[Important] PakGamers Restructure

[manigamer]

Many people might not like me saying this, but to truly appear on the world map PG needs to get rid of any software piracy related discussion and should encourage it's user base to go ahead and purchase legit products. Hardware modding, home brew and other such discussions for sake of knowledge and learning are okay.

we don't allow any kind of piracy links etc here... discussion may happen here and there but no links external or otherwise allowed

 

[Yasir Nadeem]

If you do revamp the forums do make this skin available for people who want to stick with this instead of new one. Second I think the material design (Keep the colors orange and black) would go well with the PG Mobile, the current pg mobile looks horrendous.

About the forums (desktop ver.) i think the colors (black and orange) look great we just need to change some things here and there (i might post an example, not promising anything though ). There should be a sub section for in-game items trading in market place as someone mentioned and of course a good useable app of shoutbox for ios and android for us shoutbox hobos (sm1) (i know ammar tried making one without asking for donations but we need something better for both ios and android)

edit: Needs some new emoticons too. A separate sub-section for all the esports thing csgo, overwatch etc.

PS: If PG needs help with something else i am here to help

 

[Jshak]

A few sugguestions.
1. Forum looks should be flat with good contrast. Some posted an image. This seems better for a various reasons, I can only sugguest. Cause we have this layout from the last 4+ years. Need a slight change.

2. Mobile users use tapatalk, so there are some restrictions of viewing some threads which cannot be found. Need a fix on those. Will share which ones are missing.

3. Add the activity bar level to maintain attendance level.

4. Side news updates/feeds should be showing any pane side. A news ticker sort of thing.

5. We need to bring the spolight back in gaming discussions.







Sent from my SM-N920I using Tapatalk

 

[Jshak]

Many people might not like me saying this, but to truly appear on the world map PG needs to get rid of any software piracy related discussion and should encourage it's user base to go ahead and purchase legit products. Hardware modding, home brew and other such discussions for sake of knowledge and learning are okay.

I hardly remember in 3+ years that no one posted any links to promote piracy. Discussions of games that are linked to next gen consoles were are being sold legit.

Sent from my SM-N920I using Tapatalk

 

[syedfarazahmed]

Thanks for tagging me in the post.

I used to be mostly active in shout box but now we have some problems with it that it doesn't shows active users and it is always on 0 pg should get it fixed it asap.

I like the theme because i like the things i am used to but it can be upgraded, i would like some sharper colors, more contrast added to it.

Also i think enabling post count in Chit Chat section might attract more people to be active there.

 

[Taha Ahmed]

If it is at all possible, there should be a proper filter option available for the market place. If i want to buy a PS4 game I should be able to filter out the threads instead of going though all the recent threads and reading names and /or using the not so great search feature.

Not saying it should be mega complex like specific games and accessories, but simple option given to the thread creator such as:
- PS4 Games
- Console
- Xbox Games
- Headphones
- Graphic Card, etc.

should make filtering possible and the searching for the available options much easier. I should be able to filter out threads for the broad category of the item i'm searching for.

 

[Lord AvaLon]

Tagging everyone with more than 1000 posts. You guys make up PG and we want to hear from you! Pour in with your advice asap!!

