::Effort:: and Ideas to Jumpstart Forum Activity

[† Emotional Outlet]

It seems that most people took more offence to the removal of the chatbox and not so much to the limitation of access. Maybe I misunderstood, but that was the impression I got. I don't think the chatbox should be removed--on the flip side, it wouldn't hurt me if it did go away, haha. I don't see that happening, however.

They brought up the same issues--there are too many "I like X" threads, threads worth discussing are absent/buried. Hopefully scooting those generally useless threads to a separate subforum will free up some air for more interesting topics and give people that little push to create topics they want to discuss without fear of it being buried. I'm not sure how I feel about the assertion that the chatbox is the best way to get close to people, though.

[NOSTALGIC STORY TIME]

I'm sure Koby remembers how the community was before it became a place to download stuff and before it had a chatbox, when it was still Forgotten Memories (I was never around for Dark Fantasy, however, haha). I became close to several people from the forum--I made several friends that I would continue to talk to on Myspace (OH YES) and on MSN. I even ended up dating one of them, flying over to Canada to be with him before I enlisted. For at least five years, I got to know and hang out with these people.

All the silliness that can be found in the chatbox, we brought to the forum. It was a controlled chaos (for the most part, haha). When we had secret subfora for each of the sexes, we had truth or dare threads, threads to share our porny yaoi stories, and venting threads. We would share stories with each other, have debates, talk about random things--hell, I still remember that long discussion we had about peeing in the shower. We had stupid forum families and clans, and stupid contests like PMYC.

I cared about these people--would I have these people in my apartment for dinner? Of course! They were my friends. I didn't need a stinkin' chatbox to make me want to be their friend. The forum felt personal, felt close. I didn't post in every section, didn't care about everything they had to say, but I was still an active member of the community. New members were almost always a boon, almost always a great addition to the forum. We didn't have to worry about people only posting fifteen times and then never saying anything again.

It wasn't perfect--sometimes the drama in the hidden subfora got out of hand, the dares spilling into the main forum were outrageous, and we dealt with our share of spam and abuse. But all the same, it was a community.

[END NOSTALGIC STORY TIME]

I guess my point is the forum can get back up to that point. There are brilliant, good people with plenty on their mind to say and good ideas. That closeness they feel in the chatbox can be brought to the forum. It has happened before and it can happen again. If one of the major roadblocks are the piles of garbage threads, then hopefully moving them will encourage people to post more.

All the same, the onus for activity still falls on the members. Koby and the staff can do all the work in the world, get rid of all the pointless threads and bring in new shinies, but if people continue to reside primarily on the chatbox, well... There's not much to be done about that without creating much turmoil, apparently. So, fingers crossed, advertising the change and clean up will rile people enough to want to post in the forum, haha.

On an entirely different topic, Java and I have been tossing around the idea of doing a minor forum reorganisation.

What he and I agree on currently is moving the Tech Centre to the Tantalus Hideout and moving the Tantalus Hideout up, putting it right under Shinra Headquarters. I say this because the Tantalus Hideout contains member-created content. This needs to be put on display! People should see that first and not have to scroll down quite so far to bask in the glory of KF members' creativity.

Java has some sort of idea about moving the downloads, but I'm going to leave expressing that to him, because any attempt I make to translate his ideas would be kind of weird. In the meanwhile, I think the Content Distro area should be dropped to the bottom.

Thus, the order of the subfora would be as such:

Shinra Headquarters

Tantalus Hideout (with Tech Centre moved here)

Media Central

"My Two Cents" (or whatever we call it)

---Anime and Manga

---Gaming

---Entertainment

Content Distro

As far as sections within those go, I would love to see the Shadow Hearts (148 posts) and Grandia (143 posts) be merged with the main gaming section. Maybe getting rid of the Seasonal Anime section (again, I'm not big on anime so my suggestion may be garbage). The description of the Anime and Manga area needs to be changed, since "Otaku Releases" isn't under there, it's in the Art and Lit section.

And for the pointless threads, you could add redirects to the respective subsection in the main areas.

To clarify--

In the Anime and Manga section under Media Central, you add a link to the Anime and Manga section of the "Two Cents" subforum, just in case people completely miss it for whatever reason. Here's an example (they have redirects for Gameplay Guides and Help) of what I'm talking about.

[Koby]

I'm not sure how I feel about the assertion that the chatbox is the best way to get close to people, though.

