Suggestions

I don't post here much. I was checking my e-mail box and I received a PM asking for suggestions, so I'll offer some.

* The admin, if he wants this board to work needs to understand the membership of his or her forum. He needs to understand who his regulars are, who his new members are and how they feel about the board.

* The admin needs a strategy to get in new posters. The admin needs to do some Search Engine Optimization for this forum. SEO is key for a new forum, absolutely key. Better find out all you can about it, man.

* You need content on this board. SOMEBODY better get their ass around to post the days events in a new thread EVERY DAY.

* Know when things have gone too far. It seems that there have been some moderators that have been selected, which is good. That will keep the "**** you" comments to a minimum. Don't have so many political attacks that the place just becomes like a chat room where people come in and say "how ya doin, now go **** ya self" and then move on.

* Don't let the regulars make extremely rude remarks to new members or they will leave.

* Get rid of the front page. Let the forum page be the front page.

* You'll probably also have to look around on other boards for people to invite.

 

I also recommend you get a modification for V-bulletin boards called "community bulletin." That will help you to retain your members. You send out weekly updates of the weeks threads to the entire forum membership with it.

 

If you're smart, you'll listen to this guy because he knows what he's talking about.

 

Any news on the possibility of a chatroom?

 

I definetly would want it, but you should probably limit it to senior members or something because some people will no doubt find it funny to sign up just to annoy people on it, or spam it.

 

I'd be on board for this as well.

I would also really like to see some 1v1 or 2v2 official debates in the House of Debates forum where outside members would ask questions and determine a winner. Of course we would work out all the details, but anyone interested, please send me a PM.

 

You may also not want to ban members for no reason.

 

Why does everyone always want to "ADD" a chat room. Let me tell you of the wonderful world of IRC. I suggest (due to my years of experience on the network) Efnet as well as it's undying stability, if not it I also am friend with some of the IRCops (admins) on another network which is quite viable as well. then you can simply toss a freebie java irc client on board here for those who do not use a standard client and all is done. If you need bots I can admin those if no one else here has experience, I've also a couple *nix servers that remain connected 24/7 and are on battery backup, for op/stats bots. It's simple, it's really not as complicated as those who've never used it would assume, and best of all it can be implemented 100% for FREE....I love free.

 

How about a nag screen for guests, instead of limiting how much they can read threads? A lot of people lurk on a board as guests for days, weeks or even months before they decide to register. The average user isn't smart enough to delete cookies from HOP so they can still continue surfing as a guest. They'll just move on to other boards. I've mentioned this before. Also, your front page is still the portal. Obnoxious.

just my 2 cents

 

You could also use a favicon...

 

I don't see the benefit of nagging guests. If they want to register, let them, if they want to stand about as a guest, let them. If you nag them, they are probably more likely to turn away rather than register on the spot. It also makes the forum look bad.

 

And what happens when they have viewed their quota as "guests" and don't know how to delete HOP cookies? They find another board.

 

Do we have a quota then?