Ways to revive the site and make it more active

[Marona]

Okay people.Locke here is getting pretty worried about what's happening to our beloved RPGN community.First off it's the people and the old things that never was fixed.

Let's just brainstorm some ideas and see what we can get out of it.

To be honest though what would make it a good start is redesigning the site and removing old FTPs that were never up for years.Also removing inactive staff members and adding new ones or keep the current ones.

I can try and put back my FTP up if needed.See what I can do.

Second thing is the community.Participating in contests and other helpful things that seem interesting.Any contest can be simple and does not need to have a prize.Like for example,VGM mp3 of the week or month.It can also be guess that video game.We already have that as a forum game but we can also make that as a contest in a way.

Third could be adding new lyrics to the lyrics section of the site.I could think of a lot of good ones for that and maybe others too.

Another thing could be updating news like what are we currently doing,even if it's just simple to show that we're alive!We can put in the news about ideas to bring this site back to life.

We can also make new reviews of the games we loved the whole time and add them to the site.

Psst and also I don't mind handling the RPGN Ragnarok Online server :P

Well thats just my ideas.If you have any post them here!No idea is dumb unless it is purposely ;)

[Kilu]

redesigning the site
In progress, sort of. I'm not exactly sure what's happening right now, last I heard BAMAToNE was going to look at our work in progress site and do some css magic, don't know if he has had the time yet though.

As for everything else, well, Locke is working on restoring the torrent tracker, I think that's waiting on some Laban input.

FTPs, don't know what to say about them really. I mean, I suppose we should not dump the possibilities, but FTPs are a dying transfer form as far as p2p is concerned, and when we remove all the dead servers, we'll only have like 2 left, or something like that. So is it useful to keep the FTP option around, or should we just dump it entirely?

Lyrics, well, not so sure about those. I mean, there's a bunch of them around the internets these days, so we'd need something to stand out.

And reviews. I always thought rpgn reviews were nice. I would be up to writing a review or two once in a while. But we would have to keep up with the times as well. New reviews from new albums and games.

I definitely support some news, but what exactly should we post? RPG news, general gaming news, soundtrack news, or what? Also, where do we get the news? IGN, Gamespot, what? We obviously shouldn't just copy stuff from one site and claim it our own. We could credit the source, but rewrite the piece ourselves.

In general, it's a little unclear what would be a good direction for rpgn to take.

By the way, both review sections are down at the moment, some mysql errors.

[Locke Cole]

Alright, a small update from the ever-busy admin! I'm working all weekend as usual, so i'm trying to get to as much as I can in-between my free time.

- Reviews section I will look into on monday.

- The chat page on the site (java chat) has been down due to missing cab files. Will be fixed this week.

- The torrent tracker is in progress! I've promised again and again, but this time we are further then ever. I've fully backed up the databases and scripts, and they are live on the new server. However, running into some hitches making them work right. Progress continues...

- FTPs are unfortunately becoming more and more a dying breed. I think p2p is the way of the future, maybe even hosting a few albums on the http as well, as 'feature' albums or something. (Bandwidth depending...) We will discuss this further as we go.

- New design: Pending. Life is busy for many of us, and the design guys are working on it.

- News? A great idea. I will work out a way for staff to start adding news articles to the main page, even before the new staff control panel is active. Should be in the works soon.

- I am open for some contests, but currently our userbase is small, so contests would be a bit narrowed. We need a larger reader base before considering anything major.

- The lyrics section definately needs some life breathed into them. I've recieved many emails of praise over our lyrics coverage, and even been corrected on some spelling by a SquareEnix member directly! (Awesomeness +1!) We use to be #1 in the google ranking for video game lyrics, but we have fallen to #2. We can take this back!

- I am always open for suggestions, so please keep them coming!

[BAMAToNE]

Every new recruit gets a cookie*.

* unless s/he has cookies blocked!

[silverDistortioN]

youtube-hosted video reviews, possibly also previews. what for to keep up with the times!

a lot of major game outlets don't use video as the primary medium of expression. it seems like it's mostly a supplement - one that i'd normally skip over. >.>

the video review thing seems to be limited to individuals in the youtube community, but i think it would work well since we don't seem to have much multimedia in the review section.

if not video, pictures would be good! but hosting on youtube would mean less bandwidth cost. <.<

also, youtube would have the added advantage of giving us free publicity.

we could do music recordings like this too. to make it easier to get started, we could just approach people on an individual basis and just ask them if we can use their (already recorded) performance.

[Charon]

Every new recruit gets a cookie*.

* unless s/he has cookies blocked!

