Community Website Proposal (in General)

Hey all you blenders of carnage, For those of you who follow the forums frequently, you'll have heard that I wanted to create a community website. I've spent a lot of the day mockup up this website. Here's the initial plan.

1. It will be powered by WordPress, a generic blogging system. This includes user log-in, categories, and whatever else we'll need.

2. The posts/articles on the website will be strictly monitored by me and other selected individuals to become admins. Each time someone posts, it will be reviewed by an admin before it is publicly displayed.

3. The categories will be such as the following: News, Art, Strategy, and Insider. News for generic stuff, art for themes or whatever, strategy for... strategy, and insiders for interviews and such. Posts in news category will be on newspaper-style posts, art on art-style posts, etc.

4. Registration will also be monitored. For example, only those involved in the forums and have been playing for at least a month may go to an admin to request an account on the website, the username which will reflect their CB username.

5. All registered users may post comments. If one wants to post an article, he/she must get an admin to enable posting.

This is only a rough outline and is undeveloped, so don't bother going into it and discussing it too deeply. However, thinking up a domain name would be nice. I was thinking www.carnageblender.info would be nice, but that's taken... who's it taken by? Which user on CB?

Anyways, here's a half-sized preview of the site. Enjoy!

Why do want to buy a cow? And how do you thing Ranger feels about you drawing pictures of his getting killed by you? :P

Oh goodness no... I forgot I'm not a FB mage anymore! AHHHHHHHHH

What is the point of the website? What does the website offer that isn't already offered by the forums of this website?

And the wiki?

Stephen, why need a wiki on that website when we have one here?

But further a really nice idea !

I just don't really understand what the idea is.

I can think of a few reasons why its a good idea:

1. You could actually combine the site with the cb magazine getting additional stories, write ups, opinions, interviews, clan histories, Q&A's with Jonathon, who are your QB's/Mentor's/personal bio's, etc.

2. Players would have a place to check in if CB is down to see if its network or just to connect with people.

3. A fan site can offer a lot of creative variety from the community beyond just forums or wiki. Forums and wiki are game-centric, for lack of a better word. A fan site would be centered around the community that plays it. A weekly cartoon featuring chars from cb would work better there than in a general forum or off topic, where it just gets buried by people buying and selling wares.

4. It does not detract in any way from the game, I think it enhances the community. So what's wrong with someone applying their time and creativity to make it happen?

Go for it Pixel.

It seems like it would require more work than it is worth. This kind of thing requires the cooperation of the community, as a whole if only 5 people wish to cooperate and give you info then it will get real boring, real fast. for this to work at least on the personal level (interviews, articles about clans, etc.) those people will have to be available to interview. As for your mockup why would anyone want to buy a cow? A farmer perhaps? And is Ranger okay with you drawing pictures of killing him?

Thank you Revelator. You hit the spot.

Also, if this doesn't work, then it won't work. Most of the effort will be on my side to start off anyways.

In the ~1.5 years I have been here I have realized one thing above all:
There are some VERY creative people here.
I think anything that gives the community a place to showcase this, and potentially draw in more like minded people to the game is a welcome thing.
I applaud Pixel Sage (et al) for everything they have done, and are doing, for the game and the community.

By that drawing, Ranger thinks Pixel Sage is a multi of Monty.

Thanks Timberwolf =D

Noooooo I'm no Monty multi! You Ranger. =P

Do you know who Monty is Pixel? you joined after Monty's Reign (of being banned)....lol...

Pixel: I'll back you up Pixel. Go do it man! If you need anything from me just let me know.

Ranger: are you saying that Pixel is a Monty Nolti? Hmm... Going to have to go and have a chat with G_Beee about this one.

Revelator: Good points, I like the part about the QB, Mentor, personal Bios.

@smallpau1: I have an inkling of who Monty is, had something to do with scamming, hence Monty Insurance =D

@DrAcO: Thanks man, we'll see where this all goes. And I think Ranger's just kidding... right? After all, I he lost against me in my cartoon, haha.

lol, yes, major scammer

I think Pixel has accidentally unveiled a plan to assassinate the real Ranger. Notice how the picture shows Pixel fighting Ranger and not TAB. Judging from the artwork I believe that his plan is to consume large quantities Wheaties, "The breakfast of champions", in order to become a world class athlete. From there he enter himself into the Olympics so that he may absorb the powers of the Russian Gymnastic team using a special device. My guess is that the plan for this device comes from the lost pilot episode of MacGyver. If memory serves me right, the machine operated on 4 cotton swabs, a cupcake tray, 2 yards of masking tape, and was powered by a pound of potatoes.

