A Moment of Clarity

[SlippyToasterTrooper_UK]

I was thinking a few things with board layout. I don't know if these are possible.

-Would it be possible to have different New posts/no new posts for each board. I was thinking such a thing would help add some character to the place.
-Is it possible to eliminate the posts column from the index page of the forum but keep it in boards?

And to throw in a couple of coins over the affiliation issue. Most affilites amount to nothing more than overglorified links page that came about because people wanted to spotlight the links page...I still remember days your affiliate would be a webring

If anyone would like a new layout you can do far worse than showing the relevant people a few images if you have the ability to make something to the current standard.

[BlackFire]

I was thinking on new FESS badges with FEDS people..

[Sword Saint]

FESS vets have been transferred into the FESSer group.  No genders were changed.  Contact me or LG with any problems.

[Peechu with a side of popcorn]

EDIT: And Steve, all of the medal dramawhores are gone now; Leaf, Eaichu, Jet, Chaos.

Nope.

I'm a little late. But I think I'll offer my opinion...
FESS won't recover. This place started as a group of friends who had a hard time with the GameFAQs community boards for the Japanese Fire Emblems and wanted to make their own forums so we would have an all in one. It was a knit group. It stayed that way, few increases. It became big; we can blame factors like SSBM(Marth & Roy omfg!) leading into growing interest of Fire Emblem. We got big because we were the best at that time, we stayed the best, and we stayed big.

Fire Emblem is "dead" now compared to the prior image. Nobody cares about it, it's not a high priority game for anyone. It used to be. It used to be interesting, it used to be something new, it used to be a concept that brought alot of people together; it lit up like a bonfire for a long time but it's done now, all those people have burned out, and there's only what's left over to come-- those people will rather go to GameFAQs/Serenes Forest to discuss stuff, but as you can see neither one is really that huge. It's just another game in another series.

The best thing for FESS now is to open its arms, have a stellar, updated website with forums that introduce people well. There's some community here so people will be interested for a little while; but this place isn't large or active enough for anyone to ever find a good fit. Don't ever expect to have what was here before, it will never happen again. FESS will die sooner or later, let it go on until there's nothing worth keeping here.

So..
- Kill GEOS group
- Remove veterans(think you did that already)
- 1-2 Website maintainer(FE dedicated)
- 1-2 Forum Admins(FE dedicated), 1 Forum Mod

As for you, Superbus, or Chris, it's prime time for you to hang it up. FESS doesn't need a leader like you anymore.
And by all means, that's meant with no disrespect.

[Pair of Ducks]

Paradox, it's just like SuikoSource and Suikox all over again!  CRY. 

;__;

[Superbus]

As for you, Superbus, or Chris, it's prime time for you to hang it up. FESS doesn't need a leader like you anymore.
And by all means, that's meant with no disrespect.

I've been saying that since 2006. I know my skillset isn't optimized to this task.

Now, the key is finding someone that will actually take it. That's harder than I thought it'd be.

[Mad Eaichu]

I'm sure Ed would take it  Now seriously if no one will take it why don't you just end it?

[burning_phoneix]

I don't know, maybe he likes FESS a lot?

[Superbus]

I'm sure Ed would take it  Now seriously if no one will take it why don't you just end it?

Let's wait until FE:DS comes out in the UK before we start running for the red panic buttons.

[Crystalline Eliot]

Also, it's not that people won't take it, it's just that he's worried about the people who WOULD get it.

[Eltoshen]

In all seriousness, I don't see how this topic got anywhere.  It's been ten pages of...nothing being done.  Except for the axing of veterans and the decrease in forum count.

  Nothing special has happened that has been suggested earlier.  I had stated that you should focus on the community and special projects of the sort, but it kind of went in one ear and out the other.

All the major FE Boards seem to be doing better than FESS these days, to be honest.  Yes, that includes FEF.  People actually contribute to discussions there, regardless of the fact that it's a weird, awkward community.

[Thunk00]

If FESS wants to reclaim its former place, it needs new members. If that doesn't happen, it will just shrink until there are only a few people left.

If we want new members, I would say the best course of action would be to advertise this site like crazy. There's a lot of information on the main site now, so it shouldn't be too difficult. Plug it as an external link on Wikipedia, mention it as a resource to new players looking at the Fire Emblem boards on GameFAQs, link anyone curious about the older games to the translations hosted on the FESS site, talk about it to anyone who expresses any kind of interest in Fire Emblem whatsoever, that kind of stuff. I know that I didn't just find this site through Google, and I doubt too many people do these days.

[Mekkah]

Yes, that includes FEF.  People actually contribute to discussions there

FEF has no FE activity at all.

[Superbus]

In all seriousness, I don't see how this topic got anywhere.  It's been ten pages of...nothing being done.  Except for the axing of veterans and the decrease in forum count.

  Nothing special has happened that has been suggested earlier.  I had stated that you should focus on the community and special projects of the sort, but it kind of went in one ear and out the other.

All the major FE Boards seem to be doing better than FESS these days, to be honest.  Yes, that includes FEF.  People actually contribute to discussions there, regardless of the fact that it's a weird, awkward community.

No, we've got a couple things that we're working on - Crystal brought me an outstanding idea from one of the members that I'm going to work more on - it's just not immediate. We need time to work out the kinks considering they're all member intensive.

[Eltoshen]

In that case, I'll be waiting to see what it is.

[tstrife]

I know I'm not active, and probably noone remembers me (Nomad) from before the domain got taken by some Alaskan thing, . But anyway, I'd be willing to help out (with help or else I'll definitely lose motivation ) with re-vamping the forum with a new banner or something. I do digital art, (portfolio= thunderstrife.deviantart.com) and I'm actually going to do a Thracia 776 fanart/wallpaper (working on it now). But I'd be up for helping out an aesthetic re-vamp.

Also, maybe debates or something (open to everyone) in all the game boards would increase activity. Sort of like "What are your thoughts on so-and-so character" or "Which character is better between these two of similar utility" I know that I'd definitely be into contributing my thoughts to topics like those.

just my 3.1415 cents,