Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Hi Dojo Members,

- I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or ideas on updating the Forum look? The goal is to customize the forum with an Usagi World feel. Also, does anyone know how to update the current forum? I'm dying to make some Usagi emoticons that we can use, if possible!

- I'm also working with Jeff (shaxper/FB Dojo original creator) on creating a sub section on his Forum CCF (Classic Comics Forum) for Usagi! The goal is to promote more awareness of Usagi Yojimbo, as well as connect fans to the UY website/FB (apparently a lot of people still don't know about the website update) etc. This will NOT replace the dojo, and we've taken lots of precautions and discussed much to ensure this will not happen.

- Lastly, when we update the Dojo Forum, I want to create another section within this forum, if possible, for international fans. I contacted Fanfan (French Dojo head), and he said he would update the French Usagi Dojo webpage as well! Additionally, I've corresponded with Mr. Paquet (French publisher of Usagi) about releasing Usagi products in France! Thus, I want international UY fans to have a "home" (where they can communicate in their native language, hopefully), be able to access most of the same UY products, and feel part of the community!

Anyway, any thoughts, suggestions, tips, insight, etc. would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Daniel

dhfujii wrote:I contacted Fanfan (French Dojo head), and he said he would update the French Usagi Dojo webpage as well!

Is it still active? I get an error when I try to access the forum from the french Usagi Dojo page.

dhfujii wrote:Additionally, I've corresponded with Mr. Paquet (French publisher of Usagi) about releasing Usagi products in France!

Quite obviously, I think this is very good news!

This particular incarnation of the Usagi Yojimbo Dojoboard Forum will be eleven years old this March. It is who-knows-how-many updates behind where it should be at this point. Add to that the limited things that seem to be allowable in customizing the look and layout of phpbb forums, and some of the strange bugs it has picked up like limited or even non-existent email notifications, it might be a good time to look into converting the main Dojoboard Forum here over to a proboard forum which can be customized to look similar to the new Dojoboard Annex as well as the new layout of both the main Dojo web-site and the Stan Sakai website.

What are your thoughts on this idea?

Should we snatch Shaxper, lock him in a tiny room with a computer and not let him out until he has built us a new Usagi Yojimbo Dojoboard Forum?

Besides an International section, what other new features would you be interested in seeing incorporated into a new main Dojo forum?

The Classic Comics UYD sub-forum seems pretty neat... I signed up a couple hours ago.
I'm glad to hear that there are precautions in place to make sure the main UYD won't be replaced. The classic comics forum looks like a lot of fun, but nothing can replace the UYD. I am really looking forward to discussions on the CCF forum, though.

Steve Hubbell wrote:This particular incarnation of the Usagi Yojimbo Dojoboard Forum will be eleven years old this March. It is who-knows-how-many updates behind where it should be at this point. Add to that the limited things that seem to be allowable in customizing the look and layout of phpbb forums, and some of the strange bugs it has picked up like limited or even non-existent email notifications, it might be a good time to look into converting the main Dojoboard Forum here over to a proboard forum which can be customized to look similar to the new Dojoboard Annex as well as the new layout of both the main Dojo web-site and the Stan Sakai website.

If we are creating a new forum, I would prefer we shut this one down. We could keep this old one to have the content of the past eleven years searchable for historical information and research. But I hope we would move to all new posts to the new forum. It gets confusing to have to visit two UYDs to kept track of the news and interacting with my friends here. I know, 1st world problems. . But I think if the goal is to raise more awareness and gain more fans, one dojo that is tied to the official UY.com is best.

This old site does not scale to mobile, which make its seem old and not user friendly. I haven't explored the new site yet. But I think it is fine to start new. The diehard fans here will make the transition. We lose our stats (I still miss knowing when I started being a part of this community because I can't look up when I joined the first dojo) but, at least for me, that isn't that big of deal. It would be sad to not be able to access some of the post (i.e. How the rukotoys statues started off as a fan art project and turned into official licensed products. Or Stan sharing his travel notes, Sharon's updates, wedding to Julie, etc.). So hopefully we can have access to the old dojo content, like an archived place. Maybe like the 25th anniversary gift website - it exist but isn't promoted on the official UY.com website anymore. But if old memember want to see it, they know to google it and can check it out. Just thinking out loud.

