It’s not ready yet (but still likely to be ready before the end of this year) but I’ve been working–when I can–on building a new Comixpedia. Some of it will be big, some subtle and some of it only benefits staff (lots more efficiency behind the scenes).
The forums have been a crucial component of Comixpedia, but here’s a chance to give me some feedback.
1. Do you like the way the existing forum are organized by subject matter or would you rather see something different? For example our general webcomics discussion is split into art, writing, school, business and theory. Would folks like to have forums for genre specific discussion in addition (or instead) to these? What about serial versus long-form?
2. I’m inclined to restrict postings to registered members to cut down on increasing spam. If you’ve got alternate ideas pitch them here.
3. I’d really like to see if we can get some moderators/leaders to help keep the various forums interesting. If you have an interest in moderating a forum let me know. I don’t have a budget to pay people but we can probably give you banners or other pluggage here on the site.
4. Anything else?
I wonder. It seems to me that the vast majority of users who use the comments section and the forum are registered, and most of the people who post anonymously do so and still sign their posts at the end.
Guest posts/anonymity protection is a major issue in certain sites, and I’d be inclined to defend it here if I saw it as a major issue. But I don’t. I just don’t feel guest posting is a feature that will be missed by most, and if it’s causing more trouble than not, than I say go for it.
I think it would be better if the forum had fewer catagories 😀
I’ve noticed that the “Art of Webcomics” section appears to have a dual purpose. One is to discuss the actual physical drawing of the comics, and the other is to interpret “The Art of Webcomics” in the same way as “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. ie: A place to discuss general concepts and ideas about webcomics that don’t neatly slot into the Art, Theory, Words, School or Business categories.
What Mimo said.
A couple votes for fewer forums which makes sense to me –
How about combining school, art and writing into “Making Webcomics”
And keeping “Business Of” and “Theory”, that gives us 3 forums for general webcomics discussion.
That sounds good to me but if others have ideas/comments I’ll continue to listen.