Change the title of the homepage from "Halo Reach Custom Maps" and change the "Latest Community Maps" heading on the front page to select the latest H4 maps rather than the latest Reach maps. Ability to find features / quality maps is a must. What Molly's been doing on THC is a big improvement, but being that this a forge site, quality forge maps need to be even more accessible. Constantly. Give news and forge maps different areas on the front page if necessary. Barring that, give "Featured Forge Maps" the first tab at the very top of the page. A WAYWO / OT in one thread would be nice too.. it would give people to catch up on everything and would be less likely to go dead than strict discussion threads. A rating system for maps of some sort would be an interesting way to get community maps on the front page - say, the top "x" rated maps are put on the front page along with featured maps (and some kind of distinction between the two, of course). However, immature people might five star their friends' maps or zero star maps from people that they don't like. To combat this, ratings should be weighted somehow (this stops the issue of people making proxies to rate as well), perhaps on a reputation system.
Ranks I would have Admin - Final say over forum decisions as well as liaison between site and other community sites or affiliations. Tech - Control over code behind and front end design of site, answers to admins only Moderator - Responsible for the daily goings on of the forums. Keeping order, etc. Answers to Admin(s) only. Journalists - Write forum announcement posts and articles. The public face of the forum and what will drive traffic to the site. No real moderating power. (Too much added responsibility and makes it unclear who has priority over moderating situations) Event Staff - Dedicated to hosting forum events and contests. They will judge, test maps, and be solely responsible for the official content of the site. Things like TGIF, Forge Hub Favorites, Featured Maps, Forgedown competitions, etc. No real moderating power other than over events that they watch over. Social Media Staff - A dedicated member or team of members who keep facebook, twitter, and youtube up to date on content related to the site. This rank could be an extension of the journalist rank or separated out for finer control. No "premium" rank. That's too ambiguous and lacks refined purpose. The color changes for people who have received features should not be considered a separate "rank". Instead the color change should just be a reward for the work they have done.
I came back and re-read this thread, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I realized I missed this paragraph the first time I read it... I'm sorry everyone.
Was here because I cared. Leaving because I don't care to work for someone who doesn't care for the people who helped to run the site the best they could.
you know, all this stuff from the ex-staff makes me wonder if they actually care for the community because all i've seen so fare is complain and complain and nothing in the way of helping out the community.
When you're treated the way we were, what is there left? The community we loved and cared for is dying, the users we care about are gone. All there is left is a administrator who has many documented cases of disrespect and threats to users, power tripping, and above all else, dictatorial tendencies.
This is either an internet-breaking level of irony, or a wake-up call that even this guy thinks you guys are complaining too much. Or maybe it's both. The thing I think is going on here is that our recent history has been too bleak and unrewarding for too long, and it set up the entire staff to be expecting the worst. You can see everything that went on just by reading this thread. So when the site was bought, people were only expecting complete failure, with maybe an outside change at salvation. When the new admin made some bad choices, they assumed it was result A and decided enough was enough. I actually believe the most likely scenario is that Forge Hub keeps going basically as it has been, after a bumpy transition to new ownership. Turning this site around, or running it completely into the ground, would take a lot of work. It's more probable that oVR takes a month to get settled into his role and then things just kind of keep limping along. But I hope he defies that.
I would agree to this. However, I don't think the site will be limping quite as you put it. At the moment I doubt it will suddenly be a hit again, but once we get some big changes going like the redesigned front page and start making FH hosted events, things should at the very least pick up. They already have I'm told. oVR did make some bad choices in my view, and still is at times in respect to his new community, but this is a new site and a new community for him. He just bought this place about a wekks ago and he's already being called a dictator. It seems a bit harsh to me, even considering some of his interactions with ex-staff and the public.
Stick around for a bit. We're still picking up the pieces and reorganizing what needed some desperate care. Soon we'll be running smoothly and have some nice new paint to boot. Until then, we're doing what we can to make the necessary changes. Expect news soon, particularly something along the lines of the Dust-Up tournament that started a few months back, and an update for the site. I think those are the next things we're bringing to you all, at least.