zoints...does anybody care?

[m1thr0s]

Since the Zoints link got eaten in this latest upgrade, it's given me a chance to review it more carefully.

In general, my feeling is that Zoints hasn't really done anything for this particular community. When you look at the number of occult sites that are linked to Zoints in the nearly 2 years we have been with them...we're it!

As a matter of fact, the Occultism category was set up by me, personally, and to this day houses ourselves and only one other site called the Indigo Society, which only just barely qualifies as an occult site at all (in my view) and there has been virtually no networking between our two groups anyway.

I have just recently discovered another social networking group called Ning (http://www.ning.com/) (curiously enough) that has something like 61 occult related sites at present count, just by way of contrast. The difference, mainly, is that Zoints was intended as a community networking system for forums only...but if there are no other occult forums participating, the theory pretty well bottoms out.

I'm inclined to drop it at this point inasmuch as it doesn't really seem to be doing anything very useful for us, other than provide a little storage space for images, which photobucket and maybe a dozen other players out there can provide just as easily...

It also looks like we'll have to upgrade to the more current form of Zoints software since they don't appear to support their own older versions, or offer them as an install option if yours becomes damaged. I liked the older systems because they were less complicated and, well, less *pushy* as well...

So I would say this decision is probably 75% made already but I want to at least throw it out there in case anybody feels strongly that we should stay with them...

m1

[Naomi]

i hate it

[m1thr0s]

i hate it'k...that's good to know...

there's kind of a back-story to this whole thing anyway. Zoints wasn't originally my idea so much as Danisty's, but it was sort of contingent on an offer that was made (by them) and then later retracted...

We decided to give it a trial run anyway to see if the networking idea would pan out...2 years later, I can't say we've panned so much as a pinch of gold dust...

Ordinarily...that's about the time you decide the best thing to do is pack up the mule and move on...

Abrahadabra Forums just isn't playing to the mainstream...I'm fairly sure we scare the peejeesus out of the mainstream and we're tough enough to grasp even among more hardcore occult groups.

My instinct is that we can lead (however precariously) by good example...but we're never gonna sell that many g*d*mm girlscout cookies... :cool:

(there are other things I am confident we could sell, but we have to inch our way into position first)...

m1

[Naomi]

what?

D:

[m1thr0s]

you mean sell what?

I don't know...powerful ideas ultimately become practical applications no matter what...that's just part and parcel with being legitimate I think...

takes a little time sometimes is all...

m1

[Naomi]

Hmmmm, okay...

[m1thr0s]

lol...different subject.

I'll let this ride for awhile and see if anybody has anything to add.

If you compare the forums to the writing of a book and Zoints would be something like our pr agency...we're essentially working with the wrong sort of agency relative to our subject matter...

at least, that's about how it seems to me at this point.

m1

[deviadah]

I never use it at all!

:cool:

[MythMath]

Me neither...

I was encouraged to create a Zoints account
when made Moderator, but I resisted hoping
no one would notice my defiance... :p

[m1thr0s]

I'm guessing nobody made a huge issue of it...

Ok...well nobody should lose anything they have stashed there either way...

Rather than thinking in terms of some kind of networking that doesn't much apply to us, we should perhaps be thinking more in terms of what we actually need with respect to these kinds of fusions...

People are going to need a good file storage utility for instance if they want to post more images and/or save images from this site...We've already reached a point I am probably going to have to pair down the acceptable file sizes pretty soon...

m1

[Frater CaO]

I didnt see the point with zoints before, and I still cant see the point now.
Just leave it be, we dont Need it, so why even waste time with it? ;)

Ill set up a site to store images for us. I dont use my account for anything now anyway.

[m1thr0s]

I think people probably threw their support at it just to support my decisions in general...which I do appreciate.
I also don't much feel like burdening that support with a lot of garbage nobody needs...

we couldn't be sure until it was tested though...I'm sure it's a fine program for the right kind of clients.

m1

[Darin Hamel]

I alread joined myspace and a dozen other places like that and then I promptly forget I joined them. I figured Zoints would be the same thing. I never developed myspace either. Isn't the reason you join a forum in the first place is to network?

[Naomi]

3.95 per month hosting, cpanel, fast web servers in Texas, great help service,blah blah:

9th Node Networks (http://clients.9thnode.com/aff.php?aff=002)


2GB free awesome hosting in Sweden:

http://www.diino.com/

The only reason I used the attachment manager is because you were concerned about broken images, so you encouraged the use of the att. manager.

At conceptart.org we're actually not allowed to use IMG tags because it ruins the quality of the archives, and they JUST started being able to pay for their hosting (with instructional videos - definately not the t-shirts and calendars which barely sold, all told.)

[m1thr0s]

Isn't the reason you join a forum in the first place is to network?I think so, yes...otherwise you could just read what others are posting (in this forum anyway)...

ok...well this is all good input. I don't mind working to maintain what we need but I am not real thrilled with maintaining anything that we don't...

m1

[Naomi]

Alot o f these images are not necessary I went ahead and deleted a bunch of mine, for instance. I was going to leave up the Buddhist thangkas, however, though I can definately host them myself...

[m1thr0s]

pics aren't a huge problem right now...only in the future we'll probably have to have a few more guidelines.

I wouldn't start any major purges just yet...that could just create a lot of confusion.

m1

[fr.novumorganum]

zoints is just more net nutters.

[Magus Habilus]

I'm a n00b,what is or was a zoint?

[Naomi]

It's like myspace except with better functionality but a smaller pool of people -

Here's my profile:

http://ningishzidda.zoints.com/

[Magus Habilus]

Oh.........

[Ci Celli Ddu]

I hadn't even noticed it was gone. When you practically live on the internet like me (and no doubt others here) the last thing you need is yet another social networking site. Whether they're as inactive as Zoints or as hyperactive as Facebook, I find they soon become either a bore (the former) or a major pain in the arse (the latter)

[m1thr0s]

in part these services are all cashing in on the seo craze permeating everything of late. I can sort of understand it since having a forum can be a liability in terms of pageranking. Before the forums, Abrahadabra.com was a *PR5* site according to Pagerank, but soon slipped to a PR4, then a PR3 site after the forums opened, even though site content has soared in leaps and bounds...

But it's not all about Abrahadabra...not all posts contain the word abrahadabra etc...so search engines start to get confused after awhile what the site is actually all about...

Forum Networking...in theory...can help to alleviate that to some extent but it turns out it's really not enough and at the end of the day you really have to ask yourself...do I really give a shit what Google thinks anyway?

Because I already know they've got a major bone up their ass with respect to forums anyway and they are going to have to sort that out in their own way. Eventually they'll figure it all out and by then our ranking will fly high again...so long as I haven't spent all my time following them around like a lost puppy dog...

Anyway...admin crap...some of which is just pointless fretting...that's the real trick I think...hacking away the inessentials...

m1