I'm calling this the "Vizzed Revival Month" because this month I'm going to go all out on rejuvenating the posting activity. I think it's more effective to a traffic boost over a shorting period of time rather than a longer period of time (for forums anyway). The more people that can help with this initiative, the better.

A few things I plan to do in order to draw in new activity:
-Resend emails to users who signed up but didn't get an activation email in the past 7 months (more info here)
-Send out new passwords to the new users that didn't get a password set (more info here)
-Send out yearly newsletter
-Host the Tour de Vizzed (it's a good time for it to take place)
-Create a bunch of threads and also possibly some video game articles

A few features that I want to create which should help keep activity flowing:
-Have threads show who has viewed a post (I think it offers satisfaction knowing users are reading your threads)
-Post Views (each post would have individual view count, could have it list users also)
-Thread Thumbnails (visuals can help draw attention to various forms of content)
-More 'New Thread' Feeds (new threads need more exposure)
-Modification to 'Your Friend Actions' (I'd have it show all threads created by friends rather than just the last thread created by each individual friend)
-More emphasis on Announcements (a lot of users and viewers don't read them or notice them)
-More emphasis on who's on the page you're on (makes the site feel more lively)

All of those features shouldn't take more than 10 hours total. If anyone else has an idea for a simple feature that could be tackled in 1 or 2 hours and would increase the posting activity by a lot, let me know. Also please give me feedback on the feature ideas I have listed.

This would be a smart move to hopefully bring activity back to Vizzed that was once lost. With the features that you want to introduce is some of the things that the users like to see that will bring a whole lot more users onto the site again.

There is some features I think you should also add as well that might also bring more users in, like update the feature of people uploading and using custom made layouts, like making it a whole lot more easier for users that doesn't know a whole lot of coding. This would also fix that glitch that affected anyone trying to upload new layouts. (this would be my short-term idea you could tackle that would increase a little bit more users here on Vizzed



This more of a long-term idea which you can tackle sometime down the line...
Another way we can bring a whole lot more people on Vizzed, I think we should rebrand Vizzed, like Vizzed was known for it's retro games and what not, but ever since half of the Nintendo games were removed (which more likely was one of the causes of the lost traffic), I think that gives you an opportunity to rebrand the site to make it like posting official video gaming news such as upcoming games, a gaming encyclopedia, and basically everything in the world of gaming.
Put into an example on what I'm talking about, something like Serebii, like how that site is with the Pokemon franchise.

Like have members pick on a preference on what games they like to receive news, contests, and other information on (like have them pick based on consoles, genres, gaming series, etc.). But this is my idea, but you don't have to go with this idea if this idea seems too dumb and complicated, and focus on the better layout idea.

I have a couple things to say about the announcements.

One is that there's a way to read them without the widget. I'm talking about the index page, which shows the most recent announcements. Not sure if many people actually does this small trick to read announcements, but it's possible and exploitable. Besides, we don't get that many announcements, so even with a bi-weekly check there'd be no need to click the widget.

The second thing I wanted to say is that announcements are redundant with the threads they link to. Once you've been here for enough time, you can know what's the deal with that announcement by searching its corresponding thread via Latest Threads, New Posts, Friend Activity or simply checking the forums they're usually created in.

For the first thing, there could be a way which would mark an announcement displayed on the index page as read, like how it works for Whatsapp or Skype. For the second thing, the solution would simply be that the corresponding thread should be cut short, and then it could even link back to the announcement so people will inevitably read both to not miss out on anything.

There could be more solutions, but these two are the easiest ones to think about. Also, there may be more issues than just these two, but I wouldn't have 72 pending announcements if the issues I've listed were corrected.

I had this post in mind since I saw the request you posted, that's why I could come up with it this quickly. I'll give a deeper look to this thread later on and see what else I can add.

I think a cool feature to have would be a status where your friends could comment on it. Make this like a niche social media community. 

Re-work Index - You need to include additional banners for the Video Game Music Room and also need a Video Game Character Room. You could even expand further and make a Video Game Guide Room, Video Game Reviews Room and Video Game News Room. There is so much content on this site that is stuffed and or hidden and it needs to be accessed easier for people.

Re-work Forums - Based on legacy's idea there needs to be an overhaul of the fourms on the vizzed board index. I don't know if there are too many or if none of them are very appealing to people. Something must be done with it to grab peoples attention. Maybe something simple like showing the latest thread below each forum title would help grab peoples attention instead of showing all the sub forums.

Re-work User Profiles - Make user profiles more interactive and a bit like twitter where it would highlight the most important thing about them, their thoughts and opinions. This can be done by grabbing their comments around the site and or posts on the forum in 140 character snippets or less.

