Whats unique about Habbox?

[Tintinnabulate]

Whats unique about Habbox? Why should people use it? What are they getting that is different?

Talk about a new Habbox.com site layout has been going on since January this year, but nothing has happened. It was set for release this summer, yet we have heard nothing...
Matt made this sticky last month and its still stuck but we have not heard anything
http://www.habboxforum.com/showthread.php?t=662821

News Section...
Well Habbo news has not been ideal for fansites posting news.

The Newsletter section is for July. Its September now.

Events calendar says there are no upcoming events. Seems like the managers cannot be bothered updating it. I have posted about this before but its obviously not improved.

Competitions Section on the site says the last competition ended on 13th August. - Not been updated in over a month.

I am sure Roxy916 said she will update the Competitions section of the site but yeah not happened.

Rare Values
Market place has meant this is no longer unique.

It seems Habbox is struggling to even update some minor pages, how do you expect users to keep coming back? They will check the Events calendar, see its completely blank and leave it. They will see the competitions page, see its a month old and leave.

Forum is still pretty active which is good.

I have suggested so many times that Habbox needs unique stuff like scripts on HabboEmoticon (http://habboemotion.com/). They have amazing generators and I have seen so many people here use it in their signatures. Thats what unique about them.

What unique about Habbox? Before it was rare values, now whats unique? Why should people use Habbox? Dont say because people are friendly, it needs to offer something unique first like amazing generators etc.

Before there used to be huge prizes on the Radio every so often. The show would be advertised all over habbo, habbox and the forum for like 10 days before the event and the prize would be like a Throne. You can still do prizes like 200c or 300c twice a month on the radio to get interest.

[Richie]

I totally agree with everything said.

[Storking]

Agreed, I just went into those sections and it looks pretty bad on Habbox's behalf not having them updated..

A little bit of effort to update areas like events and competitions will go a long way in making Habbox look more professional and popular.

as for the radio, I don't really see many giveaways and competitions in the popular room list on Habbo from HxL, but there are usually giveaways/big competitions daily from other fansites like clubhabbo, tryhabbo and hffm. So.. maybe more giveaways could be held to get dedicated listeners and attract users from other time zones who might not have heard of Habbox before :)

[Tintinnabulate]

Jin had like huge rooms of furni to give away right after the merge, did that ever happen?
If not then whats the point in getting people to donate huge amounts of furni and then just keeping it locked up in a store room? :S :S

---------- Post added 27-09-2010 at 12:37 AM ----------

And management, people do not say "Well wait till v6, its going to be fresh".

That line has been repeated since January. I actually doubt it will happen this year. Think of what immediate things can be done? You don't need v6 to get new generators or those similar to HabboEmoticon.
Also what new and fresh ideas will actually be in v6?

[scott]

Right now? Nothing from what I can see. I've said as well about the events calendar hardly updated and sometimes the lack of events. The amount of events staff there is and the little amount of events really shocked me.

HabboxLive held a day full of events/win a room/giveaways on saturday and we did manage to attract quite a good few listeners from it. Did they come back? Not all of them of course not, a few yes they have. I think that it is shocking the amount of time it's taken for the sites to be fixed it's surely over a week now? There is no radio stats and a very slow loading site that certainly isn't going to attract anybody to the site. If i go on HabboxLive and see some weird coding instead of radio stats I wouldn't be coming back to that site.

I've always thought there needs to be competitions put onto Habbox.com - Have a form were they fill their Habbo name and an answer instead of having to be registered to the forum that will attract people as well. Something different rather than just news, Habbo has news why would they come to Habbox to read it? A different persons perspective on the article but once they've read that they will leave, there is nothing else keeping them there.

The Habbox Today I know Garion was getting strict on it being used when he became AGM at first, I don't know if it's still the case but either make sure there is one everyday or get rid of it and have something else because the name 'Habbox Today' obviously means that it's what's happening that day sometimes when I check it there hasn't been one for 3 days which just makes the site look really out dated.

We've been told time and time again 'Oh this is going to be the best layout Habbox has ever had, interactive the lot!!" Months down the line and yeah we still have no updates on it, I hope it's that good the amount of time it's taken :P

[Tintinnabulate]

Right now? Nothing from what I can see. I've said as well about the events calendar hardly updated and sometimes the lack of events. The amount of events staff there is and the little amount of events really shocked me.

HabboxLive held a day full of events/win a room/giveaways on saturday and we did manage to attract quite a good few listeners from it. Did they come back? Not all of them of course not, a few yes they have. I think that it is shocking the amount of time it's taken for the sites to be fixed it's surely over a week now? There is no radio stats and a very slow loading site that certainly isn't going to attract anybody to the site. If i go on HabboxLive and see some weird coding instead of radio stats I wouldn't be coming back to that site.

I've always thought there needs to be competitions put onto Habbox.com - Have a form were they fill their Habbo name and an answer instead of having to be registered to the forum that will attract people as well. Something different rather than just news, Habbo has news why would they come to Habbox to read it? A different persons perspective on the article but once they've read that they will leave, there is nothing else keeping them there.

The Habbox Today I know Garion was getting strict on it being used when he became AGM at first, I don't know if it's still the case but either make sure there is one everyday or get rid of it and have something else because the name 'Habbox Today' obviously means that it's what's happening that day sometimes when I check it there hasn't been one for 3 days which just makes the site look really out dated.

We've been told time and time again 'Oh this is going to be the best layout Habbox has ever had, interactive the lot!!" Months down the line and yeah we still have no updates on it, I hope it's that good the amount of time it's taken :P

Its a shame that I need to spread before repping you again scott.

Well its so amazing that apparently they didn't have a proper layout last month if Matt had to hold a competition. They knew about it in January, yet no one bothered taking up the job to ensure its done. Alkaz made some amazing designs and they are very nice. He actually suggested some amazing forum skins too and showed me rough designs but it never really happened, meaning his hard work designing it was a waste of time. These forum skins would have made Habbox unique and have attracted new members.

Habbox needs to look at making several games room owned by one person or a few managers. Maybe a TC, but a main Battleball for sure.
Give all managers and trusted staff rights and try and ensure its on popular most of the time. People will see Habbox.com on top all the time in the Games section and a few would go on it. Its the only way to do it.
Most new members start with Games rooms, so thats where Habbox needs to be popular. They slowly go to trades after using Games but by that time, if they know of Habbox, you job is done.

