Does The World Need Another QB Forum?
QB Express Issue #1
Written By Pete
I think it's a testament to the amazing advances in message forum design these days that an entire site can now be based out of an Invision or phpBB forum. In fact, forum-based-sites, with all content submitted by users, have become quite popular in recent years, perhaps because they're self-moderating and so easy to set up. Many QB sites have taken up this format; QuickBasic community sites like QBasic News and QBasic.tk are run almost entirely from message boards, and QB45.com has been replaced with a board while it undergoes a massive reconstruction project. Instead of relying on a webmaster to stay current, these sites are autonomous collectives or anarcho-syndicalist communes (I've always wanted to use those terms) -- they're run by the users, for the users. It's proven to be a very successful format.
But for some reason when somebody decides to start a new QB forum, nobody's happy. On July 25th, a chap named Semerkoala announced the opening of his new forum-based site, and that he was looking for members. Semerkoala QB is an Invision Power Board hosted by MyFreeBulletinBoard.Com. It's divided into sections for members to post tutorials, program downloads, questions and answers, QB news, and more, though not much has really been posted yet. As far as content goes, it has a handful of downloads and tutorials that are widely available throughout the QB Community...and a little bit of news and information. That's about it.
It comes as no surprise that Semerkoala was instantly lambasted by the QB Community for having the audacity to start another QB forum. Their responses were hostile: on the QBasic News board, Barok posted "we have enough qb forums! This one is good enough. I refuse to even look at it." Dark_prevail seconded Barok's opinion: "I think we should have a sticky topic entitled NO NEW QB FORUMS!" Others said that there weren't enough people in the QB community to populate all of the message boards out there. Everyone was picking on Semerkoala -- angry because, as Fling-master put it, "too many people starting too many forums with too few unique features."
Seeing this mercilous flaming, I knew I had to step in and defend Semerkoala. After all, I am in the school of thought that *any* development in the QB community is a *good* development. The number of new sites and games released is declining at astronomical rates, and the only way to ensure that the QB community continues to attract new members is by offering something fresh. That's why I redid my website, and made this magazine. I also have created the largest QB links section on the Internet in order to help QBers share information and learn. The way I see it, anyone that takes the time to make a QB site, no matter how small or pathetic, deserves a link.
I posted the following message on the QBasic News forum:
I support anyone who decides to make their own QB site / forum / etc.... we need growth in the QB community, innovation, new blood. I'm glad that Semerkoala's trying his hand at creating a new site, even if it is based on a forum. If he works on it diligently for long enough, it will undoubtedly become something great.Now I'd like to point out something about Semerkoala's forum that you might not have noticed if you didn't look closely: it's not just an empty forum meant for discussion. Semerkoala's using it more as an automatic content-management script, instead of creating a site based on HTML pages. Each "item" that he adds to his site is its own post, whether it's a tutorial, a program, a link, etc. This strategy also opens up the site to some unique possibilities, like automatic user commenting, searching, and sorting items based on various criteria. This format has proven successful at other QB sites like QBasic.tk (which is a great site, I may add).
Now I have to agree with you all that right now, Semerkoala's site has nothing original to offer, and is hardly in need of a forum. But I don't think of this so much as a discussion forum, but as a standard QB site that's based on a forum.
Tek of NeoZones posted this on the last version of NeoZones before it disappeared:
"Back in the day, a good recipe for [a QBasic site] was rather simple. A laundry list of downloadable files, links, tutorials, questions and answers, the infamous discussion forum, and some other goodies. Stir a user system in to the mix, sprinkle with the ever pervasive link to the top-sites list, and decorate with a couple webrings. You've got yourself a formula for success. And don't forget about your RPG that's in the works, either."If you look at Semerkoala's site, it's following the "laundry list" recipe for a QB site...it's just based entirely on a forum. So cut him some slack.
