They say that Rome wasn’t built in a day. And yes, they’re right! But they can say the same about our miniature painting forum! It took us some time to make it what it is now, and we felt it was time to change some things!
You don't rebuild a forum in a day
Chest of Colors miniature painting forum
Most of you surely know that one of the features of Chest of Colors is our miniature painting forum. For some of you it’s the central part of the website, and it’s great that they feel this way. The forum is the meeting place for our community of miniature painters, pretty friendly and active. It’s also where quite a few members of our team were spotted, appreciated for their contributions to our community and invited to the group.
The first posts there date back to April 9th, 2005, which is about the time that the Headblast Design forum was abandoned and a new home for its community was needed. During the time a nice community of painters gathered around our forum, thousands of posts were written and many painted miniatures were presented there. Sure, we may be smaller than the biggest miniature painting forums on the internet, but still many people choose our forum and praise that it feels more friendly, more personal and more helpful than most other forums – including the biggest players in the game.
Why change anything?
During all the years much has changed. Some users disappeared, some new ones joined us. Groups of users formed, reformed and ceased to be. Sections of our forums became more or less popular. Manufacturers of miniatures came and went. Game systems saw their glory and decline. And finally: our site underwent some serious changes.
The first serious change happened when we had to separate the forum from the old green website. Many people knew only the forum and were surprised to know there was also a website to accompany it. Both parts of the webiste had different layouts and they felt like totally separate things. This state lasted for a few years until we managed to rearrange and re-launch our website in its new form.
We had some long discussions about the forum and the shape it should have. Some most frequent users of our forum talked about the sections which grew to be more popular than we expected and others which happened to become abandoned and almost dead. We felt that things would better be rearranged for improved usability and for more enjoyable experience of spending time our forum.
We managed to give the same consistent look to the website and the forum again and to integrate them partially. The integration is still not complete because logging in to the forum and to the main website is still done separately, but we may change it one day. We will see if it’s necessary at all. And when it was done, it was time for the changes we discussed!
The pub you visit
Yet before the changes were introduced, some of our members started a nice thread with thanks for the work we do to make Chest of Colors a homely place for us all. It was so very encouraging to see that most people liked the way I felt about the forum:
I always think about our forum as an old pub that you drop into one day.
You know, there are many of them but you stumble into one and see people chatting on topic and off topic, giving each other ironic comments and sharing private jokes. First you may feel strange and not quite fitting there. But then you spend an hour or two. Listen to the guys there and then find the courage to stand up and say “hello, I am new here”, and then you’re a part of it all. Then their jokes are yours, their place is yours, and you feel at home there.
Think about our forum as an old pub that you drop into one day
That’s what I always wanted this place to feel like for fellow fans of miniatures.
It seems it does. Thanks to the people who spend their time here. The site is not about the computer code, servers, layouts, etc. It’s all about the people. Just like a pub is not just the walls – it’s the people who create the atmosphere.
Are the changes drastic?
No, they aren’t.
What we did was:
removing rarely used sections and merging them to more active ones that they would fit in
reorganization of some sections (like creation of a complete Rules, FAQs and technical help section on top of the forum) and moving topics and sections to places they belong more than to their previous locations.
adding guidelines to showcase and WIP sections
adding a new method of posting images to our forum, so they don’t break the website’s layout
adding a medals system to award users for their achievements and contributions
improving the system of reporting posts and threads to moderators, so users can help us keep the forum clean and in good order
rewriting our forum’s rules and answers to frequently asked questions
marking Polish forums in a visible way, so people know which part of the site is the international one and which is the Polish one
So it’s more of tidying the place, cleaning it, and trying to put things in better order. We hope you like the new order of things better and that it’s more natural and obvious for our miniature painting friends. We know that our users will need some time to get used to it, but we believe it’s not too much of a problem.
Is this all?
Well, honestly speaking there’s still a bit of work to be done. Some smileys need to be added, some old duplicate threads and posts need to be taken care of, some dead links have to be located and fixed. But we hope that with your help (which is so much easier now) we can do it and our forum will become an even nicer place for us all to hang around.
So if you haven’t done it yet, pay us a visit at the miniature forum, take a look around and see how things are organized now. Do you like the new order of sections? Do you think the whole place is more enjoyable now? Do you feel anything should be improved to make it the kind of forum you want to spend time on?
Share your comments, they’re the best source of insight and inspiration we can get, because we want you – miniature painters – to enjoy the place!
Hello again!
So we’re back online. The Chest of Colors web site and the forum – for all your miniature painting fans! The whole process took more time than we expected, but to keep the long story short – the transition was not a small thing and had to be done by one person only.
“I’ll be back!” – I told you….
And now the long story:
Why change anything?
