Front Page Story

[radodrill]

I gotta agree with you Carl, links to the best content of the forums as well high-res pics of some of the best mods/projects would be a worthwhile addition; even if it's not detailed articles on projects, a short summary and some high-res pics would certainly whet peoples appetites to check out the logs.

 

Also, featured links to the most important/useful threads/posts would be a good addition, rather than relying on people finding them through the search and/or in some of our sigs.

 

I'd venture that this site is possible the best group of enthusiasts and tech savvy people and it would be a shame if it goes down the drains.

[red930]

I agree with you too carl.

And i think it might be an idea to start looking whats already posted to see if its suiteble for the frontpage.

Remember this site is a gem full of info, pick something and place it, what do you have to loose anyway?

[Angry_Games]

should we "digg" ?

 

as for pics, there's always opportunity for hi-res stuff. But if you want them to show up in the forums, it's 800x600 (this is why I just link my 1600x1200 or larger pics...why screw up the forum page when it's just as easy to link and open a new window...maybe you all don't HATE absolutely HATE trying to scroll through a xxxxing forum page that has 2048x1920 or some ridiculously large xxxxing picture and trying to read teh goddamn text that accompanies it but it's all stretched to hell and back as well...no, I prefer 800x600 and links to the BIG GIANT HI-RES PICS)

 

that's a rule that is never going to change. Big pics are NOT frowned upon. They ARE however frowned upon in an img tag. Sorry but this is the way that it is, and on top of that, what happens when we get 15 of those mega-huge-giant pics that weigh in not only at 2560x1920 pixels but lets not forget they generally run 4MB up to 10MB per image. No xxxxing way in hell we are going to allow that kind of nonsense...even on cable the damn OCDB pages take a little over a minute to load and those are all 800x600!

 

anyway, check the Digg idea. Re-hashing old . ain't going to do us no good. We need new . and new blood. As for donations, I'm at the point where I'm not even going to ask for them. I've asked for them too many times, I've made it clear that the banners will keep us in business, and yet it still isn't working. It's time to face reality and realize that this site, it just isn't anything anymore.

 

I'm not about to spend my time trying to keep the place running. For more than a year I've begged, pleaded, schemed, cajoled, brainstormed, bribed, done just about everything I can to make it clear to you (ie ALL OF YOU) that this is a community, and one man (me) doing it all isn't what a community is about.

 

No one has stepped up to the challenge, and that tells me all I need to know. I'm a full-time college student now in the middle of a deepening recession with a xxxxing outrageous lease payment every month on our house and that has ALL of my attention (those three things).

 

You want this place to stay up, it's the final curtain call to do something about it. All the times before you maybe told yourself "bah, Angry just talking . to get us motivated, he'd never close this place down".

 

Better wake up to a reality check because it's coming hard and fast as of the end of the month if the server payment can't get paid by advertising. Beyond this month, I'm going to start listing the site for sale and I doubt anyone is stupid enough to purchase it (especially not for the money I want considering how much blood, sweat and tears I've put into this place which doesn't mean I'm retarded and asking for $100k or anything obnoxiously ridiculous, but still, I'm not letting it go for less than 5 figures).

 

I've already been shopping around at some of the web brokers to find out what the place is worth. Seems since the place is dying, it really has no value anymore. If I'd have sold it one year ago when I quit (was fired from) DFI, it would be a lot different.

 

But it ain't. I ain't got time for this place anymore. I can go to blogspot if I want to rail on stupid republicans and religion and global warming....that don't cost me nothing but $49 a month for my cable internet. I don't even have time for that though with school.

 

So, once again, this is just about the part where the lake dries up and we all have to move on to a different body of water. I'm done asking, begging, whatever. When you show up and the site is unavailable, or gets redirected to angrygames.com (which I will keep as it's only $7.99 a month on a shared server), well, you'll know what happened.

 

I won't blame anyone but you and I will both know that you had ample opportunity to come up with some ideas and actually try to implement them and yet you did nothing, even after multiple warnings that this was coming.

