Bleach Club

I'm still of the opinion that Gin will kill Aizen, in the end. I really doubt Aizen is the main villain. He wants to be the king of heaven, but who has the holy zanpakuto? Whose zanpakuto is nothing more than an illusion? Gin frequently taunts Aizen. Rukia hated Gin and said he made her feel sick. She thought nothing of Aizen.

Considering that, Urahara might possibly defeat Aizen. That would be the best way to end Aizen, imo.

Spoiler: We also have to consider that the people are fighting Aizen in waves of increasing strength. The fact that they left Urahara to the last after Yama-jin, Ichigo's father and Shenji, speaks volumes.

That would certainly be amusing to see, but that would have to say quite a bit about Gin's hidden talents or something be even more dangerous than Aizen. It would be an interesting twist, though I'd suspect that a lot of fans would probably find Aizen's end coming at the hand of Gin to be a little disappointing after everything that has happened.

I think just about anyone would get the feeling from Gin. He has a presence that does not really set will with others. It would be pretty easily for Rukia not to sense anything wrong from Aizen considering his abilities. The reason he is so dangerous is because it is impossible to break through his illusions once you're under them.

That said, Aizen is a pretty big cheat with some difficult to believe things.

I didn't want to do this but I'm going to have to post almost exclusively in spoiler tags. If you still don't believe me...then look.

Spoiler: The Chapter's name is deicide Aizen considers himself a god... And Gin's zanpakuto...Kamishini no Yari...what does that mean again? oh yea...God-killing lance.

Names aren't necessarily meant to be taken literally. Ichigo's Bankai is called "Heavenly Chain Cutting the Moon", but I don't think anyone really expects Ichigo to go cut the moon any time soon. Would it be approriate for Gin to kill Aizen given his Zanpakuto's Bankai name, sure, but does it guarantee that it will happen? No, it doesn't. If it did happen, hindsight would say we saw the clues, but I'd have to see it believe that it would happen.

Tite and the editors at Shounen Jump haven't really been doing a good job lately with Bleach's story. They've been pulling a lot of things out that are just way too far fetched to be believable. Tite used to have good storytelling, but he seemed to have lost it at this point. So I don't really expect an amazing twist lined with the perfectly placed clues.

If it happened, color me pleased, but I have my doubts at this point. I still thoroughly enjoy Bleach, but its dragged on at this point.

You can remove me from the members list, since I don't post at all in this thread.

cheers

I have updated the list to the current active members. (Read: Andro, Sin, and myself.)

I should probably move myself from this list also, since Bleach as a series is pretty much dead to me.

Let me join so I may achieve my fandom bankai with the rest of you?

Welcome to the club, S! Xeim's not here and hasn't been for long enough that by the position I hold as mod of the Clubs I remove her from her position as club leader on the grounds of very long period of inactivity with no communications to the reason or cause.

For now I'll just make everyone with the ability to accept new members. Like Shadow very bluntly, it's only Sinister, Shadow and myself plus S now. So welcome and enjoy your stay. ^^

We are needing a new topic of discussion. This will be probably a bit of spoilers talk, but Tite's been putting the "ax" or sword in most cases to a lot of named cast members recently (though there really is only named cast members at this point, there's no extras). Anyone that's read enough Shounen Jump knows that authors are pretty hesitant about actually doing the deed and killing a character off. So with the long list of severely wounded shinigami, who do you think is going to survive and who is going to actually die for good?

No one dies in Bleach, for good or for worse. No doubt in no small part due to marketing. Judging by how much airtime a captain like Hitsugaya gets just for being popular, they probably won't want to eliminate any precious commodities. They just phase them out without reason for long periods of time, like with Nel or even parts of the main cast. :(

By the way, didn't Byakuya make a metaphor about a monkey trying to reach the moon? And then afterwards, Ichigo... yeah. Though that's a bit easier to connect than something as generic as god-killing.

This is true enough S. There is a good chance that all of the named characters won't end up dead. It is the way that Shounen Jump goes, but there's a lot of people laid out from attacks. You'd hope that at least some of them would kick the bucket finally. It's like what's the point of making a wound look really dramatic and fatal when they are just going to be fine.

