Alternate Sins of a Solar Empire Forum

If you're going to put up a new forum, please don't make up a song and dance story about how people requested an outside forum; just say that you want to open one up.  (Who requested a new forum?  I haven't seen any posts saying that one was needed or that there was an inadequacy with the current forum or a need for a new forum.)  I get the sense that you are a total outsider to this community and don't have any sense at all for its pulse.  I say that because you are hoping that people will organize games at your discussion forum, but if you were familiar with Sins and the Sins community you would know that relatively few people play the game online (perhaps 300 people total) and that they're certainly not going to organize games on a discussion forum; they just do it while they are in the game and logged onto Ironclad Online.

I'm guessing that you think you will make money off of this in some sort of a way; that's the only motivation I can think of for why a complete community outsider would put up a new forum that no one wants and then come to the game's main forum and spam an advertisement.  I don't know how making money off this sort of thing works, but folks try to sell advertising at websites.  I think that you'll soon find that you're just wasting your time.

The only alternative explanation I can think of for why you think there's a need for such a forum and a need for people to have a place where they can organize games is if you are serving the Virtual Private LAN/Hamachi pirates who cannot play on Ironclad Online.

There is an inadequacy with the current forum as regards finding regular players to build a relationship with and ease of finding particular opponents and matches/game types.

Several people have mentioned this and having a forum focusing on this is fine.  I manage a couple of small forums for another game and it's done outside the official forum to avoid the clutter and confusion there.  A private forum can be managed and directed better than an open free for all some times.  Nothing wrong with trying it.

The only reason I can imagine anyone being offended by this is they are worried another forum will come up that they aren't a mover and shaker on and they will lose glory there and not get recognized in the manner they are accutomed too.

Good luck on it...and nothing to stop this forum from better focusing on specific areas either.  It's all good

Ouch.  DirtySanchezz that entire post hurt.  Let me start by saying I got the idea of making another forum from this community, mainly the two threads below.  Truly, that wasn't some song and dance.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/374188

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/375466

You are correct that I am an outsider to this forum.  I don't have a sense of its individual pulse, you are right about that too.  The reason I wanted to make a Sins forum in the first place, though, was because every single time I went online, there would be no more than 80 players, and impossible to start any kind of game.  I wanted to have a system for making online games, for tournaments, and for clans.  There is absolutely no reason why the forum I created cannot be a partner forum with this one.

My goal is not to make money.  Stupid adsense code just befuddles the interface, and those annoying pop-up hyperlinks every five words are plain rude.  You will not see one advertisement service on the forum for its entire existence.

I'm not serving any pirates.  Simple as that.

DirtySanchezz, it is obvious that you are one of the more respected people on this forum because of your vast karma (and the fact I've seen you almost everywhere around this forum).  You seem to not like the forum because since you believe there is no need for one, you assume I'm making it to serve pirates and make money.  Or, for all I know, the design might be utterly ugly to you.

The Sins multiplayer experience is not what it was ever meant to be because, in my opinion, there is no one place to organize online games.  All I'm providing is a solution for this.  If you wish, you can make your own separate forum that covers this need.  You can even notify Stardock and make them find a fix.  Until anyone takes this step to providing a decent multiplayer experience, I am going to try to do it.

First off, I'm with Sanchezz for the most part.  Really, the only problem this forum has is, "Forums Go Boom!"  That's it.  And there is a multiplayer sections as well as a multiplayer organizer.  The point is, you don't really need it.

Sure, there are some things that are lacking in online play, but those are issues with the exe, which Karma and I (along with any other programmers here) would be more than glad to fix if we had the actual data.

So, I really don't see the problem here.  There is no need that I can see for a second forum.  I'm glad that you aren't doing this for cash, but still.  Its not really required.  I think your problem may be not having entrenchment or having Trinity.  The majority of the community is on Entrenchment as not everyone has upgraded yet.  So, sorry to break it to you, but I really don't see how this would do anything.  This game has a lot more users in the summer, so just wait.  Until then, your heart is in the right place, but I suggest you spend your energy elsewhere.

