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It is difficult to make it completely unique. These categories are kind of a must. You can rename them and put them in a different order if you want, but I say who cares about what other sites are doing. Just make this place the way we want it.

Visual Pinball

- General Help

- Development

- New Releases

- WIP

Future Pinball

- General Help

- Development

- New Releases

- WIP

Pincabs

- Suppliers

- Cabinet Making Help

- Artwork

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Dont forget the Dazz paypal tab, cause your only here to make money i have been told :P

I agree with deegor it will be dificult to make it unique we still want to cover the same stuff but its the ease of navigation that matters most i think.

I would also like to see a tutorial section there for vp, been thinking of making a detailed thread of a build from artwork to scripting, it wont be a quick job tho.

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Is it possible to have the recent posts thing on the right to show the last poster and not the thread creator. When looking at those if I quickly see the last post isn't a new person then I know I can ignore. If its the thread creator then it always shows the same name there which makes me think it's nothing new.

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Dont forget the Dazz paypal tab, cause your only here to make money i have been told :P

I agree with deegor it will be dificult to make it unique we still want to cover the same stuff but its the ease of navigation that matters most i think.

I would also like to see a tutorial section there for vp, been thinking of making a detailed thread of a build from artwork to scripting, it wont be a quick job tho.

Honestly, I'd like to keep full fledged tutorials out of the forums and in a more organized format. There is this really nice Tutorials mod for IPB that I've been looking into.

http://community.invisionpower.com/files/file/5386-tutorials/

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Did you want to add a cabinet section so people can show their cab builds, or did you want to keep that on HS?

Will definitely have a cabinet section. Just haven't made it that far yet. Just created the Cabinet Cluster portal for cabinet information and cabinet specific posts/articles.
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The spacey naming may seem cool, but you need to consider others who stumble onto the site for the first time looking for stuff to do specifically with Virtual Pinball. If they see a whole lot of "Star Trek" type stuff they'll get confused and leave. With websites sometimes it's about what you DON'T do that makes the site tick.

All part of the challenge - stand out from the crowd whilst looking familiar to everyone.

What level are you pitching the site to - newbie, self proclaimed brainiac of the galaxy, or just your average Joe? It needs to appeal to everyone yet attract newbies like flies and have them wanting to stay, learn and contribute (content as well as $$). Be careful with abbreviations, especially with VP as it can mean Virtual OR Visual Pinball and again leads to confusion. It's enough that everyone abbreviates their favourite tables (ie TOTAN, AFM, CFTBL, CV etc) without throwing in VP, VPM, FP, HP, UVP, B2S.

IMO the most important element is to get your structure right the first time. Just look at VPForums - how many people use their sig files to include links to very useful information that are now broken due to their constant restructuring and upgrading?

Hope I'm not coming across as too harsh!

Cheers,

Chris

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The spacey naming may seem cool, but you need to consider others who stumble onto the site for the first time looking for stuff to do specifically with Virtual Pinball. If they see a whole lot of "Star Trek" type stuff they'll get confused and leave. With websites sometimes it's about what you DON'T do that makes the site tick.

All part of the challenge - stand out from the crowd whilst looking familiar to everyone.

What level are you pitching the site to - newbie, self proclaimed brainiac of the galaxy, or just your average Joe? It needs to appeal to everyone yet attract newbies like flies and have them wanting to stay, learn and contribute (content as well as $$). Be careful with abbreviations, especially with VP as it can mean Virtual OR Visual Pinball and again leads to confusion. It's enough that everyone abbreviates their favourite tables (ie TOTAN, AFM, CFTBL, CV etc) without throwing in VP, VPM, FP, HP, UVP, B2S.

IMO the most important element is to get your structure right the first time. Just look at VPForums - how many people use their sig files to include links to very useful information that are now broken due to their constant restructuring and upgrading?

Hope I'm not coming across as too harsh!

Cheers,

Chris

You're such a jerk.

