Using internet to boost CB popularity (in General)

Ok, we have all seen those social networking sites out there. And if any of you is familiar with them you'll notice how fickle they are about things. I've seen a number of websites boosted in popularity from nothing more then the "crowd" effect, everyone just clicking on it because they see a bunch of other people clicking on it.

So, why don't we all band together, make accounts and take advantage of these sites to boost CB's popularity. There is only one catch to all of this. The other IMPORTANT thing here is that we can't use our "affiliate" codes on these social networking sites otherwise we will be marked as "spam". Also whenever people see the affiliate code, they are immediately turned off. So let this be a community effort to raise CB up, not an individual effort. There are a number of sites that would be primary targets for this community CB booster campaign.

I would rather someone smarter then me with more suave english skills made the inital links+summary on these sites. I would rather someone smarter then me make the initial linkage with summary because it is a very important part of what makes a link become popular or not. Do not try to put your affiliate code on one of these sites, you will most likely not help CB and it will be marked as spam.

Here are some of the sites we should target:

http://www.digg.com/
http://www.reddit.com/
http://del.icio.us/
http://simpy.com/
http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/
http://www.netscape.com/
http://www.blinklist.com/
http://wink.com/
http://www.furl.net/
http://ma.gnolia.com/
http://looklater.com/
http://www.linkroll.com/
http://www.blogmemes.net/
http://www.markaboo.com/
http://feedmelinks.com/portal
http://www.shadows.com/
http://www.backflip.com/

Since I'm not a admin I can't change this post, but I would appreciate it if admins could update this post with the actual direct links to these sites that would boost CB.

Anyone who uses the word "suave" in that fashion is more then adequate to advertise for us lol.

choice idea...I've got my clicking finger ready...

How about we as a community decide what to have, since this is a community effort.

We could start with a chat based brainstorming....

I'm not entirely sure what to use as the summary though. I would rather Jonathan do it since he came up with the "meet new people, and kill them" thing which I found particularly effective in drawing people in.

Make a contest for it. Have people submit what they think should be the summary of CB. And as a prize, you could put their summary on the front page... or just give them money lol.

Good idea, someone (an admin maybe) could also reward people with 1k-5k a piece for making an account and boosting CB's popularity on one of these sites.

A contest to figure this out is a very good idea Bane, lets do it.

I had a good idea, score! But you started this ideas so go you Verifex! lol I see why you QB now (not that I didn't before of course, *cough, Cough*

"I would rather Jonathan do it since he came up with the meet new people, and kill them"

that was actually Randy, years ago.

I delegate contest-running to Verifex. If we get enough good entries we can do a poll. CB will provide a prize of $1M.

Part of bringing in more people is allowing them to put themselves into the game more, hence a more defined and prevalent user profile. Social networking is in fact an important part of making successful websites, so why don't we gear up CB into one? Of course, we don't want to make CB another myspace or facebook, but something along those lines may make people feel more "into" the game and interact. And stay.

Anyways, if you guys want any type of graphics, whether it be header graphics or sig graphics to help you out on this, let me know. Just give me the info I need to make them (size, info, etc)

Having a profile that people can look at "besides just the regular characters and minions" would be cool. Much more then that wouldn't be necessary though. An image on each profile is already in place though, which is good.

Wouldn't that be funny if we had a voting mechanism on the forums? LOL

Agreed. I think the main problem is that the current profile doesn't really even seem like a profile. Its just a user informational page, like recent transfers, name changes, etc.

I am totally for that one, Pixel.

so what would a "user page, pixel-style" look like? I remember a thread about this before; did anyone make a mock-up?

I'm all for a new, enhanced user profile page with more "personal" info. I mean, on the settings page, there a field to type in "Bio" info, but unless I'm crazy, it doesn't even appear on the profile page. Let's at least add the Bio info to the profile pages.

Another idea that has been brought up is that of a clan info field, which the clan leader can type up, and which is visible to whoever looks at the clan page. Maybe another text area too, visible only to clan members.

I don't like the idea of graphics - part of the attraction of CB for me is the fact that there are no graphics. The thing I like least about CB is old Swirley on the login page. Personally, I think it does more harm than good. It has nothing to do with the game, would turn off people who don't like cartoon-ish things, and just generally give a false impression of the game.

Pixel, if you want to do graphics, do a replacement for Swirley!

Jon, can you create a DNS for myspace.carnageblender.com? ;)

But Jonathan likes Mr. Swirly! He told me so himself!

;)

If you want a well-drawn (though handdrawn) figure for the main page, I will draw one out and scan it. I'm sure Pixel Sage or one of our other artists can make it look nice from there, but I can make a cool image to start off with and improve on. Let me know if you need it.

Yes, we need it ;)