A new fourm

[Alistair]

Hello all. I am now helping out a friend on a new fourm he made. This too also has a photoshop section and 3d graphics section (it's not as inhanced as this though ). If you don't mind, and have enough time on you hands, I would gladly appreciate it if any of you on this fourm would also participate in our little fourm. It's just for fun and expierience. The fourm does have some options that you will not believe though. One that amazed me is that with each post, it lets you add a flash file with it if you want. The main purpose of this fourm was mainly for literature or writing, journalism, writing articles etc. But we have decided (since its new and needs a severe boost of members[so far it's just me and him) [shhh] ) to expand the fourm. So if you would like to join in, please do so, and definately stay with this fourm too, and we could make a community out of two fourms [excited] If you do so, to make things easy, please register as the same username as you are now, so if others do at this fourm, we recognize eachother more quickly. I know it is a disadvantage that there can not be more sections inside of one subject, but you're going to have to bear with us for now. Thankyou to all that understand This is the fourm -- Alistair

 

[Guest]

What really should get this board started is posts, since there aren't almost any. Now everybody is looking at everybody, waiting for a new post and the board will stay empty, no matter what. It's just the way people are.
Don't forget; it's easy to get visitors on your board, but it's not easy to keep them. If you would go to this board and see only empty threads, would you think about coming back...? And that one can add flash to a post, do you really think that this is going to attract members, be honest :\

My idea; grab a small group of people and start filling the threads.
There must be a lot of knowledge that this group can share, so why not post a few articles with tips, ideas, suggestions etc. You can never make a board a success, if you don't put your own efforts into it first. Just designing a board and opening a few threads doesn't cut it. Mark's board would never have been such a success, if he didn't start with his tutorials, articles, tips etc.

To be honest; it's never good to start with too many forums, because many will stay empty for a long time and that will only scare people off.
I would suggest to start with the 6-8 most important forums and let the board grow over time. Also try to figure out how to promote the board.
There are sooooooo many ways to do that in an efficient way, so do some research.
Going to a existing board and asking members who are already pleased with that particular board isn't really the best way to promote this board.

Just my 2 cents

Good luck

 

[AppleCider]

Another suggestion:

There is nothing there to indicate what Beartimes is all about. Is there a main website? If so, you need a link to it. I see you have a forum for "Articles" and invite people to write, but articles for what? About what? In other words, what's the focus of the site?

I do like the idea of combining writing and design (many of us do both) but until you told me, I had no idea that this was primarily a writer's forum.

I agree with Gauss....put something up there yourselves. (Tip: many site owners register under several names and seed the forums just to get things started. Seems like "cheating" but really it's not) You have a good idea to invite people you know, but we do need more info, from the site itself

 

[Guest]

Tip: many site owners register under several names and seed the forums just to get things started. Seems like "cheating" but really it's not

Never thought about that one!
Good one Julie

Btw, I don't consider it cheating either

 

[Erik]

It happens quite often that people register under several names, and even if you sense it, it's nearly impossible to prove as long as the boards allow registration without any valid e-mail adress or other identification.

I remember at TG we had a few idiots who started with friendly questions but slowly lured people into their web of discussion. And when they suddenly disappeared, it even became a sport to recognise the new name they had chosen to restart their game.

 

[TRENT310]

I'm the owner of that forum.

Ok this website is really mine, so... Ok. I'll fix the headers so that there is a link to the main site. The site is really at (Don't laugh!)www.beartmes.tk Ok. Very boring. Oh. BTW I already HAVE a lot of members, and they don't know how to register. Let them post as 'guest' and i'll rename it. (How do you make someone an Administrator?)

 

[TRENT310]

Hello all. I am now helping out a friend on a new fourm he made. This too also has a photoshop section and 3d graphics section (it's not as inhanced as this though ). If you don't mind, and have enough time on you hands, I would gladly appreciate it if any of you on this fourm would also participate in our little fourm. It's just for fun and expierience. The fourm does have some options that you will not believe though. One that amazed me is that with each post, it lets you add a flash file with it if you want. The main purpose of this fourm was mainly for literature or writing, journalism, writing articles etc. But we have decided (since its new and needs a severe boost of members[so far it's just me and him) [shhh] ) to expand the fourm. So if you would like to join in, please do so, and definately stay with this fourm too, and we could make a community out of two fourms [excited] If you do so, to make things easy, please register as the same username as you are now, so if others do at this fourm, we recognize eachother more quickly. I know it is a disadvantage that there can not be more sections inside of one subject, but you're going to have to bear with us for now. Thankyou to all that understand This is the fourm -- Alistair

Oh. I should h've sent you a private message. Oh well. I do have members, but they don't know how to register. So I need to register for them. (I also need to know their passwords, [excited] [excited])

 

[AppleCider]

TRENT, that link you gave points to the domain registration of beartms...don't link to that! [shhh]

As for registration, you might provide a FAQ for prospective members. Some things that are confusing in the registration process: On the first screen, where you have your Terms of Service, the default is "Do not agree." They may be confused by that. Also, on the 2nd screen, you tell them an email will be sent for a password, then provide an editable field for a password. To me, this overrides your message...I think some people may try to set a password right there, and get frustrated when they can't.

