OtakuBoards v7

[Sakura]

Other than OB I go to 2 other forum boards.One of them has a RP Hack thing going on it's pretty interesting and the other has custom titles under the username and above the Avatar.

It's quite interesting how there are different layouts.However the RP Hack thing really confuses me.Like the newbies aren't part of it.Only the old members that have been around for a long time.It's either they stopped it or they don't put it on newbies.

The custom titles are fun because you just write anything but there's a character limit.For example mine on the other boards is "EXECUTE!!!SPIRIT EVOLUTION!!!AGUNIMON!!!" because I have the same avatar and banner in the other forum.

Here's the set out for the custom title forum:
Username
Custom Title
Rank
Avatar
A small profile sign,a small pm sign and a small emaikl sign.
(These are quick click buttons to take you there.If you click PM on the person's name of course it will take you to a pm sheet addressed to them.The signs are a little person,a sheet of paper and an envelope.)
Post count
Registered date

Just incase that helped.I'll post the RP Hack one soon but atm it's being updated so the site's down.

[Shy]

[size=1]I was thinking that we could split up the Otaku Anime forums into two categories: Otaku Anime and Junior Otaku Anime. This would be done for two main reasons.
[list=1]
[*] Seven forums is a lot to manage, and it would be easier for the Category Mod *cough* to moderate half as many forums.
[*] To protect impressionable youth from the mature discussions such as "Sexiest Anime Character" that might arise.
[*] Conversely, the original Otaku Anime could focus more serious discussion rather than the favorites topics that younger members love to make.
[/list]
Basically any anime that is generally geared for members 13 years old and under would be discussed in Junior Otaku Anime. Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon are two of our most popular forums, but they obviously skew a much different audience than that of .hack//SIGN or Cowboy Bebop. Here is what I propose for the forums in each category.[list]
[*]Otaku Anime: Anime Lounge, .hack//SIGN, Evangelion, Gundam, Yu Yu Hakusho
[*]Junior Otaku Anime: Junior Anime Lounge, Dragonball, Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon
[/list]
Junior Otaku Anime would be a little less strict than Otaku Anime, since the members who viist it would obviously be less mature. We can't hold 13 year olds up to the same standards as 25 year olds, and that has always been a problem we faced when punishing members. So yeah, if you want to write sillier stuff then post in Junior Otaku Anime, and if you want to have mature discussions about mature anime stay in Otaku Anime.

Thanks,

-Shy[/size]

[James]

[color=#707875]I really like that idea. That's very inventive thinking, Shy. I'll take it into consideration. ^_^[/color]

[AzureWolf]

[quote]The things about a spell-checker--There are a lot of words it won't recognize. People's names, titles of series, websites, even things like manga or newbie. (or Otaku.) I don't want something suggesting that I really mean mango every time I post about Chobits... [/quote] Although it seems that a spellchecker is going to be unlikely, the "Foreign" word problem could easily remedied by making the spellchecker ignore words that are capitalized.

[Sara]

[size=1]Raelly?!?!

Heh, I just don't think that would work. And things like manga, kawaii, alohomora (I don't even know how to spell that correctly, heh..), etc., would still show up as wrong. There [i]are[/i] a lot of things you can do to remedy that problem to some extent--custom word databases, obviously, but in the long run I think it's probably more trouble than it's really worth. As it's been mentioned, the people it would most directly be aimed at are the most likely to simply ignore it.[/size]

[Valen]

I have seen those on other boards where they use an Item Shop too and use the items that they bought in the Sparring section and in RPG's, but the mods there are getting pretty fed up with keeping that together. They have almost as many RPGs as OB does and the mods have to read each one... that would get annoying, but the whole RPG hack thing is good idea... would we have the Gil type currency instead of posts and things like that? You get more Gil for better post quality, rather than quantity. Your rank would go up or down depending on how much you visit the boards, post coherently, etc. Though I don't know the hack...

I have also seen that in the profiles (yes, I was bored and looked at the source code), there was a place to embed a midi or mp3 file... dunno if you noticed that, James. But I'm against the sound bit too...

It would also be nice to be able to have a few RPG/Anime based skins... I.e., InuYasha skins with Kagome and Inu on the banner, Trigun, etc. But that's just me...

