A thought. NEED INPUT/QUESTIONS

[TheHolo.Net]

Okay, here’s a thought that may be a way of helping to drum up some cash for our hosting, of which I barely get any help with, and to maybe help alleviate some of the setting off of the censor that happens in the public forums. Maybe it will make it worse, I’m not really sure, but hey its an idea I can toss out and we can all chew on and maybe refine if it doesn’t get dismissed, which is okay too.

Maybe we could make a new category of just a few forums that are more “adult” oriented. This category would be pay access only; meaning to get access to it, a poster would first have to make a specific donation to the forums, say $5, $8, or maybe even $10. I could use advanced access permissions and some creative re-working of usergroups to make it pretty easy to manage and being able to disable the censor on a forum specific level helps too.

We could have a mature RP forum, a mature general discussion forum, and maybe a mature art forum, other ideas welcome if this is thought of as a good idea.

It could just appear as a single forum on the main forum index under the "SWFans.Net - Operations & News " forum and be something like "SWFans.Net - Mature Forums" (or whatever) and contain whatever forums we may decide to put in it.

[Sanis Prent]

:cool

I like this idea very much, and would definitely front 10 bucks for it, at the very least.

[Taylor Millard]

No, this site has been family oriented from the beginning. I say we keep it at a PG-13 level.

If they want 'mature' RPs they can go to Meras.

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Taylor Millard
No, this site has been family oriented from the beginning. I say we keep it at a PG-13 level.

If they want 'mature' RPs they can go to Meras.
I sort of agree with that to an extent, but in suggesting that a week or so ago to those posters in that one thead, I found myself thinking:

"Is there really a general RP forum at Meras?"

I came to the conclusion that there really wasn't a catch all type of RP forum at Meras. Making it very difficult for those posters to find an appropriate place to post their "mature" RP. There are a lot of personal RP forums belonging to groups or individual members but nothing more. And adding a "catch all"/general type forum at Meras just doesn't appeal to me.

I know a lot of people are kind of picky about finding one place and sticking to it too, meaning they would rather have a "one stop shop". But thats my take on it.

[Taylor Millard]

Yeah but, what if one of the younger RPers comes across the 'Mature' section. Doesn't pay, but just wonders what it is. Then young RPer's mom or dad finds it and gives him a major talk about the 'evils' of such things.

Happened with my dad, when I was 13 (although he did find those pics of Pam Anderson Lee).

I don't see why it's needed honestly.

[Sanis Prent]

You don't get in without paying. That's the idea.

[Taylor Millard]

Right, but still...were they to see the 'Mature Audiences'...it'd raise up questions.

Plus, how would we make sure SWF isn't blocked on public computers at libraries or so? If someone were to use one and then post in it.

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Taylor Millard
Yeah but, what if one of the younger RPers comes across the 'Mature' section. Doesn't pay, but just wonders what it is. Then young RPer's mom or dad finds it and gives him a major talk about the 'evils' of such things.

Happened with my dad, when I was 13 (although he did find those pics of Pam Anderson Lee).

I don't see why it's needed honestly.
Originally posted by Sanis Prent
You don't get in without paying. That's the idea. Bingo.

A young poster is going to have to get mom or dad to pay for them, so its their parent's responsibility to know what is being paid for online. These forums would be invisible to non paid accounts and guests.

[Sanis Prent]

It isn't open to the public, hence it would have no reason to be blocked.

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Taylor Millard
Right, but still...were they to see the 'Mature Audiences'...it'd raise up questions.

Plus, how would we make sure SWF isn't blocked on public computers at libraries or so? If someone were to use one and then post in it. Web crawlers would not see private forums just like un-paid mebers or guests wouldn't, negating the processes that such institutions use to block such sites.

[Taylor Millard]

Okay that makes sense. I still don't like it though. I've been able to write 'scenes' without anyone actually saying 'Oh we're having sex'

Plus, do we really have that many 'mature' RPs?

The Talzen one is the only one in recent memory. Outside of a few comments Haman makes and there was that one RP between Bette and Silus at GJO.

