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Thread: The Future of the SS Forums

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    The Future of the SS Forums

    Right. So all the currently existing staff members (besides Eyan, who chose not to participate) had a meeting yesterday, and there will be massive changes to this forum. The changes will most likely be implemented over the next couple of weeks. If you have opinions on the subjects, you can share them. And remember: Nothing in this thread is 100% confirmed to be set in stone and permanent. Keep in mind these ideas were contributed by the staff members and the suggestions that you guys have been posted.

    1. Removal of the Ranking system - Ranks are stagnate. There are users who are stuck at 500 posts that can't find anywhere to post, and users who have 2500 posts who are ineligible to promote for another year and 1,000 posts. Ranks have always been there mainly for "bragging rights," and we have had issues with users not liking the colors of their ranks and having me manually change them. This will set EVERYONE to being a normal user again. Although this is a drastic change, it will be better for the future of the forum and the ranks can be implemented again if the new system fails.

    2. Points System - Users will gain points for various activities on the forum: Posting, getting posts liked, winning tournaments, winning mafia games, other special events, etc. Unlike reputation, your points value will be hidden to everyone but you. Points can be spent for a variety of perks on the forum, including permanently earning many of the old ranking system perks for yourself, changing the color of your own name to whatever you want it to be, changing your title, username, etc, having access to new and exclusive threads, access to the arcade system, adding your own custom smilies and much more that will be discussed at a later date. The goal of this is so users are constantly working toward upgrading themselves, rather than being completely stagnate with no incentive to post for a long time.

    3. Badge System - We will likely be implementing a badge system. You will get badges under your username for completing various tasks on the forum. Such tasks include but are not limited to, "Having 500 posts," "Having a high score in the arcade," "Winning a Pokemon tournament," "Having a high win rate as a mafia member in the forum mafia." There will be many badges, and those are just random examples. The badges will likely just use icons of the badges from Pokemon games, all though we may have variance somewhere (or if an artist wants to make custom badges for points... hint hint).

    4. Blog section - There will be more sections added in the future, but this one is the most popular idea so far. This section is intended to replace Meet the Members, and will be an exclusive club you have to buy access to. Users make detailed posts about their lives or a subject they are passionate about, and others can comment in their blogs.

    5. Arcade revamp - Dead and decayed system will have MANY more games, and the user scores will be wiped because Rubick is a cheater it adds more incentive to compete for scores again.

    6. The Rules - The Rules of the site will be completely rewritten due to it having many archaic punishing methods and including offenses which aren't honestly that bad. For example, we're okay with bumping old threads if you have more to contribute, and double posting is fine if it is new content that is deserving enough to warrant bumping the thread.

    Those are the first of many more changes we intend to have, and they will be expressed in further detail at a later date. As for ads, Garthcune is currently hosting the website and paying for it every month out of the goodness of his heart. Eyan was going to let the site die, and Eyan still has not paid Garth back for the $80+ that he owes him. I have removed the ads that were on the website for the past few days because they kind of suck and aren't making very much money, but I feel like we shouldn't force all of this monetary pressure on Garth. Perhaps I will find a better form of ads in the future, or maybe we'll have a donation incentive to obtain points/get a special badge.

    As for potentially changing the name of the website: The Super Skarmory name is OURS as a community; Eyan has completely abandoned that name in favor of King of Zeal. He does not own the domain name, he does not pay to host the server, and he does not contribute to the site in any regard. Actions speak louder than words. If we feel like we need to change the website name in the future to attract new users, then we will not hesitate.

    The best thing you can do as a user right now is increase activity! Make new threads; posts made now will contribute to your points in the future. Want a League of Legends section? Make more League threads, keep the League General thread constantly active. Don't want the Fire Emblem section to be removed? Prove it's not a dead section and that members will always be able to talk about it since it has such an important backstory in the community.

    We will move forward as a community and many of these changes may be difficult, but we do need more incentive to post. I love all of you (except sonrio) and are looking forward to spending years more of time on this website.

    ~Zachgoose
    Last edited by Zachgoose; 11-22-2014 at 04:58 PM. Reason: Forgot point 6 lol


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    Will everybody be starting from zero points or is there some form of conversion?
    RIP sig. I'll add something when I'm not up at 6:30 am.

