Introduction:
Zelda Dungeon has a front page for Zelda related news. This gives reason for our Zelda fans to keep visiting our site. However, this doesn't award our true fans (the users of the community). They not only visit our front page, but keep our community active. For this, they deserve to have some their own special portal for various updates. This is where the Community Portal comes in. This will let our active users see their username on a news page, and giving them a feeling of an award for being active in our community. This will help some users who may not be as active as they want keep up with stuff. Finally, it helps visitors become new users and fit in more quicker.
Motive:
Help improve our community experience.
Tentative Plan:
I don't know how to really explain this without directly stating it. Some of you may already know some about this.
I want to have various updates each day based off various stuff. For example, Mafia Updates, Contests, Random Stuff, etc.
Here are some ideas I have in mind for things we can post on.
1) Mafia Update
The mafia game has become fairly big. Some people may have difficulty reading through posts, keeping up to date, etc. I don't play mafia, so I don't know the details that well. I hope someone who has played mafia, can give me some insight on this.
2) Contest Updates
Let it be graphics, fan fics, etc, we have various contests. This lets our community get more active and have fun with competitiveness. One of the difficulty of having contests is letting everyone know without spamming and annoying them. The community portal can help with this.
3) Various Form Updates
These updates can be rule update, new feature, etc. It sort of difficult to make a thread for this that everyone reads. I also don't like sticking threads if I don't have to. The community Portal can help with this.
4) Mini Podcast
Yes, I know that our site does monthly podcasts. These would be smaller quicker podcasts. The monthly podcast takes a month because a lot has to be done. I know that Din-Nid and Rish do a lot for these. However, what if someone wants to do one quick without waiting a month. Well with this, they can make a short few minute podcast, and it can be heard in the same week. Also, these mini podcasts can be used in the big podcast. Especially, with the ability of users to leave constructive criticism.
5) Poster of the Week/Day OR Post/Thread of the Week/Day
We occasionally do this on our main site, but they really don't intrigue our visitors. They most often pull in the fewest comments. I believe this is due to many of our front page visitors don't know the poster. With the community portal, this will be different. I believe that this will encourage users to post more and higher quality with the idea of seeing their username on the portal. Also, this may encourage a visitor to register just to post a comment on it.
6) Mini Articles, Theories, Etc
Again, we sort of already do this each Friday on the main site. However, I sort of want to feature more theory threads or mini articles. This is seems more like #5, but it doesn't hurt to state it since this is all tentative.
7) Random Stuff
I have no idea what else to call this. Example if what I mean would be a Meme of the Week. This is where I would think of a random thing to do, and users may do it. For example, posting lyrics to Mamma Mia on Miss North's Visitor Message. Another may be a random quote/saying/picture in the signatures or avatar. This can be sort of creative if you got any ideas.
8) Group Stuff
Vbulleting has a group feature that I don't know how well it is. Maybe this portal can be used to increase popularity with it. I can't think of anything right now, but feel free.
9) Blog Stuff
Maybe do a blog/blogger of the week/day. I don't know if we would include this for the poster/post. I'll let you guys decide.
Anyways, I hope you guys get a general idea of what I was thinking off. Maybe add or modify one of the ideas.
Volunteers:
I'm going to talk to Mosley and see if I can get the .psd of the image thing under the username. I also may do a user color. My hope is these two things may encourage users to volunteer with this idea. I'll try and do one thing a week, assuming people would like my meme of the week or whatever. Like our news cast, they know that to keep something up to date take steam work.
If you are curious, I do have a test forum up where I've been learning this feature. Feel free to play around with it. PM me if you want access to play around with it. Its set up at: www.zeldadungeon.net/Justin/forum/content.php
Conclusion:
Like I said, I hope that this will benefit the forums a little. I also consider it like a toy to the forums (similar to the blogs). I also have future plans for this for a Camp Hyrule idea, but that will be a thread/discussion on its own. I really hope we get some volunteers soon. I plan to get this in a week or so, but I don't exactly.
Please comment! Thanks!