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Taylor Millard
Okay that makes sense. I still don't like it though. I've been able to write 'scenes' without anyone actually saying 'Oh we're having sex'

Plus, do we really have that many 'mature' RPs?

The Talzen one is the only one in recent memory. Outside of a few comments Haman makes and there was that one RP between Bette and Silus at GJO. I know for fact that there are plenty of people that dispise the swear filter with a passion. Providing a way around it could be a viable source of income, maybe only temporary income, but income none-the-less.

[Sanis Prent]

I, for one, would use such creative lisences to the fullest. My better work is uncensored.

[Taylor Millard]

OKay, maybe it's just a definition of terms there.

If by mature you mean, Kazaar yelled at Estelle, "What in the blue fuck're ya doing, kid? Get th'hell outta here!"

Then I can live with that.

But if you mean 'mature' by The woman's screams of pleasure were heard througout the cabin as the (insert pleasure device) worked through her (insert metaphor), then no.

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Taylor Millard
OKay, maybe it's just a definition of terms there.

If by mature you mean, Kazaar yelled at Estelle, "What in the blue fuck're ya doing, kid? Get th'hell outta here!"

Then I can live with that.

But if you mean 'mature' by The woman's screams of pleasure were heard througout the cabin as the <insert pleasure device> worked through her <insert metaphor>, then no. Mature on any level, including both you just mentioned.

If people are going to pay then they get some freedoms, but there would need to be a specific "Mature Forums" FAQ to keep some things (like flames/trolling and such) under control.

[TheHolo.Net]

Some other features that could be added to these forums (but would require some work on my part) would be things like thread ratings, 1 thru 5, 1 being bad and 5 being great, and the ability to post polls.

Now in giving people these freedoms I'm not assuming that all the threads in such forums would be worth reading, I'm sure there would be a plenty I couldn't stomach either, but it could provide an outlet that many may desire and possibly seek out in other places right now.

Our daily post count numbers have been steadily dropping for the last few months and I would like to see that change. We need ideas to drum up interest and activity. This could be one, and then again it might not.

:: shrug ::

[imported_Eve]

I think the best way to get input about this is from doing a general survey, where the user's age should be noted. Obviously a 10 year old may have no interest in such a forum.

All in all, it can't hurt. Family friendly people will have no access if they choose, and because parents are the ones with the credit cards, etc. (as you've already stated). It can only help. It doesn't use bandwidth unless it's being paid for. And it broadens the creative range in this place. Both pros.

As far as me - being an admin I may have access, but if I didn't I may not pay. One, I'm living paycheck to paycheck, and I never read RPs anyway. But I usually contribute, and may want part of my sum to go to that anyway.

I would personally value a set of art forums. Fan art, web site exchange, etc.

I did always think a fanfiction section with adult themes was interesting. I do like to read that stuff.



And is Holly's store for real? I only read part of the thread there. Hell, why not do that?! Shirts like that can cost less than $5 to make and you can charge double that plus shipping, send profits to paying for this place, and then to the peeps that run the store show. I thought that I would like one of those items. Call me a geek. You could sell more than shirts. You could sell art, web designs, etc.

Gotta go to work now.

[JMK]

I think I like the idea. Why not try it? If you don't want to pay, then you don't get access. Those who want to write about more adult-oriented themes will pay and will be happy. Those who don't will stay where they are and be happy.

Plus as I understand it, folks wouldn't be paying to access the forums more than they would be helping to keep the whole site afloat.

[Shawn]

And is Holly's store for real? I only read part of the thread there. Hell, why not do that?! Shirts like that can cost less than $5 to make and you can charge double that plus shipping, send profits to paying for this place, and then to the peeps that run the store show. I'm looking in to doing this. I just need a little time. I don't think it'll sell more than a few items, but it can't hurt.

I like the idea of having a membership-only section the board, but I'm not so sure that an "Adult" theme is the best way to approach it, for several reasons. One being that I don't think there will be enough interest to keep it afloat. People will either decide that it's not worth the money, or that they don't really write "Adult" RPs all that often.

Secondly, we have some members who are "adults" only in that they're over 18. We'd definitely need some mods there to deal with the inherent immaturity we're bound to see.