[EDIT]
Woah, I forgot that this thing had two pages... oops! *Goes read the second page.*

Hey Sara, wouldn't you just have to select the Japanese spelling support thing along with English for the spell checker?
[/EDIT]

[Guest Zeh]

The thing is, a message board can't determine quality, only quantity, so theres no way you'd be able to get points there.

[Lady Asphyxia]

[size=1]What about having the Username as a link to the profile, instead of on the bar down the bottom? I'd think it would create more room for the Pm, Email, WWW, Search, and Buddy buttons.

Just a thought.[/size]

[OtakuSennen]

..I didn't read through all six pages of suggestions, so I don't know if it's been said, but I think an Evangelion forum would be nice. ^_^'

[Red]

[color=002E55]As far as I can tell - OB isn't about spam. It's not liked and gets annoying. Having a forum dedicated to it would only increase it across the board, in my opinion.

There have been both test and introduction forums in the past and they both turned rather spammy, even with no post counts enforced on them. And what's the problem with PM? lol. Works brilliantly in my eyes.[/color]

[Sandy]

Oh, trust me, MaxSonic, your NoManLand-suggestion is [i]never[/i] going to get through in this board. We had a Newbie Lounge that went too much into that direction, and it was practically forced down despite of many complaints.

Only a year ago I would've been totally pro it, but now I've come to see that stuff like that only lures spammers, and it could easily get out of hands.

I've checked a few other boards recently to find more discussion about Final Fantasy stuff, but I was totally shocked when I found out in what condition they were. The so-called moderator were just as bad spammers as the numerous nOObies hanging around. Every second post was: "That's kool", or "Seffirot rox!" or something like that. And frankly, I don't want that to my internet-home!

So it's [i]not[/i] a good suggestion. I'm sure Jamesy or Charlesy will give you a more throughout (and wiser) answer than this, but I'm 100% certain that "Not in my lifetime" will be the answer. :)

[Ayokano]

[COLOR=red]Yes I can see it,new newbies spamming all over the place cause we have one forum that lets you do that.Yeah here's a nother,we could also have a flame war forum :P

Also we don't need bigger avatar and banners.Do you like it MaxSonic when you have to go down to the end of the page cause someone has a large banner.We could maybe do what...a little over.That would be nice cause I'll sometimes go over when trying to make one.

Will I like the spell check one.I need it alot.New Styles,like a EVA or Trigun one.That's all I have.[/COLOR]

[Ayokano]

[COLOR=red]NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!What about us with slow comptures????That would freeze your compture up dude.I would hate having 10 pop ups cause I got 10 pages.I'll never go one OB agine.[/COLOR]

[Patronus]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by MaxSonic [/i]
[B]The problems with PM's is unless the person uses the pop-up option (which most don't), the person dose'nt immediantly read it. You colud have a "pager", and send a pop-up message to them that would activate either immediantly or the moment they log on. [/B][/QUOTE]

[size=1]Some members, which includes myself, just decide [b]not[/b] to pm back. Usually, they really have nothing to say. I really disagree with this idea. Pop-up boxes can get annoying if you're in a hurry.

Wel, that's just my take on it. :cross:

-L/Z[/size]

[OtakuSennen]

Oh, I thought of something else: There's no thread to discuss arcade games.. There's Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, PC/Mac.. But no arcade forum. Dance Dance Revolution doesn't have a place, apart from Sony.. But still, the arcade versions are there too..

[AzureWolf]

Great! We've got a quick reply box at the bottom of the pages! That's awesome. However, do you think it would be possible to have that subscribe to thread option as well? Seems that if you use this little box, it doesn't subscribe you, so I have to go all the way down a second time and click that subscribe thing myself (and I have it set for 50 posts per page!).

Thanks.

[James]

[color=#707875]The quick reply box has been there all along... o_O;

Thread subscription services have also been in place ever since the very beginning; both UBB and vB have that service. Most forum software has that as a default service, I would say.[/color]

[AzureWolf]

Haha, you are right James! I just read my own post and realized how bad I said what I wanted to say. :whoops: I meant that if you use this quick reply box at the bottom, you don't automatically subscribe to the thread like you do if you go to the big "post reply" link.

[James]

[color=#707875]Well, you can choose to [i]never[/i] automatically subscribe to threads by adjusting that setting in your Profile.

