Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Front Page Content Realignment Proposal

DarkStar20

DarkStar20

Front Page Editor
Ok, so there is a project that I’ve been working on for the gym for quite some time now. I've been mostly just trying to rattle it around in my head until it made enough sense to type out and present to you all! The idea is kind of a doozy, so rather than just telling you my end result, I thought it would be better to take you through the process and evolution of the idea itself, so the higher ups here on the gym can see how I arrived there, and figure out if one of my many ideas along the way is a better overall landing point then where I ended up.

The original idea was just a simple system for providing what Lucario EX used to provide to us in terms of the Weekly News Updates. A small team of people, (perhaps our crew of three Front Page Editors, Myself, Baby Mario, and JJKKL, or anyone else who may be interested), scanning the site regularly for things that would be nice to feature in a weekly newsletter, and compiling them throughout the week before posting it at a designated time each week. The idea would be to get together at the start with the entire staff, here in the VR, and make a list of things we WANT to feature in the newsletter, compile a list of those things, then compile a list of what forums to find those things, and split up the forums between the people working this job, and have each person scan their forums regularly throughout the week for things to feature.

That was the original idea, but then I thought, chances are that’s gonna end up being only a few people, and a lot of forums to scan. That won’t work as well as I would hope I bet. Who else could be scanning the forums regularly for positive things to feature on the FP news? THE MODS! :^D They are already scanning forums anyway, looking for BAD things! Not only would this be adding little to no work to their workload, because they are already working through the forum anyway, but it could give them something POSITIVE to report back in those forums, rather than always having to focus on the negative!

And then my stupid overactive brain starting storming like a hurricane running through Miami. How else could we have other people contribute? Let’s go back to the Mod Idea. They are already scanning the boards, so it fits well. How else do we normally pinpoint posts and forums that need attention. THE REPORT BUTTON! Even the membership could use the report button to report things THEY think should be featured on the front page news. But the problem is that that would send it into the Wrath forum, and it’d get all clogged with so much stuff flowing in, I wonder if we could have a different button that works the same as the report button, but is designated for reporting Important posts/threads that deserve news attention, like a ‘LOOK AT THIS!!!’ button! Maybe something to tie in with the Thank you button?

So you see, what started as a really simple idea kind of got away from me….yet I still haven’t quite figured it out. Anywho, I remember one of the things we talked a lot about at the Worlds Meeting was that the basis for a site is quick and precise reporting of big news items. I don’t know how much this would help with that, but keeping our news feed updated with the most important and most feature worthy posts and threads here on the gym could defiantly improve the quality of that section of the FP. Not only would it give more attention to the good contributions throughout the gym, but it would draw more attention to our new forum, so that when we DO get big pokemon news items, we have more traffic flowwing in that directions, feeding the affectivness of that forum overall. Anyway, I don’t really have a finished product, mainly because I’m not sure how far you guys are willing to go with it / how hard it would be to add some of the things I’m proposing. but I like the idea enough that I figured it would be worth proposing/discussing!

SO, what do you guys think?

-DST
 
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Perhaps if members used the "Rate Thread" option more often, it could be used for your idea.

I miss the podcast. It was a super easy way to catch up on a week's events. I think it did a ton of great things for the site, like getting members interested in submitting topics to be discussed, interested in being a quest on the podcast, or just subscribing an tuning in each week.

It's always good when you can take one form of content, like written content, and transcribe it into a different medium, like audio and/or video.
 
I miss the podcasts too, mostly because I wasn't a member here for very long before the podcasts stopped happening. I did go back and listen to a bunch of them, but still, that would be something cool to have back. :)

-DST
 
I'm just wondering if the lack of response here means 'we don't like it', 'we like it so much we need to talk about it amongst ourselves' or 'we don't have time to talk about this right now' or some other option I've not considered...

-DST
Posted with Mobile style...
 
It can be difficult to propose new ideas and see progression towards those ideas. All of the propositions have to be discussed and approved by the tippy-top staff members, and those tippy-top staff members are always busy. Not only do they have to approve the changes but also they are usually the only ones able to make the changes, so an improvement really relies on the free time of those staff members, and how quickly the improvements can be installed.

I know how it can feel disappointed to propose a bright new idea and not see it get off the ground. Don't lose hope.
 
It's not that I've lost hope, nor is the idea of the people at the tippy-top being super busy a new concept to me, I totally understand if they haven't gotten to even read it yet, and I don't blame them! :biggrin: I was just hoping for a status update, because it's been over two weeks since I posted it, and I just havn't heard a single word from any of TC about it yet. But it's almost States Season, so I'm not sporeprized! (HAHACWATIDIDTHR?)

-DST
 
DarkStar20 said:
The original idea was just a simple system for providing what Lucario EX used to provide to us in terms of the Weekly News Updates. A small team of people scanning the site regularly for things that would be nice to feature in a weekly newsletter, and compiling them throughout the week before posting it at a designated time each week.

The idea would be to get together at the start with the entire staff, here in the VR, and make a list of things we WANT to feature in the newsletter, compile a list of those things, then compile a list of what forums to find those things, and split up the forums between the people working this job, and have each person scan their forums regularly throughout the week for things to feature.
Click to expand...

I really feel like the weekly News Updates or "newsletter" was really under-appreciated and under-estimated. It has a lot of potential, but I don't think it was being utilized to the best of it's ability.

People have a need to be caught up on all the events of the past week. People have lives outside of the game and may not watch the forums throughout the week.

What topics should be included? I'm not sure. What items would I be interested in reading about? Hmm.

I'd like an eye into the competitive scene, talking about cards that may be rising or dropping in popularity, cards that have fallen over, and cards that have been given new life thanks to the newest set. I'm always interested in popular combos.