I gotta jet. But I'll try to think of something more to contribute while I'm gone.

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Eve
As far as me - being an admin I may have access, but if I didn't I may not pay. One, I'm living paycheck to paycheck, and I never read RPs anyway. But I usually contribute, and may want part of my sum to go to that anyway.I know, and I also know that there are a lot of people around here that wouldn't either.

Originally posted by Shawn
I like the idea of having a membership-only section the board, but I'm not so sure that an "Adult" theme is the best way to approach it, for several reasons. One being that I don't think there will be enough interest to keep it afloat. People will either decide that it's not worth the money, or that they don't really write "Adult" RPs all that often.I agree with you now that I think about it. Marketing it as a "Mature/Adult" section probably wouldn't be the best way to do it, we need to be a little more creative and try to offer some things that people really want.

This idea can be much more than just a forum for uncensored RPs, though that could be a starting point. Uncensored Fanfictions, Uncensored (though still moderated) general discussions, art, just general stories that might be funny, membership exclusive things could come in many flavors and packages, but adding more features and looser rules might help to generate some interest and in the end isn't going to cost us anything more than some time, and even if only a handful of people are interested and pay, its still going to be worth something.

I mainly came up with this idea based on the premise that I know there are many people around here who would like to see the censor gone, and we could use that as a starting point and build from there. And lets try to think a little outside the box of it just being RP and Fanfic centric. Sure that could be an included facet, but we could go further than just that I'm sure.

[TheHolo.Net]

Here's a little idea I just had for something we might could do for the BO types. It may not be a great idea, but at least its an idea that might could be worked on some.

We could have a "Free Spoiler" zone. A place where movie spoilers wouldn't need to be masked and people could just up and discuss their favorite new or old films with complete freedom in how they discuss what happened or what they liked.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I say try it but I think we need to come up with some creative plans to try to get people to join.

[TheHolo.Net]

Here is a list of the ideas presented so far:<ul> Uncensored RP forum
Uncensored Fanfic Forum
Uncensored General Discussion Forum
Uncensored “Free Spoiler” zone
Uncensored Art Forum
An official Merchandise store (maybe we could give the members that pay for access to the new section some say in what products are offered or what slogans are used)[/list]
Possible new features:<ul> Thread Ratings
Polls Allowed
Section Specific Custom Titles (which I could probably exclude from the censor with some creative PHP coding)

[ReaperFett]

I don't like it RP-wise because of segregation. People can't read up on other characters because they do half their RPs in a private forum. Also, some people who I would deem RPers who are highly respected have recently thought about leaving due to noone RPing with them. How would they feel if you told them that some people are now moving to a private board?



Now on the other hand, $5-10 for a mature discussion board, that sounds fine. Providing there is some sort of maturity (IE, it isn't just seen as a place where you can post porn, bad taste jokes and swear like 13 year olds), it could work well. After all, have there not been SWF mature general discussion forums before? That worked IMO.

[Shawn]

Section Specific Custom TitlesYes.

I think that there needs to be a real incentive for people to pony up the cash. Something to set it apart from "just another forum". I'm tossing around ideas at the moment, but I have to run again.

[ReaperFett]

One thing I just want to know. Would it be a one off fee, or a yearly?

[TheHolo.Net]

A one-time fee, (one time for one name, not all a person's IDs) but maybe we could go the SomethingAwful route for Section Specific CT's. Meaning that people would need to purchase those seperately, either for themself or for someone else.

If we decide to do that then, I'll need to write some code so that group mods wouldn't be able to edit these CTs, only admins.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I like the spoiler area that sounds like a great idea.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

1. The Store: hey thanks for stealing my idea! :cry :p s'Ilancy and I are working on making character specific shirts as well. Those will be upped in price and most of the comission off those (the $$ off the base price Cafepress charges which is at $1+ now on the current items I put up) will go to her, 'cause its her art.

2. The Mature/uncensored/spoiler full Forum: I'm broke as a joke, but I think it's a good idea. :):thumbup

[imported_Eve]

What about an upgraded membership status and fee. Yeah you can join for free, but if you pay, say even $5-10 a year, you get the following:

access to more forums

access to other style sets - make this feature only available to paying members, but preview what they're missing on the portal page.

