Operation CASTIA - It's our time to fix Sythe.

Operation: CASTIA
Change All Sythe Things Into Awesomeness!

Welcome, readers and community participants. This thread is has been inspired by recent comments all around Sythe along with private conversations aimed toward the general intent of improvement and is intended to be a place for everyone that cares about the future of this community to share ideas and actually, for once, get something accomplished! It's time to stop sitting by and telling each other what great ideas we're having and get to work!

The plan:
The "plan" is to, once we've reached a general and reasonable agreement among users and staff, bring Richard (Sythe) a complete plan of action.
Please remember that this is a community-driven discussion. I'm going to request that staff and users alike combine and for this thread consider each other as equals. Until this is taken up to higher levels, everyone is a "community member," and is just sharing ideas. Gone are the times where an administrator puts up an opinion and everyone agrees. This needs to be a large compromise and a combination of great minds, something I see a lot of around here (except for the spam forum, of course!)

The reason:
Sythe, our beloved website, is dying. It may not be noticeable to some of the newer users, but to myself and users that have been around even longer, it's seen much better days. The issue is not that everything will completely come to an end, but rather the potential that this community has. There is no reason for us to remain how we are, dwindling until eventually we are a small cult and fail to ever expand.
What you should think when sharing and critiquing is ideas that will refine Sythe into a place that will attract and keep new users. Posting "fake" porn will bring plenty of rather...er...sketchy users, and some wille ven possibly register, but in the end none of them will stay. It's the end result we're looking for. I consider myself a member of average activity, and if everyone on Sythe was around and posted like me, WOW! Imagine a community like that! It's thoughts like that in which I am driven, and is a large reason behind the creation of this thread.

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Ideas!
Here, I will collect popular ideas and refine them as the community agrees.

Blade's approach:
Wow, I don't even know where to start! I've been going over this repeatedly and expressing what I'm thinking is rather difficult! I would like to start with the main idea, in where I believe we should move our main focus away from RuneScape and a black market community, and focus more on gaming in general. I will explain in depth from here.
Gaming Community - what does that mean? It means, this future Sythe that I imagine, will be a "central hub" of gamers. Somewhere that anyone with a taste for gaming, of all types, can always come back and find others with similar interests. It's going to require some work and quite a bit of expansion, but I believe it will be possible.

Subforums - Forums would be split into subforums as you see now, but would be for each genre, and then each game. Consoles and PC gamers will break up, and then into FPS/MMO/RTS/etc from there, with a final breakdown into individual games (obviously this is an example of hierarchy that I am envisioning, and is up for rearrangement and debate.) Within these forums, users will create groups, trade and discuss anything about those particular games.

Ranks - What drives gamers? Achievement. Success. What gives a feeling of accomplishment? Achieving rank in an established community. This is something completely new for Sythe in the sense that I have been considering. Within each specific genre would be "Genre King's" (obviously these ranks and names are hypothetical, just go along with it) which would assign based on potential and gaming ability, leaders for each individual game. Those leaders would conduct community events and would "outrank" team leaders, etc. Sythe would be everywhere. In every game. Games that don't "support" clans? Bring everyone onto the forums! Discussions and plans can be held here. That is how we'll really get recruiting. Some indie game where everyone is running around solo? You'll sure get some "?" above users' heads when they see a giant group of "Sythe_Gohan" and "Sythe_TBT" running around and questing! The point is to keep those users once you've gotten their attention. Most gamers will hop around between games, and what I want to do is always have a "Sythe" around in those games that people would be moving to, as to never lose a member.

