The future of the forum
Posted: 2006-05-23 16:44
I can't really say this site is professional by any means (thus it is a "hobby"), we don't have things organized a lot nor the site structure is well thought of (particularly as I don't have the energy and time to do big plans and time consuming stuff). We have a combination of a wiki and a forum, but there is not really lot of effort on neither (well, we had wiki getting on a roll, but then this happened).
We do get some special information in and stay up to date, we know some of what happens. In the other hand a lot of this info gets hidden within topics in a forum. Should we organize some kind of news/happenings/stuff into somehow more editorial form? So we can give good shots of what has happened or what'll happen, people can read that in one place. The forum could be then dedicated purely for the talk and fun, to sharing of thoughts.
Also, what kind of impression we want to give? If the editorial articles, newsposts and such have smilies and clear personal opinions, it gives a very fansite/hobby feel. The opposite to that would be just giving the information and some facts that are known, maybe some related information; which would give kind of a professional feel. Which one should be more important if we start doing editorial content?
Then we have wiki. There are a few ways to use a wiki: we can use it as a real wiki like Wikipedia: articles that try to be neutral and bring out differing opinions if there are. The other way is to use it as a content management system: we do any kind of content we think is appropriate for the site and just use the wiki as a tool. Should wiki be limited to certain persons or keep it open for all?
So the big question is: what do we want to do with the site and how do we want to do it? I haven't seen this question ever really answered and I haven't spent all that much time on it myself either. A lot of things that have been done have been on a feel basis, without a real coordination of anything. No real future plans etc.
One big thing is that I probably don't have the time to decide on what the site should be like. I have some time and interest to work on the technical side and I have some energy to do some content, fixes, edits, corrections and the like, but I can't do anything major. This far we haven't really had a real leader of any kind in here: someone does something and it's ok if nobody says it's not ok. Should we have someone who takes it as his/her mission to decide what Maaya's should be?
I really would love to have answers into all these questions. Before we can work on a site we should know what we want of it and what we want to offer. If all of us don't know what the site should be like then we're just working randomly on whatever everyone feels important, but the site itself doesn't really go anywhere.
We do get some special information in and stay up to date, we know some of what happens. In the other hand a lot of this info gets hidden within topics in a forum. Should we organize some kind of news/happenings/stuff into somehow more editorial form? So we can give good shots of what has happened or what'll happen, people can read that in one place. The forum could be then dedicated purely for the talk and fun, to sharing of thoughts.
Also, what kind of impression we want to give? If the editorial articles, newsposts and such have smilies and clear personal opinions, it gives a very fansite/hobby feel. The opposite to that would be just giving the information and some facts that are known, maybe some related information; which would give kind of a professional feel. Which one should be more important if we start doing editorial content?
Then we have wiki. There are a few ways to use a wiki: we can use it as a real wiki like Wikipedia: articles that try to be neutral and bring out differing opinions if there are. The other way is to use it as a content management system: we do any kind of content we think is appropriate for the site and just use the wiki as a tool. Should wiki be limited to certain persons or keep it open for all?
So the big question is: what do we want to do with the site and how do we want to do it? I haven't seen this question ever really answered and I haven't spent all that much time on it myself either. A lot of things that have been done have been on a feel basis, without a real coordination of anything. No real future plans etc.
One big thing is that I probably don't have the time to decide on what the site should be like. I have some time and interest to work on the technical side and I have some energy to do some content, fixes, edits, corrections and the like, but I can't do anything major. This far we haven't really had a real leader of any kind in here: someone does something and it's ok if nobody says it's not ok. Should we have someone who takes it as his/her mission to decide what Maaya's should be?
I really would love to have answers into all these questions. Before we can work on a site we should know what we want of it and what we want to offer. If all of us don't know what the site should be like then we're just working randomly on whatever everyone feels important, but the site itself doesn't really go anywhere.