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Author Topic: JC ideas and suggestions
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 Date Posted: 11/26/08 6:35pm Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions
I second what Inty has said. Many of us can learn a lot from looking at what he's done in the Arena and the SWC to help those forums grow. To be fair, when I became a SWC mod, the forum was dying. I hardly ever had to check it to make sure the posts were ok. Now its completely different. People are loving the different games. We also added a SW Olympics and Academic Decathlon which tends to incite discussion and not just as a way to win colors.

What is leadership in a forum and how does a moderator help lead their forum in this day and age?
In the EUC, when things are kinda in the slums if I just up my posts in the FC threads that I tend to enjoy and Jello does the ones he tends to enjoy, then the board picks right up. Its amazing how tied to certain people posting it is. But the two of us realize this and keep things moving. Likewise being in the threads allows us to find and fix problems before they get out of control. I also have some 'helpy helpers' that I don't find annoying at all and actually love their inputs. They know this so they tend to let me know when things are needing more attention.

 

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 Date Posted: 11/26/08 6:52pm Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions
While I appreciate jedichef1's input, I don't think the "senior mod" approach is necessarily the way to go. And no, I'm not just saying that because I'm the juniormost mod on the Lit team. tongue Seriously, though: I probably post and interact more in Lit than Quest does, though he's certainly the most senior of us. I definitely post more than RogueFollower does. Both are senior to me. Both are exceptionally valuable members of the team, and I've learned a lot from them. But I don't think that Quest's views on Lit are necessarily or inherently more right than Havac's, just because he's been around longer.

Perhaps a better approach is for 506 (or other head admins in the future) to sit down with the moderating team of each board and look at what "forward" means, how the mods are accomplishing that now, how they can improve.

In Lit, it looks radically different from EUC or SWC, much less JCC or the Senate. The emphasis is on good, intellectual conversation that's still friendly for people new to the EU. The fact of the matter is that sometimes that's hard. We've worked a lot, as did other moderators who came before us (dp4m, I'm looking at you, though I've no idea if you're looking back) to make it a place where that's true. How we do that is tricky, and that sometimes - believe it or not! - does lead to differences among mods, even. Most of the time we work it out rather nicely and get something effective done.

A good example: in Lit, I try to post, relatively regularly, new threads in an ongoing project. We normally have pretty good discussions in them, if not so good as I would like. Havac coordinates the Lit Forum Review Specials, and has helped execute the Book Club and Comic Club discussions that we're now having. Quest is our local timeline and comics expert. RF is our general all-arounder. Havac knows the Wookieepedia insight out and wrote about a third of it (slight exaggeration, I admit); I read the Wookiee occasionally. And we have fairly regular back-and-forth in MS about stuff happening in Lit - but all of us spend most of our time posting in Lit (except Quest, who moderates two other forums, and thus splits his time).

That looks radically different than JCC mods.

So the question is, how does 506 help stimulate direction for everyone?

And how do we measure that? Frankly, I think it's impossible.

Now, in terms of attracting new users, there are things we as an MS are doing as a whole in that direction. The discussion of a The Old Republic board and trying to make TFN a good online home for a lot of that is one of those things. That takes work and time, but we're giving it that. That will spill over elsewhere. But we know we're never (barring George changing his mind again) going to see 2005 post rates.

So how do we measure "need" for mods or their success rate? thinking

 

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Date Posted: 11/26/08 7:36pm Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions
ObiWan506 posted:
What I do want is ideas and suggestions to move forward with. What do you want to see? What new things can we do? What existing things can we make better? Now I have some thoughts of my own but before I go into those, I want to hear what others have to say.


Seriously, not trying to be rude... I'm really not, but you've said this many many many many times. Suggestions are given, and people are told that "it's being discussed, and there will be updates later." Then time goes by, and nothing gets accomplished... then another thread comes up, pretty much containing the same complaints and questions.

 

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 Date Posted: 11/26/08 8:01pm Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions
First, I find it amusing that pretty much the entire thread is now essentially a continuation of the mods/users thread instead of suggestions for the boards as a whole. On that issue, I pretty much agree with what Inty and others have said.

But since this got ignored and lost:

I don't know if this is the right place, or wether it has been discussed before, but is there a way to change the notifications skightly, so that instead of getting new notices for every post made, we get one message per topic, which isn't updated until you go onto the thread?

I'm pretty sure that isn't possible - it would certainly require much more complicated coding than exists, at the very least.

 

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 Date Posted: 11/26/08 9:05pm Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions
Anything to do with software changes is pretty much out of our hands, as we're at the mercy of the IGN board developers.

 

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 Date Posted: 11/26/08 10:15pm Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions
harpuah posted:
ObiWan506 posted:
What I do want is ideas and suggestions to move forward with. What do you want to see? What new things can we do? What existing things can we make better? Now I have some thoughts of my own but before I go into those, I want to hear what others have to say.


Seriously, not trying to be rude... I'm really not, but you've said this many many many many times. Suggestions are given, and people are told that "it's being discussed, and there will be updates later." Then time goes by, and nothing gets accomplished... then another thread comes up, pretty much containing the same complaints and questions.