I know what you mean. It's a bit disappointing to hear/see that's how a big portion of the members think. As you said in the spoiler of nostalgic story time... back when we didn't even have a ChatBox we were actually a much closer tight knit community. Even I had many more close friends who I chatted with on a daily basis. At this current time there isn't even a single member I chat to every day anymore.

I still remember that long discussion we had about peeing in the shower. We had stupid forum families and clans, and stupid contests like PMYC.

Haha, that competition was hilarious. I remember that. It was around Halloween of 2004 if I remember correctly. Might even have been 2003, I can't remember. I hid all the boards on the forum and created only a few specific ones for the competition. It was wacky, it was basically spam, but it was fun. Haven't did anything like that since though.

we had truth or dare threads

the dares spilling into the main forum were outrageous

LOL.. man those were the days. It'd be fun to see something like that take place again. We might not have Boys and Girls Room boards, but we have social groups that work pretty much the same way.

I guess my point is the forum can get back up to that point. There are brilliant, good people with plenty on their mind to say and good ideas. That closeness they feel in the chatbox can be brought to the forum. It has happened before and it can happen again. If one of the major roadblocks are the piles of garbage threads, then hopefully moving them will encourage people to post more.

All the same, the onus for activity still falls on the members. Koby and the staff can do all the work in the world, get rid of all the pointless threads and bring in new shinies, but if people continue to reside primarily on the chatbox, well... There's not much to be done about that without creating much turmoil, apparently. So, fingers crossed, advertising the change and clean up will rile people enough to want to post in the forum, haha.

I've been saying that for about the past year now, but no one really takes heed to the things I say. Regardless of what they think about me, I cannot change the forum by myself. It is a community and it takes the full support of the members of the community to make a change and to revive the community as a whole. I can do what I can to try and help make a difference, but unless the regulars actually make an attempt to do more than visit the ChatBox... well then ultimately something has to be done. I tried proving that by temporarily taking it away. It pissed a lot of people off, many refused to return, many CB regulars still refused to be active in the community, but at the same time many returned to the forum.. although they've slacked once again (especially since the CB was added back).

On an entirely different topic, Java and I have been tossing around the idea of doing a minor forum reorganisation.

What he and I agree on currently is moving the Tech Centre to the Tantalus Hideout and moving the Tantalus Hideout up, putting it right under Shinra Headquarters. I say this because the Tantalus Hideout contains member-created content. This needs to be put on display! People should see that first and not have to scroll down quite so far to bask in the glory of KF members' creativity.

Java has some sort of idea about moving the downloads, but I'm going to leave expressing that to him, because any attempt I make to translate his ideas would be kind of weird. In the meanwhile, I think the Content Distro area should be dropped to the bottom.

Thus, the order of the subfora would be as such:

Shinra Headquarters

Tantalus Hideout (with Tech Centre moved here)

Media Central

"My Two Cents" (or whatever we call it)

---Anime and Manga

---Gaming

---Entertainment

Content Distro

As far as sections within those go, I would love to see the Shadow Hearts (148 posts) and Grandia (143 posts) be merged with the main gaming section. Maybe getting rid of the Seasonal Anime section (again, I'm not big on anime so my suggestion may be garbage).

Funny thing is I moved the Tech Center from Tantalus Hideout merely a few days before you returned. I removed a few boards, added a few, and reorganized some. Many of the changes you suggest would simply be returning it back to where it was just days before you returned.

Tantalus Hideout however has been the bottom category of the forum ever since this forums rebirth back in early 2007. I don't really think it should be above Media Central as the main theme of this forum should be anime and video game discussions... so I don't really feel like putting them lower on the list would be a good idea.

As for the Shadow Hearts and Grandia boards they were originally created because of the websites that also went with this forum (as I use this one forum for all my websites rather than try and separate forums and user bases. http://grandia-online.net and http://shadowhearts.info however as you can see I've failed to finish either site nor have I worked on either of them in over a year (even longer on the Grandia site, like 4-5+ years), and there seems to be less and less fans of the series to discuss them. The Shadow Hearts series will never see new games as the company is disbanded, and the Grandia series is questionable so I've been really thinking of doing away with their boards. In fact I've wanted to do a big change with the Gaming section for a while. Perhaps sub-forums for genres instead of specific games? Even the Kingdom Hearts section seems to have died down, and the Final Fantasy section seems to be going in active with only 5 or so topics actively being posted in.

