I need some administrative advice

Gump-in-space · Post by **Gump-in-space** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:22 pm

Well here's the story. I joined a video game club at my school, and it has a forum. The forum, however, is controlled by a former friend of mine who I can no longer tolerate, and he's running the site like its a four year-old's tree house. He's got wierd club rules, takes himself way too serriously and kicks people out of the forums whenever he feels threatened.

Me and one of the admins on his site teamed up and decided to take on the main admin, and we would do this by first repairing the broke old forums and then launching a better site that would replace it.

I opened the new site using forumer. I had used their stuff in the past so I trusted them, and everything seemed great until tonight. This Friday me and the other admin would reveal the new site at the club's session on that day. Just four days before launching the site, he suddenly drops support.

He had been complaining about the lack of customization on Forumer (He's taking a class on HTML) and the lack of a chatbox, which was available on the original Forumotion site. I told him we wouldn't need a lot of the things he said were missing, such as the abillity to change the word "Sticky" to "Float" on the board, and that I'd see about getting a chatbox.

Two hours later I stopped by the Forumotion site and he popped in on the chatbox, said, "Dylan, check you messeges on your site." and then logged off. I checked the messege, where he all too happily explained that my forums were too boring and non-custom, so he created his own site on Proboards that he wanted me to admin.

Here's what stings me: I got the chatbox working about an hour after reading that messege. I don't know if he underestimates me or what, but for some reason he doubts that my website can function correctly unless its drenched in custom HTML. He just thinks after weeks of set up and management, careful planning and thinking ahead, that I'll just drop all my hard work because it was too boring for him.

My question is, should I just give up on my forum and join him, or should I stick it to him? My board is the highest quality of the three by far, and I feel like telling him to screw himself, but at the same time I'm afraid of loosing him as a friend, and also of my site never ammounting to anything anyway.

I need some help deciding where I should go now. If you're curious, here's the three sites:

The original site: http://mivc.forumotion.net/

My site: http://migames.forumer.com/

My friend's site: http://mivgc.proboards.com/

Post by **Skyone** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:35 pm

Perhaps you can forget about the whole thing because in reality, it's just some free forum crap that only you, your friend, and occasionally some others will notice.

Sorry, but it's only true.

Gump-in-space · Post by **Gump-in-space** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:38 pm

Skyone wrote:Perhaps you can forget about the whole thing because in reality, it's just some free forum crap that only you, your friend, and occasionally some others will notice. Sorry, but it's only true.

Anybody have an answer that might possibly do me any good?

jjhammerstein · Post by **jjhammerstein** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:39 pm

Make the club vote.

Also, yours is the best.

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:44 pm

Seconded. Best by far. Tell him to screw himself. If he's your friend because he can push you around, that's not a friend to keep. Why don't you tell HIM how you feel, not us?

Gump-in-space · Post by **Gump-in-space** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:50 pm

Kurt_ wrote:Seconded. Best by far. Tell him to screw himself. If he's your friend because he can push you around, that's not a friend to keep. Why don't you tell HIM how you feel, not us?

Alright, that's cool. If I catch up to him tonight, I'll let him know. Otherwise, I'll see him tomarrow in Gym. Infact, scratch that. I'll tell him in person.

Thanks guys!

mdp872105 · Post by **mdp872105** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:59 pm

yeah I like yours better, the original just looked crappy and the friend's site is impossible to read yours wins hands down.

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:03 pm

An undoubtedly middle or high school kid complaining that a free forum can't be customized because he learned what

Code: Select all

<b> and </b>

mean?

Go with your stock one. He's just going to make it an eye-bleeder.

DK · Post by DK » Tue Dec 02, 2008 4:26 am

The first one looks like 4chan, the third one made my retinas burn so by default you win.

sodapop5000 · Post by **sodapop5000** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 5:15 pm

First off, I am the friend he is talking about. I have never seen a forum with as little color as that one.

Second: The site did have few options. It really just wasn't a good site for a forum IMO. I said it looked boring and it couldn't really be helped due to the little customability. The part about changing stickies to floats was a stupid example off the top of my head. A better example would be the fact that there is no event calender there.

Third: HTML wasn't a huge deal to me. All I said was it would be nice to be able to edit things in HTML, seeing as I couldn't in the Admin Panel. Proboards also doesn't allow HTML either, so that obviously wasn't a key factor in why I switched.

Fourth: The link you all followed was before I had anything set up. He had been working on his atleast a week in advance.

Honestly, it doesn't look bad at the moment. Not to mention I did make different skins, including a neutral one >_> He's not forced to use the default. (And the blue/yellow stuff I had up there did suck. It has been fixed. That was my first skin ever and I screwed it up.) The link still goes to the same site, but now it is greatly updated.

Fifth: I understand replys (if any) to this message are going to be biased for two reasons:

people here obviously know Gump In Space already.
The main theme here seems to be neutral, so a neutral forum will be more appealing to you. I used a darker almost black skin for almost two years, so that is what is more appealing to me.

Say what you will, but this is my perspective.

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 5:34 pm

You're site is garbage. It looks bad and is confusing as hell.

sodapop5000 wrote:The main theme here seems to be neutral, so a neutral forum will be more appealing to you. I used a darker almost black skin for almost two years, so that is what is more appealing to me.

I like dark skins, just not ones that look terrible, such as yours.

mdp872105 · Post by **mdp872105** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:14 pm

sodapop5000 wrote:First off, I am the friend he is talking about. I have never seen a forum with as little color as that one.

Second: The site did have few options. It really just wasn't a good site for a forum IMO. I said it looked boring and it couldn't really be helped due to the little customability. The part about changing stickies to floats was a stupid example off the top of my head. A better example would be the fact that there is no event calender there.

Third: HTML wasn't a huge deal to me. All I said was it would be nice to be able to edit things in HTML, seeing as I couldn't in the Admin Panel. Proboards also doesn't allow HTML either, so that obviously wasn't a key factor in why I switched.

Fourth: The link you all followed was before I had anything set up. He had been working on his atleast a week in advance. Honestly, it doesn't look bad at the moment. Not to mention I did make different skins, including a neutral one >_> He's not forced to use the default. (And the blue/yellow stuff I had up there did suck. It has been fixed. That was my first skin ever and I screwed it up.) The link still goes to the same site, but now it is greatly updated.

Fifth: I understand replys (if any) to this message are going to be biased for two reasons:

people here obviously know Gump In Space already.

The main theme here seems to be neutral, so a neutral forum will be more appealing to you. I used a darker almost black skin for almost two years, so that is what is more appealing to me.
Say what you will, but this is my perspective.

you got skills i will say that but you have not creativity, Yes it easier to read but now its just a black background, with white letters its like you didn't even try to be creative.

Take my advice your original site (The one we judge first) was working it just needed to be easier to read. Basically you improve the readability but destroyed everything else.

jjhammerstein · Post by **jjhammerstein** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:21 pm

Never use blue on black, never.

sodapop5000 · Post by **sodapop5000** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:56 pm

To the guy/girl who said I'm skilled. I know I'm not creative. I never have been. As for the skin colors, I cannot get gradients working (everything is set correctly though) and getting readable colors on black was a little odd. And I don't exactly call neutral colors creative either. GIS's new skin was built into the site >_> I didn't mess with the other options. I just added new categories, boards, etc...so how did I destroy everything else?

Also I see no problem with blue on black. It is futuristic looking (I've had several comments from the club agreeing) and it doesn't look weird. But an opinion is an opinion and I will respect the fact that you don't like the color mix.

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:01 pm

Most of us just don't like you.