Post by Jules on Mar 5, 2016 16:15:13 GMT
Hello everybody.
It's been almost two months since I started this forum and I thought it would be a good point to sum up some of the things that have happened since and that should be happening soon after. (Don't worry, I'm not planning to make this a regular newsletter.)
I had been toying with the idea for a Tears for Fears forum for quite a while now. I felt that with some other favourite bands of mine having multiple discussion places, TFF deserved at least one dedicated discussion site as well. Inspired by the late great APFFN (All Pink Floyd Fan Network), I also wanted to extend this by some general basic information on the band, their discography and biography plus links to more in-depth information pages. So far, it’s coming along nicely and while I'm not yet done with all the threads that I had seen in my mind’s eye (he he), I assume I’ll get that finished in the near future.
Design & Structure
Being a complete noob to website and forum design, I think what I’ve done so far turned out pretty nice. It’s not perfect and I will keep on tweaking the two themes I have at the moment and perhaps creating some more, if you wish so. With the update of ProBoards to v6, I will have to adapt to the new responsive design so expect some new themes and changes to the old ones as soon as the update is out. If you have any problems accessing the forum or suggestions for improvements (font type & size, colours, layout…), don't hesitate telling me. There are a couple of sections that haven’t been used yet and some that are hidden for the time being, but I'm not sure what will happen to those yet.
Advertising
I have changed my signature on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums to include a link to The Tears For Fears Connection, plan to mention it every now and then on that site as well as on others that I frequent and on twitter. I'm even thinking about using ProBoards’ own page for advertising. But, that’s about it. So if you like this forum, please help spread the word about it! I’ve tried searching for it on different search engines and I can’t say it’s been particularly successful, so needless to say that even those who would like to join a forum like this might not find it in the first place. I suppose more traffic and more posts might make a difference, but so will informing those who are interested.
Activity
As I’ve alluded to in my welcome post, I am not online too often and I don't see that changing too soon. You might say that is not a good situation for an admin but in reality, I don’t have to be online all the time to do my job. It does insinuate however that I cannot be the one who keeps the board afloat. So in essence, if we want to be an active forum that requires that people other than me start threads and reply to them to keep discussions going. I've already noticed that posting a few threads immediately increases activity (pageviews) by quite a bit. Whatever you feel like talking about – one particular TFF song, or some interesting observation about their development, just start a thread on it. And remember that there are also non-TFF sections so when you feel like talking about some other music, you can do so as well. If you are concerned about posting in the wrong place, don’t mind: As long as the forum is as quiet as it is now, it won’t take me much time to move threads to the correct sections every now and then. You can also always PM me in case of questions, but remember I might not be able to read it right away. I will answer every PM.
Notifications
Please do remember to use the notifications system. At the top of the site there's a link called "Profile" and if you have set your notifications so that you get notified when somebody likes or quotes your post or tags you, then you will see a little popup not unlike the alerts at the Steve Hoffman forums. If you follow the link, you're on your profile but you still have to go to the tab "Notifications" to see your notifications so best to put that page into your shortcuts or favourites. Also helpful is the "Participated" button on the upper right, where you can see whether threads you have posted in got updated. You can also change the settings so that you get email notifications, which means that you don't have to check the site to get informed about updated threads but it also fills your inbox (I'm speaking from personal experiences).
All the best
Jules
It's been almost two months since I started this forum and I thought it would be a good point to sum up some of the things that have happened since and that should be happening soon after. (Don't worry, I'm not planning to make this a regular newsletter.)
I had been toying with the idea for a Tears for Fears forum for quite a while now. I felt that with some other favourite bands of mine having multiple discussion places, TFF deserved at least one dedicated discussion site as well. Inspired by the late great APFFN (All Pink Floyd Fan Network), I also wanted to extend this by some general basic information on the band, their discography and biography plus links to more in-depth information pages. So far, it’s coming along nicely and while I'm not yet done with all the threads that I had seen in my mind’s eye (he he), I assume I’ll get that finished in the near future.
Design & Structure
Being a complete noob to website and forum design, I think what I’ve done so far turned out pretty nice. It’s not perfect and I will keep on tweaking the two themes I have at the moment and perhaps creating some more, if you wish so. With the update of ProBoards to v6, I will have to adapt to the new responsive design so expect some new themes and changes to the old ones as soon as the update is out. If you have any problems accessing the forum or suggestions for improvements (font type & size, colours, layout…), don't hesitate telling me. There are a couple of sections that haven’t been used yet and some that are hidden for the time being, but I'm not sure what will happen to those yet.
Advertising
I have changed my signature on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums to include a link to The Tears For Fears Connection, plan to mention it every now and then on that site as well as on others that I frequent and on twitter. I'm even thinking about using ProBoards’ own page for advertising. But, that’s about it. So if you like this forum, please help spread the word about it! I’ve tried searching for it on different search engines and I can’t say it’s been particularly successful, so needless to say that even those who would like to join a forum like this might not find it in the first place. I suppose more traffic and more posts might make a difference, but so will informing those who are interested.
Activity
As I’ve alluded to in my welcome post, I am not online too often and I don't see that changing too soon. You might say that is not a good situation for an admin but in reality, I don’t have to be online all the time to do my job. It does insinuate however that I cannot be the one who keeps the board afloat. So in essence, if we want to be an active forum that requires that people other than me start threads and reply to them to keep discussions going. I've already noticed that posting a few threads immediately increases activity (pageviews) by quite a bit. Whatever you feel like talking about – one particular TFF song, or some interesting observation about their development, just start a thread on it. And remember that there are also non-TFF sections so when you feel like talking about some other music, you can do so as well. If you are concerned about posting in the wrong place, don’t mind: As long as the forum is as quiet as it is now, it won’t take me much time to move threads to the correct sections every now and then. You can also always PM me in case of questions, but remember I might not be able to read it right away. I will answer every PM.
Notifications
Please do remember to use the notifications system. At the top of the site there's a link called "Profile" and if you have set your notifications so that you get notified when somebody likes or quotes your post or tags you, then you will see a little popup not unlike the alerts at the Steve Hoffman forums. If you follow the link, you're on your profile but you still have to go to the tab "Notifications" to see your notifications so best to put that page into your shortcuts or favourites. Also helpful is the "Participated" button on the upper right, where you can see whether threads you have posted in got updated. You can also change the settings so that you get email notifications, which means that you don't have to check the site to get informed about updated threads but it also fills your inbox (I'm speaking from personal experiences).
All the best
Jules