Im considering giving regular users small avatars. Im all for everyone having avatars but dont want to step on Jon or Rukas's toes regarding the set up they had before I joined.
Plus I expect certain people here to abuse the avatar picture and use obscene images, adding more work for me to do on the forum (for free) and take away from my time contributing to the actual site.
And the site, news and audio, is what brings new people in. The news gets more traffic than the forum, and the news gets more new member referrals than the forum. Then the members come to the forum and for some reason get put off posting here and that is what we need to fix.
So why are new members put off from posting? In my opinion it is the constant bickering and attitudes of some members. I believe the whole racist comment debate probably turned people off, and this annual "streethop is dying" thread also turns people off. Its the same every year. Yet we are still here.
If you're having a boring day on here, why not make a thread and encourage interaction? At the end of the day, conversation on here is what you make it.
From my part, I do believe that avatars and multimedia play a small part. So I am exploring two options. The first is all members have a small avatar, and VIPs have a larger one. Or, all members have the same size avatar, but VIPs can use VIDEOS as avatars (that wont play automatically so wont be annoying). But, I fully expect you guys to prove me right when I say that this will end up being abused.
The arcade is slowly coming back and the video section is being worked on. Im also working on some other multimedia things I am not going to discuss right now.
And on top of that I am writing several news/audio articles a day.
The problem is all this inforum bickering and complaining takes my time away from doing those jobs that bring traffic and thus members in.
In my opinion very few of you have any respect for authority, myself or mods, and run wild and love to be e-rebels. You'll find yourselves banned because Im sick of dealing with attitude problems and baby sitting children. The mods on here need to be respected, their say is final, and this needs to be put in place for the site and member base to grow.