Tokens - This is the part that may be difficult to explain, and further, to comprehend as possible. Donations would still be around, but I have been thinking about a system that will benefit both the site and the gamer.
These tokens would be, at first, bought by a user just like anything else. Those tokens would then be used on Sythe as a form of "currency." [NOTE! SEE BELOW!] Remember those game leaders I mentioned previously? Those competitions? This is where those come into play. They would collect - say one token from each user (a 64 user tournament for example) and conduct a friday night single-elimination bracket tournament. First place would receive 40 tokens, second would receive 10, and third 5 tokens. The host of the tournament would be granted a couple [NOTE 2! SEE BELOW!] and the reset would go to a pool in Sythe. That pool would be drawn from to hold free raffles, etc to hold community interest and raise morale.

NOTE - I need you guys' help on this. If I still have anyone's attention on my ideas, I would like an input where this first note is placed. Should the tokens be used in black market trading? As in, say a user kicks ass on an MMO. They accumulate 100 tokens from tournaments. They could then use those tokens to purchase some badass sword from another user on Sythe for a simple transfer of tokens via a Middleman. Simple, right? I just don't know if I like it, but that's why I want your help!

NOTE 2 - Why does the higher rank recieve tokens? Well, I'll explain. As I stated in my thread >>here<< called "pathetic," staff activity is down. I have been staff on an active RSPS where I ran tournaments, and let me tell you I can understand how it can be daunting. This small incentive will ensure pressure on staff to stay active, competitive and helpful during their time and give them a small reward for all of the work that they do. Each forum would be moderated by the "genre moderator" and it would trickle down from there.

Well, that's all I have. Time to get going! I'd love input on my idea and also some ideas that you guys have! If everyone really gets into this there's no way we won't have success.




Everyone else! Start posting ideas and comments so that they can be put under this "Ideas!" section. Moderators, if I am not online and you see that many users have come to an agreement that something new should be added, please put that between the aforementioned title and this paragraph.

Everyone, please be optimistic about this thread and I'm really confident that we can make some things happen. I'm hoping to see great things from the community development team here as well!

*also - if this is better suited for community general or somewhere else, please move it there. Thank you!*

 

I like the way you're thinking on this, but with the removal of a black market and runescape itself would potentially bring sythe to a hault.. That's not what you're trying to achieve so I don't see what you base said opinion on?

I can relate to what you say about, sythe going downhill in a sense, and that a community for gamers would be appropriate? But as of now, I think that's what this forum already has. There are plenty of forums/sub forums dedicated to gaming.

With regards to having names in "add game name here" this could result in beig banned, as sythe itself is solely known for its rather large, and successful black market. Although - if this forum is migrated to a form of gaming hub, as you explained, then maybe these situations wouldn't be a regular occurrence.

What you have mentioned above, reminds me of a forum I used to use, which is gotgames.com.au, this website was a gaming hub/competition ladder for consoles such as: call of duty (Xbox, pc and ps3 editions) counter strike, etc etc. they would host conpetitions and ladders within the website itself, each member contributing a placement fee and then when all clans had paid up the competition would commence.. So something along those lines, could be implemented, and with greater cause of action the community could have the potential to last a long time.

ALTHOUGH, with that being said - that website died at a very fast rate. So in a sense I agree with what you're saying, but I don't. This implementation could work (gaming ladders etc) but there is really no need to rid runescape and the black market.

The token idea is a great idea, and this could weed out a lot of potential scams; but you contradicted yourself (I believe) by saying; you would rid the black market, yet this tokens could be used to purchase a "kick ass sword" from anothe player.

I hope I'm on the right track, and I hope the op hasn't gone way over y head, if so I apologise! Lets get some input.

 

Thanks for the fast response! I believe I stated that I just wish to "shift focus" from the black market, not remove it! But you're right and wrong about that subject. We are a very successful black market, but that's only in RuneScape, which as we all know, has seen its day as well. That's where we need to differ. We must evolve past what gave us life in the first place. Let's be honest, without RuneScape as a staple the rest of our markets "aint shit." That is why we need to move onto something else before RuneScape dies out completely, or worse, starts letting users purchase gold and IMMEDIATELY puts us out of business.