[Calvin]

I have to agree with all those points, to be honest Habbox isn't really considered unique at the moment besides from it's very slow speed really.. But yeah, I noticed the events calendar problem earlier when someone in HxHD asked what events are on, I thought this updates from the forum events calendar anyway? :S

The newsletter is just pointless, it basically offers nothing and is hardly ever updated, perhaps get a manager to post a monthly summary in the announcements forum for each month going over the new updates on Habbox, HxL and HxF instead.

As for generators, I'm trying to get as much generators as I can so some new ones should be coming soon.

[Storking]

There needs to be a clear and eye catching events timetable (regularly updated) on the main site so that people can find out when events are in advance, rather than having to be on the forum and then having an events staff post a forum thread to advertise their event.

even if it means moving the news articles down a bit to fit the timetable in there or on the side, it should be on Habbox.com - and users shouldn't have to click any extra links to get to it

No matter how many updates you bring in, new users aren't really going to hear about the site and visit Habbox/HabboxForum unless there are plenty of events and giveaways in Habbo.com that advertise it :) simple really.

[Nixt]

I'll start with addressing your concerns regarding V6, I've recently highlighted the issues surrounding V6 in another thread (http://www.habboxforum.com/showthread.php?t=667981&p=6751152#post6751152) but anyway - what it comes down to is that we have not been provided with the specification necessary to really get stuck into the creation of the site which means most of what can be done is merely rhetoric that cannot be acted upon. This is a result of Jin's commitments in real life which obviously cannot be avoided. However, he has now returned and has said that he would like to see the creation of Habbox V6 before Christmas, which is great! He has also began planning the more intricate details with the coders.

Further to this I am happy to admit, as will I am sure other members of General Management, up until quite recently the Management of the project has been rather confusing and frankly piss poor. There were severe breakdowns in communication and confusion over what was happening (amongst the Management team) and it did take a while to really start developing ideas and discussing what could happen properly. Whilst this is all based on ideas and not what may actually happen, we have at least started developing some very interesting new features and ideas for the new website which will hopefully make the whole process a lot smoother.

I will agree that to an extent Habbox lacks a certain singularity that it once offered; other Habbo fansites have certainly caught up and in some cases overtaken us in what they offer and how they offer it. This is a pressing issue and essentially comes down to one thing - the antiquity of the Habbox website and this is something, as explained above, we are trying to improve. I really do hate to fall down on the "Habbox V6 excuse" because it does seem to be happening a lot recently but in fairness I am not just relying on it to reply to feedback, I am relying on it because without it Habbox. Will. Fail. It is as simple as that really. I am essentially putting all of my faith, as a member of General Management, into its development so we can see Habbox improve. Without it we are stuck in a rut and will continue riding the waves of our previous success until the site (although maybe [probably] not HxF) falls further into disrepair and disuse.

Regarding news, whilst I will agree it doesn't make us unique, Habbox.com has always and continues to provide a valuable news service that gives users something that is unique in its own right. If you look at other fansites the news is often a mere replication (or poor differentiation) on Habbo news itself - we offer a different take on Habbo news and this is used. Of course this isn't a clincher, or anything anyone would consider spectacular but it is a fundamental part of Habbox and does provide an element of attraction to the website. A large proportion of our visitors read the news posted.

Moving onto the Newsletter - You will have to wait for Matt on that one really, as I understand he was going to be maintaining it.

For events and competitions sections of the site, this really comes under the umbrella category of content. Not that I wish to single out a department, because it comes down to more people than just the Content team, but Habbox.com content as a whole is not very well kept (other than those allocate to Content Designers but these don't necessarily need updating daily). I can't really say why these pages haven't been updated but I know there were some issues with a script when it comes to the events calendar. However I agree these pages need to be kept updated and perhaps to ensure this we should widen their editors to people other than one or two individuals.

As for rare values, my post here seems to sum up my thoughts here:
Not going to sit here and pretend that Rare Values is the number one part of Habbox.com or the Habbox collective any more (it certainly used to be) but let me make one thing very, very clear - it is not getting removed or closed down. Rare values have been an inherent part of Habbox.com for a long time and it remains an important and key part of the current Habbox project and its foundations in the long term.

We admit quite readily that the Marketplace has overtaken Habbox in terms of the main source of values but it is still used and it is still referenced on numerous occasions I have noticed on the client. In recognising the fact that the usefulness of rare values - whilst not completely burnt out - have been devalued (see what I did there) we have discussed and planned numerous changes for V6 that will make a kind of up and coming "rare resource" (rather than just values) a useful and commonly used tool on Habbox.com.

The department is far from obsolete and with the changes we have planned could easily become a key part of Habbox.com once again. We recognise reform is needed but the complete abolition of such a department would be foolish.I do think we need to start thinking about introducing new features and so on on the current Habbox.com site and it will be possible, perhaps, to introduce some of the scripts and features we have planned for V6 on the current site until the V6 launch. This will not be everything of course, but at least some of the things to keep people coming back and interested. This will be something that Jin will have to decide of course but I am sure it is possible.

Regarding the radio - it is having some difficulties and obviously that has impacted quite negatively on listeners. This applies to both Habbox and Habbox Forum too which have been suffering since the server difficulties but once again I am only really in a position to say now Jin is back I am sure it will be addressed as soon as possible. He is, after all, the only person in a position to fix these things.

As Scott has said we also did a HxL promotion day and this helped. We need to continue doing things like this, of course, and we are attempting to really get our name out there on the client in a variety of different ways - different rooms, different events and so on. Of course there is an element of quietness at this time of year and I am not about to use it as an excuse but people have just started school, college and university so this can negatively impact on the number of events going on and so forth. It also affects the amount of people using Habbo at any given time which inevitably impacts on us, too.

I do agree with everything you have said but for a lot of it I am not in a position to fully explain why or what will be done to fix it, as that is not for me to impose. However I do want to stress my above points about V6 which are the absolute truth and your frustration and desperation when it comes to the new website is shared by myself and Management alike.

Oh and apologies for any lack of structure or coherence, it is nearly 1AM.

