What does this forum need?

[TwilightKing]

I'll keep this brief.

I just want to gather some feedback from the forum members to make this place better. With Facebook and such, it seems a lot of posting has slowed. Understandable.

What I'd like to know is if this forum is lacking anything, or if it is difficult to use, etc. Missing features?
(Just anything except new theme!)

I need some ideas to kick around, so I need your thoughts.

Feel free to respond here, or send me a PM.

Thanks!

TK

[zorrow]

My two cents:

I think this forum lacks of enthusiasm mainly because of the lack of constant activity from the KD/MF camp. When they announce new releases or new tours, there's a peak on our activity here; but given they're quite slow their side, our side gets slowed down as well.

I also think what happened with "the-DVD's-that-never-were" got many of us a bit cynical towards KD. I personally know a couple of members whose interest in the forum lowered significantly after all that. My side, I considered it pretty frustrating too, to be frank.

Also, as a bunch we behaved like a gang of assholes towards Mike Wead, who used to come around and post, but more than once received our explicit rejection. Well, I'm saying "our", but I never did so. Some however did claim the return of Pete Blakk one side, and others praised Michael Denner's rights to be on MF. Nothing wrong with that "per se", but the way we exposed those opinions here wasn't very polite, so we lost the sole member of the band who posted here, which was an asset to the forum, plus his gf. Stupid move from our part!

So, what to do now? I just don't know! But... what if the band created a true Fanclub with releases exclusively for us, like "official bootlegs" and such? I also hope the Abigail live BluRay will get us more active. Nevertheless, speaking of the BluRay, aren't we all a bit worried about when it will ever come out, and even if? Sad, isn't it?

In short, it all can be narrowed down to one thing: the more "alive" the band is, the more alive the forum will become. It's as simple as that.

Now let's just get enough food to keep the flame burning!

[LucasRomao]

Hi TwilightKing,

## About the FOrum (platform, usage, etc...) ##
I think that the forum works very well. My only "concern" is about when I want to post some media content like a photo, where I need to upload in somewhere and then use the proper link to display inside the post, but it's totally understandable that tons of media will increase the maintenance cost.

About Facebook, many of us have a profile so is easier to access a group, share and "like" something, but at the same time is impossible to agroup and concentrate conversations. In resume both solutions are good but I see then with different proposal.

I think that we need to encourage people to came back the forum and also present to the new fans. I'm sure that there are a lot of people that doesn't know about the forum.

One point that may help the adoption is an app for mobile devices, currently I have a shortcut on my mobile and sometimes is terrible to answer some threads.
I know that replace the Forum platform is not an easy work, but it may be a good point.

## Band + fan behaviors ##
I agree about what zorrow said, about as more active the band is on social media, more interaction we have on the forum.

Regarding the fan behaviors, it's complicated to control how people expose their thoughts. I'm not sure how to manage this, because when we have several rules people may not feel comfortable to expose their ideas. I think that who is reading the comments needs to "filter" the information that is receiving and the moderator manage the threads with unappropriated content.

Romão

[Chagosomar]

it would be pretty cool if it was easier to upload photos.

i still love the forum,  just not much going on lately.

[bolivarmaxi]

This forum needs more news about the band, more stuff,etc

[Livia Zita]

About fan interaction... Let's take the example Zorrow posted about those old DVDs. Yes, it was a project and we were very excited about it all, and we shared those news with everyone, even though nothing was set in stone yet. We were working pretty hard on them.
Then, due to many varying reasons, the project got delayed more and more and is now on the backburners for who knows how long. We are not thinking about it.
Yet, even though the above was also conveyed to fans (in interviews, etc), we are still being blamed for the DVDs not being out. People still want it right now, when our schedules are chock full of other things (Abigail DVD, EU tour in a couple of weeks, new album writing process, and several more exciting things that I can't/won't talk about).

Now, we are more hesitant about releasing news that are not 100% set in stone and we aren't sure it will happen. This is also the reason of the news slow-down. We release info when we are sure it will happen and WHEN it will happen.
Until then, mum's the word.
This way, we don't feel like asses when a project doesn't work out for whatever reason and fans get "disappointed".
It is VERY difficult to accurately convey a project's possibility in a way where everyone understands and won't hold us to impossible deadlines and standards. Hell knows we have enough deadlines for things needed to be done yesterday or last week, as it is.

The Abigail Live DVD is coming along great, I have seen some rough cuts and am very excited for it to come out hopefully holidays this year or very early in the next. Depending on production and design times.


