FanForce reformation

Alrighty. I'm not one to complain normally, but I get a lot that goes on in my mind.

Alrighty. First off, I want to discuss FanForce Activities, the forum. This forum could easily be merged in with FanForce Community. In both boards, things are discussed pertaining FanForce ~ how people get together. Now, if I'm not mistaken, this description was discussed in the FanForce City Rep Board a while ago: Need help with your FanForce events? Have a success story? Post here. Now, there could be an "official" thread in FanForce Community to discuss meetings, what works and what doesn't. There's a discussion among the City Reps about it, and it can also be discussed with your local FanForce... so why have a whole forum for it? There are hardly any visits to it, either. I saw nothing wrong with the Lineup board, but even when it was for Episode II lineups, there was very little traffic and most info about the lineups stayed in local FanForces. So, I bring up the point again, why have a whole board for it? It's discussed and can be discussed successfully elsewhere in FanForce.

Now, onto my second point of discussion. Myself and a few other JCers feel that there are a lot of FanForce boards that lie in dormancy and will most likely never get growth. If need be, I could compose a list of FanForce boards that never became "official" FanForces and dwindled away. I'm sure the many RSAs and GSAs know which ones I speak of, so I won't take the time to name them all... but I think there should be a policy for keeping a board in FanForce open. If the forum has no visits for say either 60 or 90 days, then delete it. Worse case scenario, create a commitee, contact those who posted there and then see if they want the forum open. Sure, the commitee would need to run by rules (such as if they contact someone to see if they will continue to post at the board, and they don't respond within a certain amount of days, their input is invalid), but the idea could work.

And finally, all these locked threads. A lot of JCers complain and get complained to about our lack of space. All of the threads that are locked should be deleted, and perhaps the FanForce Staff here post an announcement so if anyone cares to archive those threads, they can be. But for the majority, they take up space... and aren't used.

Well.. that's just my views on the situation. Feel free to support or argue me. I just want to see FanForce be a little more organized to help people out

 

I mostly agree to this, except that I don't want the FFC Squadrons moved and I think there should be a certain amount of time before threads are deleted and they should be kept locked until they can be archived if needed. That's all I have to say.

 

I must say I agree. What you proposing makes lots of sense, James. It sounds like it would make things easier.

~Miss Jaina

 

I didn't mean the FFC threads, but then again, Rox himself said all threads over 5k posts (thank the Lord for farraday's implimentation) will be deleted after 2 weeks to give people time to archive them. I more or less meant those locked threads in FanForce City boards. Most larger FanForces have a page or so of them.

 

Indeed, an interesting proposal. It could work. I'm with you.

 

Good idea

 

Alrighty. First off, I want to discuss FanForce Activities, the forum. This forum could easily be merged in with FanForce Community.

I agree that this board does not get much attention, although I'd rather see it merged into the Fan Force Convention Board (which also doesn't get a whole lot of traffic). Community is more of a social thing, and I'd like to see the event planning threads kept in a separate forum.

Myself and a few other JCers feel that there are a lot of FanForce boards that lie in dormancy and will most likely never get growth... I think there should be a policy for keeping a board in FanForce open.

I agree that boards that are dead should be deleted. In fact, 7 city forums were deleted from the US midwest region earlier this month. I don't know if there is an official policy or what other regions are doing, but your suggestion sounds reasonable.

All of the threads that are locked should be deleted, and perhaps the FanForce Staff here post an announcement so if anyone cares to archive those threads, they can be.

I'm not really sure what you are referring to here, and if this is specifically a FF problem. Threads that have not been posted to in over 6 months are automatically locked and I guess are eventually deleted (however there are some in the Chicago Forum that were last posted to over 18 months ago). While I agree with you in general and would have no problem if the old threads were deleted, I would suggest that the vast majority of the space issue is generated by the movie forums (such as the AOTC forum that has over 300,000 posts and growing every second.)

Good stuff, nonetheless.

~Heather~

 

Ahh.. I think every board needs a cleansing. Unfortunately, those in charge of each board is in charge of that all. But yeah... hopefully something will be done to help clean up. It just makes things tidier looking. About the 6 month thing, I don't think that's FanForce Policy, only JC side...

 

works for me

 

Much of what you're talking about is/has been discussed int eh Old Folks Home. we have pruned many a board, and will continue to do so as necessary, based on lack of interest.

As far as activities and the conventions forums: These are both still in their infancy, and I am campaigning heavily o bring more traffic there. We've had some other, more pressing issues recently (like staff changes) taht have kept me from working on this more. But I, and some of the other staff, still see the need for these and believe that they will become more active.

Part of it is getting FF members from looking outside of their own home boards, or their known favorite boards. I'll probbaly use the sticky post feature to help this along, too. Now that I have these cool new manager features, I might be able to finally get it done....

I do NOT want either FFF activities or conventions to become part of FF Community. Ever. Community is more about social stuff, and less about real work/discussions. I personally see a huge difference between those forums, and would like to keep them separated. At this point, it's basically marketing on my part (and other mods and interested parties) to get the word out about Activities and Conventions. This will happen more in the future, and I'm making it a goal to turn them into active, thriving forums. I can't do it all myself, but am pushing strongly to make it happen.

Activities should be a place where members, as well as CRs and RSAs can talk about what works and what doesn't. What they'd like to see, and what bombed. A place for everyone to share secrets, failures and wishes. Globally. I've seen some cool stuff done in one forum, and am trying that out in some of my other cities. Now that we're getting a positive response, it's time to "share it with the world".

