Viewing Thread:
"EXTRA EXTRA GAMEADAY PRIZE (Life on the Forums) WINNER ANNOUNCED"

After due consideration here are the results.

Everybody wants User Profiles.

RBS says lean some of the GAD prizes towards lesser forums to boost them and he suggests we include a "what's going on in the forums" or "forum news" somewhere.

Gaming Boy would like to see more input from the staff to start topics and kick-start discussion.

Grix suggests we have a tournament where we all download game to our PC and play against each other.

er-no wants a "who is here" link. You click on it and it tells you the names of most recent posters (good idea). And er-no wants the Notables to be given something to do (a request which I have just complied with in Chat forums)

TheBest_2K1 is keen on putting people in a hot seat. Everybody fires questions at the poor so...

Quazimodo would like links to your "Latest Post" and your web site url in your stats window (excellent).

Meka would like us to hold a song contest and have counters to see how many people have read a thread. pb backs this up with a similar request on reviews.

Cookie Monster suggests a Cluedo-style murder mystery event.

Dan2K1 would like on-line darts.

Dringo is keen to repeat some "Opposite Posts" - I believe this is intended to be head to head challenges on specific arguments.

Chr!stos says we should sometimes vote for Gameaday winners, instead of them being always picked by staff.

Salevunit suggested a Winning Posts Forum (view only), plus Tag of the Day competitions, Search Facilities and Caution Tags. The latter is a particularly strong suggestion, i.e. to give warning tags to people likely to face a ban.

BUT THE WINNER IS:
The prize is for the best SET of suggestions. The winner is SHEEPY for the following ideas:

FOG Lotto
Round Number Prizes (e.g. at 10,000 posts in a forum)
"Number Day" I think this means we would all be anonymous.
Vote people off the forums Big Brother style (love that).
Guess the Phantom Poster.
Complaint Button (already in place now with the report link)
Improve the message filter and the feedback from it.

Contratulations SHEEPY and I hope you enjoy munching your prize.

Thank you again to all those who contributed and sorry not to be able to mention everybody.

*********

These were the original rules.

This latest EXTRA GAMEADAY is for the best SET of suggestions for "adding life" to the forums.

Imagine that you are in charge of the forums. What would you do to start some interesting debate or to make the place more interesting?

Please DO NOT suggest things which require (much) programming. And don't suggest a chart of Gameaday winners as it is already being sorted.

We already have:
Top Posters chart
Notable/Regular/Newbie system with 'orrible colours
Voting for Notables
Extra Gameaday Prizes
Protected "Prime Topics" forum
"Stats" for history on contributors
Taglines

Closing date is August 1st or shortly thereafter, and it's the best set that wins. All the posts that you make will count towards your set.

how about making different tagline sizes,for example;
just arrived could only have 15.
newbies could have 20(same as now).
regulars may have a little more, 25.
and notables will be top dogs with 30.
this may give people a better insentive to post more

I really think that Member pages would be a good idea to help people remember what we are all like.

You could use the 'profiles' that were sent out in the posts, next to either a picture or representation of the member (like in all the SR tribute sites that have cropped up) and get everyone to add a little piece about themselves. Then you could link this to their stats, as well as having a link to the area from the main ukgames.com pages.

At least then new members would have an idea of what other people were like.

maybe you could choose your name to be in bold

I'm not going to win for one idea, but hopefully it might get implemented if anyone thinks it's good...

How about on the reviews having an indication of how many people have read the review. It could be a simple counter, but it recognises when someone has already read the piece and won't add another number when they come back to read it again.

At least then we get to know how popular our reviews are and how many people are actually looking at them.

I was just reading a forum about how someone could not post their very long review(which looked like they had worked hard on) in the review section because SR did not sell it at the present time.
I think SR should make a new forum section were people could create forums to post thier reveiws.
And then people could give some feed back if they liked the review (and the game) which would help people to create better reviews in the future.
*Also if alot of people post saying they like the game maybe it will give SR an insite into what new (and old) games to stock.*

Meka_Dragon wrote:
> I can't remember if I've already posted this here, or if I did it
> ages ago in a different thread, so here I go again!

I'd really
> like to see counters on each of the threads.

To see how many
> times people had clicked on my post would make me happy.

If I'd
> posted something, and realised that only 5 people had clicked on it,
> but it had gotten 3 replies, then it might be worth popping, so more
> people could see it.

If 20 odd people had clicked on it, but it
> hadn't gotten any replies, you'd know it was a duff topic, and not
> worth popping...

