This thread will be a spiritual sequel to the "are we too Nintendo centric?" thread. This one will discuss the progress we made since then. I believe we need to look at ourselves often, because we might learn from it. 

Unlike all the other threads I will start with giving my own opinion first. I am going to be honest here and I expect you guys to be the same. There is nothing wrong with constructive criticsm, if we can't take it we shall never reach our full potential. (Our full potential is global saturation) So enough with this chitter chatter, let's get started.

1) The community and it's members

Current State: The VG Press saw a increase of members recently. Members like Owl man, Angry Monkey, ASK and the Hawtness (also known as rrrrragnarrr). Some of them are not even ex Gamespot members, so we are certainly diversifying. Also the activity on the forums and GG weekly has increased. More threads are made like the Machii thread, the Pachter thread of sales analysis, the mainstream whore vs niche nerd thread, Motion control thread and the Wii sales bomba thread. The are some good discussions there, with little to no trolling. Also the podcast saw increase of activity too. It's now weekly with people like Steel and me already hosting. Again there are some great discussion there.

What we can do better?: Well besides the normal more threads and more discussions, there are still some things I would like to improve. First I would like to have more people here that are more skeptical towards the Wii or do not like it at all. As long as they are not trolls. I want people that are reasonable and nice to chat with. You know someone like GodModeEnabled would be nice. I also would like to diversify our members even more. I know Leo likes it, but it's a complete sausage fest over here. I would be nice to see some girls here. I am not saying that just because I am a complete pervert (wich I am, and damn proud of it), but because sometimes it's nice to have a girl's perspective on things. Hell GG's recent problems with the ladies was something were a girl's touch would come in handy. Also it would be nice if we could get members from other parts of the world. I would be very cool (and probably very unlikely) to get someone from Japan. Heck he/she could translate stuff for us. Or more people from Europe, Asia and Africa. Would also help us with the podcast. And finally I wish GG would have brought a headset and join the VG Press Podcast. 

2) The Nintendo Centric dilemma

Current State: The GGweekly is in my opinion not at all Nintendo Centric. Yes there is more Nintendo news, but that is because there is simply more news about the Wii and the DS than the other platforms. This is logical because they are the market leaders. The is also a increase of PSP and PC news. I post pretty much all the news I can find from the Wii, DS, PSP, PS3, 360 and the PC. I think we have plenty of news for all the other platforms also. Some might say that I post too much fluff, but I rather post too much news than leave something out. Believe it or not, one man's junk is another man's gourmet buffet. The forums saw increase with non-nintendo activity also. GG posted the Saboteur thread, Beaver the 360 recommendation thread, Foolz the Burnout Paradise thread and I did the Alpha Protocal information thread. So there is an icrease of non Nintendo news.

What we can do better?: Although the forums saw increase of non-Nintendo threads, it is still not enough. Most of our members go somewhere else for their 360/PS3 discussions. This is something we must keep improving at. We are moving in the right direction, but we are still not there. We need to shake this Nintendo centric image because there are some people that will not join us because they think we are too Nintendo centric. If we have more people we will get more 360 and PS3 threads and more poeple will join us. So getting rid of this stigma is a important step. Also we need more PC threads, we have some members with a killer PC. So it would be nice to see some more threads about it. 

3) The technical side of things

Current State: The website redesign is pretty awesome. The frontpage will immediatley show you all the latest comments. Very handy if you want to see if anyone has reacted to a thread or comment you made. GGweekly, the forums and the Press Room all work beautifully. Master Yoda did an awesome job.

What we can do better?: Sometimes the site runs slowly, because we share our server. But it's free so we can't complain about it. There are numerous reports about epic post's being lost due to problems with the site. People before pressing submit, copy your text. Just to be sure. Also the old front page is gone, althoug there is good reasons for it, it would be a shame to abandon it completely. Perhaps a separate page where we can read all the past stories could be an idea. 

So that's all. now it's your turn

What do you think of our community and it's members? Are we too Nintendo Centric? And what do you think about the technical side of things?

And I know some of you have a iPhone. Would you like it if we posted more news about it?

iPhone can go to hell.  

I've been so busy of late I have not really been on any site, but I dig the content here greatly, it is the site I go to more than any other (for any reason not just gaming).