J/K

Yeah, Chris has some good points. One thing that would be nice is a dictionary of sorts that defines all the commonly used acronyms. Maybe create some sort of newbie section that defines all the parts of VP and what everything means.

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Why not have a full beginners section or on signup you could state if your a newb or not and cater for them

While I agree with Chris on a few points I don't agree to cater for newbs only as from my experience after a month everyone thinks they are a vp professional anyway

The site is still being built Chris and what will set this place apart will be the group section whrere people can state what skills they have and we can then network art guys with script guys to help development of tables.

Another thing is I think people are stuck in there ways from vpf, imho the layout is a mess and its a task for me to find anything I want and I'm far from a newb

Anyway good to see you here Chris now we need ozstick to supply pinball parts for us aussies :P

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I don't think as a whole the site shouldn't pitch to any specific demographic. Our demographic is anyone and everyone that wants to join this fine hobby. I don't think anyone should be marked as a "noob" as we were all one at one time or another. Some people might have more experience than the others and we should share those experiences with those of lesser. You have all seen how well the HyperSpin/HyperPin community performs. We don't have the name calling or down talking like other forums do. The HyperSpin/HyperPin community is by far one of the best online communities that I've ever been involved with. it is also one of the most helpful and overall members are pretty respectful towards eachother. As admin of HyperSpin/HyperPin; I do keep a tight fist when it comes to some of the rules on the site, but the rules that we do enforce are there for specific reasons. Not because of our personal preferences or differences.

You're such a jerk.

J/K

Yeah, Chris has some good points. One thing that would be nice is a dictionary of sorts that defines all the commonly used acronyms. Maybe create some sort of newbie section that defines all the parts of VP and what everything means.

We have already planned on having a section specifically for abbreviations as well as a full fledged tutorial system capable of video or written tutorials.

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A beginners (maybe call them Cadets?) section would be ideal and visitors that aren't logged in could be limited to only "Basic Training" areas of the site. Greet them with a sort of "Mission Statement" that explains what the site is all about which helps then confirm that they are actually in the right place. To whet their appetite they could also be allowed to access a Cabinet Gallery so they can see what others have done and hopefully be inspired by that.

Those who are already familiar with Virtual Pinball would be more inclined to sign up right away and gloss over that info, but it should go some way to setting the tone as to what they should expect to see when they log in.

As per my comments over at the HP forums I think you have the opportunity to add a shop alongside the site or maybe a Trading Post. This can be set up to attract online vendors (such as myself ;) ) who, after eing approved by the relevant mod(s) and paying an annual subscription fee, are provided with their own sub-section in which they can post threads etc to provide exclusive offers to members. For software modules / mods / patches etc you could set up a special downloadable content where members can grab files once they have paid for them.

Another idea to set you apart is to have a "Showcase of Unique Ideas" section which focuses on the great ideas that members have come up with and implemented in their own cabs. Rather than just supplying a link to the post in their build thread that shows a few pics and has a bit of a blurb about what they've done it should be placed in its own thread in the Showcase section with the member being invited to expand as much as possible on the idea for others to learn from.

Maybe have awards system and offer virtual gold, silver and bronze medals to those ideas that are deemed worthy. These medals would be visible uder/above the member's avatar so it shows up on every post - the medal can have a link to the Showcase thread so anyone can click on it and go directly to see what the award was given for.

Let's face it, EVERYONE loves a bit of praise and it's a great way to generate interest and maybe even a bit of healthy competition amongst the "cabinet gurus".

You could also look at adopting a Kickstarter type program whereby you commission someone to quote for a software mod or a new piece of hardware (ie a "universal" analog plunger). They would submit a quote to develop the "product", you place a retail price on it and have members pledge funds in the form of a pre-order for that product. Then once you reach the target number of pledges the project runs its course, all pledgers receive their "order" first and the product is then made available for open sale via the site. You can negotiate with the developer to either buy the rights for the product or agree to pay them a percentage of each sale.

That last idea is pretty lofty but you guys seem pretty driven and always good to challenge your limits! B)

Cheers,

Chris

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