How would you boost 1Emulation's forum/site activity?

[Agozer]

A download space where are the newest version of all the emulators we can find (or at least the better ones) would work, it should give easy access to all of them and people wouldn't get lost searching in the news forum for the ones they want.

We've been throwing around that particular idea for quite a while now, since we used that service in the past.

 

Gordone: If you are talking about enabling HTML in posts, it's not going to happen.

[GodPigeon]

A download space where are the newest version of all the emulators we can find (or at least the better ones) would work, it should give easy access to all of them and people wouldn't get lost searching in the news forum for the ones they want.

We've been throwing around that particular idea for quite a while now, since we used that service in the past.

 

Gordone: If you are talking about enabling HTML in posts, it's not going to happen.

nah i meant for the profile idea.

[Madman]

Oh wee i'm glad my suggestion found some positive feedback.

 

But i sense some differences here:

On the one hand, you want an active forum.

On the other hand, you want to stand out from the rest.

 

I think thats the main problem of the site:

There are like thousands of sites like 1emu around:

A Portal thingy, plugged ontop of a forum software.

Dont get me wrong, my romuniverse wasnt much different, but it didnt work out in the long term.

I learned something from my half a dozend websites i did over the years.

 

The reason is simple:

The web is a place of people taking stuff and not giving anything in return.

I noted that on romuniverse and i especially see it daily since my sidtool is out.

With almost 1000 unique visitors within 2 months and over 200 downloads of 1.0 RC1 alone within like one week, what ammount of feedback would you expect ? I can tell you, its nothing, nada, Z-I-P.

When romuniverse was up, within its 2-3 years of existance it had like 30 people posting on the forums regulary.

 

So get rid of the idea that people will participate on your site for the sites being. The web is full of leechers. Its that way, you cant do anything against it. Example: When i came to the forums a few mins ago, there were 9 members online, and 139 guests. Get the idea ?

 

Now there is some more i want to bring in:

You have a lot of consoles here that are covered in the forums. From oldschool (S)NES to PS3 and XBoX 360. Divide that up. To make it simple: You may have like 13 people here for each console supported. Thats not enough to get activity here, considered the leecher mentality on the web.

If only 1/10th of people register here, cause they find the site interesting, you end up in 1/100th,

cause the site covers too much.

 

I dont know, how to explain this exactly.

 

Look at some popular sites on the web.

When you load them up in your browser, you dont get 20 news each day.

Lets take the old lemon64.com for example. You load it up, and you get LOADs of content. And the forum isnt the thing that jumps at you. Yet its very active. Why ? Cause people get there, get hooked to the site and then sign up the forums. At least thats what i think.

 

Also, 1emu is called an "Emulation" site. Then i ask myself, what got Xbox, PS2, PS3, Nintendo DS and all the other stuff to do here ? They are not being emulated any well since today.

 

So what is the focus of 1emu ?

Is it emulation ? Then focus on emulation and dont compete with all these rich game sites, cause you cant win.

Is it nextgen consoles ? Then screw the oldskool crap, and get ready for teens flooding your site with ISO requests.

 

And there is another thingi tell you: In the end you will be more successfull when focussing on oldskool stuff. The nextgen consoles have teens glued to them, while the oldskool stuff has mature people interested in them. Thats why 25 years after C64 was released there are still people holding demo compos in 2007 and code stuff like sidtool. On SNES there are many hacksites, people hack roms to translate Japanese games to English and german, people mod the roms. People code stuff like Jumpman under Construction or look at Arno who released its 20th Boulder Dash game in 2006. Or look at me. I come here since 4 years now.

Anything like that for any PSX related site ? Any PSX hacks out there ?

 

You cant have both. 1emu misses a focus, and only sites with a clear focus attract people.

What the focus will be, is determined by the people that have supported 1emu over the years.

Noone of that guys into oldskool ? Then compete with ngemu.

 

 

OK, thats it for today. Beer is empty Forgive me if i pissed you off with anything, but its how i see things.

[Fatal Rose]

The myspace thing and the HTML edit option in profiles seems interesting and would attract new members. Also the idea of changing the main page around with downloaded hardware to make it look more like a website then just a forum would work too. Also there are waaaaaaaay to many sub forums or whatever you call it, gets confusing to n00bs and annoying to sort through when you are searching for something or just have a simple question.

[CJ Jackson]

Upgrade the attack system and allow users to opt-out, browsing the board without being a victim and that would be nice for some.

[Shibathedog]

Oh yeah tutorials are a big thing, We need lots of tutorials, Theres a lot of websites i visit all the time now simply because i used some of their tutorials and then found they had other cool stuff on them.

[Madman]

Oh yeah tutorials are a big thing, We need lots of tutorials, Theres a lot of websites i visit all the time now simply because i used some of their tutorials and then found they had other cool stuff on them.

 

What i said.

[Shibathedog]

yeah and maybe a movies forum?

[L.S.D]

Maybe have contests of some sort, Maybe with online games for Xbox, PC or something like that .

I agreed with James, although my idea is a little different.

 

Make a contest, but something related to forum activities. OFFER a REAL PRIZE like a handheld; DS Lite or PSP as the winning trophy. THe only problem is where to get the fund. Suggestion is for old timers to cough up some money to help out if they are willing Therefore, I pledge USD50 to 1emu if you all decided to go with this. Contact me if needed.

[Lucandrake]

I can ask my mom for $20, and she'll give it to me, problem is getting it on a credit card through paypal (ever since I started getting micro points without her permission (I PAYED HER BACK WTF), she's been hiding it from me so).

[Keith]

I agree with some of the suggestions already made.

 

The name implies it's an emulation site but if you want to expand to more gaming aspects then maybe a name change will help catch some people's attention.

 

General overall interest in emulation is also on a downward trend and has been for the past few years. Every once in awhile you might have a project that will peak some interest but its just basically a flash in a pan when it comes to return visitors.

 

Generating interest in your sites is not an easy thing and their is many things to take into consideration. I agree with the suggestion of moving away from a forum portal style site and into something more professional. Along with a more professional design then the current one could help as well. Some site branding might help especially if you decide to advertise. You want something that catches people's attention and something people won't forget. Being forgettable is one of the biggest reasons people never return or take their visit to the next level and join the community.

 

That takes me to my next suggestion. Maybe if you had some more site interaction with your visitors besides your forums. When people feel they are a part of the site and part of the sites success they care more. Giving them a reason to come back on a daily basis to interact more will help a ton.

 

Sites like myspace, youtube, digg are the current trend. Old news portals are seeing a downard trend in visitors and interaction as more and more people are going to these other types sites because they can participate and be a part of the sites overall success.

 

If you are serious about taking the site to a new level then a lot of work will need to be done and a lot changes. This may or may not be what the current community wants or is ready for. Just some things you will need to weigh.

 

If you wish to remain on the same course but try to gain more popularity it's going to be a hard task because emulation as a whole only generates so much attention and so many visitors. It's hard to make your site stick out more then other emulation sites on the net.

 

So my overall suggestion would be to keep the general focus on emulation and gaming but to expand on the interaction side of things and allow your community to be a bigger part of the overall site.