[RacknRail]

Project-Buckfast, on Mar 7 2010, 02:38 PM, said:

I don't understand how a name change would help here. There's still posts from however many years ago by members that may trigger bad memories with some folks. The only way that goes away is by starting an entirely new site from the beginning. That means I've wasted a lot of time and money. It would also mean I'd have to spend more to get it going.

I'm not ruling anything out here. But I don't believe a name change will suffice for some folks here.

Say we did start fresh. What direction do we go that hasn't already been covered?

Any name ideas?

You'd be surprised what a name change might do. No, it won't make posts from years ago go away. I don't think anyone else believes that it would either. What it does do is gives a fresh start to a completely different place. Three forums all melded into one isn't exactly UTC anymore either, so why still call it that? A name change acknowledges a new beginning without having to build it from the ground up, like you're suggesting. You'd be very surprised what a name change can do. No, it won't make everyone's hard feelings disappear, but it can help in other ways to make the change a positive one, for everyone. Just my 2 cents.

Hey...you could have a silly contest for a new name and logo. That in itself could generate some positive buzz for the place.

[potato]

It seems more like UTC would be consuming P2PC, while maintaining the board structure from P2PC. Keep what you want from here, but keep the UTC name?

I think a rebranding would be a better fresh start, especially considering some of the history. No, it probably isn't all that relevant anymore, but it obviously left a bad taste in some people's mouths, and that probably isn't going to go away in a hurry.

Wasn't the original beginning of this place to be *separate* from all the bullshit at other sites? A place to go free of that junk? "Merging" p2pc into that is, to me, just undoing that.

[Mazer]

Project-Buckfast, on Mar 7 2010, 03:38 PM, said:

I don't understand how a name change would help here. There's still posts from however many years ago by members that may trigger bad memories with some folks. The only way that goes away is by starting an entirely new site from the beginning. That means I've wasted a lot of time and money. It would also mean I'd have to spend more to get it going.

Nobody wants you to feel like you've wasted anything on this effort, we all appreciate what you're trying to do for us. I'm just hoping that you'll attack this problem with the same level of ambition that led you to buy these sites in the first place. The merge option is still on the table and I gather that, from a technical and financial standpoint, it's still the best one. I think with a little planning you can preserve the structures of these forums and keep them separate while merging them into one vBulletin system.

So imagine, if you were going to create a new forum from scratch with a starting post count of zero, what you would want it to be. What subforums would you create? What would you name it? Picture it, and while you're doing that, imagine that at the bottom of the list on the subforum page there are two extra subforums, one is named Unite the Cows and the other is named The P2P Consortium. Inside each subforum the structures of nested subforums and the locations of threads are preserved from the day you imported them. But because you merged them into the main forum, its member list and post tallies are the sum of both forums. Basically what you'd have is a brand spankin' new forum with a built-in user base.

It's technically feasible, isn't it? It might take a little more planning, but since you wouldn't have to shuffle old threads into different subforums, it might actually be easier to pull off. Other than registering a new domain it shouldn't cost you any more money. Best of all this new forum would be all yours to shape as you see fit and you wouldn't be inheriting all the baggage the previous admins carried around. You could tuck the old archives away, out of sight, out of mind, where they won't distract your new forum as it grows and takes on a life of its own. Really, it isn't the archive of threads that makes the forum, it's the group of active participants that counts. You knew that when you bought these sites, right?

[Dr. Avery]

There are two communities involved in this. Any talk of rebranding prior to the merge unfairly (and disproportionally) biases the conversation in our favor.

[Mazer]

Dr. Avery, on Mar 7 2010, 06:50 PM, said:

There are two communities involved in this. Any talk of rebranding prior to the merge unfairly (and disproportionally) biases the conversation in our favor.

What, they're not having this same conversation over there?

[potato]

Mazer, on Mar 8 2010, 12:04 AM, said:

Dr. Avery, on Mar 7 2010, 06:50 PM, said:

There are two communities involved in this. Any talk of rebranding prior to the merge unfairly (and disproportionally) biases the conversation in our favor.

What, they're not having this same conversation over there?

http://www.unitethecows.com/site-discussio...-new-owner.html
http://www.unitethecows.com/announcements/...consortium.html

I don't have time right now to read through the first one I linked, it's 4 pages long.
The second is a link back to this thread.

