Worlds - A Complete Guide

There currently doesn't exist a comprehensive guide on what worlds are, how they work, and what you can do with them. There's a worlds FAQ, but a lot of features are not detailed in there. Lots of people have been asking questions about them, so this sounds like a good time to change this! If any questions are left unanswered after reading this guide, please let me know and I'll add the answer to your question to the thread ;v;

Last updated: 25th of April 2019

Worlds, as their name implies, are Toyhouse's special hub function similar to groups on DeviantART, but more specific to OC creation and adoptable trading. They function as a separate forum here on TH with their own frontpage, membership rankings, a bulletin board, and a fully customisable forum section, among others.

They have many uses: some use them to store their worldbuilding information in an orderly fashion; others make them a hub for their species' info and updates; even others use them to create both a setting and a roleplaying platform; some are collections of characters with a similar trait; some even use worlds as a business platform to advertise and find commissions. The possibilities are endless!

You can create a world by moving your mouse over to the 'Submit' menu in the top left corner next to 'Forums' and clicking the World option. You will land on the world creation screen. Here, you can choose the world's name and the publicity level. You can still change either anytime you want at a later point. More on those later.

Every one of the settings listed below can still be changed at any time as much as you wish. Do come back to them when you feel a different setting fits your world better!

Manage Folders

Whether or not you create folders depends on your preferences as well as the aim of the world. For world groups, you can separate the characters by region or by species, while a species world can separate different types of characters into folders or a RP world can separate them into NPCs and player characters. All folders have a name, icon, parent folder, and publicity option as well as the option to type out a blurb for each folder.

On the right hand side, you can sort folders into the order you wish, or reset them to be alphabetic again. On the left, you can choose a default folder. This is the folder everyone will land on when they click the Characters link in your world. Choose All Folders if you want all characters to be visible, or a specific folder if you only want that one visible. You can also choose Default Sorting, which will decide the way characters are sorted when a person visits the gallery. Personal favourites of mine are Images (Most), Newest, and Literatures (Most).

Manage Pages

Here, you can manage your World's pages. These are ideal to store information in, since you can fully customise their HTML and CSS, you can decide exactly who can see them, you can sort them, and they're generally just great. The downside is that the menu currently is cluttered and not so pretty, and people can't comment on them like they could on a forum. People may also be more likely to go for the forum first and fail to notice the pages. Decide which one you like most beforehand.

Each page has its own privacy setting and the choice not to display it in the list. You can also make folders for pages, though folders within folders can only be sorted in front of pages of the same parent folder.

Manage Forums

The forums tend to be the most important part of most Worlds. These are a copy of TH's own forums you have complete reign over as the admin! You can create categories, forums, and set both their publicity and who can post. Compared to pages, there are more settings and people can comment feedback on them, but threads are displayed chronologically rather than sorted as you wish, so they may appear out of order. Some use them for their world's lore, still.

Let's do a quick explanation of the difference between a category and a forum. Categories are unclickable divider titles that divide your forum into its own neat little categories. You can't actually post threads to a category. Forums are submitted to categories and are clickable, and you can post threads inside. For example, in the below image, 'Introduction' and 'Livian Species' are categories while 'The Basics' and 'Livian Demons' are forums.

I suggest playing around with the settings until you find something you're happy with. Many Worlds make it so that anyone can view the forums but only members can comment on them. You can also choose for a classic flat style of replies to threads, which displays them like TH's main forum, or a nested style, which displays them as comment chains that can be continued off of them, like profile comments or DeviantART comments.

Manage world

Here, you can change your World's name. You can also choose between the regular layout and the legacy layout, though the latter is extremely buggy and will likely chase away any audiences you may have.

You can also type the world's frontpage here. You can make it as long as you wish, but some suggestions to put in are a good introduction to give people the gist of what the world is about, a link to a possible introductory post in the bulletins, a link to the characters and forums, what is expected from members, and how people can join. Empty frontpages make most people click away.

Lastly, just like with user and character profiles, your world can have CSS if you have premium. The HTML forums on this site oughta have some templates you can use! Premium users can also manage which elements appear on the page, such as bulletins, comments, characters, and recent comments in threads. They can also type a blurb that will appear in the sidebar beneath the World's name, which can be useful for important links, since people tend to look in the sidebar first.

