Groups and Promotions Talk

[Valentin N]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

I want to official apologize if i have given the forum bad rep; I have no intention to give this wonderful forums bad rep.

I am truly sorry.

 

[Jack]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

Don't worry you didn't give us a bad rep. ....... Your help is always appreciated.

 

[LoftedAphid86]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

Don't worry you didn't give us a bad rep. ....... Your help is always appreciated.

Glad to hear it. :biggrin:
I think we need to be a bit more cautious of where we refer people from.
OT: Can we get new themes installed on these forums?

 

[Jack]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

What do you mean new themes? A theme changer? or just the colors ?

 

[LoftedAphid86]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

What do you mean new themes? A theme changer? or just the colors ?

Full forum theme options.
:biggrin:

 

[bogdan]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

The current theme is one of the best themes we've tried. It has all the features that the default theme has + the menu on-top. We liked it so much that we used it in the beginning even if it was a bit buggy and we asked theme authors to help us solve issues. I am not bored with it yet.

 

[AyeAyeCaptain]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

The current theme is one of the best themes we've tried. It has all the features that the default theme has + the menu on-top. We liked it so much that we used it in the beginning even if it was a bit buggy and we asked theme authors to help us solve issues. I am not bored with it yet.

I am content with what we have got now and see no need for change just yet, need to wait for an army/uprising of people first . haha

 

[LoftedAphid86]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

The current theme is one of the best themes we've tried. It has all the features that the default theme has + the menu on-top. We liked it so much that we used it in the beginning even if it was a bit buggy and we asked theme authors to help us solve issues. I am not bored with it yet.

I meant add another option. Keep this one as the default, though.

 

[bogdan]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

O, a theme switcher.

 

[HeffeD]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

Trying to refer people is giving us a bad reputation.
The post on AVG forums was removed.
We can really only refer people on sites where we are active on, otherwise they think of us as spammers. I don't like trying to do this.

Yep. If you are going to try and generate interest in the site, never ask for a referral, even if it's a forum you're known on. That is spammy.

It's a bit like posting an affiliate link to an application, so if someone follows your link and ends up purchasing, you get a cut. Very sketchy...

A referral is gaining you something, even if it's just a number next to your name. Many people are going to be openly hostile about such tactics, as you have noticed.

(This is the problem with a ranking system that relies on referrals, it's asking your users to spam relentlessly, which is likely not going to do much for your image)

Just promote the forum, not yourself... A simple link with a post saying there is a new security oriented forum that has opened up is sufficient. If somebody wants to use your name as a referrer, that's their prerogative, but asking for it is only asking for trouble.

In fact, I purposefully didn't mention any names when I registered because I don't agree with the promotion practice. :dodgy:

 

[bogdan]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

@Elliotcroft: Theme: UserCP -> Edit Options -> Other Options -> Board Style. The bad thing is that none of those themes is customized and we will remove most of them shortly. NOVA is the default theme.

 

[LoftedAphid86]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

@Elliotcroft: Theme: UserCP -> Edit Options -> Other Options -> Board Style. The bad thing that none of those themes is customized and we will remove most of them shortly.

Why do you want to remove most of them?

 

[Chiron]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

Trying to refer people is giving us a bad reputation.
The post on AVG forums was removed.
We can really only refer people on sites where we are active on, otherwise they think of us as spammers. I don't like trying to do this.

Yep. If you are going to try and generate interest in the site, never ask for a referral, even if it's a forum you're known on. That is spammy.

It's a bit like posting an affiliate link to an application, so if someone follows your link and ends up purchasing, you get a cut. Very sketchy...

A referral is gaining you something, even if it's just a number next to your name. Many people are going to be openly hostile about such tactics, as you have noticed.

(This is the problem with a ranking system that relies on referrals, it's asking your users to spam relentlessly, which is likely not going to do much for your image)

Just promote the forum, not yourself... A simple link with a post saying there is a new security oriented forum that has opened up is sufficient. If somebody wants to use your name as a referrer, that's their prerogative, but asking for it is only asking for trouble.

In fact, I purposefully didn't mention any names when I registered because I don't agree with the promotion practice. :dodgy:

I agree with you completely.

I think that the referral method for increasing your stats could backfire.

 

[bogdan]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

@Elliotcroft: Too many options. If everyone uses a different theme the serverload is high. We'll have about 3 themes to select from. Some of them don't even deserve being used

 

[LoftedAphid86]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

@Elliotcroft: Too many options. If everyone uses a different theme the serverload is high. We'll have about 3 themes to select from. Some of them don't even deserve being used

Which ones are you planning to keep?
Nova, what others?
:biggrin:

 

[bogdan]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

I agree with you completely.
I think that the referral method for increasing your stats could backfire.

It brought us some members though. I never thought that people will post on support forums Because this forum appears that it provides support for products most support forums feel offended. We don't offer official support for any of the products. We offer help, but that is a bit different. You can't report bugs here and obviously we'll redirect people to support forums for that.

 

[bogdan]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

@Elliotcroft: Too many options. If everyone uses a different theme the serverload is high. We'll have about 3 themes to select from. Some of them don't even deserve being used

Which ones are you planning to keep?
Nova, what others?
:biggrin:

Which one do you like? I liked MyIPB and the default theme might be kept too. NOTE: Some functions do not work on those themes because we needed to manually edit templetes in the current theme to make them work. Adding all the functions to those themes will take time.

Adding a new plugin sometimes means editing templates. Every time we'll add a new plugin we'll have to check it in every theme and make necessary adjustments. Hard work that might not pay off.

 

[LoftedAphid86]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

@Elliotcroft: Too many options. If everyone uses a different theme the serverload is high. We'll have about 3 themes to select from. Some of them don't even deserve being used

Which ones are you planning to keep?
Nova, what others?
:biggrin:

Which one do you like? I liked MyIPB and the default theme might be kept too. NOTE: Some functions do not work on those themes because we needed to manually edit templetes in the current theme to make them work. Adding all the functions to those themes will take time.

Adding a new plugin sometimes means editing templates. Every time we'll add a new plugin we'll have to check it in every theme and make necessary adjustments. Hard work that might not pay off.

I'd like to see from new themes. Maybe we could suggest different MyBB themes to use as the third theme then have a poll to see which one we use. :biggrin:

 

[HeffeD]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

It brought us some members though.

At the cost of how many potential members who now want nothing to do with the site only because someone was asking for a referral? :neutral:

All I'm saying is that if you want to be taken seriously, a promotion based on spam at a security oriented site isn't the way to go.

 

[bogdan]

RE: New Groups and Promotions

I read the avast thread. The main complaint was about forum content (not much original posts) this I already knew but it generated constructive discussions among staff members. Another one was that we post too much news and avast has a thread dedicated to that, something to keep in mind when we have more original content. Another one was to offer support for apps that currently don't have a support forum, like PrivateFirewall, if I am not mistaken, could be a good one. Many other posts were of no use to me.

On the other hand this could backfire, so I'll probably give the MT Promoter to anyone that currently has 2 ref. (I need to see how many refs everyone has) and than increase the Days on forum and rep points needed to obtain it. This needs to be discussed among staff members, though.