Author Topic: Acidmods is restructuring and we need your help. (Read 8931 times)

Modded Matt · « **on:** August 24, 2012, 11:29:50 AM »

As some of you have noticed the website has experienced a lul in traffic over the last few months. Most of our members are in school and with each passing year we see a lot of people go off to college/work which consumes most of the free time available for modding and contributing to this site. We also see a lot of new comers as well. I ask all members to help welcome these new members into our community, help them with any problems they may have and make sure they have a pleasant experience so they will want to return to help share their knowledge.

Acidmods is more than just a website, I feel it is a great community that holds a lot of knowledge in our field. However, our field has been limited to modding, as this is a passion shared between most of our current members. Lets face it, look around the modding scene and you will see that the entire scene has fallen off over the last year, Acidmods, Viking, X-scene,

have all seen diminished posting. I feel this is in part due to the exhausted bank of imagination with our current consoles. While yes, the next generation of consoles is on the horizon, If we are going to survive as a community, we need to grow with the changing times. “Adapt or Die”

So what does this mean and how does it affect you? It means The website’s main focus needs to be changed. We are going to split the forum into two main categories. Adventures in Gaming and Adventures in Modding. This has been a heated discussion for a few years as some are afraid it will lead to more young kids on the forum. Well guess what you old farts, Today’s youth will be tomorrow’s leaders. My hope is that by making the community more active through gaming, it will open the minds of young people to electronics and modding. We will work on setting up the forums to set a firm backbone for game discussions, clans, cheats, etc.

Of course with the site taking on a wider array of topics, we will need more staff to help monitor and control it to ensure everyone is being treated well and our site rules are still being followed to ensure a family friendly site. I need people who are committed to this site and helping it grow. I will need an admin who is in charge of the gaming area in its entirety. Globals who can help get people to the correct areas, following the rules and helping with any issues. We need live and PSN ambassadors who can help advertise the site on the gaming networks to help bring new people in.

All current staff positions are under review. If you are removed from a group, it is not personal but is a decision that was made based on your activity, we are just cleaning house. If you feel you have been removed from a group that you would now like to participate in, please contact me for remittance. A few major changes some may notice will be the addition of ambassador groups, the deletion of the art team in its entirety, a complete restructuring of the news team, etc.

I am always open to ideas and suggestions to help make this site better and help during this transition. I am opening the doors here guys. Anyone who wants to be a real part of the acidmods team, please speak up now, we need your help.

toadzilla · « **Reply #1 on:** August 25, 2012, 12:45:00 AM »

with the start of a new part of the fourm towards gaming what about starting a 360 clan ps3 clan and pc clan for the fps games and action stlye on the other hand as i stated in my pm im willing to help with ANYTHING this is where i first starte learning how to paint my controllers and learned tips

musttachee · « **Reply #2 on:** August 25, 2012, 08:54:33 AM »

i agree with toad and another thing i dont mind help out with the site cause i dont want acidmods to perish this was the site that helped me do my first mod though

i dont want it to die

Madman340 · « **Reply #3 on:** August 25, 2012, 06:56:46 PM »

This is a good idea. As it stands the forum covers an educated niche, and with that you don't get many members, but do get generally great content. Catering to both newcomers/young'ins and veterans is definitely the way to go in my opinion, as it will provide the same things, but also offer more for the more casual forum-goer.

RyanF · « **Reply #4 on:** August 26, 2012, 10:31:02 AM »

Quote from: Modded Matt on August 24, 2012, 11:29:50 AM

This has been a heated discussion for a few years as some are afraid it will lead to more young kids on the forum. Well guess what you old farts, Today’s youth will be tomorrow’s leaders.