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    I was not happy about the removal of the rank system. Then I read about the points system. Now I agree. But I hope that users will get some compensation for their current time spent on the forums, and not have to start over. Badge system just seems like an expansion of the point system to me tbh

    I don't care about the blog section

    Arcade revamp.... could users provide original games for the new arcade? I'm working on a little something, and I think Drago might have something too.

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    The forum is gonna be a niche group of people. I might be willing to throw down a few dollars to help the site stay alive. I know I haven't contributed much here, but Zach hearing your story I'm quite positive to see the direction where this community will go. It's unfortunate because these forums back at the start were hella good. Also could I get a name change? Just to SFB.


    Edit: Are the forums getting renamed?
    Last edited by SFB; 11-22-2014 at 04:59 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Badootel View Post
    Will everybody be starting from zero points or is there some form of conversion?
    You will start out with points based on your post count at the very least. We may potentially have more starting points depending on how complex the system is / how much I feel like going through old content.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zelda View Post
    I was not happy about the removal of the rank system.

    Arcade revamp.... could users provide original games for the new arcade? I'm working on a little something, and I think Drago might have something too.
    1. I'm not completely sold on removing the rank system either because I think it works in its current state just fine. However, we want to see users constantly working for improvement and finding more incentives to post. Also so many of you care about the colour of your username, so this will allow more selection (likely using color codes).

    2. Sure you can add original games to the arcade.

    Also adding something new to the OP about the rules, so look out for that.


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    Definetly on board with these changes, great to see staff take initiative, and make the forum a better place.

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    The vision with the removal of ranks and the implementation of a points 'currency' system aims to normalise power rankings between members. Status and value to the community is a subjective interpretation that is independent to each user. It's very difficult to objectively measure who is a 'better' user than another. By purchasing upgrades, users' status is more concealed. The new badges system will be as close to the old ranks in the more badges you have, the higher you are perceived to be a better member. By creating more specific goals in mind we can make unlocking these achievements with greater satisfaction. You have to proactively participate in all areas of the forums if you want to collect all the badges.

    I'd imagine, although it's not finalised, that veteran members will be compensated a percentage of their current contributions into points at decreased ratio. The vision once again, is to have long and short term goals in point/badge collecting throughout your stay at the forums. I will speculate that to unlock all the features that a current Lyra user has, will take longer from day 1 than the current system. Not sure on that, it's open to discussion.

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    Let's see here.

    1. Have to say, my interest in rank has been waning by the day, but I'm not sure if I'm completely ready to see it go. See the thing about points.

    2. After two years, forum currency will be a thing? Fantastic. I've seen it implemented on other forums but not really done well, I'm interested to see how we handle it here.

    3. SteamXEyanland. I'm all for it. Also, what are the size and specifications for the badges? I've had a couple 64x64 designs lying around my computer that I might clean up and submit.

    4. See Tainers' thread.

    5. I forgot we had this.

    6. Pretty sure nobody's actually been infracted for bumping threads with relevant posts for years, but I guess it's nice to see it official.

    7. Ads - My current income is about fifteen cents a day but if you guys want to start a donation thing I think the time is right. I myself can't just clear Eyan's debt and more, but maybe that's something a couple of us could work out.

    8. Name: I'm a member of the Super Skarmory forums, and by this point it doesn't matter to me if Eyan's active, moved on or kicked the bucket. I could make do with being in the Kingdom of Zeal, but at this point turning into NintendoUniverseCentralStation or something would be like incinerating a piece of my youth.

    To the moon.

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    why wont you love me
    Was it all worth throwing away?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dragonite View Post
    3. SteamXEyanland. I'm all for it. Also, what are the size and specifications for the badges? I've had a couple 64x64 designs lying around my computer that I might clean up and submit.
    Something like this I'd imagine:
    I'd suspect the main badges be visible on all posts, with the rest on a separate user profile tab. A hierarchy of badge visibility priority a la civ4 great people tech light bulbing. (pls visterino and posterino my threaderino plx)

    Quote Originally Posted by Dragonite View Post
    6. Pretty sure nobody's actually been infracted for bumping threads with relevant posts for years, but I guess it's nice to see it official.
    Nobody has seriously been infracted since SS.net v1.

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