Ideas For The SB Community - Social Site, Video Blog, More?

[java.x.beast]

So I'm trying to get ideas together on what I can do to help advance the Sandbox community to make it as awesome as possible

I mentioned doing a social site a while ago and I want to take more of a look into it especially with the advancements in social networking software. If anyone else wants to help I'd really appreciate feedback and thoughts on what software would be the best and what features would be good to have, etc. These are the main social networking software options I've been looking at:
http://blackboxsocialmedia.com/social-n ... lications/

I think a video blog would be cool but should it also have some kind of gallery format? Also maybe there is a way to integrate it with the front page? hmm.

Resources Page - Maybe do it right on the wiki and link it from the main page?

Any other ideas to help the community grow/communicate are welcome

Take care.
-mike

Just out of curiosity... isn't THIS our basic social site?

For a video log, I'd like to see more of the changes Hirato makes in the engine, a "feature preview" kind of thing, I guess.

Also, what do you mean by a "resources page"? If it's like a page full of other sites where you can get content to use in Sandbox, then count me in. I have a ton of sites that people could use. An entire Google Chrome bookmark folder full of them, to be exact.

I suggest live video streaming using UStream, I think it was called. I use it to watch Lil Wayne/YMCMB live videos. It's pretty cool, you just need a good webcam and desktop recording software. You could do some stuff on it like trying out some maps that were user created and submitted. I don't think there are enough videos of Sandbox-created maps out there in the world. If you saw the Quadropolis site, the homepage is stocked with pictures and downloads of user-created maps. To help ease this in, we could create a brand new homepage. All the news that's on the homepage should go into a "News" page, except for the latest info, which should be displayed at the top, right under the navigation bar. I'm sorry for going on and on, but I have some pretty good ideas to help grow the Sandbox Community. If you want more info, I'm on the IRC alot. You can ask me there. Hope this was valid help.

Beyond the UStream stuff, I agree a lot with java's ideas, including the "user-submitted" maps and such. I'd love to see that. I'm not so sure about the new homepage, because PAS doesn't really need one, but I do believe a repository (OTHER than the forum's upload stuff) would be nice, maybe just a page where all the downloadable content can be stored IN ONE SPOT (not all over a million different forum posts) and organized well. I mean, we would just have content pages for maps, textures, models, music and skyboxes, sorted maybe by date created, version made with, creator, along with a description... Just like Quadropolis, but perhaps easier for people to find what they want, and easier to get to and download.

Personally, I think that BuddyPress (from your link) looks nice, but it's likely because I like Wordpress a lot. Of course, that's just my opinion.

Going farther on CP's idea. In order to make it easier to find the kind of content you are looking for, we could have separate sections/pages for each type of content. Example:

Code: Select all

Models
- Weapons
----Guns
----Swords
----Bows
----Staves
- Furniture
----Couches/Sofas
----Tables
----Chairs
- Cars
----Lamborghini
----Maserati
----Ferrari
----Porsche
----Bugatti ( I <3 Bugatti Veyron! )
- Armor
----Shields
----Helmets
- Electronics
----TVs
----iPods
- Characters
----Medieval
----Egypt
----Roman
----Modern
----Machine/Robot

Maps
- Modern Style
- Egyptian Style
- Medieval Style
- Roman/Greek Style

Etc, etc.

If we do this, I think we would have the most organized and coolest/best-looking website for a 3D Game Engine EVER!!
Hope this helped!

-Java

[chocolatepie33]

@java: that may be too specific.

@all: another pro to the repository thing is that we control what does or doesn't go and/or stay up. With sites such as sendspace, links eventually rot and become useless. If there's something someone wants (e.g. Tyche's texture pack), then they could request it, let it be put up, download it, then they have it.

[sonia]

I personally think that incorporating social media is very important, because everybody is using these sites and it's important to be up to date and use the newest stuff for gaining new users or stay in contact with the users.
I also like the idea of a video blog, although it makes a lot of work (but it's fun to watch!)

[KSAICDPAS01]

Did you talk to MIKE about this idea?

[KSAICDPAS01]

I don't understand this.

[KSAICDPAS01]

I like this idea!!! I know 1 thing we should add, that is a built in mapmodel studio. That means we create the mapmodels, than put them in the game!!! Thanks Mike!!!

[Mike]

I have a rough version up for testing. Keep in mind it is subject to change drastically. I think I might be able to make it so you could potentially post files on there though I was going to have a separate site for that, but I might not need to. Let me know what you think Take care.
-mike
http://www.sandboxgamemaker.com/game-design-community/

[chocolatepie33]

@Mike: This looks great! Is it OK to sign up yet?

@KSAIC: Lay off the spamming, mapmodels are made in 3D modelling programs. e.g Blender.

[Mike]

Omar instead of having three posts in a row please edit your single post @ Chocolate: Yes you can Obviously a lot of graphics are placeholders and/or aren't even there, I want to get the functionality in place first and then I can focus on looks.
-mike

[chocolatepie33]

@Mike: Alright, Cool, I guess I'll be a tester of some sorts.

EDIT: Done.