mjordan, the "thread view bug" is a feature; I've said so before and I'll say it again. Thread views count is updated on a cron job. UPDATE locks a table, INSERT does not, thus this dramaticly improves board speed.

You want aknowledgement from the admins? I was one of the first doomsayers, I've just gotten tired of saying it and everyone knows it anyway.

Consideration? No I didn't take the time to plan out the use of uShop then install and test it on my private server only to find that it was a bug-ridden stability nightmare, I just said that to shut you up :rolleyes:. No, I'm not testing the new vBStats because you guys won't shut up about it. No, I won't give someone admin who appears to have vision because everyone was complaining about the way things were.....

Titusfied, I thought we told you when we brought you on board that you were supposed to be the main person for rules and such; yes, there are a few things that Chruser and I agree should not change, but other than that...

Pay for Zelaron, pay for Zelaron. WTF guys, Zelaron costs nothing. The licence lasts forever and it's running on a server that I own that I pay for co-location, that also is used for other things.

Postcount reset? Who ever said anything about that? And I've already stated twice that the no-postcount condition on Slaynish was temporary; I'm thinking until I certain thread falls off the map.

As for priorities, I've openly admited that I'm not usually in the mood to come home from programming and debugging and do it some more, but I do eventually get in the mood and then I may go for days without more leisurely activities. As for the non-programming stuff, you'd be surprised.

Sorry I misread what you said at a point. I was refering to this statement.
Previous post aside. Your right.
I never said anything about paying for Zelaron, I was merely talking about advertising if there were to be more besides the Somethingawful.

First of all, slaynishs comment about this making chruser lots of money? Well he does not know anything. Problem with this forum? Simple, not enough active members. The biggest reason? D2 is dying. We have not been able to pull the crowds of any of the other major games and we have tried. This is not really a problem with the staff, ww could install a billion hacks and change the rules but that will not bring active members.

How many of you can honestly say you are Less busy in life today then you were when zelaron was really popular? I would bet most of us are older, and we all have more responsibilitys and prioritys and Zelaron is not as big as it used to be. Zelaron is starting to feel more and more like that old friend you grew up with that you dont really hang out with anymore because you have new friends (prioritys now), you would still help them if they need you or lend them money if you could but you just dont hang out a lot anymore. Or even, how many of you can even say you spend more time playing games now then you did when zelaron was popular? Slaynish dosent count because hes always for some reason been 12 years old (I dont know how that is possible).

I dont want to go into too much detail but I am pretty confident that I know why this forum is how it is now and it makes sense to me. Another prediction here that fits me but I bet the people that are becoming less active here are becoming less active in forums and online communitys in general, not just zelaron. If I feel like i want to post something on a forum, I always think of zelaron first but I just dont feel like it as much. Also, I dont goof around as much / am more serious and since 80% of the posts here revolve around that factor, its harder to post, but thats not much of an excuse for me because just look at WW, he has an... ok activity level.

<edit: added> And to touch on the admin thing. The reason why I think I am still admin, is because I can be trusted, I can help if I am Needed (That probably has not happend in a year, I even offered to help pay, but money is Not an issue here), and because I sorta have a background here. If Chruser wants to deadmin me, then he will, but I dont think he expects much out of me with zelaron at its current state? Also, I know we have heard people say how they will make zelaron better then ever if they are admined, and we know enough that its just hot air. You cannot cause tons of active members to join if we make you admin, you can get active members to join just as well as a member as you can as an admin and if you dont feel like doing it unless you are admin, then you obviously dont care about zelaron as a community anyway. rant rant rant rant rant.

Agreed.


"The message you have entered does not contain significant content. Repeated bullshit posts will result in a ban."

How inspiring!

Blah blah blah ban blah blah

Last time I checked it doesn't cost money to tell friends or classmates or other gamers about a forum. I think we are all to blame and we all have to pitch in to save this forum. Of course we are the only ones who see it as dying.

A forum doesn't get real active by telling people in your direct area, trust me.
This is by all means the worst time for the activity of forums, ever.
I've never seen so many unactive forums, so many forums simply dieing...

In normal times, forums would become active by just mouth to mouth advertising (e.g. classmates talking to eachother about it), but as I said, these are not normal times.

To my opinion, populairity can be gained by paying.
Google Adsense had a unique system, which will display ads where appropriate.
On a Diablo II forum, it will show Diablo II advertisements.(just an example)

This is, to my opinion, the best way to get new members, in times like these.

