Dec 13, 2019

yeah I don't post as much any more because I can't search for dr dre either

 

Dec 13, 2019

maybe it's just me or something, but one thing that keeps me from really posting or even really reading stuff on here anymore is ever since 3.0, whenever i check the home page and look at what new's been posted... I can't actually see a way of going to the newest post on any given thread directly? just the first one of each thread... which is annoying as f---

also navigation in general since 3.0 is uh... not my favorite on the site. seems like a disorganized mess now on the home page

 

Dec 13, 2019

@Slyk I genuinely believe we need to rethink having a dislike option but one with consequences. We can't hide from the fact that this site has evolved from D12 World, through studio leaks to this. Part of that past is the troll aspect. Yes it's annoying as f--- sometimes and a lot of people will just say "ban @JMG and @joeyp363" but being that ignorant to our past will only hinder our future.

Let a real dislike option have real consequences. Reach a certain limit and an auto 3 day ban kicks in for example. This will free up time for mods to keep sections clutter free and under control as well as giving the community some (albeit little) control.

What I don't know is how you would monitor any abuse or alt accounts attacking certain people. But if I can at least plant a seed of thought I'd be happy.

 

Dec 18, 2019

I think those talking about marginalising the Eminem section to help this site grow are off-base. No one in hip hop has ever reached the level of obsessed cult-following fandom Em has had (and inexplicably continues to have...). The new blood for RB and SL was 90% Eminem fans: RB grew because of the D12 connection in the early days (if I remember right the last 2-3 years of its existence there were very few new members who were active and stuck around). SL grew primarily due to Koolo's leaks and the Straight from the Vault EP. Most rappers most listened to song on Spotify is whatever song of theirs features Eminem. Eminem fans also tend to be neekier and more autistic than say Drake or Kendrick (or whichever rapper is hottest atm), which are good traits to target if your aim is to rope people into actively posting on a hip hop message board for years. A lot of these fans can be moulded into good posters over time.

Anyway, my suggestions:
1. StudioLeaks should have never been shut down and re-branded. Kendrick stans are mostly part of that cohort of people (teens to early 20s now I guess) who have never used message boards and hold their online music discussions on sites like twitter, facebook or reddit. In the golden era of message boards, there weren't really any websites that EVERYONE seemed to be a member of like FB and Twitter. Once that started happening, the need to scope out smaller online subcultures to find people with similar interests as you diminished. That's okay, and message boards will probably still survive in the long-term as they're better for developing subcultures than huge social media sites owned by big corporations/funded by big money which are used by too many people and which end up pretty sanitised and censorious because the media will jump on anything controversial, and they have shareholders they're accountable to. But the rebrand from SL to S.80 (and the need for every single member of SL to re-register on a completely new site...one which had no downloads at all) hurt this site.
Even if Koolo stopped leaking, the eternal branding that site had from dropping so many leaks was gold...even now on youtube videos of the songs Koolo leaked there's often a lot of comments talking about StudioLeaks and Koolo...no mention ever of SectionEighty. There is no reason for anyone to ever find this site really. Dropping a tape of unreleased songs from the highest selling artist of the 21st century was basically a great marketing move that would have lasted for pretty much the rest of eternity. But it was wasted when the site was completely re-branded, just because Koolo stopped actively leaking.
2. Downloads section: I don't know about the legality behind this nowadays, but the downloads section is what kept me coming back to RB in my first couple years when I didn't really give a s--- about the rest of the site and didn't post much. By force of habit of logging in every day to check the new singles posted, I eventually checked out the rest of the site and became active. Without the downloads section I probs wouldn't have logged in much in my first year, and then forgot about it completely. If it is at all possible to have a Downloads section (preferably hidden to guests) then I think this would be a great idea to help the site grow.
3. Censorship: Probably a bit controversial, but what helped me to stick around on RB (and get more actively involved in the non-music discussions) was the trolling, savagery and lack of censorship. It stood out from the other hip hop boards I had been on, which were a lot more sanitised and PG. And probably contributed to me ending up solely on RB and forgetting all about the other 2-3 I used to check occasionally. I think a totally uncensored website (perhaps only bans for illegal content) would be a bold move and would stand out and attract the type of people who might make this site vaguely interesting again (JMG types, but not as old and washed up). I guess also most people who have the time to post 20-30x a day are teens, and teens love being able to say whatever the f--- they want without having a finger wagged at them (or being permaban'd).

I think that's all I can suggest because I don't use S.80 enough to comment on much else. I will say I really hate the design of this site. It's too clean and the way we have to navigate it (sections at the top) doesn't seem intuitive, but that could just be me.

