Board 8 > My friend and I are working on starting up a website and want some ideas.

(+) Yeah! (+)

We're looking to start a kinda one-stop hub for nerds of all flavors. There'll be forums and chatrooms and all that whatnot, but also things like meetups and downloads and stuff. We're shooting for a very strong sense of community and trying to be the kinda site where you hang out all day and wander around to do stuff.

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you're aiming way too big for a startup.

start small and work your way towards that.

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Just a thought, but if you're going for such a community vibe, it may be better to focus on one specific subject, like games or anime.

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So 4chan + rules and chatrooms?

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Well, we're also focusing it a bit locally. Ideally we're going to facilitate meetups and stuff like that, and if it goes REALLY well we'd like to parlay it into a shop. I feel like focus isn't NECESSARILY needed for this kinda thing....somebody like me might sign on for the anime stuff, but stay for the roleplayers or something.

And ideally something more complex than just an imageboard. We're tossing around things like character battles and meetups and hosting and giving exposure to small-time developers of things.

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~Tommeri Uranius Bombaldi the Fourth, esq.
(aka not Krakenprophet)

this is less helpful than expected :\

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~Tommeri Uranius Bombaldi the Fourth, esq.
(aka not Krakenprophet)

So GaiaOnline, but with more nerdy stuff?

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Oh, I am one yet many.

...No? It'll have a forum and nerds will go there but there's no game or anything.

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~Tommeri Uranius Bombaldi the Fourth, esq.
(aka not Krakenprophet)

I...well...uhh...

Hmm, try designing an amazing logo and a catchy name/slogan...other than that, good luck.

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Oh, I am one yet many.

what kind of advice are you looking for here exactly? like i don't think much needs to be said regarding layout - you know it's best to keep it simple. the most dangerous idea you stated is the meetup idea. people will meet up on their own, but when you design your site with that as an intended result you have to beware of 2 things:

1) the dangers of promoting such a thing
2) the fact that it will unquestionably be used for sex.

the first one will get some issues with minors more than anything else.
the second will kill a lot of what you seem to be aiming for. even if it can be a success it's not what you want your site to be known for.

if both happen, that's the worst case scenario and what you want to make sure you get no heat for it.


so here's the deal, you want local meetings and stuff? fine. start with the basics. you'll need 2 main boards for this:
1) something like a Social Events board. this mostly goes for larger groups, or rather events where larger groups/more risk will be met. meet ups won't be randomly generated by nature, but there will be something that people can go to and meet up there, as a group. this is something that's actually pretty necessary for a lot of people since they hate going to events solo, or need other people to go with (e.g., staying at a hotel for a con). you can help satisfy the con go-ers by giving them a place where they can stay with other people at a hotel. just remember the 1st problem and how that can affect your site; having some sort of feedback system in those instances can be a good thing as a pre-caution.

2) a suggestions board of a large event. eventually you can expect the idea of having 'social get-togethers' come up if you get big enough, and at that point you can cross that bridge to how you want to tackle it. but by then you'll have already established a particular community and should know much, much better in what drection you want to go.

for smaller-get togethers, it's too much of a hassle to go through all that. big events need organization, little ones don't. like if someone wants to go to Raw or something with others, no need for that. but try to keep the get-together rules more focused on events than anything else. shows, concerts, parties - you'll have to decide how far all that's fine to do. you can even try for a sort of board for young adults, where you can try to split some people for both job hunters and alcohol. any meet up there would be assumed (or rather, stated that those who participate ought to be) adults, so the biggest problem of minors wouldn't be as much a concern.



you'll need people from a lot more than just board 8. board 8 can get you some people from major cities if you want, but we're too small for that idea. at best i can think of is using facebook to try to get some people in? but for that you'll first need to have a catchy site layout. if the first apperance sucks, you'll never get anywhere. at the same time, you do need a base to work with as if people just see a blank site they won't be interested. so you do need some people to make it interesting before you really start expanding as people go 'hey that looks fun, i wanna go there too.'

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"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.

content's another issue as to what kind? you have the theme in mind which is great, but what content can you put for an appearance? avatars? picture signatures? how's the security? how much media can people expect to be thrown in their face basically. in general would side with less is more here. also related to it comes the issue of profanity and language. if you want to keep a family friendly vibe, you prob have to be a bit restrictive to that. not that it makes much sense, and not to the level gamefaqs does it, but you should think about if you want one and how much of it. or if you want to just keep a more general vibe of don't be excessive with your language. how's the purge handeld? piracy/illegal activities? you get the idea. content and rules go hand in hand.


a bunch of other sites have a lot of nerdy dealings. rpgdl does stat whores. gaia does anime. not sure what you can think of for comics, but you'll probably want a vs. board of some sort too (or a character hype board too, if you will).

though the one thing you really should make sure you do right is the goddamn chat system. look to facebook as an idea of how it shouldn't be. >_>;
if you want an internal chat system (which is a good thing, especially if you want people to stay on it all day) then you definitely need to make sure you beware of any exploits that are doable through 'em and try to streamline its functions and appearances across the forum. hell, have skins for it. you'll probably need someone knowledgable in java for this to get done in an ideal way.

not sure what your'e after with downloads, but user-made content that they want to share with others can be helpful. hell you can make some of it in a sort of 'if you want to make it public domain you can do that too' if they really just want feedback and possibly some exposure if anyone uses their stuff. that's more of a deviant art type of thing though, so you prob should see how they got that going better. other than that..... not sure what you're after. PC gamers in general are very community based by nature of their system, so you'll prob want some good background for that to work with.


think i'm out of basic ideas/precautions for you though.

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The future must protect the clone's past.
"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.

I don't have anything to offer, but

From: Tom Bombadil | #001
meetups and downloads

Definitely making this the name of my first album.

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I'd second caution in how you dictate "meet-ups." Limited exposure / liability is never a bad thing, so depending on the purpose you may consider restricting this aspect - for example, to an area of the forum subdivided into regions of the U.S. where members can post or propose gaming groups.

Since the project is in its inception you should probably keep a running list of sites that share similarities with what you envision and figure out what parts you want to emulate.

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-BlAcK TuRtLe

something like a Social Events board.

This is definitely the direction we wanna go, yeah. We're looking more for "hey let's have a LAN party" or "hey let's all cosplay in the park" kindsa things than "I wanna get a beer with somebody" or "who wants secks"

you'll need people from a lot more than just board 8.

To be sure. The other guy has a good head for getting the word out, but we're both going to be working pretty hard on that. I am hoping to get at least a handful of ye to come along, though, especially those of us in the Chicago area.

though the one thing you really should make sure you do right is the goddamn chat system

Yup. We're putting a lot of our eggs in the chatroom basket, so to speak. Other dude's a solid programmer, so I'm not too worried about it, but our site is kinda gonna live and die by how successful the chat is.

not sure what your'e after with downloads, but user-made content that they want to share with others can be helpful

Pretty much whatever our people want as long as it's legal. It's not gonna be LL levels of "download site oh and a forum I guess" but for things like sheets for an RPG campaign or fanfics or stuff like that. We're actually planning on having an art submission section, too, but checking out dA probably would be a good idea for that, yeah.

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~Tommeri Uranius Bombaldi the Fourth, esq.
(aka not Krakenprophet)

Yup, there's going to be a local focus already. We're certainly not turning away people who aren't around here, but most of our outreach is going to be around Illinois and the midwest so it's easier to get the gang together. That's a good idea though if we wind up going big and national.

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