Improving Gamingforce

You've probably noticed that GFF has been pretty quiet as of late. This is not a "GFF is dying thread". We all understand that GFF has evolved into a place where a small but close knit group of people hang out, and it's bound to be a little slow. That doesn't mean we can't make changes to liven things up a bit. Let's hear some suggestions from the community on improvements that can be made to enhance the GFF experience.

This isn't an officially sanctioned thread or anything; it's just me asking folks for ideas. I make no promises, but I'm interested in what people have to say.

Problems
-Hazing of new members
-Apathy of current membership
-Not enough visibility of current community events
-Lack of Ace Combat Era
-Outdated forum design
-Forum is "cliquey"
-Outdated rules

Suggested Improvements
-Redesign the front page or forum header to better advertise events/things new folks might be interested in
-More theme weeks
-Somehow move activity from journals back to the forums
-Merge more subforums together
-Find a niche for GFF and capitalize on it
-Legalize thread necromancy
-Loosen the rules in general
-Less megathreads, more smaller, focused threads
-Site redesign

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Well, this is going to be an unpopular suggestion and it's one that I've made in the past without much hope, but: maybe we could do something about the fact that "Welcome, Welcome" might as well be titled "Get The Fuck Out". I don't know whether it needs closer mod supervision to stop all the trolling or just needs closed entirely, but the entire subforum basically exists for the express purpose of giving trolls easy meat. Any community, no matter how small, needs the occasional infusion of new blood. Every time we drive someone off before they even get the slightest chance to acclimate we're doing ourselves a real disservice. Count the people you haven't seen in a long while. Count the new people you can bring to mind offhand. You see the problem.

(I won't bother to get into the chilling effect trolling has on posting in general, that's obviously a war that's been lost.)

The other major reason activity is low is that most of you are just lazy as all fuck. I give the CH folks a lot of shit, but at least they managed to organize their own (deeply silly) event. And when things are planned, the information is poorly disseminated and nobody knows what the fuck. Acer is running three goddamn streams a week or some shit (or maybe more) and the only way you'd know is if you happened to bumble upon that particular thread. What we need, maybe, is to make some goddamn USE of VB's calendar function and then (and I know this is a little beyond your direct power, nutty) maybe automate some kind of front-page flashing lights and sirens when A Thing Is Starting, no matter how minor. Things need to be... consolidated, if you will, so when a newbie shows up we can point them to a list. This Is The Cool Shit We've Done Lately, This Is The Cool Shit We're Doing Right Now, This Is The Cool Shit We're Doing Soon, This Is The Cool Shit We Do All The Damned Time, etc

There's nowhere I can't reach.

To be honest nutty, I don't really have too many good suggestions to improve GFF. I try to at least put up a topic once a month, but I kind of want to try topics that haven't been done before or can warrant some discussion.

I've been to too many forums in which people have a hard time putting single sentences together for a specified topic.

I really love Acer's Western Animation Thread, that was probably one of the best ideas I've seen on GFF in quite a while. I wouldn't mind seeing the snakes and ladders game Shin and Acer did up come back, since it kind of died off.

I still plan on doing my GFF Gamers Month every March since both years it has been met with immediate success.

Maybe someone on the forum could do a GFF Film Month, since the majority of us are avid film watchers . You could do the Heavy Metal Month for a lot of things, such as Anime, Books, Tabletop games, or anything along those lines.

I wouldn't mind seeing more avatar and sig theme months. I'm not really good with photoshop so I wouldn't be able to lead them, but I would love to see theme weeks based on popular 80's action movies such as:

Top Gun
Predator
Running Man


One idea I kind of thought about, but I'm kind of reluctant to do it. I was thinking as I eventually get more videos on my youtube channel. My number of subscribers could increase, I was thinking of giving this website a shout-out but it could bring a lot of idiots here in the process.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Speaking of theme months, we haven't done Color Month in forever. That's always fun.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Or Ace Combat Era, for that matter.

