Some forum ideas.. :D

[Anika]

I just had a few ideas  

- I'm not sure whether this would be possible but it would be wonderful to have a gallery of all the banners that have been on this site. I understand that to retrieve the links for older banners will be difficult so maybe it could be something that starts from now.. 

- I feel like I'm being irritating to bring this up but maybe the layouts could be linked to like a specific theme > maybe seasonal or by holiday? Our current layout, WHICH IS JUST BEAUTIFUL BTW, could have been an autumn or back to school layout. The previous rio layout could have had a sporting hero on it so that it would link better to the Olympics. This idea is just personal opinion and I can understand if you guys wouldn't do it.  

- My final idea, I think for now lol. I do feel like this site has become considerably quiet since everyone has gone back to school. Maybe more competitions could be hosted or even events that reward recruiting? Social media could also be used to recruit people?

Idk.. these are just ideas.

[Savanah]

I love these ideas! I especially love the banner archives idea! And the second idea has been on that has been in my head too. The layout this month is gorgeous, but it seems like it's one that would fit Valentine's Day a bit better. c: Don't get me wrong though, the layouts are always beautiful! <3

[gabby]

I agree with you! All of these ideas sounds amazing and I would love to see them happen, especially the first one. (:

[Helaine]

I love your ideas, especially the first one!
I don't know if it's possible to retrieve all of them, but if it is, I'd love to enforce this! c:

Regarding the second idea, that's actually kind of how we orient our themes already c: In February, we had a Valentine's Day theme, in March through April, we held banner contests and were changing the layout multiple times a week, in addition to the whole fandom theme between the Vampire Diaries and Hunger Games theme which didn't go along with a holiday, buuut if I'm not mistaken, that was the first month we added fandoms and the Vampire Diaries was our very first one (and quite a large one in the real world I might add), then in May we had a contest to see who could create a seasonal banner that incorporated all 4 seasons and our winner was the perfect way to show April Showers ending and leading into spring, then in June we did a summer theme in which our mini icons were all suns and the banner had pineapples and the background was a blue green to look like a pool, then in July we had my absolute favorite theme ever which was a peach/coral theme which didn't necessarily go with the idea of July 4th or anything (which we usually do though), but it was absolutely gorgeous and in my opinion, the most well tied-together theme yet to date. Then as you know, we had the Rio Theme for the Olympics in August and now we are in September and how you guys said this is kind of like a back to school theme as it has autumn colors, that's exactly what it is c: Although in California, school resumes in mid-august, most schools in the US tend to return in September. For next month, which is October, we are planning a Halloween theme and then we have November (which isn't planned yet), and finally Christmas theme for December! (:

Whew, that took longer than expected to list out every month LOL
Anyways, I appreciate all of your ideas! With that second idea, it's something we definitely try to achieve, but I think sometimes the overall holiday message might get lost as we have multiple admins as well as graphic artists completing each individual assignment and therefore it's not all orchestrated by one person. So while I might be thinking oo let's do pumpkins for this and cats for that then a dash of purple, orange and black for that, someone else who is in charge of something might not be thinking the same thing as me, and therefore that's why not everything always appears as a unit. But I also love it because it shows the diversity between all of our graphics and how we can come together as a team to get it all done. c: However, this is one of the reasons why I loooved that July theme, because everything was so picture perfect it looked like one master stylist just did it all - it was literally that well designed. All we can hope for is that our future themes look as well-made as some of our previous ones! (:

And lastly, on the topic of your final idea, I, too, have noticed the dimness of the forum recently, even more than ever. Maybe it's because having the semester off allows me to come on at different times than before and others are in school or something, but the forum always seems to be consistently quiet, which makes me very sad. ): Also, our beloved admin Stacy has decided not only to step down as an admin, but quit the forum all together for personal reasons including the need to mature among other things. Without her presence I know for myself, it's going to be pretty sad coming on here. She was one of my best friends and had this amazing and exciting spirit every time I saw her. She was never sad or mad, she was always just happy. And I think we could all use a person like that in our lives. She will truly be missed, but I'm hoping she'll still stop by occasionally just to say hey. Anyways, I, too, share your concern. The problem with the idea you provided is that we've tried to do that many times, but no one will even participate in the activity. For example, we had a PLL contest and tons of people replied how good of an idea it was, yet out of let's say the 10 people that said that, we only received 2 applications. Again, with our final activity for the Rio Games, there was an idea to make the admins compete instead of the members for once (this idea was proposed by a member) and then after that, we made a thread saying to bring your ideas forward, in which we got several ideas, and then when we took the idea, not a single person followed through on it, not the person who had the idea to begin with, or the one whose idea we chose, and of course, not any additional members. Sadly, this has been a growing thing. We have a lot less members than ever before -- which is fine, I believe it's not how you share your company but who you share it with that matters -- but now it's come to the point where those limited members don't even participate or become active anymore. So we are at a double decline, which is something I can't even begin to know how to fix. I definitely appreciate your idea, I just wish it was as easy as that idea -- because it's a good one, but for some reason, I don't think it'll have any effect due to previous experiences. :/ But I am always open for ideas, however big, small, stupid, fantastic, anything -- without your ideas, our forum probably wouldn't still exist, so we really do thank you. <3

