Greetings, all you great people of ForgeHub. I've come to you today with some big news. As many of you may already know, ForgeHub was recently put up for sale. Having known about the site for quite awhile and aware of it's long-standing reputation, I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by. So, after a few days of negotiating with the previous owner, you are now looking at the new Head Administrator of ForgeHub. I understand that you've all been waiting for someone to finally turn this site around and return it to it's former glory, and I fully intend on doing so. Many things are in the works right now and it may take some time to implement those things, but rest assured we can only go up from here. I've teamed up with Dax (whom many of you already know from around these parts) and we've been hard at work discussing the future of the site. Now I know you all want to hear what I've got in mind for the site, so here's a basic rundown of how we plan on reviving this great community. First and foremost, we'll be focusing on the core issue of getting people interested in playing the game again. While many can argue that a Halo website can still thrive despite a significant decline in the game's population, the fact of the matter is that with less people actually playing the game, there are even less people willing to spend their free time involving themselves on a forum. Once we get people playing again, the plan is to heavily focus on giving people incentive to create, post, and give feedback on maps. After all, custom games are built on forge maps. Many possible changes to the site's layout are being discussed to integrate a system of bringing maps to the forefront of the forums. In doing this, we also want to create an easier, more accessible way for members to find quality maps they are interested in playing, regardless of who created the map. At the moment, our Halo 4 Maps forum is highly based on individual popularity. We want to eliminate that aspect entirely. No politics, no popularity contests, just recognition by pure quality of the maps. As with everything else, big plans are in the works to bring this idea to fruition. Obviously, for any of these changes to happen, the forum will need to be significantly overhauled. We will be streamlining the activity to keep things focused on what made this site great in the first place. As you can see, the main agenda is to stir up activity within the site. Once we get back on our feet as a community, we'll then reach out to other big names in the Halo scene, push for more affiliates, and overall try to expand this great community into the bustling hub that it once was. Remember, this is only the tip of the iceberg. With an active administrator willing to make changes only in the best interest of ForgeHub, I hope to have your full support, so please feel free to offer any suggestions you may have to help make this site even better. Thanks for reading, and I'll be seeing you around the forums! -Overkill VR (oVR)
As OverKill mentioned, I'll be helping kickstart some of the bigger changes that have desperately been needed around here. I hated seeing this site take a turn for the worse with the previous management falling apart, so it's good to have someone else who is as enthusiastic as me about turning things around. Although I don't technically have an "official title" yet, OverKill's brought me on board to get the staff up-to-date and keep things running smoothly. More or less a Community Manager, if you will. I've got all the best intentions and will be sure to stay as active as possible, listening to all the suggestions you guys have. (Although I feel like I've kept up with most of the current issues, keeping tabs on all the customer service threads and whatnot.) But still, feel free to come to me with anything you guys think needs addressing. I already know a lot of you guys around here and hope to get to know even more. Can't wait to see where this takes us! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It may be a few days late, but better late than never right? This thread is going to be kept as a running log of all the new changes made to the site, as well as those changes on our "to do" list. Also, feel free to give us your feedback on any of the changes detailed in the thread. This will be updated on a regular basis so keep checking in. Preface: The forums are a bit too divided for current traffic and activity levels - many of the listed changes are in an effort to steamline the forums and revive interest in the main focus of the site. However, once activity picks back up, many of these features may be brought back should you guys feel they are necessary. Change Log: New ownership of the site Site has been transferred to a dedicated server Staff has been updated with experienced members both from our own community as well as other prominent Halo communities. Tabs entitled "Maps in Progress" and "Recently Uploaded Maps" have now been added to the sidebar on the right side of the main forums page. A small step in the right direction towards bringing forge maps to the forefront of the community. Tester's Guild and Writer's Guild have been removed due to severe lack of activity. Discussion is still being had on how to emphasize map feedback as a vital part of the community. The Forgecast has also been removed. The main idea behind it was to consistently bring content to the community, although the concept was poorly executed. Instead, a new homepage layout will be implemented very soon, which will provide an ultra-convenient way of browsing recent news, maps, and more all from one page. Halo 3 and Halo Reach Map Forums have been brought back for nostalgia purposes. Blogs section has been removed, focusing more attention on the forums Profanity censor enabled due to Google mistaking the site as an adult site Chatbox now appears at the top of every page Admin colors are now red, staff colors are orange Map prefixes have been created Condensed forums to smooth out the movement around the site and eliminate the lesser used individual sections. Front page changed temporarily while actual redesign still underwork To Do List: Site rules to be amended Make a new Terms of Service for the site Implement new homepage that will be incorporated into multiple areas of site Merge all maps into 1 forum organized by prefixes to remove unnecessary division Remove private groups as they are unnecesarry and go highly unused Fix a shoutbox glitch causing it to constantly reposition to the middle of the shoutbox Remove the Architect group and start from scratch. The position will be reconsidered entirely Install plug-in offering the option to disable censoring for registered users Formally introduce all new staff members Greater integration with forum calendar for scheduling events for the community to see Feel free to ask any questions about any of the changes on these lists, and we'll answer them to the best of our ability!
yes Great to hear Dax, thanks a lot. Will the staff applications that Chron took be taken into account? I want to be corrupz.