But theme months aren't the answer, so.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Pangalin

Well, this is going to be an unpopular suggestion and it's one that I've made in the past without much hope, but: maybe we could do something about the fact that "Welcome, Welcome" might as well be titled "Get The Fuck Out". I don't know whether it needs closer mod supervision to stop all the trolling or just needs closed entirely, but the entire subforum basically exists for the express purpose of giving trolls easy meat. Any community, no matter how small, needs the occasional infusion of new blood. Every time we drive someone off before they even get the slightest chance to acclimate we're doing ourselves a real disservice. Count the people you haven't seen in a long while. Count the new people you can bring to mind offhand. You see the problem.

(I won't bother to get into the chilling effect trolling has on posting in general, that's obviously a war that's been lost.)

Is trolling, especially in Welcome, Welcome, that big of a problem these days? The recent threads in there have been troll-free as far as I know. As for trolling new folks in other forums, maybe? It seems like it's less about trolling and more about mods handing out silly infractions until the new person gives up trying to figure out what they've done wrong and just leave. Sure it's funny, but it does drive away any hope of new membership.

There's trolling going on in general, but since we all know each other here, it doesn't strike me as a big deal. If you've survived on GFF this long, you've developed a thick skin for that sort of thing.

Quote:

The other major reason activity is low is that most of you are just lazy as all fuck. I give the CH folks a lot of shit, but at least they managed to organize their own (deeply silly) event. And when things are planned, the information is poorly disseminated and nobody knows what the fuck. Acer is running three goddamn streams a week or some shit (or maybe more) and the only way you'd know is if you happened to bumble upon that particular thread. What we need, maybe, is to make some goddamn USE of VB's calendar function and then (and I know this is a little beyond your direct power, nutty) maybe automate some kind of front-page flashing lights and sirens when A Thing Is Starting, no matter how minor. Things need to be... consolidated, if you will, so when a newbie shows up we can point them to a list. This Is The Cool Shit We've Done Lately, This Is The Cool Shit We're Doing Right Now, This Is The Cool Shit We're Doing Soon, This Is The Cool Shit We Do All The Damned Time, etc

The lazy bit I definitely agree with, and I'm guilty of it too. Also, we've sort of reached the "Simpsons did it" level, where you think of a thread idea, and realize it's already been done.

Originally Posted by Angel of Light

One idea I kind of thought about, but I'm kind of reluctant to do it. I was thinking as I eventually get more videos on my youtube channel. My number of subscribers could increase, I was thinking of giving this website a shout-out but it could bring a lot of idiots here in the process.

I'll get yelled at, but I'd say any new blood is better than none. It's not like we mods have much work on our hands these days, and I'd personally be happy to police new folks (though I'd be more lenient than most would like, I'd wager).

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Why does everyone assume everyone else is going to yell at them for trying to increase the userbase?

Who are these mythical people who DON'T want forum activity that you're all so scared of?

Honestly.

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Originally Posted by Agent Di Gun Him

Who are these mythical people who DON'T want forum activity that you're all so scared of?

It's not that they're mythical, it's that it's much more productive not to mention them by name as then they'll march in pretending to be offended and derail the whole thread.

Not to say that their GOAL is to stifle activity, but rather that their behavior stifles activity perhaps by accident and they would rather see that continue than, say, modify their own douchery.

Nutty mentions mods handing out infractions for dumb shit and then refusing to explain themselves. We don't need to tell you who's doing the lion's share of that, do we?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Obviously not, but I refer more to the "they" who would shut down any of these planned initiatives at the source, and even those-who-shall-not-be-named wouldn't fuck with those.

I shall be your aegis, folks. If you want to be more direct about it, go ahead.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Well, I like pang's suggestion for a front page announcement thing. That will really help in getting attention and encourage members to participate since most people are too lazy to dig up interesting threads. So if we can re-arrange the threads in such a way that the ones who are attract discussion are easier to find.