Getting a new permanent Admin wouldn't fix it, but what about a temporary one?
An Admin whom is still a teenages, with priorities set differently.
I'm sure there are atleast 5 (including me) expierenced vBulletin Admins, who would love to help out installing a hack or 2.(even coding one)

I have recently been doing a job for a friend at his forum, which -if done by pro's- would normally cost him over 200$(no kidding), and I did it for free.
I'm sure there are more people here who would love to do things like that for this forum, completely free.

It's a shame the sup. mods don't know anything about vBulletin hacks, else you could maybe make them an Admin(you trust them, right?).

What would be the bad thing about making a teenager, who has different priorities, an admin?

Even though making changes might not be a nice thing when you do it, its always nice when you can look back and say "Pfff, I'm glad we did that a year ago, else this forum would've probably been dead!", isn't it?
I'm one of this people who hates changes, really.
But sometimes changes are needed, and you have no other choice...

Personally, I don't see where installing any form of vbHacks is going to draw members to us. I mean, how often do you go to a site and see something slightly out of the ordinary, then proceed to make that your primary forum?

I don't think the hacks will draw NEW members, but something new to play with may keep older members around a little longer (for the novelty).

I don't think any staff-shuffling is going to do anything either. If people aren't coming, they're not coming. We need something to catch peoples' eye to bring them here, and our community itself should convince them to join merely by our posts.

Well of course. I'm not complaining, after all, I have no damn clue how to even code "Hello World!" anymore.. I'm just stating that you and Chruser are the only real deciding factors in any significant change. I did what I was intended to do. It just happened to get to the point where I had no more ideas, nor did I have any desire to even try to think of any, so I decided my time was over.

Nothing is really going to change the activity level. Nothing other than the members. Post more. Post better. Eventually, new members come and stay. Sometimes it takes longer than before. Member base hasn't exactly always been stagnant here at Zelaron, so don't expect it be. It has it peaks and it valleys, like anything else. This is no different, and will pass eventually.

I don't agree on this.
If I see a board, with a cool exclusive hack, I register and see what it's like.
If I like it, I go scrolling around the forums, see how it's like.

Also, a new motivated, devoted Admin could get more active members, I'm sure.
If you, for example, get a new Admin who already administrates 1, 2 or 3 other forums, he can advertise on his own forums, about Zelaron.

I say it again, Google adsense will also help.
If you do a bit of research on their ad program, you will find that it's actually not that expensive.
You don't need a fancy 1st spot on every google search including the word "game", but using their banner system helps.

You can then also add a banner, which will be only displayed to guests.
This is a very easy thing to do, it can be done with one of the most basic conditions.
As most of the users browsing these forums are usually guests, they will either register to get rid of the ads, or just keep on being a guest and make money for you ;)

I also got an idea while I was falling asleep.
What about a vBulletin hack team here on the board?
I'm sure there are atleast 5 expierenced coders here, who can join the team.
After we make a cool hack, we can distribute it at vbulletin.org(we will add a copyright notice, saying it's copyrighted to the www.zelaron.com hack team).
This is also some free advertising, which is pretty populair.

With that same team, we can also code exclusive zelaron only hacks, if needed.

Tell me what you think about this.

I enjoy reading Death's posts. While having a few good ideas. He also is saying he would make and awesome admin and should be one. :rolleyes:

I still think my idea for an IRC channel on gamesurge or something like that could draw new members. Didn't we use to have a CS forum? Why dont we run a CS server. Not sure how WW is hosting this or if the ping would be any good but. If its possible we should look into it.

I am just giving examples of what I would do as an Admin, or already have done on my board, and that I'd love to be one.
Ofcourse, everyone would like it, so I'd better put those wishes aside ;)

An IRC channel wouldn't be that hard, as far as I know, it can be set up on a normal server like the one Zelaron is hosted on.

Hosting a gaming server would be a little harder though, and would probably cost money.
A friend and me will soon be launching a Webhosting service soon, so I might be able to host the server for free :).

I will look into the IRC channel, and the gaming server, if you want.

We had IRC. It faltered and died.

Do it again.

IRC servers are not allowed on the network I use.