Also, sorry if this sounded a little cut and dry, it's not meant to be that way, I'm just kind of in a hurry and wanted to respond as soon as possible and by giving as much information and examples as possible. Sorry if at anytime I sounded naggy or unhappy or anything, that's definitely not the case

xoxox

[Hazza]

I appreciate your ideas, Anika! I really like them. As I probably won't write too much in depth with my opinions of it as did Lexi, I still want to address my take on all of your ideas.

I totally think we can make a gallery of all banners if we can retrieve them all. For some reasons, sometimes the person that makes them could have deleted them by accident, but for the most part let's just hope that we can get most of them if we're going to be making it for 2016 (or maybe previous years as well if we want to go that far).

I see where you're coming from for the layout themes. For this year we're going based on the colors for each month that we have listed on another forum, but when this year is over we'll be free to do whatever we please. Even though there's specific colors that goes with each month, whoever makes the graphics for the layout next month has their own opinion of what they want on it. Just because you may think of certain things for holidays, may not be how other people see it. I think it's great to have other people make it how they want it to be so as a result it comes out being rather unique. Even still, we try to make the colors around what holiday or season it is so at least that part makes the most sense. I wouldn't think it would make sense to have bright colors for the fall months when we can do that during the summer or spring.

As for your last idea, I have a problem with that too. With the inactivity of a lot of members, whether it being busy with school, after school activities, etc. it can be hard to get on. I'm sure you have seen in the past with the Rio Olympics and our PLL contest not a lot of people participated in them as we would like. This concerns me because sometimes people may seem excited about it in the beginning, but later on they don't seem interested in it anymore or they just move on. It has gotten hard to the point where there's not much we can really do about that and I really wish there was something we can do to fix that, so maybe we need to think of ways to make people interested in forum activities/contests again. Hopefully we can do something about that, especially when people have more time to get on here.

[Anika]

Thanks Savvy and Gabby! I appreciate your support. <3

Sammy and Lexi: Aha, thanks for your responses.

P.s: I never said this was a back to school layout.

[Guest]

ooh I love the banner galley idea!
that would help so that we can avoid making future banners too similar to ones we've had before (and it's also just fun to see all of the variations!) <3

[goCards]

My ideas for the forum
1. Different projects that individuals can add to quickly and projects that take more time. I.e. A mosaic made up of small sections that anyone can add an emoji sized color swath or detailed graphic. Instead of adding numbers toward counting, add color or picture to art work. 3 or four different projects at a time. Easiest would be copy the picture posted before and add your part. Other ways of collaborating are available.

2. Different sites, that individuals use, to have like a leader/friend roles. The make a game site that can be shared is an example of this. Maybe a Kahn academy course that a member would share then a project there would work.

My laptop is nearing its end of useful life, and changing to a tablet has not been working quickly, so I am a lot less active here. A quick add to this post is the most I see happening usually.

The long months/years between new seasons of tv shows is not conducive to fandom so that I participate in, dr. Who not having more than an episode a year for a while.

The concert I performed in the background for a major recording artist, was incredibly enjoyable, but if I shared much, would be far far too identifiable, so haven't shared.
I prefer not to be the focus of attention in anything, so in a choir is great for me, but apparently the camera was on me the whole (too much) time this week according to family members watching over Internet.

Bearville.com has been closed for almost 18 months. People are still trying to make working parts, found a different one on YouTube last week. Working towards a goal that people can agree on and see potential in brings more active participation. Small parts work best for me. Could still make a dr. Who video with bearville backgrounds, but I could not do all the parts, and no script is a big deal. This site and others used to have members send in parts for some banners, character in costume or what have you and I see potential in some sorts of group projects.

[Hazza]

Locked; I will reward you with tickets as the first idea has been completed. The other stuff will probably be discussed about in the future.

[Sponsored content]