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Topic:
Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
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NarCranor
Registered:
Mar '05
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Date Posted:
4/20 5:14pm
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
- Date Edited:
4/20 5:15pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
NarCranor
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I think the one thing this forum needs most is an index of sites. Granted, assembling something like that is a monster task, but I think some kind of index, basically a categorized list, maybe with a star-rating system applied, would really help organize this section of the community. Fan sites typically break down into one of the following categories:
Star Wars Media Site (your general angelfire site with some pictures, sounds and video accompanied by some text that says "i love star wars")
Forum Site (the most popular, the entire site consists basically of a forum, where star wars fans can get together and chat)
RP Site (typically also a forum site, but the focus of the site is on either chat-based or forum-based Role Playing.)
Star Wars Character/Object-focused Site (Your padme fan site, or maybe a vader fan site, etc)
Star Wars Resource Site (bob vitas encyclopedia, the technical commentaries, wookieepedia, nav-computer.com, etc)
Fan-Film (sites that are the homes for fan films)
Fan-Fiction (sites that host fan fiction)
Fan-Art/Comics (sites that host fan art and comic books)
Fan-figures (sites focused on showing off or teaching people how to create fan figures)
Fan-Costuming (sites focused on showing off or teaching people how to create costumes and props)
Star Wars News (sites that are focused on reporting the goings-on, such as TFN, rebelscum, etc
And that is about it. I think the best way to approach it is to get an article on TFN, calling all webmasters interested in being listed in the index to email you, this way you don't have to endlessly search the internet. Then for each website, you categorize it, judge it by criteria specific to that category, assign it a star rating, and give it a little summary/review and add it to the directory. Make it a sticky, and bam, you have a much more organized community.
Obviously this is a lot of work, but I am sure there are people willing to assist, itd just be a matter of setting the judging/reviewing guidelines strictly so the rating is fairly the same across the board.
The other thing I think we need to see more of, and see stickied, are tutorial type posts. How do you decide what kind of fan site to make, how do you actually go about making it, and then how do you promote it once it is made. These types of threads should get stickies as well. I know I went off on a rant a few months ago about how I think people should go about making fan sites after seeing one too many posts for "my new forum site!" I wish that would have gotten stickied.
But yeah, I see the forum's purpose as a dual one. 1.) it should be a place for people who run websites to come together and discuss issues that affect websites, be it coding, traffic, etc, and help them overcome those issues. 2.) it should be a place where people wanting to visit fan sites can go and find them quickly and easily.
Anyway, I would be more than willing to help on the tutorial side, but on the reviewing side, I am a caustically harsh critic, so I am not sure if you would want me doing any of that lol. I'd definitely be the simon of the judging group. Hrm, though that might be very cool, to have three judges judge each site and do their one little paragraph and star rating, and take the average of the 3 for the actual rating. More work, but I think it'd be a cooler thing in the end. The current index is just pretty random and lack-luster. We need some kind of better categorized and accessible listing.
Anyway, this rant has gone on long enough. Let me know via email narcranr @ aol.com or here on the forum or PM, whatever works.
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darth_nemisis
Title: Host:
Acolytes of Darkness
Registered:
May '04
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Date Posted:
4/20 8:23pm
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
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We do have an index (Right here), but what I think you are proposing is a bit different, and probably a better one (no offense to Sara Kenobi, of course  ). And the way you categorize all the types of fan sites are true...very true. I think a mention on TF.n would be fantastic, and would be very helpful. Though, emailing would probably not be the best way to do so. I would think that simply posting them here and then having them be added to the index that way would be best for a couple of reasons: 1.) easier for the index manager to spot rather than having to check through emails - it saves a step. 2.) It could bring more activity into this forum, which is greatly needed.
I had in mind a good review process that I was going to PM to DV when he found more time, in which I would simply write reviews about the boards, and rate it out of 10, similar to your idea for the star rating. You say you would be too harsh, but I think that is a good thing, as long as you do not become too offensive. A lot of time, criticism is what is needed, and can only help, as long as it is not taken badly.
Tutorial type posts would be great and very helpful. Perhaps we could collaborate on a few?  I was thinking that a new index could be made, like the one you suggest. However, the first post would not house the threads themselves, but the resource threads within this forum like the tutorials, the Web resource, and several other threads that I had found in my search through the Fan Sites history (over the last week, I looked through all the pages of fan sites and found a bunch of helpful threads that should be either re-opened or re-created).