You need to read the ProBoard docs about how to change these things, as well as how to set up an Admin, etc.

 

[TRENT310]

Ooops! Wrong website!

This is the real Beartimes Website... I forgot the 'i'

 

[TRENT310]

TRENT, that link you gave points to the domain registration of beartms...don't link to that! [shhh]

As for registration, you might provide a FAQ for prospective members. Some things that are confusing in the registration process: On the first screen, where you have your Terms of Service, the default is "Do not agree." They may be confused by that. Also, on the 2nd screen, you tell them an email will be sent for a password, then provide an editable field for a password. To me, this overrides your message...I think some people may try to set a password right there, and get frustrated when they can't.

You need to read the ProBoard docs about how to change these things, as well as how to set up an Admin, etc.

Well, that's how most program engineers do their license agreements. If you just zip through it like I do, then it's already the bottom of the page, and most likely you'll see it. It says it will come in your email in the second page. I wanted to have a forum like this one, but then I don't know how to setup MySQL databases...Nor can I serve CGI scripts, so ProBoards has to serve it for me.

 

[Alistair]

Ok guys, thankyou so much for the suggestions. Trent (didn't i mention it was his in the first place) and I are workin on it alot. The scheme is now more of a greyish look, which i personaly like, but its not up to me, its the majority, so what do you guys think? My brother says the yellow is harsh, but im trying to figure out a replacement color.

TRENT: we'll work on the members. I've made myself a admin if u don't mind (since you were going to make me one in the first place). In your name, u can go into my or anyones profile, and at the bottom there are diffrent ranks (mod or admin). I really think ur the official admin, and im the helper, but it says we're both official! O well! I've made animations for the main header, and this site is really starting to form, though I just have to start it off by posting stuff [excited] [innocent] . Thanks all!

 

[TRENT310]

Ok guys, thankyou so much for the suggestions. Trent (didn't i mention it was his in the first place) and I are workin on it alot. The scheme is now more of a greyish look, which i personaly like, but its not up to me, its the majority, so what do you guys think? My brother says the yellow is harsh, but im trying to figure out a replacement color.

TRENT: we'll work on the members. I've made myself a admin if u don't mind (since you were going to make me one in the first place). In your name, u can go into my or anyones profile, and at the bottom there are diffrent ranks (mod or admin). I really think ur the official admin, and im the helper, but it says we're both official! O well! I've made animations for the main header, and this site is really starting to form, though I just have to start it off by posting stuff [excited] [innocent] . Thanks all!

Yeah. There isn't anything that says 'forum owner', but the other forums I had said that under my title. When you really start getting people, then the titles are hard to manage. We're starting off with inviting anyone who asks to me a Moderator or Administrator...anyone who signed up should have recieved a PM saying all the details. I've noticed that you've removed the background picture and the top graphic. If you haven't recieved my message, though, here: Blender Bear is done. All I wanted was the bears' head. It was made with three metaballs (the kind that stick together.) It's alright, but I need to find out how to save it as a PNg, GIF or JPEG file before I 'publish' it. I'll stick some text on it, if no one here minds.

______________________
Next time someone posts.

TRENT

 

[Alistair]

Good, the bears done! BlenderBear... BlendedBear, Blend bear, what ever you call it [confused] ! I now have my own forum for my site that will be comming up here. Talking about my forum trent, I thought you were working on putting whats on my forum viewable in your forum? I think it's best we have only one whole forum for designing, but you kind of put mine viewable inyo yours?

 

[theKeeper]

Hey guys...

The boards look like they're coming together great.
One BIG suggestion though is change-up your LINK colour. The grey scheme is fine, but that muddy blue (the default colour for a phpBB board) does not work against it. And while you're at it, make sure you change the default "linked" text colour too.

I suggest a bold contrasting colour like the one used here as the BG colour. Or even an electric blue would work. You just need to make it more contrating against the grey BG, that's all.

Coming along guys, keep with it.
I'll be checking it out for the script and 3D stuff. [excited]

 

[Guest]

Looks great Alistair, but where are the visitors? [confused]
Read again what I and others wrote earlier about your friend's board, because these tips will help you to get those visitors

 

[Alistair]

Thanks guassian, im working on making new posts, but at the moment im realy bussy.

 

[Geoff]

yeah ALISTAIR, looks great!