Ive tried to make a Tournament and such, so my advice to you is not to waste your time. You can provide all the resouces to make a tournament easy and simple. But people wont participate. 98% of people who play SINS play Single Player. So we will never see the number found on other games. And of those 2% found on ICO, Im sure a third of them are not active members of these fourms. So even if you did make the site, they wouldnt know about it or care.

Personally your best bet is to stay on this forum. Like Volt said, use the Mulitplayer Organization section. It doesnt get used like it should.

The one real advantage to having a seperate forum would be to build a base of like minded players.  Meaning a smaller group focused on a particular element of the game.  I don't think you can replicate this forum or that doing so would be of much value but you could develop a small grouop of players who share a specific common interest--whether its playing a group or certain style of game, modding along a particular theme in which they all share enthusiasm, etc.

The more organized and content containing links there are related to SINs, the better it will do in search rankings and the easier it will be to find.

The point above about the multiplayer section doesn't get used as it should is the one thing I wish someone could develop more succesfully.

For any new forum to have a chance at success though you will need a base of players already interested when it starts--cold turkey is hard.

Except that there are already like minded players here.  There are the vets, casuals, noobs, modders, strategists, etc.  The point is, there are different sub-forums here.  Use them.  You don't need a dedicated forum if you already have one.  

Noxx, you said you wanted your own domain, but will not do ads.  Well, that's noble, but the fact is, you'll lose money on something that won't really do much of anything for anyone.

Like I said earlier, nice try, but we don't need it.  If the Sins forum was bursting at the seams, then sure, why not?  It would help reduce traffic, but really, all you would do is reduce traffic on a site, and its more convenient for players to check one forum than two.  For that reason, I disagree with this suggestion.

I'm not dissing the official forum or saying someone else's is better.  There are a lot of threads here--some helpful, some dated, some egomanical, some cliquish, some wrong, some off topic, some annoying and some amusing--but I might not find what I want in the mess.

If a person starts a fan site or a forum or whatever because they like something, it's their perogative and their dime and a free internet.  Why all the criticism and instant resentment?  There is no threat whatsoever to a newbie forum mention and no reason to attack the person wanting to do it.

It's all for good fun and it's all cool.

I wouldn't go anywhere but here for technical or modding help--but if someone really good at it started a site for it there is no problem and I'm still happy.  Cross link and don't steal content.  If someone makes a mod and has a dedicated site for that mod and modding help why would I see that as divisive?  They can popst here and there.  No harm at all.

...and the use of "we" in one's proclamations implies one speaks for all--not the case.

I am making a large enough income off my other website for Google Wave:  at http://www.googlewavehelp.net

All this forum does is replicate the current forum.  It does nothing to help the situation.  And don't use the excuse of some dedicated forums such as mods.  I have one.  But the reason for that is that a single thread is not enough to support technical help, suggestions, etc.  This forum is basically a duplicate of this current one.

If you can come up with a good reason and have it do something the current one does not, then I'll support it, but until then, I still say that you are a nice guy who is unfortunately wasting his time on a lost cause.

OK HubridNoxx, thanks for clarifying.  When I saw your post I just immediately thought that you were another one of those people who have never played the game trying to somehow make money off of Sins.  I don't have a problem with having a separate Sins forum and wish you good luck.  It has been tried before and hasn't ever really taken off.  In fact I tried to get my own going for the clan and online multiplayer community a year-and-a-half ago (no dice).

I think the biggest thing working against having a separate forum aimed at online multiplayer is simply that relatively few people play the game in online multiplayer.  In my experience with the FPS community, forums tend to develop around popular individual servers or modding sites.  One thing Sins has going agaisnt in those regards is that the games are on ICO and not on private servers that would develop their own communities.

Yeah...  That's the thing, I'm not against it, but I'm not for it either.  I just don't really want you to put a ton of time into this thing and have it be worthless.

It just needs a specific purpose rather than being a clone attempt of the current forum.  Fully agreed there.  There is no need for a duplicate forum.

Come up with an angle to make it worthwhile and it will get traffic.

Along the line of web for profit...my fourteen year old just got contacted by a Los Angeles recording studio and offered $125us to change the music in his video to a song by one of their artists.  He has one with 500k hits--I haven't been able to do that.  Darn young whippersnappers.