Spoiler: show

@JChang, @Usman, @Atif, @Stuge, @HOTSHOT, @superlative56, @Rapchik Killer, @TheGoldenTouch, @dejavu87, @Flame1132, @Crow, @fady, @WAQAx, @gamermind, @A.Rafay, @DSM1, @venom, @mystirfan, @Static, @na33m, @Pcsx2006, @SpEeDyZ, @syedshahzad786, @Blooby, @haroonshaikh, @Adnan959, @UmarIrshad, @Roark, @LeGenD123, @Afnan Mir, @shad0w, @lordszone, @ahmadka, @gttx, @coolsaad141, @08lly, @predator, @DarkSlayer, @noman3000, @fawad, @TheBrokenMan, @tamd, @Gameover, @Ateq, @susman, @babloo, @ubuntu83, @Ryuji, @MegamanEXE, @SolitarySoldier, @Deadly Shadow, @taq12345, @FARSANG, @fezan, @The Punisher, @Moatsim, @vyrus, @Moiez89, @bobama, @devildante99, @Jigger, @faizy, @asfandyar, @m0ssEs, @DietyDevil, @djkido316, @Faddi, @eViLrAcEr, @fajoo24, @mafiadog, @grimr3aper, @Spiderman3000, @Baber Kamal, @Ahmed11121, @Pseudonym, @SiniSt3r, @Messy, @Edifier, @vader, @TheLivingFlesh @XecutionerX, @zash, @shujaswati, @warriors, @reaper, @Sarmad, @DEXT3R, @deltree, @Beelzebub, @incredibulous, @idevil, @ali tayyab, @STREET KING, @Sani, @KaShI, @Black Basara, @shahbakht, @hammad800, @old bigboss, @azharkhan, @AlienX, @Frakistan, @alamode, @thugangel123, @CoLd FuSiOn, @Hamza Resisted, @crysis2, @mostwanted, @striker101, @hotgamerft, @Imran Ahmed, @Krotos, @genious, @Ali Man, @irontriggor, @LordIT, @gameon, @Geralt of Rivia, @furball, @sweetstyle, @iameXtreme, @baqai, @Soulhunter, @Solid Link, @YanZZah, @JANARIOO, @have0, @Thinker, @CobraN, @Rafay321, @skullbox, @Master Mind, @Rognarke, @kingsface, @digitalism, @mental, @Jadefox, @hariskhan999, @Zasha, @smaaz, @ammarzubair, @JANASHEEN, @Amarog, @talalthegreat, @ModMonsta, @Leon, @amirparvez, @someone, @wmughal, @Dark Slayer, @fareedusmani, @qaiser, @Em0s, @Wolfy, @Sub 0z, @dualaxe, @Kane, @poakceor, @u0sama, @Ex0dus, @Atomic Runner, @KING STING3R, @GrunT, @wAnxTa, @Newton, @JJDoctor, @Simonsez9, @xYcRaiN, @Benighted, @sumair007, @Hassanfarooq92, @hm owais, @taha567, @Thugnificent, @A Rahim, @Game Addi, @EmSpecial, @zainu, @Link, @rehan751, @federer38, @frostbite90, @TotaLOverdosE, @Deamonillidan, @sliyk, @acernet3, @S3XPLOSIV3, @Yasir, @Umair Naeem, @annosaad, @snake2k, @assasin42o, @sinnersaint, @deoX Dna, @musab2346, @zisheepk, @hash94, @SkyWalker, @desprado, @FaridAhmed, @Raging BulL, @jack, @usmankh10, @Waris Arsh, @Ali250, @AcHa BaChA, @KMAT, @MOHSIN HADI, @Ultimate, @hhumas, @Taha Ahmed, @MtJx, @Xenium, @hasooboy, @WajieRaja, @FOXdie, @The RaYeD, @EnergyDan, @SSGRashid, @Gintoki, @Applesauce, @sephi22, @ahsanshah, @fakeprince, @blade, @ghalibmeer, @syedfarazahmed, @smjunaid, @Magma, @Hacks, @2NarutimateTaha, @yousaf465, @SilverDrag, @Pakiyoungster, @Dragg3r, @devnull, @ovaisaijaz, @gow3, @mubaidr, @Raza7154, @Spyder, @achoo, @Comrade General, @Ibbu Bhai, @SaadChohan, @lNeOl, @NighteySenpai, @mzain90, @gforgamers, @mohsinmk, @WAQAS ADEEM, @sp20v, @syed misbah, @wankelboy, @robot10, @Usama Ahmed, @shahzadfootball, @sshah, @CoolMyPc, @wQr hSN, @Dr Beowulf, @shahoo, @walleed, @Mortal Eternity, @max007, @afeef, @Optimus, @Tech Reaper, @Zeus MK, @Zasmain, @HYD3R, @hmir, @Ali Kamran, @goldendays2003, @chaudhary9, @Mazhar Ali Khan, @shah ho nam, @my3m, @hafisohaib, @sohaib50k, @omarko, @Alcadeias, @frazgta, @kashifji, @syed shehzad, @khan1, @07ee17, @Hassan Aftab, @hzk17, @xtremegamer, @hardliner, @JKhan, @Lord AvaLon, @rafay22, @Aizentech, @GSM7, @Owi Khan, @BaqarNaqvi, @soban123, @sTraNg3r, @maxold90, @ads496, @Xerolt9, @Juste, @TH3xTr3MiST, @Arkonov, @ashahzadpk, @dexter786, @hamidkhatri, @iNCEPTiON, @Tultras, @TrueCoolGuy, @Yasir Nadeem, @AamirXtreme, @maryfarrukh, @Murshad, @GhaniKhan, @Serious Sam, @Anurin, @Ashad Razavi, @FAIZY56, @K3yser, @TheRaja, @RAJNI, @thekhans, @murtaza12, @Eternal Blizzard, @mohammadyahya, @Behrox, @SaJJAd WaSeeR, @MoQeeM, @Furqan shah, @ErtazaAbbas, @Captain Wajji, @FUEL2009, @umairashraf92, @saad07, @sufi, @mbk99, @masifsabir, @gamer11, @Riz, @staticPointer, @MojGamerr, @GloriousChicken, @IzHee, @asgharkhanani, @puppet, @winchester khan, @xtremegamer132, @depthcharge, @mac007