[Tintinnabulate]

There needs to be a clear and eye catching events timetable (regularly updated) on the main site so that people can find out when events are in advance, rather than having to be on the forum and then having an events staff post a forum thread to advertise their event.

even if it means moving the news articles down a bit to fit the timetable in there or on the side, it should be on Habbox.com - and users shouldn't have to click any extra links to get to it

No matter how many updates you bring in, new users aren't really going to hear about the site and visit Habbox/HabboxForum unless there are plenty of events and giveaways in Habbo.com that advertise it :) simple really.

I like your idea about giving Events and Competitions exposure on the homepage. It would be ideal and would help a lot. Addition of a few simple modules can easily fix this till v6 is released.

There is no point releasing all this amazing stuff only when v6 is released. At this time when Habbox is still popular, its ideal to offer some new things quickly to keep those users interested or slowly they will get bored and leave too.
Something needs to make users return, and events and competitions are ideal for that, and their exposure on the homepage will help.

Martin is doing a great job with News, I am not complaining one bit. Its updated regularly (more so than last year) and quality of articles are fantastic. I am just saying unfortunately its not unique any more.

[Martin]

I have to agree with all those points, to be honest Habbox isn't really considered unique at the moment besides from it's very slow speed really.. But yeah, I noticed the events calendar problem earlier when someone in HxHD asked what events are on, I thought this updates from the forum events calendar anyway? :S

The newsletter is just pointless, it basically offers nothing and is hardly ever updated, perhaps get a manager to post a monthly summary in the announcements forum for each month going over the new updates on Habbox, HxL and HxF instead.

As for generators, I'm trying to get as much generators as I can so some new ones should be coming soon.


With the Newsletter, I did offer to revamp the Habbox news section (Which is currently a brokenish feed from the announcements on the forum).

I was going to do like possibly a weekly article summarising what happened that week in terms of community events, things habbox did, staff updates, forum updates, site updates, etc.

Whilst as you say this could easily be done on the forum, I think having an updated sumarry like this would be quite a nice thing to have on the site, and if it's in article format- it serves as kind of a history to what's happened lately in the habbox world.

As I said, I offered to do this as a news departmenty thing making use of the 'Habbox News' section which tbh I can't really do much with in it's current state. The Newsletter was then published in July, thus making it silly for me to go ahead with that idea.



I can't really reply to many of the other points, as I'm mostly in agreement that it's been a slow patch lately- and things do seem to be taking a while to get sorted. I know there are lots of ideas floating around, and a lot of things are eventually down to Jin (who hasn't been on much lately due to real life commitments). I'm sure now he's back things will pick up pace.

However, in the meantime- we can (and should) concentrate on what we've got, and work on ways to improve it and customize it to ensure that we are still attracting people to the site.

[HotelUser]

I can elaborate a little bit concerning why the events calendar hasn't been updated however I'm sure Roxy will be able to explain this in more detail.

It's always been the responsibility of the Assistant Events Manager to update the calendar and our calendar had been up to date until the last Events Manager resigned from the position. In the previous week there was discussion of utilizing a script to automatically draw up a calendar for the site which worked in coherence with the forum's calendar too and that's currently on the todo list.

With regards to V6 there has been more discussion amongst us about it this past week than there has been since the project begun. I can also say that the coding process has been going on for a little while now and we're making steady progress in that aspect too. I think it's important to remember that we don't have a paid task force tailored to the task and all contributions thus far have been good natured and free.

[-Nick]

You mist one thing Competitions prizes need to be quicker ! but totally agree


Whats unique about Habbox? Why should people use it? What are they getting that is different?

Talk about a new Habbox.com site layout has been going on since January this year, but nothing has happened. It was set for release this summer, yet we have heard nothing...
Matt made this sticky last month and its still stuck but we have not heard anything
http://www.habboxforum.com/showthread.php?t=662821

News Section...
Well Habbo news has not been ideal for fansites posting news.

The Newsletter section is for July. Its September now.

Events calendar says there are no upcoming events. Seems like the managers cannot be bothered updating it. I have posted about this before but its obviously not improved.

Competitions Section on the site says the last competition ended on 13th August. - Not been updated in over a month.

I am sure Roxy916 said she will update the Competitions section of the site but yeah not happened.

Rare Values
Market place has meant this is no longer unique.

It seems Habbox is struggling to even update some minor pages, how do you expect users to keep coming back? They will check the Events calendar, see its completely blank and leave it. They will see the competitions page, see its a month old and leave.

Forum is still pretty active which is good.

I have suggested so many times that Habbox needs unique stuff like scripts on HabboEmoticon (http://habboemotion.com/). They have amazing generators and I have seen so many people here use it in their signatures. Thats what unique about them.

What unique about Habbox? Before it was rare values, now whats unique? Why should people use Habbox? Dont say because people are friendly, it needs to offer something unique first like amazing generators etc.

Before there used to be huge prizes on the Radio every so often. The show would be advertised all over habbo, habbox and the forum for like 10 days before the event and the prize would be like a Throne. You can still do prizes like 200c or 300c twice a month on the radio to get interest.

[Roxy]

Only I can update the forum calendar which makes it hard to keep track of (I've always done it previously and when charl was here we could split the work) however I've had a lot more things to do irl so simply haven't had as much time. So, I've spoken to david and a panel is being creating which automatically updates the site calendar and can keep track of the number of events each person has done and what they were so we can give the eos better feedback when it comes to writing reports. The panel should be here in roughly a week so after that all calendars should always be fully updated and I appologise that the calender isnt already being updated regularly. I agree it'd be good to have the events / competitions promoted more on the front page but at the time we couldn't find anywhere to put the events calendar so hopefully space can be made for it in v6

I don't update the competitions page and it hasn't been my responsibility for 2-3 months

I agree about needing more Habbox rooms too. I've created a swimming pool which tends to be really popular and runs itself which should help to spread Habbox's name but obviously we need few more which I'm trying to work on too.

Sorry if any of that didn't make much sense, I'm still half asleep so I'll reply to the other points later

[xxMATTGxx]

I created that thread because at the time we was a bit stuck in terms of layout designs and have a choice to choose from when that time came up.

Sadly the way at Habbox works and what not it isn't as straight forward as let's do V6 within the Summer months, we did have to wait for Jin to come back as he does own Habbox and needs to have a say in a lot of things and wants his ideas to be implemented which are beneficial for Habbox.