Re-work Memberlist - Instead of the default being post experience have it show latest active users first. This would give a much better idea of who is active or not. I'm looking at the memberlist now and many people on first page have not logged in in months or even years. Push them back and highlight the active users. The forumula could be last post date desc, followed by last timestamp active. This would show forum posters first followed by users who don't post. This is NOT an online users page, that is not the point of it. It's point is to highlight active users first.

New TDV Banners - The tour de france is a race where bikers travel through different geographical locations. The new banner should be just that. Whoever travels through the most forums and makes posts in unique areas wins this jersey. Although instead of basing it on post count it would simply count as 1 point per forum to prevent abuse. A lot of the forums get ignored in TDV and this would help drive traffic to the forums no one posts in. Also, there should be a spectator jersey, some of us old vets may not post but we do browse a lot and should be rewarded for it Views are just as good as posts.

IgorBird122 : Is kinda right. There is only so much you can do in terms of retro games. It's hard to generate new content and interest off games 20-30 years old. Nintendo removing the old retro games took a big hit on the site and diminished the ability to play games. I think it is safe to say Vizzed reached it's peak with playable retro games so either add more games to play like flash games or focus on new gaming content from more current games.

Last but not least is defining activity. Is activity the amount of posts someone makes? Or is it how many pages they view, how many games they play and how many comments and interactions they make around the site? I feel like all site activity is ignored except posts. There are ways to fix this and make the site more active with some of the ideas above.

I'd add more but I think this is enough ideas to work with for now.

vizzed will be very active this month, everyone is competing for taking first place and it will be mindblowing

JigSaw : Yeah, that would be basically the only way that Vizzed to get back to it's glory days, even know we don't have those Nintendo games anymore, the only way things would work is if David does in fact rebrand the whole entire Vizzed. Not saying that David should rush the whole rebranding, he can take his time doing all the rebranding and start a newer Vizzed. Like we can keep all the retro non-Nintendo games on here, but focus more on other means that would draw a whole lot more people in.


As for the short term, Everything that JigSaw provided above explains everything in detail that need a whole lot of reworking, basically, the entire Vizzed needs re-worked, Index, Forums, User Profiles, Memberlists, Layout customization, basically everything.

I know it is early in the morning but it will give you an idea of what is bringing in traffic and it's mostly the playable games. Like I said though it's about as good as it will get, with the removals of nintendo games and no more games being added it has reached its prime. Now it is time to focus on other things if games can no longer be added to play.

/playonlinegames (169081 views)
/emulators/play.php (3930 views)
/videogames (2945 views)
/romonline/game.php (2740 views)
Vizzed.com (2524 views)
/comments.php (1986 views)
/market/listings.php (1518 views)
/boards/forum.php (1382 views)

The forum is pretty low on this list, in fact, really low. Can anything be done to fix it? Who really knows. What I do know is other areas of this site have great potential. I suspect the video game room has little to no views because a lot of the games have absolutely no content, no game description, nothing. Here is an example: https://www.vizzed.com/games/nba-2k17-x360-xbox-360-100953-game

It's just the title of game and photo and nothing of importance for users or search engines. This is why I recommend having a Character Room, Guide Room, and Game News rooms because we mostly got the content for it already it just needs their own room like the RGR. Those are what have unique content and those should drive in traffic.

I have a script sending out emails to all users who have registered and not activated their accounts. Shouldn't take more than a day to execute.

Most of the responses in here involve things that can't be done very quickly so forgive me if these things don't get taken care of very soon.


IgorBird122 : That's definitely an idea you should request on the Site Requests page since it's not a quick fix.

I have been making an attempt to expand Vizzed in a more general gaming direction beyond just the Retro Game Room. Examples:
-Video Game Music Room
-Video Game Character Pages
-One of the biggest collections of retro gaming screenshots (and definitely the most organized)
-Video Game Collection which lets you keep track of what you own and also tallies up the total value
-Game pages for 10,000s of games, many of them with lots of information
And lots more. The site already has a lot of gaming content that isn't related to playing retro games online but I do plan to continue expanding it.


EX Palen : I make a thread with most announcements so that users have a place to ask questions regarding them. A lot of users, even ones who actively use the site, don't even know about things I've announced so that tells me not everyone is checking every single thread that gets made. There have been times when I've told active users and friends about things I had recently announced and yet they had no idea about those things. At some point I plan to rebuild the announcement system and also migrate the announcement page to the new site code so I'll keep those things in mind when I do that.


thing1 : You have me curious. Could you explain a little more (without going into too much time consuming detail lol).


JigSaw : I'll break down my reply based on how you broke down your post.

Re-work Index: I completely agree about reworking the index and it is something I have been wanting to do. It's a bigger project than what I could include with this thread but I do plan to do it at some point. It is difficult to display on the index page everything the site has to offer without overwhelming the user with too much information. Utilizing graphics I think would be a good start since it conveys information quicker and draws more attention.

Re-work Forums: I like the idea of each forum showing the title of the latest thread. If it can be done without making the forum index too overwhelming (which is already one of the big complaints), I'm definitely doing that.