 

Ok ok, I see where you're coming from now! I actually agree with you on that one, as runescape is our main focus - when that dies, we die. And by then, it'll be too late to hold onto the members that are currently registered, because who will want to use a forum in which has no/little activity which is based on a game which is dead?

Maybe implementation of a gaming ladder, although on your thread "pathetic" it was stated by a member, the continent differences, Australia, USA, EU. Etc etc. this, at current point of time with the amount of CONSISTENT members we currently have, would be a problem. As I personally, would never join (or be able to) a game with an American/EU host. But with growth - we would see a lot of members ranging from USA to New Zealad joining and creating a kingdom. With that being said; this is going to be a MAJOR refurbishment for sythe and the question is, are the admins going to take on what we've got to say as a community?

 

I understand your concern about different time zones, and the only solution for that is sheer numbers. More users! MORE!

As for the Admins, I personally know that Verts will listen to what we're saying, and though Gov is busy with school I've talked to him many times and he cares as well. They will listen, but we need a lot of input and a well thought out plan.

 

Good to hear we have the admins listening! Now lets roll together a plan of action, does anyone else have any input for this? What forums/sub forums/games are ou thinking blade?

 

I'd actually like to take a step back at this point. I have my idea out there but I would really like some other plans of action to be brought forward. I'm going to wait, as this is a very low activity hour of the day that we're currently in.
But, to answer your question, I'm thinking we cover any area anyone would need to talk about with friends, with a large majority of the focus towards video gaming.

 

Can I ask why you're trying to develop an entire plan of action for the owner when he, himself, should be working in co-operation with staff members?

 

Richard, for lack of better terms, "has shit to do." He doesn't have time to read every suggestion. At this point, were just assembling suggestions into one large plan. It's that plan that he should pay attention to, as it would be the combined efforts of this thread and subsequently our best interests.

 

Love the ideas about the tokens, but im not too sure what the tokens would be used for, and how much would it cost, per token?

RS is dead, and sythe is going down with it. I like the idea of moving on, as this is what sythe really needs right now.

 

Cost is irrelevant right now. And they would all be used for things around sythe. I was thinking somehow about having them redeemable for cash again or in game items once you accumulate so many, but I couldn't formulate that. Any ideas?

 

Are you wanting to remove the black market completely? Or just move away from it. I didn't see it anywhere so I figured I would ask.

 

I don't think its a great idea; an entirely new market and would just be taken advantage of to favour higher-rep'd members.

*REGARDING TOKENS*

 

http://www.sythe.org/12226028-post3.html

That is the general plan, as after all our success has come from being a black market. Personally I wouldn't mind moving completely away from it, but I have to think about the community as a whole.

 

I don't think it is a good idea to move away from the market completely but I do agree with becoming more community based but the market should remain.

 

Are you blind or just retarded? It's people like you that are ruining this site, posting such malignant bullshit, if you have nothing to add, say nothing, don't fucking spam.

The fact of the matter is, this is Sythe's site, and it's a source of revenue for him, he'll do something to gauge activity, he's not an idiot, I'm sure he's seen it drop before as well. The community may be dying but the site/market grew quite a bit with the addition of 07.

 

Are you sure it's not trolls like you that are ruining the site syed? Pretty sure I was on topic and it was a simple question so why don't you take your bad attitude somewhere else.

 

He's not trolling, Elena. What you said was spam considering blade already answered that - if you bothered to read what he and I said, there wouldn't have been a need to ask that question.

 

He said he want's to move away from it. I understand that but I didn't see anything about the complete removal or not. So, sorry if I missed it.

 

Moving away from the market would kill sythe.org. Credits or tokens or whatever are a bad idea, a sythe currency would never work IMO, people on other forums use them to purchase user images and little miniranks, but they're already donor perks, and the donor system works fine. Maybe you could win the perks of a donor without actually donating through competitions, that would be decent. If we can have gaming as a massive base then we can work on gaming mods etc, and we can still keep the blackmarket, as steam sales would definitely rise through the roof.