Chat with the Admins!!!

[jcsnider]

I've hi-jacked Cici's web development thread too much.

I would like to suggest a section on this site where the community as a whole can post suggestions and ideas to the administration team that are guaranteed to be read and responded to (even if the response is unfavorable). As of now, it is up to the admins to determine the direction the site is headed and make it happen. We are grateful, but there are are 45 thousand members out here and our thoughts and ideas are rarely asked for and when we suggest ideas or report problems they are often lost in time. (For example, I asked Link to get someone to fix latest activity multiple times. Then Cici joined the team and she never heard of the issue. Link probably just forgot, and that's fine but having a place to keep track of suggestions and concerns would have fixed the problem significantly sooner.)

That is only one example though. I can always voice my opinion but it often seems to be disregarded or forgotten and it is hard to get it to the correct people. The admins have Slack to communicate and plan but that doesn't help any of us.

My idea is one board where I can make a post to mention several of my ideas. (Such as: Accepting donations and once X amount is reached the Google Ads are disabled; Mapping http://freemmorpgmaker.com to this site to its value stops depreciating, etc) then my post can be read by the correct person, and they can respond accordingly. If they need help, we can then offer it. If our suggestion or concern isn't valid then at least we know we were heard and it can be revisited later on.

The problem is that this will only work if the whole administration team is willing to work with it. It is a lot of work on them too, I understand. But I really think it could make this a much better place.

Thoughts?

* * *

Update: Cici agreed and implemented the idea, when I modified my original post her post was lost somehow.

Anyways I immediately have some concerns. I think that it shouldn't happen until discussed and agreed upon by everyone on the admin team. There are components that you cannot do alone, Cici, although I wish you could. At the very least, Nick and Link must be on board to approve decisions you may not be comfortable with or you may not have access to grant like my domain suggestion. 

In my mind I would love to see posts titled like these:

[Suggestion] [Map FreeMmorpgMaker.com
[Bug][Yuko] Latest Activity Randomly Disappears
[Suggestion][All] Community Donations to hide Non-Eclipse Ads

etc. each admin would reply to their addressed topics or topics marked for all of them.

Further thoughts?

Oh, and the new section you created does not allow for us to make topics :P](Map FreeMmorpgMaker.com
[Bug][Yuko] Latest Activity Randomly Disappears
[Suggestion][All] Community Donations to hide Non-Eclipse Ads

etc. each admin would reply to their addressed topics or topics marked for all of them.

Further thoughts?

Oh, and the new section you created does not allow for us to make topics :P)

[Yuko]

I hope I won't regret this, but I have took the innitiative to make this a 100% yes.

If the other staff refuse to, then I'll do it alone. I have released a board in which community members may discuss things like this called "Community Discussion" under "Community"
[Here](http://www.eclipseorigins.com/forum-145.html)

A description of this board to help make it clear of the goal of this board:
This is a place where you can go to to Suggest, give Feedback, and discuss things with the community to help make Eclipse Origins a better place for everyone.

Let me know if there's anything I can do.

[Helladen]

You are right, but that is a smart initiative for a team member to do on her own. As long as staff don't overreach their power and are in harmony with what is best for the community. there's no problem.

[Marsh]

freemmorpgmaker should definitely be mapped. I dont think you were the one to change the domain in the first place but it was a pretty bad idea. Lost a lot of google rankings. Even a redirect will be taken down of google quickly.

[jcsnider]

The FreeMmorpgMaker.com domain only ever pointed to the black site back when you owned the site Marsh. Once Robin released EO2 it was simply a redirect to TouchOfDeathForums.com

It was Daniel's decision to relocate the site to EclipseOrigins.com (he found the name more appropriate, which I agreed and disagreed with at the same time – still do) but when that happened, TouchOfDeathForums.com and FreeMmorpgMaker.com where still pointing to this forum.

When Nick/Lycros took over hosting, they mapped touchofdeathforums.com and eclipseorigins.com but never freemmorpgmaker.com, so any links to that on the web are marked as dead by google. Furthermore the site and forum change was done poorly leaving any links on this site to existing topics useless as well.  (No redirect rules were made to map ipb links to working mybb ones)

While I don't expect the admin team to fix all broken links, it is still in their best interest to get FreeMmorpgMaker.com to point here instead of nowhere.

Update:
@Seth, I agree if one dedicated team member will moderate and run it then they can act as a liaison to the other team members. With that said, it still falls on everyone to do their part to get stuff done. I must reiterate that even if Cici made all the decisions, she simply does not have access to everything on the site.

[BeNjO]

Links in threads are not blue/underlined so hard to tell links apart :o

[eclipse is here](www.eclipseorigins.com)

[Yuko]

The change was horrid. I can see why they needed to move being as it was Amish's IPB, or so I've been told, but going to MyBB was a poor decision. I tried to wrap my head around it when I first started as web developer, but IPB is just my home, I love it and I have a hard time liking other forum software. I mean this is more general than what you guys are discussing, but the forum switch was a mess up I agree. Should've been planned out a bit better.

[BeNjO]

Chat line going below user names in SB if the input text is long, looks crud < 3

[SkywardRiver]

Would love you all to death if we switched to Xenforo <3

[GalacticGlum]

I honestly loved our old forum software but what do I know….

