HQ of the Forum Revival Movement (Viva la Forum!)

[Luftwaffles]

I would like to help in any way I can. What needs to be done?

[The Mask]

Interesting... the revival topics have been pinned. Thanks mods!

[Blaggut]

I have two huge reasons to join this movement (which I am  )

1) My RPs die a lot

2) You said a Napoleonic war cry in the title


I'm in!

[Wylder Treejumper]

Huh, this worked for probably the first week... But now discussion appears to have died down!

Come on! Let's get back on track!

[Shameless Self-Promotion] Speaking of which, please sign up for the Character Fanfic Contest! [/Shameless Self-Promotion]

[The Skarzs]

I've been rather busy of late. . . my apologies. I'm not sure if I'll be joining the contest, but I will hopefully be posting a new chapter in my own fanfic.

[Lutra]

I don't know if any mod or anyone higher up has spoken in this thread yet as I haven't the time to look at all the replies, but a topic like this tells me we have classic forum burnout.  Its why a lot of place just die.  This place has been online for four years, so the old guard (basically anyone who registered that first year) has seen the same things time and time again, and yes probably do get sick of repeating things over and over when the newer members bring up the topic again.  Not their fault, but its true.  How many times would you like to repeat yourself?  In real life, you'd get pretty tired of it after the second or third time.

It won't be easy to "revive" the forum.  Also, remember the forum staff here have actually very little control over the place when it comes to design changes.  We cannot change the background or upgrade forum software so we're pretty much stuck with this design perpetually.  It won't even load on my phone, so I understand the design is a turn off but we cannot do anything about it.  We cannot upgrade the forum software which is four years old.  These aren't deal breakers by any means, but its hard to "freshen things up" as it were.

Just some things to consider as you discuss how to make things better.

[Wylder Treejumper]

Well, I try to do what I can, but I can't do it alone... *Glares*

[Captain Tammo]

As someone who spends most of their time looking at the fanfiction boards, I have a couple of ideas I'd like to throw around which I think could improve the quality of the board.

We should pin a topic to the fanfic section that acts like a folder for "most popular fanfics". I think it would give new people a place to start when they get to the boards, as I've found getting a huge wave of fanfictions at once can be a tad overwhelming when trying to find where a good place to begin would be. What I think this would do is serve as a sort-of spark to that person in the sense that it would then influence them to go on and read more of the entries on the board afterwards. It's a very small thing to do, but I think it could add a little bit to the forum page, as well as give fanfic writers an incentive to write more. Who wouldn't want to see their story on that page?!

This brings up another idea for the fanfic boards. You see, there are a few fanfiction competitions here and there which serve as incentive to write new stories. But what about improving the old fanfics? Right now, there are over 250 individual fanfictions on the forum, many of which have not broken the 1,000 view and 5 non-author reply mark. While putting emphasis on new content is always a vital thing in that section of the forum, what about shifting some of our focus to improving the existing fanfictions? I propose that the fanfiction boards holds an awards ceremony in which awards are given out to fanfictions for different factors, like the Oscars (i.e. Most Original Character in a Fanfiction, Longest Fanfiction, Best Drama, Best Mystery, Best Action/Adventure, Best New Fanfiction, etc.) We could make enough awards to make a good number of existing works stand out and show that they have particularly good quality. This, in theory, should increase traffic flow to those fanfics. In addition, I feel that this should be something that happens every so-often (maybe bi-annually? Details can be worked out with the committee, but I'd like to help out on this project as well, should it be supported) so that the awards are moving around the forum and directing people to the fanfics that most deserve the attention. Of course, having 250+ fanfics, it may be a good idea to have authors submit their works into the competition... What do you think? I think it's completely doable and would yield a great amount of activity to the boards, as well as add incentive for people to write new works since now there's something to actually work for besides views and replies. I really do think that this could help!

[Gonff the Mousethief]

That is one of the best ideas I have heard in a while Tammo! It would work great, for every would want their work with some kind of award. I think Wylder would love this.

[Wylder Treejumper]

You are right. I do. Tammo, you should join the Fan Works Revival Commitee.

In the mean while, I'll transcript that to the commitee board! Let's get to work on it.

[Izeroth]

Some ideas to improve the discussion boards:

•pin the most popular discussion threads

•lock or merge irrelevant or non-canonical threads

[Hickory]

Merging threads only creates confusion.

[Izeroth]

Merging threads only creates confusion.

Weren't some discussion threads merged in the past?

[rrrrr]

It does, like when someone merged the two Vulpez threads. I was like