Topic: Urban Renewal

[Maki-chan]

Now that all of the decaying urban blight of the forum has been torn down and carted away, it is time to build something new. I'd like to hear if anyone has any ideas for what we should build here. All ideas are welcome - new forum sections, new layout ideas, maybe new staff people, but also what we should keep and not throw away.

Erm, BTW ... if you leave everything up to me ... you'd better be favorable to the pinkness ...

[Haggis-chan]

Eeeek, teh pinkness burns X_X

I spoke to you a little bit about this yesterday, and some of the other layouts you showed me I liked, (the purple one, but it is my favourite colour ^_~) maybe everyone else should have a look somehow? O_o

As for new forum ideas, I spoke a bit about that with MJ too, and we noticed the absence of any forums to do with music, books, movies, tv, that sort of thing... So maybe a forum revolving around those ideas would be good? Oh, and games too, can't foprget about those =P

[Meilinrose]

I'll have to vote for no pink thanks ^_^; I rather like the neutral colours we have right now to be honest...

I certainly like the idea of having (sub)forums for books, movies e.t.c. since those are topics I enjoy discussing but wouldn't like to clutter up the main forums with...

[Schitzoid]

Well, I changed it back to the theme we had before, but I'm definately going for the non-pinkness too.
I think I'd have to say I like Liz's suggestions also, I'm to tired to think right now. I suck.

[Froggie chan]

I agree with the offered ideas, I think we need to find some people who can keep this forum alive.
I mean its gone very quiet and I know im partially to blame.
Maybe we need to work out some way of advertising this place more and draw in more members.
I mean I like the family feel we have here but it's been a long time since we had a lasting member.
If that makes any sense that is..

[Moshman^]

I've been rather busy, I am getting an apartment with a buddy of mine. Things have been hecktic.

[Maki-chan]

forums for books, movies e.t.c. since those are topics I enjoy discussing but wouldn't like to clutter up the main forums

This is one of my sentiments exactly. There are probably lots of things that we are all involved with in daily life, but for some reason or another we just don't talk about them at the forum. Anything that anyone think of that would bring out more discussion would really help. So far I think that some of the best ideas are some separate sections for books, movies, music, and games. I'm sure that there are other possibilities like music creativity (for those unlike me that can actually play instruments) or sports, the kinds we watch and the kinds we play etc. I've also seen other things like game arcades and doodle pads that might be fun, but I'm not sure if anyone would be interested in that.

The layout that I have setup now is the default layout that the BBS comes with out of the box. Like Caz-chan said, it's really neutral and doesn't give off any vibes positive or negative for me, so I'd prefer to have something else. (And I'm not going to force everyone to look at burning hot pink, although a Pink Panther/Peter Sellers type theme I would enjoy. ) The site main page is also very old and decayed and should be replaced, so if anyone is fluent in web design and willing to help rework the home page, I'd appreciate it very much. ^_^

Amy-chan has another good point about attracting more members to spice things up a bit. I'm sure that everyone also visits other sites on the web, and if any of them are looking for affiliation, I could ask them about that. If anyone has a livejournal or myspace, that might be a good place to put up links to the HH's forum. I used to have some little banner thingy's that people could use for link buttons, so I'll try to find those again.

Erm ... that siggy is nuts Moshman ... @_@

[Moshman^]

Thanks, I love my jiggily dancing macho boy. Dancing to the beat of this song.  :]

Ahem....


Stardust One has been re-vamping their fourms as well for the very same purpose. Their fourm a few months ago used to be like as it is on these fourms. Check it out:
http://www.stardust-one.com/fourms

[Schitzoid]

I'd be willing to help with the main page, web design I can do. Forums... not so much. If you want any help with banners, I'm here for that too, though I'll be more available after friday, most of my exams are this week (2 tomorrow, 1 wednesday and 2 thursday, argh!), so I'll be free if there's anything I can do to help.

For me, it'd be hard to attract members as I don't go to many forums where I know people who would be... acceptable members here, but I'm sure I could scout a few on Gaia.

As for the actual forum, I think an urban/grunge look (McJebus, I sound like my teacher) would be nice, reds, browns, greys etc. Or maybe sepia tones. I think a warm, neutral look would be nice, I think it would reflect the kind of community we have. Warm, loving, soft and so on.

Just a few thoughts. Who can tell I had a graphics lesson today?

[Moshman^]

In a fourm, there need to be a central point of attraction. I imagine if there were a fourm about where you can purchase an XBOX 360, there would be a whole crowd of people swarming about. After a while they will kind of form into their own community.