Zelda Dungeon has a front page for Zelda related news. This gives reason for our Zelda fans to keep visiting our site. However, this doesn't award our true fans (the users of the community). They not only visit our front page, but keep our community active. For this, they deserve to have some their own special portal for various updates. This is where the Community Portal comes in. This will let our active users see their username on a news page, and giving them a feeling of an award for being active in our community. This will help some users who may not be as active as they want keep up with stuff. Finally, it helps visitors become new users and fit in more quicker.
Motive:
Help improve our community experience.
Tentative Plan:
I don't know how to really explain this without directly stating it. Some of you may already know some about this.
I want to have various updates each day based off various stuff. For example, Mafia Updates, Contests, Random Stuff, etc.
Here are some ideas I have in mind for things we can post on.
1) Mafia Update
The mafia game has become fairly big. Some people may have difficulty reading through posts, keeping up to date, etc. I don't play mafia, so I don't know the details that well. I hope someone who has played mafia, can give me some insight on this.
2) Contest Updates
Let it be graphics, fan fics, etc, we have various contests. This lets our community get more active and have fun with competitiveness. One of the difficulty of having contests is letting everyone know without spamming and annoying them. The community portal can help with this.
3) Various Form Updates
These updates can be rule update, new feature, etc. It sort of difficult to make a thread for this that everyone reads. I also don't like sticking threads if I don't have to. The community Portal can help with this.
4) Mini Podcast
Yes, I know that our site does monthly podcasts. These would be smaller quicker podcasts. The monthly podcast takes a month because a lot has to be done. I know that Din-Nid and Rish do a lot for these. However, what if someone wants to do one quick without waiting a month. Well with this, they can make a short few minute podcast, and it can be heard in the same week. Also, these mini podcasts can be used in the big podcast. Especially, with the ability of users to leave constructive criticism.
5) Poster of the Week/Day OR Post/Thread of the Week/Day
We occasionally do this on our main site, but they really don't intrigue our visitors. They most often pull in the fewest comments. I believe this is due to many of our front page visitors don't know the poster. With the community portal, this will be different. I believe that this will encourage users to post more and higher quality with the idea of seeing their username on the portal. Also, this may encourage a visitor to register just to post a comment on it.
6) Mini Articles, Theories, Etc
Again, we sort of already do this each Friday on the main site. However, I sort of want to feature more theory threads or mini articles. This is seems more like #5, but it doesn't hurt to state it since this is all tentative.
7) Random Stuff
I have no idea what else to call this. Example if what I mean would be a Meme of the Week. This is where I would think of a random thing to do, and users may do it. For example, posting lyrics to Mamma Mia on Miss North's Visitor Message. Another may be a random quote/saying/picture in the signatures or avatar. This can be sort of creative if you got any ideas.
8) Group Stuff
Vbulleting has a group feature that I don't know how well it is. Maybe this portal can be used to increase popularity with it. I can't think of anything right now, but feel free.
9) Blog Stuff
Maybe do a blog/blogger of the week/day. I don't know if we would include this for the poster/post. I'll let you guys decide.
Anyways, I hope you guys get a general idea of what I was thinking off. Maybe add or modify one of the ideas.
Volunteers:
I'm going to talk to Mosley and see if I can get the .psd of the image thing under the username. I also may do a user color. My hope is these two things may encourage users to volunteer with this idea. I'll try and do one thing a week, assuming people would like my meme of the week or whatever. Like our news cast, they know that to keep something up to date take steam work.
If you are curious, I do have a test forum up where I've been learning this feature. Feel free to play around with it. PM me if you want access to play around with it. Its set up at: www.zeldadungeon.net/Justin/forum/content.php
Conclusion:
Like I said, I hope that this will benefit the forums a little. I also consider it like a toy to the forums (similar to the blogs). I also have future plans for this for a Camp Hyrule idea, but that will be a thread/discussion on its own. I really hope we get some volunteers soon. I plan to get this in a week or so, but I don't exactly.
Please comment! Thanks!
