How can Pixar Planet improve, loyal members? Here’s one great big suggestion thread, and I’ll keep editing this thread as you add your worthy suggestions. That way when (if) we get a coder for this site it’ll be easy to improve the forums.
I love the themed smileys idea rachel! It’d be even cooler if there was a sort of tab on the smileys that let you switch between movies, or if each film’s boards showed that particular movie’s smiley. I also thought that the gender thing could help, to fix any confusion with typing him/her, sir/ma’am, etc.
Now, for a chat room, oh boy, I’d DIE for a chat room. I’m constantly clicking that new posts tab at the top here, once every 10 minutes, waiting for replies to threads. I really don’t have much to do when I’m not here, or at work, so I pretty much just sit here waiting for responses a lot of the time. Some more fast-paced conversations would really help with that.
I think the board could have a better look, no offense, but it’s pretty bland. I’m glad there’s themes, but the rest could be spiced up a bit. It’d be really neat if the themes changed the entire look of the site, instead of just banners and icons. Not saying I have a problem with the themes, they’re great, but things can always be improved. That’s also based on how well the coder does for setting it up, so there’s a limitation as well.
Most of the improvements I can think of would just change how the place looks. Other than that, and chat rooms, I think you’ve got it covered pretty well. A blog would be really great. I know there’s updates on the topsite, but I don’t check it very often. :\
To paraphrase lizardgirl, this suggestion thread is a great suggestion, Rachel! In fact, to suggest suggestions from members in this suggestion thread is in itself a great suggestion!
Esoteric philosophical loops aside, I think you’ve made some great points. As a prime example to aspire to, the Wall-E forum (another forum I actively participate in) would be an ideal candidate. They’ve pretty much implemented all the features Rachel recommended, except I’m not sure about “friends, comments” and “add events to calendar”.
One feature I like from them is a Point-based system whereupon if they like another person’s fanwork or comment, they add ‘points’ to others (usually with the complimentary exclamation “PL4U!”) to ‘level’ them up. It’s pretty much for bragging rights, similar to the ‘post-count’ system of ranks, except it rewards you in a more democratic way for contributing to the Pixar fandom, rather than the ‘post-count’ system where you can easily ‘rank up’ by spamming posts.
Other than that, I’d like to see an Up banner and homepage theme; there hasn’t been one created yet. If the admins are up for it, they can accept user-contributed banners to encourage member participation.
Oh, and a news headline would be good too. Like a ticker-tape style that runs along the top, the text doesn’t have to move or be too distracting, but it’s good way to promote forum-wide projects or to insert general musings or Pixar quotes.
I’ll think up more later, but these are the few I can suggest at the moment. The ones I really want to see be implemented are the Pixar smilies, chat room and video embeds.
Hehe, good point NanoGeek. Btw, to help resolve this current little,… Issue, try not to post so much, he’ll be more inclined to continue with a responsive audience. Just kinda leave for a while and check from time to time to see if it’s been taken care of.
Really, I can’t believe he’s stooped so low. Way to ruin my impression of you dude,…
I too would enjoy a chat room. It’s very fun to talk with you guys, but it’s a little annoying to have to keep refreshing in order to see new posts. And I think someone else suggested this, but a separate section on the forums for movies would be sweet too. All of us love movies, all of us loves to talk about them, so movies should get its own little forum.
I think that that smiley idea is awesome! I’ve always wondered why Pixar Planet was the only forums that hasn’t done that yet I’m looking forward to those improvements!
If these do come, I’d be looking forward to the video embed, chat rooms, and gender identification.
I think another thing (if this was possible to do) would be a ‘your time’ ‘my time’ thing, and I think this would help the boards that need synchronization of times (fan commentaries, ect.)
So at the top of each post it could say:
Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:16pm GMT -5 | Thu Jul 16, 2009 2:16am GMT +2
----------------------------------- My Time ----------------------------- Their Time -------------------
(^ bar not included)
It would give an idea of the time differences, and it would show who was on during their time, and what time it was there
Make any sense at all?
About the smilies: Do I sense a possible contest? User submitted icons to be voted on
Edit: I’m kinda iffy on the point/karma idea. I think that we all know each other and since the community is so small, I know that we’ve all atleast seen each other, even if we’ve never actually talked. I think that instead of ranking that way, or even having a rank for that at all, is just that if you’re going around and someone new sees you and they see that, they could be like: Oh, everyone likes them, but they don’t really have a knowledge of why. Plus, the word of mouth we have around here is really positive and really good. I don’t think we should have a ‘nicest’ competition.
Hehe, that’d be great thewisecookiesheet! I’d love to help, but I’m not sure how great my smilies would be. Oh well, guess I’ll just have to work on photoshop! The idea for the time change thing would be great as well, considering how diverse it is here.
I wouldn’t vote for the karma idea. A Danny Phantom forum that I joined recently had some dude just randomly minusing everyone’s karma all 'cause he was bored. It got taken down because of that. So I wouldn’t go for it. Then again, this guy was stupid enough to tell everyone when he did minus their karma. But it still sounds like a bad idea after what happened on the Danny Phantom Online Community. The points based system may be best for no one can just randomly delete points, right?
I want gender identification. I’ve been mistaken for a boy before! I’m a girl!!!
The Pixar themed icons would be great!! You have to do it so that there is a full set for each movie!!! Not just random movies get random icons. And try to incorporate as many characters as you can. Like for example, in the Cars set, have Mater for the big grin, and Doc for the mad icon. chuckles to self Angry Doc! Okay, I’m done being a dork.
Yes, the themes are very plain. If I knew how to make them, I’d make ones that are a lot more decorative. But I’m lacking in those skills.
A chat room would be a great way for us to get to know the members a lot better. Plus, I love to chat like that with people!!! It’s always so much fun!!!
I had the same Idea for this. For Up-
Carl-Frown, Angry, Rolling Eyes, Laughing
Russell-Smiling, Surprised, Laughing
Dug-Confused, Embarrassed, Sad
Kevin-Surprised, Angry, Confused
Ellie-Happy, Blushing, Winking
There’s a few for multiple characters, but they could have the same expressions for more than one. just pick your fave.
A points system could be great, it could help point out who’s contributed the most to the boards, and fan content.
Ever heard of a citizen arrest? Granted, I don’t think every member should have the power to delete posts or ban others, but this would be a quicker feature than having to send out individual PMs to all the mods. Great idea!
That would be me. Thanks for the vote of confidence, FounderofAzn!
Thanks for the suggestions, and keep 'em coming everyone. I’ve updated the original post. Hopefully we can find some way to implement most, if not all of those ideas eventually. Some of them are easy to do, others we definitely need a coder for.
I’ve got some basic java down, and I have a friend that knows a fair bit of HTML, so I can look into it. I also have 2 coding classes next semester, so I can ask my teacher to help me out. I’ll see if I can get any sort of understanding down to do it. I’ll also try to get some emoticons (Primarily Up, I already know I can draw Carl and Russell) on PS done, and kinda post those at some point I’d really love to help shape this place up.
I know a guy who’s really great with PS, I’ll ask him if he can help out with some site themes. He’s made some really slick stuff before, and if I can get him on board, he wont disappoint.
You mean Youtube and the like, right? Cause saying ‘allow embedded flash files’ would be more technically actuate as that is what it would really require.
All great suggestions so far guys ! Something I thought of was a “Last Logged In” thing under a persons profile. (Forgive me if we already have one and I just haven’t seen it )
There is that feature already: go to the top of the forums and look to the right of your avatar, and underneath “Welcome [your username]!” it should say “you last visited on…”.
)