As for expressing yourself about band members... Just remember that there is a person on the other end, reading your posts, what you write about him, her, or their friends. Respect goes a long way, as it does for everything else. People are completely free to voice their opinions, but there's no need to be aggressive about it.

[Livia Zita]

As an addendum, instead of an edit:

Can we please stay on topic? What would be some practical improvements the mod guys could do to the forums that would make people happier? They can't magically wrangle news from us to post every week

From my point of view, unfortunately Facebook is easier and faster to update and maintain.

On the other hand, I like the forum format and I think it can elicit deeper responses and discussions than a Facebook comment though.

I was thinking about automatic cross-posts from the KD Facebook page, but that might cause a lot of clutter, and I'm not even sure if that's something viable.

I like to post pictures for you all, but as a tour progresses, it gets more and more difficult to keep up (when all you want is to finally get some sleep, haha).
I'll try to make more effort posting some during this coming EU tour, that will only be put here. But, please don't hold me to anything. I have a ridiculous amount of work to do during a tour.

[Satans KINGdom]

Well to stay on topic, is there a way to make the forums look more like the home page? The home page looks awesome, but the forums are just sort of plain and blah.

How about a shoutbox? Might get some use out of it maybe.

Other than that I can't really think of anything else that hasn't been brought up already.

[zorrow]

Thanks, Livia, for taking the time to reply. I totally understand your points --all of them. Mine's just was that the features of the forum are "good enough" and that the causes of the lack of activity here are elsewhere. But again, I totally get what you say. Thanks again!

[TwilightKing]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

Basically, it's come to this:

The internet has changed dramatically since I joined the Coven. Our devices have changed. We're mobile, not just sitting down at a desktop or laptop to communicate.

I have several ideas, and I think Livia just pretty much explained it: Facebook is easier, but the forum is better for discussions. That is the direction I am looking at.

The forum does not look as cool as the website yet. There are reasons for that, and I will need to talk to the band and Metal Blade to see what we can do.

I would also love to incorporate responsive design so that the forums are easier to use on smartphones and tablets.

In short, lots of ideas on the technology side, and I also want everyone here to know that I have not forgotten about our members, and aim to make this forum the best experience that I can, not for me, but for the fans of KD and MF.

[DirtbikeDave917]

Dirtbikedave917 likes Twilightkings post

[Cornloaf]

I hope that Facebook is not the only place for new KD/MF news.  I killed my account last year and I have no intention of turning it back on.  (9 months and counting!  6 months longer than people said I would last!)

[TwilightKing]

That's why the forum is still needed. And the website. And Twitter.

[Dirk]

Never had (or wanted) Facebook, Twitter, or a smart phone ..just a laptop at home  and a ordinary cell
phone and I am doing fucking GREAT !!!

Of course I read the Official FB Postings to which I (still) have access (let,s see how long!)

...but i love  this Forum and I want to Thank Livia for Informations HERE and TwilightKing for

EVERYTHING !

[Grace]

This forum has always been a waterhole for me. I may not post when I don't have anything to say, but I check in regularly. I do enjoy the more elaborate discussions, and I particularly enjoy the fact that the band, with King and Livia, do read what is going on here. I don't know what happened in the Mike Wead fiasco Zorrow mentioned, but I hope that wasn't representative of the majority of the fans on this board.

As for what this board needs... As with all fan-pages, it is unfortunately at the mercy of what is going on with the band. Let's be real. There has not been a new album in nine years (and not a very good one at that). The fact that you have any people in here at all is a testament to the loyalty of King's fans. You can only post a "Please rank the KD albums..." topic so many times. I have said everything i could possibly say about anything KD related, so from a personal perspective I feel I have exhausted my range of topics. I have had countless of awesome discussions with both band members and fans on here, from time to time, so I feel the board really serves a great purpose while connected to activity with the band. In between, you are going to have slumps. It is not your fault that there is nothing new to talk about.

However, I know you don't want to hear about the theme, but slapping a KD logo on top of the page would at least make it more official-looking to new people that happen to drop by. Now it looks like you're selling something called "simple machines".

Also, linking interesting topics of discussion from this board to the KD facebook page, even if they are older, could drive a new audience here to participate. I guess that's something between you and Livia to work out.

Half the pinned topics could probably be dropped to make newer topics stand out more. Otherwise it feels like time is standing still here.

Ultimately,you're doing a great job.

