Where we're Going

[bschultz]

I dont mind if you want to have a few adds or whatever. nothing wrong with trying to make a little money off the work you put into this site.

[Lokishadow]

Bolty,

It has been some time and a LOT of life-changing events since I visited the Lounge. Thanks for keeping my account active, by the by. And, my most sincere of apologies for not keeping up.

Anyway, I read your ginormous post, and I agree. User-assisted content generation is a spectacular idea. Go with it. I vote YES. That is, if you're bothering with a vote.

I would be willing to help with editing, but being in the midst of college, joblessness, and single dad-dom, I just don't think I would have the time to help out. Witness my awesome three posts since my last login. Be that as it may, I'm here to help as I can.

To that end, I would suggest this:

Figure out a way to get all user-generated submissions sent to one point where any editor can select a submission and work on it. Once an editor begins working on the submission, it is pulled from the list to prevent double-postings of the same story. If the editor decides that there is too much in the submission for him/her to handle, then there needs to be a way to back out and put the submission back in for other editors to pick, or a way to collaborate with other editors.

This would allow those who are trusted as editors to help when they have the time, and also not negatively impact the site if they take a vacation or the latest breed of Windows doesn't like the Lounge.

As to the site redesign:

Dude! WHERE IS THE FRAKKIN' D3 FORUM?! I know, I know. Nobody knows when it's coming out. But have you SEEN the latest gameplay video? It's like a half-hour long!

Whoops, sorry. Got a little distracted. Anyway, check out the theme for Blizzard's D3 site. Why couldn't we set up the site with a similar color pattern? I'd also like to see some sort of streamed content from the Blizzard site, or maybe an RSS feed, regarding the latest Diablo developments. Yes, the Lounge needs an overhaul, and badly. Today's Internet is a vastly more graphically intensive place than it was in the D2: pre-1.07 (*cough* debacle! *cough*) days. The current overhaul is aging, I'm sure, but it's pretty new to me. That said, it's horribly bland by today's 'net standards. It needs color, themes, graphics, feeds, sound, and other stuff.

I'm floored at the lack of ads, I must say.

Why not give Blizzard some adspace on here? I wouldn't mind seeing a single banner for Blizzard's latest project at the top of the page, and it might help foot the bill for the site. Clickthroughs, baby!

I know that seems a bit like a sell-out stance, but I'm saying restrict it to products of companies that produce games which will be covered on this site. Maybe each time the site is looking at allowing a new advertiser, the Editors can post a poll and let the Lurkers decide.

Okay, so I've rambled a bit, but here's a handy summary:

1) YES, switch to user-generated front-page content.
2) YES, have Editors from trusted members working on the front-page content.
3) OVERHAUL: YES. I advise pulling themes and colors from the D3 homepage. It will help identify the LL.
a) RSS Feeds
B)Streaming content (videos/music from Blizzard)
c) Artwork. See if Blizzard will let you pull some from the official site for backdrops or buttons.
4) Ads. Let the users decide, via poll, if an advertiser will be accepted. And only allow ads by companies who's products will be discussed here.

Anyway, I hope that helps! No, I didn't read all the responses.
-Loki

[Bolty]

Okay, everyone, here's what's up.

Pretty soon we'll be moving over to a new forum. I've done a second test transfer this weekend and things looked pretty good. After a final switchover, the Lounge will become a forum site - the front-end is going bye-bye. Let's face it, you come here for the forum, which is updated far more than any front page ever is or ever will be. With the way information flows around modern games and how quickly everything changes, static content can't really keep up. Also, since I lack the time to run a blog and/or keep a staff of minions to blog (ala MMO Champion or WoWInsider), I think a forum site is a stronger platform for Lounging. Take Elitist Jerks as an example of how this format works successfully. That site is essentially its forum, and it's one of the strongest WoW sites out there.

To that end, with the front-end area going the way of the dodo, there is information there that may need saving. The question is, what? Obvious things come to mind like Jarulf's Guide. Other articles in the D1/D2 sections may be hopelessly out of date and irrelevant now. I need your help. Tell me what's worth archiving in the front-end areas of the site, and the articles can be transcribed into forum posts in the new forum. Each game will have a strategy/theorycrafting archive area where key articles are stored as reference and maintained by moderators/authors.

I'm also going to need a new moderating team. People who want to watch over an area of the forum, ban spammers, keep it clean, maintain the forum focus, etc. If you're interested, let me know.

Furthermore, the guild forums can be expanded or merged. If you're an officer of the Terenas or Stormrage guild teams, let me know your thoughts on what we can do with the guild forums. One of the obvious first things I'm looking at are ways for the current guild leaderships to assign people access to the forums without having to go through me. Should there be more Stormrage / Terenas interaction? Should the guild forums include people not even playing WoW? Leave feedback to me in PMs, the Stormrage officer forum, or the Terenas members forum.

Thanks!

[--Pete]

Hi,

I think it all sounds good. And I agree, static content is a thing of the past. Now that the games are hosted by Blizzard servers, they can be changed often and easily. What was true last week might not be true today. The exception might be D1 since, first, it is now static, and second, this was the site for information on that game and other sites are slowly disappearing. Perhaps a simple FTP page?

Should there be more Stormrage / Terenas interaction? Should the guild forums include people not even playing WoW?

This is a tough one. Regardless of what the forums are named and how they are described, a lot of people pick one forum to be 'theirs'. That's the only forum they post to, and probably the only one they read. I suspect that many of these people are aligned more to the in game guilds than to the LL site. Posting social information to the guild fora is not a big deal, although it does tend to clique-ify the LL. Posting game information to guild fora *is* a big deal. If the only people who can see the information are the people already in guild, then visitors to the LL will not find much of interest (surely not the political discussions;)). Only by having useful information available to all (like EJ) will we attract interest and input. Of course, the flip side of the coin is that guilds do need a private place (or places) to discuss issues that should be kept a bit more private.

An ideal solution, of course, would be for people to post in the appropriate fora. Social stuff in the Lounge, game info in the appropriate open forum, guild specific stuff in the guild fora. Unfortunately, ideal solutions need ideal people. A more realistic solution might be for the mods to be a bit more active in relocating posts to more appropriate fora, but that can lead to some conflicts and hurt feelings. In any case, I think the number of closed fora should be kept to a minimum. While useful, they do tend to foster the 'inner circle' feelings that can drive others away and turn off potential new members.

Not much help -- in social matters, I'm unfortunately better at spotting the problems than coming up with solutions:(

If I can help in any way . . . But you know that.

--Pete

[sojourn]

Sounds great, Bolty.

Just a question on my behalf - I was never used to the hybrid forum format that is of LL today; will the new forums have atleast an option of linear thread mode (ala similar to Vbulletin)?

It's been ages since reading one of your guides, what was it, the Warrior? Glad to see you're well and kicking. And yes, I'm still amazed at all the content available here today.

[Bolty]

Just a question on my behalf - I was never used to the hybrid forum format that is of LL today; will the new forums have atleast an option of linear thread mode (ala similar to Vbulletin)?

I don't understand. The current forums have a linear option too - see the thread option button. The new forums will have linear and threaded, although all old posts from here will lose their threading markers and appear as linear.

[sojourn]

I don't understand. The current forums have a linear option too - see the thread option button. The new forums will have linear and threaded, although all old posts from here will lose their threading markers and appear as linear.

Oh no wonder. For the longest time I was combing through the user settings and could not find it and just lived with what it was. Thanks, it's now the reading format I prefer it to be in.