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**Jason Forever** · 12-17-2018, 03:23 AM

nice one peeps, I don't understand most of the technical jargon you're using hehe, but the parts about I guess the "popularity contests" of the up/downvote system etc was an interesting read, thank you.

**Hobbes** · 12-17-2018, 03:32 AM

Originally posted by MrE View Post

I'm actually surprised he didn't choose Discourse for the forum software. It's amazing software with a lot of features.

I'm not. Discourse is the spawn of satan. RPS made such a botch job of migrating from VB4 to Discourse that their forums are now dying as a direct result.

Discourse's obsession with things like infinite scroll do not make for good forums. Not with larger forum pops. What you end up with is Eurogamer style discussions with are the pits of curry bowels.

**MrE** · 12-17-2018, 03:36 AM

Originally posted by Hobbes View Post

I'm not. Discourse is the spawn of satan. RPS made such a botch job of migrating from VB4 to Discourse that their forums are now dying as a direct result.

Discourse's obsession with things like infinite scroll do not make for good forums. Not with larger forum pops. What you end up with is Eurogamer style discussions with are the pits of curry bowels.

Blizzard has had pretty good success with Discourse. I must say that I love the infinite scroll as well as the discussion thread style.

**Hobbes** · 12-17-2018, 03:40 AM

Originally posted by MrE View Post

Blizzard has had pretty good success with Discourse. I must say that I love the infinite scroll as well as the discussion thread style.

Well yes because you can essentially leave it as a giant mess which everyone screams into the void at. Infinite scroll means that aside from the very few comments at the top you won't bother to read the rest, whereas pagination means you can digest a large forum thread in chunks (there's now been studies on how infinite scroll with large quantities of information can dissuade input - see the link below).

**MrE** · 12-17-2018, 03:54 AM

Originally posted by Hobbes View Post

Well yes because you can essentially leave it as a giant mess which everyone screams into the void at. Infinite scroll means that aside from the very few comments at the top you won't bother to read the rest, whereas pagination means you can digest a large forum thread in chunks (there's now been studies on how infinite scroll with large quantities of information can dissuade input - see the link below).

I can see that point for sure. For instance, it's nice to remember which page a certain reply was on. But I find that I read more posts with infinite scrolling, personally. I rarely click passed page two on any forum and I dislike the constant loading. I guess its just preference.

**WhiplashVIII** · 12-17-2018, 04:23 AM

Great idea about hosting in Iceland, or possibly Switzerland. As we are now considered "non-conformist" (how shocking is that, btw?!), it's only a matter of time before we are targeted (if not already).

**Estiar** · 12-17-2018, 05:08 AM

Totally agree about not having an upvote/downvote system. They just encourage cliques and power games for people more interested in throwing their weight around than encouraging real discourse.

**aileron** · 12-17-2018, 05:34 AM

As many have already said, no up vote down vote, please. Infinite scroll... meh, as long as there is a go to bottom button. I notice there are no first and last buttons here, just previous and next, not sure if those can be added.

**Keaton** · 12-17-2018, 06:07 AM

These are some REALLY good suggestions
Hope they will be taken into consideration

**Chairman Meow** · 12-17-2018, 07:15 AM

Originally posted by Arnox View Post

OK, so, first of all, I'm not one of those people that wishes to bring this site down. Not at all. In fact, when this video first popped up on my feed, it made me raise my eyebrows a lot because what you guys are proposing is almost exactly what I've trying to accomplish except on a more general scale.

I think I need to be clearer and talk about who I am. The universal nickname I use is Arnox and I administer a site called Sanctuary that is dedicated to freedom of speech and freedom of information. We were gonna start specializing in the games genre as that's what we all had a passion for. But I see you're beating me to the punch already!

This is actually great because if you can do what I set out to do, it would allow me to formally retire from admin duties and just let somebody else do the work of administration and maintenance. Some VERY important pointers though, from one admin to another.