I had one name pop into my mind with this part: PSPkicks. About a year and a half ago he told me I should never touch the inside of a computer because I didn't know what I was doing. Now here I am with a setup that cost over 2k and has been running strong. I doubt I will have to upgrade for a few years. And the best part? My hands have been all over it and haven't broke anything.

robin1989 · « **Reply #5 on:** August 27, 2012, 09:05:03 AM »

hey matt sounds good hopefully we can get together on skype or msn etc some time soon to talk more about it - hopefully i will be able to work on the tangled web that is the permissions etc which will hopefully make stuff a lot easier to arange. its hard getting on and doing stuff as now that im back at home living with my parents as soon as i hop on my computer to do anything im getting yelled at to go do something productive round the house - very annoying but hey there all back at work and little sis is back at college in 2 weeks so will be home alone for 7 hours a day which i will try to use productively

Modded Matt · « **Reply #6 on:** August 27, 2012, 09:11:25 AM »

I got busy sunday, which is when I was planning to start looking at this. In the afternoons around 6 is my best time, but that is around 11pm for you.

I did upgrade and fix the portal this weekend though. Bet nobody noticed. LOL

frenulem - No.5417 · « **Reply #7 on:** August 27, 2012, 11:20:01 AM »

I'll set-up a AM steam group in a few, need a cuppa first. No hard feelings if i get booted from B&M

More than happy to contribute to a gaming section, it's just that modding costs money, i still want to do a fan cooled 360 controller. Edit, STEAM GROUP http://steamcommunity.com/groups/AcidMods

DailyRentals · « **Reply #8 on:** August 28, 2012, 04:22:25 AM »

wow awesome:D this site is great and I can't wait for the new layout :P

robin1989 · « **Reply #9 on:** August 28, 2012, 05:53:50 AM »

joined it fren.

also when i finally get my new internet connection (main mast went up last week just waiting on my install soon i hope) i will set up a minecraft server on my mac for acidmods and try to keep it up and running 24/7ish as according to http://canihostaminecraftserver.com/ i should be able to host 182 players at once which i think is way more than we need

Neubit · « **Reply #10 on:** August 28, 2012, 08:13:00 AM »

How can I help?

robin1989 · « **Reply #11 on:** August 28, 2012, 04:32:44 PM »

what owuld you be up for doing neubit

Tracey · « **Reply #12 on:** August 29, 2012, 10:57:11 AM »

Quote from: toadzilla on August 25, 2012, 12:45:00 AM

what about starting a 360 clan

I'm down for that!

snowcolt17 · « **Reply #13 on:** August 29, 2012, 01:37:52 PM »

im up for it. i play bf3 and forza4 and suck at both... i could be a distraction

Neubit · « **Reply #14 on:** August 30, 2012, 01:05:37 AM »

Quote from: Mactastic Mendez on August 28, 2012, 04:32:44 PM

what owuld you be up for doing neubit

I could help in restructuring the forum boards. Have you guys come up with a draft layout? A new hierarchy is a good place to start. It's important for user experience and ease of site navigation.

Nevbox · « **Reply #15 on:** August 30, 2012, 02:31:10 AM »

I'm up for PC gaming, moved away from the console scene recently

Modded Matt · « **Reply #16 on:** August 30, 2012, 06:51:27 AM »

Quote from: Mactastic Mendez on August 27, 2012, 09:05:03 AM

hey matt sounds good hopefully we can get together on skype or msn etc some time soon to talk more about it - hopefully i will be able to work on the tangled web that is the permissions etc which will hopefully make stuff a lot easier to arange. its hard getting on and doing stuff as now that im back at home living with my parents as soon as i hop on my computer to do anything im getting yelled at to go do something productive round the house - very annoying but hey there all back at work and little sis is back at college in 2 weeks so will be home alone for 7 hours a day which i will try to use productively

I squared the perms away a few weeks ago. there are sitll residual groups that can be merged or deleted, but not a priority as the group perms are working as designed.

What I need you to focus on is the SEO configuration. I installed optimus, but dont have a clue of how to set it up. It is accessible from the admin panel. we also need to get google antics and yahoo ads going so we could generate revenue for competitions and clans and traffic.... in the old days any search for a mod related keyword would bring you here. now do a search on yahoo for modded controllers and you bring up 100's of other sites, and not acidmods.

