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Does a site have to have an arcade in order to be considered "Good?"

Ashley

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I can't believe this. I made a peer to peer feedback thing on Forum Promotion about my site, and some people are now saying that I should add an arcade or else people will not want to join because there is no incentive to join. There are times when I am under stress with the forum as it is due to real life things, the fact that I have some health issues, and all I'm getting for pretty much bending over backwords for trying to keep a forum open for longer than two weeks for a change is, You need an arcade. Honestly, I have joined plenty of forums where they don't have contests, don't have any fancy bells or whistles, and the members still go there and have a good time. I suppose I could do like a blog or something, but at the moment I'm just thankful to even have time to come on and post with the time I've got? So, I ask you: Do you honestly think a forum needs to have all the bells and whistles in order to be good? Or should people just be thankful that there are even forums out there to post on? Because like I said, and I know people have different tastes when it comes down to it, but I for one have joined plenty of forums where they have no contests or anything, and the members still seem to enjoy themselves no matter what. Of course, this could be just a case of me getting all worked up over nothing, again, but I felt I had to bring this up.
 
Smooth said:
A forum does NOT need an arcade for any reason whatsoever. If folks want to play games there are only about 300,000 different sites in which to do this. Forums are for discussion and debate, not playing games and never interacting with your fellow members. On more than one occasion I have stopped going to a forum because even in the areas where discussion is the focus, all that was being talked about was this or that high score on one game or another.

Nope...I don't agree that a forum is doomed to failure if it doesn't have an arcade. That's like saying a forum will fail if it doesn't have an area for food and drink.

Just my opinion....
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I agree. People on the Internet these days are seriously picky, and also greedy. It's just as bad as in real life, if not worse. I have been on forums where there have been rules that in order to play games, you need to make so many posts during the day in order to play. And yes, there are plenty of sites solely dedicated to gaming that people can join up with. I also believe that, like you, forums exist solely for the purpose of discussing things and chatting with fellow members. It's like sitting down at dinner and just simply talking for crying out loud. I would be very impressed if someone found a way to add a restaurant to their forum, though. lol. Another complaint I'm sick of hearing about is about the theme. We don't have time to be on 24/7 to make changes and stuff like that. I happen to like the theme we are using now because it's not overused like that Absolution one is.
 
A forum doesn't have to have a certain something other successful forums have to be successful itself.



In fact, I believe quite the opposite, the more unique your forum is the more people are going to take a second look at your forum, You see sites become very successful because they offer something new, or offer something similar, but much better than anything else.



The statement that you need an arcade to be successful is completely absurd, For starters, guests don't have any idea whether you have an arcade yet, so they'll join up not knowing. And secondly, not everyone enjoys arcades, I don't play them really, maybe once every few months
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Another thing that is absurd is the fact they think that the Arcade would be the incentive that would make them join, this is simply not the case, You should be trying your hardest to find other incentives that involve them posting and being a part of the community, an arcade can be a pretty personal thing.



I've been on quite a few successful forums, and some don't have arcades. FP doesn't have an arcade for example
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Another thing I don't exactly care for is contests. I had that one posting one going on now, but no one seems to be partaking in it. I think I should just drop the contest and basically have a community that people can just be glad to post on. Not all forums have to have contests, or special mods either.
 
Definitely not, and I'm a huge arcade fan myself.
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It's like saying forums need an advertising section or a debate section in order to be good, which isn't always true since I have seen plenty of good sites without them. It honestly depends on the types of members you have though, if most of them are into arcades... Then why not? Brings up more discussions and arcades are fun regardless. It doesn't need it though to be good or successful if that isn't what your site is about or was intended to include.
 
Silverpaw said:
Definitely not, and I'm a huge arcade fan myself.
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It's like saying forums need an advertising section or a debate section in order to be good, which isn't always true since I have seen plenty of good sites without them. It honestly depends on the types of members you have though, if most of them are into arcades... Then why not? Brings up more discussions and arcades are fun regardless. It doesn't need it though to be good or successful if that isn't what your site is about or was intended to include.



Well, this complaint if you will isn't even coming from my members. It's coming from another forum. Anyways, I might think of backing down on promotion forums since we now have a domain. If people don't like my site and don't want to join it, it's their loss, not mine. There are plenty of ways to promote that do not involve promotion forums, and now that we have a domain, we are getting indexed by search engines automatically, which is a huge plus. And there's always Twitter as well. So I think I'll stray away from promotion sites for a while.
 
Brian Fan said:
Well, this complaint if you will isn't even coming from my members. It's coming from another forum.



They should really join your site first before

giving any complaints like that.

XD



I completely agree though! If someone says something like that I just think they are being nit picky! (= J =) What ever happen to the community in this to make a forum good? Haha, my opinion anyways.



Much luck to advertising!
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Silverpaw said:
They should really join your site first before

giving any complaints like that.

XD



I completely agree though! If someone says something like that I just think they are being nit picky! (= J =) What ever happen to the community in this to make a forum good? Haha, my opinion anyways.



Much luck to advertising!
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I think the morale to this story is to never judge a book by it's cover, and certainly never take things for granted. Especially forums. The first one holds true because just because a site might not have anything fun to do, doesn't mean it's not a fun forum. I've been on plenty of sites in my day that don't have all the fancy quirks and what-not, and they are just as fun to post on as something that has an arcade an the whole nine yards! But that's my opinion.
 
Its a fun addition as members try to beat each other's high scores and whatnot but its not an absolute must. It depends on your member base. If its mostly teenagers then you should probably have it. If you h ave more of an older crowd that likes debates and discussions then there would be no point.
 
One of the forums I joined has an arcade and nobody is even using it
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I happen to like contests and I also love the trivia game that Off Topix has right now. The trivia game is fun and gives members the chance to compete against each other. I wish more members would sign up for the Off Topix trivia challenge game
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No I dont think they do! I am also a member of a forum with an arcade that isnt used.

I am a member of a forum where the arcade is very well used, but I don't think it's better than the other forums I visit where they do not have an arcade or the ones where the arcade isnt used.
 
Jazzy said:
One of the forums I joined has an arcade and nobody is even using it
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I happen to like contests and I also love the trivia game that Off Topix has right now. The trivia game is fun and gives members the chance to compete against each other. I wish more members would sign up for the Off Topix trivia challenge game
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See that's why I'm afraid of adding it, is because members may not use it.



@ Nebulous, Chatting Time is a mixed base of teenagers and adults, but I think the majority of us (with the exception of my co-administrator) are probably 20-30 somethings. We do have some teens on there, but not very many, though. Not from what I can see, anyways.
 
I should also add that most of us are accustomed to participating in the discussions that are on CT. I really don't think we need the fancy quirks or what-not.
 
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