I do miss this system

 

Dec 19, 2019

maybe this is a moment where you stipulate to those users if they post X number of times theyll (manually) be given access to exclusive sxn80 tapes. not a secret forum per se but a thresold that unlocks access

 

Dec 19, 2019

sxn80 in 2025 will be an interactive 3D hologram VR world. That oughta bring new people

 

Dec 19, 2019

What's been discussed here has been rehashed before. It's a vicious cycle. Literally everything in here has been brought up in the past.

Maybe it's time to pivot back and don't worry about the bells and whistles anymore. And I'm well aware if we do that then we're potentially shi--ing on all the hard work to advance the aesthetics that Slyk, Loyalty, Mike Tyson, Koolo and so on worked tirelessly for us as a userbase. But when will we learn that new members or lurkers don't care about the face lifts so long as the content continues to be lacking?

I don't proclaim to have the answers, but to see the same discussion points after so many years brought up and it not taking us anywhere is just disappointing.

Leadership needs to do more. You have mods that haven't even been active for a while. How can they be representative of the place and put their support behind the owners and the actual active leaders if they've become lurkers or totally disengaged from the site?

 

Jan 7, 2020

@Slyk I believe I understand your thought process much better now after seeing you break things down the way you have so far.

General Comments:
Overall, I think a hybrid of 2.0 and 3.0 would be the ideal solution, not a total revert. I think we could keep a lot of the clean new looks of 3.0 and some of the helpful functionality improvements while also "reverting" back to the simplicity and intuitiveness of 2.0.

3.0 PM/Profile views
Fine in my opinion, fantastic work!

3.0 Thread view
For the most part, I would agree that 3.0 looks/functions better (though I have some criticisms as well).
Pros:
-Larger avatars
-Floating reply box
-Theme (Has a "cleaner" look visually for post layout)
Cons:
-Navigation bar (will go into detail later)
-Sidebar (will go into detail later)
-No Users Viewing Thread section (Personally I could care less about this, but I understand why other users enjoy this feature)

3.0 SXN View
Pros:
-None really. Arguments could be made that the theme is better (might look slightly cleaner if not for the side bar), but it needs some minor adjustments.
Cons:
-Navigation bar (will go into detail later)
-Sidebar (will go into detail later)
-Theme adjustments: Add a thin spacer between threads to keep it consistent with the thread view (and it would also give it a more organized appearance). I prefer 2.0's layout In regards to thread details (OP, date, replies, views, most recent reply, etc.). 3.0 is missing the "views" portion entirely which I think is actually an interesting statistic that actually drew me in to viewing certain threads I wouldn't normally click (though it will obviously highlight the lack of activity of the site in its current state, so maybe you will want to hold off on that and add it back once the activity picks back up). I'm also not a fan of the design/appearance of the labels/tags (the finance, politics, serious blue buttons) on 3.0. They stand out too much and distract from the different thread titles rather than supplementing them. I think they need to be more subtle and mimic the styling of 2.0's

3.0 Homepage:
One of my biggest complaints/issues.
Pros:
-Theme (Aside from the featured content section. Although it certainly looks more appealing visually with album covers and images, functionality-wise it's not as nearly as good as 2.0. Needing to click and drag to see everything that is "featured" for one is a pain to do, and two defeats the whole purpose of being "featured". Featured content should be seen without needing to click or drag anything to see it, it should be right there in front of your face, ease of access and visibility is key to the concept of something being "featured.")
-Footer (Though adding our social links could be beneficial for the site if anybody keeps them up-to-date even semi-regularly).
-Removal of useless "Friends Online" sidebar section
Cons:
-I absolutely hate the setup/layout/design/organization/functionality of it. A lot of the functionality/organization of the 2.0 homepage was replaced by the new navigation bar and so the new homepage essentially took on a different purpose. I believe this right here lies the core issue most people don't like about 3.0. The concept of the new homepage (mixed with the navigation bar) makes the entire site look disorganized and unintuitive/confusing.

Spoiler: Details

I understand and appreciate your reasoning for wanting to try adapting and evolving the site from the "stale" format of most forums. I understand how the concept of the navigation bar seems like a super useful tool to add to the site and make navigation quicker/easier theoretically. Unfortunately, these adaptations failed in my opinion. I think it's one of those things that seems like a great idea, but in reality it leads to more problems than it solves. And as the homepage is the center of the site where everybody accesses everything from, the confusion/dislike for the homepage and site setup makes people dislike the whole 3.0 inception and request for the reversion back to 2.0. As @Worm said, 2.0 was simpler and people did not adjust well to the change to 3.0 (which I mentioned in my original response to this thread). As @Big Cuntry said, I too really miss the homepage being a list of all the boards. And as @Papa Alpha Andy stated, 3.0 diminishes the "subculture" of 2.0. Reverting back to a 2.0 type of homepage would alleviate a majority of the disdain a majority of the users have with the site.
Again, I appreciate and understand your reasoning behind why you wanted to design the homepage the way you did, but I think it is safe to say that this "evolution" is one that did not catch on. The "stale" interface is simpler and intuitive, making it superior in the end.

