Note to Adam - any plans for this forum? (plus suggestions)

Hi Adam,

Hope you don't mind an 'open letter' rather than a PM, but I'd like other's input too.

Now that Indy 4 is underway, this forum which has been long neglected is in dire need of a spruce up.

My suggestions;

The forum needs a major cleanout of autolocked threads, good locked threads need reopening - especially those in the index, the index needs an update accordingly, the "Just The Facts IJ4" thread needs a lock and completely fresh start. The 5 year old banner probably needs to go (even though I adore it - maybe it could be entered in the contest, and if nothing better is entered, the status quo wins) - possibly with a contest used to cross promote the forum. Some new Icons to advertise IJ4 could be made. The 'The Future of this forum?(comments, idea, suggestions wanted)' thread needs to be reopened and stickied (unless this thread now fills that need)...

More than anything though I'd say this place needs a 2nd mod, someone to compliment Adam, someone more proactive in keeping forum discussion flowing and in promoting the forum across the whole JC.

I'm happy to assist in any way a regular user can (suggesting IJ4 threads elsewhere be restarted in here), keeping abreast of IJ4 developments etc, and I'm sure the handful of people who still post here would do the same.

So how about it, anything we can all do (most obviously by leveraging off the new IJ film) to help get this forum back on track again?

 

This is actually being discussed in Mod Squad.

I can tell you right now that I personally agree that new blood is needed in the moderation here, because I frankly have no interest in being the Indiana Jones IV forum guy. The project just doesn't interest me. If Lucas is right and they actually do shoot this thing soon, it's going to be big on the forum, and we should have a mod who is passionate about Indy running it. (I knew this as soon as Lucas made the announcement... well, okay, I gave it a coupla days to make sure it wasn't hearsay.)

I have proposed a couple of options in Mod Squad about how to handle things, and indeed this thread gave me an interesting insight into a possible solution.



Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Glad to hear it.

 

Indy 4 should probably get it's own folder; I think the traffic will justify it.

 

As far as the cross-promotion and traffic goes, maybe focus on it in Across the Boards as much as possible (but will need help from you guys in suggestions, etc.). I'll refrain from putting anything about the movie in any of the other forums, and we should keep re-directing people in SFF: TV and Films here.

 

Thanks Roo.

I can't see any good from taking traffic away from this board, to be honest. Though that's something that can always happen later if need be - there's a "move thread" option now that could be used to transfer Indy4 threads to a dedicated Indy4 board if and when one gets created.

 

We don't want to pull Indy 4 discussion out of the LFL forum. This forum handles LFL projects, Indy 4 is exactly that.

 

At most this forum should have an extremely Indy-centric overhaul, maybe som Drew Struzan-ish Indy 4 themed banner design.

 

It's exciting that this forum is going to get a bit of a make-over. I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys come with.

Like Adam, I have no real interest in Indy IV. Indiana Jones never really interested me to tell the truth. However, I am interested in Red Tails and Lucas's "small and personal movies" So assuming he ever gets around to making these projects, I anticipate this, along with Small Sreen Star Wars will essentially be my home on the JC in the next 5 years.

I would just ask that any new banner not be completely focused in Indiana IV? Obviously that will be the main focus, but it would also be kinda cool to have other characters as well. Also, I would LOVE to see a really cool THX 1138 banner.

 

I actually think a new banner and theme should be overtly Indiana Jones-themed. This forum will receive a lot more traffic in the coming months leading up to May '08 because of one thing: the fourth Indiana Jones movie. Obviously, little details like a police robot from THX 1138 or Howard the Duck can be scattered here and there, but shouldn't a new banner champion what's basically going to dominate this forum very, very soon? I understand that's the current banner but that banner is just old and honestly doesn't have enough IJ in it, now that the fourth movie is official.

How about lurkers or TFN readers that happen to be major Indiana Jones fans? We don't want to lose them to other Indy discussion forums, we should make it clear that IJ4 is the front-and-center subject of this forum. Also, LFL Projects is combined with "Star Wars Films" for a category. Why not put LFL Projects into its own category and stress that Indiana Jones, especially the upcoming movie, is the keystone of this forum? IJ4 can help rein in some new regulars (obviously not as much as the prequels brought in, but a large amount nonetheless) and eventually forums across the board receive their widening contributions.

