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Author Topic: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)  (Read 10475 times)

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Offline profezzorn

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #15 on: November 21, 2017, 11:06:04 AM »
Stupid question: how much would it cost to host the images on the forum?
Is it reasonable to raise that money somehow?
(maybe with ads? pay for image quota? pay for mailbox quota? upping the 2% donation to 5%?)

Offline SharkyMcShark

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #16 on: November 21, 2017, 04:16:04 PM »
I browse FX maybe once every three days.

1. GUILD (and Colony) Members have to use it or lose it - some GUILD and colony members haven't posted in years. Some have posted less than 10 times in 2017. I know from following this hobby through Facebook too that some of the GUILD and Colony Members who are dormant on FX still post runs and new product updates on social media frequently. If you're going to set up this system where we're being told that these members are the ones we should be looking to spend with, they need to be active here or the site just looks dead. It needs a clean out of non contributing vendors too.

2. The site as it stands essentially functions as a cartel, which is not particularly welcoming - we're not allowed to talk about some manufacturers at all, anyone not already in isn't allowed to advertise services through here, and we're all told to spend our money with the chosen few in the GUILD. Whether any of the FX team admits it or not, part of the purpose of this place is to channel money to their chosen vendors. When the GUILD is so limited already, and you combine that with the fact that most of them are never present, a lot of people would feel that there's no point signing up here when they can skip on past to any of the more open and broad forums for conversation.

3. We need to do something about the rules on Ultrasabers and Saberforge. I'd wager a good two thirds of people start this hobby with one of these before realising that there's more out there. We should really be looking to welcome those people and introduce them to the wider world of sabees, not just have a grumpy admin post a link to the rules about how they're unmentionable here.

Offline jbkuma

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #17 on: November 21, 2017, 04:19:44 PM »
3. We need to do something about the rules on Ultrasabers and Saberforge. I'd wager a good two thirds of people start this hobby with one of these before realising that there's more out there. We should really be looking to welcome those people and introduce them to the wider world of sabees, not just have a grumpy admin post a link to the rules about how they're unmentionable here.
On this point it isn't cronyism excluding the unnameables, it's that certain manufacturers demand that their products not be discussed. (not exactly sure how that played out case by case)

Offline Forgetful Jedi Knight

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #18 on: November 21, 2017, 04:44:30 PM »
Ultrasabers and SF earned their "banishment" through their actions on this forum. And yes, at the time they WERE here. But, as was he case with others, they took their ball and went elsewhere when they were told they couldn’tdo as they pleased (regardless of what it did to anyone else). Many may be too new to know their history here, but they did have a history here (though most of it was likely fed to the Saalaac pit).
« Last Edit: November 21, 2017, 04:50:50 PM by Forgetful Jedi Knight »


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Offline SharkyMcShark

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #19 on: November 21, 2017, 08:13:58 PM »
I'm aware of the history behind all of it.

I'm not saying that they should be reinstated as GUILD or Colony members. I'm just saying that if you're not allowing any discussion on what for the vast majority of people is the entry point into this hobby, you're only going to alienate potential new members.

Yes I am aware that that they've THREATENED LEGAL ACTION IF OUR PRODUCTS ARE DISCUSSED ON FX SABERS. It's an empty, garbage threat on a legal and practical level.


The point is that as it stands, can anyone think of any reason for anyone to sign up here?
- Can't sell sabers without 3 months/50 posts
- Can't talk about two of the major entry level saber vendors
- Wider variety of vendors and more active discussions available not only on Facebook but other forums.
- Most of the GUILD members don't bother updating their sections, ever.
- The runs that are happening through this site are very infrequently updated and are generally years behind.
- No 'special access' to vendors or similar - you're more likely to have a one on one conversation with the owners of any of the vendors here through Facebook, or on Reddit, than through FX.

It makes me feel bad for the very few officially sanctioned vendors that actually put in the effort to regularly log in and update and converse with people (which as far as I can see it is basically erv, korbanth, LDM, SpaceWindu and that's it really).

Sanjuro hasn't posted in more than two years.
Parksabers website is a mess and their section is never updated.
madcow infrequently advertises Badaxx/Vector/Ascend runs on here compared to on his Facebook and has posted 8 times in the last year, most of which was shilling for some digital collectors platform. He doesn't even share his one off customs on here anymore.
Novastar has posted 4 times in 2 years. 

All of which is fine because life happens and things get in the way and, hey if it's not viable for vendors to log in for a chat and update because they make good money elsewhere then that's fine. To an outsider though it looks like a dead website because you've got a list of the special exalted few in the GUILD, most of whom never bother posting.

Offline RyDiddy

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #20 on: November 21, 2017, 08:27:39 PM »
I'm aware of the history behind all of it.

I'm not saying that they should be reinstated as GUILD or Colony members. I'm just saying that if you're not allowing any discussion on what for the vast majority of people is the entry point into this hobby, you're only going to alienate potential new members.