Now that Jin has returned, V6 has been getting a bit further then it has for past few months which includes critical decisions/discussions being made and also an idea of what design to go for. Now from the time we have been saying wait for V6 to now, it is wrong to say nothing has been done in regards of V6 but a lot of discussion and coding examples have been done to show the General Management Team on what is basically possible and what not.

Anyway on to the newsletter that I was suppose to maintain each month, I did start writing the new one up which would cover the whole of August but sadly It never got finished and then obviously it didn't get published. I'm not going to list a lot of reasons/excuses if that's what you want to call them for it not being done but I've had to do things here and there which come before Habbox. I do apologize that hasn't been updated as much as I wanted and a new one should be out by the end of this week.

@Martin, I do like that idea of yours and if you wish to get Habbox News back in order with that sort of content then I don't have a big issue with that. Give me a shout and we can talk about it.

Events Calender: Roxy has posted what she has to say about that.

Competitions Page: It seems that page is managed by other people and not Roxy as you first thought. It is a page that needs to be updated again and I've contacted certain people to see what is going on in regards of it and hopefully get this re-started.

I don't think there is one main thing that is unique to Habbox and that is what makes people visit us and stay on the forum, site and so on. But in regards of this thread, what we need to make sure is happening is that the content/pages and things that need updating on a daily basis or every so often is being done and done to a good standard. Then with the events HabboxLive have been doing, we keep doing them when we can is a great bonus for the Habbo community. Yeah not everyone stays afterward but a few of them do, which is good news really.

The current Habbox rooms such as Roxy's swimming pool is doing really good which is alway good to see but with more of these it would be also beneficial to get the name out there.


I think that it is shocking the amount of time it's taken for the sites to be fixed it's surely over a week now? There is no radio stats and a very slow loading site that certainly isn't going to attract anybody to the site. If i go on HabboxLive and see some weird coding instead of radio stats I wouldn't be coming back to that site.

I do understand where you are coming from in regards of the website loading times and the problem HabboxLive is facing with the radio and radio statistics, It has been mentioned and reported to Jin to make sure it gets fixed and sadly due to the way Habbox runs, the servers and what not it can't be fixed by just anyone really.

I need to go and get ready for college and will post further replies later in the day.

[scott]

Habbox needs to look at making several games room owned by one person or a few managers. Maybe a TC, but a main Battleball for sure.
Give all managers and trusted staff rights and try and ensure its on popular most of the time. People will see Habbox.com on top all the time in the Games section and a few would go on it. Its the only way to do it.
Most new members start with Games rooms, so thats where Habbox needs to be popular. They slowly go to trades after using Games but by that time, if they know of Habbox, you job is done.

On the point about having more Habbox rooms, when I was assistant HabboxLive manager I created a room for HabboxLive to become an official Habbox room it was a place for listeners and the DJs to go to talk amongst each and interact with each other as I know that is something the listeners love. I went to all the bother of making the room then to be told no I was not allowed to open the room, if they want to use anything they can use the Help Desk. Which is really stupid IMO, surely any room with the Habbox/Habboxlive name is beneficial to the site I think it would have really benefited HabboxLive.

I agree there has to be more rooms on Habbo with the Habbox name, when I look in the room list I always see a HFFM event/give away and other sites as well, I don't think I ever see Habbox there :p I know habbox doesn't have much furni (Which I was quite surprised about) but give aways and popular rooms need to be created to get the Habbox name on habbo!



Only I can update the forum calendar which makes it hard to keep track of (I've always done it previously and when charl was here we could split the work) however I've had a lot more things to do irl so simply haven't had as much time. So, I've spoken to david and a panel is being creating which automatically updates the site calendar and can keep track of the number of events each person has done and what they were so we can give the eos better feedback when it comes to writing reports. The panel should be here in roughly a week so after that all calendars should always be fully updated and I appologise that the calender isnt already being updated regularly. I agree it'd be good to have the events / competitions promoted more on the front page but at the time we couldn't find anywhere to put the events calendar so hopefully space can be made for it in v6

I don't update the competitions page and it hasn't been my responsibility for 2-3 months

I agree about needing more Habbox rooms too. I've created a swimming pool which tends to be really popular and runs itself which should help to spread Habbox's name but obviously we need few more which I'm trying to work on too.

Sorry if any of that didn't make much sense, I'm still half asleep so I'll reply to the other points later

The swimming pool is a good idea, the few times I've been in there it's always been quite busy :p

Is there not a Senior events organiser? I thought they had the ability to update the calendar I'm sure ben and molly did when I was events staff :o

[Inseriousity.]

Regarding the Competitions page, comps management decided that rather than PMing roxy saying 'hey new comps, put them on the page', we'd cut out the middle-woman and do it ourselves. Unfortunately, this didn't work out so well but we'll get back on track with that. Easily solved.

There is nothing unique about Habbox at the moment. Personally, I think the vast majority of guides are pointless and don't offer much to the reader. I know for a fact however that v6 will solve this problem. There are tons of good ideas that are being planned for it. The problem is that there are 50 hoops to jump through before you can actually start. Hopefully with Jin here, it'll be done before Christmas as they planned but I'll confess that I would not be surprised if it wasn't 2011 before we got something.

[Grig]

Right I'm here for the low down cent down of my views, some of these phrases have just been made up btw.

Anyway news: love it, great quality. BUT and this is where I go against it, and I was aware of this when management. Habbox News' glory days are long over, because now Habbo posts all the news, it is very difficult to promote. The only time when news became popular again was the reviews and exclusives we had in the build up to the merge. I would like to see more exclusives, not a re-written because that simply doesn't cut it anymore. Also the long essay types that used to work need to be cut down and witty.

HabboxLive, dying at the moment due to broken stats and lag from what people told me. I think HabboxLive's reliance on listeners from the main site has now gone and it needs to work on it's own to bag in the listeners. I seem to also see people spamming MSN for DJs so maybe more quality DJs hired etc. Basically it's thinking outside the box in the sense that you need big shows such as vault shows etc. This is how HabboxLive initially gained success when Adzeh was manager, it is time to implement an Adziology, where there may not be 50 DJs, but good quality ones who are dedicated. Use rough tactics like head hunt and as long as you don't do this from CH then it's fine LOL.

