Using the front page

[Doodmens]

Hi guys,

I visit the site quite often, and I am getting a little tired of this 'SpudFiles recently did a spud shooting event...'

That was almost 3 years ago.

I think it would be nicer to show either weekly or monthly 'spotlighted' posts, that could be; interesting designs, nicely crafted launchers, either new or old. Or just recent post that have been getting a lot of activity.

I think this way the site would be more accessible and encourage (lurking) members to be more engaged in the community.

Another idea I've had is besides the tab on the side with 'recent posts' and 'side menu' is 'starter information' to address some of the new folks questions about the more elementary things, like how a QEV works or needs to be modded and what air container to use.

Also maybe a slideshow of pictures of past projects somewhere on the front page might be cool and inspiring.

Let me know what you think!

PS Is PCGUY still active? I haven't seen him post or do anything in a long time. Does anyone else have admin rights?( e.g. to change the frontpage out with something new)

EDIT
I just thought of something else, is there a(n) (active) SPUDFILES youtube channel? Right now, if I want to find inspiration on Youtube, I have to sift through a lot of crap.
It would be nice to have one channel that features video's of spudders channels and has playlists of informative and how to video's. That way you can easily find information and you know where to look! Subscribing to that channel would mean you'd get updates of what people are doing, which can then be discussed on the forum.

Someone (I volunteer) would have to set up this channel and get permission of some spudders to feature their video's. When it gets big enough people could just message this someone to get their video's uploaded.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

[Xamllew]

Im really digging the youtube community channel idea, it can be annoying having to sift through pages of diy airsoft guns made of soda bottles and pvc before finding something pneumatic airgun related.

[PCGUY]

I'm definitely active, I just typically hop on for administrative functions.

Indeed, the front page is aged badly. Once upon a time we tried to get some people interested in writing articles to go on the front page and some people were interested in holding a position to do this... however I don't think anyone ever actually ended up creating any articles!

If we have some volunteers to help bring content to the front page, I am definitely interested. It is simply controlled through a special forum area that I must grant access to.

EDIT - Oh and about the YouTube channel... I don't Youtube much, but I do have some sort of channel that was used for the videos on the home page and a few other areas. Perhaps there is a way for me to allow others to add to the channel?

[mark.f]

So, there's an open invitation to PM articles to you?

I can write a little... 8)

[Doodmens]

EDIT - Oh and about the YouTube channel... I don't Youtube much, but I do have some sort of channel that was used for the videos on the home page and a few other areas. Perhaps there is a way for me to allow others to add to the channel?

I think one can create a 'topic' where everyone can add video's, I'm just not sure how it works precisely.

[PCGUY]

Long story short, basically we would need to designate 1 or a couple of trusted people to post new information onto the front page. I'd then give special access to this section of the website and the main new thread made would be the newest post on the front page. Any subsequent articles would be in a new thread. Only those with privilege would be able to put something up on the front page, and it should show who posted it. It would be up to that person to build together any links/images/formatting within that post so it appears properly on the front page (easily done with the forums code tags for centering/text size/images/links/etc).

[Doodmens]

Good to see that it caught on!