My fellow YS pilots,
It has come to my attention that there are some serious problems that are hindering the community's ability to grow, and that's unacceptable.
Before I begin, I'd like to extend an apology to the entire YSFHQ community. The new site that Iceman and I created, while ambitious, was overly complicated and has caused you and many problems. At the time, the design and implementation seemed like the best yet, but this is not the case now.
This summer, that will change.
However, I'd like to say that I know many of the staff are too tired or too busy to continue efficiently managing the site. If you're in such a predicament, please post here and I will remove you from the current roster with an honorable leave.
Now time to get to business. I'm back, and YSFHQ is about to get a major renovation. You all have given input for the basis of this plan, but I need a good, reliable team to help me implement it. If you feel as if I cannot rely on you, stop reading now.
Let's begin Project Kaizen.
This project will be our summer project, and the objective of it is to:
- Improve the community we so dearly love
- Increase game players and activity as well as member involvement
- Innovate the way players interact on YSFHQ through a rebuilt website
Now, this is obviously a very ambitious project. To accomplish the goals I have mentioned, there are a couple different sub-projects that will be needed. These projects are as follows.
Sub-Project 1:
YSFHQ 4.0
- Rebuilt website
This iteration of YSFHQ will focus on simplicity and being able to get into the action as fast as possible. It aims to be highly organized and able to scale for a growing community. This new website will be built on Wordpress, and will better integrate with the forum. It will be rebuilt from the ground up with an emphasis on speed and simplicity. Features will be consolidated, repurposed, or removed. All existing content will be migrated or kept on the old platform. - YSUpload Integration
YSUpload has revolutionized how we obtain quality YS addons. It has become the central platform for modders to distribute their YS addons. YSFHQ fully supports this platform, and we want to support it in any way we can. - Member's Lounge
This page will be the homepage for all logged-in members. It will be a revised version of our current "YSFHQ" page but with only the important parts toward the community. This is so that we can foster community development and keep our players interested. - Newbie Corner
This page will provide potential players to see what YSFlight is all about, why it is such a fun game to play, what they can do with it, and perhaps include some starter materials. This will get people new to flightsims into the community, as well as bring back some former players via a "What's New in HQ" section.
Reinvigorate The Community
- Incentivize Activity
We already have a flight logging system for civilian flight, but let's expand that to combat and aerobatic flight. Have combat pilots log their kills, and allow aerobatic pilots to get points for a great demonstration. Note that this will involve a lot of testing from the community. - Expand Our Web Presence
There are many different media outlets we can use to get the word out about YS, and how cool it is. Let's seek to post more community updates on social media and give people a taste of what YS is like. - Back to the Basics
The forum is how this community started, and we want to keep it as the hub for activity. I see that there are massive hierarchies of forums on HQ, which can be overwhelming to new members. Let's get back to the basics by consolidating the more inactive forums, and tag the different topics with what subforum they came from.
Get The Word Out (again)
- Spread Word about YSFHQ
Get online and tell your friends, post on message boards regarding flight and aviation in general, post links from your Twitter or Facebook. We need word of mouth, because it goes far! Suggestions about how to improve our popularity is greatly appreciated. - Post regular updates on our website
To keep our community informed about changes, we need someone who can take responsibility of posting blog entries that make our website. One a week is fine, and it's a very easy thing to do. - Maintain a YSFHQ Facebook and Twitter page
We need someone who will post about flight simulators and flying, and above all, YS related stuff. That way we can get our social media footprint larger, and in turn attract more visitors.
Here's the important part. Post below with which one of these initiatives you would like to get on board, and I will assign you through Asana to a project. If you do not post, your voice will not be heard and I would consider you off the project. I want to get at least 50% of this done by July 31st, so I need all the help I can get.
Thank you my friends. That is all.
Updates