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Post by CJ on Dec 12, 2014 9:53:25 GMT -5
Before I get started, thank you guys for all of your opinions and suggestions. You guys have really made this reboot a lot of fun.
The first and most important announcement I have to make is that Hitotsumami and I have talked about current events in the forum. Until a time comes where he is regularly posting again, he will be considered a regular member. I should clarify now that Shark a' Pult is still a moderator. Hopefully, just the two of us should be enough to manage this forum in the future. If there is a higher need, I'll start considering a second moderator role.
Second is AH! THE CHAT IS DOWN! Chatango.com has been acting up recently. I'm not sure what exactly the issue is, but this should be resolved soon. Either way, I'll be creating a new chatbox for the reboot, hopefully using the same website, so I hope this doesn't continue to be an issue.
Third up is the thought of revamping the RP Section. I'm thinking about moving the FT and SDS RP's to their own section in "General" which will be renamed to something like "Other." I will then be moving topics into separate relevant sections. I myself have forgotten about threads, so I feel it'll be a little easier to find and remember these threads.
Finally, I'll be traveling with my father until the 17th. I'll likely be able to post in RP threads and other topics, but I will not start making changes to the forum until that time or later. Hopefully by then we'll have a few ideas for names. Personally, I really like Water 7 Forums, but that's just me.
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Post by Kyubey on Dec 12, 2014 12:48:03 GMT -5
Awesome. Like I have said elsewhere, I fully support these recent decisions, and am more than willing to help out with them in any way I can. I can't wait to see these changes in action.
Also, I'm a fan of Water 7 as well. Best forum. Best arc. Water 7.
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Post by Kuro on Dec 13, 2014 15:22:10 GMT -5
Ah, I was wondering if the chatbox error was just me.
I hope you have a good trip!
I like Water 7.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Dec 13, 2014 19:44:24 GMT -5
If it is going to be a location, my preference is towards a more important/iconic location than something like Water 7.
That's if we do end up doing a location though.
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Post by CJ on Dec 19, 2014 11:46:39 GMT -5
What other location would you suggest then, Shark?
Personally, I'm up for Water 7 or Raftel Island now. Water 7 is obviously best arc 10/10, but Raftel is more of an idea at this point. I think it could stand to represent the discussion and theories we have now and the ever growing future with the series.
Also, just a brief announcement in this post. I pushed back the forum updates until this upcoming Tuesday. I'm getting my arse kicked at work to make up for vacation time and I literally only have time for glorious New Japan Pro Wrestling and managing my house. Thank you all for your patience and for your suggestions. I'm excited to see what the future of this forum brings in 2015.
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Post by Kyubey on Dec 19, 2014 13:38:27 GMT -5
What other location would you suggest then, Shark? Personally, I'm up for Water 7 or Raftel Island now. Water 7 is obviously best arc 10/10, but Raftel is more of an idea at this point. I think it could stand to represent the discussion and theories we have now and the ever growing future with the series. Raftel wouldn't work, if only because that's already a forum. Or at least, was. For a while, that was the name of the One Piece Podcast's forum, and while they appear to have changed it lately, if we took the title up we'd have the disadvantage of always being compared to them. There's the thing, most of the important places have already been taken. Water 7 still holds up, I think. Both as an arc that all of us here like, but also as an island filled with people who are constantly creating things. And an arc driven by storyline. Just works really well altogether, I'd say. If we do decide to go with another place, though... Reverse Mountain, Punk Hazard, Loguetown, and Alabasta are all fun places, and most of them are pretty important as well. If we move away from locations for a second, I've also considered Romance Dawn as a potential name. Going off of CJ's idea for Raftel, Romance Dawn could sorta symbolize how our forum is a starting point for discussion, criticism, and creativity.
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Post by CJ on Feb 10, 2015 9:47:20 GMT -5
Whelp, obviously I've been terribly delayed.
Here are some new things I'm thinking of changing during our transition. Please look these over as they are very important and I'd like your guys' input.
Water 7 Forums... or another name?
I'm pretty dead set on Water 7 Forums being our new name. It's not only the name of the most critical arc of One Piece, but it's also instantly familiar. I think that I'll add OPHQ somewhere in the header of the forum so that it comes up on search engines if people were to search the old name. Unless someone comes up with a better name, I think we'll stick to this one.
Starting ALL over...
Hito suggested a while back that if I were to go ahead and change these forums, it might actually be better to start completely fresh with a whole new forum. What would this mean? Obviously a lot. The RP would stay the same but all other sections would start fresh. Of course, I would never, ever consider this without input, but it's something to consider that a whole new forum is appealing to new members, whereas this dead one has turned many people away.
