Building a Community

[Buster's Uncle]

Rymdolov has taken on a tedious task that sisko and I haven't gotten to over the months - posting all the GotMs to Downloads.  Go check that stuff out, 'cause it's all gold, and we sweated blood making them, and we want them in the hands of people who will play and appreciate them.  Also, all the fiction is good, if I do say so myself.

If I can remember how to do it, I'm going to go badge Rym as a Downloads contributor right now.  Posting content is a huge contribution to the community.

[Buster's Uncle]

...Oops.  Turns out I haven't made that badge yet.  Who can keep track?  Soon, I promise; soon...

[Buster's Uncle]

Gentlemen, do you realise that AC2 has added roughly 2,000 posts, an increase of about 1/5th to the total, in the LAST 12 DAYS? 

We've got something going here.

[Buster's Uncle]

A conversation I find deeply related to the themes of this thread has broken out here: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2608.0  Check it out.

[Buster's Uncle]

I just want to mention that Google and other search engines are this forum’s best single hope for getting the word out to the many thousands and thousands of cool SMACers out there who‘ve never heard of the online AC community.  There’s an easy way you can help.

One day in March, sisko pointed out how I could leave over 36,000 copies of our URL laying around for the search engines to find and thereby bump up our page ranking on them a good bit in one fell swoop - change my sig at another place and add a hyperlink.  Naturally, for AC2  I went and did it - likewise at two other forums, getting it to nearly 38,000 copies.  And we’re doing very well on the search engines these days, and doing well for signups from members who googled SMAC(X).  I’m only part of that, but my part matters - most of it, one sig change.

But we could do even better.  Got room in your sig at other forums to link AC2?  Please do, for the SEO.  And if it’s the sort of forum that draws our sort of gamers or actual SMACers?  If you’re a member at Apolyton, CFC or CGN?  Not only flog us in your sig, get involved in their AC subforums.  You’ll have to create activity at ‘poly and CGN, frankly, but that’s good for them and good for us.  This is not a zero-sum game.  I’m a regular at CFC AC these days, just posting when I feel like it, and have posted nearly half the posts made in two months at ‘poly.

Let’s make a project of reviving these once-proud homes of the community - more places for SMACers out in the cold to find signs of life is more online SMACers and a bigger community.  Point them here, of course, but no one has to choose just one forum.  Make those places part of your regular forums you check.  Petek is good people, and we owe him some support back.  And make extra effort at those other places that need it more.  Everyone will  profit in a huge multi-forum win-win.  A rising tide really can lift all boats.

I think it's a thing worth trying, and not so tough to do if several people try at once and keep it up for a while.  And don't forget about those sigs.

[Buster's Uncle]

Had a little inspiration.  Check this: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2579.msg13283#msg13283

Anyone interested?

[Buster's Uncle]

Does no one have anything to say?  I write these long essays about things I deem VERY important, and have no way of knowing if anyone has even read them, absent comments...

[Buster's Uncle]

...Also, I've gone into a less-energetic spell, and on slow evenings it's getting tougher to entertain myself lately.  I need someone to talk to after supper, or eventually, I have to give up and go read and nap.  Then I'm not here when YOU need someone to talk to.

Get back online and entertain me, people!

[JarlWolf]

Well im usually active from anywhere early morning 5-6 AM to 3 PM in the afternoon, then I usually take my pills, eat and just relax for a while and eventually go to sleep. I live near Vyatka, in case you are wondering about time zone.
Catch me at any point between then and maybe we can have a chat. If you have Skype, voice chat is also an option if you get tired of text nonsense. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Dunno.  Skype is great, but that doesn't grow the forum, and I'm all about growing the forum...

[Buster's Uncle]

Have I talked about this here in the last two weeks? http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2530.0

Nomads, the latest Game of the Month is out.  It's a cool scenario.  It's a contest to see who can reach the scenario win conditions fastest/best.  It's SMAC(X) content for the community to enjoy.

Go to the thread and give it a try.  Enjoy the novelty of playing as a custom faction - it adds freshness to an old game.  Let us know what you think.  Post a save of your win - you might win the contest. Encourage a hard-working GotM team to keep working hard to entertain you by playing it and saying so.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

[Unorthodox]

Been doing my best to spam, er, add meaningfull content...

[Buster's Uncle]

Yes you have, and don't think for a second that I didn't notice you stepping up your contributions to Rec Commons immediately after I started this thread to appeal for just that kind of thing.  -And it's paid off, I think.  RC was pretty much just you and me before that, and has gotten a  lot more robust.  You're at the top of my list for when we establish an AC2 hall of fame.  Seriously.

Every little bit from every single member counts.  We can do it.

[Buster's Uncle]

...There's only so many ways for me to say that this is YOUR community and YOUR responsibility to chip in to build/rebuild it.  It will be a year since we got serious about AC2 in less than a month, and hard as sisko and I have worked, it would still be an empty forum without the participation of so many others.  Lately, sisko is up against a lot of RL demands on his time and I've, frankly, been crashed out and too tired tired to do much...

But look around the forum - Kirov, Yitzi and ete, especially, have done a lot to keep AC2 active, as have many others.  We're over halfway to where we need to be as a self-sustaining community.  Activity levels on the boards have been good, and human registrations have continued to happen at a healthy rate.  This makes my heart glad. 

So do remember that together, the differences that each of us make by posting and contributing to the SMAC(X) community add up to something special and worthwhile.  We not only CAN do it, we ARE doing it.  Thanks for doing your part.

[Buster's Uncle]

I should have mentioned this long ago, but in the interest of encouraging/rewarding contributions in certain areas, new threads in the science subforums of Rec Commons are worth double EC, triple in Planet Tales, and quadruple in Chiron News Network, where you have a thread autoposted when you post something in Downloads - just changed that last.

Eventually, we're going to find more goodies to spend those EC on in the Shop...