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What would you like to see in a scifi/fantasy web site? The time has come for a change... — Page 2

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Thanks to everyone for your comments so far.


Here are the things I was considering, and by the responses so far, they're good ideas:

1. Regular news updates related to scifi/fantasy, including new films, DVDs, graphic novels, events, etc.

2. Regular articles, including editorials, reviews, essays, and even stories/serials

3. A gallery for fan artwork with occasional contests

4. Google Search and AdWords (provide revenue through ads that match page content and search terms)

5. Some type of retailer affiliation (Amazon seems like a good choice with its huge product catalog and decent prices)

6. originaltrilogy.com memorabilia such as t-shirts, mugs, pens, etc.


1. and 2. require writers. Those of you who volunteered and are serious about it should contact me via e-mail so we can discuss your ideas in further detail. Since we can't launch the redesign with zero content, we should have a few pieces ready as soon as possible.

I like the idea of a comic strip. The only problem is finding someone to do it.

3. is easy enough to build. My only concern is server space. However, if the site proves to be successful, a dedicated server isn't out of the question. Then hard drive space becomes a trivial matter.

4. and 5. are actually pretty simple and involve little more than signing up and dropping a few lines of code into the site.

Bossk, thanks for telling me about cafepress.com. I'd never heard of them before. It looks like they might be able to handle point 6. I'm not sure where things stand with Dayv and his planned t-shirts at the moment. If he wanted to print up some of his own custom jobs and sell them, I wouldn't have a problem with that.

DigitalMan, your concerns are noted and I agree completely. If the site has poor usability and the advertising becomes too obtrusive, people won't stick around.

Those of you expressing concern over the fate of the forum can rest easy. The forum will remain (with updated FuseTalk software). All this great content isn't worth much if there's no place to discuss it.

As for the petition, 68,000 signatures take up quite a bit of SQL space. If we are indeed going to be posting loads of new content and hopefully attracting more traffic for the forum, it might be time to retire the petition. The petition was once the driving force behind the site, but I think it might be time to move on.

All this new content will require the development and construction of a content management system and associated templates, which will take some time. I'm fired up about it, so I'm hoping to start this weekend and complete the project within a month.

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Originally posted by: ricarleite
Well, whatever changes go through, they gotta happen fast. After ROTS release, Star Wars will fade out for some time...


This is exactly why I'd like to move the site into the general scifi/fantasy realm. Trying to build up the site on Star Wars alone is going to limit our potential audience. There are already too many Star Wars sites out there. Besides, as much as I love Star Wars, there are plenty of other universes out there.

More comments and suggestions, please.
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This site costs $1,000 a year to run? Damn, that's expensive. But anyways...

The petition is the reason this site was created in the first place, so I'd keep that. I think that these guys have some great ideas. I, as well, urge you to put banners and links to eBay and Amazon for any science fiction related stuff. But please don't add them annoying pop-ups on here. Another thing you could do to cover costs is add a "treasure chest" at the top of the page as a link for anyone who wishes to donate to the treasurer. As far as getting more people coming? If you're not the inventive type, do what seems to work for the others. But keep in mind, a person's primary reason for visiting a news website (no matter what type of news it is) is to be kept informed. If you're advertising something I'm interested in through a link, I'll definitely click on it. Whenever I buy a season set of a show on DVD, I click on one of Gord Lacey's links, if I buy it online. You could provide links for comic books, sculptures/statues, Master Replicas, etc...
"May the force be with you!"
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Originally posted by: Bossk
Shim, I think it would have to be up to you to make sure the spelling is on par. If you are volunteering to be a writer, you have to be a proofer as well. That's how it works in the professional writing world. Yeah, writers have editors, but those editors are paid. So unless you are willing to pay someone...

What Jay is looking for is a very professional site that will attract lots of people including sponsors. If we have a site laden with typographical and grammatical errors, why would they want to advertise on us or for us? We have to each be our own system of checks and balances. Besides, automated spell checkers only find words that are spelled incorrectly. There are other ways to make typos. You could have a properly spelled word in the wrong place or being used incorrectly. Spell checkers will not catch that.


i was joking if i was going to post news i right it up in word before i posted it.
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Originally posted by: Bossk
Shim, I think it would have to be up to you to make sure the spelling is on par. If you are volunteering to be a writer, you have to be a proofer as well. That's how it works in the professional writing world. Yeah, writers have editors, but those editors are paid. So unless you are willing to pay someone...

