Ideas and Roadmap for this forum

[admin]

I have implemented a thanks feature.

For now it works with the subsilver2, prosilver and prosilver_se themes, I will be working this afternoon into implementing it in the other themes (vphpbb3, lucid_lime, etc...).

I am also going to upload the temporary logos and update the site url (leaving a permanent redirect to the current one).

Once this is done, I think we can go live and start inviting people!

[admin]

Speaking of this, what do you guys think? Are we good enough or are there any showstoppers making this "go live" premature?

[admin]

update: thanks feature now available for all the skins, except mobile and vphpbb3 skin

update 2: implemented feature in vphpbb3, ratings do not appear in topics list.

[admin]

OK, done for the logos, that just leaves for the URL, I am going to try to move it to:

community.ist.utl.pt

Its as good as it will get for as long as we will remain in the university server.

Opinions needed: are we good enough to go live?

PS: Thanks to Zionite for the temporary logos!

[imopen2]

I guess I'm not sure what we currently magic-wise but I think some people would come to shoot the shit and then maybe the content would develop

[Yannaria]

I feel like getting a standard forum up and running before going live, or at least propped up, would be good.

[Captain Murphy]

Very excited. Good job guys, I know its going to be worth it.

[admin]

I guess I'm not sure what we currently magic-wise but I think some people would come to shoot the shit and then maybe the content would develop

I feel like getting a standard forum up and running before going live, or at least propped up, would be good.

I think we have an important conundrum here:

- We need a larger userbase if we want to have more content in this forum
- We will not attract more users unless we have an interesting enough content.

So at this point, the options are either to continue inviting more people who are willing to "beta-
test" the forum and contribute with more content, or make the jump and take the risk of going live.

There are a few things amiss for the forum to have good quality standards:

- multiquote (https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... 0&t=683585)
- custom tags
- better display of linked images (https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... 0&t=830965)
- forum chat (https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/ ... w_version/)
- disable flood control in specific subforums
- user defined ppp
- post numbering edit: done
- autocorrector

and I'll be taking care of them as my time allows for it.

You guys can also contribute. For
example, we still need a good tutorial for the most important features of the forum. More importantly, we need to populate the site with content.

So I'm willing to hear more opinions. Again, the plan is to have enough people invested in the decision-making process, so ultimately it won't be my choices that will define the direction we want to take for this forum, but instead what we all collectively want for the site. I believe its the only way we are going to have the site thrive, avoiding stagnation and overincreased "bureaucracy" and an inneficient decision chain (we all know what I mean here).

[admin]

Also, re-updated the prosilver and prosilver_se skins with the new logo. They look sweet!

FTR I think we put a lot of work in here regarding the skins. Stuff like having the choice betwwen so diverse skins vphpbb3, prosilver, lucid_lime, subsilver2, aeroblue, puts us a notch above competition.

It is a pain to update every skin with the new mods, but its weel worth it in the end

[Yannaria]

Then I think we should grab beta-testers to help with content development before jumping into the deep end.

[admin]

Well then, start inviting more people here.

I've told this before, but I'll reinstate: Bring whoever you guys think would be a good addition to our forum. Don't ask me permission for this, there is no need to.

[admin]

Also, now we can play embeded youtube videos.

The tag is: [*youtube]video url[/youtube], without the *

PS: be sure to not have any trailing &YYYYY after v=XXXXX

[Azrael]

No problem with inviting people, but if we really want this thing to snowball, we need a URL that can actually be typed.

[admin]

community.ist.utl.pt is the best I can do while we do not move to purchasing an url.

[Yannaria]

I'm website illiterate, how easy is it to buy a URL? I mean should we wait until we get a server that isn't at a university, or just do it?

[imopen2]

website is super easy to buy, i'm not sure about servers etc tho

[Captain Murphy]

Isn't it super cheap to rent a server?

[Azrael]

I know for a fact that purchasing URLs is dirt cheap. Servers - don't know as much about that.

EDIT: I'm seeing figures ranging from 20-80 per month on cursory perusal.

[Captain Murphy]

Is there some way an ad can be made to cover the costs of the server?

[admin]

ofc. But we still need an userbase to make the add cover the costs. For now they are free though (university server) so it has its advantages for a sustained growth.

A first step might be having a catchy url with a redirect to this server, then we can try to get a decent userbase, and down the line we can finally move to a new server which wll allow us to rrun adds to cover the costs

[Manders]

I don't have a lot of ideas about how to run it or buying urls/servers, but I can tell you this...

Mafia is as ready to go as it can be.