How about this, if you don't think anyone will end up dead, who do you want to see die from this encounter? You can provide your reasons and what not.

I think Yamamoto looks like he's got a good chance of not making. It's unclear, but seems like after what he did that himself surviving may not be possible. But then again, Chad made use of life energy during his fight with the Captain in the Soul Society arch and didn't end up dead eventually. I guess he used just enough not to die, but to be almost dead.

There's a big difference between all dead and mostly dead. >.>

You'd think Chad would have wound up dead from that encounter with Uquichikitabanana (#5?) in Hueco Mundo, but he's still alive, haha. Same with Rangiku and Momo. Luckily there are two people with the ability to more or less resurrect the dead.

Don't really want to see anyone die though, honestly. It wouldn't really do anything for me. None of them have enough importance by themselves (other than parts of the main cast) to really move me... those that do I wouldn't wanted them to die. Kubo just needs to prioritize who gets screen time or nothing will ever get done. There have been some good developments, but given the length of this arc they are really few and far between. The Soul Society arc really set the bar, but he never quite picked up from where he left off thereafter...

Maybe Aizen will become God and draw all of this out even longer. Wouldn't that be great! I don't mind the series continuing... I just wish he went somewhere with the characters.

Yeah, I think Unohana fixed up Chad like she did with almost everyone that got totally screwed over until the Captains showed up and showed everyone how it is really done. It's so funny how they get beat by Ichigo an arc ago, but now they are doing things that Ichigo could only hope to be able to do. But I guess the justification is supposed to be that the Captains have decades or more combat experience that ends up making up for their lack of overall power and underestimating Ichigo when they originally fought him. And Ichigo totally lacks the combat experience and control to fight properly. If Ichigo had a century like the other Captains to refine his control over his power and get a mountain of combat experience I'd suspect that he'd probably walk over everyone and actually make Aizen work. Though I guess it is interesting to see that the main character is pretty much a joke compared to everyone else when fighting. All Ichigo knows how to do is make things couple of things look really cool and usually when his hollow is in control.

And I believe you're looking for Nnoitra, the fifth ranked Espada that totally showed Chad who's boss. Chad had his epic moment of cool and then promptly got his butt handed back to him.

Well I don't know if at this point anyone dying is going to be for emotional reasons. Since as you said it's unlikely the ones that would be emotional won't actually end up dead. The deaths that do happen, if they do, will just be a matter of showing that it's trying to be realistic and show that not everyone survives. Though if someone does die it's going to throw off our RP that assumes everyone survives. ^^; Though it's probably a safe one since this is Shounen Jump. Still you can hope that someone does, it'll be like surprise we killed someone for real and they aren't coming back. Honest! Then deus ex machina machine goes and revives everyone because she's sad.

Defeat Aizen by erasing him from history, Orihime claims to be able to do that to the Hyokoku. That would be terribly anti-climatic if the weakest character in the show shows up and finishes off Aizen after having their epic Freeza length battle in which Aizen always has the upper hand. But it would seem so fitting if it did happen.

Ichigo would be one of the strongest by now if it weren't for him always finding something new to doubt about himself. His personal struggles are getting to be a bit boring unfortunately. I wish they'd find something new and external for him to get sad over, at the very least, haha. No doubt they'll have to go into his origins next, so maybe that'll be decent.

I have no clue how he managed to beat the Byakuya and Kenpachi though. I mean they've probably grown with him as well, but I can only assume that he is actually stronger than them at this point. Or, at least, he would be if he wasn't oh-so confused.

With what's going on in the manga I have a feeling that a certain ex-captain may be taking the fall soon. Or maybe not. Hopefully something nice will come out of it either way! I doubt Aizen will be gone any time soon though. If they're going to draw it out for another arc or two then I hope something big happens, or it'll be boring just having one or two major enemies left over.

Yeah, it is true that Ichigo has a lot of repressed issues that act as a sort of block on his ability to actually control his powers. Though I also think part of it is just he's really dumb on spirit control. You look at Ichigo and Uryu and they have a clear difference in how they can control and use spiritual energy. If Uryu had Ichigo's natural reserves of energy Uryu would be the most powerful character in the show I think, but that's probably why isn't.

