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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Irishman: [QB] Wow, I've heard my name mentioned in a positive light more in this thread than at any other time on Flare. I even got kudos from people that I didn't know that that highly of me. Thanks a bunch. So, we're talking about changes? What's working and what's not working about Flare? What should stay and what should go? I still consider myself a newbie here, so I am a bit hesitant to offer my opinions... ..okay, hesitancy over. :) ) Well, when I first signed up at Flare, I did it despite the name ("Flare" sounded, and still sounds, a might gayish). I did it because great 2D artists like Masao, Bernd, Reverend, and Harry posted their artwork here, and I thought it would be a great learning experience for me. I found the wealth of information from past threads, debates, stories, and speculation, great fun, and spent the better part of a year absorbing all that old stuff. After a while though, the frequency of posts began to slow, to the point now where I will go days between checking for new posts here. And I belong to many other scifi/Trek themed BBSs - Trek BBS, Scifi-meshes, Federationreference (as of last week), Jose Ralat's LCARS site, and HobbyTalk. Flare is losing its dyamism. Very rarely does something happen here that draws my attention, as opposed to TBBS, where there's ALWAYS someone posting something of interest. Plus, TBBS has the added advantage of members like Mike Okuda and Rick Sternbach. I'm not sure how many of the members know this, but for those of us who frequent the Art forum and Trek tech forum know it. And even when I was a newbie I never felt unwelcome at TBBS, for the record. I also rarely go to hobbytalk. In fact, I only went there when I heard that Robert Bonchune was posting art and mesh orthos from "Enterprise" there. Model building just isn't my thang. The good news is that Flare is open to change. It's done it before, adding forae, dropping forae, etc. So I guess the questions become what is good change and what is bad change? Here's a list that will probably develop as I think about it more. Most of my replies will be limited to Trek because that is what I primarily delve into here. 1. Make Flare a destination for fans. Make it a resource. How? Post episode guides (read synopses) of Trek shows akin to those at federationreference.com. Give exhaustive information regarding stardates, technical facts and historical information for each episode. Have those members who have access to episodes invest that into the site. It will show. It will draw people. 2. Build an art gallery (with member permission) with sub-boards for 2D and 3D art. It will give this material a sense of permanence, and it will prevent members from having to clumsily search (as I did) through threads looking for that one shot of the Binford Space Station to complete their collection. Showcase the creations of your members and show you're proud of them. Artists love that recognition, Give it to them and they will come. 3. Reduce the number of posts members have to make before they can use Flare Upload. TBBS only requires 50. 200 is insane. It took me FOREVER to reach it, because I don't make pointless posts. :) Make it more accessible or ditch it altogether. It's not the Holy Grail. 4. I personally don't care where members come from. If you treat members from "overseas" differently, they'll feel like that "black friend" some guy made just to prove he's not racist. 5. Give moderators the ability to delete spam ASAP. Spam shouldn't be a big deal. Delete it and it's threads and move on. It's distracting and pointless. As little energy as possible should go into reacting to it, but it should be done swiftly. 6. When I've referred people to Flare, it's been because there was something cool on the site. Don't extend invitations to people who aren't members, while keeping the site the same. They'll come and wonder "why is this site such a big deal?" If you make the site a big deal, word of mouth will FILL the member rolls. 7. People aren't going to come to Flare because of the flameboard. Period. Changing the flameboard will not even be a SMALL part of what makes Flare turn around. I do not come here for political outrage. That sort ofthing turns me off on a sci-fi forum. I know I'm not alone. 8. Make the forum titles and purposes more specific and focused. Example: If your main focus is Star Trek, let that be the first main category of forae, and under it: General Trek The Original Series TNG DS9 VOY ENT Movies Starships and Technology Artwork and Creativity Then have your other sci-fi TV/movies forae be like: Star Wars Stargate Farscape Doctor Who Battlestar Galactica (or whatever shows most make sense) Other (But let Flare Upload work in ANY forum, not just artwork or Starships and Technology. Those other folks don't want or need to be left out.) This forum list is not intended to be exhaustive, it's just from my perspective. Some thing Flare does right? 1. It loads fast 2. Its recent post feature on the home page is awesome. Other sites could take a cue from that. NEVER drop that. 3. Its interface is simple. 4. It's stable. 5. Its search feature actually works! Anyway. those are my ideas. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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