Reviving Waterwarfare.com

[C-A_99]

The artwork forum could be moved as a subforum of WW online. However, IMO, the water wars forum (which I'd prefer the name water warfare) should be setup as a larger section, containing subforums for teams/registry, tactics, and war reports (rather than reports being a seperate section) The rest of the water warfare forum could then be reserved for miscellaneous discussions, such as scenarios, RP's etc. or that could be put in another subforum.

Really, the whole WWc forum could be split into 3 whole groups of forums. Water Warfare, General water gun discussion, Water Warfare Technology and DIY, and Misc. (for stuff like online resources, news, admin forums, etc.)

Water Warfare could be divided as said above into those sections. General water gun discussion would have forums for stock guns, marketplace, collectables, etc. WW Tech/DIY could be setup much like the tech forums here, with an additional forum for non-weaponry DIY projects containing everything from straps, water balloon holders, and bandoliers, to tanks/boats or any other vehicles, and any DIY projects relating to water warfare but not to weaponry. Misc. is already explained and can also contain the artwork forum. Stuff like pictures and videos can also go there if they don't seem to fit in the WW forum, but I'd say that WW would be a better place for them. (obviously unless they're pics of tech, that goes in tech wherever it belongs)

Just some ideas for organzing WWc. We want to cover as much as possible; well organized and with everything easy to find there.

[C-A_99]

Another thing I'd like to make note of: get the WWc forum software to scale the posts and everything to the size of the browser, so everything isn't so ridiculously narrow when displayed on higher resolutions. Just about most people nowadays have a high res monitor, if not a widescreen LCD. SSC and iSn already scale to the browser window too, and it helps show more at a time while allowing for faster scrolling. (since the pages are smaller)

If this gets the attention, I'll probably merge my posts together, since I just posted yesterday.

[DX]

I'll work on the margins today. I don't think there's actually any difference except that the margins are huge and the margins here and at iScF are narrow. It could be a px/em vs % thing, in which case it's easy to switch to % so it will move with the screen. Granted I don't remember everything because it's been over a year since I last worked with the WWc/GAoM skin. It was used for a Facebook gaming clan, but I thought that the color scheme is also appropriate for water warfare. The older GAoM version contains mods that did not get transferred over, so those will go back in [quick reply, top posters, etc.].

Any admin is able to generate backups. There should be several options in the CP for both the kind of backup and where to store them. They may be downloaded directly, so even if the server crashes in a way that loses stored data, which is highly unlikely, someone is bound to have a local copy.

As for re-sectioning of WWc, what about categories with forums as opposed to forums with sub-forums? A lot of people hate sub-forums because it's an extra click in and out.

Oh and another thing: WWc Ranks. In the first attempt at this site, military ranks were used. However, I've come to agree with some that they just aren't fun in our water warfare context. Any ideas for what would be more fun? Water war positions? Water gun ranks like at WWN?

[C-A_99]

Facebook used to have the same issue where the width/margins do not adapt to the browser window. They've taken care of that a long time ago however.

I could come up with some simple rank lists. However, I think the military ranks are just fine. Could you send me the current WWc list now? (so I have a rough idea on how it's done)

If you do come up with a list yourself, I can already guess the top rank: founder. Positions don't really take rank, i.e. how do you decide if a WBL crewman is more important than a frontline grunt or a sharpshooter? We'll need something more like military ranks, but extremely simpified and with different terms. (i.e. it could start off with grunt all the way to founder, including squad leader, etc. in between)

[marauder_4]

I am fine with military ranks but something like, "Newb", Grunt, Squad Leader, Commander, Community Leader... whatever works as well. Just something cooler than my suggestions.

[isoaker_com]

Methinks categories with forums work better than forums with sub-forums since sub-forums are often overlooked at first pass. As for ranking, military terms work, but if you guys can come up with something more creative, but clear, being unique brings more character to the board.

