I agree completly with what you said, Christin. We have a certain timeframe now to attract new members. Once the new movies hit the theaters we should have a certain polished look so it is a good idea to give the forum a new look sooner than later.
I haven't been on other forums lately so I would like to suggest that if you see a feature on another forum that you like please post the address and a short feature description here so that we can argue if we want this here as well.
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oh what a tangled web I weave
Agreed. It is a shout out to our heritage/history as SW-Fans. I feel it should stay somewhat prominent.Originally Posted by Charley
I feel like the tattoo = logo thing is kind of the point? We designed a logo, and people got the logo as a tattoo. It'd be a shame to take something that people have permanently branded themselves with and delete it's significance. Plus, it's cool as hell. We should maybe look into one of those cafepress things and get some theholo.net mugs and beer glasses rolling or something.
If the map is gonna wind up prominantly displayed (which, yay, flattery), could we look into finding a better way to host it, on the site rather than photobucket? Preferably something I could update with minimal pestering of Admins? The zoom issues on photobucket make it slightly more of a headache than it needs to be, and photobucket assigns new file names (you can't upload a "new version" with the same name), so there'd need to be manual url updates if we stuck with that particular image host.
Daily character spotlights might be a little ambitious: perhaps weekly would be better (or at least multiple days) to up the odds of spotlights being seen by less frequent visitors? Perhaps there's a way to pull a blerb from the Biography field on people's profile, so writing any text becomes a writer responsibility rather than a mod one?
It's like that, and that's the way it is.
A daily/weekly character thing might even be a code that just pulls a name from recent posters. I dunno, but automating it seems like the easiest way to do something like that (ok setting it up would be much harder)
A code was what I mentioned, yes. It would pull from a bank of character avatar pictures - much like the old rotating signatures we used to have. Making the pictures themselves links that send folks to that character's wiki page negates any need to have anything other than a name in the sidebar box to go along with the picture.The Daily Spotlight functions as a sort of character of the month, but on a - you guessed it - daily basis. If we can get a code that randomizes member characters and swaps out their avatar each day that, when clicked on, sends someone to that character's wiki page, I thought that something of that nature would be pretty awesome to have.
edit - Also I don't think there'd be any problem at all finding hosting that better suits the map and all things pertaining to upgrading it etc. Whether it's here or on other members' hosting sites, it shouldn't be an issue at all.
Last edited by Loklorien s'Ilancy; Apr 30th, 2014 at 12:02:32 PM.
I knew I read it somewhere.
If that's what you're after, then it'd perhaps be wise to add a "wiki link" field to character profiles. We have an unofficial sort of half-hearted agreement that people will post wiki links in the Biography field on their profile, but a separate (shorter) field elsewhere in the profile might be more beneficial. Maybe that link could even be added to the fields underneath people's avatar for added convenience? A hyperlink to people's wiki page would be vastly more useful than "Location", since we usually just plug some sort of silliness in there anyway.
I like this a lot.
Would anyone like to be involved in groups that start getting things off the ground and up and running? Like, maybe a few folks start working on new articles (whether they be whole new 'interviews' with members or maybe even using some of the AMA threads), and another group could begin reconnecting with old affiliate sites and maybe search for new sites to affiliate with and trade icons. Something to get us all engaged in a series of activities that come together and get us sitting pretty once more?
I am going to be doing some interviews in the very near future.
Make a thread with a brief outline of what the fuck is/has happened In Universe, because new people need to know what is going on. That is my only beef with trying to get new people/as someone who's come back from a huge absence.
We could sticky it in the Introductions forum
I've been trying to do interviews for years and years: heck, you guys made me a group mod for the Communications forum so I could approve articles for the Front Page back on the old boards for exactly that purpose. Problem is, everyone is super-keen to get involved when I bring it up in a thread, but as soon as it comes to them actually doing anything, their enthusiasm sorta swan dives off a cliff.
I would be insanely happy to produce oodles of interviews, provided that the people who say they're up for it are, y'know, actually up for it.
Also, point of... clarification I guess? I've been planning to get back into blogging again, but depending on what sort of stuff you want / is appropriate for articles, I can potentially divert some of those energies elsewhere. Does it have to be specifically Fans-related? Only Star Wars? A broader scifi/cult scope, since we're theholo.net now? Reviews? Editorials?
