The Forum

[Tintinnabulate]

Hello :)

I thought I would post some ideas on how to possible improve the forum. There are just general ideas and I hope others will expand on them and maybe suggest alternatives or even better ones. This is like a basic idea really to see what others think and hopefully improve it.

Forum

Index is too long. Yes, I know I suggested creating a new category and pushed the idea, but in general, its too long.

For example:

http://i31.tinypic.com/nqzd6s.png

Excluding the VIP forums, this forum has nine categories.

http://i29.tinypic.com/4ugh2q.png

Then we have CHF, looks nice and simple with just five.

This makes our index looks so much longer and therefore ugly. Years ago, Habbox wanted to be all organised - like all sites - but because of such a large number of forum and a section for pretty much everything, it means it might all be organised but it means the forums look empty and inactive.

What I therefore suggest is the following:

THESE IDEAS ARE TO SHORTEN INDEX OR TO MERGE / REMOVE FORUMS TO INCREASE OVERALL ACTIVITY OF INDIVIDUAL FORUMS.

Habbox

Get rid of the "Forum Rules and Terms and Conditions - Last Updated 14th March 2010" forum. I don't know any other forum which has it :S A simple link to "Forum Rules" (just rename 'FAQ' to 'Forum Rules & FAQ') on the navbar will remove this. This forum is not needed.

I have always been against the 'Development Forum'. It goes back to May and isn't needed. It would be better suited as a sub-forum for 'Habbox Announcements'.

Making the changes above would mean 'Community' and 'Habbox' can be merged again as it will only have 'Habbox Announcements' as an additional forum.

So Habbox category would not look like:

- Habbox Announcements
----- Development Announcements
- Community Notice Board
- Competitions
- Become a Habbox Donor

Thats cut down a category and two forums.

Help / Questions / Feedback

Rename 'Welcome To Habbox Forum / Goodbye' to 'Introductions and Goodbyes'
Keep 'Congratulations and Thank Yous!' - brings a nice community atmosphere.

Merge 'Habbox Feedback' and 'Questions/Queries about Habbox'. Most of the questions asked in the latter can easily be answered by a lot of the members and quickly. Questions in the 'Rare Values' sub-forum can be asked in Habbox Feedback if its job related (I don't see any in the last month), and if its values related (which it's full of) e.g. How much is xyz worth, it can easily be asked in 'Anything about Trading and Furni' under the Habbo category.

So this category will look like:

- Introductions / Goodbyes
- Congratulate or Thank Others
- Habbox Feedback
- Complaints

Cuts down one forum.

Habbo

Merge 'Habbo In General' and 'Bobba - Scams - and Bugs Errors and Glitches (and its sub forums)'. The latter can easily be classed as "Habbo in General". It would lead to a even more active "Habbo In General" and cut down on one forum which simply isn't required.

'Anything about Trading and Furni' and 'Report Rare Values' are required but can easily be turned into sub-forums of "Trading" - thus making index smaller.

So this category would look like this (on index):

- Habbo News and Rumours
- Cool Rooms
- Habbo in General
- Trading

Graphics

'Elite Alterations and Animations' can be moved to Habbox.com or something as a section. I think it would get more views and some members might prefer that their work it on Habbox.com rather than HabboxForum.com as Habbox.com is more popular. It goes back to May and most threads in there are from 2005-2007. I can only see two threads from 2010 on Page 1.

The rest seem fine to me. I would have suggested moving 'Habbo Alterations' to the Habbo category but its better suited under Graphics.

I would have also suggested merging 'Pictures and Photography (no alterations)' with 'Other Graphics' but am not sure if members would like that?

If the last idea is agreed upon, there would be no need for a Graphics category. Habbo Alterations can be moved to the Habbo category. A new 'Graphics' forum can be made under 'Entertainment' which would be a merged 'Pictures and Photos' and 'Other Graphics' with 'Graphics Discussion, Help and Requests' as a sub-forum. This would again shorten index and increase activity in the Graphics section as instead of having two separate sections where people post, there's just one.

