The "Freeola Customer Forum" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only.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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The community we have here is nice, it's not quite adiquate for a forum, but it's nice all the same.
Whether it's worth keeping the forums, for the sake of 10 or so people, is another matter entirely. I personally would hate to lose the forums, I love the people here, having a chat on Freeola generally helps me to unwind and relax.
If we moved to another forum, I'd feel like a kid in London at rush hour: Useless, alone and out of place.
The people who are joining up here all seem to be around the same background, mostly they seem to be attracted to the games forum, so it strikes me that they are getting the links from either the cheats or possibly the walkthroughs.
Working with that, surely it's obvious that you need to make it clearer for people to find the forum rather than the odd pre-teen going through a google search for cheats.
I think someone mentioned that a reason this place was so busy before was because it was aimed as a sort of technical support, others say it was because the SR Legends left with long detailed and worthwhile posts to read. Either way, it all comes down to having focus.
Freeola Chat has no focus, ever since they let anyone create any kind of forum, and let anyone go for moderator status, the site lost focus and people began to split, until all that was left were the odd few people clinging to the "Forum Killers".
While in some ways these posts kept the few surviors together, they give a strong and distinct impression of failure to people of intelligence who may want to join. I mean if you come along to a forum who's best selling point are the "What are you right NOW!" Would you be inclined to post?
So in a somewhat abrupt and shaky closing, the people here are great if numbered. The focus is all but gone. The forums have no point to them.
Whether it's worth keeping the forums, for the sake of 10 or so people, is another matter entirely. I personally would hate to lose the forums, I love the people here, having a chat on Freeola generally helps me to unwind and relax.
If we moved to another forum, I'd feel like a kid in London at rush hour: Useless, alone and out of place.
The people who are joining up here all seem to be around the same background, mostly they seem to be attracted to the games forum, so it strikes me that they are getting the links from either the cheats or possibly the walkthroughs.
Working with that, surely it's obvious that you need to make it clearer for people to find the forum rather than the odd pre-teen going through a google search for cheats.
I think someone mentioned that a reason this place was so busy before was because it was aimed as a sort of technical support, others say it was because the SR Legends left with long detailed and worthwhile posts to read. Either way, it all comes down to having focus.
Freeola Chat has no focus, ever since they let anyone create any kind of forum, and let anyone go for moderator status, the site lost focus and people began to split, until all that was left were the odd few people clinging to the "Forum Killers".
While in some ways these posts kept the few surviors together, they give a strong and distinct impression of failure to people of intelligence who may want to join. I mean if you come along to a forum who's best selling point are the "What are you
So in a somewhat abrupt and shaky closing, the people here are great if numbered. The focus is all but gone. The forums have no point to them.
Machie wrote:
> Okay, well I've always liked Social Bookmarking sites, that
> could work, gaming, programming, flash games, funny cat images,
> news articles, YouTube videos, perfect just what we're already
> use to. =) Now we just need a web 2.0 name for it.
The name is the easy part. :)
-Take a verb...convert into txt talk (ie spell it badly).
-Optionally append a pronoun.
And there you have your "funky" web 2.0 website name.
> Okay, well I've always liked Social Bookmarking sites, that
> could work, gaming, programming, flash games, funny cat images,
> news articles, YouTube videos, perfect just what we're already
> use to. =) Now we just need a web 2.0 name for it.
The name is the easy part. :)
-Take a verb...convert into txt talk (ie spell it badly).
-Optionally append a pronoun.
And there you have your "funky" web 2.0 website name.
The 'Coke or Pepsi' threads are bad, but this is even worse.
You can keep tinkering with the forums, moving them about, re-naming them, deleting them etc. It won't do any good because the userbase is tiny and doesn't appear to have anything to discuss anymore. It's so dull on here at the moment it's unreal.
Perhaps if the site wasn't so poorly laid out, then you'd actually get some new members more than once a month. The link on the mainpage is tiny and doesn't stand out at all. Even logging in and navigating back to the forums is more of a chore than it should be. I don't want a new browser window opened, thank you very much.
Lose the 'pepsi or coke' threads. They're utter garbage and serve no purpose other than to make the post count look more impressive...and that's not even working anymore.
Advertise the forums properly. Make the site easier to use. If things haven't picked up after a while and it's still as dull and completely boring as it is now, then axe the forums I say.
Perhaps if the site wasn't so poorly laid out, then you'd actually get some new members more than once a month. The link on the mainpage is tiny and doesn't stand out at all. Even logging in and navigating back to the forums is more of a chore than it should be. I don't want a new browser window opened, thank you very much.
Lose the 'pepsi or coke' threads. They're utter garbage and serve no purpose other than to make the post count look more impressive...and that's not even working anymore.
Advertise the forums properly. Make the site easier to use. If things haven't picked up after a while and it's still as dull and completely boring as it is now, then axe the forums I say.
Bob_The_Moose wrote:
> I don't know about that; this forum that Freeola are going to be
> offering to their customers, presumably it's just based on this
> one? If so then this place would be a working example and begin
> to actually serve a purpose.
