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Originally posted by Gnolaum

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Originally posted by Wuzzard

I talked with webmaster yesterday. I can't speak for him on the issue of a merger, however he is very interested in moving maxminis forward to a more advance site & forums platform that will enable more community services, etc. Everyone that's currently helping out (including kevin of hordelings) is welcome to participate.

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Originally posted by ktatroe

We really wanted Webmaster's sign-off on the document before passing it onto any of the Moderators -- and I thought we were pretty close to that step before -- but just so people can see where we were at with the proposal, here's what we were looking at: http://www.hordeminis.com/future.php[/url]. (Forgive the temporary domain, the new one hasn't transferred to the server we've set up).

At this point, I imagine this proposal is just a data point, but it's worth seeing by the whole community now, I think, if only for further discussion of what the community would and would not like to see in the future direction of the site.

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moving to a more generalized format similar to enworld.

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changing service providers or hosting by one of us to allow for rapid site expansion. the fastest forum out there for gamers. Doing what it takes to absolutely minimize load times.

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a generalized have/want list that admins can add games to as they are released, not just miniature games but any game the admins deem relevant to the gamer community

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a focus on competitive strategies for newly released games. A strong point of maxminis seems to be that we have some of the very best strategists here on a daily basis. I suspect the quality strategy tips is a key draw to the site. This may involve starting monthly articles or blogs.

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a change in the site name to reflect the more generalized nature of the new site, with maxminis.com redirecting to it

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users from this site attending game conventions worldwide and promoting the site at the conventions with t-shirts and flyers, and by holding tournaments with prizes paid for by the site.

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Taking out ads in magazines such as Dragon, Dungeon, Pokemon, etc... to attract fresh faces to the site.

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making the forums google-friendly. Right now its hard to find maxminis.com if you do a search about DDM, SWM, AA, etc..

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adding banner ads and selling them to gamer companies (i.e., no generic ad services).

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a sharing of the revenue the site generates among the people making the site work. Right now the site doesnt generate any revenue, but I think it has the critical mass to do so and this ability will snowball as the site branches out. Jai and I will also work out sharing ownership.

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Originally posted by johnny.quest

Aesoph, I missed the post to which you are referring. Where did webmaster offer these ideas?

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Originally posted by PatEllis15

Hrm, I should add that I would prefer MaxMini's to remain add free. Add's seem to kick sites more easily into the realm of websense...

Pat E

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Originally posted by PatEllis15

We need to be very careful.... people are already taking "sides" which is destructive to the community. Let us please talk about "vision", and how we get there ...

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What is webmaster's responsibility in all of this?

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Originally posted by PatEllis15

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What is webmaster's responsibility in all of this?

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J.Q you make several good points. We can disagree about the name...

All the same, the Webmasters responsibility if he wants a broader site with a new name should be to turn this site over to the community (i.e. the mods and admins). If the Webmaster still has a seperate vision, I don't see what it has to do with this site. And if he infact was thnking of new name, it would be easy to make teh split.

If the Webmasters vision has changed (from what I can find, the only statement of this broader vision was written 3 or 4 months ago) to one that is closer to the general goals of the community, then I think we should ALL come to the table and talk.

Pat E

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The mods on this board have created a community of respect and intelligence that even Wizards itself, with all of the resources at its disposal, has been unable to create. These folks are the heart and soul of Maxminis, and without them, faster servers or new features won't mean much.

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Originally posted by Vash

OK, this is probably going to be changed, re-written, and whatever over the course of the day as I figure out what the heck I'm trying to say so bear with me.

First off.

Webmaster, Fenris said it best, if you want to be a 'user' what is your level of involvement with Wizards related miniature games? Yes note the emphasis, this is a site dedicated to WotC products, not all these other games and toys that you want to try to bring into the community. And we'd like to keep it that way.

If you want feedback, if you want to keep a userbase to even support your site, if you want to be treated as a 'user' then how about sticking around for more than a week every other year or so? I can tell there are a lot of people threatened that all of the sudden this guy wants to come out of nowhere and rip the foundations of their community out from under them for his own desires. Be more involved with the site, don't go through third party outlets (wuzzard) to get your thoughts across.