Peace, maka

Maka wrote:

Steve Hubbell wrote:This particular incarnation of the Usagi Yojimbo Dojoboard Forum will be eleven years old this March. It is who-knows-how-many updates behind where it should be at this point. Add to that the limited things that seem to be allowable in customizing the look and layout of phpbb forums, and some of the strange bugs it has picked up like limited or even non-existent email notifications, it might be a good time to look into converting the main Dojoboard Forum here over to a proboard forum which can be customized to look similar to the new Dojoboard Annex as well as the new layout of both the main Dojo web-site and the Stan Sakai website.

If we are creating a new forum, I would prefer we shut this one down. We could keep this old one to have the content of the past eleven years searchable for historical information and research. But I hope we would move to all new posts to the new forum. It gets confusing to have to visit two UYDs to kept track of the news and interacting with my friends here. I know, 1st world problems. . But I think if the goal is to raise more awareness and gain more fans, one dojo that is tied to the official UY.com is best.

This old site does not scale to mobile, which make its seem old and not user friendly. I haven't explored the new site yet. But I think it is fine to start new. The diehard fans here will make the transition. We lose our stats (I still miss knowing when I started being a part of this community because I can't look up when I joined the first dojo) but, at least for me, that isn't that big of deal. It would be sad to not be able to access some of the post (i.e. How the rukotoys statues started off as a fan art project and turned into official licensed products. Or Stan sharing his travel notes, Sharon's updates, wedding to Julie, etc.). So hopefully we can have access to the old dojo content, like an archived place. Maybe like the 25th anniversary gift website - it exist but isn't promoted on the official UY.com website anymore. But if old memember want to see it, they know to google it and can check it out. Just thinking out loud.

Peace, maka

As Maka said, it would be nice to be able to search the old forum. I've had a lot of fun searching through the old dojoboard threads, and it's neat to see how much history the site has.

Maka wrote: I haven't explored the new site yet. But I think it is fine to start new. The diehard fans here will make the transition. We lose our stats (I still miss knowing when I started being a part of this community because I can't look up when I joined the first dojo) but, at least for me, that isn't that big of deal. It would be sad to not be able to access some of the post (i.e. How the rukotoys statues started off as a fan art project and turned into official licensed products. Or Stan sharing his travel notes, Sharon's updates, wedding to Julie, etc.). So hopefully we can have access to the old dojo content, like an archived place. Maybe like the 25th anniversary gift website - it exist but isn't promoted on the official UY.com website anymore. But if old memember want to see it, they know to google it and can check it out. Just thinking out loud.

Peace, maka

Just to make a quick correction, I don't think anyone is suggesting that The CCF UYD Annex should replace this site. If that was the will of community, we could easily make it happen (I could carry over your stats, and it may be possible to move over old threads -- I'd have to check), but that is not the intent as of now because we have no desire to disrupt the community as it exists. This has been an amazing community for years now, old software or not, and the last thing I want to do is disrupt it with the new.

If you like the new site and want to come over to post on occasion, you are very welcome, but the intent is not to forcibly replace one with the other. There's room for both to exist as sister sites, serving slightly different purposes. This community captures the die-hard fans looking to discuss Usagi--and nothing but! The CCF Annex is set up to capture the more casual fan who wants to talk Usagi along with a lot of other comic book subjects, as well as entice the newcomer who has never given much thought to Usagi before. We hope to create obsessive Usagi fans there. Thus, there's plenty of room for both communities.

Steve Hubbell wrote:
Should we snatch Shaxper, lock him in a tiny room with a computer and not let him out until he has built us a new Usagi Yojimbo Dojoboard Forum?

Heheh. I am happy to do ANYTHING to help this community, Usagi, and Stan. However, I would recommend against building a whole new forum to replace this one. No matter how nice you make it, the biggest problem is forcing folks to re-register and start over new. That will always be a turn-off to some.

And if you were truly willing to start over new anyway, then why not make the Annex that new home? As much as there is room for two communities, there's also plenty of room for one.

But, if you were asking me (and I realize you're not ), I would recommend getting someone who knows phpbb and having them customize the heck out of this place instead. The advantage of phpbb is that it's open-source; there should be infinite ways to update/customize/tweak it if you have someone who knows how. Unfortunately, I am not such a person. The learning curve for that kind of thing is steeper than I have time for, unfortunately.

shaxper wrote:

Maka wrote: I haven't explored the new site yet. But I think it is fine to start new. The diehard fans here will make the transition. We lose our stats (I still miss knowing when I started being a part of this community because I can't look up when I joined the first dojo) but, at least for me, that isn't that big of deal. It would be sad to not be able to access some of the post (i.e. How the rukotoys statues started off as a fan art project and turned into official licensed products. Or Stan sharing his travel notes, Sharon's updates, wedding to Julie, etc.). So hopefully we can have access to the old dojo content, like an archived place. Maybe like the 25th anniversary gift website - it exist but isn't promoted on the official UY.com website anymore. But if old memember want to see it, they know to google it and can check it out. Just thinking out loud.