10% discount on all purchases to SWFans related stores. The stores could contain all the stuff we've talked about, and even have a trading forum or forum to sell used collectables/stuff (auctions in the form of posts? the time is in the post, so if you say bidding ends at such a time, then anyone's who's post comes after the specified time loses the bid).

Custom signature usage. You could disable signatures for non-payers. Or even sigs have to be 15K to non-paying members, and 30-K for those who pay.

Subscription to monthly newsletter - which I volunteer to do, if someone shows me how to do html mail, and if I can get a mailing list of all members who pay. The newsletter would have:
- Star Wars news
- Special offers to SWFans stores
- Updates about rps (like reviews put forth by members), or I can do a few reviews myself as a mostly non-rper (even though I'd rather not)
- News and updates about groups
- Etc.

This would generate interest and would have somewhat of an insider feel.

SWFans e-mail addy? For an additional fee?

SWFans special profile page, in one of five chosen templates?? For an additional fee? - This is alotta work, but increases the interactivity here.

Access to an exclusive chat room.

Just throwing down some ideas. Yeah lets ditch the adult thing, except for maybe it can be a forum that has mandatory membership for all paid membership peeps whom are over the age of 18.

These things don't really alienate the current public membership, and they wouldn't lose anything they have now (save the sigs if you go for that and maybe a few forums).

And you can justify the fee on all of that due to bandwhidth usage.

You can also have different levels of paid membership, whereas if you pay only $10 a year, you get a small package, if you pay $20, you get the medium package, etc. etc. Adjust the amounts as you see fit.

ALWAYS preview everything on the portal page with the byline "available to super members only!".

Now, I'm excited to fork over the money!

[Shawn]

I vote Nay on the disabling of sigs. That reeks of Ezboard, to me. Also, I think we should stick with one account "upgrade"; The rest sounds good.
The Store: hey thanks for stealing my idea! You stole it from me. :P

Re: the merchandise. I'm thinking it should be a good mix of slogan stuff (items that just say SW-Fans.net on them) and stuff that has funny sayings (like Ryla's thong, for example). It gives more of a community feel and is more likely to be purchased, I think.

If s'Il wants to draw some character-specific shirts and stuff, she's free to.

... I had more to say when I started this post, but I've forgotten it right now. Will add more when I remember it.

[TheHolo.Net]

Access to custom style sets, can't be done on a usergroup level, so that won't work, and the sig thing is a litytle tough to pull off too, but most of your other ideas are very sound and quite good Eve. :)

Lets keep the ideas rolling in so we can start working on some of this stuff so maybe we can bring it up to the RP Group mods and get their input too.

[ReaperFett]

I think the biggest thing that must be done is to make it so those paying get MORE, but those that don't aren't penalised. For example, the sig idea. Making all those that dont pay only have 15k is unfair, as they have to scrap all their sigs. But what if those paying get 40k? That would mean that the non paying don't lose out, while the paying gain.

I'm not saying do the sig idea, it's just a good example of benefits, not punishing.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

NO to the paying for a sig idea. That would just suck balls.

Also, how are you going to do the 'store' idea if you don't use cafepress? Like the discounts and stuff, I don't think that would work at all with the cafepress set up from what I've seen. You'd have to have someone involved with a printer and etc etc, and if said person isn't getting paid that's a lot of work for just about nothing.

The merchandise idea is great and all, however, most of the people here are broke. Including me, which is why I ran with the merchandise idea. But I'm not expecting to sell anything, honestly. And I haven't. When I get some money myself I will probably buy something though.

Also, question: mods and admins get access to 'paid accounts' for free? That would be like a perk of the job :p

[imported_Eve]

As far as a store... it doesn't need to be elaborate for everyone. It can be auction style in the form of posts. You don't want to do the work on the shirts, then don't sell em. Know what I mean?

Maybe some people get done reading books, and want to know if anyone here wants them. Even if for fifty cents.

This comes to mind: some of our resident artist and web designers could probably make some buck selling their work. I've been offered pay here several times. I know others sure have then too.