What Jay is looking for is a very professional site that will attract lots of people including sponsors. If we have a site laden with typographical and grammatical errors, why would they want to advertise on us or for us? We have to each be our own system of checks and balances. Besides, automated spell checkers only find words that are spelled incorrectly. There are other ways to make typos. You could have a properly spelled word in the wrong place or being used incorrectly. Spell checkers will not catch that.


i was joking if i was going to post news i would write it up in word before i posted it. and you know cus you proof-read some of my stuff that i can be fairly proficent if i try.

also jay if you need any help with programing i am fairly good a java and am currently learning C and expect to learn C++ in the future so just send me an email on that front.


yeah i can seem to be able to edit either.
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What I would really like to see is a restoration of the archived forum threads, once that should be financially viable. Another thing that would make sense in my book is to use some of the great discussion threads from the forums (especially older ones that won't see any activity on the forums anymore), and use them as a basis for beginning content, or some sort of nostalgia corner (some threads would even qualify for a jokes/humor corner. Lord Peeler anyone?).

On the contribution part of things, I can offer a few humble donations from time to time and bigger versions of my notorious custom ot.com banners (I think RRS won't mind if we inlcude his "bring my shuttle" one as well) as desktop background (if you guys would be interested in that). When it comes down to mugs and t-shirts and stuff like that, we'd have to be very careful not to use any images or logos that basically belong LFL (if you intend to sell them that is).

I could also provide an article or two, but probably not at a very rapid rate, since I don't have as much freetime to dedicate to hobbies as I would like to.
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Originally posted by: Master Sifo-Dyas
What I would really like to see is a restoration of the archived forum threads, once that should be financially viable.


I was setting up my development server last night, and I'd completely forgotten those old posts were stored on that machine. I formatted that drive and did a fresh install of Win2k.

Shit.

Sorry guys. It was so long ago that it completely slipped my mind.
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MTFBWY…A

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Jay, you should now have my samples.

As for reformatting over the archived threats... it's time for a revolution... OT style!!!! Pitchforks and torches (and lightsabers)!!! String Jay up!!!!

"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
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Kevin A
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Jay, I will be emailing you shortly about contributing.

Princess Leia: I happen to like nice men.
Han Solo: I'm a nice man.

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And I already did.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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For those of you who e-mailed me, I'll respond tonight when I get home. Maybe we can get an AIM or IRC chat session going sometime in the next few days.

The development server is just about ready and I'm pumped to get things started.
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You wanna know the best way to keep people visiting and, thereby, build up numbers? Contests. Plain and simple. Get some cool prizes and offer them up. No better way to get users than by bribing them. Dayv is already starting up his PSYCHO CONTESTS. Maybe that would be something to put him in charge of. Let him determine the contest and figure out how to determine the winners. Eventually, we may get enough notoriety that companies offer up their wares for contests.

Jay, can I be a scifi toy reviewer? Like MWCtoys and MWC's column on MoviePoopShoot? I'd love it.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
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Kevin A
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Originally posted by: Jay
Thanks to everyone for your comments so far.
Those of you expressing concern over the fate of the forum can rest easy. The forum will remain (with updated FuseTalk software). All this great content isn't worth much if there's no place to discuss it.


Yes! good

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Originally posted by: Jay

As for the petition, 68,000 signatures take up quite a bit of SQL space. If we are indeed going to be posting loads of new content and hopefully attracting more traffic for the forum, it might be time to retire the petition. The petition was once the driving force behind the site, but I think it might be time to move on.


nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! DON'T GIVE UP THE PETITION! DON'T LET LUCAS WIN!!!!
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Originally posted by: Warbler

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Originally posted by: Jay

As for the petition, 68,000 signatures take up quite a bit of SQL space. If we are indeed going to be posting loads of new content and hopefully attracting more traffic for the forum, it might be time to retire the petition. The petition was once the driving force behind the site, but I think it might be time to move on.


nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! DON'T GIVE UP THE PETITION! DON'T LET LUCAS WIN!!!!


If GL wins... we all lose! Unless he declares it a tie. Then GL and we lose. But, if we win... GL also wins. So it's a win-lose-lose-win situation. I'm... uh... I'm confused...

Jay you could make a copy of the existing confirmed signatures, remove those, and continue with it. People don't have to know who was the first person to sign it...
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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You could make a copy, but, if someone from LFL comes along and actually looks at the petition and sees that we are claiming 59,000+ signatures and only 10,000 are actually up, they're going to view the petition as misleading and false and never take it seriously. So the petition is either an all or none situation. It's either posted in its entirety or not at all.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
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Kevin A
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Yes, they could contact Jay directly, but why would they take the time to do that? They want to see it right then and there. Not wait for someone to write them back thus confirming that LFL really is checking up on us.