Peace, maka

Just to make a quick correction, I don't think anyone is suggesting that The CCF UYD Annex should replace this site. If that was the will of community, we could easily make it happen (I could carry over your stats, and it may be possible to move over old threads -- I'd have to check), but that is not the intent as of now because we have no desire to disrupt the community as it exists. This has been an amazing community for years now, old software or not, and the last thing I want to do is disrupt it with the new.

If you like the new site and want to come over, you are very welcome, but the intent is not to forcibly replace one with the other. There's room for both to exist as sister sites, serving slightly different purposes. This community captures the die-hard fans looking to discuss Usagi--and nothing but! The CCF Annex is set up to capture the more casual fan who wants to talk Usagi along with a lot of other comic book subjects, as well as entice the newcomer who has never given much thought to Usagi before. We hope to create obsessive Usagi fans there. Thus, there's plenty of room for both communities.

Well said. I look forward to being a part of both communities.

Lobster Johnson wrote: Well said. I look forward to being a part of both communities.

It's been a lot of fun getting to know you over there today!

Great dialogue! I think that we have such a long history/thread that it would be a shame to "archive" it. It's indeed possible and I thought about it, but the most preferred method would be to update it. If anyone knows someone, please let me know!

If we do "archive" it, then we would also have to mitigate the re-registration issue. But, as I said, I'll try and find a way around it.

As for the French website, it still works for me; I thin Fanfan was going to transfer it to Wordpress. Haven't heard from him in a little, so I may contact him again soon.

Also, do we have a collective database for Usagi pics? I want to create one, like a Dropbox where web creators have content (updated as well) to pull from.

dhfujii wrote: As for the French website, it still works for me; I thin Fanfan was going to transfer it to Wordpress.

Do you have a link? The only page I could find is this one:
http://www.usagiyojimbo.fr/
But when I click on "Forum", I get this:
http://forum.usagiyojimbo.fr/
Which displays an error for me:

An error was encountered
Error: Unable to connect to MySQL server. MySQL reported: Access denied for user 'dbo173621077'@'212.227.xxx.xxx' (using password: YES).

dhfujii wrote: Also, do we have a collective database for Usagi pics? I want to create one, like a Dropbox where web creators have content (updated as well) to pull from.

I'm actually working on such a thing for the CCF Annex right now. I intend to use images from http://www.comicvine.com/ for now, as they have a comprehensive library of cover scans which they allow to be shared on other sites, but it's probably better for the long term to scan and host the covers ourselves. I do not own a scanner.

My 2 cents worth...

I've been on a lot of forums over the years. Many have eventually gone or changed for one reason or another, and while I tend to agree that change is good, it's not always the best thing to do. A lot depends on the type of change and how it is implemented.

Now, while I'm not a technical web or internet guru, I think our Dojo here, using the phpBB still has a lot of potential. It just needs someone familiar with it, to perform some simple magic. I'm sure getting any software updates taken care of might solve a lot of issues. Adding proper Usagi Yojimbo Dojo headers, banners, or other custom items would definitely enhance the forum. I know certain things can be done with phpBB because I've seen it done on other forums.

So I vote to save this forum, update it & give it a facelift.

Moving the forum or starting a new forum is an option, but while moving a forum can have benefits it can also have a downside, as it may lose many members and we would have to start from scratch with everything. Unless, we can transfer all the data. I know it's possible with some forum software, but that's about all I know. No idea how difficult or much work would need to be involved.

While I am not yet registered on the CCF Annex, I will do so soon. While I am not against multiple forums, I tend to stick with one mostly due to time. Multiple forums often tend to duplicate topics or discussion, and are thus very repetitive. I personally feel it is best to have a main forum (this dojo), and any other 'official' forums should be used primarily for announcements (events, schedules, contests, etc.)

I think social media is important also, even though I am not active on most formats. Usagi should have a presence on not only Facebook, but Twitter, Instagram, and whatever else is out there... this is the best way to reach as broad an audience as possible.

Hope my comments are helpful.