Gamespot closing Unions; Backup Union link available

BACKUP UNION LINK

The above had been made as a back-up should the new forum prove unsuccessful/unpopular with others. Not to be used as a main board yet, but please sign up just in case - we don't want to lose any of you!

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ORIGINAL POST: Garfield360UK 

So reading an article today on the changes Gamespot will be making when the new site rolls into action, the first point raised on things no longer going to be around is Unions and User Boards.

This sucks quite frankly as I love using this union and another I am a member of.

You can read the article here.

Thoughts?

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EDIT 1: Redders1989

In an update from yesterday, Union leaders will be contacted soon about whether or not they wish their Union to be transferred over to the new website - however it will become a public forum instead (much like UK Discussion, for example). There are some downsides to this, obviously, so to sum up in bullet points:

POSITIVES
- F1PU would remain on GameSpot
- No content would be lost
- Would not have to transfer all data/users to another website
- (Effectively) Officially recognised as THE place to be on GS for Formula One

NEGATIVES
- No Leadership/Officers
- As a result, cannot sticky threads (Navigation to Predictions Championship for example difficult)
- No unique way of identifying ourselves (I believe no banners)
- User profiles for everyone start from scratch again no matter what (we'll all be back to 0 posts)

As the leader, it will be SadPSPAddict who is contacted and thus, has the ultimate decision. I've set up a poll as to decide whether we take up this offer or not.

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EDIT 2: Redders1989

Here, I'll compile a list of people who are already on the Zetaboard (still under construction so forgive as it's still a lil' messy over there):

Redders (Admin)
SadPSPAddict (Admin)
Garfield360UK
KimisApprentice 
OmenUK
Rayrota
sambob530
Tony J. (I presume this is tony205?)

Sadly, this looks like we're going to have to take ourselves to another website if we're to continue the F1PU then. That said, it could also open up the opportunities to do what we wanted to do a long time ago when the idea of Unions V2 was brought up (goodness, when was that again?).

Anyway - does this Union get the activity it did a long time ago? Of course not - I've almost seen it all, I joined here a year after it was set up. I've been part of this Union close to 7 years and I most certainly would not want us to end in this manner - it's through this website I got to meet people like kip, BlaZe, Garfield, TannerRules etc. and to a large extent, this Union (and a few others) are the only reason I visit GameSpot. If I see news about video games, I usually get it through links sent on Twitter or Facebook.

Personally for me, I would like to see the F1PU continue, as I'm sure a lot of other people would too. However, having passed on the leadership badge last year this is no longer my decision to make. It is that of SadPSPAddict's; whom I am sure will make the right call whatever that may be. 

EDIT: Having looked at other unions who are discussing the news, I've been able to come across a site called Zetaboards which actually looks pretty decent. I could look to start building something over there if I get the go-ahead? We've got it as a back-up then if this does go ahead - there's already a thread called "Save Our Unions" that wants to stop the removal of them. Whether that has any effect I don't know (and I doubt), but to have a back-up if/when Unions go would be good, right? 

Sadly, this looks like we're going to have to take ourselves to another website if we're to continue the F1PU then. That said, it could also open up the opportunities to do what we wanted to do a long time ago when the idea of Unions V2 was brought up (goodness, when was that again?).

Anyway - does this Union get the activity it did a long time ago? Of course not - I've almost seen it all, I joined here a year after it was set up. I've been part of this Union close to 7 years and I most certainly would not want us to end in this manner - it's through this website I got to meet people like kip, BlaZe, Garfield, TannerRules etc. and to a large extent, this Union (and a few others) are the only reason I visit GameSpot. If I see news about video games, I usually get it through links sent on Twitter or Facebook.

Personally for me, I would like to see the F1PU continue, as I'm sure a lot of other people would too. However, having passed on the leadership badge last year this is no longer my decision to make. It is that of SadPSPAddict's; whom I am sure will make the right call whatever that may be. 

EDIT: Having looked at other unions who are discussing the news, I've been able to come across a site called Zetaboards which actually looks pretty decent. I could look to start building something over there if I get the go-ahead? We've got it as a back-up then if this does go ahead - there's already a thread called "Save Our Unions" that wants to stop the removal of them. Whether that has any effect I don't know (and I doubt), but to have a back-up if/when Unions go would be good, right? 

Redders1989

Whilst I feel that this is a democracy rather than a dictatorship :lol: I like the idea of "moving the Union" and would be very happy for you to make a start on Zetaboards.

I can't see a mind change this late in the day so having the backup ready sounds like a good plan.

