Zelaron needs changes

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.