It'd be interesting to have a segment about what cool things are coming out in Japan. I feel like that is one aspect of the game that is often overlooked. Yes, some die-hard fans get excited about spoilers and scans, but I don't think the mainstream pokemon community really follows the japanese sets.

Of course, I would want to read about special events happening on the forum like Theme Deck contests or Free Avatar Weekends, etc.

What new products are out in our neck of the woods? Is there a new tin or new bundle pack at Target? How about pictures of the components?

-- maybe we should be asking ourselves, what would people need to be updated on --

I guess important news for pokemon, like city trophies going out, like new info on national championship entrance requirements, etc.

Big tournament results would be nice. What deck won that big event? What were the other 7 decks in the top 8? Top 4? What was the most popular deck?

Okay, I'm out of ideas for now.

DarkStar20 said:
That was the original idea, but then I thought, chances are that’s gonna end up being only a few people, and a lot of forums to scan. That won’t work as well as I would hope I bet. Who else could be scanning the forums regularly for positive things to feature on the FP news? THE MODS! :^D They are already scanning forums anyway, looking for BAD things! Not only would this be adding little to no work to their workload, because they are already working through the forum anyway, but it could give them something POSITIVE to report back in those forums, rather than always having to focus on the negative!
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how I like the idea of moderators starting to contribute content. I feel like their role is for one type of job and to combine it with another type of job may water down both responsibilities.

DarkStar20 said:
Let’s go back to the Mod Idea. They are already scanning the boards, so it fits well. How else do we normally pinpoint posts and forums that need attention. THE REPORT BUTTON! Even the membership could use the report button to report things THEY think should be featured on the front page news.

But the problem is that that would send it into the Wrath forum, and it’d get all clogged with so much stuff flowing in, I wonder if we could have a different button that works the same as the report button, but is designated for reporting Important posts/threads that deserve news attention, like a ‘LOOK AT THIS!!!’ button! Maybe something to tie in with the Thank you button?
Click to expand...

I like the idea of a quick and easy button that would report the thread to a new forum meant for news topics.

Of course, I'm not sure how much effort and work it would take to add a new forum and hotwire it to work like you describe.

But, putting the power in the members themselves to tell us what they'd like to hear does sound fruitful.

It would also be nice if more than one person reported the same thread, that the threads with the most reports would gravitate to the top of the list, thus the news content writers could pick the X number of most reported topics from the sorted list.

If a piece of content is interesting to one member, it is likely it is interesting to other members.

Where would the button go? You shouldn't put it next to a post, as a post doesn't equal the entire conversation of the thread. Perhaps you could include it next to the first originating post of the thread, a button that says, "This is interesting, and should be included in the news", a button like, NEWS-WORTHY or INTERESTING or I LIKE THIS THREAD or something like that.

DarkStar20 said:
Anywho, I remember one of the things we talked a lot about at the Worlds Meeting was that the basis for a site is quick and precise reporting of big news items. I don’t know how much this would help with that, but keeping our news feed updated with the most important and most feature worthy posts and threads here on the gym could defiantly improve the quality of that section of the FP. Not only would it give more attention to the good contributions throughout the gym, but it would draw more attention to our new forum, so that when we DO get big pokemon news items, we have more traffic flowwing in that directions, feeding the affectivness of that forum overall.
Click to expand...

It'd be great if the PokeGym had a twitter account that could be updated throughout the week by staff members. They could point out interesting conversations, breaking news, etc. Pretty much it'd be a dynamic version of the static newsletter that would come out at the end of each week.

We could even add the twitter log to the Front Page.

I know the PokeGym has a Facebook account, where it often lists information about the status of the PokeGym, but not everyone checks Facebook religious anymore and you don't need to have a Twitter account to read Twitter updates and it seems easy to include a small Twitter scroller on a web site that anyone can watch and read.

I think my final comment has to do with Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. Many of the older MMORPGs have ended up creating a system for the players themselves to generate their own content. It's the developer's way of saying, "hey, we don't have the resources or the time to keep pumping out content, so here is a way that the people still interested in this game can produce their own content and share it with others."

I think the PokeGym should definitely look towards doing something similar. With proposed ideas like members suggesting threads on the forum to be included in the weekly news and the pokegym having a twitter page that can be updated by any staff member, and even accept outside tweets to @PokeGym with interesting news, some of the content would write itself and require less manpower to trim up and release to the public.
 
Honestly Jason, I just noticed this topic.

My apologies and let me review it so I can make an educated response.

W.
 
So just checking in on this, wondering if there is any further action that could be suggested, or if it's just something to forget about? I know this is a busy season for all us PokeLovers, 3 strait states weekends, and i'm planning on doing 22 hours of driving this weekend, so no pressure, just checking in on it.

-DST
 
Don't forget about this suggestion. Keep bumping it if you need to.
 
I do like the ideas presented.

Some of them would require finding some new add on features, if they even exist I don't really know, to make some of those things happen.

Times are a changing and The Gym needs to change with them or risk dying out...
 
I definitely think with the explosion of new Pokemon tcg-related sites (of good quality) within the last 2 years, it is important for the PokeGym to re-assess it's goals and refine it's trajectory.
 
I agree. We want much more than just the front page to be active and have Neat features that draw people in, but the front page is the face of the site, changes should start there and work there way through to the rest of the site. My favorite part of this plan is that it highlights parts of he site that members will want to see, so it will ultimately cause members to be online longer, and use the site more.

-DST
Posted with Mobile style...
 
We want to catch their interest on the Front Page and promote their discussion on the forums.
 
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