Zelaron needs dramatic changes!
 

1) Sort games by genre and not single games. Popular games (NOT D2) get their own subforums

2) Disable the display of any sort of rank! The display of status allows staff to feel bigger than they are. If they're really here to help Zelaron free of useless crap they shouldn't feel the need to display their mighty hammer.

3) Kill the flame forum, it is useless because people post flame all over the place anyway, you might as well kill the flame forum and be lenient to flames, that would get rid of your so called "petty" problems.

That's it for now, feel free to add new ideas.

Eh, honestly, maybe changes do need to be made, but none of those would do anything constructive. Sorry, but that's the truth.

Anyone else, feel free to post ideas.

Explain your reasons

1.) Creating subforums for every popular game wouldn't do much good because most of them would be dead. For example, Starcraft is an extremely popular game, but there isn't much to discuss about it. It stays death, even when a member or mod actively tries to resurrect it.

2.) That hammer keeps certain members in line. In my opinion, it has been used frivolously in the recent past, but it does keep members in line. A member is much more likely to listen to rules that a staff member tells them than a rule that a normal member tells them.

3.) Getting rid of the Flame Forum would do no good. There are threads whose sole purpose is to flame people. That would not fit in anywhere except the Flame Forum. Plus, the Flame Forum is a fun place to many members, including myself. Some of Zelaron's funniest comments have been made there.

This is a gaming forum, right?

And there's thousands of members, right?

Then how come so many of the gaming subforums are dead? This just doesn't make any sense at all to me.

This was done in the past, and it just happens that basically the only Forums that needed to be taken out because of a ridiculous amount of inactivity were exactly those Forums. Not only that, but Diablo II, as much as you hate it and hate to admit it, probably constitutes for 75% plus of all the members that are here, temporarily came here, etc. throughout the years.


The Rank system (Which I'm assuming you are talking about Junior Member, Member, Senior Member, and all the Staff Titles) are vital for newbie Zelaron members. Not only do they show who is who amongst the active members, they let them know who they can ask questions to and get good, sincere answers without the risk of getting made fun of (Which is something you would do).


Just because people Flame outside the Flame Forum only means that they are bitter people. It is fine to do so, as long as it is moderate at most. The Flame Forum is not only a get away for some people to express themselves through the battle of words and wit, it is also used as a place to vent anger without the risk of getting Warned, Banned, etc. for it. It is very necessary, and if used properly can be quite the humorous reading from time to time, especially if Raziel gets back with it.


If you want to retort, you are more than welcome, but these are just the feelings on those particular issues off the top of my head. Ideas are always welcome, and in fact, encouraged.

It's the same with most gaming forums, the general chatting sections are always more populated.

1) Yes 75% of the population, and also constitutes largely to the population of idiots. Even if you do not remove D2, we need more general categorization. Most people don't know to go to General gaming if they want to post about a certain game.

2) Perhaps, but most newbies end up being fanboys because of these ranks. Longetivity and Activity is enough. Away with ranks

3) Why not spread that humour in a more global way?

Surely there is more stuff we can post about. We just have to use our noggins and our phalanges.

Just out of curiosity, what would you recomend doing with d2 forums?

Maybe instead of having "moderator", "Supreme Moderator", "Administrator",'"Advisor", "Webmaster", " and owner", maybe just group them all under the title "staff", and instead of having the diamonds, we'd have one more of those weird > things under our name.

It need to stay. Where else can people freely insult me on all scales and not get reprimanded. As much as I don't like it, if the flame forum was gone, it would all spew into the other forums.

I also think that I need to calm down on the nazism, which I will. But, when you guy ssee me going overboard, instead of throwing an arsenal of shit at me, try to contact me on aim, or in a P.M. and explain what I'm doing wrong. I am almost 100 percent certain that it would never happen again.

Othe then tht, the dead forums have got to go, ALL of them. Starcraft :cry: , warcraft - WOW forum,. and any others that aren't getting posts. They should be replaced with new, and more exciting games.

Just my two cents.

We can't delete the WOW forum. The game hasn't even come out yet. Besides, I think it's pretty active.

What other exciting games are you talking about? ;)

This is the only suggestion of yours that I'll even bother addressing.

A Flame Forum is absolutely necessary to the productivity of a forum. "Why," you ask? Because it's a tool for encouragement.

Let's take a look at a hypothetical situation, okay? Let's say we have a forum in which flaming other members is 100% prohibited, in order to prevent unnecessary clashing in the community. Under that situation, members are not allowed to act like bumbling morons, not allowed to post shit like "yuo are teh ghey" and argue over who has the gayer login. Under those circumstances, poor behavior is outlawed, enforcing a strict code of conduct that smothers idiotic behavior.