 

Good luck to everyone wherever they end up.

[tasr]

I say quit school and get a job at McDonalds. That should net you enough cash to pay for the site.

 

I believe Thraxz had some suggestions at one time, but I guess porn was out of the question. :eek:

 

 

Good luck Travis and God speed.

[Angry_Games]

put an embedded video in the front page...might have to ask Tmod if we can make the site wider or move the google ad to the bottom (I haven't received a check from Google in about 9 months)

[tasr]

Travis let me clarify my initiations. My part of this community is to donate. So I’m sorry I don’t have time to make a review or figure a way to save this site.

 

If you don’t want my donation you have choices, send it back, spend it on the forum or go buy your girlfriend dinner.

[Angry_Games]

no offense intended towards you but I would appreciate less "the sky is falling" from you and everyone.

 

I'll say it one more time: I'm not interested in donations. If all you have is donations,then that is up to you to decide. But that isn't what is going to keep this site alive.

 

I realize not everyone has skills or such that can help out at the site. But out of 30,000+ members, there has to be more than JUST ME that can come up with some ideas and help get them implemented.

 

I've seen many times people talk about rado's worklog but to this day, not a single email or pm has been sent to me as to getting it up on the front page (and I'm not going to just link to some forum post without some explanation etc as to what it is).

 

I've seen others come up with good ideas but within a day or two those who came up with the ideas seem to have forgotten they came up with the idea, and we never hear about it/from them again.

 

What am I to do? Am I the only person left on earth that knows how to write, that has an imagination to come up with ideas, that can inspire others? (apparently my inspiration power is broken as you all can see).

 

I love my DIY-Street, but I'm just not IN love with it anymore, and no one else is either. Throwing money at the Street is like throwing money at that 1986 Chrysler that keeps breaking down...money is only a band-aid to patch it. Without a complete overhaul/rebuild (or just scrapping it and buying a different/newer car), all you will ever do is bleed money into that piece of . until it finally dies on you and cannot be resurrected (usually at the worst time too, like on your way to work or pick up your lottery winnings or when you post a killer how-to guide etc)

[dr_bowtie]

tasr....

 

 

you just have to understand where A_G is coming from.... all donating will do is just keep the forum to just us donators and everytime the payment is due it will only rely on us donators again....

 

Where he is coming from is with a bigger/better member base the forum will pay for itself using the banners/adds/links and what knot....

 

I have even offered up any thing I could do to help and have ask several others to work under me / with me on several projects but it seems everyone is only too busy other than to just write a check or paypal....thats just not what this site is about....

 

This place could be what it once was and so much more but it will take the combined work of all members...not just the Admin/owner and mod team...

 

Even I am embarrassed at what I have (not) accomplished as a mod or even Admin as I havent even come close to living to any expectation A_G has set forth for me nor any of the mods I dont think....

 

The tough thing is most of us have families and have to devote the time we have for them and dont have time left for the site....I have had some darn good ideas but nothing I could pull off myself...

 

And the thing is at most forums regular members dont help maintain the sites base so it's easy to see why some regular members dont really want to help with content when they are the ones just wanting to read whats posted and complain when nothing is....

 

The only way to save the site is to have a direction and a goal....a real goal.... not a diminishing goal Gallager always talks about...

 

There is alot of content here that can be made into front page material and some guides that havent gotten finished....Reelfiles even bought another rig to help finish up the HTPC guide but has all but given up....and it's purely for the fact of no help...

 

Alot of it has to do with no inside communication from the team within...and there are times when people want the power but not to be bothered by anyone else and just be left out to Wriggly field to float aimlessly with no direction....sucks for all of us...

 

 

Hell I even went so far and going out and telling everyone just to check the site out...if they like it register...I have went to places PC oriented I have called friends who work in large facilities with large amounts of employees that are PC oriented and begged and pleeded for just a look and out of 1000's of people I dont think we got one damn member from my area...