Removing the Chatbox
This is the one I think is going to get the most criticism and understandably so. It's been my personal belief and the belief of some others that the chatbox is partially responsible for killing discussion on the forums. I've even been victim to posting my thoughts on a recent chapter in the chatbox rather than a proper thread. I think Skype conversations could hold the same worth as the chatbox (or even just going to the chatango website separately itself). Again, this is something I would never do without proper input.
Please let me know what you guys think.
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Post by Mise™ on Feb 10, 2015 12:39:16 GMT -5
Don't remove the chatbox. Yes it definitely does cut in the amount of forum posts and if you remove it you will probably get some more posts, but it's also the best feature on the site and if it wasn't here I'd probably just not come here as often. And hiding it would just be inconvenient.
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Post by Kyubey on Feb 10, 2015 20:29:09 GMT -5
On Water 7 Forums:
I already agreed that this is probably the best name for us. No need to comment further. My stance is known.
On starting all over:
This probably pains me the most, though less so if the RP is carried over. Many of my written anime reviews are exclusively on these forums, however, and it would be a shame (to no one but me, admittedly) if they were lost. That being said, if we do decide to go this route, I can easily save my better ones elsewhere, and I do very much see the reasoning here. There's also a great amount of writing by other people, and I'm not sure everyone's can be saved, though, and it would be a loss to just do away with those. As much as the risk of losing all that wonderful work is frightening, there is also the prospect of getting new members to, gasp, actually read and respond to future writings! At this point, a more active community should be the priority, even if we still keep it a small one, but there are some things to keep in mind, regarding that.
On Deleting the Chatbox:
I've mixed feelings about this as well. The central idea behind it, I absolutely agree with. There is a horrible lack of posting in threads that aren't RP related (and even most of the ones that are), and I think the chatbox is largely, though perhaps not wholly, to blame. I do remember a few years back posting was more of a prominent thing in threads, but there was also more people, too. Meanwhile, I've increasingly seen thoughts and topics that should absolutely be mentioned in full posts be talked about in the chatbox instead. Like with the example CJ brought up, and several other examples as well, with a recent conversation about arc quality being the first thing that came to mind. Unfortunately, the chatbox just isn't a great place for focused discussion, and takes away from the great conversations that would be happening if we had enough room to fully elaborate our thoughts, like in a more traditional posting format. Again with the attracting new members subject, I believe an active forum community would be more enticing than an active chatbox one. Another thing to consider. That all being said, there are obvious downsides. In particular, there are several members who do not use the Skype chat at all, and like Mise said, it's currently one of the more lively features of our community. Personally, I'm leaning in favor of removing it, but I can understand why we might not. If we do, I think an alternative should be available somehow, for those who still want it. Even if that alternative is inconvenient.
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Post by CJ on Feb 10, 2015 23:32:23 GMT -5
As far as rebooting the forums go, I think I'll focus on making this one good. If this one doesn't succeed, we can always try rebooting it later. There's no rush after all. Also, I would be saving all of the topics asked to be saved (including the RP and your articles). I would then leave this forum locked for at least a year so people weren't totally robbed of their old posts.
And for the chatbox... you guys bring up good points. I think a nice compromise would to include the chatbox on the main page and only the main page. Alternatively, we could put it at the bottom of the page so that topics are more appealing. I don't think it's the best feature on the site at all to be honest. There's been some amazing conversation in there but it's all been lost. There's been far too many times that someone has said something profound that never once saw something even close in comparison on the message boards. That being said, a lot of people like it, so I'll see what I can do to keep it while maintaining the integrity of the forums.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Feb 11, 2015 0:06:56 GMT -5
I don't see any point to rebooting. So far we've tried that strategy again and again, with MG and then this site, and each time starting anew didn't magically save anything. Nor did it, to my recollection, actually attract members. At least in the long term. As far as I am concerned based on our track record, I don't see any reason why this should even be considered as an option. Unless of course, everyone wanted to just change the focus to something NOT anime/manga or RP, which isn't happening right now. Alternatively, if there is some novel new idea or strategy we can employ when beginning anew that will some how make things different this time, but I don't know what that is or even could be, so my vote is against that. Basically my prediction is that if we were to reboot, things might look and seem fresh and fancy for a few weeks, but we'd still have the same problem not dealt with, and be in the same situation we are now, but without any of the content we have here, any of the dormant but possibly recurringly active members (like Funkfreed, and some of the new members who are in and out, but might not realize we moved sites), and any of the familiarity. It's a nice facelift but doesn't actually fix anything and could actually hurt us worse. Really the only situation I could imagine that a reboot would be worth it, is if like, we can't change the URL of the site itself and want it to be something else like "onepieceroleplay.proboards.com" or whatever else, and we couldn't have that without an actual site change but wanted it. If that were the case, then I would say, we would spend like, at least a good few months making clear the migration, making threads and letting people know of the change, and probably finally actually just making the banner or something a big picture saying "WE MOVED TO THIS SITE HERE 'LINK'", to make sure everyone gets what's going on and we don't leave anyone behind if we can.