I hadn't logged into UTC for quite some time, as the first thing I saw once I got in was a PM dating back to Sept 2008 from mathmission saying they were trying to bring the board back to life.

And... I probably missed it, but i didn't know p2pforums merged into UTC in January: http://www.unitethecows.com/digital-media-...-utc-today.html

[Pooter]

potato, on Mar 8 2010, 04:36 AM, said:

And... I probably missed it, but i didn't know p2pforums merged into UTC in January: http://www.unitethecows.com/digital-media-...-utc-today.html

Thats funny.

My account from p2pforums wasn't merged and I don't care.

*

[RacknRail]

Dr. Avery, on Mar 7 2010, 05:50 PM, said:

There are two communities involved in this. Any talk of rebranding prior to the merge unfairly (and disproportionally) biases the conversation in our favor.

We do have a right to discuss the fate of this forum and its members, don't we?

[vampirechronicles]

the way i see it forums come and go
hell u can make your own
...........................................
i think the merge wont affect me either way, except i just go to p2pconsortium and what have u and it takes me to where ever, i am still going to be the same freakin person and only going to communicate with people i have known, so any new names that i see there will be like blah. *like that blah blah song.

so no problems 4 me
peace

[vampirechronicles]

Dr. Avery, on Mar 7 2010, 08:50 PM, said:

hmm i am a sexy biotch

yes u are
when i use to hit da clubs there was this sexy midget, he was fine as hell * that has nothing to do wit topic

[Project-Buckfast]

we have an account for "pooter" you have 29 posts and were last active in nov09

if you expected to have more posts from p2pforums, we pruned some inactive users. That may have web the case here.

If you cannot login, you will need to reset your password.

I'm at work now, I will give a more in depth reply later.

Pooter, on Mar 8 2010, 02:40 PM, said:

potato, on Mar 8 2010, 04:36 AM, said:

And... I probably missed it, but i didn't know p2pforums merged into UTC in January: http://www.unitethecows.com/digital-media-...-utc-today.html

Thats funny.

My account from p2pforums wasn't merged and I don't care.

*

[JackSpratts]

Project-Buckfast, on Mar 7 2010, 05:38 PM, said:

Any name ideas?

ok, to get the ball rolling:

unitep2p

unitedp2p

unitedpeers

or my favorite: UP!

up is interesting because while it seemingly breaks with the past it actually recognizes and honors it - for those who know it grew from the initials of several foundational sites. for newcomers who aren't interested in history, the name is simple, easy to remember, has vertical motion and is fresh, while ambiguous enough to acquire it's own set of user created identifiers.

- js.

[multi]

I think it is pretty disgusting this place being trashed in favor of UTC
save you self the hassle and just close it.... nothing would make me even want to look at UTC... at least there is the sense of community here, UTC has always been a barren trasheap of bitchyness

ah well... I was here for early days of P2PC... I am lucky I didn't miss the last ones completely


(PS Jack.. I like your name suggestions)

[Pooter]

UP! sounds a little too impersonal, like something is missing.


Perhaps UP YOURS! would be more fitting.


*

[Project-Buckfast]

OK. Maybe I should explain this better and give some perspective. I've written this across some/all of the sites (in one form or another) before any of the merges, whether it was in staff forums, public forums or not I can't remember. I probably missed something somewhere.

A little background info...

I was an admin at UTC a few years back. I resigned when Russ sold the site in 2006 (i think it was 2006) without warning. I became a community mod here. I was active on both sites for some time. Anyway, I dropped off the scene for a few years and came back in Sept/November last year. UTC was dead, haunted. The owner had no interest in the site other than to make some $$. I seen potential, looked up the owner and offered to buy. He agreed, UTC was mine, on my server within 2 days.

A little while later I head over to P2PForums, guess what, another ghost town haunted by mostly spammers. I watched it for a while, then bam, it was offline. So again, I called up scythe and turns out the site was hogging some needed server space. We struck a deal and P2PForums was mine. I make this public knowledge and some jokes are made about P2PConsortium. "Never Say Never" a few days of chatting and again, I'm a new owner of a cool P2P community.