Carry on Mr Redders, carry on :) 

Perhaps we could move to a website of our own? JasonDarksavior

[QUOTE="JasonDarksavior"]Perhaps we could move to a website of our own? Redders1989

Yeah I think this would be a good option if someone knows how to set this up.

I would be interested in continuing the work done here on another web site. This sucks big time though, I have made some friends through this site, such as Redders who I play Formula One with a lot via Xbox Live and thus got friendly with his other F1 friends on Xbox Live. This would have never happened had it not been for this union. I am going to be very sad if we do get to the point where all this discussion is gone forever.

I would suggest we perhaps band together and make sure our voices are heard on the feedback thread regarding unions. It is a sad day that they have neglected unions for so long and are now saying they do not have enough traffic to be viable to continue. I personally check the unions daily that I frequent in and having them removed means I am more likely to continue to just use other web sites that I get news from and don't bother at all with Gamespot given I only use the other pages due to checking the unions out. A lot of old faces have gone from the Gamespot UK board for instance (such as Ant who used to post on here and used to post on the old F1 threads we had on the UK board). Times are a changing I guess, but I do not understand why cutting part of the community away is going to somehow help Gamespot long term. Sad times.

Hello.

It must be said that everything that is done here is largely done on a far larger scale at a number of F1 dedicated forums all over the internet. While it's been fun popping my head in through the door and throwing down some information here and there I've lost much of my interest frequenting here as the place dies over my summer period and it's hard to bring myself back to a quiet piece of the intertubes while I have so many other things going on.

If we turn up elsewhere I may pop my head in through the door from time to time but this wee union is no longer able to sustain itself unfortunately.  

I have completely moved to Eurogamer for all my gaming news (bar videos by GSUK, they're hilarious), the community on GS is, for the large part, horrid. This is the only union I'm a part of, and actually the only forum anywhere on the interwebs. I'm all for moving to another website, the Predictions championship in particular is great, and I'm on a roll this year (at last :P). I know I haven't been the most active member (bit of a double entendre there), mainly due to varying methods of internet access, but now that I have a Google Nexus I can go on the union every time I'm near an internet connection. My lack of Xbox Live Gold has prevented me from taking part in pretty much every game night, and the one F1 2010 one I did was just me and Dabest2500 on PS3 (remember him?). I known this isn't the biggest F1 community forum, but the way I recognise almost everyone on the forum, and know not to mention Vettel around SadPSPAddict make this easily the best forum for me.

TLDR new website would be amazing 

Also Omen's suggestion seems good 

To Garfield's point: sadly GS looks at stats, and for Unions/UCB's, that traffic amounts to a whole 0.25% of all for this site. A quarter of one percent. Also, voices can be banded together, but when over 3,000+ voices in a poll wasn't considered "enough" to begin work on Unions V2, we definitely don't stand a chance now. 

If we do go to another website, which one should it be?Rayrota

Somebody did the maths, this site gets 100 million hits a month, so they worked it out to be 250,000 hits per month on the union side. That is a fairly large amount of users to annoy. I guess nothing will change but I would still implore people to look at that topic and make a reasoned argument for keeping unions (no point saying Gamespot is rubbish or anything like that as it just wont help matters and just makes the cause look weaker).

But if we do have to move, I do think we should try and advertise this in our signatures on this site and also maybe try and get a few more users/unions to make the jump across. Also I feel the rules should be kept as they are now, no trolling or flame talk etc and no swearing etc as it makes it a much friendlier environment than the main boards where a small percentage tend to troll topics and call out other users (and due to the recent Gamespot rule changes that is now allowed).

Still working on putting the basics together currently - busy at the moment but when I've got a basic layout sorted I'll post the link to you guys. There will still be things going up even after you guys are invited in, but I'm sure you'll understand why!

EDIT: As I can split the forum in to sections, I've come up with this basic layout. Is there anything you think I'm missing?

WELCOME GUIDE

F1 NEWS
- NEWS
- GRAND PRIX
- DRIVER LINE UP

GAMES
- UNION GAMES
- VIDEO GAMES

MISC.
- F1 MISC.
- OTHER MOTORSPORT
- OFF-TOPIC

STAFF 

What would the predicitions come under? I would perhaps have a separate section under games for Predictions Championship or something of that nature to allow people to go straight to that if they so wish (as some here do already). Also I would perhaps change it from Driver line up to Team/Driver line up or Team Line up.

Other than those minor things it looks good to me. Let me know if you want any help.

