mjordan, the "thread view bug" is a feature; I've said so before and I'll say it again. Thread views count is updated on a cron job. UPDATE locks a table, INSERT does not, thus this dramaticly improves board speed.

You want aknowledgement from the admins? I was one of the first doomsayers, I've just gotten tired of saying it and everyone knows it anyway.

Consideration? No I didn't take the time to plan out the use of uShop then install and test it on my private server only to find that it was a bug-ridden stability nightmare, I just said that to shut you up :rolleyes:. No, I'm not testing the new vBStats because you guys won't shut up about it. No, I won't give someone admin who appears to have vision because everyone was complaining about the way things were.....

Titusfied, I thought we told you when we brought you on board that you were supposed to be the main person for rules and such; yes, there are a few things that Chruser and I agree should not change, but other than that...

Pay for Zelaron, pay for Zelaron. WTF guys, Zelaron costs nothing. The licence lasts forever and it's running on a server that I own that I pay for co-location, that also is used for other things.

Postcount reset? Who ever said anything about that? And I've already stated twice that the no-postcount condition on Slaynish was temporary; I'm thinking until I certain thread falls off the map.

As for priorities, I've openly admited that I'm not usually in the mood to come home from programming and debugging and do it some more, but I do eventually get in the mood and then I may go for days without more leisurely activities. As for the non-programming stuff, you'd be surprised.

Sorry I misread what you said at a point. I was refering to this statement.
Previous post aside. Your right.
I never said anything about paying for Zelaron, I was merely talking about advertising if there were to be more besides the Somethingawful.

First of all, slaynishs comment about this making chruser lots of money? Well he does not know anything. Problem with this forum? Simple, not enough active members. The biggest reason? D2 is dying. We have not been able to pull the crowds of any of the other major games and we have tried. This is not really a problem with the staff, ww could install a billion hacks and change the rules but that will not bring active members.

How many of you can honestly say you are Less busy in life today then you were when zelaron was really popular? I would bet most of us are older, and we all have more responsibilitys and prioritys and Zelaron is not as big as it used to be. Zelaron is starting to feel more and more like that old friend you grew up with that you dont really hang out with anymore because you have new friends (prioritys now), you would still help them if they need you or lend them money if you could but you just dont hang out a lot anymore. Or even, how many of you can even say you spend more time playing games now then you did when zelaron was popular? Slaynish dosent count because hes always for some reason been 12 years old (I dont know how that is possible).

I dont want to go into too much detail but I am pretty confident that I know why this forum is how it is now and it makes sense to me. Another prediction here that fits me but I bet the people that are becoming less active here are becoming less active in forums and online communitys in general, not just zelaron. If I feel like i want to post something on a forum, I always think of zelaron first but I just dont feel like it as much. Also, I dont goof around as much / am more serious and since 80% of the posts here revolve around that factor, its harder to post, but thats not much of an excuse for me because just look at WW, he has an... ok activity level.

<edit: added> And to touch on the admin thing. The reason why I think I am still admin, is because I can be trusted, I can help if I am Needed (That probably has not happend in a year, I even offered to help pay, but money is Not an issue here), and because I sorta have a background here. If Chruser wants to deadmin me, then he will, but I dont think he expects much out of me with zelaron at its current state? Also, I know we have heard people say how they will make zelaron better then ever if they are admined, and we know enough that its just hot air. You cannot cause tons of active members to join if we make you admin, you can get active members to join just as well as a member as you can as an admin and if you dont feel like doing it unless you are admin, then you obviously dont care about zelaron as a community anyway. rant rant rant rant rant.

Agreed.


"The message you have entered does not contain significant content. Repeated bullshit posts will result in a ban."

How inspiring!

Blah blah blah ban blah blah

Last time I checked it doesn't cost money to tell friends or classmates or other gamers about a forum. I think we are all to blame and we all have to pitch in to save this forum. Of course we are the only ones who see it as dying.

