[AzH]

NB: I have been drinking so this might not make a lot of sense. If it doesn't, I'll be back tomorrow to correct and amend the message to make a bit more sense.

I got a taste for game related forums with Left 4 Dead Forums (2,833 Members, 3,153 Threads, 32,551 Posts) and more recently SWTOR - The Old Republic Forum (very new but I have high hopes).

I have been following the progress of Duke Nukem Forever since it was first announced over a decade ago after loving the original Duke Nukem 3D and the LAN battles we used to have with a few beers and some spliffs.

Sadly those drinking, toking days are behind me, but my love of Duke has never wavered. I read recently of a possible release in 2009, but that being said there was a possible release announced in 98, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07 and 08. Duke Nukem Forever has become the very essence of Vaporware.

However, undaunted and probably drunk at the time, I picked up two domains which I thought were pretty good for a related forum:

dukeforums.com
nukemforums.com

Both have *just* been installed with phpbb3 as I'm too poor to invest in a pair of vb licences. I'm was going to theme them and launch them.


Anyway, to the purpose of this thread:: I have been toying with the idea of a little experiment. Getting someone else to run one of the forums whilst I run the other, or even getting two third parties to run one each under my supervision. A little competiton of sorts, which would end some time in the future with a merger of both communities. My question is, who has the time and interest to run a forum just as an experiment into the methodology and process of forum promotion?

If that person is you, then do let me know.

Both stand untouched on hosting with unlimited space and bandwidth. One is admined by 'Duke', the other by 'Nukem'.

If that person is you, then you will be given access to the admin email address and the ftp for the forum in question. It will be yours to manage and promote and nuture for the duration of the experiment.

I guess I just thought it sounded like a good idea at the time.


Post if you are interested in participating, with details of your relevant experience.

Post if you're interested in seeing where this goes.


Thanks for sticking with me through this lengthy post.


Alan

[AzH]

58 views no interest?

[Jolteon]

The idea seems...
Quite frankly silly.

Why split the, frankly small niche between two forums?

Duke Nukem Forever has taken so long, most people i know have forgotten it's sposedly even in existance..

[AzH]

Originally Posted by Jolteon

Quite frankly silly.

Quite frankly.... I totally see where you're coming from. I guess there are two reasons for doing this, one major and one minor.


First, the major reason is I want to capture the process of promoting a forum and allow a situation where methods can be compared side-by-side. The idea behind this is that the two admins are in touch and saying stuff like, "well I tried X".... How often have you launched a forum and tried something and THEN wondered how the other approach would work? It's an opportunity to test methodology against results in a controlled environment. I posted this on another site and some guy said that it's impossible to launch a successful forum without investing dollar in marketing. I disagree. This is a rare opportunity to test the theory. I'd even go as far as to give a small allowance to someone or to allow them to monestize to generate funds to promote (whilst the other guy goes 100% organic, for example).

These are the opportunities that present themselves.


Second reason is that eventually we'd merge the forums. Two forums, two sets of memebers, two different sets of content. Two different communities. They get merged into one after, I dunno, 6 or 9 or 12 months and you take the absolute best of both approaches and apply to the new merged community.

This is a niche which has one official forum and a smattering of mentions on other general gaming boards. The niche might be small, but as a result of the vaporware style of the game, the niche is undeveloped and ripe for harvesting.

I dunno. If no-one shows an interest I'll just cancel one and link the domains or use one as a link-fest landing page, whatever. I guess I just wanted to do something to get some life going on this forum (which used to be incredibly where active) where I am frequently the only one logged in.

[Jolteon]

The problem i see is, the game in question is so vaporware, it's almost forgotten by many of it's would be enthusiasts. I can see why you'd want to do it however, it's definatly in interesting thing, but the chance of it working is in my opinion, quite low. Perhaps reserve your idea for a later date, such as when the gaming company release a trailer, or some thing to re-spark the interest in it's would be players.

If you're willing to have it collapse and crumble around you, then by all means, have a good go at it, you never know, it could just work out.

The idea you have i believe COULD work, but i think the niche in question at this moment in time is too small for it to progress into anything large, in time, it may grow, especially if the game ever gets going, as your domains are definatly going to be easy ones to find in google, and will probably generate the traffic.

[AzH]

OK so I have one person who is interested in taking the nukemforums domain and running with it. I just need someone to do the dukeforums domain.