Active members

[Rubber314Chicken]

Who? When?

I remember it happening over a year ago, but not recently.

I think I'm thinking of the same thing. I remember seeing it in the banning thread.

ssc456, thats it. That was your account he tried to attack, right?

 

[dude_se]

I don't think it would look any worse than 4 hour white screens every couple of days. Or the fact that you can come back in 3 years time and the forum will look exactly the same as it does today. I don't see the point in burying heads in the sand and pretending that there are 20 000 active members when it doesn't take more than 10 minutes for a new member or guest to plainly see there isn't. A simple look at the list of mods is a bad advertisement for the forum in my opinion...what does it say to new members when there are so many mods who aren't active and a few log on only every 3 months or so? One of them only posted 5 posts during the whole of 2008. This forum has become stagnant, and that is probably the worst thing a website can do.

you really are hitting the nail on the head.
the only good thing that has come out of davids laid back approach is that he hasnt put the ad's back up

 

[compguy91]

I don't think it would look any worse than 4 hour white screens every couple of days. Or the fact that you can come back in 3 years time and the forum will look exactly the same as it does today. I don't see the point in burying heads in the sand and pretending that there are 20 000 active members when it doesn't take more than 10 minutes for a new member or guest to plainly see there isn't. A simple look at the list of mods is a bad advertisement for the forum in my opinion...what does it say to new members when there are so many mods who aren't active and a few log on only every 3 months or so? One of them only posted 5 posts during the whole of 2008. This forum has become stagnant, and that is probably the worst thing a website can do.

Agreed. I think a smaller amount of active members would look much better than the white screens (for which we STILL have not received any explanation for). This website has become very stagnant, I'd say over the past few months it has gotten really bad. When I first joined there were a lot of active members, but we seem to have lost a lot of activity due to bannings as well as the infamous database errors.

 

[setishock]

A lot of forums have slowed down. I'm going to jump in to this discussion because a lot of good points have been made. Some observations.
Yes the white screens are annoying. I see a thread I want to respond to and pfft, the dreaded WSOD. I still think it's a problem with the database. Or it could be with so many different sites on the same server, something happens at one and the rest suffer. David take your crown jewel and put it on a server by itself or at the least a VPS. That way something goes on at one of your other sites this one doesn't suffer for it. Anime Appeal is on a VPS. Couldn't be running any better.
Next is member behavior. Yep we all do it. At some point in time we get off on a tear and it looks bad. I've done it so I have room to speak up. It just looks like we're petty about things. We need to stop and think before putting fingers to keyboard. Just because some one else is stuck in stupid doesn't mean we have to stoop down and join them. Some times, not always, the fastest way to show how mature you are is to blow off what was said and keep on topic. Some one looking to start some thing will tire of being ignored and either give up or get shown the door.
And that brings up another thing. Inactive mods. Buzz just weeded out a couple that haven't been around in a while. It's just a change of status not removing the account. But being a mod isn't all about the title anyway. It's about keeping the peace and keeping things straight. It's about going to other forums and getting the word out. It's telling your friends and family, " If you have a problem with your computer check out..." . I don't see much of this going on at a lot of forums and they suffer for it.
And yeah this place really could use a face lift. But it's not my house so I can't do it. I can rant and rave, offer suggestions but in the end it comes down to one person, David.

I would suggest to the member to get better organized. Make a list of what you think needs to be done. Be precise and to the point. Let the thread run for a couple of weeks then some one go through the thread and compile a list of common suggestions. That's what you show David.

 

[David Lindon]

Agreed. I think a smaller amount of active members would look much better than the white screens (for which we STILL have not received any explanation for). This website has become very stagnant, I'd say over the past few months it has gotten really bad. When I first joined there were a lot of active members, but we seem to have lost a lot of activity due to bannings as well as the infamous database errors.

Ok, maybe it is time for something new. But is a small piece of text saying 'active members: xxxx' really something that will be new and stimulating for the forum? We need something similar to when custom avatars or the rep system where added - something that is more noticable and people can talk about - (I'm hearing people shouting vbcode/images in sigs) but does anyone have anything different from that?

 

[StratosP]

Ok, maybe it is time for something new. But is a small piece of text saying 'active members: xxxx' really something that will be new and stimulating for the forum? We need something similar to when custom avatars or the rep system where added - something that is more noticable and people can talk about - (I'm hearing people shouting vbcode/images in sigs) but does anyone have anything different from that?

That would be good for the forum. Images in stuff in sigs - because there's really nothing to write. Most people write their PC Specs, but I don't read em :\
It would be something cool. Text is getting old.

 

[Rubber314Chicken]

JUST Vb code in sigs. I hate user bars with a passion.

We could also update the software, reorganize forums, and get rid of all those stupid links that don't work.

also, isn't it possible to have ads for non-registered members only? Because that would help offset the cost of this site.

 

[JogaBonito1502]

By non-registered members I assume you mean guests? Well, it would help offset the cost, but it would also make less people join. We could always post an announcement saying that members don't view ads. I am against picture in sigs. I thing formatting would be the only thing I could stand seeing on a regular basis.

 

[Lowndsey]

Ok, maybe it is time for something new. But is a small piece of text saying 'active members: xxxx' really something that will be new and stimulating for the forum? We need something similar to when custom avatars or the rep system where added - something that is more noticable and people can talk about - (I'm hearing people shouting vbcode/images in sigs) but does anyone have anything different from that?

The first thing that should be done is a general forum clean up before worrying about anything huge. Simple things like fixing the banner. Doing something with the links up the top. Then the forum layout. Inactive mods. Lower post reporting time limit.

But seriously all this is just a waste of time if the forum is still going to be down every few days with white screens. Serious effort needs to be put into find a solution.

 

[UK31337]

• Figure out the white screens - check the Event Viewer on the server as well as any MySQL or PHP error logs so you can try and find the root cause of the problems
• Get rid of inactive mods and replace them with people who are actually here on a regular basis. There's a long list of folk who would kill for a mod job
• Update the logo, because it looks tired and amateurish. Why not have a competition for a new one?
• Get rid of the broken links along the top
• Change the forum section descriptions to make them look more professional, fix spelling mistakes
• Get rid of redundant or quiet sections
• Get rid of the insane post report time limit - five minutes is far, far too long when there's a spam attack on the go as well as just being plain frustrating
• Same goes for PMs - it's just irritating and unnecessary
• More ranks - you can have 1000 or 100k posts and still be a Guru
• In fact, tweak the ranks - most "Guru"s here know nothing
• I have to say I agree with those who are saying the skin could do with being overhauled
• Allow custom formatting in sigs, but not images
• I would also say relax the avatar restrictions, the size limit (in terms of memory) is stingy and shouldn't really matter if we host our avatars offsite.

Just a start.

We don't really have many active members at all, and a lot of our legacy pillars of the community have since vanished. Steff, Natalya, 99nasha, 135791, lurkswithin, Wombat, Paradox, webmonkey, joxley1990, blackjack, Lord Kalthorn... where did they go?

As for mods, goodbye to: G35x, 99nasha, Thelis and Slayer. Not hard to find four totally active replacements.