What you could do is:


Welcome Guide:
-Welcome To The Forums
-Introductions

2013 Season:
- News
- Information
-- Current Drivers Championship Standing
-- Current Manufacturers Standing
-- Driver Line-Up
-- Race Calender

F1 Discussion
-- Current Season
-- Race Predictions
-- Driver Discussion
-- Team Discussion

Sports Discussion:
- Motor Sport
- Other Sports

- Games Discussion:
- F1 Games
- Racing Games
- Other Games

Staff:

Maybe I was wrong, Garfield. They ARE listening, after all.

In an update from yesterday, Union leaders will be contacted soon about whether or not they wish their Union to be transferred over to the new website - however it will become a public forum instead (much like UK Discussion, for example). There are some downsides to this, obviously, so to sum up in bullet points:

POSITIVES
- F1PU would remain on GameSpot
- No content would be lost
- Would not have to transfer all data/users to another website
- (Effectively) Officially recognised as THE place to be on GS for Formula One

NEGATIVES
- No Leadership/Officers
- As a result, cannot sticky threads (Navigation to Predictions Championship for example difficult)
- No unique way of identifying ourselves (I believe no banners)
- User profiles for everyone start from scratch again no matter what (we'll all be back to 0 posts)

As the leader, it will be SadPSPAddict who is contacted and thus, has the ultimate decision. I've set up a poll at the top as to decide whether we take up this offer or not.

Personally, I'm undecided as to what we should do. I wouldn't want to move, but at the same time, I would like it if we still had control over the place... 

What you could do is:


Welcome Guide:
-Welcome To The Forums
-Introductions

2013 Season:
- News
- Information
-- Current Drivers Championship Standing
-- Current Manufacturers Standing
-- Driver Line-Up
-- Race Calender

F1 Discussion
-- Current Season
-- Race Predictions
-- Driver Discussion
-- Team Discussion

Sports Discussion:
- Motor Sport
- Other Sports

- Games Discussion:
- F1 Games
- Racing Games
- Other Games

Staff:

OmenUK

If we move, I think we'll use what Omen came up with here. 

Couple of points then:

I like what Omen came up with so I'm all for that.

I think it would be horrible changing to an open forum but as I have said before this is a democracy not a dictatorship so I will see what the poll says! 

I've posted a link to the Zetaboard in the main post (check under "Edit 2" to find it).

Alternatively, for those who'd rather get it from here, it's here. 

I would say could we have the union become a main forum, but maybe one of the leader/officers becomes a mod for that board? I really would feel us becoming a main board would be a huge help as long as we could continue to use our rules and have somebody here in charge of it as a moderator (thus trolling/flaming etc would just be deleted thus keeping it nice as it is now). That way we would have much more exposure and thus many more members potentially.

Moving to a private board works in the sense we have more control over the content, but then we have to do a lot of promoting the board ourselves and if one or two people walk away then active member numbers drop dramatically.

It is that ultimate dilemma, admittedly. Sadly, it appears looking through some of what others have said that it's unlikely any of us will be given a mod position just to run this place. I've gone ahead and asked anyway to see what the response is; I'll let you know when I find out.

EDIT: Their answer is... they don't know :lol: 

Just got the end of a very busy and stressful week as I have been securing a new job, so not really had much time to read the forums.

Initial reaction was one of disappointment that GS would be axing unions. They haven't supported them well over the years, and let them be almost hidden from public view for the last couple of years, so it's hardly surprising that they now make up only a tiny % of total site hits. I would bet the majority of new users from the last couple of years don't even know unions exist unless they happened to click on someone's sig links.

It looks like there has been some feedback to the decision which I need to read and see what they are offering.

- As a result, cannot sticky threads (Navigation to Predictions Championship for example difficult)

Redders1989

I think Kipi will actually be happy about that. He has been a bit upset about all the sticky threads as of late.

I think you mean Alberto1978 :Psambob530

Why do I keep confusing the two?:? 

Maybe I was wrong, Garfield. They ARE listening, after all.

In an update from yesterday, Union leaders will be contacted soon about whether or not they wish their Union to be transferred over to the new website - however it will become a public forum instead (much like UK Discussion, for example). There are some downsides to this, obviously, so to sum up in bullet points:

POSITIVES
- F1PU would remain on GameSpot
- No content would be lost
- Would not have to transfer all data/users to another website
- (Effectively) Officially recognised as THE place to be on GS for Formula One

NEGATIVES
- No Leadership/Officers
- As a result, cannot sticky threads (Navigation to Predictions Championship for example difficult)
- No unique way of identifying ourselves (I believe no banners)
- User profiles for everyone start from scratch again no matter what (we'll all be back to 0 posts)

As the leader, it will be SadPSPAddict who is contacted and thus, has the ultimate decision. I've set up a poll at the top as to decide whether we take up this offer or not.