As for a CS server, I've wanted to have one, but I don't want to do it untill I can afford to upgrade the server. One of the people who uses my box for webhosting is considering putting up a CS box, though, so we may be able to have one.

it most likely faltered and die becuase not enough people were using it. I have been on zelaron for a while, and in reply to one of the previous posts about what caused our big surge in new members/activity was D2. I mean we used to have some really skilled D2 players/hackers here. I remeber when i first started here that i was really interested into learning how to hack, and the more i asked around on the servers i became aware that people like Hellmonkey was known to be in the elite group of hackers. I also remember people like User Name#1, as well as most of the other mods being really nice and helpful to new members and newbies to the game. Also I remember that our old PvP mods where really something to brag about i mean when i got into serious dueling i heard mentions of both Apoq on east, and Blckshdwdragon on west as them being recognized as being top notch duelers.

Nostalgia rant end.....

so what i am trying to say is that one thing to increase activity on zelaron would be to try and recruit some top notch players for WoW, which i am not sure how WoW plays and if PvP is an applicable example or not. Also i have recruited some members via school they registered along time ago when we all used to play D2 and they have been inactive for along time, but with the introduction of Their Halo 2 clan being hosted i believe that they will be more active.

Edit:

I would have to whole heartedly agree with Penguin, because i know that personally i am a senior in high school this year i have become tremendously more involved in other activities that i placed zelaron further down on my priorities list. Zelaron has been through a ups and downs before, like the time during our peak when we had like two weeks with no server. I remember coming back to find that we had lost quite a few members during that time. So what i am trying to say is that people grow up and move on. I mean i plan on continuing to be part of the zelaron community but i personally dont have much to start threads about because i am so busy in life that i do not play many games anymore and if i do it is just for leisurely fun not to be a great competitor like i once tried in D2. I remember that not too long ago, this summer, that i used to have so much useless D2 info memorized like all of the items, runewords, approximate item value in current currency, lots of PvP info like Ias breakpoints for many different weapons and skills, Damage Formulas, and just general D2 info like where to level. Then one day after i stopped playing so competively i realized how much of my life i wasted on a GAME, then i started to hang out with my friends more and started to live a real life and stopped living on the internet. I have found that i like the real world alot better once i figured out that ABSOLUTELY NOBODY should live thier life on a game, or rather let a game live thier life. I remember that in the zenith of my addiction i would play for 4 or more hours a weekday and about 8 hours a day on the weekend.

I remember the Hellmonkeys part aswell.
I used to scroll the forums, but I never got to registering back then.
Then I stoped d2, and when i started playing again, the first thing I did was register here, heh.

I think integreting IRC into the forums (there is a hack on vb.org which can do this) would be a good idea.
I never bother to run mIRC, go into a chatroom, etc... That takes up to much time.
However, if it would be on the board itself, I would visit it.

That is just pathetic. I am constantly on IRC and we need to put the channel on a server like GameSurge where all the gamers are. :rolleyes: Having a private server for our IRC would just be stupid. And Hellmonkey is a fool =P If we are talking about the same one. (Hellmonkeyz/Hellzmonkey) I still talk to him alot. I just cant remember where the Z is. I just call him hellz anyway.

http://zelaron.com/forum/member.php?u=845

No z

Hate to break it to ya but... Yes Z =P
His AIM name and his name from UO (Where I originally met him)

I cannot bare to see Zelaron die. I am coming back :) and there is a very simple way to get members. WoW or World of Warcraft. People are going crazy over it. I don't know if this was already said.... i didnt read all of the posts.

Okay, first of all, it appears that some of you think that I want an admin position really badly. Trust me, I don't. At this point, I would not make a good admin. Though I love Zelaron dearly, school is my first priority at this point (which is why it took me so long to respond), and I'm hounded with homework. Furthermore, I don't know PHP, so it completely defeats the purpose of me being an admin. All I would want to do as an admin is remove some of the rules that I and many members think are foolish to have, and perhaps implment a couple of hacks.

That said, I do believe we need one more admin on the technical side of things. WW, I understand your situation. I understand that after coding all day, you might not feel like doing it at home. I can see why it may take you a long time to put some of these ideas into play. But, another admin could solve this problem. Or if you don't want anyone else to have admin powers, perhaps you can select a designated coder, so we can speed things up a bit. Trust me, if this were summer, I'd go to Barnes and Nobels immediately, buy me a good book on PHP and dedicate myself to learning the Zelaron code, but as time is somewhat limited for me at this point, I can't do that. But if we find someone that can, it'd be nice.