 

I mean I feel guilty for having this amount of power and not knowing how to implement it for a better use....Guilty enough to feel like I should pay the payment myself but...that does nothing to drive the member base and the member base is what any site is about....

 

If you look into any site and it's worth you will see that the traffic and member base are the 2 most important things to putting a dollar amount on a site...a site with no traffic is worth diddly squat...

 

My biggest idea would be to make many DIY videos on how to do certain things and the video tutorials are real popular and I think people would LOVE to see those...

 

but then again I need some one local to help me do all that....I would be happy to do video tutorial of anything DIY and I know about more than just PCs and people love the DIY part of life....

 

alas all I own is a tri-pod and no video camera but tax check will be here middle of the week and I might just get one to help Reel make that porn video and make some DIY tutorials why I am at it..?

[MACarter02]

I love my DIY-Street, but I'm just not IN love with it anymore

OMFG great. I just got out of a 5 yr relationship with those same words. rofl.... well not exactly the same words, but you get the idea

[fariss]

One thing that might help is to get more Company techs onboard. I remember once that someone suggested it. Having OCZ, Corsair and others posting regularly might be worthwhile. Asus, Gigabyte, mushkin are just a few. I don't know how to go about soliciting (right word?) them. It would seem to be a mutual benefit type of thing for posters and company spokesmen. Just a thought.

[Angry_Games]

One thing that might help is to get more Company techs onboard. I remember once that someone suggested it. Having OCZ, Corsair and others posting regularly might be worthwhile. Asus, Gigabyte, mushkin are just a few. I don't know how to go about soliciting (right word?) them. It would seem to be a mutual benefit type of thing for posters and company spokesmen. Just a thought.

 

we had this...we had at one time I think 8 company reps...and look where we are now...

 

but more importantly...what kind of goal is the site looking towards? And what does having company reps have to do with it?

 

Then on top of that, think about all the other much bigger forums...they have company reps, so why would a company rep want to come here for a limited scope? They don't, and they won't while we are at the size we are + the aimless direction we are drifting in.

 

This is what I think everyone but dr_bowtie, Reelfiles and I (I should probably include ALL of the mod team as they all know) are missing. Everyone wants us to do this or do that, have this or have that, but they miss the entire point.

 

A perfect example (and don't take offense, it isn't directed as an insult in any way, it's just reality) is just what you said: having company reps. But again, look at my answer to that...why would company reps want to come here now with dwindling traffic and no direction?

 

WE, which means ALL OF US NOT JUST OWNERS, ADMINS, MODERATORS, have to make something out of this site. Do we want to be a game review place? A funny video posting site? An HTPC-only site? An opinion-blog site where Angry rants about aimless, random things and all of you bash him as much as possible because of his opinions?

 

What exactly do we want this site to be? It's like a shapeless piece of clay right now. We need to mold it into something that will keep it alive and bring in blood.

 

This is the umpteenth time I've asked for ideas and I always get the same reponses: we need reps, we should just donate, hey I can do this and this for us (and then never responds/returns after that), etc.

 

Again another example I'll use is radodrill's worklog. It's a great worklog, but in the exact format it is in, it isn't front page material. As I said in earlier post, I'm not going to just start linking stories on the front page to forum posts. That isn't the proper format, and it damn sure won't get anyone interested.

 

If you have a worklog or story or article or review to contribute, you need to get with one of us on the staff and we'll help you put it in the proper format. But I grow tired of repeating that after 1+ year. I've said it zillions of times and what do we have to show for it? Nothing. A couple of false-starts where someone showed initial interest, got 1 paragraph written, and never returned to it, even with staff helping/encouraging.

 

This is the bit which I wish ALL OF YOU UNDERSTOOD.

 

I'm NOT blaming any of you. The site is my responsibility first, but it does lie a bit on your shoulders as you are the ones that keep showing up.

 

All of you got ideas on what you'd like to see. You give us an idea and then we sometimes shoot it down (part of life, get used to it), or we say ok, that's rough so polish it up a bit and bring it back and we'll help you get going with it...and then nothing happens beyond that.

