Help us get our priorities straight - Page 2

do you think i am old enough to join a bingo forum?

i am a woman, i'll always shop.
as for hf, its' day in the sun may have passed, at least in the current form.
of course, i don't know jack shit, but that's my opinion.

Really? Kind of a long post for someone who thinks there is no use in trying to resurrect the forum he just posted in. I mean you posting is kind of contributing to the actual act of resurrecting i.e. creating discussion, don't you think?

Considering the last 5 posts have been from members of Jawnz I'm not quite sure how successful this resurrection turns out!

touché

i have maybe 15 posts in the last 2 months

just trying to save u time

yes, but that last post was worthy of Ross himself. So technically it counts as 4 posts.

every single post after mine is by a member of jawnz; wonder when this trend will be broken?

ok i edited it 4 u

lol

I am glad that courtzzz is gone, down with true religion

I haven't been on in a LONG time... last time I tried to log in, the site was back under maintenance, and I haven't tried to log in since then until today- probably a month ago?

Agree with Ben on most points. Dave, you always ask for opinions but they don't ever happen, which makes it a lot harder for us to want to contribute ideas. I think it's almost a little offensive when you ask for help and then don't take it- like we're not good enough to consider, really.

As for the traffic on HF, for me personally, I'm out and about all the time with my kids since it's summertime and the weather's freakin awesome. I also don't need help with authentication anymore, and since all the topics that were fun to talk about are too taboo anymore, I don't really bother posting in the less interesting threads.

Bottom line, you have to give people a reason to want to be here. I don't know how many new members we've had in the last few months- it's summer, so I'm assuming denim sales and interest are down right now anyway- but it seems to me that we've had the same members for a long time, and since they keep getting yelled at, they're just leaving. The idea of a section where we can say whatever we want, discuss what we want, and not be banned for it is FANTASTIC and I'm very disappointed it hasn't happened yet.

free consulting from your users! nothing better than that.

1. new server. speed everything up. (server speed seems fine to me)

2. new forum manager to help organize everything and keep the community well run (eh... possibly, but I think it's fine currently)


Denimblog improvments
+ add in email subscription in the top right (use MailChimp.)
+ take out the footer (keep the footer but add nav links into it, people don't want to have to scroll up to go somewhere
+ make "next" button at bottom have a few less buttons on it seems good

HonestMall
+ get a vbulletin programmer to help speed things up and make sure mall is working correctly (never had problems on my end
+ move the New item button up to the top right. YES
+ add a better "next" button at bottom sure
+ Do you guys want more items per page? Or will that take too long to load the pages give people options to view 20, 40 60 all etc. it's pretty standard these days

Forum improvements
+ add a tagging system so posts can be better organized could be good
+ maybe reduce the number of sections current org. seems good.


Content is King.

Create the content that is lacking. The new seasons' for Diesel are never posted anymore. I think a real guide covering all of the washes and cuts should be created, similar to Birdy's Zathan Thread, but actually cover every wash with good pics. How about a Thanaz wash guide? Who else has that? Nobody. Ask those questions, and spend time creating original content. With posts down and prolific members absent or banned, it may be time to rethink the user created content model and use a more mixed model.

I think your time would be better spent on things like that. I realize my suggestions are Diesel-centric, but I have no doubts that people want similar content for other brands - and can't find it. That will increase search engine traffic - which seems to be one of your biggest strengths, so play it.

Excellent suggestions, half of them are almost immediately doable

This forum pretty much destroyed itself, from a combination of bad management (ridiculous overmoderation that one day came out of nowhere), to the inability of the forum to adapt to changes in trends and fashion.

How long did this forum still have a TR, R&R & citizens jeans section when they were no longer relevant? This used to be a place for the "fashion forward", but it went from fashion forward to being left in the dust b/c it never adapted to change. Back when this site still had steady traffic, things should have started changing to keep current... unfortunately time passed, nothing changed, and now this forum is now a shadow of it's former self.

