New Forum

Murasume · Administrator

New Forum

Snake · Moderator

Do it. Do it now. Right this second. PHP forums beat the crap out of places like this.

Murasume · Administrator

lol, I know. That's why I hope everyone wants it.

Mitch · Moderator

Personal post counts do not matter. I would like to know what all we'd be sacrificing, though.

I mean, I know we'd lose the World's Longest Random Thread....if youcaneven call it that, but other than posts I mean.

And what benefits are there for moderators?

-- Edited by Mitch at 13:33, 2006-06-02

Jena Runner · Do you enjoy this?

I don't know about this. First I would like to know what we'd be losing and gaining by doing this. Secondly Is there not a way to transfer this one to the other one and still have all of the benifits and losses? I probably sound stupid asking that question but oh well....

Snake · Moderator

Here's the deal.

We're not just transferring forums. We're switching forum TYPES. We're going from a pre-built forum to a customizable PHP package. Meaning A ) Mura or myself can make new templates that are hot-swappable (meaning you can change the theme of the forum at will by adjusting it in your profile), B ) PHP stores posts on a host server, meaning that we can just dump the entire forum to a file folder on a hard drive, making back-up a TON easier, C ) PHP forums allow a LOT better administration options, and if Tyler does it right, you can actually have a full admin control panel that scales depending on admin level (like, there are more options for higher admins).

There are a LOT more advantages to PHP.

A problem though, PHP forums are a bit easier to hack. It's preventable if you do the right security measures, but it's always a risk. The reason we can't transfer posts from this forum is because they're stored on the Sparklit server - not a server we can access. We'd have to manually copy and paste everything to a word file, then re-post it by hand. Pain in the butt, to put it bluntly.

Murasume · Administrator

Yes, Snake pretty much got it. Just a few of the benifiets are:
Built in chat feature
Quick reply system
Administration panel opens in a seperate window and everything is done in that
Customizable word filter
TONS of other crap I haven't figured out yet.
Yes, we would lose all of the posts we have and all of the hits, but I think this change will be for the better.

-- Edited by Murasume at 15:16, 2006-06-02

Mitch · Moderator

Well, good things aside, I am going to voice my opinion after reviewing this new forum.

The new one, other than a chat feature and word filter, has nothing new to offer.

It would be nice if we had started with that, sure, but we've come a long way. We're #1 on Sparklit's gaming section! We have pending users who are supposed to get on soon, so I think it unfair that we would deny them the greatness that we have worked so hard to build up.

On top of that, the new forum can be difficult to work with. The "image hosting" doesn't deliver. It only works with avatars, and only if they're less that 100 KB.

So to convince me, you're going to have to come up with something better than that. This may not be the best forum in the world, but it's ours.

Murasume · Administrator

It has usergroups, currencies, banks, we could set up a store in the future and have our users earn points and buy stuff with those, it is just more robust and it gets so much more traffic. there were 5 people on today and I haven't signed up with a single search engine yet. We'll get a lot more traffic, and yeah, we've come a long way, and I am proud of what we've done here, but sparklit is so small, that no one knows about it unless they use it themselves. All of those views are just from where we've been on over a period of 2 years. It means nothing. And was it not you who said "who cares about that stuff" when I brought it up? Anyways, if you look at the big picture, this is the best thing to do.

Snake · Moderator

Traffic is our biggest advantage. We're #1 on Sparklit's Gaming section...and that means? If you go a bit further down, you'll see that only two or three forums under us have any activity whatsoever. In other words, Sparklit is very limited as far as exposure, and being the top doesn't mean a thing (honestly, we've had like, maybe one new member over the past 6 months that wasn't a current member trying to screw around. You call that active?)

On top of that, PHP is a lot more customizable. Just because you don't see the new features doesn't mean they aren't there...I moderate a PHP forum, I've seen the inner workings. It's a LOT better than this.

Another thing is that topics will actually organize correctly on the PHP forum. No more clicking a category and then searching for the topic with the new post...it'll automatically be bumped to the top.

The shoutbox and chat aren't really important, but they're there too.

Mitch · Moderator

I said it doesn't matter about personal post counts, first off.

I'll support us no matter what we decide, but if you don't mind, I'd like a condition or two met first.

If we switch, I need the leash loosened a bit. Mura, face it, you're not on as often as a head administrator should be. We need 3 authority figures, which we have, but whenever something, like the banner, needs to be changed, you're never around to do it. So, either you should allow us access to do stuff like that OR be on a lot more AND keep up with the current issues and trends.

Jena Runner · Do you enjoy this?

I don't know about this........myself personally I would like to stay right here. Yes the new things would be nice but I think that we have come too far on this forum to let it go down the drain just like that because the other one may not do as well we don't know. Visitors are good but do 99% of them join anyways, NO! Very few do, in fact I think that the bad on the new forum might out weigh the good. Sorry if I sound stupid but thats just my opinion.

Riku · I'm 40 and living with my mom...

I really don't care so whatever guys .

If you do then just link me to it, and I'll go there, but if you don't then whatever.