That's perfectly true, but he could drastically change it. I think he mentioned a year ago, about having just one or two forums instead of 8.
We could always give it a try. If it works then great, if it doesn't then atleast we know where the guy lives *evil grin*.
> I don't know about that; this forum that Freeola are going to be
> offering to their customers, presumably it's just based on this
> one? If so then this place would be a working example and begin
> to actually serve a purpose.
That's perfectly true, but he could drastically change it. I think he mentioned a year ago, about having just one or two forums instead of 8.
We could always give it a try. If it works then great, if it doesn't then atleast we know where the guy lives *evil grin*.
Machie wrote:
> Sooner or later Tony will pull the plug. Perhaps we should
> consider moving to greener pastures and create a community that
> has a purpose. Unfortunately I'm all out of ideas so I'm not
> sure what kind of small site we could use as an umbrella for our
> community. Maybe something like Digital Spy? Nah maybe not. =/
I don't know about that; this forum that Freeola are going to be offering to their customers, presumably it's just based on this one? If so then this place would be a working example and begin to actually serve a purpose.
> Sooner or later Tony will pull the plug. Perhaps we should
> consider moving to greener pastures and create a community that
> has a purpose. Unfortunately I'm all out of ideas so I'm not
> sure what kind of small site we could use as an umbrella for our
> community. Maybe something like Digital Spy? Nah maybe not. =/
I don't know about that; this forum that Freeola are going to be offering to their customers, presumably it's just based on this one? If so then this place would be a working example and begin to actually serve a purpose.
Garin wrote:
> Stuff
That's true. I suppose I see it as the lesser of two evils. I'd rather have people win for something constructive that than for a simple copy and paste.
Like Grix has been saying too, I'd much rather have people win GADs for proper chat posts that generate lots of discussion. I think that's what lots of us miss.
> Actually, its funny you should reply Machie, because I think
> you're a pretty good example of the injustice of it. You
> created loads of topics, many of which generated lots of
> response and discussion. How many GADs did you win for all
> these topics, I can think of one in recent times, thats about
> it. Yet if you'd just spent your time posting reviews instead
> I've no doubt you'd have quite a collection by now. Your topics
> contributed alot more to the forum than the reviews yet you've
> been rewarded less.
Heh you're pretty much spot on with this. Though my absence is because of my work, I was a little disappointed that my flood thread got nothing and only a few replies. I think it's always bothered me a bit that like pb, I've done a lot for this forum and focused more on trying to get people posting than winning a GAD. I think if I spent the same amount of time on trying to win GADs instead, I could have won as many as pb now.
Unfortunately I'm ready to call it quits now and just devote all my time to my website. I'm hoping that someone else will do what I couldnt and get the site back to something we use to call "normal". It would be a shame to lose this community that I've come to consider a family, over the last 2 years.
Sooner or later Tony will pull the plug. Perhaps we should consider moving to greener pastures and create a community that has a purpose. Unfortunately I'm all out of ideas so I'm not sure what kind of small site we could use as an umbrella for our community. Maybe something like Digital Spy? Nah maybe not. =/
Okay, well I've always liked Social Bookmarking sites, that could work, gaming, programming, flash games, funny cat images, news articles, YouTube videos, perfect just what we're already use to. =) Now we just need a web 2.0 name for it.
> Stuff
That's true. I suppose I see it as the lesser of two evils. I'd rather have people win for something constructive that than for a simple copy and paste.
Like Grix has been saying too, I'd much rather have people win GADs for proper chat posts that generate lots of discussion. I think that's what lots of us miss.
> Actually, its funny you should reply Machie, because I think
> you're a pretty good example of the injustice of it. You
> created loads of topics, many of which generated lots of
> response and discussion. How many GADs did you win for all
> these topics, I can think of one in recent times, thats about
> it. Yet if you'd just spent your time posting reviews instead
> I've no doubt you'd have quite a collection by now. Your topics
> contributed alot more to the forum than the reviews yet you've
> been rewarded less.
Heh you're pretty much spot on with this. Though my absence is because of my work, I was a little disappointed that my flood thread got nothing and only a few replies. I think it's always bothered me a bit that like pb, I've done a lot for this forum and focused more on trying to get people posting than winning a GAD. I think if I spent the same amount of time on trying to win GADs instead, I could have won as many as pb now.
Unfortunately I'm ready to call it quits now and just devote all my time to my website. I'm hoping that someone else will do what I couldnt and get the site back to something we use to call "normal". It would be a shame to lose this community that I've come to consider a family, over the last 2 years.
Sooner or later Tony will pull the plug. Perhaps we should consider moving to greener pastures and create a community that has a purpose. Unfortunately I'm all out of ideas so I'm not sure what kind of small site we could use as an umbrella for our community. Maybe something like Digital Spy? Nah maybe not. =/
Okay, well I've always liked Social Bookmarking sites, that could work, gaming, programming, flash games, funny cat images, news articles, YouTube videos, perfect just what we're already use to. =) Now we just need a web 2.0 name for it.
Machie wrote:
> I disagree with Garin about the Review forum. I'm guessing this
> is because he wasnt around at the time we created it and thus
> doesnt understand why we decided to bring it back.