A forum doesn't get real active by telling people in your direct area, trust me.
This is by all means the worst time for the activity of forums, ever.
I've never seen so many unactive forums, so many forums simply dieing...

In normal times, forums would become active by just mouth to mouth advertising (e.g. classmates talking to eachother about it), but as I said, these are not normal times.

To my opinion, populairity can be gained by paying.
Google Adsense had a unique system, which will display ads where appropriate.
On a Diablo II forum, it will show Diablo II advertisements.(just an example)

This is, to my opinion, the best way to get new members, in times like these.

Getting a new permanent Admin wouldn't fix it, but what about a temporary one?
An Admin whom is still a teenages, with priorities set differently.
I'm sure there are atleast 5 (including me) expierenced vBulletin Admins, who would love to help out installing a hack or 2.(even coding one)

I have recently been doing a job for a friend at his forum, which -if done by pro's- would normally cost him over 200$(no kidding), and I did it for free.
I'm sure there are more people here who would love to do things like that for this forum, completely free.

It's a shame the sup. mods don't know anything about vBulletin hacks, else you could maybe make them an Admin(you trust them, right?).

What would be the bad thing about making a teenager, who has different priorities, an admin?

Even though making changes might not be a nice thing when you do it, its always nice when you can look back and say "Pfff, I'm glad we did that a year ago, else this forum would've probably been dead!", isn't it?
I'm one of this people who hates changes, really.
But sometimes changes are needed, and you have no other choice...

Personally, I don't see where installing any form of vbHacks is going to draw members to us. I mean, how often do you go to a site and see something slightly out of the ordinary, then proceed to make that your primary forum?

I don't think the hacks will draw NEW members, but something new to play with may keep older members around a little longer (for the novelty).

I don't think any staff-shuffling is going to do anything either. If people aren't coming, they're not coming. We need something to catch peoples' eye to bring them here, and our community itself should convince them to join merely by our posts.

Well of course. I'm not complaining, after all, I have no damn clue how to even code "Hello World!" anymore.. I'm just stating that you and Chruser are the only real deciding factors in any significant change. I did what I was intended to do. It just happened to get to the point where I had no more ideas, nor did I have any desire to even try to think of any, so I decided my time was over.

Nothing is really going to change the activity level. Nothing other than the members. Post more. Post better. Eventually, new members come and stay. Sometimes it takes longer than before. Member base hasn't exactly always been stagnant here at Zelaron, so don't expect it be. It has it peaks and it valleys, like anything else. This is no different, and will pass eventually.

I don't agree on this.
If I see a board, with a cool exclusive hack, I register and see what it's like.
If I like it, I go scrolling around the forums, see how it's like.

Also, a new motivated, devoted Admin could get more active members, I'm sure.
If you, for example, get a new Admin who already administrates 1, 2 or 3 other forums, he can advertise on his own forums, about Zelaron.

I say it again, Google adsense will also help.
If you do a bit of research on their ad program, you will find that it's actually not that expensive.
You don't need a fancy 1st spot on every google search including the word "game", but using their banner system helps.

You can then also add a banner, which will be only displayed to guests.
This is a very easy thing to do, it can be done with one of the most basic conditions.
As most of the users browsing these forums are usually guests, they will either register to get rid of the ads, or just keep on being a guest and make money for you ;)

I also got an idea while I was falling asleep.
What about a vBulletin hack team here on the board?
I'm sure there are atleast 5 expierenced coders here, who can join the team.
After we make a cool hack, we can distribute it at vbulletin.org(we will add a copyright notice, saying it's copyrighted to the www.zelaron.com hack team).
This is also some free advertising, which is pretty populair.

With that same team, we can also code exclusive zelaron only hacks, if needed.

Tell me what you think about this.

I enjoy reading Death's posts. While having a few good ideas. He also is saying he would make and awesome admin and should be one. :rolleyes:

I still think my idea for an IRC channel on gamesurge or something like that could draw new members. Didn't we use to have a CS forum? Why dont we run a CS server. Not sure how WW is hosting this or if the ping would be any good but. If its possible we should look into it.