Rares, I like. Always been the heart of Habbox. I still solely use the Habbox rares, mostly cause I have never actually used marketplace and am old school. Keep them and re-vamp them to get more people to want to use them, like Dan said so good stuff.

Your layout is stuck in an old era. There have been discussions of v6 since the start of the year and Garion is right, if this continues, there would be a downward spiral. Habbox does not offer that 'unique' and 'hip' element that it used to. It is now like a grandfather of a respirator. Yes, these similes are coming now. I think that you guys should be more reliant on the AGM content who used to co-ordinate these efforts more in Sierk's days.

Habbox has a great community, and it should be a shame to see it in decline. I would love to see HxL back in the 100s or even 200s, but it needs to take so much effort!

[Alkaz]

Thanks’ for that comment Saurav but they really weren’t as good as you make out. Quite a while ago I did suggest we made a Habbox Hospital or another themed type room as these were extremely popular when ClubHabbo and HFFM did them and for some reason or another no one really seemed to like the idea. Anyway, a while later as I’m sure most people already know there were proposals for Habbox Central and I’ve no idea how far that is on being complete but like Roxy has already said there is a room or two already open which are proving to be a big hit with the community. In terms of games rooms like Saurav said, I’m sure it was also planned for large v9 rooms will be used as events room as well as being general rooms to chill out and play in.

In terms of the events calendar, news letter and all of these types of pages I think that quiet a lot of people, me included have become lazy and reliant on scripts to do things for us and pages like donations and competitions all need to be manually updated. Pages as I say like the competitions pages should be updated by competitions management instead of X, Y and whoever else for pretty simple reasons like they know when new competitions have been posted so can be added to that page as soon as possible so people can enter them. Hopefully when v6 does arrive the events time table will be on the main page or at least a feature you can chose to have permanently on the main page every time you visit Habbox.

Most people will know that the newsletters we’ve had in previous years have fallen flat on their faces. With the current one we tried to make sure that we kept it to the bare minimum in terms of content and just supplied users with the facts and figures of the past month, this is why we agreed it would be done by xxMATTGxx and not a member of the content or news department. However, as we’ve now so obviously discovered in hindsight it didn’t work out at all as Matt is a very busy man and as he has already said, ‘Habbox’ news for the future will be discussed to keep it constantly updated.

As for scripts and generators, they’ve always been our downfall and its only really been in the recent months that we’ve had a decent team to create them. When we started to get that team together talk of v6 came about and we were almost left hanging as what to do next. We didn’t know what was going to be carried over from the current version to the next and what sort of things would be needed but as time went on we’ve gradually started to build on the stuff we offer in our fun stuff section on the site. As Skizzling said he is now working on these and has many new and pretty nifty generators coming soon which will be exciting to see. I have noticed in a few members signatures and avatars over the past months generators such as the countdown to birthday, Christmas etc in their signatures which is awesome to see and is what we’re working towards bringing you all more of.

The content we’ve got on the site is at the moment all being changed and updated quite drastically so to hopefully fit in with the standards expected of a fansite today and also the new look and feel which we will get with our new version. The content department is a very tricky department to staff now days as almost every piece of content which we used to supply was almost definitely unique to Habbox as it wasn’t really offered by any other fansite or even Habbo. Now that Habbo have jumped on the bandwagon of what fansites used to offer in terms of rare values (market place), news (news feed everywhere), guides (Habbo eXperts, guides and FAQ systems) there isn’t a great deal for any fansite to really offer. This means that a lot of the content which used to need constant and regular updates (if they’ve not been turned into automated scripts already) need once a week and sometimes not even that many updates. When a member of staff leaves or is dismissed it is usually because of time and it means that their pages which they should have kept up to date have been somewhat neglected and it takes time to build the information back up to date. The content issues could stem from me, but could go back to infrequent or back to 18, 24 months ago when Mr.OSH was the manager. With such a small department it does take time for things to be done but on the other hand there is simply no way that we could have a larger team which we’ve had previously and does not work.
In regards to v6, as Garion and others have already stated, work and serious discussion has started after talk over the past couple of months about it due to Jin being back from his real life commitments. And as Garion has said we hope that the official release of v6 is Christmas although at the moment there is obviously not a confirmed date for it. Like Garion also mentioned the management of this project has been extremely poor for several reasons. We started talking and work on v6 and were told we shouldn’t and should wait for Jin and there had been a lot of discussion and stuff being done all over the place due to confusion on management’s behalf.

Hopefully I’ve explained some of the points a little further as I know practically every post above this has said something on most areas of the site lol.

[Grig]

To add, just as a simple note; cut down on management numbers, there is way too much hierarchy. All other sites have about 5-7 people who manage and they aren't doing too bad. Habbox has like 20 (give or take a few), and I don't think everyone is needed, particularly in the smaller departments.

[Nixt]

Is there not a Senior events organiser? I thought they had the ability to update the calendar I'm sure ben and molly did when I was events staff :o

The problem here is actually a problem with VB4 - the events calendar permissions are difficult to apply to certain user groups without giving almost every forum member access to it which is why it is limited to certain people and, naturally, this results in issues with things not getting updated as certain individuals can be very busy.

I think Alkaz makes a very good point here in that we have become quite reliant on scripts and so on to manage certain things and obviously this has been unsuccessful. I'll discuss this with other members of General Management of course however an idea may be to remove the events script from Habbox.com for the time being (as clearly that idea isn't working) and before we get the new panel to update the site, we give Phil (Dilusionate) permissions to edit the page on Habbox.com and both him and Roxy can update the timetable which will show events for that week / month. Providing he is willing to do this it could work because generally events staff book for the month ahead and this means they can be added way in advance and the page will stay updated.


To add, just as a simple note; cut down on management numbers, there is way too much hierarchy. All other sites have about 5-7 people who manage and they aren't doing too bad. Habbox has like 20 (give or take a few), and I don't think everyone is needed, particularly in the smaller departments.

I'm split on this one and have previously advocated smaller Management teams but I don't think this is pressing or any real cause for concern. Whilst there are ways the Management team could be smaller I do think the current Management team works well. Providing that the right people are in the right positions this isn't something that I think causes any issues.

