go to check list for starting a new game, or indeed anything else which you want at a central hub rather than specific to a single game.

Having that two clicks away from any given thread, and always linked to the site, rather than a device or requiring a login to a drive account, is probably no bad thing, especially if you either trust Jase and co more than whoever holds that cloud, or indeed you're just not that organised or tech savvy.

Ultimately, if it were easy to build it into the site's architecture, then I'm certainly interested in it being there, but I also acknowledge that there's other ways to do it and it's very probably a niche quality of life option than a huge and immediate requirement.

What?! A Log of Acquaintances?! Some manner of Companion Register?! Get this guy out of here We can't have that kind of blasphemy on here! To think a Chum Journal! on RPOL!

Hey! I'd like to think that some people who have worked with me in the past might want to do so again!

I mean, I'm sure it'll happen. One of these days.

Equally, it's very possible there's a friends list function already and it's parted my hair as it's gone over my head.

I think having a scratchpad for notes, even with a character limit, is still better than not having one at all.

As others have stated, if you use multiple machines to log in- home, phone, work, library, etc. you might not have access to any notes external to the site. (And honestly, it just seems counterproductive to suggest going somewhere other than the site- we want to draw people in, not send them away!)

You cannot send a note to the DM to create a personal message note page for this, since the request is for a site-wide scratchpad, so there is no DM.

And nauthiz seems correct- we are not supposed to start games just for the purpose of archiving.
From the General RPoL FAQ- games section:
Users are in no way permitted to create games or forums for the sole purpose of the archival of materials, or the distribution of any materials which violate copyright.

Without clarification otherwise, it seems like that would apply to a game created just to hold notes, but I would hope a mod can confirm or dent this.

I think that is all about storing copyrighted material.

That comma is in an awkward place it doesn't actually have a proper meaning.

You know...

I'm pretty sure that we used to be able to send rMails to ourselves. (At least, I feel like this was the case, given the times I've been bitten by the unread rMail bug that requires getting a new rMail to read in order to clear it.) I do notice that I can no longer send an rMail to myself on the new site, but if that feature could be reinstated (or put in, if my memory is incredibly faulty), would that meet the requirements for an account-wide scratchpad?

rMails are about the only thing that are currently tied to the account instead of a specific game, and if you could send yourself a 'Notes' rMail, you could access it everywhere, and add to it however much you desired.