1. Do NOT use vBulletin. Use XenForo instead. XF was made by the old vBulletin team and vB is now just a husk of its former self anyway. I get that you already paid for the license, but this is very important as, of course, your choice of site software will decide how easy or hard it will be to maintain, moderate, add content, and add features to your site, and once it's locked in, it's a bitch to move to another brand of software. You guys still have time. Please don't stick with this crap.

2. Please don't use a reputation/upvote-downvote system. I've been on the internet a long time and they've all stifled real discussion in some way.

3. Please don't have overbearing site rules or moderation. We get enough of that on other sites as well. Have very common sense rules. Make them as streamlined as possible. If the rules are too much, you guys will kinda become the evil you're seeking to destroy. Although it's not my site at all and you guys can do with it what you will, forbidding political discussion of ANY kind sounds like a huge recipe for disaster.

4. I know this sounds obvious but choose your moderators CAREFULLY. Look at what they contribute to the site (besides money).

5. Backup the site constantly. Use your funds to set up an easy backup service with your host. They'll probably have one. This will SAVE YOUR ASS in emergencies.

6. You'll have to give your content producers a reason to choose your service instead of just using YouTube or making their own site or blog to host their content. Realize that this is one of the things you will have to compete with.

7. Try to host the site in Iceland. There's very few internet regulations there and it's not part of the EU either, which will protect you somewhat from spurious American or European litigation. It is more expensive indeed, but it also looks like you're not hurting for money, so I wouldn't worry about that.

-

Besides all that, I wish you all luck. I also sent these suggestions in an email, but the email account I used had a very old and kinda cringy joke-name attached to it and now I want to commit seppuku for not realizing it.

I endorse everything that you have said here. Most of this has been my experience as well. When it comes to selecting moderators it I will add that it's usually not a good idea to just go with the forum superstars. Many admins fall for this trap and end up regretting it. Modding is about more than just posting a lot. Look at people's posts and see what their judgement is like. If you can grab a few older more experienced peeps so much the better. An example of a forum that did not follow this advice would be ResetEra, and we all know how badly THAT turned out.

**Forge** · 12-17-2018, 07:33 AM

I'm indifferent about up/down votes, but what the "experienced" people keep forgetting to mention is that the number of votes a member can give, up or down, can be limited to a certain number per day, voting privileges can be granted upon meeting a certain criteria, like only allowed after a person has made 100 posts, and that voting privileges can be suspended for those whom abuse it.

**Arnox** · 12-18-2018, 01:28 AM

Thanks for all the support, everyone! <3

Originally posted by Forge View Post

I'm indifferent about up/down votes, but what the "experienced" people keep forgetting to mention is that the number of votes a member can give, up or down, can be limited to a certain number per day, voting privileges can be granted upon meeting a certain criteria, like only allowed after a person has made 100 posts, and that voting privileges can be suspended for those whom abuse it.

It's not worth the drama and that still won't stop people being willfully ignorant/stupid/spiteful with their votes. At the end of the day, why do we even want it here, especially when there are so many places that have such a system already?

**Arnox** · 01-12-2019, 06:19 AM

Monthly bump. I'm very disheartened to see that... Pretty much none of my suggestions were taken seriously. Or really anyone's for that matter. Even worse, the site is now much slower than before. Well, alright. I guess all this is the staff's choice, but I thought ExclusivelyGames was gonna be different. Perhaps the most egregious thing here is that, to my knowledge, none of people's suggestions were even addressed or even acknowledged. If this is not intentional then communication needs to be worked on. And I do get that it looks like I'm just whining because the staff didn't validate my personal suggestions, but please trust me when I say that is not the case. I do want this place to become great, but if the staff doesn't even say anything, then there's absolutely no dialogue, and that is a big problem.

**Erebus** · 01-12-2019, 04:38 PM

I agree with 3, 4 and 6. I kinda agree with 2. People shouldn't use likes to the point that they're not posting much. I don't know anything related to 1, 5 and 7.

I'll add to it that I think the "comment" option in replying to a post is a bit redundant and disrupts the flow of the conversations in a thread.

**Animusisters** · 01-12-2019, 07:22 PM

Good luck suggesting the same stuff next time.

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