[Mrs.McCall]

I have to say I do agree with most of what is being put on here. I do feel that this time of year is always worst for Habbox because of the way staffing works out. Over summer people can't be bothered doing loads because they're on summer holidays or they're going away so things get put off. Then September is all about going back to school, getting back in rhythm so then the staffing isn't brilliant either.

I don't think there is an excuse for poor or lack of content and I do feel sorry for the content team because people demand a lot. There's a lot to do and not always enough people.

I feel that News is always one of the first things to be attacked by people when they're critiquing the website. I think it's unfair because exclusives can't come easy unless you're super good at hacking registrys and what not to find out upcoming furni. Plus Habbo aren't overly keen on sites posting things before they do. I've spoken before about reporters having more of a distinct voice in their writing and this is something I already see developing. News on Habbox is the best and has been the best for years and I can't see that changing.

I mentioned to Matt not so long ago about the possibility of bringing back the old Articles section. I think that now is a time when people are craving something different like editorials, room reviews and maybe something other than just news. I don't see why News and Articles can't become a new department under the same heading but I understand this is an experimental idea and perhaps may not work and most won't agree but I think by expanding the field in terms of what can be posted, you're truly making Habbox more varied again.

That's just my opinions.

[Judas]

I mentioned to Matt not so long ago about the possibility of bringing back the old Articles section. I think that now is a time when people are craving something different like editorials, room reviews and maybe something other than just news. I don't see why News and Articles can't become a new department under the same heading but I understand this is an experimental idea and perhaps may not work and most won't agree but I think by expanding the field in terms of what can be posted, you're truly making Habbox more varied again.

i agree with this...

[Calvin]

i agree with this...i agree with this... [2]

Would really like to see the return of the articles section, I don't really read the news at the moment as theres other sources for the articles such as BBC and the current site is just so slow, I just can't be bothered to make an attempt to read them. With articles, there will be nowhere else to read them and perhaps I'd make more of an effort. :P

Also, I agree with Scotty I think it was that said it, the radio needs to be fixed asap or just edit the radio config file so it matches the current ones, isn't that hard because if I was a new user and didn't have a clue about computers and saw a block of random code the first thing I'd think is that they're trying to run some malicious script on my computer and hacking me.

If you have any ideas for some generators then you can always PM myself and Joe (Alkaz) so we can add them along with the other ones coming soon.

edit; temp stats should be appearing soon

[Jin]

A lot of these problems are down to me pure and simple.

During the summer I have been away for about 3 months touring the UK. It has only been in the last week that I have actually returned home and it has been a huge strain on the entire management staff to run habbox in my absence when I am only contactable via mobile usually due to my remote locations which prevents me from logging on.

I am now free on mondays and fridays 9-5 which is dedicated purely towards Habbox as well as my evenings on all other days. You will need to bare with us whilst everyone is brought back up to scratch and we can continue with our developments. The new site, what we are calling V6 is under development at the moment and we already have a prototype design as well as basic features though we are not in any sort of position to give a release date.

This years Halloween style for the forum has just begun today and issues surrounding the server will be addressed ASAP, I am just finding it difficult to get together with my usually ragtag band of linux admins so we can sit together one night and work till the early hours.

I can only take blame for the delays on a lot of the things mentioned here, announcements are to follow in the next 10 days as well as polls and surveys.

[Martin]

I like the idea of articles, and it's certainly something which could be introduced I think. We have kind of touched on these in the past with room reviews, and the latest being interviews.

We already have plans to make more use of the interviews section, and this is being expanded so that's it's not going to just be habbox staff interviewed. :)


Another idea which has come up is the idea of articles aimed more at teens. We're thinking advice columns, something perhaps a bit unusual but could be quite interactive in terms of how it gets community involvement. I would love to see things on the site which gets people participating, rather than just reading a load of content. Things where people can submit their own content and perhaps competitions of some kind on the site.

I think there are lots of possibilities with articles, however we do have to be careful that it doesn't flop like the previous attempt(s) at such type of content. I think it's crucial to analyse what type of audience we are providing articles for and work towards this with them in mind.

News itself is pretty set in stone at the moment in terms of articles, with the three sections up and these are updated quite frequently. Habbo News, Entertainment news, and Sports news. Entertainment and Sport were picked out as being probably the most relevant real life topics to the audience we get on the site, and we will continue to work on promoting these in the future.


I know there will be many changes coming in V6 and it should hopefully give the site a real boost in terms of what it offers and it will certainly be unique. Things have slipped recently, and the site has become quite boring in my opinion, and really we need to come up with new and exciting things to combat this. The main thing I would love to see though is more of a community feel on the site, with more ways of getting involved, which in itself should attract new people to the site.

[Mrs.McCall]

I absolutely agree that it could fall flat on its face again. Articles in the past had a real issue because people became bored of it. It wasn't needed, it wasn't fresh and no matter what management tried to do (which was me included) it couldn't be fixed and the department died. This difference I think this time is there is a demand for it, people are becoming bored by just pure news (which isn't an attack on News. I think the reporters are amazing but its all down to needing to keep it fresh). I mean, who knows what will happen six months down the line. We could end up getting bored with Articles again.

I just think that it should be given a go and I forsee it could be popular because it is what people are looking for.

News really is an amazing department and I hope, in the search for fresher content, people don't forget that.

[Special]

if you think habbox and habboxforum is soooo rubbish why don't you quit because you're obviouisly not enjoying it

[Tintinnabulate]

I can elaborate a little bit concerning why the events calendar hasn't been updated however I'm sure Roxy will be able to explain this in more detail.

It's always been the responsibility of the Assistant Events Manager to update the calendar and our calendar had been up to date until the last Events Manager resigned from the position. In the previous week there was discussion of utilizing a script to automatically draw up a calendar for the site which worked in coherence with the forum's calendar too and that's currently on the todo list.

With regards to V6 there has been more discussion amongst us about it this past week than there has been since the project begun. I can also say that the coding process has been going on for a little while now and we're making steady progress in that aspect too. I think it's important to remember that we don't have a paid task force tailored to the task and all contributions thus far have been good natured and free.

So talk of a automated script comes up and suddenly thats an excuse for not updating the page :S wth ...

Habbox is relying way too much on automated scripts to do the job. If people cannot do the job, then get new people or more people and distribute work. People keep going "oh I have real life stuff to do", we all do, just distribute work, hire more people, not exactly hard :S.

