Is there a way to fix it?

[Jing]

Reading through the last suggestions posted in this section is rather chilling. As if i'm walking through a ghost town that i watched die. But i'll leave the pretty words and metaphors out of this for now and get straight to the point. I'm writing this thread not for people who are here right now (because people who are here right now = 0), more for people who hopefully will be here in the future. The big issue which remains an issue is: how does one fix GP?

I'm lacking on suggestions, but i would love to hear if anyone has a plan for this (possibly you harry?) I kind of want to get more ideas flowing between the few people (if any) that are left here. I'm going to make a point to visit this thread at least once every day, until the problem is either solved, or until people stop replying all together.

Let's fix this place so that others can have as much fun here as we used to have!

 

[Nitz]

Well I gotta get a new spam filter up, because as of lately were are getting hit hard by spam bots.

As for getting people, I am still working on building the website. I think just a gaming site with a forum only goes so far... considering that there are TONS of gaming forums. But, a website similar to gamefaqs or gamespot here at GP will make a huge difference.

I've been coding it myself since no one out there seems to have a gaming CMS or one that works properly, is supported well, and is not too expensive.

Another problem is I talked to people on msn, and most either have totally new email address (so we can't mass email everyone, as some don't use the same email address on file).

I think it starts off with getting NEW members now, which is going to bring older members back when they see more activity.

So my new goal is to get a website portion up very soon, and attract new members rather than old.. since getting back old members doesn't seem to be working as well.

EDIT: Another thing I just thought of and have been trying to work into GP is trying to get social networks involved.

Eg. Get FB integration, so we can tweet and FB Like posts. That way it posts it on our FB status and our friends can see. On top of that if we have GP friends on FB, that are not here. Then they can be reminded by our status's that GP DOES exist.

I notice some people totally forgot the URL or thought GP was dead LOL.

And a note for people.. we don't just have gamerz-place.net BUT! also gamerzplace.net as well. That way you don't have to use or remember the "-" dash.

 

[Jing]

Yeah i have been thinking all day about some kind of strategy and i've got to say that it does seem like the old members strategy isn't really working out right now. I think (like you said) that once old members see that there is activity, they will come back on their own. So focusing on drawing in new members is a good plan in my opinion.

The website is a very good start, though regrettably i have no web design skills so i can't really help out there. All of my skills lie in C++, and i don't imagine that's very useful. Even then, i'm not really a master of that. But if you can think of anything i can help with man, let me know. I really want to see this place get back on it's feet.

I don't have many friends from GP on my contacts list anymore, because as man of them have, i've got a new email since then. From what you've said, it sounds like FB would be the best way to contact people once we have things under control here.

 

[Nitz]

Well we have a FB GP group already... I think if you click the Facebook button at the top header where it says "Twitter Youtube FaceBook"

A few things I have in mind and will need help with is... Writing game reviews, inputting cheats for games, writing walkthroughs, posting achievements for games eg. achieve,ment guides.. and Im also looking to build off youtube.

That way we get members and hits off youtube views too. I haven't decided what we can make video's on though? Walkthrough video's?

So there is A LOT of work that needs to be done and my friends coding and graphics are the least of our worries haha.. the Content is always the hard part.

But if there is one thing that every web developer had told me.. it is that you NEED content and the more variety and unique content you have.. the more members and viewers you get.

So what I've done lately is written game reviews of games I played.

I basically plant to have a similar system to what Gamespot has... where we can post out review of the game eg. Categories such as : Controls, Music, Graphics, Overall etc.. And then a rating out of 10.

And then we can show all average ratings from all users.

 

[Jing]

Content i should be able to help with, but i'll have to look into getting more games so i can expand my knowledge base. Can't exactly provide content for games i haven't played yet. I'll give things some thought, see if i can draw up any interesting content ideas from my end. If i come up with any, i'll definitely let you know. The problem will probably be thinking up the larger varieties of content. It's easy to say "reviews, walkthroughs, cheats, etc", but you have to offer things that set your site apart from other sites too.

As far as videos go, there are a ton of options. Could have review videos, "lets play"s, a podcast, or any number of things. Those things seem to be pretty popular, but you really have to have the personality (and likeability) to draw in a large amount of people.

 

[Nitz]

Looks like I fixed a glitch LOL just realized no one could post the last 2 days.

I will be working on some stuff this week.

I'm deciding if I should port GP to vB4 from vB3.

There are lots of upsides, but also lots of downsides.... vB4 isn't all that it was supposed to end up being...

 

[Nitz]

I noticed another thing.. TONS of people are tuning in at GP because of the role playing forum... seems like a hit actually.

Maybe we need to get more people role playing!

 

[Jing]

I would be down for that. I haven't rp'd much in a while but i'm sure i could fall back into the routine easily if there were people around to actually rp with. School takes up a large chunk of my time, but i could definitely try to help out and check things out around the rp section on a regular basis. But again, we have to get people there first.

 

[Nitz]

Jing what you can also do.. and I have started this recently as well.

Is print out small snippets that advertise the site.

I'll email you a sample soon. (on my old pc)

But I usually hand them out or leave them in PC area's at my school.

AS for RP.. we will have to get some members back that used to RP.

I think a few people might be up for it.

 

[Jing]

ok thanks man!

im down for RP