All right, so this is mostly a thread to spark discussion, ideas, and hopefully action. I know there are people a lot more in-tune with recent iterations of the series who are in a better position to help out with this than I am.
(tl; dr: Let's make the homepage a showcase of the best of our community)
I've posted occasionally before, but IMO the CFC homepage is not as good at telling new visitors why they should sign up as it once was. If I'm really getting into Civ, and find the Steam forums or the 2K forums unsatisfactory, and I visit CFC, what do I see on the main page? Right now, it's:
News on the left:
- Civ IV Hall of Fame Updated. This is good. I remember seeing posts about the Civ III Hall of Fame back around 2003 or 2004, and being really impressed that there was such a thing. Great novelty to draw people in!
- Seven more posts, primarily about Civ-related podcasts, with one interview about the Civ Players League. These go all the way back to September 25th.
So, what's the conclusion? There's a decently active podcasting community about Civ, and the Civ4 folks have this Hall of Fame thing... and that's about it.
On the right:
- A search bar. This appears to search news articles. I suppose this is okay, but if you're new to CFC, you may think this search bar covers all of CFC.
- Shopping links to buy Civ VI and the Rise and Fall expansion. These appear to be commission-based ones that probably help fund CFC.
- Recent Forum Posts. This appears to be pretty much exactly the most recent, regardless of forum. Most are from the Civ forums, but that may simply be good luck at the time I check.
- Recent New Items. This is just the titles; the actual news items are on the left. The version on the right goes back two items further.
- A "Meta" section including such things as login/register links, RSS feeds, and a link to Wordpress.com.
How intriguing this section would be likely varies highly by the Recent Forum Posts.
There are Civ version-specific dropdown links at the top, which link to a lot of information, and the Forums and Downloads links rightfully get the top two spots on the left... but that's the extent of the home page.
So what would I expect to draw in more fans?
- More news stories in general. Highlight what's in the community. Are interesting mods being made? Are there popular stories and tales? Are Games of the Month going on? Is the Civ V Hall of Fame being updated? Is there a Diplo Game or another noteworthy multiplayer game going on? You'd never know from the home page.
- Instead of, or perhaps supplemental to, the Recent Posts, have sections for popular recent creations. As an example, Civ III used to have (and perhaps IV, V, or VI still have) monthly votes for Unit of the Month, PCX (graphic) of the Month, Leaderhead of the Month, etc. Greater publicity for these would both make CFC look more interesting to newcomers, and reward the creators with more traffic for their creations.
Back in the day, many of these items were on the home page, but they have gradually disappeared over the course of the 2010s.
How would we do this?
- Have a few point people (maybe 1 or 2 per Civ version, and maybe a few more for the most active versions) who can post to the home page. Kind of like GOTM Staff, but Homepage News Staff. These should be trusted people who are fairly active.
- For some of the Civ communities, there may be obvious candidates for news updates (GOTM, X of the Month, etc.). But for all of them, have a thread where people can nominate items to be featured, since the Homepage News Staff may not be aware of all items.
- If someone is familiar with XenForo and/or PHP, they may be able to help with getting some sort of a "Featured Items" spotlight to put on the home page. We'd probably want some sort of agreement on how often to change this (e.g. a thread to organize it, a policy that each item gets X amount of days minimum, some way to balance the desires of each Civ version's fanbase to have their items on the featured list).
Those are my ideas, but I'm sure others have valuable insight as well. And my motivation? I'd like to see CFC remain a viable site for the next decade. In the face of Steam forums, official 2K forums, social media, and the evolution of the Internet in general, this isn't a guaranteed thing. So far, despite challenges from some quarters (e.g. Steam workshop for Downloads), CFC has remained viable. But let's not assume it will be indefinitely, and instead maximize its chance for the future.
(I should also note that I am definitely not in tune enough with Civ V/VI to assist for those, although I'm sure there are others who are well-qualified. I also lack familiarity with XenForo and PHP, and there are likely forum denizens better-qualified for any resulting opportunities there as well)
Please comments with your thoughts, suggestions and ability to help CFC during its third decade!