[DX]

This is what is there right now, a simple post-based system:

- Private 0 Edit Delete
- Private First Class 10 Edit Delete
- Corporal 20 Edit Delete
- Sergeant 30 Edit Delete
- Second Lieutenant 40 Edit Delete
- Lieutenant 50 Edit Delete
- Captain 75 Edit Delete
- Major 100 Edit Delete
- Colonel 150 Edit Delete
- Brigadier General 200 Edit Delete
- Major General 250 Edit Delete
- Lieutenant General 500 Edit Delete
- General 1000

[C-A_99]

I'd say, recruit would be a better start. Of course, there's several main corporal and sergeant ranks you're missing, but if we're going to change the whole thing anyways, then it doesn't really matter.

But really, we can't forget what the post ranks are for: fun. In the end, we get a working system and go because as we all know, post count doesn't mean that much anyways.

[SSCBen]

The categorization suggestions are good. I actually wanted to try something like what C-A_99 suggested (and I think I did, temporarily), but there wasn't enough posts in the respective categories. (edit: For some reason this sentence was incomplete. It has since been completed.)

I wouldn't worry too much about ranks for the moment.

After a little more thought about some of what iSoaker said, I'm leaning towards pushing for the SSC forums. Things are already well established here; we would need to do nothing to prepare. A good chunk of the members wouldn't have to do anything. We already have search engine visibility and people who find us from the search engines won't have to do anything convoluted to join in the discussion. This seems to be, to me at least, much less problematic.

While the logistical reasons to use SSC are fairly convincing, I also want the forum to be separate from other websites. Does anyone else want to weigh in on this?

[Teh Moron]

That is the most expedient method. It'd take roughly 10 minutes to change the skin and point the DNS nameserver to WWc, and adjust the names. I'd say this would be good as no members would lose any posts, but others may want a "clean start:

[isoaker_com]

There are things people like about starting anew, but there be advantages to not need to re-invent the wheel and use what is already existing and well-established. My level of control goes only as far as my intent to scale back iSoaker.net at the start of "Off-Season, 2009" and hope for a better unification of the known online water warfare community onto a single forum, but whether it be at WWc or at SSC works for me. I just need to know where to point links to.

[C-A_99]

The whole point of WWc is to be representative of the entire water warfare community, pointing beginners to all resources. As Ben said, SSC is not that type of site; it serves to be it's own resource. And to be honest, I prefer WWc's name, mainly because it is more inclusive. Also, organizations pertaining to actual war over water shortages won't be able to steal the term water warfare as easily, especially if WWc develops into a community much like now. After all, Microsoft tried to steal XP from Larami, and don't forget about the term PC. =P All jokes aside, I think the name better represents the community and sport as a whole and should help establish the term itself. It will also allow SSC and iSc to better serve as specialized points of the community.

With that said, I don't do much web work myself. My website has never shown up on search engines and eventually I'll have to look up how to do that. But basically, due to my lack of web experience, I won't be able to decide whether starting up WWc is worth the work or not, as opposed to staying with SSC. I can only state preference with that.

If we do go with WWc, I'd strongly suggest easy links to iSn and SSC on the forums page (not just the home page) so that people can easily point newcomers to links on those sites. Quick links to commonly posted items, such as tech articles and iSc reviews, would also help. Of course, this is just a setup procedure, which doesn't have much to do with the decision at hand right now.

Edit: Whoever rearranged the WWc forums, nice job.

[SSCBen]

Given WWc's current state and the off-season approaching, I'd again like to propose the SSC forums as at least the temporary community forum. I do think an unaffiliated site is best, however, we must do this one step at a time and WWc does not seem ready to me yet.

In other words, I think a slower transition is best. Funneling people from one forum to another is easier than funneling people from two forums to one separate one; the former has the advantage of allowing for the third forum to develop fully before jumping in (if we decide jumping in is right).

[Silence]

Yeah, as I've said, WWc still can't support the community. These forums are continually spammed and I don't know where the most recent ones are.

[isoaker_com]

I've opted to convert iSn a little sooner (i.e. on Sept 1, 2009). I figure members will decide where to go that makes most sense. Unless WWc gets majorly revamped soon and properly, SSC will be either the interim main hub or simply serve as THE main hub at that point in time.