We started talking about possible changes years ago. Probably more than 2-3 years ago. Something was going wrong with the website, and its integration with the forum had to be removed. Since that time some people actually started to believe that the “green website” and “blue forum” are two completely separate entities. Moreover, so little was going on at the main site that it was merely a gallery attached to the forum (well, maybe with the addition of a few tutorials, but very rarely updated).
Aditionally security problems started disturbing our peace, and so we had to disable some features of the website… It was becoming more and more lifeless…
Upgrade is planned
So we started preparing a new version of the website, moved to a different engine, and it was all going well, until real life kicked in and before the trouble was gone a new major version of the engine was released, making almost all of the work already done – useless.
Instead of giving up, after checking all the odds-and-ends, we decided to move on to the new version, adjust to the new conditions and begin the works from the scratch. In the meantime we learned that a little Balrog will be born (no, Balrog is not his real name, and if you still don’t know who I am talking about, you should definitely check the Painting Mum blog. This little boy, still unborn at that time, gave us a huge boost of motivation, because we knew that if we don’t finish the changes before his birth, it will take long before we can have enough time to finish it…
And boy, we were right! Balrog was expected to be born in late June 2010, but he didn’t want to wait that long – although all we needed was like a week or two of work to be able to launch some kind of a website, the birth of this little boy made it totally impossible. We didn’t expect such an active baby, who didn’t leave us even minutes of free time for anything miniature related. So the whole thing had to be put aside for months and it was only when he was a few months old before we could resume our works. But guess what…
We’re getting there…
… Yes, you surely guessed right – the engine was changed so much in the meantime that continuing our works was only as good as starting them from the scratch. But this time our motivation was huge. We chose to make the last technical switch and finally move on with the works at the cost of private lives, hobby time, sleep, and family or social lives. But this allowed us to launch the site on August 1st 2011!
We’re getting there…
Sure, the site is not perfect and many flaws are still being found and taken care of. But you can visit the Chest of Colors again, and soon we’re going to have cool new articles for you! Not only tutorials but also completely new concepts!
Thank you
So at this point, speaking on the whole team’s behalf (but surely mostly on mine) let me thank:
Ana and Balrog, whose patience and tolerance allowed me to devote my time to the task of upgrading the website
the Chest of Colors team and painting studio – for their understanding amd bearing with frequent delays on my end while I was focused on this job
our forum users, members of our community – for staying with us for all the time and not leaving despite all the technical shortcomings
all the miniature fans who contacted me and had to wait very long for their answers and any other actions on my end
you, the readers, who waited so long for the website – first bearing with the old website, and then with the “the Chest is being repainted” announcement.
Thank you all very much!
Where are we now?
Now the website is still missing some features and much content is still to be added. But you know, the team members and authors need to get used to the new site before they contribute some new stuff, and I still need to fix all the glitches and optimize the website for your better experience. In the meantime we have some interesting articles for you to read – and they’re coming very soon! So stay tuned!
We’ll be still tweaking the site, so forgive us if the site behaves in a strange way sometimes. We’ll be adding new features as well, but we’ll keep you informed about it.
And what’s new? Let me give you a short roundup of all the major changes on the site…
What’s new?
What’s new
The new features include:
changed frontpage, so you can now easily see and access new stuff on the website, jump to recommended posts or fundamental must-reads
redesigned menu, as most people never used the side menu and chose the horizontal one – you wanted it, you got it!
better “About us” section, as the old one was not only outdated but also not very informative
tagged posts – for easy access to posts on particular subjects
tagged photos – now you can move through galleries by clicking on tags under photos
RSS feeds – never miss any interesting news from our website, get them delivered directly to your feed reader
better integration with social websites like Facebook or Twitter – now you can share interesting content with your friends easily
comments – now you can ask questions or comments to our posts, so you’re not only a reader but also a participant in discussions!
medals system on the forum – various achievements will be rewarded with special badges visible in profiles
donate button – if you appreciate the work we put into this website and keeping it interesting and want to help us cover the costs of hosting, you may send us a little donation
And what’s yet to come?
updates via email – delivered straight to your mailbox
newsletter – even more stuff available exclusively for our subscribers
integration of logins for the forum and website – you will log in to one of them an be logged on to both
new columns (regular or irregular) with some cool contents, now secret 😉
links to websites useful for miniature enthusiasts
more and more articles, photos, and interesting discussions with the members of our community!
Thanks for your attention!
Now it’s time to finish this post… I kept your attention for long enough already.
Instead of sitting here any longer, why don’t you take a look around, see what’s available and what not. Maybe you have some suggestions? Ideas of stuff you would like to see or read about here? What are your expectations and miniature painting plans for the rest of 2011? And maybe you just want to say “good to see you back”? Leave a comment below and we’re all ears!