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jedimasterbac
Title: Fan Sites Manager
Registered:
Jun '04
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Date Posted:
5/5 8:16am
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
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NarCranor, I've actually been working on that exact thing. I've been doing it for a few weeks and I hope to have it done soon. It's just taking awhile because I'm literally indexing everything that was ever posted in this forum. Look for it within the next few weeks. 
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darth_nemisis
Title: Host:
Acolytes of Darkness
Registered:
May '04
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Date Posted:
5/7 1:30pm
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
- Date Edited:
5/7 1:31pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
darth_nemisis
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Hey Bac, what sort of thing are you working on exactly? Because I had an idea in mind and I don't want to do it if you are doing the same thing. Perhaps I could help you out with it...?
Like, are you going through the entire Fan Sites forum and indexing everything? If so, I am not sure that is needed as many of these topics are old, locked and the Sites that they link to are no longer up.
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jedimasterbac
Title: Fan Sites Manager
Registered:
Jun '04
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Date Posted:
5/7 8:04pm
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
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Well, obviously I'm not going to index ones that are dead links, but if the links are still active then I'm going to document them. They all deserve to be seen, in my opinion. As for what I'm doing, it's collecting all of those links and then indexing them basically in the way that Nar suggested earlier. He was right on the money there.
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darth_nemisis
Title: Host:
Acolytes of Darkness
Registered:
May '04
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Date Posted:
5/8 7:36am
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
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May I make a suggestion? I do not like the way that the index is now, with the seperate posts and what not. I think it'd be fine if you were to post seperate categories into separate posts, but keep the majority into a single post like how many of the other indexes are on this site.
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jedimasterbac
Title: Fan Sites Manager
Registered:
Jun '04
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Date Posted:
5/8 9:36am
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
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Yeah, I plan to make it as simple and as easy to navigate as possible.
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darth_nemisis
Title: Host:
Acolytes of Darkness
Registered:
May '04
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Date Posted:
5/8 12:57pm
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
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That's cool. What I had in mind was making it two posts. First post would be links to helpful threads around the board here, like the webmaster resource, the new threads that have been made recently, and some other ones that I had in mind. Then the second post would be the index of threads that had links to their Fan Sites in them. I figured that would be best for the purpose of this forum.
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jedimasterbac
Title: Fan Sites Manager
Registered:
Jun '04
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Date Posted:
5/8 1:00pm
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
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Actually, that's probably the best way. Very good idea!
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darth_nemisis
Title: Host:
Acolytes of Darkness
Registered:
May '04
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Date Posted:
5/9 6:49pm
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
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Yeah...I have found several helpful threads from way back when that I think we could put in the helpful links section.
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darth_nemisis
Title: Host:
Acolytes of Darkness
Registered:
May '04
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Date Posted:
5/11 9:30pm
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
- Date Edited:
5/11 9:40pm (2 edits total)
Edited By:
darth_nemisis
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Fan Sites Creation Challenge
Sorry to Double Post again, but I have a great idea. What if we were to create a Fan Sites Challenge in which 3-6 members (if there are that many  ) create a forum from scratch and then get judged by a panel of judges consisting of the moderator and other web site savvy individuals? The winner could get VIP for a while.
I thought this would be a great idea, one that will promote interaction between the members of the community, also this could be announced and advertised in the Mod Squad and Around the Board Updates, as well as possibly being announced on theforce.net. Also, this could spark some great ideas for a fan site. If a competition like this is made and promoted throughout the boards, that site could get pretty popular.
I already have a rough draft of rules and guidelines that I think could work - it will probably need to be modified in order to be accepted by the Mod Squad I assume but I think it is a pretty good foundation for what could become a great competition.
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TaunTaunHerder
Registered:
Oct '07
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Date Posted:
5/21 9:18am
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
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How about a How To forum on making helmets and masks?
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jedimasterbac
Title: Fan Sites Manager
Registered:
Jun '04
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Date Posted:
5/21 9:44am
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
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While that sounds like an interesting idea for a fan website, this thread is for ideas about this board.
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darth_nemisis
Title: Host:
Acolytes of Darkness
Registered:
May '04
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Date Posted:
5/26 8:20am
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
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jedimasterbac: How is that index coming along?
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jedimasterbac
Title: Fan Sites Manager
Registered:
Jun '04
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Date Posted:
5/26 10:01am
Subject:
RE: Have suggestions and/or ideas for the Fan Sites forum? Post them here!
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Slower than I had hoped, but it's coming.
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