We could have contests. Like writting, computer graphics, art. Hell I even been on a fourm that had organized flame wars, and those were lots of fun. We would actually be in a tournament and were judged by how well we handed each others asses to one another. We didn't hate each other, we did it for fun. Good times.

[Meilinrose]

Competitions sound like an interesting idea, they're certainly a way to keep forum members involved and visiting regularly. It often surprises me how creative a bunch we are, so we've got a lot to work with to hopefully encourage visitors to join in ^_^

As for advertising, I could whack up a signature link on the forum that Diamond-chan and I visit (I'm not sure if a whole topic link would be kosher) and pop a link on my Livejournal as well, despite it not generating an earth-shattering amount of traffic.

The only thing I'd warn against would be splitting up the forum too much, so instead of having separate subforums for books/movies/music e.t.c. we could perhaps just have one for reviews or something. Otherwise we end up with a situation a bit like the members' forums where there were only a limited number of posts in each one...

(And I'm not going to force everyone to look at burning hot pink, although a Pink Panther/Peter Sellers type theme I would enjoy. )

That gave me the most terrible/hilarious mental image of Dr Strangelove in a neon-pink paradise. I vote that for the forum layout.

[Schitzoid]

I think we should have a general literary material forum (so that would boil down to books, cmics, poetry, etc.) a music forum and a movie forum, or something along those lines maybe. To avoid too much splitting

I like the idea of competitions, though I think it may work better with a larger amount of members, maybe we should think about the prizes we could offer also. Maybe a custom stamp to put in their sig or on their site maybe?

On a side note, I hate this keyboard, it isn't sensetive enough.

[Maki-chan]

I'd be willing to help with the main page, web design I can do. Forums... not so much. If you want any help with banners, I'm here for that too, though I'll be more available after friday, most of my exams are this week (2 tomorrow, 1 wednesday and 2 thursday, argh!), so I'll be free if there's anything I can do to help.

Wheeeeeeeeee!! *Glomps Simmiess* ^_^ It would be truly awesome if you could help me redesign the site. The home page is kinda lame and really outdated and at the same time I've always loved the layouts that you've done with your LJ page. I'll really look forward to talking to you this weekend about the rework. Yaaayyy!! *dances* ^__^

We could have contests. Like writting, computer graphics, art.

That would be something good to try as well. In the past we had the HH's South Park character design thingy that was a lot of fun for a while. There does need to be a person with a quirky sense of humor to keep thinking up original contest ideas that would be unique, but not so esoteric that not everyone would be able to relate to it. Another forum I used to go to used to have short story contests where the object would be that everyone had to write their story around a common item like a bag of potato chips. Those were a lot of fun to do as I recall. ^_^

However, I would be against any kind of flame wars, organized or not, because such things can easily get out of hand and cause someone's feelings to get hurt.

Dr Strangelove in a neon-pink paradise.

Erm, that might go along pretty good with what Moshman was saying

In a fourm, there need to be a central point of attraction.

We could attract even more nutcases than we have already Teeheehee!! XD

I think we should have a general literary material forum (so that would boil down to books, cmics, poetry, etc.) a music forum and a movie forum, or something along those lines maybe. To avoid too much splitting

Erm, it's a good point, but I'm not sure exactly how things should be divided up to avoid diluting the discussion too much. It's so hard to know how much discussion would be generated by each section. If there were sections for TV and Movies, then I don't think that we would need an Anime section, and the same for Manga if there was already a book section. Things like the Fanfiction and Poetry sections I would like to keep separate because these are more for members to express their creativity rather than places of discussion.

[Froggie chan]

There's a few forums I'm a maber on that I could advertise with..
Would help with the little banner things, would atract more attention..
I could get a friend of mine to design some if you want some new ones, they've been moaning their bored on msn for ages! xD
Give the word and I'll get them to make one or two and then see what you think before they're used.
C:

Moshman - I like the way the creative section is set up at the moment.. not many people visit there anyways but still..
To avoid the members forums situation we need to be careful, yes not to split up the entire forum but also not to make it into a few boards. If that makes sense..



Edit:
I was bored myself so using paint ive made this uber-simple banner linkie thing.

Code: [Select]

[url=http://www.henheart.com/yabbse][img]http://i4.tinypic.com/10nzwcp.jpg[/img][/url]

[Moshman^]

When I scrape up some time, I could throw together some really leet banners in photoshop. 200x25 I'm thinking that may be just the right size.