Only idiots block cookies.

youtube-hosted video reviews, possibly also previews. what for to keep up with the times!

a lot of major game outlets don't use video as the primary medium of expression. it seems like it's mostly a supplement - one that i'd normally skip over. >.>

the video review thing seems to be limited to individuals in the youtube community, but i think it would work well since we don't seem to have much multimedia in the review section.

if not video, pictures would be good! but hosting on youtube would mean less bandwidth cost. <.<

also, youtube would have the added advantage of giving us free publicity.

we could do music recordings like this too. to make it easier to get started, we could just approach people on an individual basis and just ask them if we can use their (already recorded) performance.

Video reviews of games, by us, hosted on Youtube? that's way outside my technical knowledge. While I could manage recording myself talking about games, incorporating that with game footage is beyond me. You really think RPGN users would be arsed with this? No offence but the members here aren't the most pro-active of folks. :P I can see this (admittedly good) idea dying sooner than.. ummm, something that dies fast... a mayfly? If proof is needed... whatever happened to ST10? :P

[BAMAToNE]

whatever happened to ST10? :PStill awaiting submissions. We will spam people by email soonish to remind them.

[silverDistortioN]

Video reviews of games, by us, hosted on Youtube? that's way outside my technical knowledge. While I could manage recording myself talking about games, incorporating that with game footage is beyond me. You really think RPGN users would be arsed with this? No offence but the members here aren't the most pro-active of folks. :P I can see this (admittedly good) idea dying sooner than.. ummm, something that dies fast... a mayfly? If proof is needed... whatever happened to ST10? :P

ah, yeah... hadn't even considered the technical aspect of it.

well, we'd only really need one person to do both the game recording and the editing. (of course, as always, the more the merrier.)

[Kilu]

I like the idea of video reviews. All games, regardless of age, genre and platform? Because recording video from most major emulators is easy enough, so that would cover the older stuff. Same goes for old and new pc games. Don't know about newer console stuff though.

Editing... it can't be that hard, I have done little virtualdub editing myself, and it's probably tons easier with some professional program that anyone could get their dirty hands on.

[silverDistortioN]

yeah, i have no problem with editing either...

as for recording from the newer consoles, the easiest way would be from a TV in card... anybody have a TV in card? >.>

[Locke Cole]

Wow, the thread title says it all. I have been absent lately, but it seems so has everyone else! We had some decent activity in the early summer (which is usually quiet, actually o_o) and now its just tumbleweeds in the wind. My work schedule has been crazy, but its finally settling down and I would like to do something here... but where to start, I do not know. Our design project died (again) I believe due to a lack of a CSS programmer.. and after that flopped I kinda got sidetracked. I hear Sound Test 10 is still pushing along after a few months of downtime, so thats good to hear. I am still open for suggestions...

[BAMAToNE]

lack of a CSS programmer..Yeah, I feel bad about it. It's just too much with working two jobs and also having a life. It used to be I could do this kind of stuff at work because I was generally never that busy that I couldn't do side jobs like that. But now it seems like I'm always busy at work. (Lack of chatting by me in #rpgn should be proof.) And then when I get home, the last thing I want to do is be in front of the computer. Meh. Maybe one day. But if you find someone else willing, go for it!

[Locke Cole]

I wasn't goaling that comment at you directly, I know you got busy at work and it happens. Look at me, work has absorbed -so- much of my free time now.. I just mean it seems so difficult to find anybody who has those talents :P I wish I had the designer talents rather then the coder, cause finding php help is a lot easier (And a heck of a lot easier to explain what I want and how I want it to work). Explaining how I want a design to come out... impossible! I need somebody who's creative, and can grasp what I like from examples, and then kinda just work on their own talents and ideas without direct guidance from me. I can say if I like something or not, but explaining exactly what I'd like.. the words are a loss!

[Kilu]

It's too bad really that the extent of my css skills is

1. steal code elsewhere
2. modify
3. ??
4. profit!?

[Charon]

:P My CSS skills are limited. I don't have to resort to outright theft, ala Kilu. :P But I'm no designer. It's so bloody fiddly that's the problem, especially trying to position things.

[Locke Cole]

I do a lot of R&D (Rip and Duplicate), a term we learned in school actually... coding class taught you that this method is a great way to learn. I also R&D a lot of my own code. If I get stuck, I'll think of something similar I've done before, and fall back on that. Soo... when doing something totally new, its all experimental ;)

As for design however, beyond MS Paint and Paint Shop Pro, other then using some WYSIWYG editor, you've lost me. Yes, I know html and can position and make things work if someone is guiding me, telling me what colour they want that box, or where they want that box... but CSS is a new thing for me.. I would probably just position everything with a fixed location, pixel by pixel, and just piece the site together like a jigsaw :P Seems easy enough, except different browsers take different views on fixed positioning. Figures!

Good news however, is that Nizzy has resurfaced, and even has a new suggestion for our design! There is movement in the workshop....