Re-work User Profiles: I've had really big plans with the profile pages (some similar to what you suggested). A lot of it is time consuming but all of it is stuff I still plan to do.

Re-work Memberlist: That's a page I still have yet to rebuild from the ground up. It's still using old site code.

New TDV Banners: I think I remember you suggesting this before. I ended up concluding that it'd be too consuming to add at the time. I do like the idea of doing something to make spectating the Tour de Vizzed easier and to give recognition to those doing so.


IgorBird122 : I don't think it's fair to say "basically everything" needs reworking.


JigSaw : We also have game pages with lots of content though. Example: https://www.vizzed.com/games/halo-3-x360-xbox-360-37669-game

The NBA 2K17 game page was added at a time when the site's activity was already starting to drop and I had less Site Staff to add content for game pages.

I agree though with having pages that highlights games with news or guides. I had always imagined that the forums that contain those would serve that purpose but unless I can find a better way to organize and have that content sorted, I should probably have a separate page for it.

As for the game characters, it is something I plan to rebuild from the ground up at some point. I've got a lot of cool ideas for the video game character stuff.

Davideo7 : Just similiar to Facebook, I suppose. Make a new part of the site where it's like the social media part. 

For example, let's say I wanted to let people know that I had finally beaten an old game in the RGR. Well, I go to my profile, type it into a spot, and it's now my status. But, people can comment/react to it. Just like Facebook. 

thing1 : The problem with that is how many people are actually going to post statuses on their profiles and who is going to give enough F's about it? 99% or more of Vizzed users will probably not waste time commenting on their dead profile pages. Seems like a waste of time to me to make that when you can fully automate statuses by grabbing comments and posts made by the user in snippets from their activity around the site.

Example:

User comments on Legend of Zelda game and says "I just beat this game, took me a while but I did it!".

That comment would then become the users latest status in their profile and would cross promote the game in the process. If they made a post in the forum same thing. David could also create autogenerated statuses for ones birthday, or when they reach a certain achievement like # of posts in forum etc....

If you do not go with this method a majority of peoples profiles will be considered dead with no statuses and it will look like a graveyard. People will realize this and will not participate in it further in updating their status because it is pointless. The goal is to flood their profile with statuses automatically for them. Newbie users will have a nice looking social media profile without having to make a single status post on their profile because Vizzed will do it for them automatically. End of rant LOL!

I hope that this helps. For the last few month's, I would keep getting on and when I look at new posts, the page shows a weeks worth of posts or more, with barely anything new. It's so hard to stay on lately with nobody doing anything.

JigSaw : The automatic stuff sounds like a great idea. But I think that you should still be allowed to post your own updates. 

Maybe a widget that lets you follow specific people and it feeds you their activity without having to friend them? That could be cool. It'd also be great for staff+ that are keeping an eye on a suspect

There's a yearly newsletter? How long has that been a thing? Could be interesting to read, I literally had no idea this existed. Hopefully they weren't sent to my spam and automatically deleted.

Also, just gotta say, July is the perfect time for a revival month. It's the dog days of summer, us younguns have a lot of free time. Problem is, I'm not really seeing it. IB, KillerLatias, and thing1 are helping with posts, but other than that the forums haven't seem much of a surge in activity.

I don't know if I'd consider the activity revived yet, but it may be that not everything on that list was done.

The bottom line is activity requires three things:

1) Newbie retention: New users are the lifeblood of the community. They always have been, and they always will be. Once a user has said a ton of things, it's hard for new topics to pop up, there's only so much one person can say.

2) Veteran presence: Above new users stay because of their interactions with other users. I stuck around on Vizzed when I was new, because of both new users like myself (the_casualty, big fat cat, etc), but also because the veteran members of the community (geeogree, DarkHyren) were present, and willing to communicate with me as well.

3) A functioning chatroom, used by others: The current Vizzed chatroom doesn't really do it. Nobody uses it, and the interface leaves a ton to be desired. 100% of all chatting in the Vizzed community right now happens on the Discord server, and I don't see that changing. I know you hate linking to external things, but putting the Discord server's link which I've provided here on the main page goes a long way towards getting newbies to interact with the community. Chat rooms are good, because when a user doesn't want to post, they still have a way to interact with other members, which keeps them invested in the community. If a user doesn't use a chat room, and they stop posting, there's a good chance they won't post much ever again, and just stop using the site, altogether.

Activity requires more than telling old users the site is still around, a newsletter, and a competition, it requires a bunch of people all wanting the same thing at the same time, and actually working for it. Posting saying "activity isn't high" doesn't really count as working for it, either, the users saying that, if they really want activity back, need to put in the time and effort to help create that activity.

It all starts with website culture, and right now, the culture is basically saying that it's "too much work to bring activity back", so nobody bothers.