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Forum Overhaul

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 10:03 pm
by Wally
It has come to a few users' attention (I, JMS, and others) that this forum has dramatically lost valuable users over the past year, and is seriously degrading in quality. Such users include Amro, Homz, John The Ax, Johpower, Thunderdog, and more. Some users may have left because of random guest postings, forum disputes, and diverse other problems/issues (like the "1001 ways to kill Wally" thread and several wars between users).

The suggestion here would be to delete the entire forum to clean up and make a fresh start in installing the latest version of phpBB. This will help improve the forum atmosphere.

As well, this would be a great opportunity to apply the new phpBB style.

We kindly request that members vote, and/or give opinions.

Regards,

Wally*Won_Kenobie and JMS

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 10:12 pm
by wardrich
I say yes. I realize that it is only really a temporary solution, since within minutes, more retarded guests will begin posting their stupid irrevelant posts with nothing but smilies or w/e in them. However, a physical update would be good. I think Kazer0 was going to create a new layout or something.

-Richard-

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 11:43 pm
by Kazer0
"Was" being the main term of that sentance.

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 1:00 am
by nastypoisonspikes
What? No, I disagree. History is fun, and plus there is a wealth of information in the Finding old games etc. forums.

As for the wars and stuff, I think a lot of you guys take this stuff too seriously. Wars are fun! Also 1001 ways to kill Wally was funny.

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 6:23 am
by johpower
Rumors of my demize are premature!! :P

Johpower is alive and back from an incarceration at a local hospital plus extended recovery. Twas not this site that put me off but sitting down to look at the PC at all. I wanted to be leaping about the countryside ripping out flowers casting them to the winds and enjoying my new found freedom! :cuccoan: :cuccoan: :cuccoan:

"The Hills are alive...." ("HOLD IT, HOLD IT!! There'll be no singing in this scene or I'll toss you out of the tall tower you twit!)

To prove most of my brain cells have survived, see a sarcastic look at "WINNERS OF THE MAN OF THE YEAR AWARDS" from this site: http://people.freenet.de/toddelelfe/manoftheyear.htm (I sent it to several lady friends under "fuel to the fire")

-JoPower :thumbsup:

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 3:13 pm
by Dirge
A forum overhaul sounds neat, but there is a wealth of knowledge in the archives that we would loose if the entire forum was deleted.

Maybe you should consider disabling guest accounts to reduce the number of anonymous posts. To ensure quality discussion you could require new users to have x number of posts before being allowed to start a new thread.

Removing locked posts would be a good way to keep the boards tidy.

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 3:46 pm
by Dogbreath
HELL NO. The forum does need to be changed for the better, but deleting over 2 years worth of valuable information (especially in find old games) is not the way.

Johpower: Welcome back, man! :) I thought you had died by now...

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 4:24 pm
by Wally
Dirge wrote:A forum overhaul sounds neat, but there is a wealth of knowledge in the archives that we would loose if the entire forum was deleted.
I was thinking of having important stuff put back in. But maybe update the post with links to frequent game askings
Maybe you should consider disabling guest accounts to reduce the number of anonymous posts. To ensure quality discussion you could require new users to have x number of posts before being allowed to start a new thread.
I think the guests should be alright in this case although we do get frustrated with them. We may have to disable them for some parts of the boards and then keep FOG guest access.
Removing locked posts would be a good way to keep the boards tidy
This would keep the boards tidy yes. But the old fashion ones are like *Cough* Webmaster FH *Cough* and he really poluted the boards.

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 5:47 pm
by Dogbreath
WFH's posts don't really have much of an impact on the present board. Notably because we deleted all of the offensive ones. :rolleyes:

You'll have to search to find any at ALL by him, actually.

Secondly, guests ARE disabled in most of the boards. (And it was Emmzee and I respectively that created the forums here. (Me with the redesign I did about a year and a half ago, Emmzee for the original layout) What's this "we" you speak of? =/)

Thirdly, it's much easier to keep the current posts than delete them all and then try to reconstruct them.

I really don't see any point in doing this. Though I'd be more than happy for any suggestions to help make the board more fun and easy to use.

(Finally, I asked your permission before creating 1001 ways to kill Wally and you were more than happy with it... it was a joke thread meant to make fun of the flame wars that were going on. Clean up your memory before you accuse me of attacking you, please)

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 5:57 pm
by Thunderdog
I haven't left.

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 6:15 pm
by Amro
Guests are really annoying. "I can't get into flight school". Please.

Deleting locked threads would do good. There are quite a lot of them around.

What would be cool is if you could somehow force guests to read the rules before posting.

Alot of information would be lost, but maybe you can delete all the crap and keep the relevant (notably, GGTW and FOG) ones. It'll probably be a hard task, but the forum would be a better place.

Also, if you would delete the 0-post users... I remember there was a plan to remove them all awhile back, what happened?

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 6:25 pm
by Dogbreath
Decided it wasn't really worth deleting all the usernames... as there wouldn't be any real point to it.

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 9:35 pm
by Interon 2.0
Deleting usernames would provide cosmetic improvement and it would be easier to find a certain someone. But those two advantages alone may not be worth the effort...

Anyhow, it would be nice to delete everything and start from scratch IMHO. However, the information loss and confusion that results may not be a good deal for everyone. Me and Wally and a few others may have fun, but lots might be frustrated.

By that token, if deleting and starting from scratch feels like pulling teeth, I suggest waiting until a better time to make a fresh start (like if the forum gets hacked, or if there is a DoS attack, or if other major problems occur).

In essence, it sounds fun, but it might cause unexpected problems.

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 11:37 pm
by Unknown_K
Starting over won't help you when the older members are bored of the same old "get this game running on Windows Xp threads".

If you want to use a different software then do what another forum site I am on did, just archive the whole thing in read only mode and link to it from the new forum so people can search it.

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 12:04 am
by Dopefish
I suggest that the Media forum and Literature forum either both get removed (neither are overflowing with posts) or at very least combined into one because literature is a form of media.

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 6:55 am
by Amro
Dogbreath wrote:Decided it wasn't really worth deleting all the usernames... as there wouldn't be any real point to it.
IMO it would be worth it. 1724 users, and only 100 or so actually posted.

And, it takes up space in the database. Oh well, you know what you're doing.

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 6:56 am
by Amro
Dogbreath wrote:Decided it wasn't really worth deleting all the usernames... as there wouldn't be any real point to it.
IMO it would be worth it. 1724 users, and only 100 or so actually posted.

And, it takes up space in the database. Oh well, you know what you're doing.

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 9:20 pm
by Dogbreath
853 have posted... and it's really up to Emmzee if he wants to install a patch to delete the 0 post users. I've already suggested one.

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 7:58 am
by Joris
The reason why I never post here is because this forum is lame. There are no real discussions about games, but only guests who ask where they can find a game or how they can run their game in Windows XP. There are also people with very long signatures (Wally :Angry: ) which doesn't makes it nice to read the threads because I have to go through a lot of sh** before I see the actual post. The problem is that we are a group of individuals here and not a real community, and you can't do anything about that...

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 11:18 am
by Amro
At times, this forum would get pretty interesting. However, it's kinda drying up recently.