As for the Seasonal Anime board, that is one of the newest additions to the board. It was created to keep discussion threads for the currently airing shows from falling down several pages in the regular section so they could actively be discussed on a weekly basis as to what people thought of the events of that episode. However it's only more proof how people fail to actually post in threads worthwhile even if they aren't being buried (proving that excuse isn't honest and people are just too lazy to post).

[† Emotional Outlet]

Haha, oh my. Well, I have been absent for some time. I didn't realise the forum had just undergone a reorg already.

I do like the idea of subfora for each genre and scooting threads in the main gaming area to those genre threads. You could start with broad, popular ones (FPS, RPG, RTS, "Other") and go from there. Now that I think on it, I have no idea if RTSs are popular around here. You'd probably be a better judge of that. Getting away from having subfora for specific games is probably a good move, though. Keeps subfora from sitting stagnant just because someone doesn't have anything to say about Grandia or Kingdom Hearts, haha.

Anyway, a forum reorg isn't terribly important to me--I was just throwing it out there, haha. If you've already done one, there's not much point in doing another besides being annoying to the members.

(The other competition I remember was something weird... Something like, Most Pointless Post? I just remember posting a giant, rambling thing and Mujklob posting about... toilets or something. God, what WAS that competition?)

[† Anras Rune]

Haha, oh my. Well, I have been absent for some time. I didn't realise the forum had just undergone a reorg already.

I do like the idea of subfora for each genre and scooting threads in the main gaming area to those genre threads. You could start with broad, popular ones (FPS, RPG, RTS, "Other") and go from there. Now that I think on it, I have no idea if RTSs are popular around here. You'd probably be a better judge of that. Getting away from having subfora for specific games is probably a good move, though. Keeps subfora from sitting stagnant just because someone doesn't have anything to say about Grandia or Kingdom Hearts, haha.

Anyway, a forum reorg isn't terribly important to me--I was just throwing it out there, haha. If you've already done one, there's not much point in doing another besides being annoying to the members.

(The other competition I remember was something weird... Something like, Most Pointless Post? I just remember posting a giant, rambling thing and Mujklob posting about... toilets or something. God, what WAS that competition?)

I think I agree with EO on this one. The main reason I dont post much in the gaming section anymore is due to the ever present "Who is X X" or the "X vs X" threads. I don't think I've ever posted in a single one of the sub-fora either. All the games are too old, or I have no interest in them. Splitting them up into genre would be a good one, I for instance would have a lot to say in an RTS section and RTT (really just a sub genre but more my style) subforum if you made one. An FPS sub would probably get spammed beyond belief, but there are other genres I'm sure people would be more intelligent in. Maybe I'm a bit too optimistic, but hey!

That idea that was mentioned before about needing to post a certain amount a day/week/month/hour?! sounds like a bloody brilliant idea to me. Obviously there would be some drama queens going on about it, but frankly those are the people that normally don't post as much, or at all in some extreme cases...>.>

Making the CB a reward might motivate some people to post more. In saying that, it might cause some folks to spam to get in. Double edged sword indeed.

Last thing, I was on a forum the other day, looking for some advice on a game, and I noticed a pretty interesting feature. I know we have the "Top Chatters" in the CB and the Top Posters thingy where-ever it is. But this forum had a "Member of the Week" and a "Most Active Member of the Month" on the board. Interesting little feature, although I don't know how they did the first one. Maybe we could do something like that? Maybe a little badge or colour change for said member, or just a gil reward...I don't know. Just something to motivate peoples to post more I suppose.

[lemmingllama]

Splitting up the Gaming Section would work really well, especially if the all the stuff that would go into the "My Two Cents" or whatever we call it board was moved. Although for now it might not stimulate as much, then we can get more specific threads and all would hopefully improve.

As for the CB, I would say that a weekly limit would work the best. If the person has made 7 posts in the last 7 days, then they can be free to get in. Then it will get some forum activity going and wont stop the people with 0.25 posts per day. As for the Top Posters, it is a little thing, but can only be found in the archive and its right beside the ban list.

Finally, you are right about the forums losing some rewards. Reporting a post used to give the person a minute amount of gil, yet that has been taken away as well. And for rewards, even a member of the week/month might be nice, user-submitted names and votes, maybe also a staffs pick?

[† Emotional Outlet]

We used to have member of the month and other forum superlatives, like "longest posts", "most tech savvy", "bear mauler". I'd love to see this happen again at least quarterly, if not monthly.

