The "Freeola Customer Forum" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only.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.
As you all know by now it is always our aim to improve the forums and one of the steps I am taking to this aim is to get the moderating team into the mix a bit more helping out and generating a bit of traffic for the relevant sections.
So shortly you should notice a quick shuffle up of moderators and 1 moderator per section (some may continue to have 2 if needed).
Some examples of our aim here is to allow users the chance to help the site along, and take a more active role in the running of the site.
I will need some more volunteers however (1 or 2 new ones). So what I'm going to do is ask people to apply if they want to help me out as part of the forums moderating team. If you want to apply please visit APPLY NOW
Any questions ask away, and if you are very interested in helping, my contact can be used under my name as always :D
So shortly you should notice a quick shuffle up of moderators and 1 moderator per section (some may continue to have 2 if needed).
Some examples of our aim here is to allow users the chance to help the site along, and take a more active role in the running of the site.
I will need some more volunteers however (1 or 2 new ones). So what I'm going to do is ask people to apply if they want to help me out as part of the forums moderating team. If you want to apply please visit APPLY NOW
Any questions ask away, and if you are very interested in helping, my contact can be used under my name as always :D
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pb wrote:
> Now you'll say 'but we're not a gaming site', but it doesn't have
> to be. You've got a strong technical community when you
> encourage them to post and there aren't enough (free) technical
> sites that can answer web related and computer related issues.
> Intersperse these with ads for Freeola as your web hosting and
> ISP one stop solution and you have a good net for catching new
> customers as well as encouraging people to the site.
pb has a good point here.
Likewise - you say we aren't a gaming site, but I originally came here for the games. Now you have a regular forum contributor, an Instant Pro subscription and someone who spreads the good word of freeola far and wide.
> Of course, there are us gamers too and the site would be terrible
> if it lost the gaming section, so make more of it. 'How?' is the
> next question and I'm hoping we can put our heads together for
> that.
I'm thinking of things. Exciting times ahead if we put our minds to it :)
> Now you'll say 'but we're not a gaming site', but it doesn't have
> to be. You've got a strong technical community when you
> encourage them to post and there aren't enough (free) technical
> sites that can answer web related and computer related issues.
> Intersperse these with ads for Freeola as your web hosting and
> ISP one stop solution and you have a good net for catching new
> customers as well as encouraging people to the site.
pb has a good point here.
Likewise - you say we aren't a gaming site, but I originally came here for the games. Now you have a regular forum contributor, an Instant Pro subscription and someone who spreads the good word of freeola far and wide.
> Of course, there are us gamers too and the site would be terrible
> if it lost the gaming section, so make more of it. 'How?' is the
> next question and I'm hoping we can put our heads together for
> that.
I'm thinking of things. Exciting times ahead if we put our minds to it :)
Part of the issue is that I'm convinced people pass through here, they come and go and don't post a thing or post and then disappear into the ether.
You have to admit that the look of the forum is function rather than pretty. Yes, it does the job very well for those of us who have already been ensnared in the barbs of threads but it's not enticing enough.
I know; content is very important too, I'll get to that in a minute. But would you want to buy sweets in a sweet shop that had jars of multi-coloured sweets on display or just a sign saying Sweets and a few littered old jelly babies?
What am i proposing? Nothing new. Nothing that others haven't already mentioned, but if the time is right....
A shop window.
I'm aware of the issue, I'm sure you're already tired of me trying to champion the possibly lost cause here, but you need something to start people off with and then keep them going.
You have one draw here which is the business, the ISP/hosting. Problem is, it doesn't change, good though it is (and I'd recommend Freeola to anyone) there isn't a punchy news line or something new to google.
I don't want to bring up the old days (nooooo) but we did have a lot more traffic and a lot of those stayed at the time. Why?
Gaming news - updated every day and back then it was one of the few places to come to for UK news.
A community shaped by common interest - gamers who chatted about other things, but the first thing you ever came to every time you logged on or went to the site was games.
Publishing the best lines or winning entry segments on the main page - proud of forum representation and encouraging others to join by highlighting GAD winning posts.
They came, they looked, they started chatting about the news on the front page.
It doesn't always work, Eurogamer, for instance, seems to be ashamed of their forum and doesn't advertise it despite having a thriving community at their fingertips, though their forum design is the worst I've ever seen anyway.
But another site I help to Mod is popular (and friendly) because it takes the community and the forum to heart and populates their main page with forum snippets and links to the forum.
Now you'll say 'but we're not a gaming site', but it doesn't have to be. You've got a strong technical community when you encourage them to post and there aren't enough (free) technical sites that can answer web related and computer related issues. Intersperse these with ads for Freeola as your web hosting and ISP one stop solution and you have a good net for catching new customers as well as encouraging people to the site.
Of course, there are us gamers too and the site would be terrible if it lost the gaming section, so make more of it. 'How?' is the next question and I'm hoping we can put our heads together for that.
You have to admit that the look of the forum is function rather than pretty. Yes, it does the job very well for those of us who have already been ensnared in the barbs of threads but it's not enticing enough.
I know; content is very important too, I'll get to that in a minute. But would you want to buy sweets in a sweet shop that had jars of multi-coloured sweets on display or just a sign saying Sweets and a few littered old jelly babies?
What am i proposing? Nothing new. Nothing that others haven't already mentioned, but if the time is right....
A shop window.
