Forums Announcement - 04/22/2009 - Good things Happening!
Hey CrackBerry Nation,
As we approach 1 Million registered members at CrackBerry.com, I'm happy to make this post today. 2008 was a big year for us - and even into the first few months of 2009 we had our hands full just trying to get the servers keep up with our growth in traffic. Now that things are a lot more reliable on that front (always room for us to improve) as we move through 2009 and into 2010 we're putting our focus on further improving and growing CrackBerry.com's content and community. There are many areas where we're doing well but I know can be improved (and we plan to tackle them all with time), and today's announcement marks the start of many good things that will come over the months ahead.
New Forums Managers!
Adam Zeis (formerly azeis) and Bla1ze have both joined the CrackBerry team. Taking a step up from their roles as volunteer Executive Forums Moderators, Adam and Bla1ze are both going by the titles of Editor, Forums Manager. Adam will be working with us full time (days - EST) and Bla1ze will be half-time evenings/nights.
While the job tasks of these positions do extend beyond the forums, as Forums Managers the major function of these newly created positions is to help us do a more comprehensive and consistent job in managing the hustling and bustling CrackBerry forums. The Forums Managers will work directly with me and the volunteer moderation team to ensure we're doing the best job we can. And when it comes to the forum moderation rules that sometimes need to be enforced (member conduct stuff, forum policy, etc.), it will be the forums managers who take action on these items. This will ensure consistency and equal treatment to all members of the site.
On the content side of things, you've probably noticed Bla1ze and Adam showing up more in the homepage blogs already, but they'll also be putting a big focus on content and organization within the forums and mobile site as well. If you click through to http://m.crackberry.com you'll already find the new OTA Apps Directory at the top which is Adam's handywork.
All said, it's going to mean good things for CrackBerry.com all around. Welcome to the team Adam and Bla1ze!
Engaging Our Community!
We have soooo many knowledgeable, talented and loyal members here and every week I receive emails or PMs from members wanting to help out more on the site, be it on the moderation team, writing an article or two for the blogs, or otherwise. The passion for the site amazes me everyday. In the past I've often had to say stay tuned... there simply wasn't the time to run the day to day and take on more (though I would have liked to). Moving ahead, we're going to do a much better job of giving members the chance to do more on the site.
Though we have two new 'company' forums managers, the role of the volunteer moderation team is as important as ever - lead by example, assist the community, keep the spam and trolls out, and try and stay on top of the thousands of posts being made daily on the site. We're going to increase the transparency here and give more members the chance to help out on the boards. More to come on this...
And on the editorial and other contribution side, our CrackBerry 2.0 planning/work is already on the way, and in that we have some good things planned. But as that gets built, in the meantime there's still ways for us to get your voices heard beyond the forum community if you so desire. You may have recently noticed on the blogs articles by members other than the usual suspects (duvi, chaz and CX each did some BB 101s)... we're going to give more members that sort of opportunity if they so desire. More to come on this too...
Good Things Coming
Per usual, this is way too long. But I hope you're as excited by the announcement as I am. We'll follow up with some more details as noted above, but with this post we're really signaling the start of more good things for both forum members and CrackBerry Nation as a whole.
Keep Crack'n!
Kevin