Theme months are fun and I'm for it. And I've always liked GFF because of the moderation. Some boards are filled with idots who can't type properly, and proper moderation on forum behavior really helps in keeping everyone in check and make the place a better environment for discussion (also to practice proper english).

How ya doing, buddy?

As annoying as it was for me to figure who was who, the Kirby Week, RGB Colors, etc., theme weeks and months were a blast, we should have those again

Seconding Pang's suggestion about the top board ALERT: THING IS HAPPENING SOON idea.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

When is Plane Week again?

(I call dibs on RAZGRIZ squadron again this year!)

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I think that one of the reasons that things seem slow here is that so much of the community has moved to other modes of communication. Stuff like GFChat is typically full of people, many of whom rarely post on the forums proper.

When the Mom's Basement subforum is one of the most active around, something is up. I haven't seen a new popular thread come up in a long time, and the Testing Thread is mostly dead, whereas it was practically a board version of GFChat when i first got here a year and a half ago. It seems like everyone is just out of ideas, which is sad. Even when an exciting new thread does come up, no one notices without posts in ChocoJournals and GFChat being warned. Even Chocojournals are starting to decline. A few days ago i noticed that only 3 or 4 journals had been commented on in the previous 24 hours. It seems that people are simply either choosing to find other ways of communicating or simply moving away from Gamingforce. I hope that if it is the latter, we experience some sort of mass return before long.

That said, Ace Combat Era looked like great fun. I am anxiously awaiting my own chance to join the GFF Air Force.

I was speaking idiomatically.

The journals are the closest thing GFF has to Facebook. I think a lot of the people who are sticking to journals are the people who have become more and more comfortable with that style of socializing rather than the forum style.

How ya doing, buddy?

Just shut down the gurnals for a couple of weeks. It wouldn't be that devastating.

Also, I would second Pang on the chasing noobs away dealio, but I'd probably just get tempbanned for it again.
A schedule of events wouldn't hurt. It could replace the latest 5 posts area on the front page. All that thing does anyways is help people assume nothing is happening and then quickly navigate away.

FELIPE NO

A huge part of it is just drawing people here in general. We don't have the insiders of GAF (who doesn't want to come watch Vic Ireland melt down daily?), or the mass hosting of some other forums.

I mean, sure, bitch about driving newbs away all you want, but how many welcome welcome threads are there? 2 a month? Maybe?

We can worry about behavioural problems all we like, but unless we actually have new people popping in at the rate of at least one a week, not much hope in us growing just because we play nice.

Let's make a wet t-shirt contest or something. But with attractive girls not from the internet. That'll do it.

P.S.

Yes, we're usually a little harsh on new people, but we've -always- been hard on people who come in and say they're pandas without fur. It's just we haven't had any great new members for a while. However, it wouldn't take much for us to back off them a bit.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Zephyrin

Just shut down the gurnals for a couple of weeks. It wouldn't be that devastating.

Zeph, we're trying to come up with ways to improve Gamingforce, not kill it entirely. (Seriously, a little more than a week ago I had two entries 24 hours apart in the top 10 most recent journal list, and then when we came home from Sebago there had only been three journals commented in in the previous 24 hours.) Following up with:

Originally Posted by KING MANCHU WOK

The journals are the closest thing GFF has to Facebook. I think a lot of the people who are sticking to journals are the people who have become more and more comfortable with that style of socializing rather than the forum style.

It's also easier to regulate the conversation to fit your desires (I believe they call it "e-forting").

If the idea is to get people away from the journals and into the forums then I suppose the right course of action would be to determine what makes the journals more appealing than the forums themselves (if there is any reason besides being able to make an e-fort).

Originally Posted by DieSeLFueLeD

Fix'd.

GFF is too cliquey. Honestly. I won't blame Meet Crew, but a lot of the discussion sticks to journals about whatever the fuck those people happen to be doing.

Sounds to me like you're suggesting a GFF mixer. But dragging the Concert Hall people into the rest of the forums might be difficult.

