Some more 'minor' changes.

[MV75]

In fact, you'll remember that's precisely what I did in 1999 when I created the first Planet Sabretron board - specifically to get away from all the unmoderated mayhem on most other boards like the BWTF boards at the time, and that board became the unofficial AusTrans (OzFormers) board for a while until you created the OzFormers forum around 2002/3? Anyway, it wasn't as if I demanded Ben Yee to create a section on his boards just for Australasian fans - I just went and made one (although I did allow some international users like FawnDoo, CheeToy etc.)... and then we made #transformers on austnet where we were mostly Australian fans but had a few foreigners there too (including Ben Yee and Rob Jung on a rare occasion). But the point I'm making is that I went and made my own forum rather than expecting someone else to do it for me.

So? What's the past and name dropping to do with something that was entirely Griffins' perogative?

Noone expected nor demanded the extra forum. Feel free to go and ressurect planet sabretron if your personal expectations arn't met. Or I'm very sure that Griffin can apply to your account that you just don't even see those forums, go ask him. There we go, you expected something and I put the thinking into the suggestion for you.

I see it as a step towards the future and this board growing up a little. If it reverts back to a single forum, then meh, work with what we're offered. Thanks Griffin.

[Kyle]

FWIW Griffin, careful to not succumb to much to public opinions regarding design. Everyone will have a different idea. Too many chiefs, not enough Indians. As long as you've surpassed any issues relating to function (logos occupying 1/2, 2/3 of the page), I'd make sure that you're happy with the design

Agreed. Ultimately just go with what you think it's best and what you're most comfortable with! If something turns out to be bad we can always change later. Won't know unless we give these changes a go!

[Gutsman Heavy]

DEATH TO LEGO! :P

[griffin]

Temporarily locking this topic, until the project is completed, as some people seem to be making a big fuss over the non-TFs section, which means they weren't paying attention to the details I mentioned in post #11.

[griffin]

Okay, been having some technical problems in the last couple of days, but I think I've got it now. (nothing ever goes according to plan...)
Should (hopefully) have something ready for tomorrow, as I'll be working on it more tonight when I get home from work.

Trying out a new banner, again, as well. Part of the aforementioned technical problems requires a smaller banner.

[griffin]

Okay, 'phase 2' has been completed. The new OTCA website has now replaced the 10 year old HTML page (that looked like a toddler put together in 5 minutes). Or at least, the basic framework is there, as it didn't quite turn out to be what I was aiming/hoping for. I'll go into more details later today when I wake up, but I spent several hours juggling settings to try to get it to do something it probably isn't designed to do. Got a lot of (visual) work to do on it now, as it looks a bit embarrasing in its basic state at the moment. Just not as embarrasing as the old 'website'.
This topic is still closed because I want to go into some detail about what I was trying to do, and what I may end up doing with the webpage(s). And I'm a little tired right now to post something lengthy and coherant.

[griffin]

Now then. The big idea...
I've been wanting a proper main-page for our TFs site for, well... a few years now. And in the last 12 months, with help from Jaydisc and Kurdt the Goat, I managed to find something that best suited our forum and its software.
But that stalled for a while because I couldn't get the darn thing to work.
A couple weeks ago, I finally found out what was wrong, and got the page operational.

I also figured that with the upcoming AUS Toyfair (in March), I could use the website to get Hasbro more willing to throw us info and maybe even more coverage at the Toyfair (most of the TFs will be hidden out the back like in 2007).

But there had to be an incentive, or leverage even...

So I asked myself, 'what is holding back Hasbro from being more keen to promote their products though us?'
Easy - we are just a non-website forum centered on just one of their hundreds of product lines. Sure, we may be their biggest selling (or one of) product lines, but for them to INVEST any resources into our little corner of the web, we have to give them an incentive.

So to get them to promote their Transformers Products through us, as a free public service, we need to also allow for them to promote their other toy products. As a Transformers Community, we just 'skim the cream off the top' (the Transformers info), and let the rest of the toy product info go to who ever else is interested. Even if only 10% of the product info was Transformers related, that is still more than we would be getting from them without this project.

That means having a separate webpage and forum for 'All Toy Lines', in addition to our Transformers Community and Forum. And if the interest grows, any other toyline that has a collector following, forums could be generated for them.

But the focus is (and always will be while I'm the admin) the Transformers side of things, and we can't get Hasbro to *want* to invest more of their resources into our community (and conventions/fanmeets), if we are just a single toyline forum.
And since this would be aiming to cover all toylines, not just Hasbro ones, the additional incentive to Hasbro will be maintaining a competative edge over its rivals. If we get some of the other toy distributors intersted in using this free (for now) promotional tool, Hasbro would be under more pressure to use it as well. And as with the example above, any small portion that is Transformers related, is a bonus to our forum.

So for a little while, there will be an expanded section on our forum for other toylines, as a transitional means to generate interest from the Toy Companies, and collectors, to then be set up as its own stand alone collector forum.
So the more popular it gets, the quicker it will be moved from our TFs forum into its own. And having it part of this Transformers Forum for now can help prove to the Toy Companies that there is collector and public interest in an Australian Toy Collectors Website.

It would also be a substitute for the Toy Companies who don't see any value in setting up their own localised product websites (or keeping their websites up-to-date). That would be another incentive to them, as it would be a cheaper alternative to setting up their own localised product websites.

Okay, so now for the technical problems I've been having in the last 4 days, that prevented the website from being launched on the same day as the re-arrangement of the board.
The software for the website wouldn't allow me to generate completely separate pages for 'Transformers', 'General Toy Collecting', 'Lego', etc, so I had to resort to having a main 'Toy Collector' page, with our Transformers page being a sub-page of it.
This was why I had to change the banner to the small thing we have at the moment, because it had to have the word 'Transformers' removed, and, I am going to try to insert a header underneat that main banner on each sub-page and forum, to make it more obvious what each page is about.

I also had to strip out most of the default modules of the program, as they were mostly redundant, and I need to generate new ones to cover info and topics we need on our front page.

I'm probably forgetting some stuff as well, but as I said in the last post, this is still a work in progress, and by no means makes this a toy forum that has a Transformers section. It will remain a Transformers forum, with a temporary hosting of a general toy section, until such time that it can stand on its own, or, will be scaled back because of lack of traffic.

[roller]

hmmmm kinda like doing a deal with the devil i kid i kid


so one day, maybe the other toy line sections will be gone? If no interest from say LEGO is garnered

[Kyle]

Sounds like a GREAT plan! A big thank you to Bossbot~!

[Robzy]

Sounds interesting!

Hope it's still cool to promote stuff from toy companies other than Hasbro... Mattel for example!