Also, after things began changing in the fashion world, a rift formed between those who wanted to stay fashion forward, and those who wanted to hold onto the past. Instead of picking a side and sticking with it, the forum tried to accommodate both sides. Key members got pushed out, and the rest bitched and complained about how mean people are, or how "previous level" the majority of people dressed. Again, better management management and being more receptive to change could have possibly led to a solution, but instead almost nothing happened, and eventually everyone got fed up and went their separate ways.

Now, the only thing this forum still has going is a fairly strong and knowledgeable diesel following.

So at this point, you may as well rename the forum to "dieseljeansforum" and reroute all the traffic there. Either that, or blow everything up and start all over with a whole new agenda. The whole "honestforum" theme does not hold up anymore with todays trends or ideas.

Sorry to sound so pessimistic. But hell, I went from visiting this forum daily, to poking my head in maybe once every other month. Outside of any radical change to this forum, I don't see my habits changing.

Remove the eye sore/waste of space that is "Total members that have visited the forum in the last 24 hours" that everyone thought was retarded in the first place.

Hey I gotta give props for getting rid of the stupid link on the side to go to the blog! That took up 1/4 of the screen and most of us could careless about the blog!

Slowly, but surely...

Theres plenty more coming, stay tuned

CUTUP -- I admire your tenacity, but I feel like this is an uphill battle -- one you're almost certain to lose. There was an article I read a while back on CNN about how the once might myspace have plateaued and even been supplanted by facebook as the most popular social networking site. The main sticking point of the article was that history suggests once a website begins to significantly lose its audience, it's been almost impossible to reverse the trend, something I've seen happen with a number of niche sites (who may have spawned disgruntled members who went on to create more popular competitor sites over the years).

And as mentioned earlier, I find it funny that the #1 focus is on a new server. I don't think anyone here is complaining about the speed. A lot of people, however, were opposed to the new mall to no avail, and I think that's where shit started going south fast.

This used to be one of my favorite websites to visit, not so much for the fashion content, but for the variety of smart, witty personalities here. Now all that's left is a board that gets about one new topic every 3-4 days, and a mall that seems to be used more by resellers looking to make a profit than actual contributing members.

I fully agree it is going to be an uphill battle, a very steep one at that. I was planning on walking away myself and the only thing that kept me here was some of the great people I have met over the years

I agree when things get mentioned like " #1 get a new server" it is very disheartening to hear, as it makes it sound like that will fix this place, I am sure that was not the intent.

I know we need a complete rebuild and even then it may not get to the level people want it to be, but I still want to try. I am trying to re-focus our energy into changing our niche completely.

My goal is to have this place as a springboard for those getting into fashion. People that want to educate themselves and also receive some sage advice on fashion, as well as some honest opinions. I am hoping we can straddle the line between elitist and mainstream fashion, and I know its a fine line to walk.

The days of people shelling out $300 for a pair of designer denim based solely on the fact that it is a popular brand name is over. Likewise the authentication niche we used to fill is long gone. People these days are far better educated about what they are purchasing. I remember the days when authenticity checks were filling entire pages in one day, not anymore

And everyone here has said what we have already known, content is king. No one is posting anymore because there are many that feel this place has been behind the times for a while, and that we have nothing to offer. I am doing interviews with some new designers and will be loading this place with articles from specific lines complete with links to shows ect. Once the site outline has been updated, I am really hoping to add a bunch of new material

When names like TR, Citizens of Humanity ect are the main names that grace our homepage, we look really dated. We would have looked dated years ago with that. We need to be amorphous, and stop placing people into groupings of brand names. We should be posting articles and interviews and giving people new information, a starting point for conversation.

We have left it up to members only for to long and neglected the content we should have filled this place with, and it has killed us.

Well, you certainly have the right idea cutup. That's the kind of change this site needs. The biggest obstacle will definitely be luring new/old members back.

Good luck, I'd love to see this place will experience a renaissance.

Dude, you asked memebers' opinion but you dont come out and respond? What gives?

^This

Well its nice to know people beleive in you


Shun the non beleiver, shunnnnn

Sonicvodoo? Is that you?

I'm glad to see the "people who have signed in in the past 24 hours" thing is gone! It makes it much easier to scroll around.