This might not be a popular idea, but we seem to have a lot of sub-forums that just don't see much action. Combine that with the fact that we have a large selection of subforums and new people might be overwhelmed. (I know the counter-argument to this already, but we're not Something Awful. We're not NeoGAF either. We simply don't have that many people running around here at all hours.) We have thread prefixes and people use them, so there's really no reason why we couldn't merge more of the subforums together. Creator's Cafe and I make a bitch sandwich could be merged into a umbrella creativity subforum and, even more outrageously, maybe even merge Media Center and Video Gaming.

I just crunched some numbers regarding our new members. The tl;dr version is spoilerized, the summary is after. (Total # of members, total number of posts, any members with more than 10 posts are listed with the number of posts, where they post, and their current status if they haven't shown any activity in a while)

Spoiler:

20 = 4
40 = 9
60 = 14
80 = 19
100 = 54
120 = 63
140 = 91 (NewNick, 27, Gamingforce)
160 = 91
180 = 121 (geveente, 12, Concert Hall; and bio_reef, 13, Concert Hall)
200 = 122
220 = 124
240 = 126
260 = 160 (Mighty Tor, 20, Gamingforce)
280 = 176 (Rex_Banner, 11, last active 7/22/2010)
300 = 178
320 = 186
340 = 189
360 = 190
380 = 190
400 = 206 (Cat Slobber, 10, Gamingforce)
420 = 211
440 = 218
460 = 262 (KamikazePotato, 42, Concert Hall)
480 = 267
500 = 271
520 = 281
540 = 289
560 = 291
580 = 311 (melakukan, 15, Concert Hall, last active 7/31/2010)
600 = 353 (Shake Appeal, 40, Halo Reach thread)
620 = 421 (Jolteon, 65, Concert Hall)
640 = 424
660 = 431
680 = 434
700 = 436
720 = 439
740 = 472 (Jellyfluff, 32, Anime Melody thread, last active 5/5/2010)
760 = 481
780 = 491
800 = 500
820 = 500
840 = 510
860 = 517
880 = 519
900 = 519
920 = 524
940 = 530
960 = 531
980 = 532
1000 = 582 (Charizard, 25, Gamingforce, last active 3/18/2010 and Worov, 23, Concert Hall)
1020 = 591
1040 = 594
1060 = 594
1080 = 624 (InvestmentBankr, 29, last active 4/16/2010, effectively banned)
1100 = 644 (Appetite Lad, 20, last active 1/18/2010)
1120 = 700 (slessman, 52, Gamingforce)
1140 = 705
1162 = 707

Since January 1 this year, we've had 1,162 new registrees. All new registrees have accounted for 707 posts total, and the 16 members who have more than 10 posts account for 457 posts between themselves, accounting for about 65% of the posts among new members this calendar year.

And at least one of those new members is likely a dupe. And another is effectively banned.

13 relatively active new members out of 1162 new registrees.

I'm sure this is interesting to no one.

How ya doing, buddy?

A lot of those are spambots. Styphon literally catches about a million a day.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Changing the new user registration captcha system to ReCaptcha should eliminate 900,000 of them.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

It's fairly clear that active new membership (as opposed to sheet-music-filching membership) is in the pits because we literally offer no reason for anyone to stop by. We have one method of recruitment; word of mouth. And even if we WERE all aggressively attempting to drag our friends onto the board (I do not recommend this course of action), it's a tough sell.

"You should stop by this forum!"

"Why?"

"Because of... the... I told you to, that's why."

SOMETHING interesting needs to be on the GFF.org frontpage, for starters. While your glowing reviews of old SNES games are all very nice, the casual visitor does not give a shit what your opinion of Super Metroid is.

(Even if someone DID want to read GFF for the articles, where the fuck are the archives? Why is there a "search box" that's actually a nonfunctional image? Why is the site's tagline a prehistoric chantard meme? These things do not inspire confidence in the reader.)

True enough, Pang, but WHAT should we put on the frontpage? You're just criticizing shit and not suggesting solutions, you dick.