But there could be a forum for that. No access with no pay.

Yay on the sigs.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I thought you meant shirts like Shawn was saying: something for posters to buy from Swfans to generate profit for the hosting of the board. I understand what you meant now, however.

If we're actively supporting an auction enviroment...is that legal? I dunno the ins and outs of selling stuff online. Except for EBay. :huh

[TheHolo.Net]

Instead of setting ourselves up to have to monitor sigs even further by expanding the limit for paid members we could do something a little different, and a little easier to maintain, as part of the section specific CTs.

Section Specific CTs could include a graphic, but we would need to come up with file size and physical size restrictions for it. (but...the catch is....when a person wants to change it...they or someone else has to pay again [a smaller fee than the actual paid membership is])

A services/trade forum is also a good idea that I think fits with what Eve is suggesting too, but is an easier way of saying it...? Maybe?

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
Also, question: mods and admins get access to 'paid accounts' for free? That would be like a perk of the job :p I don't really like that idea. It would seem a little unfair to me really, and possibly make people bitter towards mods in that respect.

[Navaria Tarkin]

Okay, then how are we to mod the area if we aren't able to get in :p I mean, honestly I am so broke ten bucks here would be bad for me.

Confused about the sigs.. are we allowing more space for someone that pays for more features?


Uncensored RP forum

I agree with Fett..


Uncensored Fanfic Forum

this is doable. so you get your writing fix and people who can't pay arent left out of reading stories that could be important


Uncensored General Discussion Forum
Uncensored “Free Spoiler” zone
Uncensored Art Forum

this is all good. And for the record, if you are going to have mature forums, it really is all or nothing.


An official Merchandise store (maybe we could give the members that pay for access to the new section some say in what products are offered or what slogans are used)

um.. I suck with merchanise :)

[Sanis Prent]

I'm more than willing to shell out 10 bucks or more for this.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

*shrug* I don't have the money. I'm horrible with it. I spend it on things like message boards and then starve. But by all means do it.

BUT...don't start making people pay for basic things like sigs and reading what's on the portal page, or things like that. Don't take things away and make us pay for them. That makes us no better than ezboard is.

[TheHolo.Net]

Sigs and Portal Page access won't be changed.

I have however thought of another feature to add for those with "Gold" (paid) accounts.

Gold account holders can delete their own posts (but not threads they start)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Er.... is that a good idea? I thought the reason people couldn't delete their own posts was to leave evidence if they'd been misbehaving. *shrug* I'm not against it, though.

[ReaperFett]

Can the admins view logs of who deleted what?




EDIT - My thought is, could it be where they delete posts in selected forums, like the RP ones? The groups could decide which were able to use the function.

[TheHolo.Net]

The deletion of single posts is not currently logged in an easy to read fashion, only entire threads. I may be able to hack it in so that such deletions are a little different and are logged in friendly way to some extent, but I need to be able to offer services above and beyond what we already have without taking away from the currently free services and this one seemed cool.

It may be a bad idea for evidentiary purposes, but in cases where it may seem like its going to be a problem we can address it then. Thread downloading is handy for having at least some form of evidence though the download contents are easily modified.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Okay...then will the deletion be for ALL the boards including the group boards?

:)

[TheHolo.Net]

Yeah, its a usergroup feature that is already built into vB, so it would be effective SWFans.Net wide, including all boards, but only for those accounts that are "Gold".

[imported_Eve]

Let's do different names except like gold, even though I know you're using that as an example (denoted by your quotes). Something specific to us and our little world here.

I don't see anything wrong with people being able to delete their own posts. I would explain, but I'm posting irritatingly long posts lately, and I hate people like that.

I think the way to go is more features for sure.

I have a couple questions:

(1) Is all the money to go to Ogre's paypal account? Are we having a new accounting system with more money coming in? And don't get any weird meaning from this - I totally trust Ogre.

(2) How much does all of SWFans cost a year? So we can figure out what upgraded memberships cost?

Once we figure out what we want to offer, I think we should still do a survey, to try and project participation.