Now, if you're not tagged it DOESN'T mean your input isn't valued! PLEASE feel free to add to this!

We're looking for suggestions and improvements. Anything and everything.
Have a new theme in mind? Tell us!
Have suggestions for amendments to rules? Tell us!
Have ideas about reforming the main outlook of the forums? TELL US!!

The members are what make this community great. We want to hear from you, preferably sooner than the end of this week. Tell us things you guys have in mind. We can't cater everyone, but we surely can mould things to satisfy the majority.

Lets make PG Great again!

Thank you for valuing our opinion in the first place. Well I have in mind a few things that we need to address and improve to keep the forum thriving. Will jot them down in a list as a priority, though they may be a priority for me only.

1. Revamp the market place.
This is the most important section of this forum. Well this is what brought me to Pakgamers in the first place. Later upon exploration I came to know how many wonderful people are here, expert in their fields and well versed in the matters they deal with; be them entrepreneurs, reviewers, gamers, enthusiasts etc. Market place is the most charmed area where buyers and seller meet. New members check the items on sale and then came to know about forum. The moderators there should be more helpful. I would quote the example of "Jshak", who I witnessed provided support to people in trouble while dealing. Mods can follow his example or a TOR may be defined for the moderators taken onboard on regional level or city level, in the ambit of which they may provide support to dealers and help buyers seller in confirming the deals. They may even get commission or provide services on volunteer basis. Internet is fraudulent people involved in malicious practices, if we provide somewhat secure services people will of course come to us.

2. Improve the sections of Unboxing and Help desk
Improving sections of unboxing and help desk will also attract people. Firstly to introduce them to new tech and then to help them to use such tech efficiently through help desk. Unboxing zone maybe improved through conducting monthly contest as to which unboxing best explain the product, cover aspect and has best picture. Once the participation increases, the quality will also improve. Ultimately the incoming traffic will increase. The prize may very from USB to Joystick etc.

3. Reviews of things introduced
Another attraction of PG are the committed users who have long been here but kind of under appreciated. I will named Ammar here whose writing was a source of inspiration for me. Abilities of such users may be utilized to ornament the review section. We need to have reviewers who may review the newly introduced gadgets, cell phones etc. In this regard some blog writer may be supported or a review site be engaged with Pakgamers through a mutual arrangement.

4. Backups of backups
Lastely, we need to have back ups. We may already have but we are missing back ups of back ups of back ups. If a reviewers has gone under hibernation, we do not have someone to replace him. We need to have a consortium of users who are interested in writing blog, photography, writing reviews, movie reviews or anything else for that matter. Such groups will focus the assigned sections and ultimately a system will be in place which will be sustainable.

These were my two cents. Ideas that may be discussed further and finalized through a realistic approach.
Again thanks for inviting us to share our opinions on the subject matter.

 

[nafu]

I mostly post in the tech department so I'll give my input on it. I think it really needs to be "cleaned up" as there are way too many forums and subforums for it.

The Hardware Zone should be merged as one as there simply isn't enough traffic to justify divisions on such trivial differences. This way the whole forum will look more lively and active which will benefit all. Stickies are way better to serve specific purposes. The Tech Newsroom should also be merged into one unified PC hardware forum.

