Important question

[Ithuriel]

Should we try one more time?
(poll inside the thread)

[Vikingmakt]

I wanna say yes, purely for nostalgia reasons, but in the end I'm heavily mixed on it mostly due to former members most likely never coming back. But if you can attract the general Pokémon fandom, it's worth a shot. Heck, for the sake of it I wouldn't mind reposting Saga of the Sun, or even work on Goblin's Dance again since I never really finished writing it.

[Shadow]

Man, I'm in the same boat here! I would love to gather the ol' group back together, but I dunno if it'll happen. I mean, we all have, like, lives or whatever now (I may or may not be including myself. You be the judge.). I think I would be down with a revamp though. It's just a matter of people coming back, and people sticking around.

...We may have to resort to kidnapping. Surely someone here has experience! ...I'll, uh... I'll be back later when I actually have something witty to say. *unambiguous cough*

[Jondawg]

Grins- i never kidnapped anyonr.

[Pika~Boo74]

I'm up for it.

[Shadow]

Nice.

...
*another unambiguous cough*

[Ithuriel]

Okay, it's been more than a week. I suppose I can assume that the majority of the users that still visit the site every so often want it to come back.

I'll post my "plan" in a few moments, meanwhile, anyone has any idea of what we could do to start up the forums again?

[Ithuriel]

Okay, so this is kind of a barebones plan to bring the Forums back.

1. Reinstall the forum system: The current system is outdated and, due to several earlier failures, buggy/unstable. It is also filled with (pretty much) useless addons. The forums will be reinstalled with the current version of the MyBB forum software, and be set up from scratch.
   
   • The new forum will have a smaller, simpler forum structure, at least in the beginning, with less subforums (more will be added if needed on the go), in order to improve more conversation visibly.
   • The current content of the forums would be archived (and possibly shown somewhere, for posterity) but due to incompatibility and bugs it will not be added back to the new forum.
   • For this, I will need Rob's help because I'm forgetful and lost the FTP details of the current servers
     
2. Create basic content: The forums will be populated with basic content in both the Pokémon and the non-Pokémon forums, for this I will need of all of you to think of and post new topics, and reply to the other topics. The idea is to get as much activity as possible.
   • It would be prefered to avoid posts that add no "thoughtful" conversation, or at least keep those to a minimum. I'm talking of threads that serve only to increase the post count, e.g.: the daily chat (which will still be created) and forum word games.
   • Creepypastas and theories are still content. I would like to know if you want them to be added as threads in the forums, or have them be in their own, separate pages inside the forum. Maybe they can be added as a "feature" of the forums (kind of, but not exactly, like the website in former iterations of Lavender Town/6th Floor)
     
3. Advertisement: This has always been the hardest part in the uncountable amount of times we've wanted to bring back the forums. We will need new members. This will be done through advertisement: posting the link of the forums somewhere else (social network, reddit, other forums [always where allowed]), direct messages (to friends and former members), e-mails, word of mouth, basically any way you know of.
   

Sounds good? Any idea?

[Vikingmakt]

Our biggest problem is getting new members, standing up as is isn't hard since there's a few of us, bu tits always the starting roll and getting new members to join and stay being the issue. Our core content is Pokémon and mainly horror at that, we still have to pander to a small section outside of that and the general Pokémon fandom.

[Shadow]

• 1. I'm on board with what is planned forum-wise. I was honestly laughing at some of my old posts (what a crazy fellow I is sometimes!) and would like to go back and reminisce on occasion. If it becomes a problem to archive this current forum's stuff, I'd say it's not that important. But still, it'd be nice if we could archive what we have now, if only for nostalgic purposes.
• 2. No need to worry about activity! I'm (typically) always by my computer in the later hours of the day, so I can potentially be online for a decent amount of time... at a time! What I do worry about, though, is other users taking the time to show the forums some love.
  
  The forums ain't gonna grow and be fun if you only post one thing in the Daily Chit Chat Thread like, "Man, school and stuff can be so tiring." That does literally nothing except kill off conversation, and is one of my main grievances with the forums of old. Show concern for your fellow users! Because if you don't, what would keep them here? Do they want to hop on and respond to something like that? No, they don't. I can tell you this: the ONLY reason I join forums is because the user base is welcoming, talkative, and friendly. If we're not that, what is going to keep people here? Not much, when there are already bigger Pokémon websites like Serebii and such.
  Anyway, those were just my thoughts on the matter! Hopefully you agree with them!
• 3. Honestly, we can advertise all we want, but there's no point in advertising if the forums themselves won't retain anybody! (This goes along with my previous thoughts, so... Yeah, I'll skip this part.) I'll still see what I can do, of course! I reckon I'll be able to get at least one or two people, myself.
  

Long story short: I feel like it's a good thing to bring back this site / the forums here! However, the admins (including me, of course) NEED to put some time and effort into this in order for it to grow larger. Nothing's gonna happen if I stop by once a day to comment on a thread or two. Nothing's gonna happen if I only attempt to talk about me, me, and stuff relating to me! This will take the effort of our old friends (and maybe some new users too!) to bring activity back. It won't happen overnight. If we're gonna attempt a "revitalization," we darn well better be willing to put a lot of time and love in here.

I'm willing to be a part of that, and I hope many others are as well.

PS- This post was brought to you by Serious Shadow. Regular Shadow will be back after he has his midnight snack.