(Sorry for short post--I'm on my cell phone in a waiting room. My thumbs are not very good at typing.)

[CHAVER]

this is so off topic but what ever this site does i support it 100% cuz i love this site and everyone on it =]

p.s im glad wer all back together =P

[† Emotional Outlet]

Picking up where the discussion was left off, if we do start up a sort of forum superlative kind of thing, I skimmed through the superlatives done by other fora and gathered a few I found interesting. There's always room to change, add, and remove, of course.

I think it'd be neato if we could pick it up again, if only for a little camaraderie and forum bonding.

Your posts are so...

---

... beautiful:

... long:

... nonsensical:

... insightful:

... numerous:

Most likely to...

---

... eat a baby:

... never change their username:

... show up unannounced at your house:

... date a criminal:

... beat someone up for you:

I want to...

---

... spill my guts to you:

... meet you in real life:

... party with you:

... start a vigilante superhero group with you:

... have a few drinks with you:

You are so...

---

... creepy:

... intimidating:

... talented:

... creative:

... motherly:

... fatherly:

... helpful:

... badass:

... talkative:

... obsessive:

[DrumRoll]

we need to let more bastards into the forum, everyone is too meek and timid. Create some division and strengthen the bonds between friends. Some of the best discussions are usually because some stubborn arse won't back down:D

also, more things to spend gil on would be nice. So then I could thank uploaders with gil etc at the moment its pretty worthless.

[† Emotional Outlet]

Uh, I don't actually think it's a good idea to increase the number of "bastards", as you put it. Deliberately throwing apples of discord, so to speak, is more likely to knock over the forum, which is already tottering as it is, than to bolster activity and interest.

When it was super active when I was here, the overwhelming majority were fairly nice people. Yes, they had opinions and held to them, but they weren't bastards about it. There's a difference between healthy discussion and creating flame bait. It may create "activity" to get people fighting, but is it sustainable? I doubt it. And I doubt it's the atmosphere Koby wants to create, where people come in afraid to speak because they don't want to be dogpiled by members with pointy sticks.

There's a forum like that in the Sims community (MATY) and it's not only extremely difficult to become active as a new user, it's extremely unpleasant. It's not for everyone and it's even less conducive to new posts than it is here already. I don't think creating cliques and division is necessarily a good idea, especially not in the way you're suggesting.

If anything, something that encourages friendly (not hostile) competition or "division", as you put it, would be better. I don't know how forum families and clans panned out before, since I vanished before long, but I thought they were interesting.

======

To expand on the idea, you could do a sort of... forum triathlon? Each clan puts forth an entrant for a graphics competition, an entrant in a writing competition, and an entrant in a "surprise" competition (to be determined at the discretion of the judges after entrants are selected so you might end up picking the worst possible person for it--could be another writing/graphics round with different rules, could be an RP round, could be a scavenger hunt, could be a photography competition, &c).

Each round would be timed at the discretion of people more important than me. Depending on what kind of triathlon people want, it could be all speed rounds--twenty-four hours or fewer to complete your portion--or more in-depth (no more than a week).

Additional rounds could be added, but with the forum in its somewhat lacklustre activity level, three rounds seems appropriate. Each round would accrue points for the team based on several criteria (or we could do medals--whatever), and whichever team has the most cumulative points wins! They win... notoriety on the Kametsu Hall of Fame! (I don't know.) They can put it on their clan pages or whatever, encouraging people to join their clans. Y'dig?

And of course that leaves room for other superlatives besides "Best Overall" like... "Crowd Favourite", "Judge's Pick", "Most Unique", "Most Valiant Effort", whatever.

Of course, to limit too much spreading out of members, since there isn't a huge number of active members (I could be mistaken and hundreds of people will come out of the woodwork, but I doubt it, haha), a limit could be placed on the number of clans. Each supermod could be the head of a clan and people would enlist under them. Or something. You catch my drift.

[Marvalin]

Ever thought of contests with like say prizes that were like T-shirts from popular anime's or games? Might help and you can only enter if you have a certain post count.

[lemmingllama]

Ever thought of contests with like say prizes that were like T-shirts from popular anime's or games? Might help and you can only enter if you have a certain post count.

Wouldnt work, Kametsu has a hard enough time making ends meet, so paying to buy and ship prizes wouldnt really work unless the losers had to buy the prize for the winner