3.0 Navigation Bar:
Great concept to test out and theoretically makes sense, but IMO it failed. Maybe some sort of adaptation could be made to make it effective, but this feature in its current state certainly isn't flawless. A navigation bar (at least one such as what we have now) is not effective for a forum. We have way too many categories and content that we cover on here. Clicking and dragging the bar to see all of the content in it is ineffective and functionally odd. Although it is nice to be able to quickly access different sections from anywhere on the site, from a navigational/functionality standpoint, the 2.0 homepage did a better and more organized way of doing this even though it required one more click. I think the integration of this could possibly be part of your reason as to why you have gotten "revert to 2.0" rather than "3.0 is great, minus the homepage view", because it is integrated into every aspect of the site. If it is important enough to integrate into every page, it shouldn't need to be customizable. The one extra click will not deter people from using the site.

Spoiler: Debunking the "Three Click Rule"

A study conducted by Joshua Porter published on User Interface Engineering found out that users aren’t more likely to resign to failure of not getting to what they want on a site after three clicks versus a higher number such as 12 clicks. “Hardly anybody gave up after three clicks,” Porter said.



The focus, then, shouldn’t be on reducing the number of clicks to get to a page, but rather on the ease of utility of it. If you can construct a user interface that’s easy and pleasurable to use, but still takes like 15 clicks (e.g. 5 times more than the three-click rule) to achieve a particular task, it will prove to be more effective. Don’t let the arbitrary three-click rule stop you.

3.0 Sidebar:
Thread view and SXN view Sidebar: Simply put, it's distracting and clutters the site. I learned in my Marketing on the Internet class a few years ago that "less is more" per page on a website in most instances. You want the least amount buttons and options as possible so people are drawn to the core actions of the page.
-SXN Info is pointless IMO. Every section is self-explanatory for the most part. I doubt many people read these and find them useful/helpful. They are just one more thing in the way to ignore.
-Latest posts shouldn't be shown in a thread. If I am in a thread, it is for a reason. I am interested in the thread and want to engage in it. That is my focus at the moment. Although you are trying to increase activity by drawing attention to other threads, you are simply cannibalizing the activity that they could be engaging in with the thread they are already in.
-Quick filtering and quick follow mention groups in the SXN view are nice features but should be implemented differently (not in a sidebar). Their design currently clashes with the clean look of the rest of the site and they take up way too much space. They should be towards the top like an extension under the header, or in place of the navigation bar section.
Homepage Sidebar: 2.0 Sidebar was much more effective and useful. As mentioned previously, all of the featured content was easily viewable and accessible. Although it isn't pictured in your screenshot, at some point directly under featured threads there was a section/feed for Latest Posts/Hottest Threads. You could easily see what activity was going on at that very moment on the homepage and see what was popular overall recently in an organized fashion without having to leave the homepage. It wasn't extremely intrusive and bogged down your whole experience with content that you may not be interested in the way the new homepage does. This design was a much better approach than having the entire homepage serve this purpose. It gives you access to it, but doesn't force it down your throat. Then below that was the status updates section. I'm glad you removed the useless Friends Online portion for that part in 3.0. In my opinion the entire status updates portion should be removed entirely.

Spoiler: Reasoning

I will reiterate what I said in my previous post: There is too much to do on this site outside of discussions and that draws away from what the site is supposed to be made for. We have integrated too many social media aspects into the site. Why have a section for status updates on a forum? For one that is giving people an outlet to express themselves and their ideas in a way that pulls them away from posting in an actual thread (which would be more content that could lead to more engagement).

Alerts:
When I have notifications and I hit the "mark all as read" button, it then brings me to a whole notifications page rather than just clearing the notifications badge for the drop down arrow. I'm marking all as read because I don't want to view those notifications, so why am I being brought to a page to see them in more detail? Not sure why this issue hasn't been addressed yet, it's a simple logical improvement.

"Waste of Space" and "Increased Transparency" Comments: You are cluttering people with way too much information at one time. Information that people aren't necessarily interested in (because this site covers a wide range of topics and artists, and having a homepage that simply consists of latest posts can be simply full of content that doesn't appeal or apply to each user's interests. As @Papa Alpha Andy said, there were different pockets of the forum with sub-communities in them based on people with similar interests. 2.0's homepage layout worked perfectly for that sort of thing). You tried capitalizing on "screen real estate" which shouldn't really be much of a focus for a forum. That is important for websites such as those selling products, but a forum is a whole different ballpark. You are simply cluttering people's screens and overwhelming them with too much to do and too much to look at. It loses the visual attractiveness of the "clean" new look by jamming too much onto the screen. Again, less is more. Make it look nice. Make each page have a sole purpose and lose all the "extras".

