Blogs.

I think the site should include personal blogs so people can post about things going on in their life, gaming, whatever. There should also be a follower system so people can be contacted when blogs they follow are updated.

Will someone reply please..

I wouldn't not pay for this.. did I do that right?

I wouldn't not pay for this.. did I do that right?

Originally Posted by Kaens

Pretty good for a novice. Proud of ya, pardnur.

I'm interested..

Can we just combine a list of all the features that TrueAchievement has that GTN does not, and post them as a "Suggested Feature List" so that the same ones don't get suggested every few months?

Blogs are something that are being looked into, but its more of a matter of execution. As with everything, GTN want's to set it self part from other sites, so it's not just about bringing a blog or copying another site, which most sites are accused of and thus turn people away. GTN strives to be unique or at the very least extraordinary. Simply asking for a feature is good, but bringing an idea and giving us a new look on how to incorporate it is even better. Now I can't say for certain which features get more priority or if a feature will actually make the cut all together, but the more detail and interest you can gather on a certain feature and even a good argument/opinion goes a long way.

To me, that's a nice sound bite (no offense B8). The reality of this business (internet) is you need UV (uniques) and PV (page views) to pay for your site. In order to do that you need to make your site as 'sticky' as possible so people can get everything they need in one place because when they navigate away, it's hard to get them back. In order to do that, GTN needs to have a community feel, needs to have good means of us sharing conversations and connecting every day. Because even a badge whore like myself, if it wasn't for you guys I'd come once a day to check my badges at most if it wasn't for the boards and the conversations on my page.

Look TA didn't invent blogs, leaderboards, status, conversations on page, likes, comments on achievements, good leaderboards, achievement tracking, any of it. The ONLY thing they have is the TA score, which I think is bullshit. Yes the math is solid, I just think its useless but that's another story. I was staff over at x360a for a very long time and gave them $25 donations per month for a year, so I was committed, as I said when I signed up on this site and immediately paid for the premium, I will pay for things that are worth it. That was my site, still has the best forums, although the community is too large for my taste now, and they had the only real achievement tracking. Once TA got their scanners and I could be premium and update my achievements I switched. I very very rarely ever even visit x360a anymore, TA met my main needs and they've continued to add things that other sites have to their site, which keeps me there every single day many times a day.

So it doesn't really matter if Eric thinks we need blogs, if that is what the customers want, he needs to figure it out. Now I'm not saying because one person thinks it's a good idea, I'm saying if there is a lot of demand, he needs to figure it out. This is the cost of doing business. The only thing GTN could do that would be 'copying' TA would be creating a score based on rarity. We have rarity right here, and it works fine. I can tell which achievements are hard and which are not, but for that data to be accurate, we need the largest sample possible. There are games on here where the rarity of the achievement is far more common that it should be because we have a disportionate amount of score whores here. TA is getting close to 300k users now, so their stats are only getting more and more accurate.

That laundry list of features I mentioned earlier that TA didn't create they added because they had too, not because they are innovating. And if GTN doesn't get it's shit together and build out the basic features people have come to expect, not just on gaming sites, but all sites, then the churn here will continue. I'll get off my soapbox, but the only reason I even bother is because this IS a great site and there is so much potential but I don't know that Eric is willing to share his baby with the world and I don't think he has the time to dedicate to do it as a one man team.

[applauds] well sad, Keans.

That laundry list of features I mentioned earlier that TA didn't create they added because they had too, not because they are innovating. And if GTN doesn't get it's shit together and build out the basic features people have come to expect, not just on gaming sites, but all sites, then the churn here will continue. I'll get off my soapbox, but the only reason I even bother is because this IS a great site and there is so much potential but I don't know that Eric is willing to share his baby with the world and I don't think he has the time to dedicate to do it as a one man team.

Originally Posted by Kaens

Excellent. Kaens for President!

Kaens, this is exactly the response and effect/responses from the community I was looking for this gives Eric an idea that people want these features and for now we don't care how esthetically pleasing they may look, they can always be reformatted and changed later. I don't believe that Eric doesn't want to share his creation to the world, other wise he would not put forth this much effort and it does take a lot of effort. We all have normal jobs, for now and I think this is what Erics' main obstacle is. Over the history GTN has changed it's look and has added quite a bit. So it's not like he's not trying either. I know for a fact he has been working on some stuff and some things you can't rush.

I'm not saying he's not trying, what I mean by sharing his baby was that he doesn't want to share development and take on community members like Fsh, who are willing to GIVE their time to improve the site. I know he's been working on stuff, and I know exactly how web development goes.

You know what, forget my experience. Let's pretend I know nothing about this. TA is the site constantly mentioned here and some people get offended when they are brought up. There is already a HUGE gap between the features of the two site. They have at least a dozen people, many full time employees. GTN has Eric and a few volunteers to answer questions on the forums, maybe hand out a broken badge or two. You don't have to have any experience to know who will "win". I emphasis "win" because this is Eric's site. Whatever he wants goes and for all we know he's already won in his mind. We don't know what his goals for the site are, and we certainly don't know if he cares at all what is happening over at TA. Personally, I can easily visit more than one site a day.