I am just giving examples of what I would do as an Admin, or already have done on my board, and that I'd love to be one.
Ofcourse, everyone would like it, so I'd better put those wishes aside ;)

An IRC channel wouldn't be that hard, as far as I know, it can be set up on a normal server like the one Zelaron is hosted on.

Hosting a gaming server would be a little harder though, and would probably cost money.
A friend and me will soon be launching a Webhosting service soon, so I might be able to host the server for free :).

I will look into the IRC channel, and the gaming server, if you want.

We had IRC. It faltered and died.

Do it again.

IRC servers are not allowed on the network I use.

As for a CS server, I've wanted to have one, but I don't want to do it untill I can afford to upgrade the server. One of the people who uses my box for webhosting is considering putting up a CS box, though, so we may be able to have one.

it most likely faltered and die becuase not enough people were using it. I have been on zelaron for a while, and in reply to one of the previous posts about what caused our big surge in new members/activity was D2. I mean we used to have some really skilled D2 players/hackers here. I remeber when i first started here that i was really interested into learning how to hack, and the more i asked around on the servers i became aware that people like Hellmonkey was known to be in the elite group of hackers. I also remember people like User Name#1, as well as most of the other mods being really nice and helpful to new members and newbies to the game. Also I remember that our old PvP mods where really something to brag about i mean when i got into serious dueling i heard mentions of both Apoq on east, and Blckshdwdragon on west as them being recognized as being top notch duelers.

Nostalgia rant end.....

so what i am trying to say is that one thing to increase activity on zelaron would be to try and recruit some top notch players for WoW, which i am not sure how WoW plays and if PvP is an applicable example or not. Also i have recruited some members via school they registered along time ago when we all used to play D2 and they have been inactive for along time, but with the introduction of Their Halo 2 clan being hosted i believe that they will be more active.

Edit:

I would have to whole heartedly agree with Penguin, because i know that personally i am a senior in high school this year i have become tremendously more involved in other activities that i placed zelaron further down on my priorities list. Zelaron has been through a ups and downs before, like the time during our peak when we had like two weeks with no server. I remember coming back to find that we had lost quite a few members during that time. So what i am trying to say is that people grow up and move on. I mean i plan on continuing to be part of the zelaron community but i personally dont have much to start threads about because i am so busy in life that i do not play many games anymore and if i do it is just for leisurely fun not to be a great competitor like i once tried in D2. I remember that not too long ago, this summer, that i used to have so much useless D2 info memorized like all of the items, runewords, approximate item value in current currency, lots of PvP info like Ias breakpoints for many different weapons and skills, Damage Formulas, and just general D2 info like where to level. Then one day after i stopped playing so competively i realized how much of my life i wasted on a GAME, then i started to hang out with my friends more and started to live a real life and stopped living on the internet. I have found that i like the real world alot better once i figured out that ABSOLUTELY NOBODY should live thier life on a game, or rather let a game live thier life. I remember that in the zenith of my addiction i would play for 4 or more hours a weekday and about 8 hours a day on the weekend.

I remember the Hellmonkeys part aswell.
I used to scroll the forums, but I never got to registering back then.
Then I stoped d2, and when i started playing again, the first thing I did was register here, heh.

I think integreting IRC into the forums (there is a hack on vb.org which can do this) would be a good idea.
I never bother to run mIRC, go into a chatroom, etc... That takes up to much time.
However, if it would be on the board itself, I would visit it.

That is just pathetic. I am constantly on IRC and we need to put the channel on a server like GameSurge where all the gamers are. :rolleyes: Having a private server for our IRC would just be stupid. And Hellmonkey is a fool =P If we are talking about the same one. (Hellmonkeyz/Hellzmonkey) I still talk to him alot. I just cant remember where the Z is. I just call him hellz anyway.

http://zelaron.com/forum/member.php?u=845

No z

Hate to break it to ya but... Yes Z =P
His AIM name and his name from UO (Where I originally met him)