Also, there were two things I was trying to accomplish in my original post. First of all, I was bringing the obvious to the staff's attention: Zelaron is constantly becoming less and less active, and something needs to be done about it before it's too late. Secondly, I was trying to give suggestions on how to make Zelaron a better place for the existing members. Many of you seem to be trying to draw a relationship between the two. Allow me to clear this up once and for all: There is no relationship between the two aforementioned points.

Call me an idiot, but I'm not sure whether you were trying to be sarcastic there or not. I have a hunch that you were being sarcastic. If you were being sarcastic, then that's great. I appreciate your dedication, and I don't mean to gripe, but with you hectic schedule, I understand that some of these ideas may take a while to implement. That is all the more reason to have another admin, or a designated coder. On the other hand, if you weren't being sarcastic, then we're having some serious problems. That would mean that you would've once again completely overlooked any suggestions that a dedicated member may have. That would completely defeat the entire purpose of this thread. If that's the state that the Zelaron staff is in, then I suggest we get new staff, or at least add some people to it.

That news to me. I didn't know that Zelaron didn't cost anything. Still, I would assume that adcertising it would cost a bit, in which case I'm willing to donate to the cause, if it is required. Just letting you guys know.

Understood. In fact, if you look to one of my first three paragraphs in this post, I agree with you. New hacks aren't going to get new activity. They might make this place more enticing to the older members, though. And, again, I agree that the biggest problem here is not enough new members. That's the problem. It needs to be solved. Now, I suggest making another thread, or just posting here, brainstorming ideas on how we may go about solving that problem. That much can be accomplished. Just brainstorming. Members, please post your ideas.

I understand what you are saying. Many of you are more busy with life and stuff today then you were a couple of years ago, and Zelaron is not as high of a priority. But for some of us, it still is. For those few of us, I think Zelaron should be kept alive, and if the staff doesn't place as high of a priority on Zelaron, then lets bring in new staff who does. Lets bring in staff that can rejuvinate this place. I'm not saying it's going to work miracles, but an active staff which places high priority on the forums usually helps.

Once again, I don't want admin. I want someone who can install hacks and such, but that's it. It's not going to draw in new members, but it'll make this place more fun for older members.

Also, I'm completely willing to try and bring in new members, but I want the staff to atleast acknowledge what I'm saying first, and say that they're behind me on this. I could go out and spam forums/IRC channels/Newsgroups if I have the time.

Death, I can somewhat agree with you on this. I do think hacks make forums cooler, but the topmost factor in getting members is getting them to come to the forums first. I think we have enough eye candy to get people to stay.

That may bring in a few members, but nothing extensive. I don't thiink a new admin is really going to help draw activity. He might make the forums cooler, though.

How would IRC draw in new members? IRC may be cool for older members, but as said above, almost nobody used our old channel.

That would be pretty cool. I don't know how many play CS, but we could certainly advertise that to get people here, and it would make it cooler for the current members who play CS also.

It was suggested but just as quickly dismissed since no one kept talking about it. But ya the game rules! And the older it gets the more info we will get on it, hopefully the more people will join. I don't think Zel's gunna die, I just think it will always go through swings of activity.

Edit:

I've been wondering why we don't have all the old threads in the forums such as SC/BW and Warcraft3 and Square Enix. Even though we don't read the threads anymore, though still contained usefull info(some of them)to our new members.

Yes, mj, I was being sarcastic. The last part reffered to hiring Titus.

Some of you seem to mistake the role of admin. The role of an admin on this board is to be an admin on the board, to manage rules, help out members and mods, etc; not to code. While I appreciate the offers of help, I am afraid that it wouldn't be very useful. From vB2, we've seen that just applying whatever random hack looks cool ultimately does more harm than good; we ended up with a 6 month old board because if we upgraded, there was no telling what would work and what would not nor what we would notice right away and what would go unnoticed for a long time. Sure, I could easily just install all the hacks you guys ask for, but I'd rather test them and inspect them first, and consider their risks and merits. Also, it is important to have one person with all the information to retain the state of the code from version to version. Right now, I am waiting for Chruser to grab the latest version of vB for me so that I can install it; I can say with certainty that I have everything I need to easily apply all the current hacks to it, because I am managing that information better now.

I agree with you on almost everything.