I'm aware of the issue, I'm sure you're already tired of me trying to champion the possibly lost cause here, but you need something to start people off with and then keep them going.
You have one draw here which is the business, the ISP/hosting. Problem is, it doesn't change, good though it is (and I'd recommend Freeola to anyone) there isn't a punchy news line or something new to google.
I don't want to bring up the old days (nooooo) but we did have a lot more traffic and a lot of those stayed at the time. Why?
Gaming news - updated every day and back then it was one of the few places to come to for UK news.
A community shaped by common interest - gamers who chatted about other things, but the first thing you ever came to every time you logged on or went to the site was games.
Publishing the best lines or winning entry segments on the main page - proud of forum representation and encouraging others to join by highlighting GAD winning posts.
They came, they looked, they started chatting about the news on the front page.
It doesn't always work, Eurogamer, for instance, seems to be ashamed of their forum and doesn't advertise it despite having a thriving community at their fingertips, though their forum design is the worst I've ever seen anyway.
But another site I help to Mod is popular (and friendly) because it takes the community and the forum to heart and populates their main page with forum snippets and links to the forum.
Now you'll say 'but we're not a gaming site', but it doesn't have to be. You've got a strong technical community when you encourage them to post and there aren't enough (free) technical sites that can answer web related and computer related issues. Intersperse these with ads for Freeola as your web hosting and ISP one stop solution and you have a good net for catching new customers as well as encouraging people to the site.
Of course, there are us gamers too and the site would be terrible if it lost the gaming section, so make more of it. 'How?' is the next question and I'm hoping we can put our heads together for that.
A facebook fans page may be good. I know there is a group, but the fans enable you to monitor content posted and see how many people visit your site.
Plus with me, several users and yourselves "suggest this page to friends" - you'd easily hit 1000 people without drawing breath. That way you can link a page to Twitter and update both by updating one.
Links included and positive comments by us lot and people will be directed here just by the interest alone.
It's how I get so many to my site.
(also to remind you - at the bottom of every page I have a link to the forums - as my site grows I hope more people click through to them :p)
Plus with me, several users and yourselves "suggest this page to friends" - you'd easily hit 1000 people without drawing breath. That way you can link a page to Twitter and update both by updating one.
Links included and positive comments by us lot and people will be directed here just by the interest alone.
It's how I get so many to my site.
(also to remind you - at the bottom of every page I have a link to the forums - as my site grows I hope more people click through to them :p)
I did but it was considered and dropped for other things at the time though.
Emmie's idea may help bring the issue up again however.
Emmie's idea may help bring the issue up again however.
Hmmm.... and his "just before Warhunt" like posts!!!!!
Incidentally I forgot to mention there is one, but it is indeed very dormant.
And Twitter was mentioned months before that, but we all dislike it :D
You nudged me in the right direction to kick it off though, and the marketing team liked it. And the rest is (albeit very new) history :)
Incidentally I forgot to mention there is one, but it is indeed very dormant.
And Twitter was mentioned months before that, but we all dislike it :D
You nudged me in the right direction to kick it off though, and the marketing team liked it. And the rest is (albeit very new) history :)
This is a good idea actually.
The game trailers however are copyrighted so it's going to be a shaky area. However you can gain use of them for media and advertising purposes, as long as you ar enot using the media to promote your own service.
I'm thinking that we could use the media in a way that will advertise "winning" the game though our account. The producer still gets the game sale etc, so it may be worth considering.
Go emails on this one Emmie. Have a think about how you think it will work, and send it along.
The game trailers however are copyrighted so it's going to be a shaky area. However you can gain use of them for media and advertising purposes, as long as you ar enot using the media to promote your own service.
I'm thinking that we could use the media in a way that will advertise "winning" the game though our account. The producer still gets the game sale etc, so it may be worth considering.
Go emails on this one Emmie. Have a think about how you think it will work, and send it along.
Why not try a search on YouTube for Freeola ;¬)
Freeola do have a YouTube channel but it's 'dormant'.
I managed to get Warhunt to register Freeola on Twitter after I threatened to pinch it though... :¬)
Freeola do have a YouTube channel but it's 'dormant'.
I managed to get Warhunt to register Freeola on Twitter after I threatened to pinch it though... :¬)
[s]Hmmm...[/s] @twitter 
It sounds a little crazy, but is there a Youtube "Freeola" user - just thought it might be worth uploading trailers of games etc and adding in some links on the info side and text before or after the trailer?!?!
Might attract a few people if they know they could "win the game they are watching" kind of thing. Maybe a bad idea but i just saw the amount of people who watch game trailers etc and it could be a way to bring a few new people in??
Might attract a few people if they know they could "win the game they are watching" kind of thing. Maybe a bad idea but i just saw the amount of people who watch game trailers etc and it could be a way to bring a few new people in??
It's something that is considered every time someone goes in that direction of thought I imagine.
All I can say is I'm sure if it was scrapped at that point, then the idea was generally disapproved of. I can mention it however. Won't do any harm.
[EDIT] Ooh tell a lie. It has been thought about and is something that we would like to implement. However is not likely to be soon with the other jobs being prioritised.
The marketing team are having another think about it though so you never know :)
All I can say is I'm sure if it was scrapped at that point, then the idea was generally disapproved of. I can mention it however. Won't do any harm.
[EDIT] Ooh tell a lie. It has been thought about and is something that we would like to implement. However is not likely to be soon with the other jobs being prioritised.
The marketing team are having another think about it though so you never know :)
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