Forum Ideas!!!

[GrendelKhan{TSU}]

Originally Posted by BruceyD{TSU} get rid of all lame anime threads....hahahahaha. oh an yes....to many features

as to features.. what I've ALWAYS been wanting to do is stick most of them into one drop down menu...

like "Extras" or "Fun Zone" (ugh. not fun zone...but you get the idea) or wahtever. and another for multimedia or something (basically just lump a lot of them).

AND stick the main used menus (like user cp or arcade) as big separte "permanent" buttons in the header graphic. ..so its like not lost in the many menus.

that should help a lot I think.

[RisingFury{TSU}]

Originally Posted by GrendelKhan{TSU} 1. I have a new system for the news that I'm going to implement that should solve that problem. 2. by front page do you guys more PORTAL page or the forumhome?

The first thing you get when you go to www.unrealaddicts.com
The image viewer is cool and all... but for my CPU's sake move it lower down!!! It takes so much CPU it makes the rest of the page load like... ugh! If that is out of sight, it'll make travel to Forums faster for those who don't wanna see the pics.

[Team Steve{TSU}]

I just want to see how we could cut the options down on the front page.

Hers a list of what you got:

Left of the page:

• Navigation Menu
• Stats
• Unreal Tube
• Recent Uploads
• Current Poll
• Random Article
• News Archive

Right of the page

• User CP
• UT Depot
• Users online
• TeamSpeak Display
• Recent Threads
• calender
• Today's Birthdays
• Donations

Middle:

• Slide show
• Servers
• New threads (?)
• TSU photo gallery
• XEON mp3 Player (Didn't even know it was there)
• what is TSU

And there you have it, most of those things you dont even see because they have been pushed down to the bottom. Example: "what is TSU" is right at the bottom of the page, that isn't very helpful to some one who is visiting the page.

Cut and re-ordering then you will have a fraking good front page. Remember you need to make it appeal to the people who are visiting the website so you can build up your member base and hopefully make an even more active forums.

[Team Steve{TSU}]

Ok what needs to be done is to have a big fat ass axe do some chopping, so you need to get rid of the things that are in a way useless because no one is using them and once you have got a good selection of things people often use then you can reorder them to make a better website.

Left of the page:

• Navigation Menu
  

• Stats - if you got lots of members then people can see this and will be inclined to join an active forum.
  

Right of the page

• User CP - Easy way to get to CP and makes website look good imo

• TeamSpeak Display - very handy to see if people are on TS

• calender - nice to have if you intend to have certain events so up on it other wise useless

• Today's Birthdays-can stay on the forums that way you force people to go into that part of the website if users want to see whose birthday it is.

• Donations - obvious

Middle:

• Slide show -Not 56k friendly as RF said, replace with TSU gallery maybe?

• Servers - Very handy

• New threads (?) - Total balls imo and takes up loads of the front page, once again force them to visit the forums

• TSU photo gallery - Nice addition, as above

• XEON mp3 Player (Didn't even know it was there) - Not necessary, maybe add it to its own section where people can put their own music into it?

• what is TSU - THIS SHOULD BE AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE

• Added: Users online

Things that are in bold are what i think you should keep, now the reordering of the front page.


Left:

1. navigation
2. stats

Middle:

1. what is TSU
   
2. Photo gallery
3. Servers
4. Users online

Right:

1. User CP
2. Calender - as above
3. Donations

If I've missed some thing out or some one things I've done a crap method of ordering them then say.

[RisingFury{TSU}]

Have you ever noticed how many new people actually register here and never post nothing? Sure, I've noticed that anywhere from 1/10 to 1/20 people that do register on forums actually post anything... but still, we could do something to improve that number. Don't you think?

I believe the reason is that most forums are PhP Nuke and PhP BB... and this one is vBulletin. Different by it's structure and nobody knows how to use it.... I remember my feelings when I joined... was pretty intimidated. Spent 30 minutes figuring out where to change my avatar and siggy... =/

I'm not saying UA should move to PHP BB or Nuke, but a cleanup of most functions would be useful and put forward those that are similar to other forum systems.

[Team Steve{TSU}]

But you need to find out why they aren't posting first

Yeah I was referring to Portal page, sorry for the confusion.

IMHO, I love the fact this website has a lot of great features...

I wouldn't want it any different if I was asked.

But I'll use the sportscar analogy: Nice to know you have a lot of power under the hood, but want it all to seem easier to find when I need it but out of my way when I don't. (Does that make sense?) yeah and I know that's no easy feat with most anything like that so I have to finish by saying I absolutely love all the work you've put into it already. It is truly awesome overall.

[GrendelKhan{TSU}]

great suggestions all... !! THANK YOU!! it is appreciated and I do read them all and take them all to consideration.

lemme save ya'll the trouble of needing to justify though... I actually agree and have wanted to clean it up for sometiem now. just never been able to get to it yet, as well... its a lot work on top of a lot of work around here on top of...work!

that said, I have definitely bumped it up the priority list given current situtatoin.




ps. RF: just for refer4ence.... ppbb and phpNuke are not more common. depends on the industry... but for big boards..definitely not.

[GrendelKhan{TSU}]

Originally Posted by Team Steve But you need to find out why they aren't posting first

absolutely correct. I have a hard time believing that the main reason is that they aren't used to vbulletin forums. but who knows?

one thing I've been meaning to implement is first determining why they came here...then get to what would help them with incentives to post.