As it is, the Showcase board is filled with half-finished, free subdomain, Afresh, ad-filled general discussion boards run by twelve year olds. Trying to sift through all this crap while looking for some nice forums to join is getting harder and harder.
Should we add a subforum to Showcase for forums that don't have a real domain name, and have less than 15 threads?
I don't mean to bash people that fall into the above criteria, but I can't take anyone seriously who tries to be the next big thing while running on "000webhost" (which is a total scam, by the way), and doesn't even buy a domain name. Hell, I've seen boards which still have the theme's placeholder as a logo.
Just rambling here, but there are way too many "talkaboutanything.co.cc isn't finished yet and I have literally zero posts, custom theme soon! Check it out!" threads and they're burying the boards which actually have a chance for success.
Suggestions?
No.
I think people that spam and troll in threads when completely unnecessary should be banned from MyBB, but I don't see that happening. They are following the guidelines - if you don't want to join, then don't.
I am totally with you on everything you said CAwesome, but I don't think it's necessary to add a category for those types of forums.
The criteria you suggest is to vague, whats a real domain name? Is a .tk a real domain name? Because you can buy those (there was an argument about that the other day). Is a premium .co.cc a real domain name? How about a .info, or a .asn.au?
If anything I don't think this would achieve much other than giving us more threads to move because I doubt many people would listen to these rules, I also don't think it would help achieve the purpose of showcase any better, the purpose of showcase is for people to receive feedback and promote their site. Everyone would just ignore the forums in that subforum so people here would get neither of those things (most importantly the feedback).
I agree about not making a subforum, but what I do find annoying is the ammount of forums posted that have maybe 3 or 4 posts in them. I mean, the OP goes on explaining all about what the forum is intended for and all that, then when we click on the link there's just four posts, and those posts are invariably just rules to individual forums.
In other words, someone is showcasing a forum that has absolutely no content whatsoever, and half the time the theme is the original theme or one taken from here at MyBB. Perhaps a ruling of some sort can be implemented where there has to be some sort of ammount of posts in the forums being showcased, before they can be showcased here.....Or something like that?
By doing this you defeat the purpose of a showcase forum, but if theres a subforum for .co.cc domains not only does this suggest that .co.cc domains are "below" us but less people will visit that subforum because people are narrow minded about these types of domains, the point of a showcase forum is to showcase your work and attract people to what your working at.
If somebody's site only has a few posts thats there problem, that just means they will have to bare the brute of others negative replies.
(2010-03-03, 10:40 PM)TimB. Wrote: [ -> ]Is a premium .co.cc a real domain name?
Anyone who actually pays for a "premium" co.cc is probably too dumb to find the "New Thread" button anyway, so that problem sorts itself out.
I disagree, when I started FireForums I had it on a co.cc and that wasn't a "noob" forum sold it for a good amount
. Most forums I start for the fun or have no real income have a co.cc until the community it self donates enough for it's own domain.
I rather would like to see a minimum post count required to post in the Showcase forum because most of the terrible forums that are posted are by new people that have around 10-30 posts. Maybe make it 50-100?
I would agree with a post/member minimum. However I wouldn't base it on the domain name. And, I'm sure there are good number of people who bough .co.cc domains because they started a decent sized community when they got it for free.