New decade - New LG (Feedback needed)

[Kingz V]

New decade - New LG

https://forms.gle/bLtq7ERSz4qY64g69

Please fill out the feedback form so we can have an idea what to do with the community here.

Would like to have an extended discussion on what we should do here.

Some prompts for responses
- Preferred voice & text chat app, personally love having a discord server with everyone there
- New website/domain, what do you think
- Housekeeping, should we archive LG? clean up?
- Content and Discussions, what kind of content and discussions would you like to see more
- Community events - party up in games and stuff like that
- How to grow make internet friends and spread the fun and

[Elliot]

Stay tuned.

[C0FFINCASE]

LG really grew too wide. The community really in isolated into JY after it lost any real interest in Gaia. That’s not a bad thing but we then kept trying to draw people in with disparate sections. I think we need to keep discussion and JY but choose something specific to have a real focus on. This is difficult as we all likely have a wide array of interests.

I’m hesitant to give up the domain. I would like to migrate user accounts but I don’t care if the forum is archived. We’ve started over any number of times so it’s fine. Community events and engagement is definitely something we need. Honestly we might want to consider streaming(Twitch).

[Kingz V]

Sticking with the domain has some advantages, there's a good bit of SEO and links already pointing here so that helps.

the main two topics of interest seem to be between gaming and programming, will wait for more input on those.

[Elliot]

Sticking with the domain has some advantages, there's a good bit of SEO and links already pointing here so that helps.

the main two topics of interest seem to be between gaming and programming, will wait for more input on those.

We’re also going to focus on creative arts. And please Add your favorite memories about LG, and why you keep coming back.

We’re also thinking about switching from vBulletin to something more modern.

[Cyanoxide]

Although our community is small a lot of people including myself returned to the site because of nostalgia. My concern is that if we radically change the site by changing the platform we might lose some of those people. For example in my case I stumbled back on here after a 10 year hiatus and after discovering that my account was still in tact from all those years ago I've been active ever since. However if I had came back and my account no longer existed I worry that I might not have made a new account.

[Elliot]

Although our community is small a lot of people including myself returned to the site because of nostalgia. My concern is that if we radically change the site by changing the platform we might lose some of those people. For example in my case I stumbled back on here after a 10 year hiatus and after discovering that my account was still in tact from all those years ago I've been active ever since. However if I had came back and my account no longer existed I worry that I might not have made a new account.

The mirror should be intact. I'm glad you brought that up. One of the top priorities is preserving the nostalgia, while still leaving the door open for new users. My ultimate goal is forum. = old LG. Main domain = new LG. Then the new LG will be a learning ground for aspiring programmers, creatives, etc to have a portfolio and receive guidance from us on how to turn the skills into a career. Sort of like Udemy but free and more interactive. I'm sure it's safe to say the things we learned on LG carried over into our adult lives.

[Cyanoxide]

I can get on board with that and I'm happy to help where I can. My background is in front-end development and graphic design.

I'd love to get a small graphic community thriving again doing graphics contests and things. I enjoyed things like sig of the week and other contests like that. I remember winning a contest for using the pen tool in photoshop to cut out a picture of Obama and a car 😅 I believe right now I'm the only one on the site that posts in the artwork forum so it would be nice to grow it.

I think we should also make an effort to post in different forums rather than just the junkyard to make the site seem more active for newcomers and I don't think we really need subforums for the likes of counterstrike and pokemon or the cannabis and sports forum but that may just be my opinion.

[Kingz V]

so far 9 results show we need reorganize the topics & update the theme would be top priorities.

would like a few more responses before doing anything actionable.

[Snow-kun]

Primary reason I come to check back here is because of the nostalgia and the community. This place is essentially where I learned to edit and to code (which I can't do now even if my life depended on it). But as for editing I can still help out.
If it's keeping it gaming relevant how about adding a computer hardware discussion or assistance thing where you can leave reviews and stuff. Also possible for us to make in depth reviews on games. An active discord would also be welcome where the actual interactions take place.

[Kingz V]

wasn't thinking about hardware but its a nice bridge between just gaming and more technical discussions.

I like to keep up with the trends and advise in pc part picking.

[Cyanoxide]

I'd be on board with a hardware section, I stay pretty up to date with all the latest pc parts though I wouldn't call myself an expert on the subject.

Also, a simple idea but we could also do something like a weekly/monthly gaming challenge like for example "who could get the fastest time on a certain map on Mario Kart". And the winner gets a award badge and gets to choose the next challenge. Similar contests can be done for all the various forums to encourage interaction.

[C0FFINCASE]

I would be interested in hardware. I have zero formal education on hardware but taught myself about it and spent much of my teens and early 20s just ripping PCs apart and putting them back together.

I'm here for you kids. Long and short of it. Still love you guys. I basiclly keep LG on my tab and click on it about once a week to check in and make sure it's up or not.

[Xaoi]

Hey guys Checking in here after a loooooooooooong time. It was really nostalgic going through this forum which has been here for over a decade.

I remember being a kid and discovering this site which was managed by Artificial at that time. I got to talk with some cool people who were interested in gaia (ie. Torian, Obby, Syd, etc), and did some F2Ping (lol)/hacking/cracking/social engineering myself. I even remember using my super old pc to run a bruteforce tool that someone shared here....and then scoring one of my biggest Gaia hauls. Of course, all my accounts got banned but it was a fun ride. I also used to do some gfx in here as well as PlanetRenders (RIP), and in hindsight I wasn't really good but I invested so much time crafting some signatures that it sort of became a hobby.