Sort of reminds me of how Yu Yu Hakusho was with Yusuke and they actually made it part of the story. He had huge repression issues and it ended up capping his power as a result.

But I guess if Ichigo had it all down then it would not be as challenging for him and fun for us.

Aizen needs to die though, he's getting really boring as a character after everything's that happened. It's not a good sign when your henchmen, the Espada, are far more interesting to watch than the main villain. Though it is also funny how several of the Espada actually seemed more human than Aizen.

I'm not really sure it's a matter of power control, per say. Ichigo's hold bankai is based around concentrating his power, after all. I mean, Uryuu's whole thing is gathering power to begin with and launching multiple concentrated shots, but if he didn't have that then he wouldn't have much else, haha. For Ichigo I think it's coming to terms with the nature of his power, which is a different kind of "control" I suppose.

Aizen is a really fun villain, but Kubo really doesn't plan far enough ahead to make most of his schemes seem smart or realistic. It just ends up with him somehow knowing everything, which I personally find boring. He doesn't need much of a developed past or known reasons for his goals... I'd actually prefer it that way, since at this stage it's impossible to reconcile everything and still make him seem cool. I just wish his plans were a bit more thought out on the author's end, haha. Just like with everything else, there haven't been many grand ones since the Soul Society arc.

I've become interested in Bleach again, so I was thinking about joining this club. Unfortunately I'm really far behind, so I probably won't be able to participate in any discussions about recent events. I'm just finishing the Bount arc. This arc just seemed to be sooooo long and not that interesting, but I heard that this is probably the worst arc, so I can't wait to watch the next arc. I kind of wish that I just skipped this filler arc, but I thought at the time that it wouldn't be too bad. I'm going to try to catch up, but it might take some time because I'm more than 100 episodes behind. <_<

I used to read the manga too, but I think I stopped after the fourth or fifth volume. I figured that it would be more entertaining to just watch the anime, and I don't really feel like watching and reading the same thing at the same time. Maybe I'll start to read the manga again if I ever catch up with the anime.

It seems like most of the members aren't here anymore, but maybe this club will come back to life if some more members join.

Welcome to the club Trieze. I wouldn't worry too much about where you are in the story. It's not like the Arrancar has actually managed to finish yet. >.> Though I guess it depends on if you call the whole the Arrancar arc or not. Since it is sort of split up into three segments, but until the past arcs there really hasn't been the sense of closure to the the segments to really feel like an arc completed so much as just transformed into something new.

The Bount Arc when you compare with other filler things that other shows have done I think it probably better done. It is certainly not as good as the rest of the show, but it is better filler than something like Naruto filler. The Unknown Zanpakuto Story arc or whatever it is called is actually supposed to be a really good filler arc. But after the Bount arc you'll have like 50 or 60 episodes of canon before one season of filler and then back to canon until the Zanpakuto arc and the canon again.

Yeah Aizen could be cool, but there's just way too much that he takes credit for. It even happened in the Soul Society Arc where he said all of stuff that he planned with Rukia and Ichigo and company were all part of his plan. I guess it's consistent, but just consistently ridiculous to even consider. I've always said he's like a god modder, never being able to be hurt by anything and always being the best at everything. It just seemed a little too easy to make some seem that manipulative, but provide no actual hints along with the way as to that is actually happening. It'd be more believable if there were a little things that you could see that were meaningless during the first watch, but changed to having a meaning once you understood them. That would be a lot better and not seem like you're talk out your you know what.

I could buy the stuff about Rukia and Ichigo up to a point. If he had enough eyes roaming around in the human world (and he should given that he was in control of that council thing) it wouldn't be impossible to predict Ichigo's future movements. I think they took it a step too far with the latest revelation regarding Ichigo, and perhaps some other things related to Urahara. The timetable in which Aizen did most of the preparations for his invasion is questionable in itself. But I guess having hundreds of years sort of makes everything okay...

The only plan of his that has seemed even remotely smart as of late is luring some of the captains into Hueco Mundo. The rest of it has been him sort of standing around grinning like an idiot while he slowly loses everyone.

