With everything that has been happening recently, it’s been a struggle to get everything together for what I dub the Ace of Spades Tri-Interview Part One. After this interview, another three websites will be interviewed to be part of the part deux to this project. There is a possibility of a part three, but I’m not sure. Without further ado, I would like to present to you three wonderful websites: Starfish Factory, Sparrowhawk’s Nest, and Phoenix Fire. Each of the admins has been very cooperative with the project and has been more than willing to fill out the questions I asked them. I ask that you please visit each of them by clicking on the links provided by their respective buttons.

I hope you’ll enjoy Ace of Spades’ Tri-Interview: Part One.

INTERVIEW WITH LIVYVAZZ OF STARFISH FACTORY

1. What is Starfish Factory?
Starfish Factory is a forum where people from all over the world can get together and talk about things that they enjoy.
2. Why did you start Starfish Factory?
I started Starfish Factory because I generally love making forums and I love starfish.
3. Where would you say most of the members come from? (do you get them through affiliates, places where you place an ad, Google, etc.)
Well I would say all my members come from forums that I’m a member of, I haven’t submitted SF onto any search engines, however I’m affiliates with Pink Imoen, Legends and Evening Sparkles.
4. What makes Starfish Factory unique?
Um…that’s a hard one. I think it’s the fact that the whole board names are named after things from the sea.
5. What are you goals for Starfish Factory for 2006?
Well, my main goals are to have a great time and everyone else to have a great time, to get more active and valuable members and gaining more hits by the day.
6. Any final comments?
Thank you for giving me this opportunity.

CHECK OUT STARFISH FACTORY:

(Starfish Factory is currently closed for an unknown amount of time)

Starfish Factory

INTERVIEW WITH SPARROWHAWK OF SPARROWHAWK’S NEST

1. What is Sparrowhawk’s Nest? (Describe the forum a bit)
Sparrowhawk’s nest is my little site for anyone who is too intimidated by the huge sites. We are a friendly community with lots of fun activities.
2. What makes your site unique from the other forums?
The people who come here everyday. Everyone has a different personality and they are all quite interesting to listen and talk to.
3. I noticed the name “Lome” in the URL. How did you come to run a LOME site?
Because this site used to be the old L.O.M.E. Productions, until Linkmax found a better web host.
4. Why should people come to your forum?
Because we have lots to offer them, despite our small size, like a warm welcome, custom title, a sig/avatar set if they want it and a decent variety of user groups to join.
5. Any final comments?
Have a super great day everyone!

CHECK OUT SPARROWHAWK’S NEST:

 Sparrowhawk’s Nest

INTERVIEW WITH GOKU OF PHOENIX’S FIRE

1. What is Phoenix’s Fire? (Describe the site)
Phoenix’s Fire is basically the third site in the LOME loop, but I like to think that it is much more than that.
2. What makes your site unique?
I’m not really sure what EXACTLY makes this place different from other sites. But if I had to pick something, I would say that it’s the wonderful people who join our little hovel. They bring they’re individual personalities together and really make this little place feel special.
3. In one word, describe your members.
Unique.
4. How did this site come into being?
Well, I originally made this site because I was tired of being the only one out of the three of us who didn’t have their own web forum.
5. What are your goals for 2006?
To get more members and make this place a fun place to be.
6. Any final comments?
I hope that you have a fun filled day! And I also want you to enjoy being a member here.

CHECK OUT PHOENIX’S FIRE:

Phoenix’s Fire

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS REVIEW. PLEASE VISIT ALL OF THE WEBSITES THAT WERE INTERVIEWED.

Come back often…we’ll be having Part Deux in a short amount of time!

Editorial Note: This is the first review and will be the standard format of all reviews. I will generally choose one website to review every once in a while. Requests can be taken, though only on my approval, obviously.

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INTRODUCTION 

Xero’s Gaming Forum is a one of a kind website. It’s one of the few forums that can pull off the large amount of posts, while still feeling home-y - like a small forum. Why? Excellent mods and admins, plenty of forums with a wide variety of topics to choose from, and friendly members.

REVIEWS

Admins and Mods: I have found only the best in these admins and mods at XGF. Each and every one of them works extremely hard to keep the forum neat and clean, but not being hard-nosed about it. For instance, TacoBob and I had a more-than-slightly off-topic conversation in a thread and he did not once start flaming me like some admin/mods might do had this happened, nor lock up the post. Just a friendly reminder sometime after the convo started. The two admin/mods I know the best at this time are Shadow (through PI, Spore, and Sims2Talk) and TacoBob, mostly because I see TacoBob on almost all the time I’m on.

Forums: Clean and tidy and well developed, each of the forums at XGF have a specific purpose for each topic you’re discussing. The admins did a great job of making each forum individual of a single subject so as not to confuse. For instance, gaming systems are not all shoved into one forum. There is a Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, Sega, PC, and Handheld forums, all for different systems. It’s nice to have such a wide variety, simply because you always know what you’re going to be talking about when you enter - meaning you don’t have to go into a ‘Console’ Forum and say to yourself, “Ugh, I don’t care about this system.”

Members: Such a wide variety of members exist. Most of them are male, as it usually is in gaming forums, but the site has prominent female members such as site admin, Shadow. Of the members you have several interesting characters, all of their own personalities. Some are quirky, some are brilliant, some are critical, some are insane, some are just plain nice, and many are a mix. It’s great to know that you can have such a variety of members, male and female, all with something interesting to say.