Now, while that may sound just fine on paper, in practice it fails miserably. Without a true flame forum, activity stagnates. Because of the fact that kids can't act like morons, they can't be verbally abused for acting like morons, and as such, are given no incentive to rise above their poor behavior. The best that you can expect from those kids is mediocrity, and mediocrity breeds stagnation. Mediocrity begets poor activity.

A flame forum is absolutely necessary to the survival of a forum because it allows the more intelligent members of a forum to punish the childish whiners without having to use the Mod CP. The staff has the freedom to openly and publicly admonish a problem member without having to threaten them with warnings and future banishment. By using a flame forum correctly, the staff can utilize flames to coerce a problem member into bettering his behavior, whether by leading by example, or by forcing the idiot member into the realization that if they have any hope of saving face in community or humiliating their attacker in the future, they had better shape up, pronto.

A flame forum does nothing but benefit an online community. It allows control to be maintained on a forum while simultaneously making the staff look a lot more relaxed and open-minded because they're not resorting to the Mod CP every time they encounter a problem.

Removing the flame forum will hurt the community, I guarantee it. I would resign before having to watch Zelaron walk down the path of stagnation and demise that I've watched countless other forums tread down because of a lack of a true flame forum. The day that flame forum leaves is the day I leave.

When I said "warcraf - wow forums", I meant warcraft forums MINUS the Wow forums. - = Minus :p.

And I don't know about other games. My three games of choice are D2, Sc, and Wc, and that's all I ever play. Unless we find more members to join, there is no way, irregardless of how many new forums we make, that the activity will raise here.

Hmmm. Out with the old, In with the new.
 

There are ALOT more games you could consider opening forums for. I'm not sure too many people here may play them, but I'm sure they would bring in attraction.

The Battlefield Series You could consider the two main games:
Battlefield 1942 Possibly incorperate BF 2 in here.
Battlefield: Vietnam

You can discuss tons of subjects from just those two games, I'll list more if needed.

America's Army I know personally there are alot of people that play this game, and this may bring in some users if added to Zelaron.

Bridge Commander A new wave starwars game. Alot of fanatics may flock in just to view about this game.

COD: Call of Duty Another popular game which isn't listed on Zelaron.

C&C Command And Conquer Personally I'd like to see a forum for C&C Generals.

COUNTER STRIKE I'm so suprised there isn't a forum just for this game. Maybe nobody realizes how many people actually play this game but its amazing. And the releasal of CZ just recently could attract new users. You could have Sub categories like Map Making, Skins/Sprays, Clan recruitment, etc. etc.

Unreal Tournament Series Great ass game, quite suprised it's not here. UT2003 and UT2004 would attract some positive attention.


Now, most of these Forums would take a little while to make and build some substance, but I'm sure alot of people would be more than happy to help out.
If you guys want any of these, and more ideas of what categories/sub-forums to add then just ask, I'm not going to list anything more if its going to be rejected anyways.

D3V, we've had forums for all three latter games on your list plus America's Army, all of which were close to completely inactive. I'm not sure how much good the Battlefield series would do for the forum since other shooters have truly been shining upon us with their lack of gravid popularity.

Well Vietnam just came out not too long ago, and alot of people still play 1942. I believe it may draw in some attention from outside sources, maybe, maybe not.

UT is played by lots and lots of people, but I'm not too sure how many people would leave their current forums to come here and discuss anything they would want about the game.

I believe you're retarded. Pretty much all FPS's (Except Half-Life 2,) have proven to be worthless subforums, and will continue to be in the future.

Calling me retarted is uncalled for!

Well, your not being helpful. If you don't have any ideas, then keep your fucking face shut.

It would be nearly impossible to have a successful FPS forum. Strategy could be
discussed, sure, as could scrims, but other than that, there would pretty much be nothing to discuss.

This is the only one Ill reply to even though I could make reasonable replys to the others, other people already have and this is the one that I hate the most.

Allows staff to feel bigger than they are? Not display their mighty hammer? Are you a fool? Ok lets get all the countries police officers and dress them in plain clothing, give them a regular car and make them hide their guns in their pants. That way, no one will know who the police are! Do you have any idea how stupid that idea would be? Yes! Equally as stupid as yourse!

Members NEED to know who has Power on the boards, they Need to know who to trust, who to go to and they need to know who to Obey so the iron fist (or hammer in your case) of might does not come down and smash them with all its banning powers. Staff are Bigger then members in the sense that they have power and are here to help. Why would you want to hide it? If someone is in the position of power they deserve it and they deserve respect for it (more on this below). Your idea of not being able to identify staff is so borderline stupid that I cant even properly explain my total disgust of it.

Not only that but rank helps keep regular members active and something to strive for (more posts / better rank / possible staff consideration). Titles are a form of "How good a person is" in a sense of "How active they are here" and people that are more "active" here deserve more respect. You can hate someone like d3v (example) all you want but he is to be respected in the sense that hes here and has a lot of posts. You can still hate disrespect him in general but when it comes down to JUST Zelaron and not your petty dislikes then its still something.