The "Freeola Customer Forum" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
Well the new design seems OK, though the avatars are a bit repetitive and they do create a lot of blank space in the listings.
Do the avatars deter new users?
Work is progressing on the chat forum system to enable you (Freeola customers) to have ready made forums on your web sites.
Freeola Bingo is much improved now that it runs constantly. Originally suggested on the forums, Freeola Bingo was intended to give the forums a boost. By the way, it's not intended to be a permanent fixture and Google won't allow us to advertise it, even though it's free.
The site gets thousands of visitors and hundreds of new sign-ups per day, but this is hardly evident on the forums.
It does not seem worthwhile to me, to have eight different forums generating small numbers of posts. Maybe there should only be one.
As the rest of Gameaday is games orientated wouldn't it be better to have one focal point and declare this a games forum. After all you can still chat and post intelligent threads or stories, or talk about wrestling, regardless of what the forums are actually called. Back to our roots perhaps.
Or have chat forums "had their day"?
Do the avatars deter new users?
Work is progressing on the chat forum system to enable you (Freeola customers) to have ready made forums on your web sites.
Freeola Bingo is much improved now that it runs constantly. Originally suggested on the forums, Freeola Bingo was intended to give the forums a boost. By the way, it's not intended to be a permanent fixture and Google won't allow us to advertise it, even though it's free.
The site gets thousands of visitors and hundreds of new sign-ups per day, but this is hardly evident on the forums.
It does not seem worthwhile to me, to have eight different forums generating small numbers of posts. Maybe there should only be one.
As the rest of Gameaday is games orientated wouldn't it be better to have one focal point and declare this a games forum. After all you can still chat and post intelligent threads or stories, or talk about wrestling, regardless of what the forums are actually called. Back to our roots perhaps.
Or have chat forums "had their day"?
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Alfonse wrote:
> Rastab wrote:
> I didn't want it sullied by this place. I 'retired' it from the
> Freeola forums as a mark of respect for SR. Sad but true.
>
> But you always come out of retirement with something positive to
> say.
I retired the name, not posting, numbnuts. Hence why I still y'know...post. Though there's little to say here anymore...
> Rastab wrote:
> I didn't want it sullied by this place. I 'retired' it from the
> Freeola forums as a mark of respect for SR. Sad but true.
>
> But you always come out of retirement with something positive to
> say.
I retired the name, not posting, numbnuts. Hence why I still y'know...post. Though there's little to say here anymore...
Bah! There was something i forgot. The order of the threads on the main page, Inteligent shouldnt be down the bottom, personally i'd not have that seperating bar and i'd have them move up and down to reflect the newest posts.
Hmmm... WLT into Intelligent?
Hmmm... WLT into Intelligent?
* Sighs *
Summer dip or dying on it's a**e? I think i'm going with the latter.
The problem i think is you've had pretty much the same group of people talking about the same things for the last 18 months. I think they've finally run out of things to say to each other, besides the normal daily chat in the WLT. The one new member we have managed to keep has been the main reason this place has actually kept going (stand up Sunflower) but now the old regulars are disappearing and the chances of recruiting any new Sunflowers are going with them. Anyway what i was going to do was give a list of things that need to be done, and so...
Move the WLT (DO NOT DELETE)
I said right from the start that putting in General would be the death of the forum. Whereas before General was for any little topic, the WLT now swallows 80% of the topics it could create.
The WLT always served the purpose of being a retreat from the nonsense of General chat. It was a place for the adults, now the adults dont bother because everyone else is in there too. Move it somewhere quieter (dont even think about the wrestling forum)
More Decent Forums = More Decent Posts
I do not mean a gadget forum.
This one might be a bit more difficult. What topics arent covered by the current list? If there are any then add them (without diluting the current ones)
I've always felt the games forums should be seperate. It's not good for Sony fanboys to look in the games forum and see they're outnumbered, nor is it good for any Sony posts to be written by "haterz". This goes for all 3 formats. You want to go straight to what you want to read and nothing else.
