phpBB 3.1 Ascraeus - ITS HERE!

[MadGeorge]

Hello CiC'ers

Over the coming weeks, we will be looking to move the Forums onto the latest release from PhpBB.
We are currently in the latest stable release of the 3.0 series, so with 3.1 will definitely bring change, and will no doubt bring new things for us all to try, and to play with.

The plan of action will be to start afresh with the Forums and literally build it up from scratch. This will mean importing things that we have on the current version where possible so that we can still offer all the exciting things you can find on this one (maybe not the snow)

We hope you will look forward to the new version as much as we do....

[Mad Frankie]

Hi

While I'm not a part of CiC at all and thus, rightly, my comments below should be taken lightly on this front, I do feel however that wiping the forums here would be a retrograde step if I'm honest.

The forum here does not seem to be followed, looked in on or used to any great extent by CiC members and players alike these days from what I've seen in my short stay here so far...and I can't help but wonder if some of this is due to the overall look and feel of the site as a whole.

With the advent of social media and mobile access the attractiveness and usefulness of web sites such as this may be slightly diminished these days. But this for me only adds to the reasons as to why even more of a priority should be put into keeping the centrepiece of any community as fresh as possible I feel.

While the following points are only from my own experiences post updating of two previous game related community sites I was involved with, I do feel they'd be applicable here too :-

* Both new and existing members get more upbeat and like that they're in a 'going places' outfit.
* New visitors feel more obliged to join in more, play more and stay longer.
* People slowly started to integrate more into the ethos of the place as a whole.
* It looks like the management have a strong focus and that they're all singing from the same hymn sheet.
* Numbers grow, activity goes up, more people are more positive for the future, more people chip in their time, more people donate, more people listen to what is being said in general etc etc.

For me, the removal of the old posts and threads would only make the place look less active and less vibrant. I'd go the other way...keep the history of CiC and be rightly proud of it, but buy the site a modern tailored suit if you will (a dynamic skin so everyone can read what's going on at all resolutions on PCs, tablets and phones) and update the forums to match the smart new look. Then with everything in place send out a mass email to all past members and indeed friends telling them that you're going places, highlighting the big updates and improvements across the board and what the future WILL hold...and that you'd love to see or hear from them again too, even if it's to just say hello on here. It'll all add to the place.

Thanks
Frankie

[MadGeorge]

Sorry, I think I have been misunderstood.
I will be looking to migrate the user & post databases into the new forums, it would be the look of it, and some functionality which would start from scratch.
Whereas we have made our own tweaks to this forum, the new one relies on "extensions" that don't directly edit core files so we will be looking to build features we like into the new extensions.

From what I can gather, the new one has a reactive default template. This looks the same on all devices but the layout is adapted to fit the screen.
You can see what I mean by visiting https://www.phpbb.com/community/ on your mobile.

We always strive to keep the site going forwards and not backwards so as we take this next step hopefully we all come out the other side feeling refreshed.

[Emmz]

Its just migrating the forums, nothing will be lost AFAIK so i would not worry,
Once upon a time the forums were busy and alive. We have many new joiness to the forums but most do not join in discussions or make new ones. I try to get as much attention to this as possible through facebook or twitter but at the moment people just do not seem that bothered.
All for the move though

[Kop]

yea deffo. usually they get busy when an arguement occurs tho lol

[Mad Frankie]

The plan of action will be to start afresh with the Forums and literally build it up from scratch.

I read the above a few times and came to the same conclusion each time sorry - you're right to keep everything though.


I'm only one set of eyes and I don't want to tread on toes here but my main point still remains. Simply updating the forums isn't going to do much for the place I don't feel. Forums are forums - it's the content in them that can make a difference however. Also, while the forum update will be "reactive" the site itself isn't and won't be.


Some other things off the top of my head...

* The Dayz Epoch loading screen needs updating too to match any new look and I'd guess there's other places as well.

* A gallery of some sort would add to the place too I feel. People like to see pictures and a bit of info as to what's going on in them. You may also generate a little cross game interest with this as well, with players from one game here trying another out if it looks ok. Here's the gallery I threw up on our old site : http://www.blackportal.dk/index.php/gallery1

* While I did hear it mentioned previously, it's not transpired yet...some sort of timetable or list of events on the server(s) would add to the place. If people see that interesting things are happening in the future they'll be more likely to keep looking in here and get in game too.


As the old adage goes...just my 2 cents.

[Kroenen]

yea deffo. usually they get busy when an arguement occurs tho lol

NO THEY DON'T!

[red_ned]

fucking do.....
We do have a CiC Gallery but atm use it for internal CiC stuff rather than anything else.

Updating the website is something i am looking at but as i am launching 3 websites over the next few weeks i wont be doing it for a while.
We have also tried new things and updated/redesigned or added new features and taken away unused stuff and as you can imagine, after 15 years we tend to know when to start redoing everything and the forum update is the first part as i couldn't do much with this version other than static the main theme and do a mobile theme which detects screen size while the main website i did just before i really learned HTML5 or CSS3 and responsive layouts so would really like to do that too at some point.

The calendar mod we used on main website fell over when Wordpress updated to newest version so we had to take it down, we could look at a gallery too but one of the things we spent time on was making sure the website and forums shared users and tried to share information and also got updated with some auto content and some user/community content and also spread into new games and adopted people around the communities.

The thing that has always been the biggest bag of crap saying ever for me as i coded many many many generations of the CiC website and forums "build it and they will come" - you build then everyone ignores it and doesn't use it so you remove it and they complain!

The forums for me though are a key centre of CiC along with sitting in mumble even if you aren't talking, joining and following the social media allows our auto posts and online calendars to be bite-sized for consumption but what you always end up with is half a dozen posters and the rest of the lazy bastards just reading it and sometimes they cant even be arsed to log in - we know who you are! Our webstats do prove how we continue to grow online and get ranked up in searches and social media.

We are always open to critique and ideas and listen to most passers by (except Kop who is a big green noob) so feel free to dive in with ideas, offers of help or even just encouraging comments. The main thing most gaming communities around our size is - content, once you look like you are static then you are dead, all movement encourages others, posting encourages posters and arguments are what we do best round here and they certainly bring more people in and posting.

Want to help?
We have a reviews section for anything - review something
We have a news section - give us news maybe write something
We have a Youtube channel - view something
We have Facebook and Twitter, like, tweet and follow
We have mumble, come say HI

It does sometimes feel like i "own" CiC and some people think i do cus i was here at the start but the community owns CiC and i try to fill in with whatever skills i have to make things happen but if i am coding the Epoch server then i am not working on the other things.

If people want to "join" CiC then its just a case of hanging around and being a part of it and yes i have made many many mistakes over the years and know i dont know jack about it really, i just make it up each day and hope no-one notices

[Mad Frankie]

I replied to your Steam message Ned, but thanks for taking the time to reply and your candidness.

It certainly does sound like you've got a full plate at the moment!

My site / web expertise is limited to cPanel, Joomla and minor tweaking behind the scenes unfortunately and it's probably overkill for anything required anyway. But if there's anything else you need doing or looking at I'm more than happy to help.

* [BP] should now be on CiC's Mumble server full time and not our own Raidcall. It's a start.

[red_ned]

raidcall does suck arse tbh and we have loads of room on mumble