We have to find a niche. I can't think of any way that, say, a Google search would ever bring anyone here. Now, our niche at one time was offering big ugly heaps of mp3s. Obviously that's not an option anymore. But we still have stuff. A lot of stuff. We draw, we write, we make music and movies and weird little dolls from yarn. And these things can be CAPITALIZED UPON.

Like, for example. Sometime I make video game comics. This is hardly the most creative new idea in the world. But it is SOMETHING. Some of us like doodling pictures of Sephiroth with dicks in his ear. That's creepy! But it is SOMETHING. And it can be something that, instead of all of us having 300 different backwater sites, we could all have one really BIG backwater site! With like Digg links and Stumble and Facebook Likes and all that Web 2.0 happy crappy. Even if only 1 in 20 things even gets the slightest passing notice then that's still a lot more notice than we're currently getting with our current publicity strategy of "....."

PUT YOUR SHIT IN THIS BUCKET. BE THE FIRST AMONG YOUR FRIENDS TO LIKE SHITBUCKET

Edit: This probably comes off a bit more belligerent than I intended

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I think Pang's idea of an announcement of activities (Drink On, Anime Streaming, GFF Radio, shit like that) is a great idea. I know it would work for me. I only remember to go join in on things when I, like Pang said, stumble on the thread or Acer IMs me and invites me.

I don't think it should be one of those sticky announcement... things either. There are a million of those all over the place, and really, I just ignore them now.

I like the whole Recently Posted method... is there a way we could try that? You know, when you go to the main page, how there's the Recently Propped and Recently Posted thing which you have the option to hide? That's a great feature. Why not use it more? Especially to notify folks of events that are coming up in the near future.

Meanwhile, the activities are out there. People are DEFINITELY hosting their own shit, but they're just not talking about it too much around here. They could definitely get MORE forum involvement if they did, but who knows how much.

As far as NEW members, we need to find a way to ENCOURAGE posting, not DISCOURAGING posting. Right now, it could be argued that it is neutral on that basis.

Maybe if we brought back the HP bars, we could get people more interested in upping their postcount again ahahaha

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by The Dopefish

Sounds to me like you're suggesting a GFF mixer. But dragging the Concert Hall people into the rest of the forums might be difficult.

Actually, I have an idea for this.

We do have a Ventrilo server put up now, so what we can do, is have a music bot running in there. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but there is a way for a user in vent to broadcast/run a playlist of tunes to vent and it will just be like listening to someone else's iTunes on random mixer.

more minute details of examples...:

You can come in at anytime and listen, and if someone happens to be doing the same, you can start up a conversation if you like, and if it gets too distracting, you can create a ghost of yourself in the music channel just to listen to the music but not disrupt anyone else listening to it.

For example, it'd look something like this:

It may not be much but I had a feeling if something similar to what the FTP exchanges were available, the musically inclined group and the community-based group would have a chance to mingle together.

Like for example, have some of the CH people volunteer to broadcast music in there (it's like the radio! what a concept! You can't listen to what you want exactly, but what they play is actually pretty good and you may not haven't heard of it!)--if people randomly show up to listen and get a chance to meet and greet, great. If not, who cares. The server is still there for anyone to use.

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Adding recaptcha to registration will eliminate all but the actual human spammers, and it's easy as heck to set up on vbulletin. Don't know if it's a feature supported by 3.6.8, though.

During the first year or two I actively posted here, I got the impression that the community was extremely hostile to new faces. Far more so than anywhere else I've ever posted. It might just be a consequence of the close-knit nature of GFF, but the atmosphere here has always struck me as one that'd intimidate people who weren't already forum-hardened into leaving almost immediately.

always thought this place needed to collectively take a deep breath and count to ten

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

Maybe if we brought back the HP bars, we could get people more interested in upping their postcount again ahahaha

This is what I have been saying for years now

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Musharraf

This is what I have been saying for years now

I actually thought of you when I wrote that. <3

Jam it back in, in the dark.