Overall Forum Revisions

[AKcoyote]

I totally agree with White Fox - any suggestions need to be presented to the members for discussion.

 

One comment:

Melody O'Hair (melodyohair.net) is a separate website hosted on the same server with limited cross-linking. The "big member base" is partly due to the fact that Melody was once part of the Den site and so that woolies would not have to re-register, Melody started with a copy of the Den's table of users. Merging the two sites now is probably impossible as it would require writing an extremely complex program to merge the two databases. We do NOT have that kind of programming talent on staff.

 

PERSONAL RANT:

Tryxie's list of suggestions were made WITHOUT any knowledge or research into the situation of this website. Our host has restrictions tn their Terms of Service that could shut us down if they receive any complaints about our site. To not give the Petaphiles any ammunition, that is why we have hidden forums and word censors.

 

Further, no staff member here is compensated in any way for their working on this site - we are all volunteers. Also many suggestions require php programming - we do NOT have ANY experienced php programmers on the staff. I can do a bit of php programming, but it takes weeks for me to get even a relatively small php routine to work correctly.

 

While some of Tryxie's suggestions have merit, most are completely ludicrous as they were made without knowledge of the situation or what other members want. When Tryxie initially left this website a few years ago she setup her own website which my understanding is has since failed. If she Is so great at knowing how a website should be setup, then why did hers fail?

END RANT

[Marcel]

Tryxie never fails,it is work under progress.

[Earendil]

Hey, AK. I'm not going to dive into the personal rants as I'm not a part of it, but I have some general comments about the other stuff.

 

Adult Content

thefurden.com is hosted on GoDaddy servers - GoDaddy allows adult content. The legal agreement only states that the content should be legal according to US Law, and the other paragraph talks about GoDaddy not being liable if anything illegal is hosted. link here. The EULA/TOS doesn't even mention adult content or porn. link here. Have you guys looked at these since 2006? - They update quite often, and what was not allowed once may have been changed. (It has). Additional google searches shows more of the same answers, and there was even an interview with one of the higher-ups who said adult content is OK. Here's a recent tweet from GoDaddys official twitter account.

adult content is fine to host on the servers. Just make sure it is ok to do so in your location.

 

Oh, and there's nothing about profanity in there anymore either.

 

Easy fixes, which do not require programming or a lot of resources

• - Balance of Mods
  - Mod lifetime span
  - Abandoning RSS android and using resources elsewhere
  - Cater to the x-rated crowd
  - Kill the banned words list
  - Management being more pro-active
  - Lottery to boost member numbers
  - Open forum for members to follow discussions of mods regarding development. I guess we can put "check" on this one.

 

Items which require moderate resources

• - Restructure message boards. i.e removing FFA, one board for all adult/non-adult. Perhaps add rule about NSFW tag. [There are tools to do this built in to phpBB from what I can remember]
  - Tuning up the Gallery. I would have thought it was possible to archive everything posted there as of now, and creating new folders/categories. Please correct me if I'm wrong on that.

 

That leaves:

Items which require a lot of resources and/or programming and designing

• - Redesigning the site.

 

I'll leave everything related to the woolside alone as it's a different entity.

 

Here are my thoughts after looking through the replies and suggestions:

* Most of these ideas are quite easily implemented, and are by no means "completely ludicrous".

* Some of these ideas require a certain amount of work, but that's the nature of running a site - and we have a lot of friendly and hard working volunteers. (I'm referring to restructure of board categories and the Gallery here).

* One of the ideas are hard to implement (Redesigning). It requires programming, designing, and a lot of hours. But nobody has said this has to be done before all the other stuff?

 

So, in conclusion; I propose that we just work on the ideas which are easily implemented - Get them done first. Make sure everyone gets input and that we're mostly agreed on the best shape of the particular idea. THEN we work on the message boards and the Gallery. If there are organization tools built in to the board and gallery, this won't require programming.

 

And as we're doing this, we can look at possible solutions for the hard part.

 

Thoughts?

[AKcoyote]

- Lottery to boost member numbers

Exactly what do you mean by that

[Earendil]

Just a brainstorm I had - I'll explain on the mod forum, and if it's something worth pursuing we can take it from there

[White Fox]

Unfortunately I've been sick a good part of today. The part i was not working. (Due to only having half a pancreas.) With luck I will be back tomorrow. But in the mean time have not been able to read all here. Especially on this thread.

 

A couple of things I notice on this forum. It was totally rebuilt just a very few months back as to colour, heading, etc. 5 months maybe Worker? We did NOT get ONE comment either positive or negative when that was done. If members had appreciated the change they would have commented but they didn't. a whole total and brand new look to the site and not one comment. I like the shades of brown. But to our members, it made absolutely NO difference! I tend to firmly believe that this proves that they are looking for good content rather than site design. But if anyone else has comments in another direction I would like to hear them. Worker put HUGE work into this new design and got not one positive comment about it.