[TwilightKing]

Thanks, Grace. Slapping a logo on is a bit tougher than you think it would be (there are reasons, I won't get into them here), but I hope to increase my presence here.

I agree with the pinned topics. There certainly needs to be some re-organization.

Lots of stuff to think about!

[Felicia]

Interesting that this question has finally come about.

My response although honest to my eyes, is not to go out of the way to offend anyone per se. I rarely sugar coat things though, so because it may help..or not.. here's my thoughts ..

I have been on the KD/MF fan boards since the very first one..which means I'm old..haha! First on Renzos site, then came Oliver, next Tasos, now here. I have slowly seen fans become irritated due to over moderation ,or censorship and leave. I remember when it was silly, funny, off the cuff humorous things to say, or draw...then people became sensitive. It sucked the fun right out of here.

Sure it's annoying , not to be able to post a simple picture on here without being a computer genius.I bet if you change the picture issue that would be a plus.

More annoying is having your post deleted because someone thought it was off topic, or didn't like your opinion. Why bother coming here, if that is what in store for you as a fan?
I mean thank uncle Set , King Diamond or Mercyful Fate didn't have you as moderators, or censors in the 80's.. I would guess the music would be much, much, more bland.

I remember such legendary posts such as king diamond - boxers or briefs? It was fun!! Where is the fun now???
I mean is it not supposed to be fun? I mean King Diamond is Iike the Freddy Kruger of metal..I mean why not laugh, enjoy it?
I try to not to get personal regarding band members here, they should have their lives away from this. I just want to chill and have a laugh or share my goofy opinions of the performance or the persona..
imo there is only so many hours in a day you can kiss a piece of works ass..or a person's..sure it's great, they are great..got it, now what? Add some humor , get to know people who stop in , and let a person express themselves as they want..

Lastly, remember one thing, it's us fans who buy things goto shows, talk to promoters to have events..I mean do you really want someone getting moderated so badly that they don't come around any more???? Or go out of their way NOT to be a fan???

[TwilightKing]

I remember the boxers or briefs thread.

I'll address images, and it works on every forum I've been on:
Post an external link to the image and it is in your post. There have been topics that explain how to do this. There are plenty of free image hosting sites, and most even supply BB code format for easy copy/paste.

Images DON'T get attached/uploaded to the forum for a lot of reasons. Bandwidth, storage, and the possible legal ramifications. That may change, but it will have to clearly be covered in Terms of Service.

To make it easier, it's going to require different software.

If anyone has an issue with a thread being deleted, PLEASE PM an Admin/Moderator. This forum is actually very loosely moderated. I do think that the "rules" need to be clearly defined, and all members will be bound by them.

Personally, I don't delete posts because of difference of opinion, and don't think I ever have. What does cause deletion is arguing and bitching when warned that the thread is dangerously close to falling off-topic.

If a post is deemed off topic for a certain part of the board, that thread is usually moved to a more appropriate area.

I've been here since 2004, and have seen a lot in 12 years.

And this topic has been a long time in coming, but it is here. It's been on my mind since 2007. Time has not been kind, but I and the other admins do the best we can with the time we have.

We have ALWAYS done our best to cater to the fans (hell, we ARE fans ourselves!), make the forum load faster, get rid of spammers and trouble makers, get the board back up when it crashes, try to code a new site and incorporate new software, make it safe and follow the laws, and then get berated by a fringe minority when things don't go their way. We rarely receive any thanks from the fans for the work we do, and we don't ask for it. We just want an engaging, fun environment for those who love King Diamond and Mercyful Fate.

TK

[Felicia]

Tk ,
Thank you for the fast response. It was not really aimed at any one person, but over the years the shift from fun and light hearted, to this, it's been a little much. And no I won't go to a moderator. I just visually check in sometimes, and don't really say much.
 I did not realize all the stuff it takes to keep this running. Do you front this on your own? If so ... thanks to you.. officially
I just saw the changes, as far as all the other b.s. you have to deal with here , I wouldn't have guessed.
I just say it should be a little lighter. The hard thing with the internet is you can't hear laughter or intonation or facial expressions, so I could see where it could get crazy on a board.
Anyways..take care,
F

[Grace]

Felicia...

