Changes

[Kaz]

let's call it Powerspike

[Cardinal]

let's call it Powerspike

intercourse  yea

[JrDude]

A Nintendo Board and then the current other Nintendo boards could be sub boards.
Then make other changes that relates to non-Nintendorks.

[Riosan]

Here's my problem with having an extremely broad gaming forum is that people would think of us like copying NeoGAF. There has to be at least one specific game we think about posting about on a specific forum. Oldsider was focused on Nintendo, and that worked for them. I know several small communities who thrive just by being about one topic, and then having a general discussion board.

Suggestion: Once we get all this naming business done with and have a bit more money, get a TF2 server. There's always hundreds of thousands of players playing. If we play on the server commonly, people are more likely to join.

If they see a server with no people, of course they're not gonna play. If they see a server with 2-6 people, they might want to join. If they see a server with 18+ people, they're probably gonna join. And if people keep coming back, they'll join the forum.

[BOSSNIG]

Here's my problem with having an extremely broad gaming forum is that people would think of us like copying NeoGAF. There has to be at least one specific game we think about posting about on a specific forum. Oldsider was focused on Nintendo, and that worked for them. I know several small communities who thrive just by being about one topic, and then having a general discussion board.

Suggestion: Once we get all this naming business done with and have a bit more money, get a TF2 server. There's always hundreds of thousands of players playing. If we play on the server commonly, people are more likely to join.

If they see a server with no people, of course they're not gonna play. If they see a server with 2-6 people, they might want to join. If they see a server with 18+ people, they're probably gonna join. And if people keep coming back, they'll join the forum.

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. We just need active people to help mod and seed the server. I'm almost always on Steam playing CoD4 or TF2, so I could always help with that.

[jnfs2014]

Nothing. I think this place will die August 2009.

[Friendly Hostile]

Nothing. I think this place will die August 2009.

God forbid we attempt to do anything to prevent that.

[Ares300]

Holy crap! NSF is evolving (cue evolving music)..................................

[Daft Pink]

Here's my problem with having an extremely broad gaming forum is that people would think of us like copying NeoGAF. There has to be at least one specific game we think about posting about on a specific forum. Oldsider was focused on Nintendo, and that worked for them. I know several small communities who thrive just by being about one topic, and then having a general discussion board.

Suggestion: Once we get all this naming business done with and have a bit more money, get a TF2 server. There's always hundreds of thousands of players playing. If we play on the server commonly, people are more likely to join.

If they see a server with no people, of course they're not gonna play. If they see a server with 2-6 people, they might want to join. If they see a server with 18+ people, they're probably gonna join. And if people keep coming back, they'll join the forum.

This is an excellent idea.

[Rius]

As necessary as change may be, I don't think this thread will help any. As I've said, find a new direction first then let the rest fall into place. And if you want to find a new direction, find something that either incites passion or is popular among a sample of users much larger than the 100 odd that are active here.

[King_Gamer28]

I like it just the way it is. :(

That kind of attitude exemplifies why we are slowly, but surely, dying. You're left with a core of users, who are clinging to a long gone forum. One can argue about the 25 topics a month being good thing, but realistically, we all want some activity, on top of intelligent discussion. Furthermore, there is absolutely no incentive to stay here....everything we have can be found elsewhere. Quite frankly, if we don't adapt, and come to the realization NSider is no more, we won't even be a footnote in its' history, while changing, taking the leap if you will, could mean NSider is a footnote in our history. Otherwise, you have a  lack of commitment (as exemplified by O13, other staff and users, etc.) and an increasingly dead forum. Features aren't the issue now, no number of them (NFES, arcade, etc.) will make a person join us, NS2 owns the NSider world, other places own Nintendo. We are one fish in an ocean, and without major changes soon, we're shark food.

Your response is nice looking, but pointless, I think.

SH likes it the way it is, because it works. People are satisfied with what we have, as far as I know. Nobody is perfect, and we can't expect to be, nor can we expect explosions of members. I think it's possible to be happy with our little group of people and enjoy talking about what we do. Sometimes it's nicer to just have a tight-knit group of people we like rather than tons of people who we might not (see oldsider).

We're not exactly going into a downward spiral or anything, and I'm very happy with how we operate. Maybe some clutter needs to be reduced in terms of organization, sure, but the layout and structure we have is pretty stable.

I just don't think steroid-esque development and growth is really necessary. New people would be great, and help us out, but for what purpose? We're not dying, we're not failing to fulfill our purpose (which, as far as I'm concerned, is to just foster the people we have now to talk about whatever they want without being yelled at and enjoy the company of other good people, because I have to say for the most part that the community's core is composed of some pretty great people).

Sometimes features don't make a community great, it's the people in it and how they operate. Sometimes it's the little things people do, forum events people host, and just the thought that you can jump into conversations whenever and not get yelled at for voicing your opinion.

If there are problems, I'd like to know exactly what they are. Because I can't see any that are glaringly obvious, and I'm here every day. So if you see one I don't, then you're looking too far into it, as far as I'm concerned. Really.

[Doodle]

But I like how we are right now. :P

But if we're going to change, maybe we could focus on the wonderful world of online gaming! We could become a place for online discussion, strategies, tournaments. and a place to just find someone to play with. Plus our normal gaming and general discussion.

We could get a chat just for finding people to play with, too. Like Serebii's Wi-Fi chat.

[L10]

If we change anything lets just change the name, it's pretty much fine the way it is.

[Lotos]

For starters, the boards need name changes/description changes.

Look at Boyah.  Look at Sprite Database's boards.  What do they have in common?  SMF with original message icons and smileys.  We also need to fix that spoiler button, it's missing  :|

[HTA!]

Well...
I see no quick fix in the near future.

Mack makes it sound like we are crashing and burning... but I agree with KG that really there is no way we would be able to boost our activity and member base overnight. We might not ever be able to.

People move on, and the people I assume you want to join us might not exist any more.
Really any kind of change could serve to make us just like everyone else... a forum based on general discussion with little to differentiate us from anyone else.

We sprang from gaming and we should stay that way...