I don't support the Water 7 change, but only that specifically. I just think there's something it could be, better than just one island of some arc well in the past. Changing it to something OP-related I don't have much an issue with. That's just my own personal pet peeve though, I just don't like that specific name but I don't have a serious problem with it or the general idea of a change. Though, unless we just magically forgot for some reason, I thought we were going to at least try to simply recreate OPHQ as close to a carbon copy as we could for awhile, just a trial period for a few months to see if it worked, and then changing to the proper final name/style after if it didn't work. I think given everything else we have done, are doing and will do, it's at least worth a try, if only for the possibility of dredging some interest and old members. If we're just going to ignore the OPHQ idea and change the site to something OP related without even considering it, then my opinion on the matter ends here.
As for the Chatbox, I personally believe that whatever problems it might have caused for the site, for us and users in general it is both a powerful and infinitely useful tool. For more than just the site and RP purposes I might add, how many times have we used it to ask if someone is on, to advertise and drum up interest for a stream or something currently online, or to organize something off-site like movie night. Even just as an extension of the skype group. I think the Chatbox has a hundred times and more, well demonstrated it's worth to us, to outweigh the drawbacks. Plus consider that basically ever other site has chatboxes, even other RP sites, and function just fine. I think based on that the problem is less the chatbox. If it really bothers people, perhaps consider imposing some basic rules to be understood of its use. Like maybe it can only be for non-site relevant discussion, so any talk of anime/manga, the RP, etc... is frowned upon/not allowed, and is to be posted in relevant threads. Things like talk about setting up movie night, or just what's going on in people's lives is ok though. Just a basic possibility I came up with on the fly.
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Post by CJ on Feb 11, 2015 10:04:46 GMT -5
Yeah, I agree on the rebooting thing. As tempting as it is to start fresh, I'm not sure if it's the right option for us at this point. I'd rather give this site a make over and see what happens in a few months. Again, there's really no rush to this entire process so we could even move in a year if every one came to that conclusion.
I'll say it before and I'll say it again. If you can come up with something better than Water 7, please do. This isn't a veiled threat or anything. I just am stumped to think of something else. The name is very appealing to me, but I can see why it wouldn't be to someone else. If anyone has other suggestions, please voice them.
I agree about the merits of the chatbox, which is why I think I'll have it either at the bottom of the page or simply only on the main page. I can recall several other forums where I was able to get a quick answer by using a chatbox. I think I'll put a disclaimer in the rules to leave critical discussion for the boards to avoid the issues we've been having.
Thanks again for your responses!
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Post by Morcombe on Feb 11, 2015 19:31:27 GMT -5
I'd do a site makeover before a full reboot.
as for the name water 7 is the most iconic arc so probably gets the most searches in search engines but there is also something I thought might be interesting and that would be changing the site name to watever arc the manga is currently in such as renaming ourselves dressrosa then wano kuni when that arc arrives because that will ultimately be the most popular search for one piece in search engines. You could even use OPHQ as well.
example: OPHQ.Water7.co, OPHQ.Dressrosa.com OPHQ.WanoKuni.com and so on if it's possible to do. or if you dont wanna use the ophq at all just remove that part.
chatbox no longer has any impact on me, for watever reasons it no longer loads unless I actually type its url into a new window so whether you keep it or not is all up to you guys.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Feb 11, 2015 20:14:48 GMT -5
Off the top of my head, if I had to pick something from the actual series, I'd call it Grand Line or something. Anything more overtly relevant and important than a single island that was the subject of one arc.
Also, I rather like Morc's idea. It's definitely something creative and different, from what we're used to doing and have done before. I would put my vote towards trying it out at least, if people would be willing to make the effort to keep the site looking up to date with the story as it goes along.
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Post by Mise™ on Feb 12, 2015 2:14:04 GMT -5
chatbox no longer has any impact on me, for watever reasons it no longer loads unless I actually type its url into a new window so whether you keep it or not is all up to you guys. I have that too. It's caused by your anti-virus. Other than changing your anti-virus to another or wait for it to get fixed in a future update I haven't found any fix to it.
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