Nothing's wrong...

[jAQUAN]

I'm just in an overall slump. None of my new clients (or old ones for that matter) are coming back for more and I just lost a golden contract. I'm starting to think I just suck which is leading to all kinds of other doubts. Life's just hard right now and when I'm down so is my post count.




...FK!

[flashpipe1]

I've been in a rut of just going to New Threads and looking for questions with 0 replies. Haven't been spending much time in the CL lately because I'm:
1) swamped with work (all flash-based e-learning for my job, and freelance flash e-learning...hardly any straight advertising animations which used to be my freelance mainstay)
2) trying to hold things together through the holidaze...
3) ...and, what lefteyewilly mentioned about the almost divorced couple...but that has nothing to do with FK...

Seem like there are fewer inane questions in the CL that fire everyone up or cause much thought...seems to be more interesting news item postings or observations, which are entertaining, but not much for introspection...although, look at the postings from today...seems like they're fairly busy...

Maybe it's the economy...although, recession seems to feed the e-learning community as companies try to save money by porting training to the web...

Maybe it's some sort of global trend away from the "virtual"...yeah, right...maybe some people are actually developing "lives" and stepping away from their monitors...hahahahaha...right...

[silverx2]

possibly because of the new world of warcraft expansion?

[whispers]

possibly because of the new world of warcraft expansion?

LMAO......

[argonauta]

I think one of the reasons is the popularity of Digg and rss. A few years ago, the coffee lounge was the place to get breaking news, weird news, fun links. But nowadays, if somebody posts a news item in the cl, it's very probably that we've all already seen it 10 times in digg and rss feeds already.

blogs and facebook have replaced forums in a lot of ways as well.

For me, it looks like fk is getting fat and old. She needs a plastic surgery.

[flashpipe1]

That could be...I spend more time on Facebook and StumbleUpon that in the CL. Just a more diversified way to waste, I mean spend, my time...

Nothing personal...

[sandyrivers]

I know I'm gonna get **** for this, but it's not like I come here really any more anyway so here goes...

I was a member of a star wars collecting community for like 10 years (I used to collect vintage star wars toy prototypes). I was well respected there, fit in easily with the other posters, made a few RL friends, etc... never had any problems. Then my interests changed and I decided I didn't want to do that anymore and wanted to explore some of my other passions (I sold my collection last year and put a huge downpayment on the house I bought in March with the 28k I made). Since I had no interest in the hobby, I left the board I was on in search of another home where I could learn about Flash and Photoshop, Flash being an old hobby of mine and PS being a relatively new passion. I naturally came here sine this is IMO the biggest Flash board out there and tried to get involved in both the CL and the Art and Animation boards (especially the Arena).

Here's why I stopped. There are a good portion of you on this board who are downright rude to new people. Some of the mods come across as elitist and stuck up, and some of the members are nothing but dicks. Notice I say some. A lot of you guys and gals are stand up folks, but try as I might, I didn't get the feeling that any of you accepted me as a member, so I eventually stopped coming. You know what, I take that back... I connected with 3 people: Lefty, who has been nothing but nice to me... Nats, who freaked out during last year's MM and left the board, and Rush, who you guys ran out of here on a rail.

This isn't meant to be some pity party on me. I've moved on and feel great about it, and I'd still like to participate in some Arena events from time to time... but I just got sick of trying to be friends with you guys...

That's really all I have to say... you asked why it's slow, there's the reason why I'm contributing to that slowness.

[flashpipe1]

Sorry to hear that sandy, always enjoyed your input where i've seen it...

it's sort of like kids on a playground, there will always be bullies and a$$h0les to put up with, but i always try to give them the attention they deserve...which is none...

i spend most of my time here trying to help new users since i got so much help (and still do) when i've got problems and it's generally a few people that kick in and answer most of my questions, so, when i come to a discussion/opinion thread i tend to give their replies more credence...

opinions are just that...

[silverx2]

fun without ridiculing someone? preposterous!