I recall Sapes's explanation for making sports its own category, to draw in on-the-fence lurkers/readers by emphasizing that sports discussion has its very own category and is welcomed here on our geeky SW messageboard. Shouldn't we kind of do the same with LFL?

Also, talk to the TF.N staff maybe about linking directly to this forum from IJ(4) news stories and not just boards.theforce.net?

Obviously, changes like this wouldn't be permanent. In the months after the fourth film, there would be a de-stressing and a return to equalized discussion, especially considering future anticipated LFL projects (RED TAILS, etc...).

 

Exactly. This is the kind of thing we need to see here.

 

Hey, you guys!

Read this old Comms thread and see what you think about things raised there regarding the LFP forum - especially where it's categorised and regarding cross promotional activity.

As for banners, no reason there can't be a few in rotation, some more heavily IJ themed than the others...

 

Awesome! Multiple banners!

I'm reading that thread now.... *makes line through 'link to forum and not boards idea'*.

edit: finished that thread.

Okay, I see now that LFP is in the SFF category in the header but am I just crazy or is it still appearing under the category of "Star Wars Films and Lucasilm Projects" on the main page? When I click on "Science Fiction and Fantasy", it's not there. Also, the Science Fiction and Fantasy category on the main page should be modified to "Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Lucasfilm Projects".

Whatever happened to the discussion about changing the name of this forum? The discussion in that thread just ended on January 25th last year. I think from now to a while after IJ4's release, it would benefit the forum to be called "Indiana Jones and Other Lucasfilm Projects". Just IMO.

g2g. More later.

 

I think this forum was moved to SFF, and then moved back to the SW films category.

 

That is what happened. Although the forum headers still say

Jedi Council Forums » Science Fiction and Fantasy » LucasFilm Projects

The neglect of this forum makes me cry. Let's hope this "new blood" gets in here sooner rather than later to begin the overhaul.

 

I changed the script in the header to accurately reflect the category that the forum is in now. I've brought up the category change and title change in MS as a reminder, if we were supposed to move it, we need to do that.

I think banner rotation is a splendid idea. But agree that we need to use the Indy IV hype to bolster posting in here. Like The Arena, maybe a category change to make it easier to google, at least until after the movie comes out, or the filming has begun?

What do you guys think about starting a thread in Comms to open this up to the larger Community for suggestions?

 

Well I've never liked this forum being in the Star Wars films category, so I'd be in favour of seeing it moved (again! ).

 

Sure, a thread in Communications would be good. Maybe some more people will learn this forum does exist.

 

I dunno - this forum's in a shocking state. How's about promoting the new mod (or adding LFP to an existing one's portfolio) and doing a bit of housekeeping in here with old threads (deleting, unlocking & upping, updating index, restarting "Just the Facts") before trying to attract new posters?

 

When regular news about Indy IV actually starts coming in, because all we've had so far is a press release, I've no doubt there'll be little difficulty attracting users here. A thread in Comms can't be a bad thing, but I've a feeling it'll be full of people making positive statements and maybe precipitating a few superficial changes (as the thread linked to by jaypee did)... and then silence will fall once again. IMO it's news about the film, and action off of the back of that, that will see people making their way here. People need to be interested, and they won't come here with nothing to talk about but a bit of banner rotation and a new mod or whatever. Forums need people.

Sorry, that ended up sounding terribly negative, but it's not meant that way. I just still think there's a short stretch of time to go before the forum gets its dose of fairy dust. We (and I'm not really a 'we', here) shouldn't expect success until there's more to talk about.

 

The Star Wars films section was renamed to accomodate LFP.

 

Yeah I know, but it's still not right.

 

I still think this forum should have its own category, at least from the time all the IJ4 news starts spilling out up to a while after the film's release.....

 

Yeah, merit in that.

Everton's right, this place will remain quiet until the first snippets of cast, locations, spoilers etc start filtering in. So this calm-before-storm time should be used to get this forum in order.

 

Multiple banners are a great idea. You could have banners for every Indy Movie, with the focus obviously on Indy IV. However, I want to make sure that we don't lose the focus completely on other LFL projects. This is still the forum to takl about THX 1138, American Graffiti, Willow, Howard The Duck And up and coming projects like Red Tails. So, whilst the focus will inevitably move towards Indy, we must keep at the back of our mind the need to make sure other parts of the LFL catalouge aren't neglected.

Hopefully we can do something really exciting with this forum in 2007, similar to what we did with the Sports Forum in 2006.