Now, what to do with all these sites. I don't have the time to learn the in's and outs of the 3 different softwares let alone run them and restore them. The obvious idea of a merge makes the most sense. So ahead we go with P2PForums, a successful merge instantly boosting traffic. It was the best of all 3 sites for traffic. My hat goes off to Scythe for his hard work over the years.

The members of P2PC weren't fussed on moving home, the poll results showed that. However and as a side note forum polls are dubious at showing real results at best. So, here we are.

UniteTheCows Direction Beginning 2010

After P2PForums was merged into UTC, we decided to take a new path. This has kinda been put on hold while we work our the plans for P2PC. However, P2P is not the hot topic it once was, many here know that, and many will tell you that. That includes me since I've become owner of 3 P2P communities. Anyway at UTC, P2P is no longer our main focus, although it remains a part of the site, we are focusing on new areas. This is where change comes into play. Adapt to survive etc. If we look at Slyck, ZeroPaid, TorrentFreak etc, they have unique news, video tutorials etc. We don't need another site specialising in that category. Even if we wanted to, there's a lot of catching up to do.

I think we have gotten a little carried away in this thread, so I am going to create a more realistic proposal. Some folks have come to me with suggestions which have helped with these ideas.

Proposed plans for merging.

Merge P2PConsortium into UniteTheCows.

Create a "GraveYard" forum and bury 90% of both sites.

The 10% we are left with is quality content, tutorials, guides, ect. If these need updated, then we update them and draw more attention to them by promoting them to the CMS.

Create a new forum structure, layout, names etc.

This means if we have no interest in eithier sites history we needn't dwell in those individual sections of the "GraveYard". This eliminates the past for anyone that wants it that way. It also gets rid of the shit/useless stuff we've gather over the last 8 years.

The name would remain the same. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, we do not want P2P in our domain name. It's restrictive to a single topic. This was discussed for P2PConsortium even before I took over. I have spent a fair amount of time and money on SEO recently. This has proved worth it so far and I can only see it getting better. If we ditch the domain, we lose everything we've worked at to get us where we are.

We already have a Facebook page, Twitter integration (currently disabled)etc... We can expand upon this need be. Our Twitter brings quite a few hits and has generated new member registrations.

From a site owner/admins POV this is the best option. I believe it is also a fair one.

[RacknRail]

Pooter, on Mar 8 2010, 08:49 AM, said:

UP! sounds a little too impersonal, like something is missing.


Perhaps UP YOURS! would be more fitting.


*

Yes, UPYOURS is a great name. I really think it says it all. It expresses the feeling of the old place while projecting a fresh new start for everyone.

[JackSpratts]

RacknRail, on Mar 8 2010, 02:32 PM, said:

Pooter, on Mar 8 2010, 08:49 AM, said:

UP! sounds a little too impersonal, like something is missing.


Perhaps UP YOURS! would be more fitting.


*

Yes, UPYOURS is a great name. I really think it says it all. It expresses the feeling of the old place while projecting a fresh new start for everyone.

i was thinking more along the lines of UPloads, as in contributors not leechers, but upyours does have its charms.

- js.

[Mazer]

Project-Buckfast, on Mar 8 2010, 11:53 AM, said:

The members of P2PC weren't fussed on moving home, the poll results showed that. However and as a side note forum polls are dubious at showing real results at best. So, here we are.

That poll and its thread had member participation like this forum hasn't seen in months. I wouldn't dismiss it so blithely.

[multi]

United States of P2P... but no you are an Irishman?
Why would you ever want to take over a clique of bloody yanks that like to treat anybody form anywhere else in the world like a farken retard.... p2p yanks are absosolutly the worst at this than any other online community on the net... which btw I have been using for quite a while.. there are a few exceptions to this

Rasta was one here that wasn't like that.. that is the only reason I ever was on the staff here and he had a constant battle the whole time I was here from the rest of the staff that just could not cope with me.. you are only put up with if you are American if you tend to be outspoken /psycho .. outwise you will be rejected outright

All the same a I have some nice memories of this place and had fun with a few others that would play with me... nothing ventured nothing gained..UTC however was always pretty much a constant onslaught of snobbery... everything was a waste of time there unlike this place

It has still been nice knowing alot of you, its a shame it has to end here

Goodbye
and good luck with the new place

[FreakinWeasel]

Oh common now Multi some of my best friends are brits from UK-T and hell my heritage is Welsh. Can't we all just get along...