Manage Avatar

Here, you can choose, change, or delete your World's avatar image. This will display as 200x200 pixels or 100x100 pixels depending on the place it's displayed at. Choose a square image that fits those dimensions for the best effect! After you uploaded or reuploaded an avatar, it may take several hours before the image actually updates.

World Settings

Over here, you can choose if you want your world to be public or private. Public worlds can be viewed by everyone, while private worlds can only be seen by the people you invite into it through the Manage Members feature. Just because a world is public, doesn't mean everything can be seen by anyone. You can restrict certain or all forums to be visible by only members, while still allowing non-members to see the frontpage, pages, and/or bulletins.

You can also transfer the world to another user. This makes them the founder and gives them the highest level of control over what happens to it. I haven't yet tested out what happens to the previous founder, if they're demoted to just a member or if they remain an admin. If anyone knows, feel free to tell me!

Lastly, you can delete the World. This is a permanent thing and you will never be able to recover any of the data anywhere in the World. Only do this when you're absolutely certain.

Manage Members

You can invite members to the World here as well as change their membership type. Moderators can change any of the settings under the Mod Panel category, while Administrators can change anything under the Admin Panel category. They can also view things set to Mod/Admin only. Make sure to only promote people you trust to this role, since they can wreak havoc if they have bad intentions. The Founder can kick anyone at any time, but changed info can never be recovered.

This is only a suggestion, but think of making a directory of your lore! Both the forums and the pages are displayed so cluttered that you have to click 70 times to get to every thread or page. By making a directory, you instantly make browsing your world's info and lore so much easier for both yourself and anyone interested in reading! This can also help you list how finished a page is, and give yourself a good overview of work yet to be done.

It can be a very simple directory consisting of the categories, the forums, and the threads, but do think of a way to present it so that it's easy on the eyes and presentable. Indents, titles, and faded text are your friend! I suggest making this as a forum post and as a page, as well as linking them to your World's frontpage as one of the first ones users will see.

Even though it's old and outdated as hell, I'm gonna link my own directory as an example of what I mean here.

Unfortunately, it's fairly difficult to get your world noticed on Toyhouse. As of now, there is no way to browse people's worlds and the only way for people to discover them is to browse the worlds other people are in or to find them through an advertisement thread in the Worlds forums. You have to actively tell people your world exists, and preferably remind them regularly so they won't forget.

My recommendation is that you create a clear thread in the Worlds forums that has all the info you need: the world's goal, its setting, a good summary on a plot or on what it's all about, and what people can do when they join the world. Keeping this thread active may also help the world remain active. Linking the world on your TH page, on DeviantART, and to friends in a Discord server may also help! You can also request for the world to be added to the world database list.

Use your forums or your pages for info and your bulletins for updates

That way it's much easier to browse all your world's info; having threads stored inside topics is easier to browse than one long list of unrelated entries.

If you have a lot of worldbuilding, sort them into various general topics

Browsing through a short list of topics with each long list of threads inside is less appealing than having an average amount of topics with each an average amount of threads inside! Topics can include for example races, culture, history, magic, a RPing section, species info, and locations.

Structure your threads with titles and subtitles

No one likes reading a paragraph that spans three screens without a proper introduction. Try to structure your threads: a beginning that has an introduction to the topic, followed by different titles that structure what you're saying. For magic, for example, you can introduce what magic is, then list its energy source, how to learn it, how to cast it, and which types exist, all with their own titles. This makes browsing easier and ensures people can quickly find any info they're searching for!

Manually check your inbox every few weeks

It's not yet possible to get inbox notifications on your main account for Worlds, and the only way to see any notifications is to go to the World's inbox. Same goes for thread answers. This is why many Worlds die out - many people simple aren't reminded they exist. Encourage members to subscribe to update threads! This can be what keeps your world active.

Got any additional questions after reading this guide? Did I miss something? Was there an update that isn't yet included in this guide? Spot a typo or a link or image that no longer works? Please let me know! I'll do my best to answer the questions as well as I can, and other commenters are free to answer as well.