i had the idea to do a monthly series of posts recapping the forum's activities over the past month, with a few other fun sections thrown in. before going through the effort that would entail, i figured i should make a post asking whether anyone would be interested in that, and if so, what ideas they might have for it, so uh: would anyone be interested in that? and if so, what ideas might you have for it?
currently, these are the sections i'd plan on always doing:
-**new threads**: a list of all the new threads in the past month, with a short one sentence summary of each
-**new members**: a list of all the new members who joined in the past month, welcoming them all at once
-**club ongoings**: a quick explanation of what each club is up to
i also had some other ideas i was less certain of:
-**unofficial forum mascot for the month**: people would privately message me their pick of a character, and the first four would be put in a poll, the winner becoming the unofficial mascot for the forum
-**thread spotlights**: i'd choose older existing threads to spotlight (i'm not sure how i'd choose which threads to spotlight, though)
-**personality quiz section**: i'd design a (meaningless) forum-centric personality test with various peculiar traits, with a single new question each month
so, does this sound alright? uninteresting? too tomfoolish? like an inevitable train crash? let me know!
(i'm leaning towards, if people seem to like this, doing it myself until interest runs out or i give up, but i'd be willing to make it a group thing if others are interested or think they can do better (you probably could!))
if anyone has suggestions for what name it, what else to include in it, or wants to offer to proofread it, please let me know!
also, if you want to nominate a fictional character to be unofficial forum mascot for the month, please send that to me in a private discussion~ (to keep it secret!) i'll only go with the first 4 people to send me a character (i'll update that post if/when it happens; if it doesn't, i'll pester some of you via discord, i guess)
@āNoJoToā#p154401 -unofficial forum mascot for the month: people would privately message me their pick of a character, and the first four would be put in a poll, the winner becoming the unofficial mascot for the forum
My first thought about this is that once a month seems like a blistering pace.
Maybe it would be more fun to undertake a more involved process to pick a mascot, but it's for a longer period? Is it time for our GameFAQs Character Battle era??
Case in point--Nintendo declaring that 2013 was The Year of Luigi is still funny a decade later. Could 2024 be the Insert Credit Forum's Year of Ebisumaru?
>
@āNoJoToā#p154401 -thread spotlights: iād choose older existing threads to spotlight (iām not sure how iād choose which threads to spotlight, though)
Seems like something that would work best on a submission and/or nomination kind of basis. I feel the criteria should be pretty loose--maybe one person thinking a thread they posted a while back was fun or had a lot of good discussions, and could be brought back, is enough. Or, someone wants to recognize someone who put a lot of work into a thread. I mean, I can think of some threads I would nominate to have a spotlight shone on it.
It should probably be voluntary, if it were to be open for nominations. Even if someone put in a lot of effort into a post a long time ago doesn't necessarily mean that they would want it to be highly visible today.
PDF zines are cool!!! I think a lot of people here have Blog Energy, but with no real outlet for it in 2024 internet context (besides posting here). this could be a fun vehicle for that, which doesn't require the āah, but how do I turn this into a Thread?ā self-filtering. That is, assuming we have enough unemployed-but-weirdly-motivated people for regular releases, lolā¦ I worry that monthly releases would burn out even the most idealized NEET editor.
Another site I used to post on had a zine happening some time ago. But they bit off a bit more than they could chew w/ production values, length standards, etc, and "only" got 4 issues done over 3 years before petering out. I guess that's pretty normal for zines, though - and a whole bunch of stuff happened on that website that probably contributed to it, too.
HOWEVER, if I were a New User, I would probably find the "regular, indexed list of all the new members" thing really intimidating. I have no clue how normal that is, but it is how _I_ would react. I assume at least one other person would too? this is a bulletin board, not an esports team, after all. and Gaagaagiins is right about consent for reprinting/surfacing older posts. obviously everything on here is happening in public, there's technically a search engine, etc - but it's worth it to be careful that a "community project" does not accidentally make community members uncomfortable.
@āsdateā#p154495 PDF zines are cool!!! I think a lot of people here have Blog Energy, but with no real outlet for it in 2024 internet context (besides posting here).
@āGaagaagiinsā#p154489 i see what you mean with a month being too short a reign for a mascotā¦ iām not gonna promise anything, but iāll think about itā¦
also, you brought up some really good points involving the āthread spotlightā idea; i hadnāt thought about asking for consent, but i see now how thatās important, and will do that. i was deliberating on a nomination system vs. me just choosing threads; a nomination system would be ideal, but iām worried about low turnout and how iād actually choose from the suggested threads (i was thinking a randomized system could work, with checks to insure a suggestion canāt get held up too long, but iām still not entirely confident in the idea yet). me being the person to choose would have a lot of problems, primarily underrepresenting threads iām less interested in, but it would eliminate the problem of choosing between nominations, and of people potentially feeling left out if their pick isnāt chosen.
i think what i might do is choose the threads for the first month or two, while opening it up for suggestions and then deciding a system based on the response. (if anyone wants to suggest a thread to be spotlighted though, feel free to private discussion (pd? pm? dm?) that to me, and i'll probably override what i was planning with that suggestion).
