Comments on: Forum Preview, Banners Galore

By: Simon Roberts

Simon Roberts — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 22:24:38 +0000

You need to put up a more obvious login button around here - just now I had to hunt for it (it’s in the “register” page.)

By: Chris Swavely

Chris Swavely — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 21:23:53 +0000

I think the new layout is fantastic and I am looking forward to spending my days on it. :) Simple and easy to navigate with plenty of detailed options for the few who like their forums a bit more fine tuned. Great work Reid!

By: Name

Name — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:29:11 +0000

if there was an option to view full messages on the spy that would be pretty psychedelic

By: notalentjew

notalentjew — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 15:27:58 +0000

I’m loving the return of the search!

By: Zip Code Ness

Zip Code Ness — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 13:28:53 +0000

I personally don’t think the mockup is cluttery or anything like most people are saying. The collapsibility is really nice. :) As well, I love the idea of thumps up posts (and possibly thumbs up topics too maybe if you considered that).

The thing that worries me the most is the forum spy and Mother 3 spoilers. What if someone makes a mistake in their post and forget to put up the spoiler tags? Then it’s on the front page of the forum, and people who haven’t played Mother 3 will have something ruined.

reidman, you’re taking a buisness risk here, but listen, nothing good comes out of playing it safe. :)

By: Reid Young

Reid Young — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:27:09 +0000

Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate them. As for clutter, I spoke about this briefly on the Starmen.Net Forum, but I think that people will get used to the new layout pretty quickly. It might seem cluttered, but as EB Master mentioned, much of it is collapsible. It’s not something that people are used to, but I think it’s a major step up; I’ve tried to eliminate as much chartjunk as possible without making the design sterile.

@Jason: I’m hoping to raise at least $10k. That much money should get us through April; thereafter we may (or may not) decide to raise/borrow more, hard telling right now.

I actually posted a topic in the staff forum about investing shortly before I made this post; I’m currently planning to extend the offer only to staffers, because the more investors I take on, the more difficult/expensive/time-consuming the incorporation process becomes.

Despite this, I definitely haven’t ruled out non-staff investors. If I don’t have many staffers interested/able to invest (I’ve set the bar pretty high), I may get in contact with you and anyone else who is interested. Feel free to email me — reidman@starmen.net

By: Xero7

Xero7 — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 08:28:58 +0000

I like it, the colors, the layout, pretty much everything.

the buttons maybe should be rounded at the top corners, “forum rules”, “member list”, etc

maybe you were avoiding such things on purpose though, I’m no designer haha

By: EB Master

EB Master — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 07:37:10 +0000

To me, the mockup seems a little too cluttered and confusing. The list of posted-in topics is definitely cluttered, but it seems that’s collapsible, which is great. But I think I’m seeing most of the clutter form the Forum Spy box. If that can be closed or otherwise customized, it’d be great.

By: Jason Rosenfeld

Jason Rosenfeld — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 06:43:54 +0000

Well, how much do you need, Reid? I think you could get investors to put a lot into this, that forum design looks pretty sharp, too. So far, from what I’ve heard, you’ve got a solid plan, and you’re lacking in only one area, the particular games you want to expand into. You’re also missing a little on the historical side, since it’s unknown if there’s truly a commercial market in game-fanboyism. I, of course, think there is, or I wouldn’t be posting right now.

How much do you need? I’ve realized I’ve got more funds available than I stated previously, and I’m very interested in investing. If I were you, I’d ask serious investors to email you how much they’d be willing to put in initially. If the value is substantial enough that you can really kick off the business, and you can also make enough of a living as an employee of your company, I say forget the loans and go for investments. You may have to limit stock available or something, but you should really gauge the private interest here. There may be more than you think.

By: TJSomething

TJSomething — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 06:16:59 +0000

It smells like Web 2.0 fancy time!
Seriously, I just like how unique it looks. It looks like the future! Truly a forum for the 2010s.