His Zanpakutou lacks proper description, too. He uses it to cast an illusion on the entire Gotei 13 that he keeps up for days/weeks, but he uses it only at various points during the latest battles. What's more is that despite him claiming it to be perfect hypnosis it seems to have some flaws... again, latest chapter stuff. If he's going to just stand around during this current battle and then take them all out with one slash again I'm going to be a bit disappointed. (It's going to happen.)

Well it was made clear near the end of the Soul Society Arc that Aizen's Zanpakuto was not perfect. It was near perfect, because Unohana took a long time for her to realize that it was a fake. But she eventually figured it out and learned the truth. The ability is still really cheap. He can do what ever wants with it. And if he had been the proper I'm going to remove all of the obstacles then he could have totally abused his power and wiped them all out without even blinking an eye. And if his Bankai is just an extension of that, he probably could have pulled it out and took everyone down without any problems at all. But he wasn't as smart and scheming as he is meant to be. If happened it'd all be over and there'd be no show though. So I guess it can't be helped.

Luring the captains over to Heuco Mundo is definitely the smartest thing he did recently. The funny thing is that it is hard to know how much Tite actually planned that far out or just made up when he was like the captains need to be there and Aizen needs to have planned that as well. It's hard to know with no hints to it before hand. Considering the way his character is built it is supposed to be expected that he'd plan that out. So it becomes reasonable, but still makes you wander, especially with everything he's spouting lately. The man loves to talk though, probably one of his more glaring flaws. But I guess when you know that you're stronger than anyone else you can afford to waste time on idle chatter as you regale people with your master plan.

I'd like to know how he created hollowifications though of Shinji and the others in the past. Because it seemed like he was in charge of that as well. I guess if he's been experimenting with hollows it would make sense.

Makes you wonder how he created everything the castle in less than 3 months. Unless he had been paying secret trips to the place long before he left.

Yeahhh, I'm hoping that they explain his zanpakutou in more detail. If it was as good as it seemed then he probably wouldn't need something like the hougyoku. I just hope they flesh out its limitations... because as it stands all it's really good for is letting people get hit in the back. I'm not even sure what they mean by ceremony. You'd think that Ichigo would be hypnotized by now. It didn't seem as if it took too long to hypnotize those hollows.

I think Kubo can plan pretty far ahead. His delivery and what he delivers isn't as great as it was when we were first getting to know everyone. Now that everything's out in the open he doesn't have that many tricks left, I guess. Aizen does talk a lot though... well, it's more like he just taunts people a lot. It's supposed to be sadistic of him maybe, pissing everyone off before he takes them out. Although he hasn't really managed to kill all that many people yet... haha.

I think those hollowifications were just failed experiments. If left alone they would have all lost their minds, so it seems like it had failed. It was Urahara and his Hougyoku that allowed him them to keep their psyches intact despite it all. It seems that turning someone into a hollow isn't all too hard (as Urahara proved with Ichigo), but it's much harder to mix them together.

The castle thing... I get the feeling that he had already taken over the majority of Hueco Mundo a long while before. Again, it's an issue of lifespan. I don't remember what Ichimaru and the blind dude looked like when they met with the #2 espada, but even if they were older it still could have been a century... lol. A good amount of time should have elapsed though, as there seemed to be quite a few changes in Hueco Mundo. Like with Nel, or the original Espada who were renumbered.

I think the only way that Aizen's sword works is that if he draws it and activates its Shikai in front of you. So I think if it is active and you just show up then there's not going to be any effect on you. At least that is how I think it works out. Considering that he only has to show it once and then even after it is sealed the effects are still there so they don't have to be exposed to it again. He can just create whatever he wants afterward.

Yeah, I would definitely like an explanation, but Aizen has been the only one that has said nothing about his sword's abilities beyond the basics. Which is funny since every single other character in the series will explain all about their sword regardless of what is happening in the fight. If something new happens they have to sit down and talk about it, like they're bragging. Considering how much of a braggart Aizen is, it is surprising that he's said nothing about his sword.

It might be the smartest thing he's done though. If he told them the weakness and strengths of the sword during his battles then he'd be a huge disadvantage since he's got to fight so many people.

Tosen is the name of the blind captain.