(tl; dr: Let's make the homepage a showcase of the best of our community)
I've posted occasionally before, but IMO the CFC homepage is not as good at telling new visitors why they should sign up as it once was. If I'm really getting into Civ, and find the Steam forums or the 2K forums unsatisfactory, and I visit CFC, what do I see on the main page? Right now, it's:
News on the left:
- Civ IV Hall of Fame Updated. This is good. I remember seeing posts about the Civ III Hall of Fame back around 2003 or 2004, and being really impressed that there was such a thing. Great novelty to draw people in!
- Seven more posts, primarily about Civ-related podcasts, with one interview about the Civ Players League. These go all the way back to September 25th.
So, what's the conclusion? There's a decently active podcasting community about Civ, and the Civ4 folks have this Hall of Fame thing... and that's about it.
On the right:
- A search bar. This appears to search news articles. I suppose this is okay, but if you're new to CFC, you may think this search bar covers all of CFC.
- Shopping links to buy Civ VI and the Rise and Fall expansion. These appear to be commission-based ones that probably help fund CFC.
- Recent Forum Posts. This appears to be pretty much exactly the most recent, regardless of forum. Most are from the Civ forums, but that may simply be good luck at the time I check.
- Recent New Items. This is just the titles; the actual news items are on the left. The version on the right goes back two items further.
- A "Meta" section including such things as login/register links, RSS feeds, and a link to Wordpress.com.
How intriguing this section would be likely varies highly by the Recent Forum Posts.
There are Civ version-specific dropdown links at the top, which link to a lot of information, and the Forums and Downloads links rightfully get the top two spots on the left... but that's the extent of the home page.
So what would I expect to draw in more fans?
- More news stories in general. Highlight what's in the community. Are interesting mods being made? Are there popular stories and tales? Are Games of the Month going on? Is the Civ V Hall of Fame being updated? Is there a Diplo Game or another noteworthy multiplayer game going on? You'd never know from the home page.
- Instead of, or perhaps supplemental to, the Recent Posts, have sections for popular recent creations. As an example, Civ III used to have (and perhaps IV, V, or VI still have) monthly votes for Unit of the Month, PCX (graphic) of the Month, Leaderhead of the Month, etc. Greater publicity for these would both make CFC look more interesting to newcomers, and reward the creators with more traffic for their creations.
Back in the day, many of these items were on the home page, but they have gradually disappeared over the course of the 2010s.
How would we do this?
- Have a few point people (maybe 1 or 2 per Civ version, and maybe a few more for the most active versions) who can post to the home page. Kind of like GOTM Staff, but Homepage News Staff. These should be trusted people who are fairly active.
- For some of the Civ communities, there may be obvious candidates for news updates (GOTM, X of the Month, etc.). But for all of them, have a thread where people can nominate items to be featured, since the Homepage News Staff may not be aware of all items.
- If someone is familiar with XenForo and/or PHP, they may be able to help with getting some sort of a "Featured Items" spotlight to put on the home page. We'd probably want some sort of agreement on how often to change this (e.g. a thread to organize it, a policy that each item gets X amount of days minimum, some way to balance the desires of each Civ version's fanbase to have their items on the featured list).
Those are my ideas, but I'm sure others have valuable insight as well. And my motivation? I'd like to see CFC remain a viable site for the next decade. In the face of Steam forums, official 2K forums, social media, and the evolution of the Internet in general, this isn't a guaranteed thing. So far, despite challenges from some quarters (e.g. Steam workshop for Downloads), CFC has remained viable. But let's not assume it will be indefinitely, and instead maximize its chance for the future.
(I should also note that I am definitely not in tune enough with Civ V/VI to assist for those, although I'm sure there are others who are well-qualified. I also lack familiarity with XenForo and PHP, and there are likely forum denizens better-qualified for any resulting opportunities there as well)
Please comments with your thoughts, suggestions and ability to help CFC during its third decade!