 

These days, my responsibility now lies in making sure the server payment gets made. I'm not going to give you all the ideas because in the end, I'd end up having to do all of it myself, and I just don't have the time nor the interest anymore.

 

But if someone comes up with some good ideas, it might spark that crazy, creative genius that you all know I have (looky at those XP Tweak vids and how to remove IHS vids and how to remove and clean chipset fan vids and the OCDB etc).

 

WHAT THE xxxx DO YOU PEOPLE WANT FROM THIS SITE???

 

Do you just want a place to come and post once in a while? Or would you rather see the site take more of a role in some of the things you are truly interested in?

 

Just because we are "Do It Yourself Street" doesn't mean we are limited to crap that you have to DIY. We are a site that can do anything we want now that we aren't tied down by DFI.

 

Again, ideas are great, but if all you got in you is to tell us an idea and then run and hide and try to get us to do all the work for you, this place will close down pretty quick. We've got unlimited slots open on our staff for the right people who put in a little effort. Hell, the current staff will bend over backwards to help you get your idea off the ground and implemented...but the staff is not going to do your work for you, not even 50% of it. We'll help as much as humanly possible, but we aren't going to spend our time fleshing out and implementing your ideas to the point where we do it all ourselves. That just isn't going to happen.

 

As Terry (dr_bowtie) says, we all have lives, families, jobs, blah blah blah. If everyone just wants a place to come and read and post, then I guess just continue to donate and we'll watch the Street die slowly but surely. I'm not really down with that, which is why I say I'd rather just close shop and move on (hell, I could spend this time blogging like a madman at NHL.com or Blogspot or even just angrygames.com, but while blogging is ok, it isn't going to generate anything beyond a few angry responses from people who don't see things my way).

 

It's go-time people. Up to you all. I can't stress it enough even though I repeat the same . everytime this comes up. This time though, the interest is the issue just as much as the money. Before it was purely money worries. Now it is essentially "why should I care about something that everyone else only claims to care about but doesn't really do much to show more than lip-service?"

 

Harsh sounding yeah, and you can hate me for it. But how about you run the site for 6 months and you'll find yourself as frustrated as me...probably more as you aren't nearly as patient as I am (if this place hadn't been DFI Street for a few years previously, I'd have already closed it down and moved on).

 

Take it however you want. But I'm done with the place if no one else is interested in keeping it alive beyond feeding it morphine (donations) to ease the pain of death...but let's make no mistake, death is ALWAYS at the end of the morphine drip...cancer that requires morphine always kills.

[dr_bowtie]

As A_G stated....

 

Since we are Do-It-Yourself-Street we are open to alot more ground than just computers and what know....

 

Isnt there anything you guys would like to learn or know that you could Do-It-Yourself...?

 

What about home stuff....any of you ever wondered how they install Kitchen cabinets or how to correctly install the handy Towel bar in the bathroom your significant other was harping on you about?

 

these are all things some of us know....

 

Ever wonder how to correctly finish Sheetrock or do your own repairs in sheetrock or plaster...? Well I for 1 cant tell you all of the answers to these questions....

 

Reelfiles can tell you how to correctly hang sheetrock....

 

Ever wonder how to paint your room like a professional but havent the slightest clue how to start...? I do

 

Ever wonder what that Check Engine Light means on your car when it lights up at the worst time in the world....? I do that also....

 

These are ALL Do-It-Yourself stuff....!

 

Basically getting back to basics means doing this stuff yourself and saving yourself some coin....

 

We can venture anywhere in the DIY realm of possibility....

 

Every wonder how to cut winter heating cost by 90% by using natural alternatives....?

 

I did that also...! going to post a little something about it all when I am finished this season....

 

you guys see we can become so much more than we are....and the fact is any of you than can help widen the realm of the scope may get a chance to come onboard to mod your own section should we need that much space....

 

there is so much more to life than PC stuff...The IT market is pretty much saturated to the point there is NO money in it at all....atleast around here but there is always a big need for DIY stuff....especially everyday stuff...