[pea3698]

Yep Silver scared everyone off. Personally I took an all print job and moved away from Flash, I was never much into the CL, posting at least. I do miss the Arena but don't feel I have the time to commit.

[sstalder]

I think this place deserves a much needed face lift / upgrade. All the other community targeted sites out there that are doing well now focus on the user experience. If you combine a great experience with all the information FK has I think it would benefit greatly.

The homepage is a complete mess as well, that needs to be scrapped and redone. Given the forums is probably the guts of FK the homepage could be a huge value if done right.

There is my 2 cents

[whispers]

Im curious..,and this is a serious question, what do 'YOU' think/consider to be a 'great experience'? I mean its a resource site, in my mind... outside of looking or posting for help... what other user experience can there be?

[silverx2]

Id love for Flashkit to intergrate with Kontain, So if for instance i click a flashkits users profile, their kontain loads up and i can see their photos, videos, and/or blogs.

[whispers]

good idea. however.. playing devil's advocate here, ..then some functionality of FK becomes dependent on a 3rd party ya know...

[japangreg]

...started grad school and up to my eye-bones in reading/homework/projects...

...that and Silver really needs to take a bath...

[sstalder]

I am not a user experience professional by any means. Maybe upgrade the forums, take advantage of a redesign (eye candy does attract people back).

And for some reason why do we constantly have the SAME EXACT questions over and over again in the noob forums. Somehow figure out a way to find the information people need because apparently people fail to use the search feature. Maybe make the search feature more appealing, or more available to use?

I don't even read the newbie and general forums anymore because it's always the same thing every day. One person with preloader troubles, another trying to figure out how to load an image or something. You can probably get rid of 30% of the duplicate data that is here because of this.

I am just brainstorming here. You asked, I gave my answer. I know some people may live life by the old "If it's not broke, don't fix it" idea but it feels like something needs to change here.

[silverx2]

good idea. however.. playing devil's advocate here, ..then some functionality of FK becomes dependent on a 3rd party ya know...

need to get some sort of synergy going. If Social networking and websites are going to be all the rage, what better way to jump start a forum, then to create it with the intent to link it completely to one of the sites.

Imagine if each thread in the CL was a Blog someone made on their social profile. And then the comments ended up being the replies to thread. And then wannabe could post his photos from a recent hiking trip, it would show up on Flashkit as a thread, and replies would automaticly move over to comment on his little site.

instead of going to all the differnt blogs, and myspaces and facebooks and linking everyone together. Soon as you sign up for face book you have to list your myspace/facebook/blog/Kontain

And then the **** would just ****ing synergize.

Why isn't this **** reality already? i just made someone millions of dollars.

of course gesteves would need to cut down on the live play by play chavez twitters

[argonauta]

Im curious..,and this is a serious question, what do 'YOU' think/consider to be a 'great experience'? I mean its a resource site, in my mind... outside of looking or posting for help... what other user experience can there be?

so would you change anything in flashkit?

even adding a couple of new smilies can improve the site, or at least make it more fun. Embedding youtube videos, provide an rss feed...

Flashkit has a purpose, and it works, but does that mean that it can't be improved? Or should it stayed the same for 4 more years?

Friendster was the same thing as Myspace, and somehow, everybody went to myspace. Then everybody went to facebook, but they're still the same type of site, it's just that somehow, myspace was cooler than friendster and facebook was cooler than myspace.

[whispers]

I wasnt calling you out.. so dont be offended or feel so.. I was seriously asking..

I doubt will ever be able to cure the noobies.. (redundant posts) .its nature of the beast...

but a better or more appealing search.. thats one..

[sstalder]

I have never really say down and thought "how can FK improve" but I will definitely keep it fresh in my mind and write down my thoughts as they come.

I think search would be huge though. I also noticed that a lot of people (mainly new members) will post the same exact thing in the Newbies and the General forums. I have always pondered why those two areas have not been consolidated into one?

Also now that AS3 is taking off, what about categorizing the forums for that. As in one forum for "coding help" and one for "motion help", etc...