If there is a long length of time where you haven't yet heard anything after being told "it's being discussed, and there will be updates later", then either nothing worthwhile came of the discussion (ie, a proposal was rejected, an idea was turned down, etc.) or it's just taking a long time to discuss. On a forum this size, with a staff this size and with the immense number of things that are required for discussion, it can sometimes take awhile to discuss issues. It's not that the MS is ignoring those discussions, it's just that there are a dozen other things we have to do at the same time.

 

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Date Posted: 11/26/08 10:24pm Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions - Date Edited: 11/26/08 10:27pm (3 edits total) Edited By: harpuah
It would he helpful to be informed though. If nothing came from the conversation, or if things are still in the process of being discussed, then why not let people know instead of leaving them hanging? Also, informing people of what has been discussed, and the progress that has been made, or not made (say you're at a standstill, and nobody agrees on anything), would be helpful.

 

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 Date Posted: 11/26/08 10:28pm Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions
I think that's fair, and it really is something that we should do a better job of including in MSU's. (Which are being revamped, btw, so that concern hasn't gone unnoticed. happy )

 

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Date Posted: 11/27/08 1:53am Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions
Be able to add features to the board software. Markups, smileys, PM control, games, profile customization, whatever.

I know its not possible, unless we move, but this place is really archaic compared to boards you can set up for free.

 
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 Date Posted: 11/27/08 4:17am Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions
This may just be my angle on it, but the decrease in activity here seems like it would be a seperate matter from issues of 'dead weight' and 'transparity' per se, as it would seem that the forums as an overall concept may be what is in need of redevelopment or repackaging that'll lead to people coming here in the first place without new Star Wars movies coming out. Something that here offers that is a unique selling point.

 
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 Date Posted: 11/27/08 7:32am Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions
Lowbacca_1977 posted:
This may just be my angle on it, but the decrease in activity here seems like it would be a seperate matter from issues of 'dead weight' and 'transparity' per se, as it would seem that the forums as an overall concept may be what is in need of redevelopment or repackaging that'll lead to people coming here in the first place without new Star Wars movies coming out. Something that here offers that is a unique selling point.



The problem is our web address will forever be our web address. If we repackaged the forum, it would have to be some serious overhaul. Overhaul that I'm pretty sure would be too drastic for most and would certainly take away from the history of this place. That's about the only thing that can attract new users.

Attracting old users again might be a different story. But I'm fairly certain that rules would have to be relaxed, more obvious things allowed, and forums to be consolidated. What happened over the summmer? Curious eyes came back for a week of those who apparently check this place but never post. All because we turned the colors on old mods again. In turn, regular users saw this and returned for a week. But it didn't last and they went on their merry way. So what would get them to stay? We know how to draw their attention, but what would keep them around longer? There was really only one common thing that brings us here (star wars) and we have no control over what new things come down the pipeline. The Clone Wars cartoons clearly did nothing for us and there's little hope for the future at this point.

Personally, I do not believe that those who vacated this site over the years vacated the internet. They just found greener pastures. All I know is that what we're currently doing apparently is not working in terms of holding on to the userbase.

 

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 Date Posted: 11/27/08 8:50am Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions
Those that vacate the internet lost interest in Star Wars, for the most part, since the movies have come and gone, and the TV shows aren't as popular among the general population. The forums that are doing well are more general, like JCC and Arena. I think the non-SW forums could be something to focus on, as well as getting the SW focused-forums out there to anyone and everyone looking for SW stuff, using fan force and any other talking up that could touch people interested in things like collecting, the new animated series, and up-coming live TV show.

 

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Date Posted: 11/27/08 9:03am Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions
Continuing on slightly from rhonderoo's posting, also, maybe improve the EU section, since the EU now that the movies are over, is becoming ever increasing. maybe split the literature section up into novels and comics (although this may or may not be popular, only a personal opinion)

Daft-Vader

 

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 Date Posted: 11/27/08 9:38am Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions
Definitely a no, there. Lit's focus is the entirety of the EU, and splitting it would almost certainly decrease involvement rather than increase it. One of Lit's continuing draws is that it's still one of the best places to discuss the entirety of the EU - we cover everything in there, books, comics, games, RPG supplements, you name it. It's really the only place like it.

Now, there might be better ways to stimulate discussions in there and keep it from growing stale. I would love to see some of those if you have them, because while I'm doing what I can, I'm only one (very harried!) brain. happy

 

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Date Posted: 11/27/08 10:16am Subject: RE: JC ideas and suggestions
Maybe rename the thread title from 'Books and Comics' to 'EU Discussion'?

Master_Keralys posted:
it's still one of the best places to discuss the entirety of the EU - we cover everything in there, books, comics, games, RPG supplements, you name it. It's really the only place like it.


^ This quote I think is very important. Something like this should be on the main page - It is the only place (as far as I know)you can discuss the EU in such great depths.



Personally, I rejoined the forum, I was here a few years back up to after Ep III. I rejoined, and personally, I think its a great forum. (doesn't help much, though.)

Maybe there could be postings also in the threads themselves to ask people how they feel the individual boards can be improved?

 

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