Activities will be more and more useful in the coming months. Or it, too will be pruned. Now that my region has been reorged a bit and more manageable, I will have more time available for these pet projects. It's just a matter of time, and my wife's patience with my online time.




I hope this helps. It's late, and I need to be going to bed. I can clear anything else up tomorrow. Besides spelling (or bad, late night typing).

 

sticky posts!?!?! did I mis somehting when I was gone?

¤Night

 

I think he is referring to the links that can be put at the tops of the forums, or the fact that the admins can now put announcments up there as well.

~H~

 

Yes, that was what I was referring to. It's a new toy that we have, but I don't have much experience with it yet.

 

practically gave me a heart attack!

sticky posts indeed! Forum Headers my boy, Forum Headers and Forum Announcements!

¤Night

 

Yeah, those things.

 

Alrighty. Well I'll stop complaining, but I'm withholding all RSA and GSA's checks until I see work

 

Aw drat...that $0.00 a month is so helpful.

 

Well you got that 10000000% pay rise last month so i don't know why you are complaining

 

It would seem to me that there are a multitude of forums out there still that could atleast use a warning that they may be facing removal if there is no activity.

After all GSA and RSA are both board positions, and should be concerned with the sucessful running thereof.

 

Good point, farraday. If anyone cares to save them, let them. If one person tries, too bad. Why create a whole forum for just one or two people to communicate? We have PMs for that. I've noticed some RSAs giving warnings, and some progress is made.

But I feel more could be done.

 

Well let me ask you guys, what forums do you think we need to remove. Because we've done alot of cleaning house lately. And about cleaning up the closed threads in FF forums, I wouldn't want our threads deleted. They are the history of my chapter. Now I can see threads that are above the thread cap being deleted after archiving, because they just cause problems.

 

Well, I'd hate to tell you how to do your job...

but the following should proabably be looked at.

Japan As far as I can tell no one actually living in Japan posts there.
Hong Kong Same as Japan
South Africa An Occasional South african Poster, but nothing to do with FanForce
Regina Absolutely no activity whatsoever.
Winnipeg There may be something here in connection with the Manitoba Star Wars Guild, although I can't see it.
Chile While I'm not fluent in Spanish I'm pretty sure theres nothing there about FanForce
Guam Is there anyone from guam who posts there but Ben_Skywalker?
Ft. Smith, AR 20 days ago was Nabootys post that it would be removed 'late next week' if there wasn't a resurgance of local fans. There wasn't
Pine Bluff, AR Same as Ft. Smith
Alexandria, LA Same as Ft. Smith
Biloxi, MS Same as Ft. Smith
El Paso, TX This once active forum, isn't. And hasn't been for two months.
Green Bay, WI there seem to be a few people from the area, but no real group or CR trying to organize something.
Toledo, OH Again there seem to be a few people but not much more.
Hartford, CT No real activity in two months or so.
Pacific Islands Regional Discussion Is there any need for this since Oahu is the only pacific Island in FanForce USA - Pacific, and it isn't used at all.
Boise, ID Malcolm has tried to set things up but it doens't appear that the rest of his group cares very much either way.
Idaho Falls, ID Once active, now there would be no activity if not for the RSA.
Vancouver, WA Some people in the area but unclear if they even want to join a Fanforce group.
Birmingham, AL Once active, now nothing,
Huntsville, AL Unclear as if the people are trying to form a Group or not.
Mobile, AL No group no posters no anything.
Jacksonville, FL Once active, now nothing on the boards.
Columbus, GA No local activity in months.
Macon, GA Nothing in a month. A few people, but unclear if they've done anything.
Winston-Salem, NC Nothing in months.
Greenville, SC A few people no apparent activity.
Chattanooga, TN Nothing from locals, in fact little if anything at all.
Ogden, UT Nothing except for RSA "Is anyone here" thread.
Pueblo, CO No activity except for the RSA


I'm not asking, say

 

No I wasn't being sarcastic and I was asking eveyone in the thread for imput. The way we do things in FanForce is a little different from the norm. If a forum has activity of the slightest degree then we keep it. Some of your explanantions just don't make sense from a FanForce perspective. Some of the forums you have listed there are up for review and will be looked at on a region by region basis.

 

I have been planning Ogden and Pueblo's demise for a while, but have been giving them a chance to redeem themselves. Now that I have these cool new functions, maybe I can nuke my first forums.

 

I volunteer the pruning of locked threads in Victoria, BC's forum, and I wish every city's board would volunteer the same in order to save space. I locked as many threads of my own creation that I thought were outdated back in April, in the hopes that they'd be auto-pruned at the soonest time possible. I know our forum is tiny compared to many, but if every chapter did this, we might not hear so many complaints over space issues.

Roxx said: And about cleaning up the closed threads in FF forums, I wouldn't want our threads deleted. They are the history of my chapter.

Is there a reason that a chapter's history must be preserved within the forums themselves? If the content of pruneable threads mean so much to individuals within a chapter, why can't they just cut and paste it, and archive it on their chapter's website, or print it out and put it in a binder? Everyone wins: the chapter keeps it's historical records, and the boards free up space.

It seems to me Riding has some good ideas, and put thought into those ideas, while farraday has saved some people a bit of legwork. While those suggestions and work might not be fully acted upon for whatever reasons, I hope I'm not the only person to say, "Thanks, guys, for your thought and effort. It's appreciated."

Obey Wann said: As far as activities and the conventions forums: These are both still in their infancy, and I am campaigning heavily to bring more traffic there.

Oh, good! I'll admit, this thread has acted as a reminder to me that the Activities forum even exists. I navigate mostly via my "favorite" forums, and since I hadn't added Activities to that list, I forgot about it.

Regards,

- Rani