The Shining Source

Hi everybody.

If you have a Shining project, you might be thinking of starting a forum so that people can discuss your game as it develops, and also so you can keep in touch with everyone involved in the project. It's a great idea, but here's how to make it even better.

If you've been on a forum before, particularly a busy one, you might be tempted to copy its design. This is a good idea - the other forum obviously started big and stayed big, or got even bigger. Either way, you definitely want to have as many subforums as you can - the more forums you have, the more posts people will make. FACT.

Another good reason to borrow another style is that it will give people a great reason to come to your forum. If someone visited and saw something they hadn't seen before, they're very unlikely to want to post, but if they see something very familiar they'll say "hey, this is just like XXX forum, and I love that! I'm going to move here now!". People only stay at forums until they see another one just like it, and then they move. That's another fact right there.

I can't claim to be an expert in making forums, so I'm going to throw it open to everyone here. What tips do you have to help people's forums grow and become the thriving places they deserve to be? I might even use a few to liven up my own boards.

Make sure you have a stats system, a shop system and a stock market .

And make sure you bratwurst about your forum on every other forum!

HI GUYS IVE JUST STARTED A NEW FORM COME AND SEE U CAN CHAT ABOUT ALL THE SHINNING GAMES AND THERE IS MATURE CHAT 2 SO U CAN  TALK BOUT GROWNUP THINGS

WWW.PROSODY.CO.UK/FORUM

THANX COME SOON

1t'5 50 Bl0o0o0o0o0o0o00o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0!!!!!!!!!!!!!1





On a side-note, the likelyhood that I'll be making a roundtrip in England this summer has vastly increased today.

Awesome

Perhaps we can have Ye Olde Meetup 2

I'd love to! What date is convenient though? Preferably somewhere in summer .

I'll let you know when I get back from the US I'm free most of the summer, except sometime in August and late June / early July.

Hopefully we can get a couple more folks along this time

I'll turn up, as long as it's not on one of the days I'm moving in/out. Or my girlfriend's birthday

Perhaps we can beat our own record of three attendees...

Yup, that'd be very cool! Perhaps I can seduce a few old members to come as well .

"Seduce"? I don't want to know...

Maybe we need a call-out topic to some of the UK YoBers I'm sure still lurk.

SAIY.
ACEBLOKE.
NICK.

Become a part of this.

Sounds decent to me . Perhaps we can do a mass mailing to all registered mail addys?

I'm going to the greyhound in kensington (london) tomorrow, to meet about 20 people I dont know, so sure, I'll probably be free providing I havent been kidnapped, murdered, or illegaly moved to another country to be tortured between now and then.

Well, somebody has a high opinion of themselves!

Very much so, I've only got 5 minutes till they tie me back up again.