Not too sure if many users will like this, but again, its just to increase overall activity and shorten index.

Entertainment and Games

Merge them.
I am going to presume the agreement with Kazopark was that their section will be on index.

Music - fine
TV & Film - fine
Jokes - fine
Anime and other Entertainment - fine

Move 'Runescape' as a sub-forum of 'Online Games' - same as WoW.

So Entertainment now looks like:

- Music
- TV & Films
- Jokes
- Forum Games
- Online Games
--- Runespace (and its sub-forums under it)
--- WoW
- Other Entertainment

Technology + The Web

Maybe people who use it can suggest ideas. I have no suggestions for this category.

General

Seems fine. Maybe someone else might have some suggestions.

Competitions

There needs to be more competitions which increase posting. I am referring to competitions hosted by Forum Staff and not the actual Competitions department.
I will post two very basic ideas:
- Referrals competitions - get more members and hopefully increase posting.
- Posting competitions - who can post the most in say two weeks? Again, just a quick example. Strict rules so not allowing mass spamming. Maybe not count the 'Spam' forum bit if you do, then ensure crap like mass spamming isnt counted - which makes it hard, so its just easier to ignore Spam and increase quality posting.

Skins

We need new skins. Some current ones are decent, the Summer Skin is nice but has wayyy too much trees in in the background and banner. I think some members (I think it was 'today') who are amazing at skin designs have offered to make them for free so maybe look into that?

I had more ideas but while posting this, half of them disappeared. If I remember them, I will post it here.

Sorry if there was any mistakes in this post, but yeah.

[Richie]

Oh god no don't start changing the forum around I got confused when the sex & education thingy and spam and that got changed around. I like how there is different sections it makes habbox unique and people have adapt to the forums now.

[Tintinnabulate]

Oh god no don't start changing the forum around I got confused when the sex & education thingy and spam and that got changed around. I like how there is different sections it makes habbox unique and people have adapt to the forums now.

Maybe but its better to have 1 active forum with all similar threads than 3 inactive looking ones just to organise them perfectly. Its not major changes anyway.

[Mathew]

I agree with you on merging "Ask the Habbox Staff" with "Habbox Feedback"
There are so many questions in other departments which I seem to know the answers to and the staff don't - quite annoying when you don't have the permissions to help somebody out.. :rolleyes:

Maybe make it "Habbox Feedback & Questions" or something..

[Hecktix]

Some interesting ideas Saurav, I'm not keen on some of the ideas for the announcements category, feedback category or the graphics category.

I have tried multiple times to merge games with entertainment to be greeted by an angry mob :P Although to be fair this would increase tidiness but I don't think that'll increase activity - it's never been a huge problem before and Habbox's index was h u g e when I joined so yeah, whilst these are nice suggestions for the index I'm not too sure what good they will do apart from help tidy up.

I don't want to run a referral competition and simply won't run a referral competition as the guidelines would have to be so strict to be worthwhile to HabboxForum that people just wouldn't participate, if a referral competition was to run a guideline would be each referred member must post 10 times, as otherwise it's just easy to cheat - however to make a member register and to make a member register and post 10 times are completely different things.

I have several posting competitions lined up for Habbox Summer Spectacular which will contribute to that hugely, I also have some feedback competitions on the way which should help the members of HabboxForum help give something to the forum they love and enjoy, and this should make them feel more of a part of it.

[Mr-Trainor]

There are so many questions in other departments which I seem to know the answers to and the staff don't - quite annoying when you don't have the permissions to help somebody out.. :rolleyes:

That happens to me sometimes, particularly with questions related to rare values :P Personally, I don't have a problem with the length of the index though.

[Tintinnabulate]

Some interesting ideas Saurav, I'm not keen on some of the ideas for the announcements category, feedback category or the graphics category.

I have tried multiple times to merge games with entertainment to be greeted by an angry mob :P Although to be fair this would increase tidiness but I don't think that'll increase activity - it's never been a huge problem before and Habbox's index was h u g e when I joined so yeah, whilst these are nice suggestions for the index I'm not too sure what good they will do apart from help tidy up.