Sorry I did not touch on much of the other stuff, other than I did not know rrrragggnaaaarr was here.  I need to pay more attention.

_

I like the 2 podcasts, though except for vader a lot of you guys on the cast don't play that many games -- but there is not much that can be done about that.  I'd like to see a mailbag for the casts once we get more members.  

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ggweekly is pretty much perfected.

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I'd like to see a real logo for the site, something that gives us an identity.

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but no complaints at all, it is a great community here.

Yodariquo said:

travo said:

Also we have to be more open to the idea of having more off topic threads because lot of people who would find interest in the site enjoy talking about other things.  A lot of my GS lady friends hang out primarily in OT.  It would help people loosen up and get to know each other better.

I think we should take this and consider forking the forum into Gaming and Non-Gaming discussion.  As opposed to being restricting, I think it would actually work as more freeing.  At least for myself, I just don't think of posting non-gaming topics here, for no real reason other than the forum is focused on gaming.  Forking it may resolve that connotation.

That sounds like a good solution.

I seem to remember a girl that joined, posted a blog, then was never seen again. If we get 100% anti wii retards I'll be kinda annoyed as this is basically the only place on the internet free of them. Hamster sold his wii because he didn't like it and raised constructive and interesting criticisms aimed at the console, so posts like that I enjoy, but yeah influx of idiots=bad no matter what i suppose.

My biggest criticism, though, is that everyone is in a different timezone. Basically I come here, and there's 200 posts on ggweekly, and a page of new threads and posts ont he forum. It's insanity. It's basically more like reading than a forum, which is fine because the reading is awesome.

The solution? You need to move to Australia and start a farm.

Well, the things that bug me are time zones again. Sometimes I feel like like you guys aren't active enough or maybe its me being too active. 

Other than that, general laziness, not getting together for gamenights, arranging matches that sort of thing. 

Not sure about the more women thing. We make a lot of jokes here and I like it. 

aspro73 said:

travo said:

And for the love of God, no political threads! We all know what happened to RoF because of it.  If a lot of people want to discuss it, then so be it.

That's why I stopped contributing there.  I agree, keep off politics on this site, even in the proposed off-topic.

I'm going to have to throw some weight around on this one and insist there not be a topic blacklist, particularly for off-topic.  Just like anything else, there are proper and improper ways to go about it, and just cutting it off doesn't address the real issue.

robio said:

Yodariquo said:

aspro73 said:

travo said:

And for the love of God, no political threads! We all know what happened to RoF because of it.  If a lot of people want to discuss it, then so be it.

That's why I stopped contributing there.  I agree, keep off politics on this site, even in the proposed off-topic.

I'm going to have to throw some weight around on this one and insist there not be a topic blacklist, particularly for off-topic.  Just like anything else, there are proper and improper ways to go about it, and just cutting it off doesn't address the real issue.

Very well, but all be warned those who bring up politics shall be labeled a douchebag. . .  but it's still okay to do so if they really want to.

I think I better point you this...

The Highest Voted Thread in VG Press History

Yodariquo said:

robio said:

Yodariquo said:

aspro73 said:

travo said:

And for the love of God, no political threads! We all know what happened to RoF because of it.  If a lot of people want to discuss it, then so be it.

That's why I stopped contributing there.  I agree, keep off politics on this site, even in the proposed off-topic.

I'm going to have to throw some weight around on this one and insist there not be a topic blacklist, particularly for off-topic.  Just like anything else, there are proper and improper ways to go about it, and just cutting it off doesn't address the real issue.

Very well, but all be warned those who bring up politics shall be labeled a douchebag. . .  but it's still okay to do so if they really want to.

I think I better point you this...

The Highest Voted Thread in VG Press History

 But we all know Yarcofin is a douchebag.

gamingeek said:

Oh and recruiting new members. I've been posting at GAF and if I have a good thread here I link back here. It seems to be working, we've seen Kaepora, Angry Monkey, Scrubking and others. 

Also it would be nice if you guys could be more welcoming to new members. You want new guys and when they come you don't say hello or even respond to their posts? WTF?

 An introduction thread might help with that, but that could be too formal?

We needs more HAMSTERZ!!!

No catz, though.