[Daneta]

i agree with galaticglum

[Yuko]

I am unfamiliar with Xenforo it'd take much more time for me to finish anything with is.

SMF eh, I liked it but I haven't used it for so long.

I don't know we'll see what the future has to offer

[jcsnider]

I don't know enough about it BUT I do suggest that if you all were ever to switch you do ample research. Even if it is slightly harder to work with, if Xenforo is any better than IPB it might be worth the effort to learn the system. It's all about dedication and this community is worth it.

Plus, switching is hard enough already. Why not get it right this time so we don't do it again?

[Yuko]

Well it wasn't in my control since it happened before my interest in working for eclipse and I had no opinion on the switch, but I do now.

I like Xenforo, however, I don't think it offers as much as IPB in terms of what Link wants from me and creator. It would be doable, but it would be no different than just staying in mybb.

[Joyce]

Honestly, If you really want to switch I'd say grab 2-3 different forums and try using/adjusting them for a week or so. (Including data imports and whatnot). See what works best before you jump the gun and end up with another half-baked solution.

But personally, I don't see why we'd need to switch again. Enough data has been lost/broken with the last transition.

[Marsh]

Do not switch the forums again. It will just need to be fixed all over again. No forum system is so much better then any other that it is worth the switch. Just fix the bugs. Why do people want to switch forums to what they personally like best?

Also I have seen a few users reporting in the shoutbox that they can only post in one or two of the boards. That should be a easy permission fix and should be done as newcomers that cant post wont stick around for long.

[Mohenjo Daro]

Lol, switching again could be a whole lot smoother if we did it, why we didn't have this site up before the switch for bug testing and seeing how well it worked, then doing the switch, I don't know, but there are ways to go about it.

[Yuko]

I want to switch because this was done poorly. If we were to switch again we'll do it smartly and carefully and slowly. We wouldn't probably release the new switch for a good few weeks when we start on it. It's not about switching to what I or what others like best, it's about switching to something more reliable. MyBB can be reliable but there's more bugs than I can handle that I can't even find. The not being able to post thing is a problem not through permissions, at least I don't believe yet.

If we are to switch the process will be in my hands and I will do the entire thing, I'd fit in all the plugins, etc. Then about a couple hours before, I'd shut down the site import data, and import everything. I have already considered this if we do switch.

Right now, we shouldn't worry as even if we would, it'd be far from ready to do. It would take a couple weeks to do everything we want with the forums.

[GalacticGlum]

@'Yuko':

> I want to switch because this was done poorly. If we were to switch again we'll do it smartly and carefully and slowly. We wouldn't probably release the new switch for a good few weeks when we start on it. It's not about switching to what I or what others like best, it's about switching to something more reliable. MyBB can be reliable but there's more bugs than I can handle that I can't even find. The not being able to post thing is a problem not through permissions, at least I don't believe yet.
>
> If we are to switch the process will be in my hands and I will do the entire thing, I'd fit in all the plugins, etc. Then about a couple hours before, I'd shut down the site import data, and import everything. I have already considered this if we do switch.
>
> Right now, we shouldn't worry as even if we would, it'd be far from ready to do. It would take a couple weeks to do everything we want with the forums.

Hell ya! With you on the team our switch would be great xD.

[Gwen]

Not being able to post is a permission issue. I checked the boards and all of the groups are blocked from posting topics and replies in the other boards.

I did not change it as I figured someone decided to set them up that way…. I'm assuming it was the same reason that the old forum games and chit chat are not accessible anymore.

[xelander]

The reason we originally switched was because the previous forum was practically breaking apart beyond repair.

On a note of the original topic of this thread, there's currently a forum designated to suggest and give feedback to help improve Eclipse, that will guaranteed to be seen by the staff.

[Yuko]

There are few members that get a different page than just not being able to post/error page.

[jcsnider]

The permissions just need to be fixed so we can post there. Once we can we will :D

[Guest]

I've been here through most of it all, and what I can honestly say is that Eclipse hasn't been the same for quite a while now, its really sad. Logging on everday to see what was new and todays topic and all the games that wanted to be made, it was awesome. The activity just isn't there anymore, and I think its honestly at a point where that won't change very much. However, Eclipse will always be a home for me, its part of my childhood, and I had lots of great memories with lots of people here that share them with me. Good shit, but I think its unfixable, the forums will never have that same MPH, atleast how I feel. Don't mean to put Eclipse down in any way, love it here.

[Yuko]

@'RomeOnline':

> I've been here through most of it all, and what I can honestly say is that Eclipse hasn't been the same for quite a while now, its really sad. Logging on everday to see what was new and todays topic and all the games that wanted to be made, it was awesome. The activity just isn't there anymore, and I think its honestly at a point where that won't change very much. However, Eclipse will always be a home for me, its part of my childhood, and I had lots of great memories with lots of people here that share them with me. Good shit, but I think its unfixable, the forums will never have that same MPH, atleast how I feel. Don't mean to put Eclipse down in any way, love it here.

I agree, but don't give up on us yet. Getting new members in here like me and creator is going to help a lot. There will be a lot coming in the near future, it's not the community that needs changing, but the content we provide. So expanding our options will be helpful. I'm glad you love it here, so have I. I've been with Eclipse for a long while now and I won't let it be beat down so easily :)