Useless Junk
Get rid of this page!
http://chat.freeola.com/
In all my time here i've never seen the point of it. It's ugly, badly designed and it means you have to go through another page to get to the proper page that everyone uses. Namely this one
http://chat.freeola.com/open-group/
Information
Sadly i can barely remember the previous page before its redesign but i know that while the current one is pretty, its not functional. We need a more obvious way of telling whether there has been a new post, whether it's a time, a link or whatever.
Yes Meister
As always, FM speaks the truth. If you've got so many members, mailshot the bu*g*rs. So many people will simply have forgotten about this place after SR folded.
This is our leisure time...
so give us something fun to do, namely games. I actually mentioned this months ago but i see no-one was taking notice. While SR was down most of the people on this forum migrated to Seraphims. They had an arcade for the users, it was fun. You need an arcade so get onto it.
I think someone below me mentioned this as well but i forget who.
I'm running out of titles
Avatars = Fine
Design = Fine
Reviews = Fine
Cheats = A bit pointless but if they bring traffic
Everything brought in during the redesign = Fine
Useless Junk Pt 2
Get rid of those crap word assocation/my favourite thing threads or stick them in another forum for polls and things. If any more pop up, delete them. That Weather thread will burn in hell.
If you reward crap, you get...
more crap! Stop giving GADS away for things that dont deserve it. Christ, even i won one. I can understand being charitable once in order to get people to submit more but thats it! Dont continually reward people for copy/pasting. If you really want to get people onto the forum, reward decent posts that get people talking. Giving GADs to stuff away from the forum really doesnt do anything for traffic on the board.
This place used to be great..
so help us to show the newbs. A search function would have the potential not only to get people talking but it may even draw some people back to talk about old times. This forum has a great history and the more accessible it is the better.
Who the hell are you
Stop the name changing or at least make it more difficult. If you want to bring old people back it'll help if they recognise the names. 1 change per 6 months is fair i think.
Ok i'm seriously out of ideas now. I'm going to post my thread in general and i'll be back tomorrow with another.
Summer dip or dying on it's a**e? I think i'm going with the latter.
The problem i think is you've had pretty much the same group of people talking about the same things for the last 18 months. I think they've finally run out of things to say to each other, besides the normal daily chat in the WLT. The one new member we have managed to keep has been the main reason this place has actually kept going (stand up Sunflower) but now the old regulars are disappearing and the chances of recruiting any new Sunflowers are going with them. Anyway what i was going to do was give a list of things that need to be done, and so...
Move the WLT (DO NOT DELETE)
I said right from the start that putting in General would be the death of the forum. Whereas before General was for any little topic, the WLT now swallows 80% of the topics it could create.
The WLT always served the purpose of being a retreat from the nonsense of General chat. It was a place for the adults, now the adults dont bother because everyone else is in there too. Move it somewhere quieter (dont even think about the wrestling forum)
More Decent Forums = More Decent Posts
I do not mean a gadget forum.
This one might be a bit more difficult. What topics arent covered by the current list? If there are any then add them (without diluting the current ones)
I've always felt the games forums should be seperate. It's not good for Sony fanboys to look in the games forum and see they're outnumbered, nor is it good for any Sony posts to be written by "haterz". This goes for all 3 formats. You want to go straight to what you want to read and nothing else.
Useless Junk
Get rid of this page!
http://chat.freeola.com/
In all my time here i've never seen the point of it. It's ugly, badly designed and it means you have to go through another page to get to the proper page that everyone uses. Namely this one
http://chat.freeola.com/open-group/
Information
Sadly i can barely remember the previous page before its redesign but i know that while the current one is pretty, its not functional. We need a more obvious way of telling whether there has been a new post, whether it's a time, a link or whatever.
Yes Meister
As always, FM speaks the truth. If you've got so many members, mailshot the bu*g*rs. So many people will simply have forgotten about this place after SR folded.
This is our leisure time...
so give us something fun to do, namely games. I actually mentioned this months ago but i see no-one was taking notice. While SR was down most of the people on this forum migrated to Seraphims. They had an arcade for the users, it was fun. You need an arcade so get onto it.