@āNoJoToā#p154505 me being the person to choose would have a lot of problems
Could sort that particular issue out by having a sort of panel of people to help you make decisions like that. Get an odd number of people to vote so there's no chance of a tiebreaker, done.
On that point, I would be delighted to contribute to this in any way
@āsdateā#p154495 i want to clarify that, at least right now, this wouldnāt be a place where people can publish their own writing/other projects; gaagaagiins started a zine project that would be a much better fit for that, and while it kinda petered out, i still hope it will start back up again, and donāt want to interfere with that possibility (also, iām much less well equipped to handle that than the system gaagaagiins set up).
i was considering having a section for showing off forum-membersā projects/creations, though. i donāt have a clear idea of what that would look like or how it would work, but i think if i manage to do this for a couple of months, iāll try to make that idea work.
also, on your point about the new member welcome section: though i was hoping it would come off as friendly and encouraging, i had the worry that what youāre saying would be the case, and you know what? youāre right! even if it would only make one person feel weird, thatās one person too many; iām scrapping that section.
@āGaagaagiinsā#p154511 i think a panel/group is a good idea (not just for choosing threads to spotlight, but for putting together the whole thing), iām just nervous about how to go about that, and about it becoming something bigger than iād be able to handle participating in.
iāve said this like twice already but i think i might try to get the first post out, to give an idea of what iām going for, then try opening up offers to join a panel.
@āNoJoToā#p154512 also, on your point about the new member welcome section: though i was hoping it would come off as friendly and encouraging, i had the worry that what youāre saying would be the case, and you know what? youāre right! even if it would only make one person feel weird, thatās one person too many; iām scrapping that section.
Kind of like the introduce yourself thread, though, I think it'd be great if there was some kind of section or segment of it that was more than anything about encouraging newcomers and lurkers to contribute and be a little visible, which seems less likely to cause discomfort if it's opt-in.
@āsdateā#p154495 I think a lot of people here have Blog Energy, but with no real outlet for it in 2024 internet context (besides posting here)
I already wrote this [overly-enthusiastic screed](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/308-share-your-website) encouraging people to start blogs three and a half years ago, but with the passage of time, I want to once again reiterate. I've found starting [a blog](https://saddleblasters.neocities.org) (on Neocities) much easier and more rewarding than I expected. At the very least, my fear that no one would read it turned out to be untrue. Getting emails from strangers commenting on my writing is such a weirdly thrilling experience.
Anyway, I wish more people on these forums would start blogs, if nothing more than to make it easier for me to find/reread old posts. E.g. @treefroggy is constantly chronicling his adventures playing through old games on original hardware and making observations about them I've never seen others make before. He could cross post those as is on a website and that would make excellent reading content. The same goes for a lot of other people on here. I like reading people write informally and loosely about games (often even more than I like big formal write-ups), so I think a lot of posts on here would make excellent starting points for blogs.
I'd like to suggest naming it following the International Sonic Standard.
Insert Credit Blast
Insert Credit Chaotix
Insert Credit Triple Trouble
Insert Credit R
Insert Credit Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Insert Credit Mania
Insert Credit Shuffle
Insert Credit at the Olympic Games
The Murder of Insert Credit
Iāve been meaning to write some kind of Important Thinkpieceā¢ on the glory days of the early internet, but every time I sit down to do it, I find another, better piece that someone else has already written. So for now, hereās a collection of articles that to some degree answer the question āWhy have a personal website?ā with āBecause itās fun, and the internet used to be fun.ā
@āHunterā#p154568 Oh my god, I would live for fake gossip (because real gossip is often hurtful). But yes, I am here for this. I'll even help ghost write it.
- āAntillese is bad at falling blocks games but keeps streaming Lumines in the Dirtbag Gaiden Discordā isnāt really gossip, itās a matter of public record at this point. Why does he keep doing it?
- What's @"kory"#525 up to these days anyway? Is his new [PICO-8 game ready for prime time](https://kbones.fun/discharge/) with such a suggestive name?
- Rumors are that @Jaffe and Frank are on the outs again. [Will they ever kiss](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/3180-ep-327-the-third-knuckles)? And why aren't Tim and @exodus friends? It seems like they would get along well and they have a lot in common!
- [Who is DJ Tent Mode anyway](https://mstdn.party/@DJTentMode/111801216332311059)?