It is certainly weird the way that they all talk the arrancar. They act as though they have all been around for years if not longer. Which is funny that in all of that time no other arrancar got tired or fed up with Aizen and just marched through the human world or something. It just really seems odd to know that a massive structure and organization came into existence in like 3 months or it's been going on for decades and Aizen's just been one extremely crafty man to get away with it all unnoticed.

Yeah... though if that's the case he probably should have hypnotized Ichigo by now. Like, when they first met in Soul Society. I wonder if a certain other ex-captain is under its effect. He wasn't even present a century or few ago when Aizen hollow'd those captains and vice-captains, yet... Aizen seemed to know about him and Ichigo. Hmm.

Aizen: best villain in the series because he holds common sense.

Thinking back on it it's not possible for Nel to have been a Arrancar for all too long. I recall that #9 said he was the only original amongst the current Espada. Nel may or may not have been as well, but... Hmm, I wonder if the hougyoku was even used on the original Espada. Confusing. Either way it doesn't given them much time as Espada as Nnoitora wasn't an original. When Aizen took control is hard to know though. It had to be before he left Soul Society or the Menos Grande wouldn't have bailed him out.

Well when Aizen and Ichigo first met in the Soul Society he was regaling them with a long story of his plan and what not. And even after that all he did was block everything with a finger or hand. I don't believe ever drew his sword and even if he did there would never be the case that he'd need to use the trick on Ichigo to actually beat him. There was plenty of time that he could have done it.

And we don't know how long ago Isshin is from. We just know that he is a former captain and is acutely aware of the situation despite not being active for a while. I don't know where he get his information from, but I'm figuring since Urahara helped him with his body I think or they're at least chummy that Isshin gets his info from Urahara. It is a good question though if Isshin is under the effects of the zanpakuto or not.

I'm curious to know what the abilities of Isshin's Zanpakuto are supposed to be since we've only seen him use his sealed form so far. It'll be interesting to see what he can be like when he actually gets serious. It's funny how so many of the captains sand bag their opponents even though they could totally win with a bankai move. Makes me wonder if Tite just doesn't know what to do with their bankai.

As for the Arrancar and Espada. It is really difficult to know. If most of them were made before they even had the betrayed the Soul Society then Aizen would not have been able to make them with the Hyougoku. Though if the reverse it could be possible, but I don't think he would have had the time.

It seems more likely that it all existed before Aizen left the Soul Society and he had been creating it all slowly for years. It would make sense due to the fact that the arrancar would had to get used to their new powers to be able to control them to the extent that they do. It just seems so strange that with all that power running inside their that nothing ever happened before then. It was all perfectly secret and no one said anything.

The only thing that lends credence to everything is that it is made fairly clear that someone is making arrancar in the chapter of the manga after Ichigo defeats Grand Fisher. They show Grand Fisher getting made into an arrancar. That is the only clue to the things going on, which is actually never shown in the anime.

Judging by the later chapters it's kinda sorta apparent what his zanpakutou is... or what it'd be similar to anyway. For all we know it may already be unsealed... permanently. Hint hint.

I am guessing that the majority of the Arrancar were not created before he had come into the possession of the Hougyoku. At that point he just went nuts using it. But I guess more "natural" Arrancar could have existed before that time. It may have even bee possible for many of them to know each other because of Aizen having gathered them before then. Them being an Arrancar may not have changed them all too much...

I have no idea what to make of that chapter. I thought the scene as a whole was weird, since it never really anywhere. They sort of just fixed him up. Whether Grand Fisher actually became an Arrancar from that or whether he was saved I have no clue. Although with his second appearance after Aizen having come into possession of the Hougyoku, I'm leaning toward that scene just him being healed by an organized group of hollows that Aizen probably lead.

It's true that they don't expressly say what's happening to Grand Fisher, but after knowing about arrancar it makes sense. And it makes more sense knowing that Grand Fisher got turned into one. I had to do a little hunting of the images, I own the associated manga volumes, but it's difficult to scan them.

Manga Fox: Bleach Vol.03 Ch.025: 6/17 op.9 "fighting boy 2[The Cigar Blues Mix]" Online Manga Scans - This is when Grand Fisher is shown after his fight with Ichigo. You can see his mask partially broken and falling away as well as him looking very much like his arrancar form.