That way, you can use either reply type and you'll never be subscribed.[/color]

[Brasil]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by MistressRoxie [/i]
[B][color=#9933ff]Please, I heartily agree. I do not like having to look at how many posts I have, after everytime I write something. It would be better if you could simply hide it away inside a member's profile.

Going along the same lines of posts counts and titles,[/color]


[color=#9933ff]I agree with GunMetal on this, as well. I don't really like the idea of all the ranks we have. Though amusing sometimes, It's just something I'm not for.

Either that, or if you DO stick with the ranks, I would like to request that you PLEASE change the newbie one so it says: New to OB. Or, something along those lines. The word "newbie" to me, is a bit annoying, as it's basically saying that you're new, and stupid, and was a bit offensive to me, when I was one. That was the premise of "Newbie and DARN proud of it", that not all new members are stupid and evil. Whatever you do, don't change the title to: "STUF n00b!!11" or I'll positively die. V_V *shoots a look at Semjaza*

In the end, to me, it doesn't even matter how long you've been here for, or what your post count is. I can name several members that have been here for a shorter time than I, and yet are already Otakus and Extreme Otakus, and I still don't fine their post quality appealing. I can also think of vice versa situations. Ranks and post counts are just something trivial, that I think, might be nice to disclude in version Seven.[/color] [/B][/QUOTE]

Though, Roxie, a title means nothing. If your post quality is there, then no-one, except those with questionable post quality, should have a problem with a "newbie" title. I've seen people with 1500 posts making absolutely abysmal points, while some with 120 posts are posting excellent discussions.

Are titles a problem? Yes and no. They are problems for some people, but I really don't see how they're detrimental to a poster if the said poster has good post quality. Actions speak louder than words, and words speak louder than titles.

[Shinmaru]

I thought of this last night, but it was way too late (and I was way too groggy) to post it here. If you go ahead and just make one big gaming forum (as it looks like you're going to do - and it's sorely needed), then I think it would be a good idea to have a subforum dedicated to game reviews. You'd have your overall gaming discussion in the main forum and gaming reviews in the subforum. Nice and simple.

Also, before I make new threads, I use the search engine to make sure that I'm not making a thread that's been created (because I'm too lazy to look through the forums). What I don't like is that the search engine doesn't let you put it words that are less than 3 characters. However, there are several threads on OB that have words with 3 or less characters in it. It's not a big problem, but it just annoys me a bit.

[Semjaza]

Apparently vB 3 has some sort of option in it to automatically search for similiar threads.

As for the other idea... I was thinking this: We don't really need more than 1 thread for each game anyway. For example, take the Metroid Prime thread. We talked about it before it came out, then when we got it and helped eachother later... all in one thread.

So I think that if there are more official style threads that include everything about a game, we'll be a lot better off.

[Shinmaru]

That's probably for the best. I was just throwing some ideas around this morning, but it probably is for the best that everything is included in one thread.

[Guest XBebop]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by James [/i]
[B][color=#335062]To coincide with the launch of theOtaku.com Version Next in early July, I am currently in the process of preparing the development of OtakuBoards v7.

Right now, there's not too much to say about it. It will use an all-new Virtual Bulletin software (vB3). And no, none of you will need to sign up again or anything; your accounts, posts, threads, attachments and so on will be saved and ported over.

However, OBv7 will be very new, in terms of its software and design. So, Justin Blessing and I will be developing a prototype board on another server, which we'll then use as a basis for OB itself.

The reason I'm creating this thread is because I want to get everyone's ideas about what they'd like to see in v7. You might simply want to see a new forum...or you might have a really wacky idea for some new interactive feature. Either way, I want to hear what you've got to say. Suggestions made in this thread could contribute to OBv7 -- to making it even more streamlined and suitable for all members.

If there are any questions, you can also ask them here. [/color] [/B][/QUOTE]

How about a darker layout? like black or something becuase these are hurting my eyes..

[Semjaza]

That's amusing to me heh.

Way back, most sites on the internet made use of black backgrounds with white text. I was around these a lot, and I know a majority of people simply got tired of it. They were incredibly trying on the eyes. Many sites went to white backgrounds because of it (IGN for example).

So I'd prefer no black, honestly. However, darker shades of other colors wouldn't be so bad. It kind of depends what people wind up making, I guess.