eESTlane Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 hard to label what i'll be discussing here so i went with rabbit ears. i guess it's a mixture of experience, an age mindset maybe, coupled with some ideas to make a concept. so, first off, this forum lacks community. everyone goes off on their own and people are spread between different platforms, even though most of the discussion and issues are basically running on the same code, so to speak. "favorite dino on xbox", "how to tame giga on ps4" and "build smarter on pc" all follow the same general conduct, across platforms. very few topics in the current sub-forums actually belong there. i guess one could blame the new era kids who don't understand the layout of forums. in particular, social networks are structured differently. additionally, lost threads are more frequent among the console community. still, a competent forum management can fight that. you could lose a few branches by effectively using tags, like it's done for the trading section. imagine 1 bug section instead of the odd 8 or smth for all the platforms and dlc's. half the people don't even know how to categorize "flickering rag sky"... i guess the current style is neat and i could live with it but it definitely does a disservice to the community. to the very basic i might add, when one thinks their group by default differs from the rest. it doesn't. lvling, taming, building - all follow the same path. people just drive a wedge between each other for no real reason. but the most unimpressive decision for me seems to be with early birds and introductions. introduction should be the base of it all, to start building a community ontop of. for example, i used to be on a trading site. a noob had restricted access. in terms of ark, this could apply to no trades, no pm, post limited and to certain sub-forums. i believe this system is similar currently. but, you could make thousands of posts and never granted access to trading until you did a proper intro. there literally was an application form for that. for ark, this could mean questions like "how long have you played", "what game mode", "which job title suits you most", "first tames" and general experiences (with pictures/vids if possible) or hopes/expectations if you haven't run for that many hours. every intro was checked by an into moderator and was edited/accepted until it wasn't done half-arshed. you don't even need moderators when you let regular users qualify. being as i am, i eventually got my "ascended" ranking. pretty sure that was due to post count, to put it simply. post count usually means you participate in conversations, know the faults and protocols of the system and discuss how to improve it. the small talk is trivial once you've done it several hundreds of times. "+1", just like "-1" used to be such a promoting aspect but nowadays with emos and emotional states being in such an assortment, it's hard to rate sarcasm. anyways, once you pass, you get access to the trades. if that's all you wanted from the site, then good on you. the forum served its purpose. but if you are a true fan and keep coming back here, there should be more to offer. not that the offer should be significant. just that participation fuels community and sometimes those who have been here for 500+ posts, well, their opinion has more weigh. which i know is somehow discriminating today... look at the current intro section and you'll have to agree there's room for improvement Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Chris Posted July 3, 2018 Administrator Share Posted July 3, 2018 Unfortunately at the rate we have of registrations we can't moderate every single request for access. Again, if we put something like you HAVE to do introductions etc then it would just cause more spam. I am however interested in hearing some ideas on how to reward our long time and devoted members. If you have ideas, I'm all ears Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eESTlane Posted July 3, 2018 Author Share Posted July 3, 2018 7 hours ago, Chris said: Unfortunately at the rate we have of registrations we can't moderate every single request for access. Again, if we put something like you HAVE to do introductions etc then it would just cause more spam. I am however interested in hearing some ideas on how to reward our long time and devoted members. If you have ideas, I'm all ears first part, i disagree. all who register aren't automatically here for those trades. a huge portion will stay at newly released announcements for "oh, nice patch" and "f*** wc". another large part will stick to bug forums, for either directions for reporting in-game issues or looking for ways to fix said problems. i believe the bug forum update you rolled out today will hide those matters from the community, possibly taking away from them the chance to help out or avoid it (themselves too). sometimes those active cries serve as a warning. i don't see how introductions would cause spam. every account has 1 intro forum. you edit it until a senior member/staff approves it. probably the only sub-forum worth being kept behind the lock is trading forum. currently 90%+ of the offers are pve platform so i imagine they'd love to use those intros as a sort of background checks. heck, you could even add second lock for higher security trades. maybe that will attract more pvp deals, if you had like 100 posts here to verify integrity. i know you're scared to put obstacles infront of noobs who are here for trades but they already have facebook, twitter, discord, in-game options for that. there is no reward for trading which can be scary when the other part doesn't care for the "trade rating". 2 days of spam for a total of 10 posts is not that hard to sacrifice. a 1 meaningful intro has actually more sway. second part, easy. just like you, devs and different mods have, i' pretty sure people would love to be recognized. so what is that, you ask. it's the avatar. on "that" site i've used for comparison, avatar sizes were also locked behind your forum ranking. hell, i even learned photoshop because of that and eventually offered my skill to other members. we had graphic design sub-forum which could also be used here, plus for different other purposes like banners for private server owners promoting their stuff, or in-game paint projects. i have no idea what "flak" rank here has given me. i'd be happy with a larger avatar (no signature! those are plain spam) and maybe outlined posts with a different background color. subtle change of color or just a lighter shade of the original, of what community mods have. everyone also used to have custom profiles with 500-1000 characters. looking my profile in here, meh. not a lot of personalizing in here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Chris Posted July 3, 2018 Administrator Share Posted July 3, 2018 Thanks for your feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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