The Software Den should also be merged and the description of the new forum can be something like "PC hardware and discussion" so it emcompasses software as well. There is really not a big enough PC community here to justify so many sub-forums.

The other 3 forums in the Tech Department have their purpose so they can be retained. I also think it's pretty ridiculous to have an entire forum dedicated to fighting games.

I have literally no issues with how the forum looks and I am rather reluctant about forum look changes. It's always an unpleasant experience.

I am agreed with you on activity level. At current scenario, we certainly have activity at bottom. However, PC Enthusiast Zone was one of the most busiest sections on PG in 2010-2012 era. So let's hope the enthusiastic community will return for contribution. You idea is fine, but it will limit the exposure for enthusiastic party who are still participating in benching etc.

Secondly, Software and Hardware cannot be merged as one. You have software discussion related to "Antivirus", do you think it's Very much linked to Hardware as well? to very very limited extent YES, but General nature is landing perfectly on software. Its another thing if community wants to discuss on Drivers (drivers to run hardware), Yes that's something quite relevant to Hardware. Which will mostly discuss in hardware section.

Your opinion has been noted down.

Lastly, Why you think it's unpleasant experience in regards to Appearance and Look ?

 

[Tech Reaper]

My suggestion may look ridiculous but since PG has lost a lot of userbase over the past few years, I think we should at least consider this. Instead of following the approach "Jack of all trades, master of none" I think we should focus on rebuilding those sections of the site that are active, starting with the most active one. Why I say this? Because I have managed about 30 different sites/blogs/forums over the past 5 years (5 of them were my personal ones and other ones were of clients) and whenever we want to improve it, we start by focusing on most active category on the site. Once we reach a certain milestone in them, we move onto another. Now, this doesn't mean that while we are working on the active categories, we neglect the others. No, keep posting stuff in others but not as much as the active ones.

The second part - where we are going to revive the dead categories. Since we are already posting things in them, these threads/posts/articles should be attractive. This is where the marketing team has to do some brainstorming. Come up with some sort of giveaway or contest or anything that asks for a user's full participation in order to win something. For an example, I think buying a $5-$10 Humble Bundle is not a big deal for PG and in that, you get few games that you can use in contests/giveaways.



Wow, this turned out to a lengthy post. In my head, it was just few lines

 

[The Punisher]

Thanks [MENTION=25983]AbbY[/MENTION] for the tag. What I have in mind right now is to introduce back the activity bar. It was such a nice feature and actually motivated me somewhat to remain active here. So it would be nice if its introduced back.

About the overall theme of the PG, I like the black&orange combo since its contains the official colors of Pakgamers. I don't think it should be changed.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Optimus]

Guys, elaborate! I can't read your minds. Tell us in detail what you guys are thinking about.
@Optimus, got any pictures/guidelines. @limpix007, suggestions to the 'less abadi' thing and what you'd do with them if you were asked to deal with it!

Material design is pretty common, it's overall a lot flatter than the design we are using right now on this website. This one's just a concept, but check it out.

https://dribbble.com/shots/2700225-Material-Design-Forum-Concept

- - - Updated - - -

Another feature I'd like is having a smart tagging option, XDA has it and it's really helpful, especially when you have a large user base, It simply lists some of the users when you use the "@" sign, and allows you to pick the one you want to tag. This will allow the users to easily tag the people they want, rather than messing up the usernames or tagging the wrong people.

 

[Cerberus]

there's a great amount of contrast on homepage
orange to black is just fine
but text to background is not optimized, cannot be read without eye strain. do work on that

 

[NaNoW]

Exactly, fore example, we have gradients on almost everything, which are things of past. :/

We can vote on and follow some things from Material Design.


For those who don't know material design: https://material.google.com/

Interesting will look into it

Many people might not like me saying this, but to truly appear on the world map PG needs to get rid of any software piracy related discussion and should encourage it's user base to go ahead and purchase legit products. Hardware modding, home brew and other such discussions for sake of knowledge and learning are okay.

We have gotten rid of most of it already, we will crack down on it harder.

