Implemented Advertisement for Site Events

Nice to see that there are more holiday-themed events coming around, but this one kinda went under the radar. If you happen to be in this section this week, and happen to check this somewhat ambiguously-named thread, you get to join a special event? Doesn't that make people feel left out?

My suggestion is simply more noticeable advertising. Staff could link to the sign-ups in their signature. It doesn't even have to be painfully obvious (although maybe a bit more obvious than thematic avatars); just something to pique people's interest and get them searching. The key is to make it a constant across all forums, and the easiest way that comes to mind to do that is signature advertising. There are possibly other ways, and I'm open to ideas if anyone has them.

 

I second the motion. If Saxima had not told me about it, I would never have heard of this most recent event. The problem does exist, even for site regulars. That can be very frustrating. At some point, telling a member to pay attention or miss out ceases to be a proper retort. Maximizing community involvement should come first for community projects and events as a matter of course.

I disagree, however, about signature advertisements being enough. They will attract more users, but a forum-wide notice would be far better. I am sure you know what I mean. It is possible to temporarily add a box to the top of the forum telling people about the event. Giving the box itself the theme is a plus. This is especially convenient if the event requires sign ups; letting members know how much time they have to post in the thread is very important even to those who knew about it, and it would be very nice not to have to check the thread every time they wish to be reminded. That coupled with signature advertisements and another hints or not should increase community involvement greatly and lower the number of people who complain about being left out. Do you have anything to lose by doing this?

 

All of the updates are in the news forums and on the homepage. Failing to regularly check those guarantees you're going to miss out on things. If that's not enough, though, we can always utilize our Notices system. For example:

Spoiler: Notices

 

You should obviously check the section that talks about all the forum news regularly, if you don't, then you can't really complain about this.

It should stay this way, maybe it will make the slackers check that section more often, and there are important things there once in a while.

 

Did you read my post? You are neither participating in (not certain, presuming) nor putting work into this project. Even if you did work for it, you would be complaining about the laziness of others only in defense of the laziness that you yourself hold. I can write a code to do what I suggested in the same amount of time it would take me to look for and find the thread in question. That time that I would take would save many others that time, by and far making up for my efforts. Your complaint comes from the laziest position of all. Let me know when you get a higher horse than mine, Chris.

That is exactly what I wanted. Why don't you do this for events that are limited-time only?

 

First of all, Chris was merely stating his thoughts, which he has every right to do, so long as they are done so civilly. Kindly back off~

We can in the future if enough people are missing out on them. I presumed that people who would want to participate in events & such (and really anyone who regularly visits the forums) would check the news sections.

 

I had no idea about the wonderland thing until last night, the 15th for me. Got a feeling i missed it, but the thing that bothers me is for some reason the threads started weren't appearing in "New Posts". The moment i got home from school i clicked new posts, didn't see the wonderland things anywhere. Strangely enough, apparently (when i saw it later) it was started a couple of hours before then. I like the idea of having the notices up the top of the screen that can be dismissed, as it would help quite a bit.

 

Honestly, I have to agree with Chris here. The Community News and Projects section is pretty much designed just for this. Not to mention that the thread was posted in a fair amount of time since it has been up. Plus there are adverts on the Home Page as well.

But it is viable for members who neglect to check either place (the Homepage I can understand for members, but neglecting to check the Community section is on the fault of the user). It's not exactly necessary, and I'm not against it, but please do be sure to check out the Community News and Projects section more regularly, especially if there was a post made there fairly recently. o;

As for signature ads, some of us do do that (Jayn with RP Idol, me with PotS/PanS (need to get them back up there again)), but the successes of that vary. But yeah, no problem with notices, but do remain a bit more vigilant of the Community forum.

 

First of all, I think I'm participating in this. Even though I don't spend that much time on KHV anymore, I still scroll through the hub, checking what the current latest threads are in them. If I notice something fun, interesting or important, I look at that thread. Don't know if that fits your definition of lazy, but surely you can scroll through the hub at least once a day and look see if there's something interesting? Especially in the section that is designed to give news about the community. Yes, sure, your code will save people time, but that's what, a half a minute a day?

Really, I just don't see what the big deal is, you're making a problem out of something that doesn't deserve to be one in the first place.

 

His post was precisely the kind of response that I was trying to avoid. I specifically said, "At some point, telling a member to pay attention or miss out ceases to be a proper retort." I can understand someone countering this, but ignoring it completely and stating it as if I presented no position irritates me. I also have some trouble believing that he holds the beliefs he is presenting. He has no personal stake in the subject, and it appears to me that he is dissenting just to be dissenting. I do not appreciate that.

To illustrate this, consider that he did not comment on the suggestion itself, but rather insulted members who would support it. He did not comment on the helpfulness of the suggestion, whether or not it would enrich the user experience, how much effort it would take on the part of the staff, or how it would affect him personally. Instead, he said that members should be content that they can view the thread and that asking for a more user friendly interface reflects badly on them. This is not how one should treat a suggestion, and it is not the kind of post that should be defended.

Please do so. I and others would appreciate it greatly; please be assured that your efforts are not in vain.

I disagree. Very few things are 'the fault of the user'. A forum, like any company, continues to exist and keep a good reputation by meeting users' needs. There is an old saying and golden rule for anyone involved in business. It goes, "The customer is always right." When one designs a product, one must consider what the customer wants out of it above all else. Creating the best user experience is what drives companies to success. If a forum considers its users at fault for not being able to navigate their systems or being too lazy to look for important updates, then its users will grow frustrated, especially if they see other sites catering to user's tendencies in ways that they like.

