Silios
Rookie
Well most of you know who I am, and that I'm back. Just waiting on that email for my old account. I actually wanted to wait till I got my account back before I posted this, but I think this is more important.
The forum is dying. You can argue about this all you want, but back in 2003 there was an average of at least 30 users on at any given time. Regardless the forums were never big to begin with, the point remains that less and less people care about visiting the forums anymore. And it's not because GR is failing, in fact it's a pretty popular nonbiased gaming site.
So what am I proposing? General changes to this site that would increase inflow of forum users. Now you ask yourself, "why the hell do we want new people here when this is our private little island." Two reasons, new blood infuses new discussion, interesting ideas and topics, intellectual debate. Secondly, it increases this sites revenue from adds.
So what needs to be done? Here's a few ideas from different sites I frequent and belong to. For instance LL adopted a few wonderful features that made browsing easier and posting more interactive. Livelinks, basically instant update on the page when a new post is made. It creates a chatroom feel with more intelligent wording since nothing is rushed, but also removes the SMASH F5 FOR UPDATES bliss that is rather negative because it lies about the amount people who've actually seen your topic. Another feature is the ability to upload pictures to the network, this is extremely handy and saves time. This would take some coding, but I'm absolutely sure it's worth it. Here's why. Llamaguy started out the site completely closed, he then added a buy new account feature and charged 20 dollars for each account. Now he's charging 40 dollars per account. Now you may just say that's because all the pirated goodies, but a recent poll showed that the majority of users use the boards more than they use the links. The community is strong and while mostly consist of dribble posting, does have the occasional intellectual debate.
But the key to LL's success is its freedom. Now I'm not saying we should allow links to piracy, but merely stating that banning people over talking about piracy, discussing issues, offering advice, or plain out trolling should be tolerated for the sake of the community.
The more freedom you give the community, the more people from Gamefaqs you'll steal.
Let's discuss those nasty words. like the Fbomb. Let's be honest here, we're all adults and we don't need censorship. Sure you can be 13 and sign up, but maybe we should change that. The amount of real gamers are mostly over 18, I think they can handle a swear word. Plus who are we kidding when we say F***, we know the word. They're words, that's not to say to allow racism., but a word said in an intelligent fashion should not be censored.
Speaking of which, wouldn't it be nice to have a "Serious Discussion" board? Instead of just misc. A place we can discuss the meaning of life, is there a god, and how my chances of scoring with Jessica Alba are. This would add balance, make misc more of a fun place to post things going on in our lives and SD a place for debate.
Finally, and most controversial is a NWS board. This will probably never be implemented, but it needs to be addressed. We're all adults here, and some really funny things can be adult oriented. I'm not talking about a smut board, but a place were we can post hilarious images, sexual mishap stories, and such that won't be appropriate for children. Again, I'm sure this isn't something the owners would want. But as I said before, we're all 20 somethings and I think we could handle it.
These changes would also need an increase in moderator and Admin support, which I believe we have enough long timers to support.
This sounds great! How can I help FBF
Well you can start by making interesting and good topics. Remember the brother Randy topic? These things bring out lurkers and make them want to post more. Try to make at least one very interesting topic a day, it will help these boards thrive.
As for me, I'm going to try to make one good topic in each board by this week.
Let's get out there and show people we're not GRandpas and GRannies.
tl;dr
Add your ideas.
The forum is dying. You can argue about this all you want, but back in 2003 there was an average of at least 30 users on at any given time. Regardless the forums were never big to begin with, the point remains that less and less people care about visiting the forums anymore. And it's not because GR is failing, in fact it's a pretty popular nonbiased gaming site.
So what am I proposing? General changes to this site that would increase inflow of forum users. Now you ask yourself, "why the hell do we want new people here when this is our private little island." Two reasons, new blood infuses new discussion, interesting ideas and topics, intellectual debate. Secondly, it increases this sites revenue from adds.
So what needs to be done? Here's a few ideas from different sites I frequent and belong to. For instance LL adopted a few wonderful features that made browsing easier and posting more interactive. Livelinks, basically instant update on the page when a new post is made. It creates a chatroom feel with more intelligent wording since nothing is rushed, but also removes the SMASH F5 FOR UPDATES bliss that is rather negative because it lies about the amount people who've actually seen your topic. Another feature is the ability to upload pictures to the network, this is extremely handy and saves time. This would take some coding, but I'm absolutely sure it's worth it. Here's why. Llamaguy started out the site completely closed, he then added a buy new account feature and charged 20 dollars for each account. Now he's charging 40 dollars per account. Now you may just say that's because all the pirated goodies, but a recent poll showed that the majority of users use the boards more than they use the links. The community is strong and while mostly consist of dribble posting, does have the occasional intellectual debate.
But the key to LL's success is its freedom. Now I'm not saying we should allow links to piracy, but merely stating that banning people over talking about piracy, discussing issues, offering advice, or plain out trolling should be tolerated for the sake of the community.
The more freedom you give the community, the more people from Gamefaqs you'll steal.
Let's discuss those nasty words. like the Fbomb. Let's be honest here, we're all adults and we don't need censorship. Sure you can be 13 and sign up, but maybe we should change that. The amount of real gamers are mostly over 18, I think they can handle a swear word. Plus who are we kidding when we say F***, we know the word. They're words, that's not to say to allow racism., but a word said in an intelligent fashion should not be censored.
Speaking of which, wouldn't it be nice to have a "Serious Discussion" board? Instead of just misc. A place we can discuss the meaning of life, is there a god, and how my chances of scoring with Jessica Alba are. This would add balance, make misc more of a fun place to post things going on in our lives and SD a place for debate.
Finally, and most controversial is a NWS board. This will probably never be implemented, but it needs to be addressed. We're all adults here, and some really funny things can be adult oriented. I'm not talking about a smut board, but a place were we can post hilarious images, sexual mishap stories, and such that won't be appropriate for children. Again, I'm sure this isn't something the owners would want. But as I said before, we're all 20 somethings and I think we could handle it.
These changes would also need an increase in moderator and Admin support, which I believe we have enough long timers to support.
This sounds great! How can I help FBF
Well you can start by making interesting and good topics. Remember the brother Randy topic? These things bring out lurkers and make them want to post more. Try to make at least one very interesting topic a day, it will help these boards thrive.
As for me, I'm going to try to make one good topic in each board by this week.
Let's get out there and show people we're not GRandpas and GRannies.
tl;dr
Add your ideas.