 

[NaNoW]

My suggestion may look ridiculous but since PG has lost a lot of userbase over the past few years, I think we should at least consider this. Instead of following the approach "Jack of all trades, master of none" I think we should focus on rebuilding those sections of the site that are active, starting with the most active one. Why I say this? Because I have managed about 30 different sites/blogs/forums over the past 5 years (5 of them were my personal ones and other ones were of clients) and whenever we want to improve it, we start by focusing on most active category on the site. Once we reach a certain milestone in them, we move onto another. Now, this doesn't mean that while we are working on the active categories, we neglect the others. No, keep posting stuff in others but not as much as the active ones.

The second part - where we are going to revive the dead categories. Since we are already posting things in them, these threads/posts/articles should be attractive. This is where the marketing team has to do some brainstorming. Come up with some sort of giveaway or contest or anything that asks for a user's full participation in order to win something. For an example, I think buying a $5-$10 Humble Bundle is not a big deal for PG and in that, you get few games that you can use in contests/giveaways.



Wow, this turned out to a lengthy post. In my head, it was just few lines

Thanks for this..I agree with refocusing our forum..we are definitely be implementing some of the things you mentioned

 

[NaNoW]

@Cerberus @Optimus @The Punisher @
Lord AvaLon @Taha Ahmed

Guys please know that we will sit down throughout this weekend to discuss all of this, so please let it out ..all of it

 

[deltree]

Since I was specifically tagged amongst many others, i'll list a few things at the top of my mind. I am going to turn 30 next month and really don't own any gaming pc or gaming console anymore. But I do still visit this forum from time to time and browse through some sections I find interesting.

- As an advertiser who used to deal with local publishers here in Pakistan in the past, it won't hurt if you guys open up to the idea of adsense or fixed media buying by brands. You've got mostly millennials here. Use the money you get from all of that to run your servers but also to run competitions for freebies here (and only frequent users will be able to partake in them so it will solve a big problem of lack of active users)
- Become a publisher vs. a forum, even if it means some guy here will get a lot of sample stuff to review. Be a outlet where I get my daily dose rather than having to go through specific forums or visiting anandtech or toms hardware, I would not mind you guys implementing push notifications on your website.
- Please make it compulsory for all the premium vendors to mention under their description exactly what they deal in. Majority of them dont have the decency to mention anything, there are times when I want to get something but am left using the search feature and would almost always probably miss out on some vendor who could have been the answer to my need at the time.

 

[deltree]

Additionally for the consoles many times I have tried going in and buying stuff but left because everything related to consoles is in one forum. Console wise breakdown would be great in the console games buying section. In fact even game posts should be separate from the hardware.

 

[hotgamerft]

Remove or move (make it a subsection) of some of the sections where there is little to no activity like the software den and Tech newsroom (there are other sections as well) may clean up the main forum page. That is the main thing that comes to mind everytime i open the main forum.

Bring back the activity bar as Jshak suggested, give out achievements to those who maintain a certain level of activity for a certain amount of time. That might bring the interest back. People always like achievements for some reason.

I don't think a theme or layout overhaul would solve the less activity issue. To most people now PG is only attractive due to its marketplace. I recently saw a guy using PG at my university, i talked to him a little bit about the forums and found out that he is a member since 2012 but only uses the forum for the marketplace.

I still visit PG from time to time but the difference in old times and now is that there isn't much going on here which would interest me. I rarely see a new game OT come up these days, i remember there were days when threads would be made months before the release of games and would have a lot of activity. Hats off to the guys who actively used to do that. Most of my activity was in the sports section and specifically in the football related threads, no body seems to care about that either. I don't see how a layout overhaul would solve this issue. Since most of the old members (including me) got busy with jobs and family, newer members need to take responsibility and act.

I hope the newer members don't get offended from my post.

People now a days give more time to facebook than their actual lifes, i hope that changes.

That being said i am always here and willing to do anything in my capacity for this forum, i have learnt a lot of things here its time to give something back.

Thanks for tagging me [MENTION=25983]AbbY[/MENTION]

P.S. This is not an emotional speech

 

[Cerberus]

Make my Color to PG Extreme
Important part of reconstruction

 

[NaNoW]

UPDATE http://www.pakgamers.com/forums/f30/upgrade-downtime-maintenance-258004/ (2t)