The Suggestions Thread

Oh and before I forget, I don't know if you got a logo picked out or if you're going to remain with this one...

But what about a huge popcorn box with movie forums on it or if youre going with "MoFo" and have it in bright rich colors like a white box with red stripes going down in the background of the label on it, and the popcorn bright yellow or so.


Derrick

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Movies Are Life. Live Alittle.

Hi Chris,
This is pretty dumb, maybe, but my browzer won't show what page of the thread I'm on. (Is is just me?) Would it be too much trouble to boldface the number of the page you're on? Because sometimes it's a while before I can come back in and I don't always know where I was last. (That happens in the real world, too, of course!)

Love you & (almost) all of the lovers of movieforum,

Jozie

Yeah, the next version will have a much easier page navigation scheme, with First/Last and Previous/Next links.

A question I figured I would pose to all of you: what mistakes have other movie sites made that we can learn from? Here are a few of the movie sites who's success (not necessarily their layout or content...just activity/success) I admire:

• http://www.aintitcool.com
• http://www.joblo.com
• http://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com
• http://www.movieheadlines.net
• http://www.imdb.com

So, what do you guys think? What things do those sites have going for them, and in what ways have they made mistakes?

Dear Chris, I got my cousin Char, who is an ad biggie, to come look at the movie headlines forum with me so she could maybe tell you something better than what I had to say. We never looked at the other ones because she said they had stupid names and deserved to die slowly -- some because they were not anything she would want to look at and the others because if they were too stupid to put the product's name in the headline they would die anyway.
I thought the headlines stuff was boring. It took too long to get to the real stuff and all those ads were horrible! Who needs them!
I like you better as you are!
Love to all,
Jozie.

P.S. Char is writing the next one, but she is just using her own name and my login. Hope that's ok

Dear Chris,
At Jozie's request, I spent about 45 minutes at your competitive site, and I agree with her that I much prefer yours. They have some jazzy graphics, but the ads (which I presume help to pay for the jazz) are far too intrusive and are extremely hard to lose.
Additionally, I consider the "headlines" site to be far too structured, and perhaps because of that imposed structure, the forum comments there seemed very shallow, compared to the ones on your site. True, many of the entries here are very childish, but there is also a lot of solid commentary. Your contributors have something to say, and ultimately the purpose of a forum is to give the real fans (as opposed to those who merely want chat-room silliness) a spacious arena in which to share their thoughts. That arena and that sharing should build you a solid repeat universe of contributors.
Now of course I don't know what your goals are for your site, and I have no idea of your comparative reader/writer bases, but my suggestion, supposing you care to hear it, is not to deviate too much from your present format. If you plan to accept ads, keep a handle on them, and be cautious about dictating the thread topics. A free form structure is harder to manage, but ultimately more satisfying for the user.
And good luck. This looks like an entertaining site and I hope you succeed with it. (Whatever that means!)

Charlotte Morgan
(Jozie's cousin)

Just don't got for pop up ads because for all I care the people who make those can die and rot in hell. I find them very annoying!

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Horror's Not Dead
Latest Movie Review(s): Too lazy to keep this up to date. New reviews every week.

What about some more kinds of smiles in the smiles legend?

Yeah, I think this will happen, too, along with the upgrade. Peter: I'll do my best to keep away from them! The only time I can see myself resorting to them would be when I have no other option, other than shutting the site down. Hopefully it will never come to that.

Thanks to both Jozie and Charlotte for your advice. In case Charlotte is interested, my plans include basic content. MovieForums offers a place to vent and discuss movies and the happenings related to them, so I figured it makes sense to offer news of the happenings here "officially", so that people do not have to leave the site to hear about new things. Keep it all in one place, so to speak.

Not only that, but, if I offer more, I'll likely attract new people, and every person who at least visits the site, is a person who may potentially post here, which will increase the diversity of opinions here -- so I figure it's the way to go.

Hey I think I wuz just insulted by someones auntie! lolll.
Childish? me? She must be imaginin things.

StudlyBoy

Ps. yes, we need more smileys. Hundreds more!!!!

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God save Freddie Mercury!

Sorry, I missed this post earlier. Actually, the logo is already set (practically in stone really). Rest assured, however, that a box of popcorn will be present in the layout, though not necessarily in the logo. It's a pretty cool looking box, too. Man, I'm getting excited about the new site all over again.

I'm kinda interested.....when is the new layout going to be released?

There's no date set right now -- mostly because it's more than a layout. If the layout were the only thing, it'd probalby be up by the end of the month, if not sooner. The layout isn't finished yet either, but MOST of it is finished. The bulk of the work that has yet to be done is programming work, to add more content/areas/functionality to the site.

All in all I'd like to have this thing done in a couple months. I think that's a reasonable goal. I'll shoot to get it done before the Harry Potter movie comes out.

sounds cool to me

When's the new site gonna be ready for launch?? Have a set date yet?

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"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, "I hear music", as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work." - Mitch Hedberg

*Slaps head* DO'H!!!!

So TWT, are you looking for any reviewers? :::looks hopeful:::

The new site sounds dope. I'm ready to check it out...logos of a popcorn box!!! News!!! More posters!!! I'm going crazy!!!

On Joblo, I wish he didn't run his site like a fascist regime. OK, I'm joking. I really think all those sites you listed are good, if rather boring visually. I like the bitch slap though, word up. Harry Knowles reviews are fun as well, but his search engine for them is all messed up.

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**** the Lakers!

Steve: yup. Once the site is looking nearly ready, I'll probably start contacting a few of you here and there about writing a few reviews -- assuming you're all decent writers. I'll be looking to gather a bunch of varying tastes together.

JoBlo is okay -- but he runs a stupid piece of crap forum program, the UBB -- vBulletin is superior in nearly every way. The layout bugs me, too. I can't say I'm all that fond of those weird cartoon faces.

HollywoodBitchslap, to be frank, p*sses me off. I posted on their forum asking them if they'd considered switching to a better, more advanced forum script -- and they were completely rude in response. They REFUSED to give any reason -- and still have not. It was akin to "Because I'm your mother, that's why." I also believe, at one point, that one of the co-owners (or guys involved there, or whatever) said the words "I don't care what my visitors want."

That was disturbing. Harry's site is cool, too, though I am totally baffled as to why these sites go on with such dull/ugly layouts, despite the fact that they're so huge.

Ooh, TWT, that sounds awesome. I would like to greenlight as a film reviewer. That would be extraordinary fun. Let us know when it's all up and running.

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