Yes I was here, I know the reasons it was brought back. And they all seemed perfectly valid to me as well. The side effects are undeniable though. All thats happened is that chat post GAD wins are being diverted into a niche that literally does nothing to promote discussion. In principle it seems ok, people put time and effort into writing reviews and they get rewarded. However we forgot the nature of reviews, they are rarely discussion starters. People who might have written some "essay" style post on some topic in hopes of winning a GAD now write a review instead. Reviews get rewarded much more than any other sort of post so whats the incentive to post anything else?
I wont mention any names, but you mentioned about people winning GADs without posting on the forums. Is the current situation so much better? We now have people posting reviews and winning GADs without contributing anything else to the forum. No matter the quality of the reviews, surely GAD chat post awards have to be geared towards promoting chat not to building a reviews database.
Actually, its funny you should reply Machie, because I think you're a pretty good example of the injustice of it. You created loads of topics, many of which generated lots of response and discussion. How many GADs did you win for all these topics, I can think of one in recent times, thats about it. Yet if you'd just spent your time posting reviews instead I've no doubt you'd have quite a collection by now. Your topics contributed alot more to the forum than the reviews yet you've been rewarded less.
> I disagree with Garin about the Review forum. I'm guessing this
> is because he wasnt around at the time we created it and thus
> doesnt understand why we decided to bring it back.
Yes I was here, I know the reasons it was brought back. And they all seemed perfectly valid to me as well. The side effects are undeniable though. All thats happened is that chat post GAD wins are being diverted into a niche that literally does nothing to promote discussion. In principle it seems ok, people put time and effort into writing reviews and they get rewarded. However we forgot the nature of reviews, they are rarely discussion starters. People who might have written some "essay" style post on some topic in hopes of winning a GAD now write a review instead. Reviews get rewarded much more than any other sort of post so whats the incentive to post anything else?
I wont mention any names, but you mentioned about people winning GADs without posting on the forums. Is the current situation so much better? We now have people posting reviews and winning GADs without contributing anything else to the forum. No matter the quality of the reviews, surely GAD chat post awards have to be geared towards promoting chat not to building a reviews database.
Actually, its funny you should reply Machie, because I think you're a pretty good example of the injustice of it. You created loads of topics, many of which generated lots of response and discussion. How many GADs did you win for all these topics, I can think of one in recent times, thats about it. Yet if you'd just spent your time posting reviews instead I've no doubt you'd have quite a collection by now. Your topics contributed alot more to the forum than the reviews yet you've been rewarded less.
I highly doubt avatars will put people off, pretty much every forum has them.
I don't think i ever saw the original idea behind the bingo but i don't understand why anyone would think it would attracted people to the forums as it's a completely separate site feature. To play bingo you don't need to be active on the forums or even go on to them. I think it was a good idea just not implemented right if busier forums where the goal.
The forums do seem pretty dead, i think last week there was one 24 hour period with just (27) posts which is dire for any forum. That being said, it is summer and most forums take a pretty big hit from people going on holiday and generally going out and doing stuff.
The main problem with the forums is that there is no focus to them, there doesn't seem to be a reason for them, other companies have forums to deal with customers and talk about their products, these forums don't do that. Back in the day the forums were so popular as they were built around SR and the primary focus was gaming and computers as that was the business.
I don't think i ever saw the original idea behind the bingo but i don't understand why anyone would think it would attracted people to the forums as it's a completely separate site feature. To play bingo you don't need to be active on the forums or even go on to them. I think it was a good idea just not implemented right if busier forums where the goal.
The forums do seem pretty dead, i think last week there was one 24 hour period with just (27) posts which is dire for any forum. That being said, it is summer and most forums take a pretty big hit from people going on holiday and generally going out and doing stuff.
The main problem with the forums is that there is no focus to them, there doesn't seem to be a reason for them, other companies have forums to deal with customers and talk about their products, these forums don't do that. Back in the day the forums were so popular as they were built around SR and the primary focus was gaming and computers as that was the business.
Machie wrote:
> Okay I think that's everything from me =) Oh you'll have to let
> me know if you're earning much money from your 'Freeola Search'
> Hmmm ;) you naughty boy, using it as a signature now heh.
Thanks for the encouragement Machie!
As you know it's not easy making money online ;¬)
You'll be happy to know I'm not making any money - I wanted to get to grips with Google's CSE and this was my way of testing it. I have a couple of ideas for using it in the future though.
It seems to be working quite well.
e.g. Here's a search for Machie and if you want to find a particular post then Machie Flood
Thanks again...
> Okay I think that's everything from me =) Oh you'll have to let
> me know if you're earning much money from your 'Freeola Search'
> Hmmm ;) you naughty boy, using it as a signature now heh.
Thanks for the encouragement Machie!
As you know it's not easy making money online ;¬)
You'll be happy to know I'm not making any money - I wanted to get to grips with Google's CSE and this was my way of testing it. I have a couple of ideas for using it in the future though.
It seems to be working quite well.
e.g. Here's a search for Machie and if you want to find a particular post then Machie Flood
Thanks again...
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