[Manders]

Wait, I do have one idea that I would use.

Blogs. Mafia stats need a blog, man!

[admin]

Blogs. Mafia stats need a blog, man!

Gone to the todo list!

As for going live, we didn't reach consensus yet.

- On one hand the site is stabilized and the main mods have been carried out. We have many things other sites don't have like hover over cards, or embebded youtubes. We could populate.
- On other hand, the site adress is a big showstopper to some of us, and there is concern over missing some content to motivate people to stay.

I think the consensus is that for now we should invite an increasing number of people and see how it goes. I'd like some more feedback from people like Azrael, you, GR, pinkfloyd, kp, etc...).

[Manders]

Well, the sig I made is inviting Mafia players, mostly just to get that area going. As for going live, I think we should at least attempt to get our own server before we really start advertising.

Also, when I logged out to log in as MandersHex, I noticed that Mafia Games cannot be seen. Well, you can see we have a forum for them, but when you click on it, there's nothing.

[admin]

Also, when I logged out to log in as MandersHex, I noticed that Mafia Games cannot be seen. Well, you can see we have a forum for them, but when you click on it, there's nothing.

FTFY

[Tordeck]

Not sure if its been covered yet but a section for Extendo's might be a nice addition.

[Azrael]

I have no problem opening the floodgates.

At this point, I've hit a dead end on finding programmers. Mulling over what to do about it, but I'm guessing the amount of work it'd take to hire a professional to implement these features on a wage basis is prohibitively expensive.

I wouldn't be opposed to learning the skill-set myself, but that seems like a long-shot.

[admin]

Well, we never know if some willing people would be joining at some point, so we might want to increasse our membership.

In the programming front, I will be continuing to implement nice features in the wake of the mouse-over cards plugin or the youtube plugin. Next in the list of todos ar putting the multiquote, chat and blogs features (also managing to put some sort of quicktopic feature here in the very site so that we can play mafia in just one place).

Lets see how it goes forward. I agree that http://community.ist.utl.pt isn't the most sexy name, but we risk losing some steam if we stall things.

ofc, additional input would be welcomed.

[admin]

I wouldn't be opposed to learning the skill-set myself, but that seems like a long-shot.

You can learn php and html very qucikly, but it is just if you don't want to do nothing fancy, for example like this html page: http://esther.ist.utl.pt/pages/spartan.html

If you want to do more dynamic pages, there is certainly a learning curve, and you shouldn't be shy at sinking some solid tenths of hours of internet html/css/php learning
.

[Zionite]

HTML is ridiculously easy to learn. I can't speak for anything past that though. Except Java; Java's not too bad.

[Captain Murphy]

I say we invite select few at first and beta test the site. Then open the gates.

[Azrael]

*nods* Until we find someone more capable, I'll put learning some code on the long-term schedule.

[Zionite]

Just learned about www.bluehost.com. Free domain, unlimited server space and subdomains, mySQL database and a lot more shit for five bucks a month. Can't beat that.

[Captain Murphy]

Can we run an advertisement that will net us at least $5 a month? That's possible yeah?

[Azrael]

Just learned about http://www.bluehost.com. Free domain, unlimited server space and subdomains, mySQL database and a lot more shit for five bucks a month. Can't beat that.

Nice. Very nice.

[admin]

We still need to buy a domain.

Otherwise the only difference is that bluehost cost 5$ a month but allow us to make advertisements, whereas the current location costs 0$ a month but doesn't allow publicity

[Captain Murphy]

We still need to buy a domain.

Otherwise the only difference is that bluehost cost 5$ a month but allow us to make advertisements, whereas the current location costs 0$ a month but doesn't allow publicity

You make a good point. Its still a great idea for the future.

[admin]

At this point, I'd say open the floodgates. We risk losing momentum and reaching a dead-end as there are no reliable choices for moving right now. Lets get people in here, populate the site with more content, then with a larger userbase we might have more people with ideas/willing to contribute. It seems the best way to move forward while we search for a final location and name.

Does someone wants to weight in this? Remember that I don't have in the very least the "last word" on any of the directions that the site might take, so I'm counting on you guys -the pioneers- for your input and insight.

Also, are there any more forums that you would like to see created? A Modern subforum? something?

Finally I will be installing the multiquote and better image attachment mods in the site once I fix the hard drive problem tomorrow. The site will have all the needed standard features and more!

[Manasjap]

A EDH/Commander forum (given it has a decent amount of content) would be able to also draw a more casual crowd I guess.

[admin]

Roger that, will make the forum tomorrow. How about a Modern subforum? Too early?