Last edited by Captain Untouchable; May 1st, 2014 at 06:19:39 PM.
Your point of clarification is a very good one. I personally would be up for as broad of a pen-stroke as you wish to make it. While the site most certainly has roots in Star Wars, having something that goes beyond and delves into the everyday lives and thoughts of those who post on the site is something that I feel brings a deeper level of humanization to the posters here, and offers a window into things that they take enjoyment from that may not be SW related.
One thing that I thought of on the way home from work:
Our Facebook Forumites page. Karl created it if memory serves me correctly, but as he's currently busy with other irl stuffs, perhaps you may wish to contact him and see if you might take over from him? You said yourself you've got oodles of time at your disposal, so if you'd like to spruce up that page, take artwork from members here and feature them there I see that as a pretty awesome thing. Heck, even if you'd like some of the offhand stuff I put together in PS I can send you that so you can feature it/them.
I'm reading this and..... I'm kinda thinking everyone is putting the cart before the horse.
When Brendon started SW vs Titanic waaaaaaaay back, he put a god awful load of work not into the look and feel.... but the promotion. He got a hook going and he worked the hell out of it. The look and feel of SWvsTitanic was bloody awful but the community that arrived, that made the place something. Places like Reddit and 4Chan prove the look and feel arent that important in the scheme of things as long as you have the hook. Once we arrived, the community just.... kinda happened to be honest. Sure, we all were there to see TPM sink the boat but once that didnt happen.... welll we went role palying and that became the hook. SWvsTitanic, CC.Net then SwFans when the main sites remerged were THE place to beat each other up with words.
So I'm looking around now and..... what exactly is the hook here now? If I wasnt the oldest of old farts from the SWvsTitanic days, I wouldnt even register here now. I'd ignore it because .... well, what exactly have you got? Why should I register? What kind of compelling hook is there?
If you want to be relavent, there's a lot of work for someone exactly like Brendon did in the early days. And if I might also make a suggestion for a hook, look to the early days to inspire it. I would seriously look at recreating the SWvs..... vibe again, of course this time its SWvsAVATAR or SWvsAvengers or SWvs....., your pick. I think you could mine that and strike gold.
Sorry, but I dont think you'll get too far with a RP based site, not these days. As a community feature to keep those who been hooked? Yeeeeep, that can be part of it. But you need more than that and as I said, you need that hook to get people in here in the first place. What you have is very insular(*) and it's not really appealing to anyone dropping in.
(*) Not deliberatly... but even if I wanted to write again, I look in the RP forums and I'm like..... oh holy shit, where on earth do I start? There's a reall apparent lack of an "in" like there used to be. It used to be for an example.... turn up at a group, post HI! I wanna be a evil dick or a good Jedi and you were away. Now? I honestly look at it and wonder what on earth is going on here?
Just my 25 cents,, 20 cents adjusted for inflation.
I didn't make this thread solely for the look and feel. Yes, I posted up a few pictures of a portal page that I'd been tooling around with, but more than that I've been putting forth ideas to both draw newcomers in and make them want to stay. I want to restart the affiliate program, and I want to start really making used of our FB page. Those are two very good tools to promote, and good things to start with.
The lack of accessibility to the RP world is a problem, one we've tried to address by simplifying the galactic landscape, but I think the real problem is a lack of explanatory or introduction to RPing threads. Also having people who are long time members be open to making more of their threads open.
It is a delicate time. With the Empire and the Alliance of Free Planets having entered into a Cold War, a barely stable treaty has been signed between the two galactic powers. Instead of open aggression between the two, we have entered into a galaxy rife with intrigue, secrecy, and clandestine endeavors. The Jedi, once hunted to near-extinction in the wake of the Purge, have congregated on the planet of Ossus to begin the first steps of bringing their Order back from the brink of nothing.
That's just a thought about what might be able to be used as a blurb on the portal/home page. I think a stickied thread with a larger two paragraph explanation would be good; something that simplifies and allows a lot more inviting room for folks to come and write without feeling overwhelmed.
Additional info: From an administrative standpoint, the site can be linked to a Facebook page. I am not innately familiar with all of what that means at this point, but with proper access to the Facebook page, the admins can learn.
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