The Lurker Lounge's Future

[Taem]

BTW, I'm not interested in taking over any website so don't get the wrong idea. I can't lie however; since you've posted this, it got me thinking and I'm curious as to what someone else could do with this site.

I'm curious, too. So I'll turn this on you and ask: what would you do with this site, given the time and energy to run it?

That's an open ended question. This sites strong points are of course it's dedication to whatever video game it is dissecting at the moment, and it's political conversations, yet of the latter there is no dedicated support, save for its member feedback. What I would do to gather fresh new ideas and potential new traffic is:

1. NEWS
a) On the front page portal, have a news ticker to the right of the main "news" page with current news.

b) Once a week, have someone post the most intriguing political happenings that really deserve more insight and feedback from our stalwart crew here. More details? Alright; I'm talking about someone with moderator status who, on a weekly basis, makes either a single post with the most pertinent news available, or several short posts (no more than, say three) describing the event by quoting an article, then commenting about it. Already being done, you say? I disagree, and feel there are always noteworthy articles that mightn't have been given their own thread by members because the contents didn't seem that inflammatory, however that does not mean the piece is not worth discussing.

c) Invite others to join our conversations at the LL in the comments section below the news articles used. You'd be surprised how well this works. Not spam botty, but more like, "<insert opinion of the subject here followed by> it would be cool to continue this conversation at the Lurker Lounge." Of course, the person (or persons) finding the news would be the ones posting in the comments. <IDEA> I was just hit with an idea; maybe if three people wanted to find one story for the week, this whole process wouldn't be much of a burden, maybe something done in ten minutes or so.

2. VIDEO GAMES

a) Diablo III was created as a cash-cow, set to monopolize the slot-machine item system of Diablo II by exploiting players urges to get more powerful with better gear. Case and point on this: there are better games out there!

b) Torchlight 2 is highly moddable like the old Diablo I, and the GUI and play-style are reminiscent of Diablo II in almost every way. Path of Exile is dark like Diablo I and has a set of skills that function almost exactly like Diablo I did (you "find" your skills) with the difference that the skills level up the more you use them; I'd honestly call Path of Exile the true spiritual successor to the Diablo franchise. Also, there are plenty of Mod's for DII to discuss, the first that comes to mind of course is Median XL.

c) New content is what brings new people. Just offering different forums for titles such as these will not draw people to this small section of the web. D1 and D2 had Jarulf, Spirea, and many, many others contributing to the finer details behind the games. Finding fanatics like this are like finding a needle in a haystack, and getting them to come to your website are impossible unless they decide to on their own. Instead, I think discussing what is achievable and new would be paramount: modding TL2, the upcoming MXL: Sigma mod for D2, possibly PoE. These things might attract new attention to this place from old members and new alike. I'd start by getting current member feedback on this.

d) Once the member feedback is in and the decisions made, I'd invite members from other boards with similar interests to come here and discuss these mods, how they will change the current game, and what they'd like to see in the mod, and who is developing them. Having modders use this site as their idea generator would be awesome! Of course, this whole section would require another moderator to scout out and locate new and upcoming mods. Aren't there already sites that are dedicated to doing this, you ask? Yes, of course, but there were sites (such as Phrozen Keep) who were already doing what the LL was doing in it's heyday to, but that didn't stop us!

NOTE: This section is the weakest link of my entire discussion. It makes the most sense, but is also the most difficult to implement.

3. IMAGE

a) The design of this site is beautiful, but it has been for the last... I don't even remember, at least five years plus. Most businesses I've worked for change their image slightly and their catch slogan phrase at lease once every five-years to stay fresh! Isn't it time this site has had a face-lift? I'd start by lightening the wood grain background to a more sandy wood color, and adjusting all the colors for bars, banners, etc accordingly. Maybe giving all boxes rounded edges instead of square edges.

b) New content! I'd add new smilies in addition to what is already available. Allow users to create polls. Maybe include the karma idea, like how the new median xl site has cookies. Also, I'd create a separate forum for FORUM GAMES; these seem to be a smash hit on multiple web sites, and a nice place to unwind.

c) I'd add bi-weekly polls to the front page portal ranging from hot topic video game comparisons, to political news articles and even political alignment polls. Maybe two polls, one for video games, the other for news worthy articles. Might asking about political alignment cause discord? I really doubt it, and in fact think it'd open up further political discussion on the issue.

4. UPDATES

I'd have someone in charge of updating the news portal (with all this new content) daily, and start a facebook and twitter page (linked) for this news content; whatever was posted on the portal page would be automatically posted on the facebook and twitter page (my son set this up on the website he created). New times require a website to get with the times it seems; it seems a majority of the websites I've seen now have a Facebook and Twitter link. As owner of the LL, you can also use that medium to post your personal thoughts on the Lounge itself, the people who frequent it, and how running the site affects your life.



That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. Just ideas.