Downsides: This is the part where I list some things that range from minor problems, to things that are just…weird. Fortunately, XGF has very few problems and those that are are very minor. One such problem is a glitch within the forum programming itself. It seems that once you leave the forum index, all of the new post icons go back to ‘no new posts’, meaning that each time I have to scroll down to see if that forum has been active today in the right-hand table with forum info. Another one is the interesting setup of the forums. “Main Boards” has things like General talking and such, which confused me when I first looked at the site (long before I signed up). Also, all console systems are at the bottom of the page. But these are minor things that mean NOTHING. XGF is almost as flawless as a ’small’ forum can be (though the members certainly are LARGE on posting!).

INTERVIEWS

Here is where I’ll interview a few top members at the website. I’ve decided to use the admins, since I don’t want to freak some random member out by PMing them for an interview.

Interview with Xero:

1. Why did you decide to create XGF?
I was an experienced forum owner and I took a break from the internet for a while. I rejoined a couple of friends ones, mostly role-playing and videogame forums. I thought I’d start another one, as I loved the forum experience, but this time I would try to make it bigger and better then the others, and put more effort into it. Thus XGF was created.

2. What hardships did you go through while trying to build up the forums?
Not a lot really, although in XGF’s early stages we had trouble gaining members at one stage, but a bit of luck and hard work and we went from 15 to 20 in two days, and 3 of those members are some of our veteran posters. Other hardships were arguments with one of our staff members abusing his powers, which eventually led to his departure for a while and a hacking by one of our former top posters.

3. Are you pleased with the general attitude of the forums, member participation, etc?
I am very happy, the members and staff both contribute to new ideas for the forums, like competitions, new logos, etc.

4. What makes XGF a great forum?
Why is XGF such a great forum? The members are all such great people and everyone gets along so well, and my fellow staff members are the most helpful and friendly people who I have ever worked with! This along with all the effort everybody’s put in to keep the forum up and running etc, I think is the reason why XGF is such an awesome forum.

5. If you could change one thing about XGF, what would it be?
Hmm that’s a hard one, I don’t really want to change much about it. I guess maybe if uploading mods and new templates were allowed on this host, that’s about it.

Interview with TacoBob:

1. Why did you first join XGF?
I was originally a member of the Animal Crossing Ahead forums. Xero and I were already pretty good friends at that point, and when he advertised, I decided to join. I knew from the start it would be a nice website, it had a nice owner, and the topic would interest people; and it has. 81 people to be exact. I was falling in love with gaming at the moment, and I am still hooked to it. “Why not?” I thought to myself. “It interests me.” So I joined. I loved it so much I completely forgot about the ACA forums, and just kept posting here. It appears as though that turned out for the better, eh?

2. What makes XGF a great place to visit?
I guess the overall fun and uniquity XGF is. We aren’t as strict as some websites. We let you kind of do what you want most of the time. Of course, that’s not to say we’re rule free. Also, considering how amazing and advanced gaming is becoming (Like the Revolution’s controller, for example), it is certainly a fun topic to discuss. Another thing is the gaming controversy. A little annoyance named Jack Thompson raised quite a debate a few months back. Last but not least, is just the amount of things to post about. Sure, we’re mostly about gaming, but at XGF you can discuss movies, music, love, school, and really any other thing. We’re a bit more of a forum. It’s more of a community, per se.

3. How did XGF succeed in becoming so large?
You know, I’m not exactly sure. Heh heh.
It was hard to see XGF at 81 members in January, but we somehow did it. By this time next year, we’re expecting to have over 150 members.
How we can accomplish that is sort of unclear for now. But I guess we’re going to do what we did this time. We just advertise, get the word out. I’m not saying we just advertise everywhere. We join the forums, we like to get out the message “We’re not just here to advertise”. When we join, we don’t want to just advertise and go on our way. That’s not what we would want happening to us. The average member is the most important part of a forum. We want them to feel welcome, and by being friendly on their forum, we will have already established that we’re friendly and welcoming.

4. How did you come about becoming an admin?
Well, after doing many things for XGF, I was promoted to moderator position. I was pretty much like that for a while. Doing things as mods should. But it May, we were hacked (which I will not elaboate on), and I was given immediate administrative powers to deal with the situation. I fixed the problem, and we were okay. After that, I really wasn’t supposed to remain an admin. But after performing under that sort of pressure, I guess Xero thought I deserved them I suppose.

5. Describe some features of what makes a good forum.
All forums need a few key ingredients: A good staff, good rules, and something that will really catch the eye. Something that will make someone say: “Hey, that sounds interesting. I want to become a part of that.”. Of course, when they do join, the staff needs to be nice, but still do their job. They need to interact with the members, and make them feel welcome there. A few problems with some forums, is that everything is spot on, but the staff is messed up. They are either waaaay too strict about things, or just very uninviting. It’s nice to let your members feel equal to you. Not make them think you’re better than them. Because you’re not. You just help run things. Remember: You’re consumer keeps you alive. Respect what keeps you alive( so don’t go off mocking them or acting superior).
All you future forum owners better pay attention to that.

Interview with Shadow:

1. Why did you first join XGF?
I met Xero at Emily’s forum, he advertised there and I ended up joining (back then the forum had 22 members).

2. What makes XGF a great place to visit?
I like how friendly everyone here is, you really feel like you belong.

3. How did XGF succeed in becoming so large?
I’m not really sure.

4. How did you come about becoming an admin?
One day I was send a PM asking if I wanted to be an admin, I was very surprised, I accepted.

5. Describe some features of what makes a good forum.
Friendly members, a good staff, to have things organized and under control.

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My review on Xero’s Gaming Forum has come to an end. XGF is an excellent forum for everyone, no matter what age, gender, etc. Hardcore games and softcore gamers can each fit in. XGF is by far the best general gaming forum I’ve been to.

So why are you waiting? Check out XGF now!

 Xero’s Gaming Forum

(Our next review will be annouced soon! It should be published sometime next week!)