All beginning QB sites start with almost no visitors... for the first month of Pete's QBasic Site, I think I got less than 100 hits. Pigeon's GBGames site took a few months of daily updates to pass 200 hits (I was checking the site out on Archive.org the other day). But it was regular updates and devotion that made my site and GBGames thrive. The same is true for V Planet!, which took a long time with regular updates before it became popular.
Think of this site as a standard HTML site, and think of Semerkoala as the webmaster rather than the admin. If he keeps working on his site and adds content regularly, (expecially UNIQUE content), it can become a worthwhile site and a valuable resource. Who knows, Semerkoala QB could evolve into the next Qbasic.tk.
After that, people stopped their assualt of Semerkoala...and his site was pretty much forgotten. Semerkoala sent me a message thanking me for the defense:
Hey Pete,I just want to thank you for your posts here and on QBasic News. I really appreciate all you are doing for me, I hope that I can pull something together and get this thing going. I would do a website but due to lack of funds it would probably have to be on Geocities or something of that sort. Anywho thanks again.
~Semerkoala~
It seemed like I was the only one to look through the who truly understood what Semerkoala was trying to do with his website. But I gave him some parting advice:
No problem. I know what it's like starting a new site, and you at least deserve the benefit of the doubt.Keep working on your site and maybe some day it will be great!
I do have some advice for you though: you need to find a niche. Or at least start doing something unique that all the other sites aren't doing. Right now, as I said, you're following the "laundry list" formula that Tek mentioned on NeoZones a while back. (I quoted him in my QBasic News post.) If you didn't know, the term "laundry list" is negative; it means you're following a tried and true formula and not doing anything new or innovative. If you want to get hits, don't just serve as a mirror of the content you can find everywhere else. You've got to create something new and interesting that will attract visitors.
My QBasic site was not popular at all until I started doing in-depth QB game reviews. I was the first person to ever do in-depth reviews of QB programs, and it attracted visits. That format was so successful that many other sites kind of copied or improved upon it...V Planet! and GBGames to name a few. I also started reporting news from around the QB community, which influenced some other sites to do the same. Then I branched out and created things like QB Comics and the QB Dance. Those are things that you won't find on any other site. Those were my innovations, and they helped my site thrive. Before that, Pete's QB Site fit perfectly into the "laundry list" formula...and wasn't very successful.
Think of something new and unique for your site....then keep on doing it. People will notice.
-Pete
Now a month has passed since Semerkoala started his site. I was interested to see what kind of progress he had made since I gave him those parting words of advice, and then I took a look and saw: NOT MUCH. Since those first few days in late July, almost nothing has been added to the site. In a little less than a month, Semerkoala QB has become a ghost town.
I had really high hopes for this site, and really wanted it to succeed. (It still might, but the lack of updates is a pretty strong indication that this was a flash-in-the-pan site that will just fade into even further obscurity.) I want all QB sites, projects and message forums to succeed. But they take time and dedication, and unless a webmaster or programmer can offer that undying dedication, their sites will die away.
Looking back at the QB forums debate from last month, I can now see why everyone was upset that ANOTHER QB forum had been created. A small, struggling QB forum just spreads the QB community out, and keeps groups of people from talking to each other. It takes too much time for everyone to check two dozen forums to find out about the latest happenings in the QB world; they'd just rather stick to one or two. That's understandable. I now see the flawed logic of Semerkoala QB looking for members. What it needed were visitors and submissions. When a site has interesting content, it will get visitors, and then a message board community can blossom. Only in very rare circumstances can it happen the other way around.
I tried to explain to Semerkoala that he needed to add content to get members to join his *forum*, and I tried to explain to the people at QBasic News that Semerkoala was just building his *site* through a forum, not trying to start a new community. It seems like I was only half right, any way you look at it.
No matter what, though, I'm glad to see anything new in the QB community. QB is going to die if people don't start creating new sites and programs. I welcome anything new, no matter how crappy it is.
Now quit reading this and go create something!
Semerkoala QB can be found here: http://semerkoalaqb.ne1.net/
