not-so-furry discussion > debate forum

Change Is Necessary

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Storm Fox:
I guess I try to hold on to the idea of this place. The nostalgia or whatever.
It probably is time to just let things go, but I really don't want to do that. I'd rather press on, succeed, and say we did it our way.

The Discord idea is good, but we need more than that. We need more things to do here. More reasons to actually be here. Because Discord will bring new people here, but then what?
Furtopia was once a mix of different things. Art, stories, contests, radio, IRC, RP, special events, web hosting, charity events, that centered around a web forum. Now it's pretty much just that forum.

I'd like to see this place revitalized and get back to what we had, though sometimes I think instead of chasing what we were, we need to try something new, something different and unique. Just not sure what that should be.

In some ways I'm just not sure at all.

cause the rat:
I've belonged to forums on line from the mid 1990's. Everything from genetics to Halloween props. What forums have over places like facebook is the sharing and storing of information. Where's places like facebook is more for 'Looky wat I'z did'. With lots of quick replies from people who will support you no matter what dumb thing you just did. If I ask a question on a forum that is centered around my interest I get real answers. On a facebook page I get emojis. They like or love my question.

If change is necessary than my I make a few suggestions.

The over all physical look of this forum is about as unfriendly as you can get.
Better the ability to share photos direction from the computer.

Rarely have I ever seen a forum go down because of it's members. It's usually bad mods or owners. Seen two huge forms go from 100's of posts a day to 0 in a matter of a few days because of this. One Halloween forum I belonged to had well over 10.000 members. With hundreds of posts a day. If you have ever watched the pro Halloween haunt walk through shows on the Travel Channel you've seen the caliber of the people who were posting there daily. Had advertisers supporting the forum as well. Everything from craft suppliers to big box stores like Lowe's and Home Depot. Out of the blue the owner posted that the forum was meant for people to discuss what he is doing. Not what everyone else is doing. So from this day forward no one is allowed to talk about anything else than what he's doing. Gone in 60 seconds.

Kobuk:
What made Furtopia great in the past so long ago was the free web hosting of furry arts that WS provided "free of charge" and "free of ads". That was one of Furtopia's biggest strong points. But the old web hosting is gone and WS seems to have something new as described here:
https://forums.furtopia.org/index.php?topic=51885.0
https://forums.furtopia.org/index.php?topic=51960.0

The other thing that made Furtopia great (Though some furs will disagree on this.) was the family friendly nature of the place. I'm really only guessing here, but when WS and Kada-ru created this place, they wanted it to be more friendly and geared toward a more PG type audience. Unlike a lot of other sites that had "mature" art, stories and such. I guess they were hoping to show a more "positive" aspect of the fandom by creating this place instead of all the negative stuff that was being reported by the media and such.


Cause: As far as the physical look of the forums, yeah, I'd say some changes could possibly be made. I'm not sure what though. One thing that drastically hurt Furtopia in the past was when it got hacked in early 2008. Since then, there are still some functions and stuff that haven't quite been the same so to speak.
As for the photo sharing directly from the computer, I'm guessing that WS opted out of that as it would have required large amounts of storage/server space and/or additional costs, some of which could have been passed directly to members themselves which WS didn't want to do. So.........when it came time for members to post photos on the forums of artwork they did or fursuiting projects, etc., people had to host their photos somewhere else like Flickr, Photobucket, or their own website, and then link to it.

Chewy, God of Rats:

--- Quote from: Storm Fox on June 19, 2022, 01:56:11 am ---
The Discord idea is good, but we need more than that. We need more things to do here. More reasons to actually be here. Because Discord will bring new people here, but then what?
Furtopia was once a mix of different things. Art, stories, contests, radio, IRC, RP, special events, web hosting, charity events, that centered around a web forum. Now it's pretty much just that forum.


--- End quote ---
Appreciate your feedback, especially since you seem to be the main/only active admin on this forum.
I think that a revamp on Discord could integrate all if not most of the "mix of different things" you mentioned. Obviously with a Discord revamp (in my opinion) a new or updated version of admins should be considered especially with how Discord is "instant" (lack of better words). I, however, believe that maybe a middle-ground of having a Discord (or subreddit,etc) while also having this forum could be a great solution that could generate new users and help extend the life of Furtopia.



--- Quote from: Kobuk on June 17, 2022, 01:02:15 pm ---
While I wish Furtopia could get better and continue longer, I often find myself thinking that maybe it should just close down. It's had a remarkable run of a little over 20+ years and I'm glad to be a part of it. But I just can't help but think that it's now time to retire the place.  :'(  Sorry to say that. But it's true and how I feel.


--- End quote ---

Kobuk, I appreciate your feedback and find it very telling of just how far this site has declined. Regardless of my opinion about you, you are one of the main contributors and seem to post/engage daily on Furtopia. My only thought here is you feel like its time to retire this place, by that do you mean the forum itself or rather this specific layout of said forum/site? Like in theory, admins could "retire" this site like many forums have where the all the posts and discussions are locked by still here for others to view, while redirecting everyone who comes here (members and guests) to a new, improved Furtopia (whether it be a new website or a subreddit, discord server, etc). Is that what you're referencing or is it that its time to shut the door on Furtopia? 

Loc:

--- Quote ---especially since you seem to be the main/only active admin on this forum.

--- End quote ---
Oof ouch my feelings :P  :D

I and an IRC mod did do a trial Discord a while back, to see if it could be a replacement for the IRC, but we had concerns about how to keep it family friendly. The IRC had a bot to monitor it. I am unsure if a simialr bot exists in Discord - I don't think one was at the time we attempted it. But this was a few years ago.

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