Manga Fox: Bleach Vol.21 Ch.185: Be My Family or Not Online Manga Scans - This is the best I could find of his arrancar form when he shows up around Kon is inside Ichigo's body. He does have the top part of his mask back on, but the rest of him is about the same as it was before in the other page.

Both of these are very similar and quite a leap in appearance from his hairy hamster like appearance when he fought Ichigo. It's not completely conclusive, but I think it does say a lot.

I went back a page to look more closely at things and recognized that one of the figures in there as a beak and pierces of some sort that look quite a bit like the arrancar that Uyru and Chad fought when they first arrived in the Heuno Mundo. And I think one of the others look like an arrancar that popped up during one of the invasions of the Espada as a low level arrancar. Which might go further to saying that a lot of the arrancar were created before and may have been either working together to create others or working under directions from Aizen to create others.

It's possible I suppose. I'm not sure what the process to create an Arrancar would be. Somehow removing a piece of the mask? Is that what Ichigo did to him? I mean, to become a Vizard, Ichigo had to manifest a mask before that chain ate away at him... so maybe.

I'd look at the pics but MangaFox scares me. I got an annoying virus from it, haha.

Oh? It was safe for me since I grabbed those pictures.

But either way, I don't think so much that manifesting a mask was what Ichigo needed to do to become a Vizard. I think it was because he had Shinigami power of his own, thanks to his father and during the time he was turning in to a hollow because being in a soul form that was left to accelerate towards the eventuality of souls that remain in the human world, becoming hollows. So I think because he became connected with the hollow half of his soul and sort of opened what is normally a closed path between the shinigami powers and hollow powers. And I think that is why he was able to become a Vizard.

I think there is something more to it than just removing a hollow mask as well to become an arrancar. I think in a nature state as a hollow going through the steps becoming an arrancar is a rare thing and the hollow mask will just eventually come off on its own when you reached arrancar state. It probably has something to do with finding and subduing the shinigami powers inside them.

An artificial arrancar, which are what most of the Espada are I think along with most of the arrancar under Aizen. Removing the mask forcefully probably won't just cause it to happen, they probably have to do something to do them in order to create the necessary condition.

Unfortunately, it is an area that has not really be fully explored. It has just been put out to be accepted as fact that it happens. The Vizard side of things is certainly more explained than the Arrancar side of things.

Oh, no, I meant that is simply what begins the process (or perhaps ends it). An Arrancar loses a portion of their mask while a Vizard gains one. Ichigo had to fight becoming a hollow and retain is human will and whatnot, but the idea is that something set it off. And in this case the hougyoku wasn't necessary like with the other vizards, for whatever reason. Although given that Urahara was trying to reverse the hollowification totally rather than simply stabilize them, maybe some of them would have made it on their own. In which case I suppose the hougyoku may not be necessary.

I personally don't look into it too deeply since most Bleach physics don't make sense to begin with. Things just happen, haha. "There is a wall between shinigami and hollow. Break the wall and you have a ______," isn't sufficient, but I wonder if they'll go any further than that.

In general the whole idea of Soul Reapers is sort of weird. They'll live forever, but they're not immortal. They can die even if they're sent to the afterlife. Their soul can still be destroyed, but who knows what happens to their "essence". Reincarnation isn't really explained, if it even exists. Thankfully they haven't gone so far as to show people having children in Soul Society... but it seems we'll be getting some information on the nature of that in the human world judging by current events.

Either way the physics don't really do it for me, haha, so I sort of steer clear.

Oh good news for those wanting to see legal and official subs of Bleach. They are going to be available on crunchyroll as they apparently sign a deal with them. They get the immediate release of them to the paying members and then a week after the non-paying members get to see it. So that should help to make it easy to catch up between Hulu and Crunchyroll.

Well the Hougyoku is not a requirement for becoming arrancar or vizards. Isshin said that there was such things as natural arrancar. So it would certainly mean that it is possible to just become one on your own. For a hollow is very challenging to become one because you have to reach a certain level I'm pretty sure before it can even be possible and that level require you to constantly feed on others similar to you. For a shinigami it is probably less trouble do to power wise, but with the structure and laws that they have in place it probably is difficult to achieve. And if you do achieve it you'll be killed or kicked out of the Seireitei probably since you'll be looked at as something not a shinigami.

