Operation: Make Sythe Awesome Again

Sorry, didn't see this reply, before I posted mine.

You wouldn't really need a detailed Add. The motto Sythe currently has and its name should be enough. As long as it is aesthetically pleasing, and advertised on the correct websites, there shouldn't be a problem.

Sites such as, www.runelocus.com & www.near-reality.com both have a large RS/LoL community, with black markets involved. Advertising on either would be good.

 

runelocus is relatively dead, www.rune-server.org is where it's at.

 

I know I'm not really a old person so Idk what this site was like back then. But I have seen SuF post for a while so I think he knows what he's talking about. The entirety of my post is to say I support SuF in his choices and I think he can do a lot for this site if he is given the chance.

 

Maybe a certain percent of donations can go towards advertising? The rest can go towards keeping the site up, etc.??

 

RuneScape, WOW, LOL, Console Games community and marketplace.

Advertise via Facebook/Google Ads.

 

Why did you say IPB would never happen? IPB is better than vB, some would say. Cloudflare mite be something you're interested in too.

And honestly, I'm quite confused, vB 4 has been out for a while.. It's currently stable on 4.1.12 PL1. Even if you update to 4, there is absolutely no reason any changes should 'WAIT'. I'm just amazed and confused that mods/admins were saying they couldn't update or make changes until Sythe switched to vB 4. When sythe makes the switch he just needs to update the styles & modifications, plus the obvious upgrading of vb files/db, so really, as he even stated there is no reason for updates to wait.

 

The real reason why it wouldn't happen is that the modifications we've made, this version of vBulletin is hugely modified by Matthew and others for our specific needs, changing to IPB would be futile.. atleast sticking with the same forum software, it'll be a much smoother transition, I also find vBulletin more aesthetically pleasing, and easier to moderate.

Sythe and Matthew already know about this, IIRC it was noted but wasn't going to be adventured into.

Minor changes we're made, forum layout changes were probably to increase the hype of updating the forums all at once, bigger changes which involved admincp work/modification will wait until the vB4 update, they were put off until vB4 deliberately, not because of some kind of restriction.

 

Well, they don't need to be deliberately delayed unless he's adding it soon and even then it doesn't make a difference really, it seemed like people were making it out to be as if vb 4 wasn't released yet too.

 

I'm sure x339 did not deliberately target and assume staff involvement in any particular activity, for example IRC (considering it is unofficial).

However I think he is trying to pursue the notion that the current staff team should increase their community-involvement activity levels slightly, as I too personally do not see staff members post around as often as I'd like them to.

Aside from the features, I think the general hype of vb4 is the 'fresh' look it'll bring for Sythe.org to existing users.

OT: Word-of-mouth is definitely the major advertising factor for online forums such as Sythe. However I do support an extended factor of advertising to introduce a wider variety of potential marketers, for example as mentioned by x339, the WoW section/market could potentially expand (and should in my opinion considering the large community of players it has).

With regards to point number 1, an introduction of a Diablo 3 section is too early in my opinion.

Regarding suggestion number 3, if SuF does have ideas of cleaning and redesigning it, then definitely go for it and analyse Karl's previous ideas.

 

I'd put an emphasis on the idea of making money off of games, and I'd actually focus on drawing markets unrelated to Runescape at all - Sites such as WoW Private servers.
I'd also be glad to actually put together a flash ad if you want - but generally targeted banner ads should do the trick.

As for staff involvement in community events, it might work out to hire a set of "competition hosters" or something of the like who have the main job of being active and trying to keep an active community. I'd like to see one or two people like this - preferably rankless etc - who are focused on getting the community active again.

 

I like the idea of setting banner ads to attract new users to the site, but I feel like "competition hosters" aren't really necessary. I see where your coming from, but I think competitions should just be hosted when someone feels like there up for the challenge and not assign it as a job to a certain usergroup.

Even now, there are a fair bit of competitions being held.

-x339 haxball tournament
-I've hosted one mw3 tournament in the past (for xbox 360), and I plan on starting another one up in June.
-Wulfspade1 constantly hosts irc quiz's, if you hang in there enough, I'm sure you would get to participate.

 

To my memory there has only bee a handful of competitions though. I like the idea of people who are there to get the community involved in, well, the community. I don't really see any community camaraderie unless you are either heavily involved in the IRC or in the Spam forum, but other than that there isn't really any community wide 'unity'. (Which isn't the choice word, I just mean that there isn't something that brings every member from each section together to just network.)

 

Well, I've PMed Govind about a competition, we'll see where that brings us.

 

+1 Advertising helps and maybe drop parties?

 

Well I'm not going to comment much on the other points but with regards to the VB4 issue, I am not aware of whether or not the database structure is similar or not. Some time in 2007 the DB server for this website corrupted the database completely which resulted in Sythe needing to use a backup DB file and this sent the entire website back literally 2 years, so anyone who registered from after november 2005 to 2007 was not in the database.

I am fairly sure they don't want something shitty like this to happen again, I could hardly imagine how big the database backup is now if in 2007 it several hundred megs.

 

once the ingame RWT auction house is setup i dont really see the point of a seperate forum for it.

no support/

 

There is a number of reasons why people will still use black markets:

Fees
Not all currencys are supported
Weekly profit limit (I believe I read this somewhere)
Account sales aren't allowed

and I am sure there will be other limitations.

 

with how blizzard works you will prob be allowed to sell accounts, although not through the AH.

PP is a unverisal currency if im not mistaken.

i doubt there will be a weekly profit limit, the more you make, the more blizzard makes.

i just don't forsee the section getting alot of attention,

and before you say i'm just hating on the game, i even voted to deny the guild wars 2 section.

i just don't see it as a huge market.

 

Although the section is already there, which makes this pointless..

PP is not the only currency people use. Many, many people do not use it due to the risks and overall bad service that paypal provides. I am sure there will be people, such as me, who would rather use something safer such as RSGP or WU.

Not to mention, look how hefty these fees are



Here is the limit on the auction house



and if you have played the game then you know that amassing a large stash of sellable items isn't very difficult.

 

Not everyone uses PP, also some people use WU or banktransfers/e-mail.

Making sythe awesome again is easy said, but scammers will always get to the site, leading to problems and more scammers.