And if you're planning on doing all this reworking to this site on your own, you had best be willing to take suggestions, complaints, bug-reports, and do regular updates in a prompt fasion on your own as well. If not, you've pretty much lost your community I can guarantee that. Seems to me you've already alienated those that have been doing your work for you.

Secondly

I enjoy the community, that's what's important. If it's here or hordelings or hell if I have to follow it back to the Wizards boards themselves (shudder) I do it. The name doesn't matter, the community doesn't have a name, and to think otherwise is an ego that should probably be put in check. Heck, the new site name could be called Buckfutterchickenwrangler.com and if everyone I know was there it would still feel like home. (though I'd hate to try and explain that wesite to the boss [:D])

Adds are not necessary, a lot of people view these sites from their jobs, jobs that have internet filters actively enabled. Adds bring site closer to finding those filters, which is not good for the community. If you really feel the need to make money off of this site there are other ways to go about it I'm sure.

At the end of the day I go where my miniature playing friends are and where my internet filters allow me to go.

Now, webmaster, I ask you, if you want to prove that you are a user of this site and not just an admin, reply in this thread and actually show active ownership. I'm not going to hold my breath though.

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Originally posted by Can of the Cave Beer

n this day and age of internet specialization, I see no need for maxminis (or hordelings) to be all things to all people.

Maxminis has become the best (or least is at the top of the heap) because it focuses on one thing and does it better than anyone else.

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Originally posted by Meds

I hope we stay a single community. The worst thing that could come from this would be fracturing of the community that's been built here.

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Originally posted by johnny.quest

As I've posted elsewhere, and with all due respect, I dislike webmaster's vision for this website. The mods have made this site what it is, and their vision is spot on.

As for webmaster's motives, I think they're pretty plain to see.

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Originally posted by Ghendar

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Originally posted by Meds

I hope we stay a single community. The worst thing that could come from this would be fracturing of the community that's been built here.

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This is also my primary concern. I see a possible fracture coming with those in the Maxminis camp and those in the Hordelings camp. I would rather see us all in one camp. The proposed merger seems like the best way to go.

However, If Maxminis were ugraded completely so that we aren't having these crash, and timeout, and db issues, then I would have no problem with that. My preference for the Maxminis interface comes from the fact that I'm familiar with it.

Change can come in two ways. Merge Maxminis with Hordelings or ugrade this site. I'm fine with either one.

One more thing. We need an active Webmaster. Not one in absentia.

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Originally posted by Fenris

Six days ago I asked Webmaster some direct questions on page one of this thread. This is, after all, a thread he posted, and I thought there was a chance he'd respond. Nope! No answers, no updates. In fact, check out his "recent topics" here:

http://www.maxminis.com/forums/pop_profile.asp?mode=display&id=1

Apparently he has made exactly three posts total since then, none of which address the major issues at hand. I find that both annoying and instructive. This is the person who will be doing updates now that Jai has left, and he can't be bothered to post at all about these issues for six days? Six days in which much of the community is already anxious about the future?

Contrast with my request for a feature on Hordelings:

Requested avatars turn-offable on July 7, 5:15pm
Feature added on July 8, 9:38am

I was going to go add up how many posts Kevin has made on Hordelings in the same six-day period, but I think my point is clear enough without that statistic.

One other thing. I could understand if Webmaster wanted to maintain a sock-puppet account for posting controversial opinions on, oh I dunno, chess clocks in DDM or something, to avoid intimidating those who might take an opposite view on the subject. But on important topics like this, where people need to know they have an active hand at the helm, it's no excuse at all to say, "Well, he probably has other accounts he posts under." No excuse for that at all, on these kinds of topics, under these circumstances where people are worried about the future of Maxminis.

But then, "the future of Maxminis" is a topic I personally am caring less about with each passing day, as I start to see the writing on the wall.

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