Like you, I have been on the different KD boards since forever. Although I agree with you that the "lighter" tone is gone, I disagree about why that is. Back in the very long ago, when the internet was but a wee lad, I ran a website with a message board that had almost 2,000,000 hits in two years. It was a PAIN in the fucking ass to moderate that board, with all the inane shit that went on. You could have a serious discussion, and then, three posts later, some moron posted a scat picture or some child porn from Thailand. Not stuff you wanted on your server, and not stuff you wanted in a forum. Remember, this was back before social media turned every single online maggot into an opinionated fuckwad that needed his voice shared and heard by one and all, so I can't even imagine what the hell these moderators have to wade through to get rid of that we never even see. Google pyramid schemes, trolls and retards are abundant these days. I think the internet changed with social media, especially with the anonymous commentary going wild, and that took the fun out of a lot of these boards, because moderators started working triple shifts to get rid of the dumb shit, and maybe overcompensated a little. People also grew a shorter attention span, and migrated to just "following" facebook updates and twitter accounts, rather than participating in a board dedicated to actually sharing opinions and having discussions - fun OR serious.

Having said that, people need to sack the fuck up and stop being so goddamn offended - both fans, bands and moderators. At the end of the day, it's heavy metal entertainment. Nothing more. Nothing less. Everybody needs to get over themselves.

[Felicia]

Grace...

At the time I posted, it didn't occur to me what you said about the spam, crashing, and inappropriate photos, and I can understand where that would be a massive pain in the ass.

As far as discussion goes, after a long work day rarely do I wish to be too serious. Just my personality. Love being lightedhearted ..silly.. and well even imaginative...but i definitely want to relax.
Most of the people I knew and enjoyed here are long gone. Why? Is it all social media?  Nope it's not.. each one left over time for some issue..

 I am sure some that remain are nice, as I don't know them, but there is only so much on a serious level you can discuss.

As far as heavy metal entertainment..yep it is , but I appreciate the imagination and storytelling aspect as well.
Most of the older post were creative in that way or on the fringe of being off topic, silly , fun and enjoyable.

I also posted what I did, because I made a post a long while back, not inappropriate or offensive, just a post on my opinion , it was deleted.. why??? No reason, just moderator did. Or if I made a small joke, often it was taken as literal.

So that's the root of it right there..and that's why I wrote what I did. (most I have said here in many years actually..)

Well must flap my cape and dart off in the night..
Take care

[The Joker]

I am back just  to answer this because I really want to help:

I have been active here through 5 or 6 years, and the main reason I left is lack of time.
I can't log in at work and I hardly turn my PC on when I am at home.

So the only way to check the CWW is from my cell phone. But I can't read anything on it. The layout doesn't fit, I can't find some buttons and part of the screen is missing.

I don't know if it's possible or if it's viable, but maybe to find a way to have a mobile layout for mobile devices would be a great way to get people more active.
I spent 4 hours everyday on train/subways and I often spend this time on my phone, listening to music, playing games, facebook, etc.

About this, I googled and this site was the first.
http://smf-media.com/

I don't know if this is as easy as they say or if it can be implanted here (it's a theme  ), also it's not free, but looks cheap and I would gladly contribute to buy it.

Anyway, I don't know if anyone else has talked about this before. I didn't read the posts.

I will try to think anything else. I really miss this place.

[bladestone9]

As for the Forum. I would say try and figure out a way it is mobile friendly, as someone mentioned you can't read anything on your phone. As for the band, I would say leave the Master alone and let him and his wife have private time, and the band have time to work on the Abigail DVD and next album. Cool Beans

[KingOfTheRotten]

I simply do not post often anymore because there just isn't any of the new topics that really speaks to me. To me it is all about the topics. The site, for me, works just fine as it is, it just lacks interresting topics. Whenever I sign on, and that can take a week or two - which is much different from back in the day for me where I would be online pretty much constantly, there is maybe 2 or 3 new threads with 3 answers in one, 7 in another and 0 in the last. The problem is not the forum it is within the topics that people post. At least it is that way to me.

Regarding the members: I do really miss back when Mike was a part of the forum, I think we had a lot of great talks with Mike, but I do understand how he would find it somewhat annoying that people keep calling for Denner. As far as I recall it was Denner who wanted Mike to take over his spot in the first place.

I do miss some of the old members on here too, but that is not really a problem.

Remember that I have only been here since 07 so I know absolutely nothing about how the forum was before, but from going back in old threads it did seem more like people were joking - which I find awesome.

I really do preffer this forum over the endless Facebook updates.

[TheUnborn]

I guess facebook really took a lot of the activity from the forum. Not much has happened after this topic was made, which is almost two years ago.