Automated scripts to update events etc is crap too. A person updating it would look so much better. They can put in the name, maybe add a nice line and prize etc so it doesn't look robotic. Looks better if its done by a person nicely with different stuff every time.

---------- Post added 29-09-2010 at 08:20 PM ----------


if you think habbox and habboxforum is soooo rubbish why don't you quit because you're obviouisly not enjoying it

I presume thats aimed at me ... lol
Where did I say its rubbish? Do you not see everyone agreeing with me including management...

[Mathew]

Could someone explain exactly what the Articles Dept did? What they wrote about? etc.

I do think it would be interesting to introduce small "articles" to Habbox - rather like a newspaper. Lately I've become an avid reader of both the Metro and the Times and you see all these different journalists giving their opinions on current affairs, things that have happened in their lives, etc. I think with wit and some good management, something like this would be rather good. I'm sure with the coveted V6 update, people will be able to decide what type of articles they want to see.

I'd consider writing for an articles section on Habbox (summing up the weeks news / giving personal opinions on the news / complaints or praise about things which happened in real life) but I wouldn't dream of joining a department such as News.

EDIT:

Automated scripts to update events etc is crap too. A person updating it would look so much better. They can put in the name, maybe add a nice line and prize etc so it doesn't look robotic. Looks better if its done by a person nicely with different stuff every time.
On another note, I do think a personal touch to event announcements are much better than just giving a name and a time; it's just finding the time and people to actually remember to update it, day in, day out.

[Alkaz]

We've been discussing the possibility of changes to what the news department currently offers but we won't be making any immediate changes. The articles department used to be responsible for things such as staff interviews and room reviews, some things which the news department do already cover.

[Special]

I presume thats aimed at me ... lol
Where did I say its rubbish? Do you not see everyone agreeing with me including management...

kinda, as well as all the other people who moan about it 24/7

[Tintinnabulate]

kinda, as well as all the other people who moan about it 24/7

lol how pathetic. The fact that everyone's agreeing with me shows there is a real problem. Where did I say Habbox is so rubbish? You are clearly seeing things as no ones said it. :rolleyes:

Events ... not updated
Competitions ... not updated

*REMOVED*

Edited by dinasaw (Forum Super Moderator): Please do not be rude towards other forum members.

[Special]

lol how pathetic. The fact that everyone's agreeing with me shows there is a real problem. Where did I say Habbox is so rubbish? You are clearly seeing things as no ones said it. :rolleyes:

Events ... not updated
Competitions ... not updated

*REMOVED*


you need to chill out and stop taking habbox as seriously as you do

the reason i said you think it's rubbish is because you obviously don't like it, enjoy it or think habbox itself is any good

oh and don't ask me a question then tell me to **** off in the same sentance and i don't really care if i 'annoy the **** out of you' i'm not particually fond of you myself. maybe you could do another boring ranting thread about trying to rid me of the forum

[Tintinnabulate]

you need to chill out and stop taking habbox as seriously as you do

the reason i said you think it's rubbish is because you obviously don't like it, enjoy it or think habbox itself is any good

oh and don't ask me a question then tell me to **** off in the same sentance and i don't really care if i 'annoy the **** out of you' i'm not particually fond of you myself. maybe you could do another boring ranting thread about trying to rid me of the forum

Actually I suggested what Habbox can do to make itself unique and how it was so out of date and the pages were not updated. I aint people like you who just moan moan moan and offer zero ideas.

[Special]

Actually I suggested what Habbox can do to make itself unique and how it was so out of date and the pages were not updated. I aint people like you who just moan moan moan and offer zero ideas.

lol i can't actually believe you just said 'i aint people like you who just moan moan moan' it's all you practically do

also offering ideas to the forum is optional so don't even start using that as an insult

[Tintinnabulate]

lol i can't actually believe you said 'i aint people like you who just moan moan moan' it's all you practically do

also offering ideas to the forum is optional so don't start using that as an insult

moan moan moan? i actually offer ideas, most of which gets implemented, so obviously isn't moaning. If you call this thread moaning then I guess Garion, Jin, Matt, Matin and Alkaz are all moaning. Maybe they should resign if they think Habbox is rubbish as thats obviously what they are all saying :rolleyes:

[Mrs.McCall]

We've been discussing the possibility of changes to what the news department currently offers but we won't be making any immediate changes. The articles department used to be responsible for things such as staff interviews and room reviews, some things which the news department do already cover.

I actually don't completely agree with that because Articles can be so much more. Room Reviews and Interviews are rare in News. And it's not just Habbo content that's needed. Like Bolt said, it's clear there is a need for teen-targeted articles so why not bring back the Articles department and have it ran under News?

I'm thinking small editorials, columns on Teen life, tv reviews, music reviews etc.

In the past, as I've said, Articles didn't work but that's because Habbox was over-saturated with content back then. Was too much of the same thing.

[Calvin]

you need to chill out and stop taking habbox as seriously as you do

the reason i said you think it's rubbish is because you obviously don't like it, enjoy it or think habbox itself is any good

oh and don't ask me a question then tell me to **** off in the same sentance and i don't really care if i 'annoy the **** out of you' i'm not particually fond of you myself. maybe you could do another boring ranting thread about trying to rid me of the forumThe thing is, hes actually offering ideas to Habbox, hes not moaning. If it wasn't for him making this thread then half of the people who replied wouldn't of suggested these ideas as they wouldn't of bothered making a new thread.

Threads like these actually contribute to Habbox alot, they're not just full of users moaning.

[Jamesy]

I actually don't completely agree with that because Articles can be so much more. Room Reviews and Interviews are rare in News. And it's not just Habbo content that's needed. Like Bolt said, it's clear there is a need for teen-targeted articles so why not bring back the Articles department and have it ran under News?

I'm thinking small editorials, columns on Teen life, tv reviews, music reviews etc.

In the past, as I've said, Articles didn't work but that's because Habbox was over-saturated with content back then. Was too much of the same thing.

I'm in agreement with Mrs.McCall. I don't think it does any harm to try, so long as the News Department are enthusiastic about doing so! If in 6 months we look back and see its flopped again, well thats that but I think risks like that should be taken :)

[Alkaz]

I actually don't completely agree with that because Articles can be so much more. Room Reviews and Interviews are rare in News. And it's not just Habbo content that's needed. Like Bolt said, it's clear there is a need for teen-targeted articles so why not bring back the Articles department and have it ran under News?

