forum idea

[danight]

I dont know if its can be done or not. But if the front page was split in half like a frame
The top half could be zues submitted news. The bottom half could be user submitted news.

I know the next question is what would stop user news from being abused? Well simple have admins use a special group that can only promote certain users to be able to post in that section. Meat certain criteria. Like good standing, follows rules etc etc... This user group would be admins but would be simple allowed to submit bottom of front page news to that section.
If its a good story then zues or admins could promote it to top of the front page as a hot topic.

Just a thought..... It basically combines submit a news section with the current front page now. That way people can talk about hot topics when they get posted by users.

[ThreeDog]

edited: 30/05/2011: 08:24
Many concerns with that but if it was somehow workable it wouldn't be such a bad idea.
I would need to use the top half too.
People would need to be ready to completely re-write things for promotion.
People would need to do all of the leg work on verification and linking etiquette.
Bugs would need to be fixed in the promotion system first?

This is not an official response or a yes/no/maybe but a lot would have to happen to make this plausible.
It is a fairly good idea since decent gaming news has been on a complete drought and this site hasn't been getting much love lately.

[danight]

The thought idea is it combines many sections into 1.

like old html frames (shows how much i know about forums) used to be able to.
But the top half would be clearly all zues news.
Then instead of submit news section it would goto the bottom half of front page. Then news (like threads) could be moved to the top half if its a hot topic or if there is updates.

As far as news layouts... a cool concept would be a design table. Think like a job application online. preassigned questions and you fill in the blanks and it all appears when submitted. That way submitted news will follow the same pattern.

as far as permissions. I would think admins have a hidden section here. Most boards had private sections for admins hidden from public. All that would need to be done is creat a 3rd user group, that allowed those users to use the new submit news section and post in it. (no admin permissions except edit maybe would have to be changed, even thats upto debate).

But its just a radical idea. Im sure it would take some work and it might not be worth it.
But if it did work and it caught on you may be able to even break those people into smaller groups (like ps4, coffee, xbox 720 submitters).

Also harsher rules could be set for those submitters. ala absolutely no profanity or hacking videos, tuts or keys or other device linking to illegal files and no news stories that link to those sites that may have those files.
Then those type stories could be submitted into reg "submit news" section for admin approval.

Of course zues and admins would have final say could remove threads or edit them etc etc.

But all in all its just a concept idea. Maybe user submitted news would have its own pic instead of wii, ps3 xbox 360 mc, it could have user news in black and white pic.

But its not ment for everyone to take over the front page, just a way for submitted news to get there faster to be talked about and would probably encourage more good behavior and more user support in submitting.
Take how many news stories get pushed on the front page and devide by 2 and you see how it cuts admins work by half since half would be user news.

[ThreeDog]

Various parts of the idea are cool, What is it with peoples inability to type Zeus? ;)
People would still need FP access along with Zeus for times when cover is needed, features etc which is why that was mentioned.
All Zeus may not work when sometimes a dedicated person or two is required to take the reigns for a couple of days.

Consider the complexity of the system too, first of all some various things would have to be fixed.. starting with usergroups that cannot promote without harming the site, as well as this it would be a fair amount of work.. who knows if it would happen?

Not seen Zeus about for a bit, see what he says I guess when he is.
It does have plenty of merit but at this point who knows what is happening and what is possible. lol