Just to repost what was discussed in the chatroom, my suggestion is to have one (and only one or two to even read) area open for posting for non-subscribers.
This would allow browsers to taste the reality of the site far better than a "tour," and you'd need to give away no content. And its part of the
site anyway.
What you'd not want, of course, is for non-subscribers to have access to a predominant amount of the forum, which is why I suggest one or two forums only (forgive my hashing the obvious, but its nice to have clear). Else wise you'd have a similar mirror to this forum: where there would be several small exclusive forums with paid access that have much less traffic.
So, something like Read/post access to off-topic chat, and read access to a general XCM forum for discussion of things that Superhandz decides to make public. Subscriber access should encompass DVD discussions as well as describer content and XCM discussions.
Then set some trusted subscribers as moderators for maintenance and you won't even have to be bothered with it except as a participant.
Most of which sounds like what you've already mentioned.
My personal preference for forums is phpBB3 for coding. It makes for much prettier forums with more power for the moderators and admins. I've little experience in web design but I've organized forums for the Tyranid Mod website, which has something similar, just with far more access for joe-blow.
You could also have exclusive forum sections for just creative bullshit in general; be it moving XCM forward, creative concepts and ideas, new project discussions, etc.
I'd also suggest independent reviews, because I've yet to see well-done independent reviews for ANY card DVDs out there. Most are fanboy bullshit and couldn't help someone whose trying to make a decision about learning for the first time. I'm a critic anyway, so this is probably my inner critic talking, but the fact that only sites selling there own DVDs review only there own DVDs with sales-pitch like comments lack creditability. Basically, EVERYONE says theirs is the best, so how does a new consumer tell the difference? This is more something that's been personally bugging me, but I can't be the only one. Therefor this is not critical, but it certainly couldn't hurt Superhandz reputation.
What you'd not want, of course, is for non-subscribers to have access to a predominant amount of the forum, which is why I suggest one or two forums only (forgive my hashing the obvious, but its nice to have clear). Else wise you'd have a similar mirror to this forum: where there would be several small exclusive forums with paid access that have much less traffic.
So, something like Read/post access to off-topic chat, and read access to a general XCM forum for discussion of things that Superhandz decides to make public. Subscriber access should encompass DVD discussions as well as describer content and XCM discussions.
Then set some trusted subscribers as moderators for maintenance and you won't even have to be bothered with it except as a participant.
Most of which sounds like what you've already mentioned.
My personal preference for forums is phpBB3 for coding. It makes for much prettier forums with more power for the moderators and admins. I've little experience in web design but I've organized forums for the Tyranid Mod website, which has something similar, just with far more access for joe-blow.
You could also have exclusive forum sections for just creative bullshit in general; be it moving XCM forward, creative concepts and ideas, new project discussions, etc.
I'd also suggest independent reviews, because I've yet to see well-done independent reviews for ANY card DVDs out there. Most are fanboy bullshit and couldn't help someone whose trying to make a decision about learning for the first time. I'm a critic anyway, so this is probably my inner critic talking, but the fact that only sites selling there own DVDs review only there own DVDs with sales-pitch like comments lack creditability. Basically, EVERYONE says theirs is the best, so how does a new consumer tell the difference? This is more something that's been personally bugging me, but I can't be the only one. Therefor this is not critical, but it certainly couldn't hurt Superhandz reputation.