It is the job of the staff to design a product that will please lazy customers more than it is the job of the customers to shape up and pay attention to staff-oriented designs. The customer should always be at the center of the staffs' work. There is a point at which the effort involved is unrealistic, but this is not one of those cases. Is that not so?

You are participating in the Valentine's Day event? That is what I meant.

Please see my response to Misty above. Your notion of it being a 'deal' at all implies that we think it is a problem. That is a negative association that you added onto the suggestion. Please note that a suggestion is not the same as a complaint. What Sforzato suggested and what I followed up with are ideas that we believe will enrich the user experience. It would take someone who sees any change as negative to call our suggestion a complaint.

What was lazy was your response to the suggestion, not your overall actions regarding checking events.

For the record, my code would save many people days, and yet others the frustration of having missed out entirely. I will say it again, albeit in different words: if the user is too lazy or absentminded to navigate your sections and read your threads without prodding and it will not take much effort to prod them, then it is a failing on your part if they miss out on the event where they would not have had you prodded them. Are you aiming to please as many users as possible, or just make the information available? That is an important question to ask yourself if you are the one designing the interface.

 

I like this idea. I mean, people should check more often if they want to get involved with the community--but in the event that they miss it for some reason, this would work perfectly.

 

I am participating, yes.

But you are making it out to be a problem, or else you really wouldn't care about this. You are presenting losing that half a minute a day as a big deal. You say that you will be saving people days, but for it to become that much time you must have already spent years on KHV. You will bring the time you waste on KHV a tiny little bit down.

If this suggestion is accepted, then it essentially rewards people for being "lazy and absentminded", as you put it.

Your initial statement of telling people to pay attention and that the events come first really isn't that good. Why? Because despite this event being impossiburu to find, there will still a lot of people who signed up for it, certainly enough to make it worth it. So yeah, and yeah. But yeah. Yeah.

 

Hm, I see. It still makes little sense, though.

I tend to care about things when I know that I am right or could be right about them no matter what they are. It is considered one of my major traits that I argue everything that is arguable. The problem here is not the fact that the suggestion is not in effect. Nay, if there is a problem that I care about, it is the way in which you are defending the status quo.

Please; you insult your own intelligence. When we have closed sign ups for an event in which you only have a few days to sign up, a day is the world to you. Furthermore, many missed out on these events completely. I am not trying to save people time in the long run of their time on the site, though it will save them some time by extension. I am trying to save them time in relation to specific events. Do you understand?

If your complaint is acknowledged, then no matter what the staff do, it will be the duty of the user to find the information wherever they put it or else they will be called "lazy". Duty for users? Think about that for a second.

Once again, there is no "reward" here. The staff are like a company. They exist to enrich the user experience. Your complaint suggests that all changes that would make the forum more efficient are negative. If you do not believe that this suggestion would enrich the user experience, then say so and explain why. If you do, but believe that enriching the user experience is a bad thing, then you are a problem in yourself and I hope that no staff acknowledge your opinions on matters like this.

 

I would like to clarify that we are not quite like a company. These different events are optional and we could simply do the bare minimum and we'd still have an abundance of people generating income for the site. However, that'd really be just no fun for anyone involved. So I do agree about enriching the user experience for the most part :>

All he's against is people being lazy--no, extremely lazy. I don't recommend you continue this debate here, as it's not helping the suggestion at all.

That said, I like the idea because some people might miss things by pure chance. Maybe they just didn't want to check the news that week, or maybe they forgot. It happens. If a person really wants to be lazy, they wouldn't partake in the event, regardless of how it's announced. In any case, posting a notice on the top of the forum doesn't harm anyone.

 

I agree that putting a notice up for events is a good idea, like site-wide ones, is a good idea, for people who miss them or who don't often leave certain sections (Thinking Codes Vault, Spam Zone and RP mainly here). However, i would encourage people to look at the community news and projects just maybe once a week, because what gets posted there is often very important.

 

You would lose a lot of your members if you did that. New events and innovations are what is keeping a lot of members here, and the staff are here because members are here. I would not have joined if I felt that this site was badly managed, for example.

Also, you as the staff are generating income, but Tienewman is taking all of the profits. You both want traffic, but it is not for the same reasons. He wants money, and you want to be a larger and more enjoyable part of the Kingdom Hearts community. You are volunteering to make this a better place. As such, it is in your best interest to enrich the user experience, and he profits from that as well. Is this not the case?

At least we agree on that account.

 

Talking from past experience and not recent events, as I haven't been here.
I'm in the middle on this. I mean, I agree we need to advertise more in some form (weekly newsletter? People could subscribe to it and it gets emailed).
But there is a Forum Event section and things pop up on the home page. If people are interested in participating in community events, then they should be visit the sections that have community events announced.
It would be awesome if there was a way to constantly show KHV-only advertisements on every page in some form (permanent small bar at the top, or something?) as long as it wasn't too obstructive and obnoxious.

If staff were to advertise through their signatures, we'd have to figure out if they should advertise forum-wide events, section-only events, seasonal events, or all. Should it be simply a link? Some kind of image? How big should it be? What if someone chooses not show signatures through their CP; should they be forced to enable images? How much room are we expecting staff to make in their signatures; enough to leave no room for their own tags or other forms of creativity?

All in all, I'd be up for a weekly newsletter or some kind of reminder system (don't flood my inbox, please), but things do get advertised.