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Eve
Let's do different names except like gold, even though I know you're using that as an example (denoted by your quotes). Something specific to us and our little world here.Yes. I like that idea, and will try to come up with some ideas for a SW style name for the accounts.
Originally posted by Eve
(1) Is all the money to go to Ogre's paypal account? Are we having a new accounting system with more money coming in? And don't get any weird meaning from this - I totally trust Ogre.

(2) How much does all of SWFans cost a year? So we can figure out what upgraded memberships cost?I was leaning towards customizing a paypal interface here at our forums that would allow for Account Purchases and for CT purchases, but would still only work with my individual paypal account. I haven't used that account for anything but this site and don't plan to change that.

I really doubt its going to generate too much more in the way of income, but if it does turn out to do so, I can get us on a fully dedicated host server that will run this place like wildfire , but costs twice as much as what we pay right now.

Currently this site costs $650 a year with hosting and domain name costs.

[TheHolo.Net]

If someone else would like to try and make some Thread Rating images with a little more SW-esque feel to them that will work with any style please feel free to do so.

Here are the temporary images I made just to see if I could get the ratings to work in the test forum I set up.

<img src=http://sw-fans.net/forum/images/ratings/1stars.gif> - Worst

<img src=http://sw-fans.net/forum/images/ratings/2stars.gif>

<img src=http://sw-fans.net/forum/images/ratings/3stars.gif>

<img src=http://sw-fans.net/forum/images/ratings/4stars.gif>

<img src=http://sw-fans.net/forum/images/ratings/5stars.gif> - Best

They do need to be kept pretty small like these are so as not to look clunky in the thread display listings.

[TheHolo.Net]

Mods and Admins have access to the forums while I am experimenting/setting up shop:

<a href=forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=253>The Darkside of Endor</a>

Any help with forum name or descriptions would be cool. And you should all see the forum/category on the main forum index under the Operations and News forum. :)

[ReaperFett]

I wondered what that was! :)



EDIT - Description-wise, can we clearly state in the movie spoilers section that NO spoilers are to be in the titles?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Who is going to moderate these forums? I will not be paying for a 'gold' or 'special' membership because I'm financially fucked, literally.

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by ReaperFett
EDIT - Description-wise, can we clearly state in the movie spoilers section that NO spoilers are to be in the titles? I think probably so.
Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
Who is going to moderate these forums? I will not be paying for a 'gold' or 'special' membership because I'm financially fucked, literally. Me and any other admin who wishes to start with and others as chosen.

[Shawn]

I think there should be a pretty clear destinction between the "Gold" general chat and the normal OOC chat. That way, even if you're a Gold member, you still have a reason to post in OOC.

Perhaps (and this is only a suggestion) you could label the Gold forum as NWS? I'm not saying "Go post porn here", but maybe have it strictly for discussions that would be inappropriate in OOC. Any normal discussions can still go in OOC. Or something like that.

Also, I've considered, in the past, buying a banner at SA. It's dirt cheap and they get ridiculous amounts of traffic. The only reason I've withheld from doing so is because I felt that the kind of people who post there wouldn't exact mesh well with the kinds of rules we have here. With the induction of the new forums, perhaps it's something that could be considered if we ever want to drum up some traffic.

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Shawn
I think there should be a pretty clear destinction between the "Gold" general chat and the normal OOC chat. That way, even if you're a Gold member, you still have a reason to post in OOC.

Perhaps (and this is only a suggestion) you could make label the Gold forum as NWS? I'm not saying "Go post porn here", but maybe have it strictly for discussions that would be inappropriate in OOC. Any normal discussions can still go in OOC. Or something like that.

Also, I've considered, in the past, buying a banner at SA. It's dirt cheap and they get ridiculous amounts of traffic. The only reason I've withheld from doing so is because I felt that the kind of people who post there wouldn't exact mesh well with the kinds of rules we have here. With the induction of the new forums, perhaps it's something that could be considered if we ever want to drum up some traffic. I was thining along the same lines as far as NWS goes. I was planning on putting it in the section specific FAQ so as to cover all of that section's forums.

And the advert at SA is definately semi plausable in the future if these forums take off at all.