Yes I am aware that that they've THREATENED LEGAL ACTION IF OUR PRODUCTS ARE DISCUSSED ON FX SABERS. It's an empty, garbage threat on a legal and practical level.


The point is that as it stands, can anyone think of any reason for anyone to sign up here?
- Can't sell sabers without 3 months/50 posts
- Can't talk about two of the major entry level saber vendors
- Wider variety of vendors and more active discussions available not only on Facebook but other forums.
- Most of the GUILD members don't bother updating their sections, ever.
- The runs that are happening through this site are very infrequently updated and are generally years behind.
- No 'special access' to vendors or similar - you're more likely to have a one on one conversation with the owners of any of the vendors here through Facebook, or on Reddit, than through FX.

It makes me feel bad for the very few officially sanctioned vendors that actually put in the effort to regularly log in and update and converse with people (which as far as I can see it is basically erv, korbanth, LDM, SpaceWindu and that's it really).

Sanjuro hasn't posted in more than two years.
Parksabers website is a mess and their section is never updated.
madcow infrequently advertises Badaxx/Vector/Ascend runs on here compared to on his Facebook and has posted 8 times in the last year, most of which was shilling for some digital collectors platform. He doesn't even share his one off customs on here anymore.
Novastar has posted 4 times in 2 years. 

All of which is fine because life happens and things get in the way and, hey if it's not viable for vendors to log in for a chat and update because they make good money elsewhere then that's fine. To an outsider though it looks like a dead website because you've got a list of the special exalted few in the GUILD, most of whom never bother posting.

This post hits on several of the reasons I’ve been frustrated and posted as such in the first place.  While I understand the unfortunate restrictions on some vendors being critically reviewed here because of threats of litigation, which is very costly and time consuming even when the claims are meritless, the issues with inactivity of the authorized dealers is the biggest problem this forum faces.

The old generation has moved on.  There was no opportunity to promote a new generation of builders.  In fact, those efforts were usually quashed by the moderators who aggressively censor posts to make sure only existing mining colony and GUILD members were allowed to promote themselves here, although almost none of them have done much of any business on this forum for years. 

I can personally say each and every time I posted stands for sale I received a scolding message because of some wording in my post could potentially be interpreted as I am accepting a commission.  Never once anything positive or guidelines about how to get promoted to that area. It’s discouraging, and sucks the fun out of the hobby :/
« Last Edit: November 21, 2017, 08:30:23 PM by RyDiddy »

Offline bombarta

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #21 on: November 21, 2017, 11:57:32 PM »
Sharky and RyDiddy are bang on with their comments.
Even mentioning someone somewhere else doing a saber run gets you a warning if they are not guild or colony members here and then the comment is removed. ( must not give money to outsiders ) that's what it feels like.

Mentioning saberF and ultraS to just discuss the handling, weight and so on should not be a problem. Just not allowing derogatory comments about the vendor's should be good enough.
But then I've witnessed a certain guild member here having a pop at a forum members because they complained about one little thing of that guild members saber, does said guild member think that everything they make will be perfect and never have an issue? Sabers no matter who makes them have issue's so if your unresponsive to e-mail then don't be surprised when the customer pops up here asking if anyone has heard from you and complains.
Sounds like the chronic censorship of a dictatorship to me.

I do like the selling rules especially if we've not seen that person elsewhere in the community.
I also think non guild and colony members should be able to do runs here if they've been a participating member for say a year and have 500+ posts, this means people like Spacewindu, Rydiddy, plus others and myself could bring what we do here and not just to FB and other forums. This would most certainly help to boost things by allowing this.
Some people have complained about the lack of runs here but theres tons all over FB but, those people can't post them here and we can't mention those runs, so it doesn't take a lot to figure where all the issues are.
I don't know, i gotta bad feeling about this!
       

Offline SirRawThunderMan

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #22 on: November 23, 2017, 06:16:00 AM »
Forgive me for veering away from the conversation about selling sabers. I've got no dog in that fight. I'm a just a nerd who joined this forum and the saber making hobby because he wanted to learn how to make sabers, and then show them off in the forum gallery. I've had a fair bit of fun doing that.

I have got a fairly simple suggestion for improvement, though: can we clean up some of the more out of date sticky posts in the various forums? the Data Sheets board is almost full with old threads, most of which haven't had a post since 2011. The Questions board has a sticky warning about mixing battery brands, which given that almost every saber made these days uses Li-ion batteries, is a little irrelevant.

There's plenty of good stuff there that I personally have learned tons from. Darth Chasm's and E57's tutorials have plenty of value. But less so from converting a 2005 Master Replica Yoda that hasn't seen any new posts since 2009.

I would also like to echo Profezzorn's call for a more dedicated how-to/tutorial section. The list of tutorials in the Padawan's Training room is so-so, now. There's some good info there, but there's a lot of out of date info, too. And it doesn't help that most of those tutorial threads have lost their very useful pictures due to photobucket being an unspeakable bunch of sithspawn.  :mad:

That's my two cents.
Better late than never.

