We are eager to know what our members think is the most important task for us to do right now.
I've laid out a few of the main possibilities that we have at the moment and it would help if you could tell us your opinion about it.
We are a limited team of workers so bear in mind that we can't work on all of that at once.
Ideally we should improve on all fronts but the reality of our workload and schedules make it that we can only focus on one major task at a time.
So please pick one and indicate what you think.
Upgrading to the latest forum software (IPB 3.2.1)
Our forum software is outdated (IPB 2.3.X) and most of our members know it only too well, especially if you hang out on other forums.
New IPB versions have come out with amazing new features, towards a more social and connected community.
It'd be great if someone could summarize all the improvements of IPB 3.2.1 over IPB 2.3.X.
An upgrade like that is an extremely long and complicated process because it requires us to re-code most of the addons and modules that make the specificity of our community. Also it requires us to adapt the skin, convert the posts and message databases and so much more. It could take months.
A new skin for the site
Although newcomers are usually content with the current V3 skin, a lot of long-timers have complained and still prefer the old classic skins.
We could make everyone happy and create a brand new skin that would hopefully please a larger audience.
The problem with that is we don't have anyone who is capable of AND that has enough time for creating such a skin.
It would also take months to have such a thing done too because a skin isn't just a static image, the skin code has to be hardcoded into pretty much every single page of the site. It's a huge amount of work.
A combination of the above two options seems impossible at the moment due to lack of time & staff.
More competitions, contests & tournaments
Over the years GBAtemp has been holding exciting competitions, tournaments, contents, and other random events.
From Tempmas to the Homebrew Bounties, the tutorial competitions, graphic design contests, grand gaming tournaments, ...
It's generally the kind of popular event that connects the community and creates bonds between members.
If that's what people want, we can certainly do more of that, usually under short delays.
Better/more news articles and editorial content
Our magazine staff team strives to animate our homepage with news of the homebrew scene, articles about the gaming industry, revival of old classics and so much more. We will continue in that direction, though if the community deems it to be a top priority we can allocate more resources and push this apect of our site a bit further forward.
What are your thoughts? I'll say it again, I know ideally we want all of that happening...
but you can really just pick one choice.
I've laid out a few of the main possibilities that we have at the moment and it would help if you could tell us your opinion about it.
We are a limited team of workers so bear in mind that we can't work on all of that at once.
Ideally we should improve on all fronts but the reality of our workload and schedules make it that we can only focus on one major task at a time.
So please pick one and indicate what you think.
Upgrading to the latest forum software (IPB 3.2.1)
Our forum software is outdated (IPB 2.3.X) and most of our members know it only too well, especially if you hang out on other forums.
New IPB versions have come out with amazing new features, towards a more social and connected community.
It'd be great if someone could summarize all the improvements of IPB 3.2.1 over IPB 2.3.X.
An upgrade like that is an extremely long and complicated process because it requires us to re-code most of the addons and modules that make the specificity of our community. Also it requires us to adapt the skin, convert the posts and message databases and so much more. It could take months.
A new skin for the site
Although newcomers are usually content with the current V3 skin, a lot of long-timers have complained and still prefer the old classic skins.
We could make everyone happy and create a brand new skin that would hopefully please a larger audience.
The problem with that is we don't have anyone who is capable of AND that has enough time for creating such a skin.
It would also take months to have such a thing done too because a skin isn't just a static image, the skin code has to be hardcoded into pretty much every single page of the site. It's a huge amount of work.
A combination of the above two options seems impossible at the moment due to lack of time & staff.
More competitions, contests & tournaments
Over the years GBAtemp has been holding exciting competitions, tournaments, contents, and other random events.
From Tempmas to the Homebrew Bounties, the tutorial competitions, graphic design contests, grand gaming tournaments, ...
It's generally the kind of popular event that connects the community and creates bonds between members.
If that's what people want, we can certainly do more of that, usually under short delays.
Better/more news articles and editorial content
Our magazine staff team strives to animate our homepage with news of the homebrew scene, articles about the gaming industry, revival of old classics and so much more. We will continue in that direction, though if the community deems it to be a top priority we can allocate more resources and push this apect of our site a bit further forward.
What are your thoughts? I'll say it again, I know ideally we want all of that happening...
but you can really just pick one choice.