I'm thinking small editorials, columns on Teen life, tv reviews, music reviews etc.

In the past, as I've said, Articles didn't work but that's because Habbox was over-saturated with content back then. Was too much of the same thing.
I didn't say that was all the articles department did, I just said two things they used to do. I know that they did a lot more and I also said that we've been discussing such things recently although changes probably wont be made in terms or news / articles yet. In the past, under the entertainment section of news we've had music reviews, I remember Faboosh did and excellent review of a Lady GaGa song and Nuxty has a weekly X Factor review report going on and there is also reports about what's going on in soap land in the next week or so. We already cover a few of the areas you mentioned but to make them a more prominent and a cemented part of the department would require approval by management and like I say we've been discussing it but nothing will happen right now.

Also you and others have mentioned 'teen life' or 'teen help'. Jin doesn't want us to do this and I agree with him. No one here is qualified in that field, it is totally unrelated to Habbo and I can't really see it working out in general so that is almost certainly not going to be implemented.

[Inseriousity.]

Also you and others have mentioned 'teen life' or 'teen help'. Jin doesn't want us to do this and I agree with him. No one here is qualified in that field, it is totally unrelated to Habbo and I can't really see it working out in general so that is almost certainly not going to be implemented.

Really? What a stupid excuse. You don't need a PhD in 'Youth Studies' to help people with teen issues cos... yes that's right, we're teens! Want to know how to apply for uni? Ask someone who's applied to uni recently, y'know... like teenagers... on Habbox Forum...

It's not totally unrelated to Habbo because it's a multiplayer online game, aimed at teens so it's only natural that fansites are also aimed at teens. It seemed like a good idea to keep things unique and it's a bit silly that it's being disregarded because none of the teenagers here are 'experts' at being a teenager.

[Nixt]

Really? What a stupid excuse. You don't need a PhD in 'Youth Studies' to help people with teen issues cos... yes that's right, we're teens! Want to know how to apply for uni? Ask someone who's applied to uni recently, y'know... like teenagers... on Habbox Forum...

It's not totally unrelated to Habbo because it's a multiplayer online game, aimed at teens so it's only natural that fansites are also aimed at teens. It seemed like a good idea to keep things unique and it's a bit silly that it's being disregarded because none of the teenagers here are 'experts' at being a teenager.

To back this up, even Habbo recently asked its members to provide "Top Ten School Survivial" tips, I don't think it's at all dissimilar. We're not talking about acting as Samaritans and preventing depressed or emo teens from committing suicide because very few of us, if any, are qualified to deal with situations such as those. As Mike said, the teen help section would be guides such as applying for uni, coming out to friends / family if you're gay, how to cope with exams. As Mike said a qualification isn't really needed unless you're heading in the direction of offering on the spot advice for people in quite dire real life situations, and all articles (which would hopefully be user submitted) would be vetted and edited so as to avoid anything like this.

Of course it's up to Jin in the long term, but I do think it would be interesting content that would give Habbox an extra arm to appeal to users prospective, new and old.

[Martin]

I really liked the teen help ideas, and I think that could have provided something which is actually more useful and unique than other fansites offer perhaps. We did have some quite nifty ideas regarding them, with perhaps it fitting nicely into the articles environment. This could also have enabled users to send content in and this would be published on the site, thus making them feel we are more of a community. I'm sure there could have been prizes or something to go along with this too.

I can't go into much detail now, but in my head I just have an image of what types of content we could have, and perhaps picking out interesting newspaper features such as "the dear deirdre" thingee out of the sun, or something similar (obviously not as risque as some of her stuff, but yeah. There are also other features we could perhaps attempt such as a more humerous section or something to get people laughing. I know a lot of what I read in newspapers makes me laugh, such as the crazy TV reviews where they pull stuff apart and ridicule it.

I'm not saying go all out and 'copy' a news paper and have naked women and stuff on the site, but I do think that we could be more inventive in terms of what content we offer, how we get it accross and how much it allows users to interact with the site- which shoudl hopefully make them want to come back for more.

I know quite a few interesting changes are being made to the site, and it will look completely different, however even in the short term, perhaps it would be nice to role some of these things out. I personally think teen style columns would be great, and more aimed at our wider audience. Whether we're qualified or not, anyone can give advice and at the end of the day it's something unique and our own take on what is some very popular content.

[Mrs.McCall]

I completely agree with Jin's worry about us not being qualified but I think if it comes with a disclaimer that it is just opinion. My "Teen Life" idea is more based on that of Ostinato's (can't spell it!) idea way back of having people send in their stories about issues. It could also be fun we could do an Education Special and have people write about their school/college/uni experience.

I think there are tons of fun stuff we could do that could really make Habbox stand out.

[Alkaz]

It has only really been in this thread that I've heard people wanting the teen help/life articles back on the site. We've dealt without it for a couple of years after the department was dissolved (because there was a lack of interest). I just think that offering this service again will almost certainly stretch and distract from the main focus area of news within this department. I feel it would be best kept to the forum where it seems pretty popular and other dedicated sites for all of the things listed above.

I really think if it is what people want then there should be some changes or competitions in the Health, Life and Relationships forum instead of on the site. A lot of the things are also covered in the Education & Employment forum. With all the things planned and being discussed already for the news department, we're not really that far from splitting the two and recreating the articles department. Which is something I can't see happening.

[Inseriousity.]

We never really mentioned the news department and it wasn't our idea, it was Jake's ages ago and it seemed to have a lot of support. Let me see if I can find it...

here it is: http://www.habboxforum.com/showthread.php?t=663014&highlight=Teen+articles
keep them user-related. Maybe do it the same way Habbo did it, 'submit your top ten tips for...' and have that as a running theme throughout the project, it could work well :)

[Mrs.McCall]

The only reason I suggested having it under News is because it's less risk because there's management already in place so it could be less hard to implement (i.e. having to find a Manager first). On the flip side, Bolt already has a lot of jobs!

I think that it is popular on the forum so why not branch out and put that kind of content on the website too... cash in on its popularity. I'm not saying it will definitely work. I just don't see any reason to not give it a go. The content on the website is already great and the content team are excellent but I think reimplementing Articles could really push it up a notch.