WDF? wrote:I want constructive feedback. I've been away for a while. I don't know what the issues are right now, but I am willing to work to fix them. I have a lot of spare time right now (until January 19th), so let's see what magic we can make in that short period of time I have available.
Fucking idiots.
Hisashiburi.
While I've been rather quiet lately, I'm still here, and it's about time I broke my silence a bit (and having a little free time the next couple days doesn't hurt either). You want some constructive feedback? Well here goes.
On the positive side, we have a good framework in this site and core community. I've never been a member of pDs so I'm not even going to pretend to understand the internal politics of moving it, etc., but I would voice my agreement with the others who have said that moving a chunk of the community to a different site in the name of having a dedicated "clan" site isn't a smart move. The main reason is the biggest "problem" we have -- namely, community size and means of growth.
Like many people here, I came in during the popularity of TF2. It may be waning somewhat (though you wouldn't know it from Valve's updating!), but it was the primary outlet for fresh blood. New games is a good start, but as Splinter pointed out, other than Source-based games, there's not a lot out there other than MMOs to link everyone. And let me say once and for all before it even gets suggested,
trying to get the community to band together and play a chosen game regardless of their individual interest level is a recipe for disaster. So without a unifying game, what else do we have?
Well, we have the framework. Look at the list of subforums, the "Culture War Guerilla Brigade." There are lots of areas of interest from cars to cooking to music to film. The problem we have is, like the games, the core community doesn't have enough people to make any subforum into its own thriving subculture. I think it would be awesome to see the site grow to a point where there are people here who don't really play games much at all, but just like to argue politics, or talk about cars, or whatnot. Most everyone here now is here for the people, and that's good, but we need to make it a place people want to come for the
CONTENT. That's the only way to ultimately grow the place.
I'd encourage people with interests in one subforum or another to engage in more discussion. Start topics, create awesome posts and stimulate ideas. Remember when the politics forum was a place of heated debates, and not just where DCMC would post leftist "funny images/videos" and news stories? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it needs to be MORE than that. Become active in a subforum, treat it as its own little kingdom, and if things really take off, WDF might see an attractive candidate for a moderator of that specific subforum.
Not to hypocritically offer that suggestion and then go do my own thing, I'm going to do just that as soon as I'm done with this post, in the subforum of my latest obsession for the past few months: cooking!
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Second topic... I think we need to overhaul the site a bit. Just a bit, and I don't mean visually (the refreshed art and schtuff rocks). But things need to be cleaned up.
Sirus, you need to start a thread specifically to solicit technical problems that need fixing. I've heard people talk about problems changing passwords, BBCode problems, problems with PMs, etc. My personal list includes that starting new threads defaults the subject to the user's name.... um, why? Also, "Post to Blog" when starting a new thread needs to disappear, as does the entire Moderator column in the main forum list. As it is now, it's a waste of space, though if/when we select individual forum moderators it would be very useful to be able to locate empowered individuals quickly.
As to non-technical site stuff, the advertising space needs to be used (Google ads?) or ditched and things rejiggered for the new layout. The "Donate Bitches" link could be moved into one slot and redone for the proper size.
From a larger perspective though, a slight attitude adjustment and/or rebranding is in order I think, and I do mean slight. If we're not doing hosting or breaking gaming news, the site's subtitle needs to be changed or removed. If we redo the "Donate Bitches" icon, perhaps something less crass (yet still sarcastic) might be in order. While this might not be something everyone wants, I'd like to see the site become a tad more mature/professional in terms of presentation. I'm not saying ditch the uniqueness and become something like IGN. I'm just saying "Anal Fisting" might not have been the best subject line for a "I'm back" post. That kind of thing.
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My final point is directed to Whut, and ties in somewhat with what I was just saying before. You need to figure out what you are in relation to this site / community. I realize shit happens in real life and don't think I'm dismissing it. But as I'm sure you know better than me, being the figurehead on the ship that is this community sometimes means doing the hard thing. In this case, it's not letting the shit life throws at you interfere with making this a great place. It means, just as my calling BadHorsie a "dumbass" way back in the day was inappropriate because of my position as an Admin, your responsibility to be respectful and create an adult web community is even greater because, well, every post you ever make carries the first three letters of this site's URL with it.
I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but I am saying you need to figure it out. If you're here for the long haul, if you want to be the head of a community, then you need to be Papa Bear. As long as you're here, you
are WDFNews. If you make waves, "Anal Fisting" topics, and tell everyone how shitty of a job they're doing, it goes deeper than someone just being sarcastic. When people come and go from the site, when the community falls on hard times (as we more or less are in now), the core community needs to be able to step back and take comfort in, "Well, at least we have Whut. He'll see us through it."
Even if you have no idea wtf to do. Especially if you have no idea to do. You know how in all the crisis movies, someone always tells the President of the United States he needs to make a statement, reassure the people, etc.? That's you to this community. You're not President of WDFNews because you were elected to it. You're President because you
built it, and because the people came and want to be here.
My point is more about consistency and direction, but it's personal as well. For me, I think it started at PAX when Spaniard interviewed you. He asked if you wanted to say anything to the people of the site, and when I watched it I remember thinking that was kinda cool. It's a little site and who knows how many people watched the streaming video, but hell! We were getting a shout out at PAX. And your response was to look at the camera and say, "You suck."
...
I realized even at the time that it was sarcasm, but in that instant I went from thinking it was kinda cool to a little bit of hurt, a little bit of anger. I didn't say anything about it because I knew it was a joke. But that's the point! It doesn't always have to be a joke! This site isn't a joke and the people in it aren't jokes. The people who have tried to run the site in your absence want to be told they've done well (even if just barely), not that they've let the place collapse (it's still here, isn't it?). They don't want to be called ass-munchers. Or fucking idiots.
Clearly defiance went over the line with his second post. He was disrespectful and obviously going for the jugular. But I'd argue the best way to prevent that kind of crap isn't just to ban anyone who crosses an unstated line, it's for you to be the organized, friendly, sarcastic and brilliant leader that the community needs. Defiance crossed a line, but his obvious anger is a reflection of the whole community's frustration.
I would unban him, change the subject line of this thread, and rewrite the opening post in a way that actually encourages feedback, rather than anger.
HolyJaw wrote:In the end, everything Endyss said.