Riku

Murasume · Administrator

Ok, first off...Mitch, I am on every day. I've been trying to tell you guys that forever. I've been posting more recently to hopefully show you all that. Second of all, Jena, what exactly in your opinion is bad? You say it outweighs the good, but I do not see anything bad other than a sacrifice of personal post counts which Mitch has said doesn't matter. And your right, the majority of guests don't join for a number of reasons which I will address at a later time. However, the more guests we get and traffic we get, the more likely we are going to get a higher turnout in members.

-- Edited by Murasume at 00:00, 2006-06-03

Snake · Moderator

Just out of curiosity...and this isn't to be mean or anything, just an honest question.

How exactly have we come so far? We have tons of threads about in-coherent subjects, subjects that can easily be re-established, and just plain...nothing-ness in some cases. I mean, some things have merit, yes (the reviews in the games section, written work by our various members, artwork, interesting topics, etc.). But even if that's the case, there isn't enough activity on our current board to justify keeping all the stuff we have. I mean, out of everything, we have like 8-10 active topics. How is that coming a long way?

And in all honesty, how can bad things outweigh good things on the new forum? I'll recap the good and bad:

1) Customizable themes
2) Advanced administration options and IP tracking for our mods
3) Chat room and shoutbox (not a biggie by no means, we'll probably not use them)
4) Ability to back up logs of our posts
5) Auto-bumping topics that move to the top of the list
6) Easier to navigate interface (debateable, I myself find it easier, so this is more of opinion)

1) We aren't able to back-up and transfer our current stuff
2) We have to start fresh and sign back up
3) ...Umm? I don't have a three.

Murasume · Administrator

Yes, what you said about the topics and stuff is what I was going to address at a later time. I will still bring up some stuff later. I have some ideas I think you and Mitch will like particularly(sp). (Kaney, did you vote no? you just said you didn't care either way. lol)

-- Edited by Murasume at 00:03, 2006-06-03

Riku · I'm 40 and living with my mom...

Actually I voted both since they were checkboxes to show that I didn't care either way lol .

Riku

Murasume · Administrator

XD didn't think about that. lol

Riku · I'm 40 and living with my mom...

Yeah that is one thing that I actually remembered from Website Design class when I took it sophmore year (fall 2002) .

Riku

Murasume · Administrator

Ok, so..... what's the deal?

Mitch · Moderator

The deal is, if we do change forum types, let's have more activity. Try and invite as many people as you can. That being said, we'll need more management activity to handle them all. We're trying to maintain a community here. By changing the main thing we'll be losing is.....people. That's the biggie.

We have some that are just now coming back, so we have to make sure that they, along with other inactive members, are informed. We'll definetely lose a few.

We'll also need some kind of a hook to draw people towards us. I mean, we don't have much. Perhaps we could get another MMO up and running. We need to have an admin meeting soon. Mura, as soon as we can, we need to get together and talk about future endeavors such as the MMO and website. We are in dire need of an update. We have a community. I'm just worried about keeping it and giving them a reason to come back to us.

Oh, and this is a bit off topic, but someone mentioned something earier about a....shop...or forum points to buy stuff or something. Care to delve a bit deeper into that?

EDIT: And by the way, when I say we've come a long way and made a lot of progress, I am referring to members and activity. I'm just worried, as stated before, that the switch will make us lose some members and some activity, that's all.

-- Edited by Mitch at 01:06, 2006-06-03

Murasume · Administrator

We won't losse anyone. I will send a mass email out and update te site if I can remember the pass >.<

wtf? where is all of the crap I typed. This stuff wont happen on the new one either. lol. what I said was that you me and snake need to get together one night and work on some stuff and now that you have wireless, we can share info easier. we need o work it out.

-- Edited by Murasume at 01:19, 2006-06-03

Riku · I'm 40 and living with my mom...

Whatever you all wanna do if fine by me.

Riku

Murasume · Administrator

Should I go ahead and start the shutdown and emailing?

Riku · I'm 40 and living with my mom...

I would leave this one up and running so that we (everyone) could come here to remininse on the good ole' days and just link us here to the new forum .

Plus I wouldn't start this until maybe tomorrow or Sunday since it's 1:32 in the freaking morning .

Riku

Mitch · Moderator

Yeah, why shutdown?

I mean, people may still come here, and they could see the message that we've changed forums. Put a big message somewhere that says we've moved.

But remember, do something to boost membership and activity.

Riku · I'm 40 and living with my mom...

And here comes Mura's famous I've got an idea moments: "Oh hey guys I've got an idea, we should leave this forum up so everyone can come here too, and I will do something to up the membership on the new one."

Riku

Murasume · Administrator

I'm going to lock these so that you can't post. you will be able to read them. I'm not just gonna delete it, I couldn't do that.

Riku · I'm 40 and living with my mom...

Why should you care if we could post or not since most all of the activity will be on the new forum?

Riku

Murasume · Administrator

Because it iwll get confusing to newcomers. And we want all of the activity on the new forum. Let's all say our last posts in the old forum.

-- Edited by Murasume at 01:52, 2006-06-03