I think someone below me mentioned this as well but i forget who.
I'm running out of titles
Avatars = Fine
Design = Fine
Reviews = Fine
Cheats = A bit pointless but if they bring traffic
Everything brought in during the redesign = Fine
Useless Junk Pt 2
Get rid of those crap word assocation/my favourite thing threads or stick them in another forum for polls and things. If any more pop up, delete them. That Weather thread will burn in hell.
If you reward crap, you get...
more crap! Stop giving GADS away for things that dont deserve it. Christ, even i won one. I can understand being charitable once in order to get people to submit more but thats it! Dont continually reward people for copy/pasting. If you really want to get people onto the forum, reward decent posts that get people talking. Giving GADs to stuff away from the forum really doesnt do anything for traffic on the board.
This place used to be great..
so help us to show the newbs. A search function would have the potential not only to get people talking but it may even draw some people back to talk about old times. This forum has a great history and the more accessible it is the better.
Who the hell are you
Stop the name changing or at least make it more difficult. If you want to bring old people back it'll help if they recognise the names. 1 change per 6 months is fair i think.
Ok i'm seriously out of ideas now. I'm going to post my thread in general and i'll be back tomorrow with another.
I have noticed, and your efforts are appreciated. However, I somehow don't think it should be up to the users to ensure that this site has the basic fnctionality it requires.
Insane Bartender wrote:
> ...An obvious option to search the forums
> would also be a huge boost. If some newbie wants to sign up and
> get a specific question answered, etiquette dictates you at
> least look to see if the question has been asked before.
> Searching for such an instance gets your question answered
> without potentially attracting the ire of veteran forum
> members...
I've done my best ;¬P Insane Bartender incase you hadn't tried ;¬)
> ...An obvious option to search the forums
> would also be a huge boost. If some newbie wants to sign up and
> get a specific question answered, etiquette dictates you at
> least look to see if the question has been asked before.
> Searching for such an instance gets your question answered
> without potentially attracting the ire of veteran forum
> members...
I've done my best ;¬P Insane Bartender incase you hadn't tried ;¬)
Rastab wrote:
> I didn't want it sullied by this place. I 'retired' it from the
> Freeola forums as a mark of respect for SR. Sad but true.
But you always come out of retirement with something positive to say.
> I didn't want it sullied by this place. I 'retired' it from the
> Freeola forums as a mark of respect for SR. Sad but true.
But you always come out of retirement with something positive to say.
First and foremost, stop whinging about the avatars. A host of successful high volume VBB messageboards contain larger avatars and obscenely huge signatures, but don't really suffer at all.
If anything, the quick win to make the boards easier to read would be to adopt a more VBB-esque format (i.e. first post top, subsequent posts beneath in order of posting). It's daft that you read the first post, and then, on a long thread, to read the second post, you have to go to another page. Abolutely insane (yeah, yeah).
Sort the usability out, and maybe then that in itself will stop users being deterred. An obvious option to search the forums would also be a huge boost. If some newbie wants to sign up and get a specific question answered, etiquette dictates you at least look to see if the question has been asked before. Searching for such an instance gets your question answered without potentially attracting the ire of veteran forum members.
Look at any other forum, specifically the multitudinous VBB ones littering the internet, and bring a fraction of the features and functions onto this forum, and you'll soon be taking steps to limit the volume of posts on here.
Have the forums had their day? Nonsense.
If anything, the quick win to make the boards easier to read would be to adopt a more VBB-esque format (i.e. first post top, subsequent posts beneath in order of posting). It's daft that you read the first post, and then, on a long thread, to read the second post, you have to go to another page. Abolutely insane (yeah, yeah).
Sort the usability out, and maybe then that in itself will stop users being deterred. An obvious option to search the forums would also be a huge boost. If some newbie wants to sign up and get a specific question answered, etiquette dictates you at least look to see if the question has been asked before. Searching for such an instance gets your question answered without potentially attracting the ire of veteran forum members.