Also if you can set up a new test forum, (remove all the others) I would like to code the theme one more time for SMF 2.0.2 when we did the last upgrade, we installed so many mods, it has left the code tattered so much it is hard to install or remove anything without editing the whole code manually. I guess I can do this through the control panel when I get some free time.

Neubit, Its always good to see some of the old admin on the site. I have not drafted a layout yet, I have a few ideas, but am struggling which way to go. any ideas from anyone will be reviewed and appreciated. I would like a complete restructure of the front page. to have more of a website feel that links back to areas of the forum. This is outside the reach of SMF and simple portal and may have to be coded from scratch as html then point the domain at it in stead of the forum.... just thoughts. I am still trying to think of how to keep it all contained in SMF.

toadzilla · « **Reply #17 on:** August 30, 2012, 11:13:52 AM »

Quote from: Modded Matt on August 30, 2012, 06:51:27 AM

I squared the perms away a few weeks ago. there are sitll residual groups that can be merged or deleted, but not a priority as the group perms are working as designed.

What I need you to focus on is the SEO configuration. I installed optimus, but dont have a clue of how to set it up. It is accessible from the admin panel. we also need to get google antics and yahoo ads going so we could generate revenue for competitions and clans and traffic.... in the old days any search for a mod related keyword would bring you here. now do a search on yahoo for modded controllers and you bring up 100's of other sites, and not acidmods.

Also if you can set up a new test forum, (remove all the others) I would like to code the theme one more time for SMF 2.0.2 when we did the last upgrade, we installed so many mods, it has left the code tattered so much it is hard to install or remove anything without editing the whole code manually. I guess I can do this through the control panel when I get some free time.

Neubit, Its always good to see some of the old admin on the site. I have not drafted a layout yet, I have a few ideas, but am struggling which way to go. any ideas from anyone will be reviewed and appreciated. I would like a complete restructure of the front page. to have more of a website feel that links back to areas of the forum. This is outside the reach of SMF and simple portal and may have to be coded from scratch as html then point the domain at it in stead of the forum.... just thoughts. I am still trying to think of how to keep it all contained in SMF.

what you could always do is make the forums forums.acidmods.com like a sublink and see if you could possible get a custom built wordpress up for the front section of the website with a dirct link in the top menu to forums.acidmods.com

Modded Matt · « **Reply #18 on:** August 30, 2012, 12:01:06 PM »

lol I know HOW to do it, I just dont know what I want to do yet and wordpress is not what I am looking for. we use wordpress for the AM Blogs. I custom built my wordpress here: http://blogs.acidmods.com/moddedmatt/ LOL Looking at it now, it has been a year since my last blog post.....

toadzilla · « **Reply #19 on:** August 30, 2012, 04:32:03 PM »

just throwing stuff out there

Modded Matt · « **Reply #20 on:** August 30, 2012, 04:59:49 PM »

np, I know, Ive been told to use wordpress before, but i am not impressed with it

MeltedCrayons · « **Reply #21 on:** September 04, 2012, 09:05:43 AM »

Yaaay! An actual active, gaming section of this forum. This is fantastic news! I would really enjoy being involved somehow in that portion of this website.

bacteria · « **Reply #22 on:** September 23, 2012, 11:34:32 PM »

As you say, modding forums are less active these days. I've a fairly active forum however it's quieter than it was months ago, like with other sites as you say.

I think the reasons are because many use emulators on their smartphones now, the experience is not as good as with retro consoles, and there is no nostalgia factor, but "free and convenient" as many see it; and if they are young then they wouldn't have played on original retro systems anyway most likely to know the difference. Modern consoles have no character, similar games and there are far less of them; only 3 players now - look at 10 or 20 years ago, lots of platforms, lots of manfacturers, lots of memories and most importantly, lots of quality and different games; not COD 12 or whatever it's on now!

That has also had an effect on modding, especially as modern systems use wavy sticks and not controllers as retro systems do, means less consoles to mod, less point, less you can do and also they are power hungry (apart from Wii). Won't be long before you don't even have a console as it'll be cloud gaming.

News:

Author Topic: Acidmods is restructuring and we need your help. (Read 8931 times)