Whats unique about Habbox?

[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

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.

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.