[Sanis Prent]

We aren't worried about our bandwidth getting raped by the incoming traffic?

[Shawn]

Percentage of goons who would be interested in SW forums is probably a lot smaller than the total number of posters there. I simply mentioned it because it's the cheapest and most effective form of advertising on the internet that I'm aware of.

And, if we could get a decent number of them to cough up some dough, they might even wind up reducing the financial burden here.

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Sanis Prent
We aren't worried about our bandwidth getting raped by the incoming traffic?
I suspect we would see some increase in bandwidth from such a thing, but it wouldn't be too terrible. Quite a few people don't even pay attention to adds...anywhere.
Originally posted by Shawn
Percentage of goons who would be interested in SW forums is probably a lot smaller than the total number of posters there. I simply mentioned it because it's the cheapest and most effective form of advertising on the internet that I'm aware of. I agree

[ReaperFett]

Providing we wont be flooded by arseholes making OOC and boxoffice unpleasant, an ad is a good idea.

[TheHolo.Net]

Okay, Photopost was on sale and the vBPortal software site was offering anotoher deal on top of that, so I bought and installed it.

You can check it out here:

<a href=/photopost>Gallery</a>

Its far from completely finished, but its coming along pretty nicely.

I still have to set up a lot of the configrations, mainly file size limits), and a few others, but it does work, and does look fairly slick. :)

I also have a custom sideblock for vBPortal that will display a single random image on the portal with links and a lot of info. It is very cool.

[ReaperFett]

Looks cool.

[TheHolo.Net]

One of the features it includes which is easy to miss at first is the fact that it allows users to send Email Greetings Cards with the image of their choice. I haven't tested that out yet, but it seems nice.

[ReaperFett]

How does the "Member Galleries" work? Any member (Or is it just the paying?) have x amount of space? Or is it more anyone can post as many pictures as they want in the various sections, but each picture has a limit?

[TheHolo.Net]

For now, I have SWFans.Net Moderators, Administraors, and "Gold" members allowed upload access (with unmoderated uploads). I have yet to set any limits on upload size or total storage space for anyone. Anyone can view the galleries: guests, registered, "Gold", whatever, just not banned members. Members that can upload can also move, edit, or delete their images. And the edit options are kind of cool. :)

Comments can be added by any registered user.

Member galleries are just a way of sorting images by the user who posted them. The Member Galleries area is a sort of catch all, that will show all of the images posted in any other category, just sorted via username..

[ReaperFett]

Ahhh that makes sense, thanks :)

[Shawn]

Is it supposed to look all crazy right now?

I'm not 100% clear on how that's going to work. But I'm more than slightly inebriated right now, so I'll get back to you later. ^_^;

[TheHolo.Net]

I don't think it looks crazy, but then again I'm not inebriated. :p

Oh and a note to the Admins, if you decide to look at the adminCP thing for Photopost. one thing I ask is that you not submit any styleset changes, doing so will mess things up royale, as I had to do a tricky workaround for the multiple vB Styles to at least almost work right.

[Shawn]

Here's a screencap of what it looks like for me. I haven't tested it in IE.

[TheHolo.Net]

Looks like your browser isn't liking gzip compression. Its working fine for me in FB 0.7 and IE.

[Mortaniuss]

Odd. I'm using FB 0.7 myself.

Edit ~ I gave this account access here because I'm lazy. :p

Edit 2 ~ I have the same results with IE6.

[TheHolo.Net]

Maybe it was just a browser burp. I haven't seen that type of output at all and I use FB almost all the time, I just used Ie to test and compare style stuff.

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Mortaniuss
Odd. I'm using FB 0.7 myself.

Edit ~ I gave this account access here because I'm lazy. :p

Edit 2 ~ I have the same results with IE6. Yog says he sees it too. I am turning off gzip to see if that makes a difference.

[Mortaniuss]

Can't get it to load at all now. :\

[TheHolo.Net]

Well, hell. I just tried it on 3 different PCs with several different browsers and they all loaded it fine for me. I am unable to reproduce this problem, but know it exists. I have asked for assistance at the PhotoPost member support forums.