 

There is only one thing sacred in this area. That is our theme photograph. The one on top left. FrBrGr did a LOT of work to pick that picture. It was his inspiration. And it is sort of the last thing here that really goes back to him directly other than the name "The Fur Den". Thus, we do consider that photograph to be sacred. It's position might change for instance. But it should not in itself be changed. It and the name are the two things that will stay. Anything else can be changed easily.

 

Re moderators. To me what we need here is staff who really "Moderate with a heart" as they say. A good example of this is Earendil. He has been a staff member here probably as long as I have though he was away for awhile. And the site missed him for that time. I would suggest that moderating quality means so much. He knows every tiny bit and corner of this site and the thoughts of members. To me that is very important! But there are other positions where moderaetors or staff might be rotated. Gallery mods for instance. We could have folks working in the Library or links areas. etc.And these could all be rotated. There MIGHT indeed be room for another mod here in a short while. But, it all depends if all members decide to stay here. I firmly believe that we now have a number of very active moderators here. But how many times have you heard from our new moderator Punisherthunder? Think about it. How many times has he needed to do mod work. Members on this site watch themselves. We get a VERY occasional spam message that needs to be deleted. But lilttle else is needed. Having a large number of moderators suggests that we need them to ban members. ANd that is not needed here! Also, as mentioned, we do have more help coming on later when job work clears. A new mod exclusively posting at FFG for one. We might also need more help here. Tryxie you may well be right about Marcel. I just think that now we have enough staff for present circumstances and we should wait awhile to let this site stabilize. Find our direction. Find if members like our philosophy. Our Members. Our set up. Then, use that information to see what is needed.

 

As to balancing staff between FFG and The Den. I am not at all sure I agree. Yep it should be considered as I mentioned somewhere else here, but here is why I tend to disagree to a goodly extent at the same time. I don't think we should view this as two sites any more. It should be seen as a site for all. A home for all. For past members of the Den. For past members of FFG. For past members of your old forum Tryxie if they wish to post here. For staff at FFG. To me all should be equal here. No one should be more important. No one less important. I will admit that I lack knowledge of old members at FFG. Tryxie, you mention Marcel. I firmly believe that he SHOULD be considered as a new moderator at one point from the abilities he has shown. But I think that is because he is showing leadership HERE as a member of the "NEW DEN". Not because he is an old member of the FAshion Forum.

 

With that I need to sit this out and get feeling better. I am not feeling at all well right now. I really need to take it easy and get to bed as I've huge work to do tomorrow in my shop to get orders out. I will try to make a better reply tomorrow.

 

White Fox

[Marcel]

no response show's that nobody care,then you can do whatever you want.

Userfriendly is the keyword.

 

If i'm asked to be mod,i would like to see goals.

Just to know that we are heading in the same direction.

[AKcoyote]

Tryxie,

Now that FFG is gone comparing this site to that one is ludicrous. Please make specific suggestions for style changes that the members can discuss. One thing to keep in mind is that when the phpBB group releases a new version of the software there are frequently changes that affect styles and make highly modified styles at least partially unusable. My suggestion is that changes should be limited to background images/colours, icon & button colours/placement/size, and other relatively minor changes.

[AKcoyote]

There are 2 basic requirements for style changes - someone with sufficient imagination (not me) and someone with a set of graphics skills (also not me). That is why I asked for specific suggestions.

 

OK, Who has the imagination to offer some specific suggestions I am not opposed to a furry background image, but it would have to be a light coloured fur texture as the more standard brown would make it very difficult to read text.

[White Fox]

If i'm asked to be mod,i would like to see goals.

Just to know that we are heading in the same direction.

 

Marcel... This is exactly why I think now is not the time to make a lot of changes here in staff. New members are asking for a lot of changes. We ourselves barely know where some of these will lead.

 

Yes, you need to know what the job entails, and you will see as you spend more and more time here. And as we get some of these issues solved.

 

As for the question on mods on another thread today. Moderators are not here every minute of every day. They are people with jobs. People with family life. People with interests other than here. But we all do our best. With time we will know how many people decide to stay with us. What they want from the site. etc.

 

Hope that helps answer some questions.

 

W

[Marcel]

I understand and give it some time getting to know you folks better.

I keep sending my inputs to make this a better place.

[Marcel]

I'm beginning to understand why getting a new button seems so thrilling to most people

 

"Small Steps, Sparks.Small steps"

[Guest]

Ok just read alot of the suggestions and all this I we all know that fur is sensual and fur adult is what made the ffg work I think that if we get more posting we get more people reacting z But i find that posting links in the forum section a lil hard and also notice furry just post unable to post pics of sonya on here he had a huge thread in ffg and we all remember that and had thousand uppon thousand hits so if he having problems we know alot other people having problems So an easy step by step video or instruction link should be added I enjoy reading the input people put into their thoughts and have noticed also go daddy have many adult content sites and as long as we keep under age material and any beastality films off the boards we should not have any problems with any links anyone may post here This is just one person opinion but seems alot new people not posting yet hope see that soon also a party hour or something along that line for chat sees peole there but seem miss them all the time Well that my input hopes helps a little