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Forum changes roadmap


rich
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Hi all,

 

First of all - yes, that's an advert in the top right of the forum. I went with Carbon ads because they're far less intrusive than Google and the ad content is mostly more relevant to the sort of devs we get here.

 

Why though? because I have some things I want to do with the forum in 2014 and it'll require some funds to complete them. Given our current page views the ads should bring in enough (depending on Carbons ability to fill them) to pay for these upgrades early next year.

 

  • Invision Power Board are releasing v4 of their software soon. This looks really nice and I want to upgrade to it, but will almost certainly need to buy an upgrade license.
  • I want to get the forum properly designed. At the moment we're still using the default Invision theme, which while quite nice doesn't feel reflective of HTML5 game dev and could be a whole lot better. I've a great designer lined-up who can do it, but obviously he'll need paying. Same goes for the theme build once complete. I don't want to waste money doing this and then find the theme doesn't work in IPB V4, so we'll wait for that first.
  • I want to add some other services here: a chat room (IPB have this feature, but again it costs), a gallery and a monthly newsletter.

 

I'd also like to run some monthly contests for everyone here, and I've some fun ideas how best to do that - just needs the time really :)

 

The forum is growing far better and quicker than I ever expected, we're closing in on 2000 members, 13,000 posts and nearly quarter of a million page views a month. Swapping from a 'news only' blog site to this forum was the best decision I ever made (lots of you never even saw it in its previous guise!), so hopefully with a slightly nicer design, IPB 4 and a few more community features we can continue to grow this place next year and beyond.

 

Cheers,

 

Rich

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I don't mind the ads and even clicked a few of them.

 

The forum is a cool place and your development plan sounds absolutely ok to me.

 

I don't mind the default forum design thou cause it's perfectly usable and pls just don't brake it with the new "html5" design ;)

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All this sounds really good :)

just one point about this.

 

 

  • I want to add some other services here: a chat room (IPB have this feature, but again it costs), a gallery and a monthly newsletter.

 

why not using #html5gamedevs chat room ? you can integrate an HTML IRC client in the forum menu for those who don't want to use desktop IRC clients 

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I hate ads :) So I will keep them as low profile and relevant as possible. In reality we only need to cover a few thousand dollars to pay for all of the enhancements I want, which I don't think will take too long. Typically I've funded everything myself and if the ads don't work out then I'll carry on doing so, but it would accelerate when they can happen.

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I use Ad Block Plus, like many others, so it's not really a concern for me. But I hate ads too :)

 

While I'll admit I use Ad Block also, I suggest disabling it on any sites that you believe deserve your support. I have it disabled on a handful of sites and I just added this one to the list.  :)

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I have no problem with ads but they are not displayed on my work computer. We have Trend Micro at work and it notices and then blocks the carbon ad URL. The trouble is it also pops up a message box with a warning saying this URL (carbon ad one) is considered dangerous. This happens on every page Ioad and could get quite annoying. I don't find it a big deal as I probably browse this site more at home but thought I would mention it. 

 

I doubt there is much you can do your side of things and is probably an understandable safety first policy at my work.

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If the ad revenue should fall short for any reason - set up a tip jar. There are people who see the usefulness of this site in full and are willing to contribute.

 

I agree with fatalfluff on this. If for whatever reason the ads don't pan out, I'm sure a lot of the members here would be more than

willing to throw a donation or two your way.

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Rich, will you add a donation button of some sort? I really like this place and if I can help support it in some ways, I'd love to.

 

Edit: Oops, I should have read that somebody already mentioned a tip jar! I second that idea :-)

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