Look at any other forum, specifically the multitudinous VBB ones littering the internet, and bring a fraction of the features and functions onto this forum, and you'll soon be taking steps to limit the volume of posts on here.
Have the forums had their day? Nonsense.
Tony wrote:
> Dear Daramus
>
> This is a "discussion".
>
> The procedure for including yourself in a "discussion"
> is to contribute a point of view or suggestion, stating the
> reasoning for that.
Dear Tony
If you're going to be cocky at least spell my name correctly yeh? The point is if you're going to talk utter trash about people, then you're not doing great at this discussion business either.
And I did make a point which you conveniently didn't quote.
> Dear Daramus
>
> This is a "discussion".
>
> The procedure for including yourself in a "discussion"
> is to contribute a point of view or suggestion, stating the
> reasoning for that.
Dear Tony
If you're going to be cocky at least spell my name correctly yeh? The point is if you're going to talk utter trash about people, then you're not doing great at this discussion business either.
And I did make a point which you conveniently didn't quote.
If I want game FAQs, walthroughs, cheats, tips, hints, guides...I'll go to IGN or Gamespot, where they're actually, you know, good.
The discussion here is stagnant because the userbase is devoid of any motivation to post, and devoid of anything...intersting to say.
The story to SR's success and, ironically, its demise was the handing out of GADs for chat posts. It encouraged users to make an effort, and then once people got into the swing of that it was realised that it was fun and thought provoking to do so anyway.
Take away that and give away vouchers for copying and pasting walkthroughs from other websites and, shazam, your userbase doesn't care about the forums.
Apart from those, of course, who absolutely MUST know which you prefer
omg pepsi or coke!!!!!!!!!!
The fact is, Freeola is balls, they've messed everything up, driven away the core of the user base who, by the way, were the only remotely interesting people who actually do stuff with their lives.
It has been mentioned, but yes, at PM there's actual...discussion. About everyone's day to day lives. And there's no need for motivation by handing out terrible prizes.
Which essentially means this - Freeola is dead. No matter what has been or what will be said in this thread, Freeola is dead.
And that rhymed. And that point is infinitely more interesting, entertaining and intriguing than any of your woeboat pepsi/coke, blue/yellow, cancer/malaria threads.
Good day xxxx
The discussion here is stagnant because the userbase is devoid of any motivation to post, and devoid of anything...intersting to say.
The story to SR's success and, ironically, its demise was the handing out of GADs for chat posts. It encouraged users to make an effort, and then once people got into the swing of that it was realised that it was fun and thought provoking to do so anyway.
Take away that and give away vouchers for copying and pasting walkthroughs from other websites and, shazam, your userbase doesn't care about the forums.
Apart from those, of course, who absolutely MUST know which you prefer
omg pepsi or coke!!!!!!!!!!
The fact is, Freeola is balls, they've messed everything up, driven away the core of the user base who, by the way, were the only remotely interesting people who actually do stuff with their lives.
It has been mentioned, but yes, at PM there's actual...discussion. About everyone's day to day lives. And there's no need for motivation by handing out terrible prizes.
Which essentially means this - Freeola is dead. No matter what has been or what will be said in this thread, Freeola is dead.
And that rhymed. And that point is infinitely more interesting, entertaining and intriguing than any of your woeboat pepsi/coke, blue/yellow, cancer/malaria threads.
Good day xxxx
Tony wrote:
> But I am not sure what you mean when you say the forums are
> difficult to use. Can you explain?
I'll keep it short, I think in general its quite confusing to look at. The viewport is changing all the time, dull grey content surrounded by bright adverts. And just to illustrate how bland the main content is, alot of it is borderline failing accessibility guidelines for colour contrasts. Its not conducive to getting people to focus on the main content in my opinion.
> But I am not sure what you mean when you say the forums are
> difficult to use. Can you explain?
I'll keep it short, I think in general its quite confusing to look at. The viewport is changing all the time, dull grey content surrounded by bright adverts. And just to illustrate how bland the main content is, alot of it is borderline failing accessibility guidelines for colour contrasts. Its not conducive to getting people to focus on the main content in my opinion.
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