Cool stuff. And if you wanted to add the blogs section back again I don't think anyone would care. Sarcasm, not so effective on the internet. K, nice changes. Whatever brings people to become members and stay members is always good as long as you don't blackmail or something
I think that forgehub needs a stronger community to attract newcomers and keep them here. If they like the community, they will want to stay. So i believe that there should be publisized, organized community nights where members play custom games to meet as many people from the site as possible. I believe this will allow community members who are not quite so active on the site(not many are anymore) to feel more comfortable by knowing that there is a fun side to the members here and not merely map critics. That being said, i think that if you are going to take a admin or community manager or moderator...etc position on a site then you need to reach out to any and all members and make meaningful bonds with them. Everything should be based around building a stronger, more friendly community if you want to turn the site around. I am glad to see that overkill has been in chatbox and interacting with the users, where before that aspect was lacking. I'm not trying to say that all positions were lacking in that area however. Our last batch of moderators were excellent.
If we do start doing big group play nights, I would be willing to host a 4v4 party for people, assuming that other parties would be larger, in order to cater to different tastes in games. Really liking the change of management so far though, best of luck to both of you, Dax and oVR. Hopefully we can bring some life back to this place again.
Staff: • 3 Administators (Owner, Community Manager, Technical Admin) • 4 Moderators • 6 Journalists (Event Director, Media Director, etc) X Critics X Premiums The amount of user groups should be as limited as possible. CM should be a branch of administator, and Content Staff (Journalist) should each have varied responsibilities.
Anything you need Overkill, count me in. About time somebody Picked up the pieces, lets get this heap of junk out of the junkyard and give it a turbo charger!
Well, as of this morning, I remember commenting on how Forgehub was circling the drain, and now this happens. Count me in as well for anything that we as a community can do to assist you Overkill and Dax!
Coming from a ex moderator back in the day, I don't want to be a debby downer, (Nor have I read the 30 pages of comments lol, so excuse me if I'm being repetitive) but I personally feel like even if you did overhaul the site...Forgehub is dead. Halo is dead, Forge is dead. It's just the entire halo community is dead. Yes people still play, yes people still forge, yes people still make thread etc, but halo is dead. With not a big enough halo community you will not have a big forgehub community. The whole excitement and "new" factor of forging is long gone. That's what made the old forgehub community seem so strong and active. Now that forge excitement has worn off. It just seems dull and tedious. Why bother making a map for 10 hours if no one is going to download and play your work. You need a halo community as a whole for a forge community to work. Right now the unique active players on Halo 4 is probably like 1/6th maybe 1/7th of what Halo 3 used to be.... Halo Reach was about half of what Halo 3 used to be...Halo is dying. You just have to face that fact. Call of Duty is dying also...People are getting bored of the same old games. Shrug thats just my 2 cents...I miss the old Halo 3 forgehub days but you can't do anything about it without a strong active halo community as whole. No matter how much you change the site...Yes you may get a increase in some activity but it'll never be what it used to be and it'll never grow back into what it was. It'll just hang on by the 20-50 loyal members that get on, on a daily basis, until those members go off to college or move on in their lives. Yes It's sad to see forgehub die but it's happening...I had a lot of fun over the years I was here/moderating. I made some good friends. Again just my 2 cents...i didn't read all of the 30 pages of comments...
If I were to make a suggestion, it would be to bring back Purple for loyals. Give people a greater incentive to make many a post.
Now this is what I call good news. I know some people here are really eager to help and get this site back up, just like me. This is awesome to hear.
IIRC, that was the problem with the previous system, yes? As Mick mentioned, the problem of Journalists receiving too large a workload was the result of an inactive moderation and administration team. The staff is a uniform group despite having different roles and, as such, every member should be expected to contribute when it comes to responsibilities like finding features, testing competition entries, etc. As ironic as it may sound, if we have six moderators and their only contributions are through moderation (excluding discussion), something is wrong.