The death of the internet forum

MetalAges said:
Interesting thread read. Turn off your tl;dr filters.... :)

I do see traffic down on the site, some of it due to Summer time, some due to the fact that a lot of the users who were once teenaged/young adults are now done with school, in the real world, have kids, etc. There are definitely many factors, even along with the "taking a break for a while" thing. There have been forums I have lived on that I take long breaks from, then come back and repeat. It's natural.

Now, that all said, I'd love to get your alls feedback on some things I'm working on. I'd prefer your trust in not repeating it outside of this thread if possible (not that it is all that super duper secret but the less that know the less headaches I deal with).

I haven't given up on the forum concept at all. Still love it and see it has a "main stay". However, it does need to "get smarter" (more functional/modern?).

1) I'll soon be moving UM over to new software. Vbulletin was bought out a couple years ago by a bunch of lame ass money grubbers who care more about money/stockholders than quality of software writing/performance/employees. All the original guys are gone. That's why I have not upgraded in forever. But, some of the original guys formed another forum company called xenForo and it's finally maturing to the point I am ready to move UM over to it. You can get a feel for it at http://xenforo.com/community/ (mind you that's the default theme). I know there will be a few growing pains on getting used to slight differences but all in all it's much nicer, runs smooth, modern, better functionality, etc. I think it will be a good move (thoughts?).

2) I am working on a bunch of other forums, and the bonus if all goes as planned, is you will be able to use a single sign-on across all the sites without having to go through the full registration process over and over. Some of the other sites I'll be building cover topics such as: movies in general, a horror specific site (love my horror!), other genres of music (some metal specific such a doom, death, djent), tv shows, sports - you get the idea. One can argue "we can talk about all that stuff here already" - but, with new standalone sites comes new people, new topics, more porting, more to participate in in general. Some will love the idea of new sites to visit, some won't, and that's cool. All will mostly use the Ultimate_____.com brand.

3) If you have a desire to contribute content about any of these subjects - each site (including UM) will have full on proper front end content sites to go with them. I know there are some dudes/dudettes here who love to write about stuff they're passionate about so there's an opportunity to do that. Some of you already write for others sites but if you are not exclusive to those places you are more than welcome to contribute on some of my sites as well. Just hit me up in private if anyone is interested.

4) Feedback! I seem to struggle getting good feedback from people. Complaints are never a problem (hah!) but I'd love to hear features, idea, things you'd like to see, things you do indeed hate about this site or other forums. I don't build/run all this stuff just for myself - I love building/maintaining places (sorry mono, no Ultimate porn/erotic sites in the works) where people can come and hang out with like-minded folks.

There's a ton of work to be done, but I am going full steam ahead on it all before I get too old to give a shit any more! :) Thoughts, hate mail, feedback?
Click to expand...

some questions

1
i think the number of people using these forums has definately decreased, and instead of trying to see all the former users come back, i think the forum needs fresh blood, you really think the new software will help with getting brand-new people to join ultimate metal??

2
what exactly do you mean by "more functional"?? what exact changes would be made in terms of more functionality?? to me (as a guy using forums since before facebook existed) this forum seems to function just fine

3
you showed us the "default theme" and i was wondering... can you please make the new ultimatemetal.com look really close to what it looks like now??

4
when you make all those "standalone sites" using the "ultimate________.com brand", could you make one about superheros?? i'm seriously requesting this
 
monoxide_child said:
some questions

1
You really think the new software will help with getting brand-new people to join ultimate metal??
Click to expand...

Yes and no. I don't necessarily think the software alone will open a magic portal to new users. It will make it more intriguing to use the site (see below) which should in turn get people talking more. Also adding the proper content portion to the front will bring in more search traffic and hopefully convert to new forum users.

2
what exactly do you mean by "more functional"?? what exact changes would be made in terms of more functionality?? to me (as a guy using forums since before facebook existed) this forum seems to function just fine
Click to expand...

Being able to easily share link to threads/posts to our Facebook/Twitter etc. accounts. There's better alerts when someone quotes you or messages you. People can do simple things like "like" your posts/threads. Unlike the failed reputation stuff on Vbulletin (it got abused) there is a system of "badge" earning with xenForo that looks pretty cool. There are many things like this, little things that add up to a lot better user experience.


3
you showed us the "default theme" and i was wondering... can you please make the new ultimatemetal.com look really close to what it looks like now??
Click to expand...

It will be similar, but cleaner, and with a few color options to choose from. New logo too which the icon is in my avatar.

4
when you make all those "standalone sites" using the "ultimate________.com brand", could you make one about superheros?? i'm seriously requesting this
Click to expand...

I have actually looked into a name that would cover the superhero bit but am still searching :)
 
The Ozzman said:
How bout individual blogs like you promised 2 years ago?
Click to expand...

I hear ya. Part of that became the whole software issue. I had actually went a step farther and bought metalblogs.com (which I still have) and was going to set it up under there with Wordpress blogs for everyone - but couldn't find a good way to tie the two together. I will look into this again - since there IS a solution that exists for xenForo and Wordpress to share the sign-on.
 
ha!!!! You read my mind!
I was going to post that for sure.

yeah cool, more to do with twitter/facebook type stuff.
actually thought about hitting a "like button" in certain threads to realize that it wasnt there. lol

One thing I like about UM now is how each post is seperated very well. I hate being on forums where they blend together.
The grey line does a good job of that. (simple as it is)
 
MA:

Would there be any way to improve the search function? It's easy to search for threads since the text is in the title; but if I'm trying to search for something someone said somewhere in a thread, it will direct me to the thread but won't locate the actual post, or even the page of the post. Can the search function be made to do that?
 
You have to switch the search from "Search thread" to "Search Post"
 
You probably can't tell from reading my posts, but I'm actually pretty smuckin' fart.

Why is there even an option between showing the results as threads or posts? It's still going to tell you which thread the post is in. I don't see the point in having a "search threads" option.
 
I was going to say the same as Cyanide :) I would imagine the two exist for searching "something I remember that was in the thread" vs. "I remember in the specific post someone talking about butterflies!", etc.
 
MetalAges said:
Yes and no. I don't necessarily think the software alone will open a magic portal to new users. It will make it more intriguing to use the site (see below) which should in turn get people talking more. Also adding the proper content portion to the front will bring in more search traffic and hopefully convert to new forum users.



Being able to easily share link to threads/posts to our Facebook/Twitter etc. accounts. There's better alerts when someone quotes you or messages you. People can do simple things like "like" your posts/threads. Unlike the failed reputation stuff on Vbulletin (it got abused) there is a system of "badge" earning with xenForo that looks pretty cool. There are many things like this, little things that add up to a lot better user experience.




It will be similar, but cleaner, and with a few color options to choose from. New logo too which the icon is in my avatar.



I have actually looked into a name that would cover the superhero bit but am still searching :)
Click to expand...

wow
changing the site actually sounds like an awesome idea now
 
Omgz if I lose my '03 join date it will be like the last dacade of my life never happened!

No seriously, all the upgrades sound good and I like the idea of having a real front end site. It feels like Alestorm has been on the front page for two years now.
 
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