So I noticed that SandyB had a decent idea in the "Happy Thanksgiving" thread. Why don't we start a Facebook group for Montana Gamers. From that page, we could provide a link to here. That way we could find gamers from Montana a bit easier, maybe get some of those that used to come here to return here again. Then we could also post up notices for upcoming game events across the state there.

Sure, you might end up with more people responding over there, but at the same time we might get a few more people to notice that the MGO boards are still in existance.

Thoughts from the few of you that still show up here?

Despite all the pointless updates, pseudo games and ads facebook can actually be amazingly useful for getting large and small groups of people together and organized. I certainly would like to see more traffic and discussion on the boards and that could definitely be a way to pull more people in. My only concern would be that the facebook group would slowly replace mgo as the main forum for discussion, though as long as we keep this place active it shouldnt be a problem.

The group would also be an easy way for people to create local gaming events and get more people notified and invited. Overall I think it is a great idea.

So start the page then Grimace.

Still, what we need is more than Facebook, not that that is a bad idea, but a more comprehensive approach.

What I'd really like to see is a single webpage of which Facebook and the Discussion Board are integrated portions of a comp[rehensive strategy.

I'd really like to see us step up and host our own games - not necessarily a game day but more help the existing ones.

I'd like to do more advertising everywhere that sells games - Muse, Rook, Heroic Realms, Splash Page, etc. as well as Barnes and Nobles and Hastings. Posters and perhaps magnetic strips on the shelves that simply say "Looking for a game? montanagamers.org"

Part of the issue is that folks come here primarily not for discussion but to find a game. Once they do that they stop coming. Facebook at least is more in your face and keeps at people, which keeps the lines of communication open.

So what does all of that mean? Well, while MGO has always been JRoch's project I think its time we were more of a group driven project. We need to be brainstorming and not brought to a halt when events overwhelm any one of our lives - we all suffer from that and we need to move forward faster than our slowest member of the moment.

I do agree. The last time I had to rebuild the site due to hacking I really didn't get all the pieces in place that I wanted. I have a messaging system installed, but can't activate it until I replace the site theme, because the two of them collide in CSS.

Trying to offload the burden of site admin isn't really easy to do, since finding folks competent in back-end CMS management and integration is... well... normally something that requires a paycheck. If any of you actually know Joomla and its associated plug-in framework, you're welcome to ping me about the possibilities of taking over the ship as it were. As much as I'd like to think that a modern CMS like Joomla should "just work", it turns out it isn't so easy as that. Especially with third-party plugins.

Anyhow, I'm open to crowd-sourcing this with gamers that care about community.

I know it's not as purdy or anythin', but what about proboards or a similar site and using the existing dedicated domain name?

I've had a proboards message board for years and it functions despite my luddite efforts and allows for multiple administrators with very limited computer skills.

Okay, guys, I'm not the best at it by a long shot, but I created a group. It's called "Montana Gamers". So let me know if your own Facebook and we'll see if maybe we can get some more people on there, and then more people to come here in the future.

As for taking over these boards....Joomla was deemed too complicated for my tastes, so I'll be passing on that duty.

on FB. Anders Mejstrick. Add me and I'll see if I can't keep active on this.

Which of the Montana Gamer groups is it? I see three though I assumed it was the one with an mmo screen for the profile pic and joined that one.

Hopefully this link works.

Joined some random group then, did the request to join though on the link you posted.

I got your request and you're added, Letifer.

Wolf, you'll have to forgive my Facebook ignorance. I can't seem to figure out how to invite people that I'm not directly friends with.

Hopefully you can follow my link in post #552 and request to join.

requested to join the group. Yeah, I don't think you can invite people that you aren't friends with on facebook unless you have their email. I've run into that problem a few times as well.

I've mentally committed myself to spending some time working on MGO in the next few weeks. I do have a bit of vacation time I need to burn and fighting with Joomla and CommunityBuilder and whatnot should be very therapeutic... that is to say, painful. But I'll see if I can't get the in-site messenger working, iron out some of the auth bugs so that you don't have to log in every day to maintain the auth cookie, and figure out what to do about the them so it doesn't collide with other plugins.

So... don't be surprised if you occasionally see the site down for maintenance late at night.

Sounds good, JRoch! It would be good to get this place purring along nicely once we get more people on the Facebook page and can do some cross linking between sites. That way people can be drawn here to post and read things as well as being able to do some chatter on Facebook.

Ok, I just asked to join.
I hope people will use the "Events" feature to help get people together.
It is easy to do and you can invite people or make it open, I think.

Welcome to the group, oh ye who mentioned the idea.

All of you, invite some of your Facebook gaming friends that live in Montana.