Offline jbkuma

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #23 on: November 23, 2017, 06:31:33 PM »
To SRTM's point, not only are a lot of the stickies out of date, but many of the authors haven't posted here in years.  It's clogged up with out of date tutorials with broken links, missing images, and nobody around to fix them up. 

Offline DARTH VADER

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #24 on: November 27, 2017, 08:13:01 AM »
I'd agree with your analysis of the stickies. :)

Updating that information has to be left to Master Yoda and the other knowledgeable saber-smiths - but I'd recommend that the updates be made part of the FAQ or KB instead of stickies.   And have ONE sticky post that contains a TOC-like set of links to the appropriate FAQ/KB section.

After all, we have the technology for the KB/FAQ, why not use it. :D


(incidentally, the KB was taken from the main (non-forum) site - which is why it's a little sparse at the moment.)

Offline Morannon

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #25 on: November 28, 2017, 09:11:27 PM »
I Haven't been here nearly as long as most of you, but I can say that I would greatly prefer this to alternatives if some issues were worked out. I find that there is very little incentive to be active. This is the reason I didn't create an account for a long time, and when I did, I wasn't participating. No exciting runs, or even one offs  from guild members, let alone just a few  updates every once and a while. It's hard to want to be involved when the people that got everyone excited don't participate anymore. I understand that Facebook has arguably been best for business, simply because of the amount of people, but if the forum that got everyone started takes a back seat, it's discouraging. I'm sure the boom in the past couple of years has made everyone unbelievably busy, but I hope that once it's under control they will make a prompt return to the passion projects that made this place so alive.

Anyways, my humble opinions:

- More active guild members lead to a more active forum
- I like the sales rule. Makes it more difficult for scammers
- Allowing runs from well known members that are actually active sounds great. Whether thats a change in rules, or a change in mining colony members etc.
- Seems like the legal threats from certain manufacturers, though likely bluffs based on the people behind them, could not be, and need to be heeded for the sake of the forum
- Photos need to be solved, but thats an effort for the community as a whole, not necessarily the moderators

Thanks for all the work you guys do

Rebellion Run Jacen Solo
GCS Ascend

Offline SharkyMcShark

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #26 on: December 04, 2017, 05:09:58 PM »
Look, I don't mean this as a call out and I'm hoping it's not taken that way, but a perfect example of what I was referencing above is that Vader's Vault last week launched a whole new product line (their own branding of the NeoPixel tech) and haven't announced or discussed it here in any way, only though their official Facebook store page and the Facebook group that they coordinate.

Your own guild members are funneling discussion and product launches away from this forum to their own controlled social media.

As above, I do understand that people are too busy actually running businesses to post on every forum about their products. The point I'm making is that if a saber smith is being held out by FX-Sabers as one of the leading/trusted brands in the saber industry and has been given their own subforum and admin status they should really be using FX as one of their first ports of call for announcements and discussion.

Again, this is symptomatic of the decline of this website. Most of the current GUILD members have either disappeared or are drumming up business elsewhere. They need refreshing and rotating, urgently.

Offline DARTH VADER

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #27 on: January 03, 2018, 08:09:47 AM »
4. I'm not sure what the problem is, but sometimes it show very few unread articles so I have to click "show all unread".

I realized that I never answered this.

Yes. The system is acting completely as designed/intended. (Although apparently not as you expected)

--- the "unread" link in the header is "unread posts since last login" (although the actual algorithm is somewhat more complicated)
So, basically, if you log in, view unread, check out a few of them and then leave...   the next time you come back, the system will likely only show the posts made AFTER the last login.
You always have the option to "view all unread" -- but this is not the default option because that database query is probably the most expensive query that the system uses (in terms of server resources).

Offline profezzorn

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #28 on: January 03, 2018, 08:22:11 AM »
4. I'm not sure what the problem is, but sometimes it show very few unread articles so I have to click "show all unread".

I realized that I never answered this.

Yes. The system is acting completely as designed/intended. (Although apparently not as you expected)

--- the "unread" link in the header is "unread posts since last login" (although the actual algorithm is somewhat more complicated)
So, basically, if you log in, view unread, check out a few of them and then leave...   the next time you come back, the system will likely only show the posts made AFTER the last login.
You always have the option to "view all unread" -- but this is not the default option because that database query is probably the most expensive query that the system uses (in terms of server resources).

The problem is that I don't "leave", I visit this place from work, from home, from my phone and possibly more places. Usually I leave the tab(s) open.
I'm not sure how the forum calculates "last visit", but I think it gets a bit confused in this case.

Offline DARTH VADER

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Re: FX-Sabers Forum / Site (suggestions for improvements)
« Reply #29 on: January 03, 2018, 08:41:35 AM »
sessions time out after a certain amount of inactivity -- even if you leave the tab open.
If you have the system set to "leave you logged in" - then you won't NOTICE the session time out, because, when you open a new browser or even just start reusing an existing window, there are handshakes that happen in the background to re-establish a session. The system can't leave sessions open forever - that would quickly fill the database sessions table beyond capacity with any sort of active forum.

 

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