Author Topic: A solid ground  (Read 3516 times)

ChaosControl

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A solid ground
« on: 2013-08-13 22:26:46 »
Hi everyone,

I'm here this time to shamelessly link my own site. Here's the deal; During my years on the internet I've been in quite some online groups and communities. However, after a while communities evaporate and the bonds you had with people seems to die off after a while. Even here on Qhimm, I used to be a regular but you know how it goes, things change, you don't feel as comfortable as you did anymore and you find yourself checking a site less and less, and when we check the site we just browse, not really trying to blend in to the community anymore.

It's natural how these situations develop themselves but somehow I feel to urge to stop it, at least for myself. The thing is, the main reason I think people move away from a community after some time is just because they are not really into the thing the community is about anymore. Like Qhimm, I used to tinker around with files and stuff from FF7 daily but I can't see myself doing it anymore, I'm just not that into it anymore. I learned a lot from it but my interests have developed and I do other things now (like this project I'm telling you about).

Anyway so I've set up a forum. I hear you think: "How are you solving this by creating ANOTHER online community?" Well, the theory is, the forum I set up is about anything and for anyone. Not just Final Fantasy, not just gaming, not just anything related to both of those but everything. The idea I have of it is it having a decent community after some time (might be years, I'm in no rush) and users can move about the boards as their age and interests change. We've all seen this work with the biggest forums but I want this place to feel like the home we've had a lot of times on the net.

This is just my idea, and I alone am never enough to do it all, but I made a start. Some people who think the same might be willing to help out, you never know. I'm not advertising this site anywhere else, I post it here on Qhimm because last week when I checked these forums it's when it hit me, so I kind of feel obligated. Also I don't feel like advertising this site because I want a community to form naturally from posts and content (but this takes time, and an initial userbase).

http://www.stuffisgeneralis.nl/

(I'm sorry if this is considered spam and against forum rules, please notify me if this is the case.)

Also, this topic would be the ideal location to let me know you think this idea sucks. :P

Covarr

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Re: A solid ground
« Reply #1 on: 2013-08-13 23:28:47 »
I'm pretty sure this has been tried before.

edit: I can't get it to load. Keeps timing out.
« Last Edit: 2013-08-13 23:34:54 by Covarr the Proud Fanboy »

xLostWingx

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Re: A solid ground
« Reply #2 on: 2013-08-14 01:41:25 »
Concur with timeout.

ChaosControl

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Re: A solid ground
« Reply #3 on: 2013-08-14 09:00:13 »
Grrr, talk about bad luck! :-[ There was a really shitty storm out here last night and my provider had some issues... Everything was down for about 3 hours after my post! When I'm not tinkering with it anymore it will be hosted on a server in a datacentre. (In a week or so.)

And Covarr you are right, that's what I meant with "the biggest ones" but can you really feel comfortable there? I've tried it a lot for some time but Reddit never got to me, too much spam, users only going for karma and stuff. Don't you agree?

L. Spiro

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Re: A solid ground
« Reply #4 on: 2013-08-18 08:36:24 »
In my experience, that is just the way communities go.
I’m really sure it can be solved at all, but making a community about just anything might not work out for a different reason.

There was a discussion on deviantArt about whether you would be shooting yourself in the foot by trying to do all kinds of art rather than a specific set.  Would doing all kinds of art get you more followers since you appeal to a larger range of people?

After quite a debate I felt the winning position was this:
People want to know that when they go to a forum/community they will not be dissatisfied in the content (or at least only rarely).  On deviantArt you would get more followers by just doing anime, just doing realism, or just doing photography, for example.  People will be less sure about following you if they think half the time they get an update it’s about your photography when they are really only interested in your anime.

Communities thrive better when they have a specific focus, especially because of how many communities there are out there.
The groups of friends they make on each separate forum may not be the same people, but that is likely to be the case on a mega-all-encompassing forum as well.  If I go to the art section I will likely see a lot of different people there than from the game section.


But all that being said your goal is to make it thrive in a way that has not been doing (so often, if ever) before, so it may be worth the experiment to see what happens.


L. Spiro