In conclusion: The new look of the site is generally great. A lot of the newer/improved features are beneficial and great additions. However the navigation/organization of the site was significantly hindered with the new homepage; so significantly that it overshadowed any useful improvements to the site. Apply 3.0's visual and functionality improvements to 2.0's simplistic organization and I believe activity will increase and the site will be more appealing to new users.

 

Jan 21, 2020

Ya'll need me.

 

Jan 19, 2020

^
ya we need more anime pedos to make it a great forum

 

Dec 20, 2019

I never said this. I don't think we should be branded as a fan site for anyone. We should be branded as a hip hop/lifestyle forum. All I said was I disagree with the people (like you) who believe things like "unironically lock the Eminem section" or "hide the Eminem posts" will help increase activity on this forum. Of course rebranding this site as "Shady Season" or something would be r-----ed, and would probably attract enough s--- posters to make me not want to visit anymore. I literally never suggested anything like this lol.

Bruh you wrote an entire essay replying to a complete misinterpretation my first paragraph and then ignored the rest of my post. Save yourself some time and read my post twice next time before you get to typing.

 

Dec 20, 2019

Disagree completely. Not that Kendrick stans were the best people to target, clearly that didn't work out as planned besides a few like myself. KTT2 is popping and so is the Coli and both are almost completely filled with new rap fans [Coli has a big oldhead fanbase too]. Nobody on either site talks much about Eminem, and they are the biggest rap forums out rn. I don't know how many people here used KTT but maybe I can offer some insight into why KTT2 was made and why its popular.

KTT was f---ing dying. S started working on KTT2 because he sold KTT a while ago to some f---ing company that owns hundreds of sites just for the ad revenue, the owners of the site dont even know wtf it is. Its just a money maker to them. About a year ago KTT userbase started plummeting for whatever reason. The site was consistently reaching under 200 members online at a time, which for ktt is really f---ing bad. So users started making their own forums [me included], because KTT is so f---ing unusable and the admins were s---, nobody knew S was working on KTT2. He released KTT2 a week or so before JIK dropped, we all agreed to shut down the other forums. KTT2 instantly saw traffic skyrocket compared to what KTT did the past year. S didn't even want to release it that early but released it with perfect timing to get traction to the site. KTT2 was built from the ground up, he did most the coding himself so the site clearly doesn't look half as nice or functional as S80 did during 2.0 [Its kind of a f---ing mess now tbh] but it leaves more room to grow functionality wise in the future. KTT2 can do things S80 can't since s80 is stuck on Xenforo [which is the best forum software imo] but limited nontheless. Rebranding to an Eminem fan site would be idiotic and might have a small boost in traffic initially but eventually die out to what it is now. Even KTT2 isn't branded towards Kanye anymore besides the original title of KTT. It's just called KTT2, S says KTT doesn't need to stand for KanyeToThe, its just for the brand.

Kendrick clearly isn't extremely relevant to the culture rn. The only one I can think of on Kanye's level, someone who will always be relevant is Drake but who wants to turn this into a f---ing OVO forum. I suggest rebranding this as some type of music/rap forum not dedicated specifically to one artist. I like the name S80 a lot and I honestly dont think that had any major involvement in turning people away from the site in the first place but if it is to change going with ''Shady Season'' or whatever the f--- is a dud imo. S80 literally was founded with the idea that they could use the name 4-5 years in the future. I mean look at leakthis, s--- died so fast because it was based on a stupid premise basically just a new version of studioleaks. But its still more popping than s80.

I like s80 a lot but there's nothing bounding people to stay here when there is nothing to talk about but Eminem. I like Eminem but wtf is there to talk about honestly. There's still a few users who actually don't care much for eminem but its not enough to drive discussion. h--- a big part of KTT2 isn't any music/film sxn but the life sxn. The life sxn on here has always been useless. Anyway I hope @Slyk reads this because I do think s80 has the functionality to be big but it just doesn't have the look or content rn.

 

Dec 19, 2019

Another great idea I had to keep people active and incentivize them is with every 100 posts in a month you get a free $25 @Pizza Hut Giftcard. I would initially sponsor this if I get the go ahead and give it a trial run. We could work with the rules a little bit but I think most people would be stoked for some free Pizza Hut.

 

Dec 14, 2019

Shrek with ti--ies

 

Dec 13, 2019

same thing with the alert system since 3.0... seems super jank to use now so I just blatantly ignore *all* notifications now