[imported_Eve]

That's what I saw this morning, but now I do not. I see some broken images, but I assume you're building stuff. Looks neat.

[TheHolo.Net]

Yeah, I am still trying to work through some GZIP compression issues, but the styles should be fixed for now, though Streamlined still needs some help.

[TheHolo.Net]

Think I have the styles pretty much done for now, though I would like to disable the Portal sidebar on it if I can figure out how. >_<

[Mortaniuss]

mm... I like it there. Makes it seem a little more busy, a little less empty.

[TheHolo.Net]

You can see what I mean by submission form for the purchase here:

Link (purchase.php?s=)

It is far from finshed on the front end (what information it displays to the user) or back end (the code that processes it and sends it to me). But that will give you all an idea of what I had in mind.

When a user clicks the submit button, they will then be taken to another page which will include some further instructions and a link to the paypal form (on paypal's website) that I set up for this. The further instructions will let then know they aren't finished yet and also let them know that the account status change will not take place until paypal payment is confirmed as received, and I have had time to do it.

The one year duration of the Supporter upgrade will not begin until I actually process the payment and make the account a "Supporter" account, so no time will be lost to the purchaser between when they pay and when I apply the change in status to the account.

Now I just need to figure out what text I need to include on the form example I linked you guys to, and what text to include on the page that redirects them to paypal's website.

[TheHolo.Net]

The "front end" of the form is done but not the back end....(ie the text on the form is done, but the submit button takes you nowhere right now)

Input regarding the Page's content is welcome. :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The page looks good to me. However, I'm curious as to the custom title text box: there doesn't seem to be a text length limit, although there is an image size limit. How long could a text CT be, and if I specified one and then changed my mind, would it be changeable after the fact?

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
The page looks good to me. However, I'm curious as to the custom title text box: there doesn't seem to be a text length limit, although there is an image size limit. How long could a text CT be, and if I specified one and then changed my mind, would it be changeable after the fact? Good points. I'll add the answers to those concerns in. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

The back end is more or less done, meaning that the submission form actually does what it is supposed to, but the error and follow up pages aren't complete yet.

[imported_Eve]

Second to last bullet under Supporter Account features - no "u" in the word "form/forum".

[TheHolo.Net]

Thank the maker for search and replace. Tis fixed and Thanks Eve. :)

[imported_Eve]

Chris GO TO BED.

[TheHolo.Net]

^_^; I should hunh......:zzz

[imported_Eve]

The forum will still be here tomorrow requiring your skills. I think it's safe...

[TheHolo.Net]

:lol

I still have soooo much to do......but I'm not going to until after I have rested. :D

Night.....errr morning.

[imported_Eve]

Night and sleep well. I'm off to work me-self. Blah. At LEAST snow is coming.

[TheHolo.Net]

Okay, I got some sleep and have now done some more things to finish up the front end for the Supporter Account /Custom Title purchase pages. The form is now completely finished and functional front end and back end for all our current boardwide styles.

Here is a link to the error page, if you do not fill out the required fields correctly:

Error page (error.php?s=)

Here is a link to the Success Page, which contains the appropriate Paypal links:

Success Page (nextstep.php?s=)

Any assistance/input regarding wording or spelling errors would be greatly appreciated. :)

[Marc Tarkin]

Posting here to display the Supporter (clickable - linked to purchase/info page) CT image that will be viewable in all (non RP Group) Forums.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

It doesn't go to the purchase page. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Originally posted by Lilaena De'Ville
It doesn't go to the purchase page. :) ^_^;
Caught my typo. Its fixed now.

[ReaperFett]

Okay, I have a question. Know how anything in the picture section can be linked thumbnail wise? Well, what do we do if someone uploads smilies to use at Meras/SWF?

[TheHolo.Net]

I plan to have a topic in Endor explaining the rules. As it is I already have a preliminary one that does just that. Smilie linking here at Fans from the Gallery will not be any problem as most smilies are even smaller than the Gallery thumbnails.

Off site linking is blocked by way of a special files configuration on our server as it is, so trying to use smilies from our Gallery on Meras would result in IE infamous red X.

[ReaperFett]

So it would be a SWF thing. That's cool, thanks :)