Personally, I'm undecided as to what we should do. I wouldn't want to move, but at the same time, I would like it if we still had control over the place... 

Redders1989

I'm pretty sure in the GS Terms and Conditions it says you can't post bad language, explicit content or advertisements. If that's the case we could just report trolls to GS and hope they are filtered out.sambob530

Because they do such a good job of that at the moment?? Not!

Trying to run the predictions comp would become difficult at best if only a couple of trolls found the board and started posting. I strongly urge everyone to think this through properly and give Zetaboards some more consideration!! 

Why not have both? We should see how the GS move works out and also have a backup in the Zetaboards (which I do not know how to get into, when I loaded the link it said accessed denied and that was as far as I could get).

We really need to consider how effective Zetaboards will be for us, how are we going to get new members? What happens if Redders and Avenger walk away as they run the predicitions championship and this board so if they go who does it then as we will have a drastically smaller userbase.

Yes, with the Gamespot board we will have less control, but, we could see if one of us can become a moderator or get some moderators to help us out with sticky topics (sure they probably wont respond straight away but a day or two wait is not the end of the world to sticky the predictions thread if we do them two weeks in advance of each race). It also means we would have more people on board, imagine having 20-30 regular people predicting in races? I feel the Gamespot way is problematic in lack of control, but we gain a much larger userbase potential and if we get a few trolls we just ignore them, just like how we could get trolls on the Zetaboard, banning a person doesn't mean they wont come back under a new username.

Just my two cents.

Because they do such a good job of that at the moment?? Not!SadPSPAddict

That would imply they ever did a good job. 

I strongly urge everyone to think this through properly and give Zetaboards some more consideration!SadPSPAddict

I would immediately sign up if there's any activity.

[QUOTE="sambob530"]I'm pretty sure in the GS Terms and Conditions it says you can't post bad language, explicit content or advertisements. If that's the case we could just report trolls to GS and hope they are filtered out.SadPSPAddict

Because they do such a good job of that at the moment?? Not!

Fair enough :P 

Anyone who has signed up, can you help Garfield? (KimisApprentice, SadPSPAddict, OmenUK) - not sure what issue he's having there.

Also - just to check something, can anyone who has signed up to the Zetaboard already post something on there for me? Cheers. 

Anyone who has signed up, can you help Garfield? (KimisApprentice, SadPSPAddict, OmenUK) - not sure what issue he's having there.

Also - just to check something, can anyone who has signed up to the Zetaboard already post something on there for me? Cheers. 

Redders1989

I have posted a couple of new threads Redders!

Garfield - all I did was click the link Redders left in an earlier post and then clicked "Register" in the top left hand corner! Couldn't post straight away but can now (not sure if Redders had to "approve" me??) 

I have posted a couple of new threads Redders!SadPSPAddict

Garfield - all I did was click the link Redders left in an earlier post and then clicked "Register" in the top left hand corner! Couldn't post straight away but can now (not sure if Redders had to "approve" me??)SadPSPAddict

Should we put a link to the forums in our sigs?

EDIT: I can't start a topic.

You do not have permission to start a topic in this forum.

Error Code: 13002:6067556 

kind of:

The F1 Passion Union Evolved...

 

http://w11.zetaboards.com/Formula_1_Passion/index/

The image I found online so we'd need to replace that but there to give an idea of how the sig would look 

kind of:

The F1 Passion Union Evolved...

 

http://w11.zetaboards.com/Formula_1_Passion/index/OmenUK

 

The image I found online so we'd need to replace that but there to give an idea of how the sig would look 

UPDATE ON ZETABOARDS:

Having finally figured out how to swap users to different groups, SadPSPAddict is an Admin alongside myself and KimisApprentice is a Global Moderator (effectively the orange badge). We now have 8 people on the forum, so will begin to try and push a bit harder for more to sign up (just in case!).

SadPSPAddict, you now can also accept requests in to the forums. I'll PM you later with details on how to. 

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P.S. If anyone is any good with themes for Zetaboards, it'd look nice if we could have something more F1-esque rather than the default blue and orange we have currently. 

UPDATE ON ZETABOARDS:

Having finally figured out how to swap users to different groups, SadPSPAddict is an Admin alongside myself and KimisApprentice is a Global Moderator (effectively the orange badge). We now have 8 people on the forum, so will begin to try and push a bit harder for more to sign up (just in case!).

SadPSPAddict, you now can also accept requests in to the forums. I'll PM you later with details on how to. 

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P.S. If anyone is any good with themes for Zetaboards, it'd look nice if we could have something more F1-esque rather than the default blue and orange we have currently. 

Redders1989

That's all great - thanks Redders for your efforts!