Sometime after that, this site got bought out by some awesome people, and I tried to re-join and re-kindle my passion for botting/hacking...but I guess I grew up and had different priorities. One thing though is that LG inspired me to take on and finish CS/programming as my major.

Sorry for the ramble. I just wish forums & messengers were still alive just like the old days, you know? Now it's all reddit & social media. Not that they're bad, but I preferred the more personal atmosphere forums like this one bring.

Anyways, here are some suggestions:
1. Use discord for random discussions for games/shows/etc.
2. Choose upcoming/relatively popular console/mobile games and create sections & discussions for them. I think that's a good way to bring in traffic. Right now, your only competition is usually reddit/discord. If you drive discussions for these new games, there's a good chance the threads will appear via google search.
3. Create an online marketplace similar to epicnpc.
4. If you plan to go a different path (ie. life skills forum, etc), it can work but it might vastly lower your audience since everything is google-able nowadays.

TBH though, the forum format is really dying, and I really hope you guys can turn things around. I really loved this site when I was young, and would hate to see it go.

Good luck

[Kingz V]

thanks for the feedback ~ definitely leaning more towards gaming & programming topics.

think we will keep the marketplace but without buyers/sellers im not sure how well it will do.

[Snow-kun]

Can we get a Discord link on the Navigation bar btw?
Got kicked from the Skype one before and I don't know why.

[C0FFINCASE]

Can we get a Discord link on the Navigation bar btw?
Got kicked from the Skype one before and I don't know why.

I went poking around to try and find how to manipulate it but I didn't find anything obvious.

[Kingz V]

@C0FFINCASE are you able to add/upload themes?

[C0FFINCASE]

I don't think I have backend admin powers in generall. Just forum admin powers.

[Kingz V]

might need thomas to get that part done then

[Elliot]

might need thomas to get that part done then

I’ll get on that tonight.

[Elliot]

I’ll get on that tonight.

Done

[Kingz V]

yay now we really need to tackle the forum organization.

[C0FFINCASE]

yay now we really need to tackle the forum organization.

WIP

[kaosknife123]

Holy shit.

[Riddle]

Glad to see the site being kept alive! Hope everyone is doing well! Just doing my yearly drive-by to see what's up.

[Kingz V]

o/

[MattSmith]

I submitted

[Kingz V]

Thanks Matt! I think right now its hard for anyone to find the time to do the forum cleanup.

[Cyanoxide]

Thanks Matt! I think right now its hard for anyone to find the time to do the forum cleanup.

Just so you know, I'm happy to do whatever I can should something be decided upon. 😁

[Kingz V]

for the most part the majority vote was to keep the current board system/ possible re-skin & template.

focus on game hacking /programming

was hoping to publish the full results with more than a dozen responses.

[MattSmith]

for the most part the majority vote was to keep the current board system/ possible re-skin & template.

focus on game hacking /programming

was hoping to publish the full results with more than a dozen responses.

Not many people on the site these days. Gaia is a dying site itself and thus LG died as thats what we relied on.

[Kingz V]

on that note ~ how the fuck do we fix the spam posts.

[Cyanoxide]

on that note ~ how the fuck do we fix the spam posts.

From my understanding we're pretty limited on what we can do. If possible we could add a captcha somewhere (perhaps there's even a phpbb/vbulliten plugin for it, I can't recall which one we use) but I don't know if even that is an option. In the past I've dealt with this sort of thing with a combination of a captcha and by adding a hidden field to the form that only gets updated when a human focuses on the main input box or clicks the submit button to prevent automation or something along those lines but again, I doubt that's something we can implement on here.

I think the most important thing we can do it to make sure we delete the posts. Unfortunately though, they rarely get posted in forums that I moderate so the most I can do is ban them. The longer they're left there the more likely someone will click on one of the links and they will have benefited. Obviously they want you to buy into their products but the main reason they're doing it is to get as many links on different domains to point to their website to improve SEO results in search engines and the like.

[C0FFINCASE]

From my understanding we're pretty limited on what we can do. If possible we could add a captcha somewhere (perhaps there's even a phpbb/vbulliten plugin for it, I can't recall which one we use) but I don't know if even that is an option. In the past I've dealt with this sort of thing with a combination of a captcha and by adding a hidden field to the form that only gets updated when a human focuses on the main input box or clicks the submit button to prevent automation or something along those lines but again, I doubt that's something we can implement on here.

I think the most important thing we can do it to make sure we delete the posts. Unfortunately though, they rarely get posted in forums that I moderate so the most I can do is ban them. The longer they're left there the more likely someone will click on one of the links and they will have benefited. Obviously they want you to buy into their products but the main reason they're doing it is to get as many links on different domains to point to their website to improve SEO results in search engines and the like.

I think I can purge universally. I'll try and go through and delete some of them.

Update: Went to go hunt a bit. You can't mass delete or move threads within the forum. You have to do each one individually which makes it take forever. I'm looking at some of the controls to see if I can find a better solution.

[Stapled]

I think I can purge universally. I'll try and go through and delete some of them.

Update: Went to go hunt a bit. You can't mass delete or move threads within the forum. You have to do each one individually which makes it take forever. I'm looking at some of the controls to see if I can find a better solution.

Just merge them all and delete the one topic.

[Kingz V]

Dare I work on developing a new forum as refuge or let this place die?

A big thing would be I am unable to use the same forum engine license.

[rygaku]

id say well have a fresh restart for the server for most of the updated current stuff thats in at the moment.

[C0FFINCASE]

I'll more or less support whatever people want to do and continue to watch over things.

[Jah]

Hey guys, whats up ?