I don't want to run a referral competition and simply won't run a referral competition as the guidelines would have to be so strict to be worthwhile to HabboxForum that people just wouldn't participate, if a referral competition was to run a guideline would be each referred member must post 10 times, as otherwise it's just easy to cheat - however to make a member register and to make a member register and post 10 times are completely different things.

I have several posting competitions lined up for Habbox Summer Spectacular which will contribute to that hugely, I also have some feedback competitions on the way which should help the members of HabboxForum help give something to the forum they love and enjoy, and this should make them feel more of a part of it.

They would increase activity in terms of say instead of 3 similar forums getting 3 threads each, one section which covers it all gets 9 threads - one main active forum.

[Hecktix]

They would increase activity in terms of say instead of 3 similar forums getting 3 threads each, one section which covers it all gets 9 threads - one main active forum.

This is fair enough for the forums which need to be active like the games/entertainment suggestion you made, but feedback & announcements are fine as they are - the recent changes I think are beneficial, including the addition of the Community category and I'd like to see how this goes before making any other changes.

[xxMATTGxx]

Habbox does quite have a large index and it's something we seem to had for a while, it has been worst in the past though.

I don't agree that we should get rid of "Forum Rules and Terms and Conditions - Last Updated 14th March 2010" forum. This because it is easy visible and it's quite clear how to go and read the forum rules, instead of having a smaller font size link up at the top. I know the FAQ also has a link to the forum rules, but I think more people use the forum link rather than going through the FAQ each time.

I'm also not a fan of removing or moving the Development Announcements forum either, that side of things is quite small already and is highly visible to the community. I think Help / Questions / Feedback now is quite fine with the changes that were made to it not that long ago by Oli.

The normal forums might need a change to them to get them more activity compared to the other forums we have. It will be interesting to see what other members think from the areas of Habbo, Graphics and so on. Regarding the Technology + The Web, I don't see the problem with that forum at the moment although I'm normally just in the discussion part of things.

In regards of the: 'Elite Alterations and Animations', I believe we are trying to cut down on the many sections Habbox.com currently has. I think it is also a nice forum to see some of the great work from members from the past and see what "Elite" work they have done. I believe it is still used and new additions can be added if the Graphics Manager feels they are excellent pieces of work. But the Graphics forums aren't what they used to be! :(

To be honest I agree a little with you regards of moving Runescape under where World of Warcraft is but each time that has been suggested I believe the RS regular posters an what not were not always too keen on the idea at all. I think that also went for the "Entertainment" merge? But Gaming could fit in their quite nicely though.

Skinssssss

How many skins do you think HabboxForum actually needs? We may need some more but sometimes in terms of getting them made and what not can be quite tricky for us. But we will take on any suggestions regarding new skins and see what we can do in terms of them getting made. I quite like the Summer Skin and it seems Jamesy has done a great job on it, no matter how many trees there are on it! :P

[Inseriousity.]

I don't see how having a small index improves the forum. I have no problem with 9 categories tbh. It's all about the quality of the threads inside the categories for me. :)

[Nemo]

Personally, i dont even look at the index. I spam new posts n already have shortcuts to the forums i read.

[W00TZEH]

You have way too much spare time if the index bothers you that much.

[Dinosaurawrr]

I personally think its a great way to be unique whether or not there is alot more catagories and subsections and whatever else. The forum is continuously being copied by other forums and this goes to show that people do think the way the forum looks and is organized is to a great standard if people wish to copy.

Also the fact is if Hxf decided to copy places such as Clubhabbo then it would be more Clubhabbo than Habbox. We don't wish to copy other forums as we would most probably like to stay as a unique fansite and people don't really care about the way the forum looks, just what goes into it such as threads and replys. The forum users have a New thread or post button anyway which they can go to the way the forum looks to me is fine. :}

However we do need more skins *cough*Pink*cough* :D, however some of your suggestions are good but its up to managment.