Yeah, the whole afterlife is a little on the strange side. Since aging is pretty much pointless. They do however seem to have normal bodies that are just constructed out of reishi and not carbon. So they are stronger and more durable. However, they have frequently said that in a vague manner re-incarnation does exist since souls migrate from the human world to the soul society and back to the human world. The thing that doesn't make a lot of sense is how people are born in the soul society, because that has been said to happen as well. So it is a little weird. Because I believe that Byakuya was actually born in the Soul Society.

This is an open invitation to all that wish to participate in the open beta testing of a new Club/Social Group Project.

A brief explanation of the project: the social group format that currently exists as a separate group where members can create threads and post freely will be recreated within the Club Forums through the use of Sub Forums individualized for each Club or Social Group.

That is the short of it, here is the longer version please read everything before making your decision so you understand what it going to happen.

What we’re going to be doing is running a base model of the final fully feature product that we have envisioned. It will have all of the basic functionality we want, but it will lack all of the bells and whistles that we want to add to make things more robust. The beta test will be a way for us to get things started to see how people like it and where we can make improvements. Even without the bells and whistles it can still functional fully as intended, as a Club or Social Group. Everyone that participates will be able to provide feedback and suggestions on additional features to add to make it something that everyone can enjoy.

The base model is pretty simple for now, but as we have the time available to make the mods needed to it things will grow and you’ll be able to test out the new stuff we add. What the base model will be is a sub forum located in the Clubs Forum of the main forum. There the sub forum will be given whatever name the group that participates wants along with a brief description. With the sub forum you’ll be able to continue discussions and talk as you have previously in the social groups. This will mean that the clubs rules from before will be relaxed significantly more than they ever have to accommodate the posting environment of the social groups.

The club forums will become a “Main Club Forum” which will be the hub for all of the groups. The main club forum will be used as a “front desk” for the groups or as I like to call it a job fair. Each group will have a thread where forum members wishing to join will sign up and you’ll be able to look at your applicants. All requests for giving forum members access will go through me first and I’ll handle the work.

So that is how things will work for the beta after the setup. The creation of a sub-forum for your group will be very similar to how clubs are made. You will make a post in the registration thread of the club forum requesting a sub-forum for your group. Do note that if your social group or club already exists it will be automatically approved all you’ll be doing is giving me the necessary information to fill out to personalize your sub-forum to your group. If anyone wants to make a new group in the sub-forum that doesn’t already exist then it will go through an approval process that you see happen in the thread currently. You’ll want to read the main post to see the form that you’ll need to fill out since it’ll be different from the norm as well as necessary so you can have your sub-forum read the way you want it.

Now to answer why you would want to do this if it is going to be mirroring the social groups. With this move to the club forums as a sub forum you’re threads and post will appear in the main forum providing greater visibility to your group as a whole (such as the “new posts” and “posts in the last 24 hours”). This can help to promote and increase your own group’s interest and activity in the forum. Your social group will no longer be hidden in a specialized area that does not even provide updates or notices to its members. All of the features you use in the forums will be available for you to use such thanks, new posts in your User CP and forum subscriptions.

I want to take a little time to explain what we want to eventually make the final product of this to look like. The plan will be to allow the sub-forums to be customized with icons and images that represent the groups. They will also be available to be listed in your own profile like inventory items are so you can show off and advertise for your own groups. You’ll be able to select which ones you want to display just like items. Some of these features will require us to create our own mods to have it happen as they don’t exist. So it should be understandable why they won’t be available at the start.

As said before, any additional features can come from the suggestions and ideas you give us. We won’t be able to promise to do everything, but it will never hurt to give every idea you have. We’ll let you know if it is possible and if we will try it out. Anything new we do will be run through the beta testing groups until we hit an end point that we feel it is finished.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact me through PM or responding to this in here. I’ll answer everything that I am able to do.

This does open immediately and there will be no limit on how many groups we accept into beta testing. There will also be no time limit on joining the testing. It will always be open unless we deem it unsustainable or the project fails. Please check the Club Forums for further updates and work for the beta testing.

Thank you for your time and sorry for the intrusion.