Obviously our only hope to stop all productions of cotton swabs by turning Carnage Blender into a huge international commercial corporation. Eventually we can buy out every cotton manufacturer on the planet and deny the world the cotton swabs which will surely be its own doom.

Ah, so it was the potatoes that provided power! That's the ingredient I was missing...

*hears Ranger knocking on my door... looks out the window to see a man holding a ginormous MH...*

Laa dee daa...

*Puts up a new preview*

I like the idea of this site a lot, CB would really benefit from a fan site that will be well run/updated regularly.
This would complete the package :)

on a side note:
would trades be allowed on the site?
It would change the balance Jon has made by charging for posts as that keeps the auctions livelier and is a minor cash sink for posting USD deals etc.

In regards to trades negotiated on foreign sites, there is nothing Jon or anyone can do to stop them. However, be advised that admins are only willing to enforce deals made here on the CB forums.

At least here we know that the average player is incapable of changing or deleting their posts and, therefore, incapable of modifying or removing the proof of an arranged deal. Even if you could advertise and make deals on another site, I wouldn't advise it.

I've already thought about this, and no, trades will not be allowed on the site.

I am thinking of making a forum that will only be active whenever the actual CB website is down, and the forum can be activated by one of the admins.

Any thoughts on a domain name? What's up with the person who used carnageblender.info?

Some domain names fer ya.

www.livingtheCBlife.com

www.beingblended.com

www.alittlecarnage.com

www.carnageagenda.com

www.friendsofcb.com

www.playersofcb.com

www.CB-addict.com

www.somethingaboutCB.com

www.Jonocracy.com

www.gotcarnage.com

Enjoy :)

How about helping the Eritrean economy and registering www.carnageblend.er?

Haha, those are all awesome ideas above. What I think I'll do is gather up a bunch of names and let people vote on them or something. We'll see, its probably the last thing to be worked on anyways.

www.Jonocracy.com

That one made me laugh out loud.

Okay, so I've got this running... sort of. For now, it is mainly Safari compatible, though it will be fixed so it runs on all browsers (yes, even evil IE). Anyways, I mainly have the front page working.

There will be four main categories. Feel free to suggest more.

News: For latest updates, such as changelogs (with writer's opinion), news of scamming/multi (anything serious, not just random multis), etc.

Art: Mainly for themes, and possibly cartoons for those who are willing to make some good ones.

Strategy: Not only for overall strategies, but the writer may post strategies concerning specific items (tattoos, supporter items, etc). Strategy may also include things related to clans, forging, etc.

Insider (not yet implemented): For interviews and "inside" information... whatever.

I knew I forgot something... the link.

http://cb.pixelsage.com/

Again, its mainly Safari compatible for now.

w00t! The website is now cross-browser compatible. Should look fine for mac on Safari and Firefox, for PC on Firefox and even IE. No other browser have yet been tested, though if you guys use any others and find some bugs, let me know.

New Insider category added. I think I'll add a navigation bar to the top. Register link is not yet functional.

Now... to start thinking about getting people for admin and authors... maybe I'll talk to Tyra for being an Art author... think he might like that.

cb.pixelsage.com

looks good!

Yea, i like that :-)

Great Work again Pix ;-)

Not bad I was wrong about your site. With the support you are getting I believe you will be successful. I wish you the best of luck.

looks pretty cool, though I can't register :p

lol looking nice pixel..saw my name there as a bonus! lol

I tried to register also

Pixel your register button is a dead link.

I guess he knows that, since it is only a scetch to show You how things would look like.

btw: I would propose : cb.forum.com
as an address...

New Insider category added. I think I'll add a navigation bar to the top. Register link is not yet functional.

At least I can read Shade ;)

Lol, thanks Zoglog for quoting me. Register link is not yet available.

Here's what I'm thinking for registration. If you fulfill the requirements listed below, you can click the link, which will bring you to a thread on the official CB site to sign up. Once we (admins) see the post, we will create an account for you with your CB username and will email you a password.

Requirements (allowed to comment):
1. You must have been playing CB for at least 2 weeks.
2. You must not be currently under investigation for being a multi.

For authors (allowed to write):
1. You must have an article ready and polished for public viewing in one of the four categories.
2. You must have been playing CB for at least 3 weeks.

Requirements for admin (admins will be nominated sometime. You can not request to be an admin. Allowed to rule over all of... I mean moderate posts/comments/approve accounts, etc.):
1. You must have been playing CB for at least 4 weeks.
2. You must have a clean record (not being a multi, obviously).
3. You must have good ethics and if you make a mistake you fix it and apologize for it, like my good friend Shade ;).

Any other requirements/changes will be considered if suggested. Why is signing up required for commenting? So we don't have to deal with comment spam.