I like your idea about the designated coder part.
There is still the rank "Advisor", that might be a suitable rank for the people coding hacks for this board.

As I said before, a "private" hack team would be cool, not only for the fact that we would code hacks for Zelaron, but it's also educational for the other members.

If I was you, I wouldn't buy on of those books, they mostly only learn you the PHP basics, and most of those aren't even used in vBulletin.

Edited by WetWired

http://zelaron.com/forum/faq.php?faq=rules#faq_rules_warez

As I also said before, bringing ads to the forum might not be a bad idea.
With a very simple conditional, you can make the ads guest only.
Some less-lazy guests will register, which is good.
The others (lazy ones) will just not register, and get Zelaron money.

I have a very usefull tool.
It's called Araxis Merge, and with that software, you can compare 2 PHP files, and make the edits if necisairy.(sp?)
With this, you can upgrade a fully hacked board in just 30 minutes.
You can get a free demo, search download.com for it :)

You might already know this program though, heh.

If you want, I can set you up with the files needed for the upgrade, as Chrusher probably will need to pay another 30$ or something for the upgrade files, as you guys own a neverending license, and your members area has probably expired oO.

Upgrading from vB3 to vB4 (when it comes out) will always be a pain in the ass, even without any hacks installed.

Whilst reading through all of this, this is the one idea that really caught my eye.

I think its a great idea. It also gives people the chance to become "Trainee Admins" if you will, and learn how to code properly etc.

If it is put into action, and the coding team do teach how to code, then I'll sign up straight away, and if I wasn't a member, I'd register, even if just for it.

That means alot of responsibilitys though, people having to be on at certain times, having to teach someone anything is difficult I'd imagine especially coding, and doing it over the internet would make it a bit more difficult since typing can get...confussing at times.

Not even by posting tutorials???

Or even a special coding forum...with it's own Mod. who knows coding etc???

Have a look at the RPG2K3 forum...something like that but for coding...

----------

A little idea of my own...

I've just posted some news on the PS3, and thought: 'This would be so much better if there was a PS3 forum to post this news in, rather than the PS2 forum'.

We have a coding forum...

So we do...my bad...haven't used it...or looked at it for a long time...so...

It might be better to wait for a forum, until the console actually comes out, since it will have hardly any activity. But I'm sure they will make one when it does.

Yes, when I used to pwn everyone two years ago, this board couldn't have been better. Hahahahaha!

Thanks :).

I didn't really mean learning as in learning 1 to 1 on IM, but more like posting tutorials, and stuff.(like you said)

Also, there is some pretty good Web Conference software out there, so maybe once every 4 weeks or so the coding mods can hold a little conference, teaching some of the newer people.

Also, the members can learn from the code itself.
It will require clear coding, and basicly explaining most of the stuff you do with a comment line (which I normally do, because my Co-Admin isn't that intelligent, but hey, he pays the bills :p).

I'll make a thread about this in the coding section, though.

EDIT: Here's the thread: http://www.zelaron.com/forum/showthr...306#post488306

Are you talking about the time I called your site a blatant maddox rip-off and you ran away crying?

Oh.

Free webhosting?? www.your-name.zelaron.com

Whenever I've been designing a website, I've always had trouble finding a webhotsing package that works.

If I wasn't signed up for the forums, or the vB hack team teaching me how to code...then this would catch my eye...

Because such a thing would be a cakewalk to manage, right? :rolleyes: The only people with FTP access are people I trust. Keeps them out of trouble, keeps me out of trouble.

I'm not saying it would be easy.

Withmy extremely limited knowledge of these things, I'd say it would be pretty hard...

If not web hosting...then a free domain (such as www.freedomain.co.nr)???

Just a random thought...

The advertising you could put on both may be pretty good...if enough people sign up to it, and get enough people to look at their sites, then that's a hell of a lot of people seeing ads for Zelaron...

I'd've thought free domain would be easier to do than free web hosting, but, as I've said, I have not a damned clue about this...

Ugh. I still say go with IRC.

I don't care what happened last time. What the fuck is this thread about? If people are gonna suggest options just to have them shot down. Its not that hard to make a channel on a large network and advertise it. Unless you people are that lazy that you spend all of your energy complaining instead of trying to help out. I really dont see why this forum should stay alive if that is the case.

EDIT: Surge Jin was talking about this thread: http://zelaron.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15393

Why are you showing me this? I sometimes wonder if you're retarded..