The only option I can see would be if it is possible to archive a bulk of the old signatures as a pdf file that can be linked on the current petition page. Just have it say something along the lines of "this petition contains the 10,000 (or 5,000, etc) most recent signatures. To view the rest of them, please download this pdf file". Blah blah blah. You get my meaning. And the PDF can be updated every 5K signatures or so.

I wanted to add this on my last post. But the designation Jay put on this thread doesn't allow me to edit my previous posts. Sorry.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
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Kevin A
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I'll need to check what provisions are available in SQL Server for compacting and archiving data. There might be a way to cut down the petition database's size while still leaving it accessible, at least for browsing.
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Originally posted by: Bossk
You could make a copy, but, if someone from LFL comes along and actually looks at the petition and sees that we are claiming 59,000+ signatures and only 10,000 are actually up, they're going to view the petition as misleading and false and never take it seriously. So the petition is either an all or none situation. It's either posted in its entirety or not at all.


Well, he could state that "for database space reasons, only the last 10 thousand signatures are visible. if you are george lucas, works at lucasfilm, or something like that, and you wish to see every signature, please contact us at..."
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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That is certainly better than getting rid of the petition all together.
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Originally posted by: ricarleite
Well, he could state that "for database space reasons, only the last 10 thousand signatures are visible. if you are george lucas, works at lucasfilm, or something like that, and you wish to see every signature, please contact us at..."


Won't happen. For Lucas, or another LFL cronie, to actually contact Jay and ask for the remainder of the signatures would be admitting that LFL really cares about the petition and that our opinion matters and, worst of all, that they can do something about it despite disavowing any existence of the original prints. It would show they were lying and covering up and their credibility would be shot (not that it isn't already in my mind).
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
-------------------------
Kevin A
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OK, so, if it's so useless, Jay can perform a "DELETE FROM SIGNATURES / COMMIT / DROP TABLE SIGNATURES" if he wants to...

(although I don't think he has to perform a "commit" on SQLServer2k).
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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I'm just saying that I think LFL would want to see it all there right then and there and not have to contact anybody in order to view the rest of it. I would think they would want their interest to be as hidden as possible. I'm not saying it's "useless". And I have no idea what the hell you mean by all the commit/drop table stuff.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
-------------------------
Kevin A
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I still say its better than getting rid of the petition entirely.
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OK there are pros and cons about this issue. Now, is there any chance of achieving anything if we keep the signatures? If there is, if we KNOW how we could acomplish that, then I say keep the signatures. If not, we could STORE then somewhere and remove that feature from the website. Of course, Jay's got the final word.

About the SQL commands I said, it's basically like that: (free SQL lesson everyone!)

DELETE FROM SIGNATURES - will delete every row from a table called signatures, asuming the signatures are stored in a table called that
COMMIT - will confirm the operation and effectively delete those rows
DROP TABLE SIGNATURES - will remove that table from the database

(Always perform a delete before the drop, so you can be sure it won't have any impact on stored procedures or something like that)
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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I'm new here, so I don't know that this will matter much, but here goes.

The petition is impressive. I would certainly NOT get rid of it. The sheer numbers alone are astounding.

Lucas may not be swayed by the petition, but I think it should be printed and served...publicly. Talk about the publicity...this site could have anything it needed/wanted after publicity like that. Hype the event. Get those 50-year-old FAN MEN out there in their Yoda masks and Darth Vader helmets having lightsabre fights on the sidewalks of Lucasfilms, Inc. to witness the processor delivering this petition. It would be perfect to do it on May 14, the Friday before the release of Episode III. That would give you two months to plan and get it together. It's doable. Then you would never have to worry about capital ever again. Sponsors would be knocking down your doors to sponsor this site.

Paid content...I would join the Star Wars paid content site itself if I was interested in paid content on Star Wars. Thanks, but no thanks. I won't pay for information that's all too easily obtained on the internet. But that's just me.

I like the front page of this site. It shows the world to what extent Luca$ is a hypocrite, and it has a deserving place on the front page of this site, considering this site is a cry for justice against the iron wheels of the Luca$ Money Machine.

Writers. If you need one, I'm moderately available if you're interested. You can view a sample of my writing at...

Star Wars: Episode II, Attack of the Clones, A Review
or
Star Wars: Episode IV, A New Hope, A Review.

I feel those are appropriate.

the Fiend :.
Fiendish Dramaturgy Movie Board

Fiendish Movie Reviews...Written in the Dark

DragonFyre Weyr™
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Originally posted by: Jay
I'll need to check what provisions are available in SQL Server for compacting and archiving data. There might be a way to cut down the petition database's size while still leaving it accessible, at least for browsing.


hey jay just curious how much room does the petition actually take up? it jsut seems weird to me that it would use more then a 5 or 6 megabits of room, if you are using like a word file or something to hold them.