Yeh I've always thought that would be a good idea

How about highlighting certain topics with a colour code. When people post they can give a category for their post in each forum. For example in the Life etc.. forum, all posts highlighted with blue would be about football, green about tennis, yello about everyday life etc.. or you can leave it blank. and extra gameaday/filmaday topics could be highlighted in gold to make more people contribute by making them easier to spot.

asrogktjusaetg wrote:
> A Sizable Sister forum - ten regulars are the only posters allowed
> to a special forum that only they can post on, with... errrrr... 24
> hour viewing coverage for everyone else. Readers vote a poster out
> each week and Sizable Sister gives the participants a topic of
> discussion every day/two days/how ever often he can think of
> one.

Bonus points are given for under the sheets action ;)

*RAKUGA GETS SHOTGUN*

A Sizable Sister forum - ten regulars are the only posters allowed to a special forum that only they can post on, with... errrrr... 24 hour viewing coverage for everyone else. Readers vote a poster out each week and Sizable Sister gives the participants a topic of discussion every day/two days/how ever often he can think of one.

Bonus points are given for under the sheets action ;)

Adding life to the forums, right, as ever I do not know if these have been posted already - rest assured I have not read the other contributions, there are absolutely loads, so if I suggest an idea that has been done already, please do not say 'Oi Oim that's mine you cheating scum', as clearly, if the ideas are good enough, the first person to suggest them will win the prize.

Here you go, unfortunately I'm going to write quite a lot now, sorry guys.

To make it more interesting...

1)"Who's signed in?"

In my view it'd be interesting to see who was signed into the forums, I don't know how much programming that would take, I'm not even a novice on programming etc, but I think that knowing who is signed in, and perhaps even knowing which forum(s) they are in, would be a great idea. You'd be able to see the total number of people signed in for that time too, suggesting which times are the most popular. Might be nice to have this, might be really hard to accomplish. "Have you any idea how hard that'd be?!!!" If anyone says that, my answer for you now is 'no sorry'.

2) "Instant messenger"

Possibly this will be the hardest one to do, but like the Official Dreamcast instant chat room thing, this could be a good idea. For those with never ending hatred towards Microsoft, this could help people talk in real time, in one large main room, and then you could have private conversations too.

3) "Darts!"

If anyone has ever played online darts, then they will know why this would be a good idea. There is a site called webdarts which can be accessed through google.com, but it would be good to have an online darts game here at special reserve - there could even be a league for it - the member with the most points at the end of the month, or similar, could perhaps win a film. This'd be fun.

4) "Face to the writing"

Profiles page, yep sure, I imagine this has been suggested many times, but if members of the forums could write out their own profile - including their email address, hobbies etc, just a general round up, other members could visit www.ukchatprofiles.com, click on the member they want to know more about, and it'd liven up the place - bringing more of community feel to the forums. Could maybe even have a picture, or photo space...

5) "Longer taglines plea"

20 characters is a bit on the short side, 25 or 30 would be better I think, that way we wouldn't have to think up really short and witty tags, saving energy to think of decent posts and topics.

5) "Tag of the day"

Just a simple competition - the best tagline of the day could win a reddy or something. But because some members may have the same tagline that day, the tags should be submitted onto www.tagoftheday.co.uk or something. Just a bit of fun, would add some incentive if the prize was a reddy, but it'd be daft sending out just one reddy on it's own, so a tally could be built up - when you get 5, 10, 15, 20 reddies, you can claim them, then make sure you are a member, send 'em back and get a prize.

6) "Most popular topic!?"

Wouldn't you like to know just which topic was the most visited, or discussed, in that day? It would probably always be the WLT, but it'd be a good inclusion. Even if the topic is rubbish - i.e spam thread, it would enable people like me, who come on at 3am, to see where people have been discussing.

7) "Member of the week?"

Highly controversial, but there could be a voting system whereby you vote for the member of the forums that you fell has done the most that week - contributed the most and made the forums good. Maybe a free gifts prize - you know, the ones that you can claim when you get reddies. Would be a moral boost, it's only a little prize, could work you know!

8) "Product of the week"

Or maybe game of the week, Special Reserve could promote one item each week, which they feel is a particular outstanding item - the sales for it would probably soar, and it'd help in our buying decisions "N64 - revelation in gaming (help clear our stock...ahem...)" Product of the week!

9) "Saving of the week"

Top 5 discountd products - cheap games sell very well, why not tell us about it!!!

10) "Slogan of the week"

Throughout the week people can submit slogans for Special Reserve, where the best one wins a prize - a film probably, so then SR can use that slogan in the next week. "Special Reserve - buy from us", you get the idea...

That's all folks!!

Cheers
Dan2K1

Meka, thats a good idea.

It would also work because if you post a topic where you detail both sides of the arguemnt, you could have a lot of people read it (20+) but because there's nothing to really add, only 2 or 3 people may comment.

You may think that everyone was ignoring it or couldn't be bothered to read it, when really that isn't the case.