G2KMaster's blog
| Welcome to M o n s t e r l a n d F o r u m s! We are a growing, casual and friendly online community of movie fans who like to talk about giant monsters, horror and sci-fi in cinema, on television and on DVD. There are forums for sports, casual chat and video games as well. For those of you who like making art, writing stories and creating videos, our community includes a forum for these submissions as well. Check out our main index page and other board forums! Anyone is welcome to join our community! M o n s t e r l a n d F o r u m s was created on January 29, 2006 for the purpose of giving fans of giant monster films and other sci-fi/horror movies a friendly online meeting place to discuss all of their favorite films and other things of interest. -Lee "Packmule" Merritt Site founder |
| Packmule's "State Of Monsterland Forums" Address; Overall status of the site | |
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| Topic Started: Jul 17 2008, 06:25 PM (170 Views) | |
| packmule | Jul 17 2008, 06:25 PM Post #1 |
Site founder - Your best nightmare
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It's hard for me to believe, sometimes, that Monsterland Forums is nearly two and half years old...but it is. Before I ramble about the overall status of this message board I'd like to touch on why I started this site and some of the early days around here. While there are several reasons why I started up Monsterland Forums the primary reason was my disdain for the overall atmosphere I encountered at the Monster Zero and Toho Kingdom forums. I like both of these sites a great deal, excluding the forums. The founders of these sites, Anthony Romero(Toho Kingdom) and the late Aaron Smith(Monster Zero) worked hard and long on both of these large websites and it's easy to see the work that's been put into both. Unfortunately, I found the behavior of many members of these site's forums left a lot to be desired, including my own for a time, as I allowed myself to enter into some nasty posting(and PM exchanges) with various MZ and TK members. It's a mistake I wish I could take back but I can't. Those who know me in real life will tell you I have a temper, and it's something I've had to continually work on my entire life. Unfortunately that temper of mine has slipped through onto a few message boards. It's a mistake I've not repeated and won't, ever again.  With my disgust regarding the TK and MZ forums still fresh in my mind I started this message board on a laptop and slapped together a tacky and simplistic looking forum banner. "Ro-Dan"(Dan) was one of the first members to join. Others followed suit, many of them people I communicated with at It Came From Planet X, such as "Russzilla"(Russ), "Trentonfella" and "Sparkiegojira"(Clark). Another member who joined during the early days of this site was "KaijuFanatic"(Kimi). Kimi was the most active member here early on and often it was just the two of us chatting about Hammer films and other movies. Her loyalty to this site, through her continued participation in posting here, is something I will always be very grateful for. While I made many mistakes early on as an admin the worst mistake I made, in retrospect, was not advertising this message board anywhere on the internet. It's one reason why this site generated only 5637 posts for the year 2006. The reason I didn't advertise Monsterland Forums was because I wasn't sure, throughout 2006, whether or not I wanted to keep this site up and running. By the middle of 2007, and with comments of support from various members, I decided to start advertising this site, and from that point I've never stopped. Sig advertising and affiliate exchanges are ongoing. The results were fairly immediate: in 2007 overall posts jumped to 9175. So far this year, in 2008, we have exceeded 2007's post totals. Membership registrations, while up are still rather slow, something I've been told is the "norm" for theme specific message boards like this one. I can accept that. Now to the status of the site itself: 1. Zetaboards format: the site recently changed to Zetaboards format. I opted for this format change, which is considered an upgrade, because it offers improved security over Invisonfree, and was highly recommended by Brandon, the young man who created the Invisionfree and Zetaboards platforms. We cannot switch back to Invisionfree format. There has been some discussion at the Zetaboards support site about a "converter" program that may be produced(by Brandon) that could convert Zetaboards database(msg board) to IPB format, which is a paid platform(I'd have to pay a monthly fee). I may consider IPB down the line if such a converter is made, but from what I've read that won't happen, if it does happen, until sometime in 2009. 2. Forum banners: I've installed a half dozen themes(skins) which I hope everyone likes(at least some of them). I'm always on the lookout for newly created themes(skins) posted at Zetaboards support. For now we're set, I think, on board themes. 3. Forums: I like the overall status of our forums, with the exception of the "Video Gaming" and "Ultraman" forums. They're still not as active as I'd like. I'm not a video gamer so my input, via posting, is extremely limited here. Also, I don't have the time I once did to keep up with all the "Ultraman" and other "Ultra" related news. I am going to try, in the coming months, to be more active in the "Ultraman" forums. I'd like to challenge those here who are video gamers to try and make the video games forums a little more active. Any efforts on the part of members would be greatly appreciated by me. 4. Forum security: as far as I can tell we're in good shape. Spam bot registrations are currently at a minimum. 5. Forum moderation: our three moderators, Josh("josh TX"), Breon("Trentonfella") and Matthew("gojiramatthew"), are probably wondering if they'll ever have to moderate something around here.  If anything, I believe the lack of forum moderation at this site, thus far, is a testament to the high character of the people who post at Monsterland Forums.  6. Performance of the site founder: in grading myself I basically take into account all of the above mentioned things. I also try to take into account how comfortable people are at participating in the posting and features of Monsterland Forums. Overall I give myself a B. Good overall, but still there's still considerable area for improvement. I am considering "hiring" another staff member. If I opt to do this it would happen, in all likelhood, in the spring(or summer) of 2009. I'm going to leave this topic thread open for a week(or two). I'd prefer this thread not be a "suggestion" thread but if anyone has any board specific(technical or otherwise) complaints or issues, post them here. Other comments, and constructive criticisms are welcome.  |
 Packmule's Pen Latitude Zero(1969) The Relic(1997) | |
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11:14 AM Nov 27
