The forum has so many issues in need of resolution before attracting lasting new members can even be considered, in my opinion. It is a mess. For one, it is attached to a dead site, proudly advertising reviews of films released in the summer of 2012. Sub-section descriptions are full of typos and outdated references. It crashes quite frequently, and apparently it also redirects to a Japanese site as of late. I have to enter "http://63.141.253.158" to open it on my laptop because it often will not load when I enter the proper Web address. New members have to endure a bizarrely outmoded, low-tech e-mail-confirmation system.

I reached out to Lecter on Facebook to find out who has the access plus expertise to make the necessary changes. If there isn’t anybody then does anyone know anyone with web design experience?

Any moron could make a website more appealing looking than this one. I think the name also needs to change. World of KJ means nothing to most people.

Go ahead.

Spoke with Lecter. He’ll join the discussion this weekend.

Here are some questions I have about the future of KJ:

- Other than the domain name, is part of the yearly costs the main site existing? Or is the cost for the server strictly for the forum?

- Eagle once mentioned KJ makes some money back from google, but where? Because I don't see any ads on the forum other than the lol outdated ScreenShot challenge one. Is it from the mainsite even in its carcass state? Can we put Adsense on the forum?

- Would it save money if old posts are purged? What happens if the Everyone's a Critic Archive is deleted, I assume a page with thousands of links and code recognizing the poll grades for each one can't be light on the servers

KJ's ownership/financial situation makes no sense. Magnus and Arthur were generous losing (it appears) hundreds of dollars a year each for a forum they were absent from. Now there is no Magnus. It looks like the forum comes in at under 100 posts a day right now (50?), if based on current traffic and not KJ in the past that should cost very little to nothing. I'm pretty sure we could start wokj2 for free and this traffic wouldn't be a problem. I'm assuming the reason for the cost is it's a forum with 2.2 million old posts. I like having old posts on KJ but asking the owners to pay so much out of their pocket just for the privilege of reading old posts is unreasonable. I don't even like it when old posts are bumped or I have to read a post I regret. Let the past die. Kill it if you must. A whole bunch of the most regular posters weren't even here or as active ten years ago. Maybe we could keep Everyone's a Critic's old posts but scrub the rest. I don't know.

As for the mainsite one option I thought of is pulling it and replacing it with a Wordpress blog (we would keep the domain worldofkj.com) and then easily updating it. But it depends on the context of whether the mainsite makes or loses money.

DON'T YOU TOUCH MY EAC ARCHIVE

Spoke to Lecter a couple of days ago and he said he’d weigh in on site improvements but said he doesn’t post in the site anymore (odd) so the brainstorming will be him, me and whoever wants to join via Facebook.

If we are unable to make improvements to the current site what about killing it altogether? Archive everything and start over on a free platform. I started at Pathfinder (1996-2000) - Boxoffice Reports (2002-2002) - BOM (2002-2011)/Wokj (2005-) and now BOT. Point is that platforms change but as long as the community is intact and thriving then that’s what matters. I’m sympathetic to those who have nostalgic reasons for refurbishing the current site. I understand that as well.

I think if it's possible to just killing the main site, that would be best.

Personally I agree. Start over. Keep the Derby though.

Totally different thought — There are thousands of IMDb forum refugees who had nowhere to go. We can market the new site via tweets and Facebook as their new destination.

I wish I had more control over the Derby. Though I don't think I know how to fix it, I could probably figure it out eventually.

Brainstorming? Oh, come on. Even an idiot like Chippy could list all the things this forum needs to change. Most of them have been mentioned in this thread and others over the last few months.

What is keeping you from working on solutions now? Trying to understand the various challenges that exist. Thoughts on killing the site?

No no no, I mean the derby is ACTUALLY broken. There is no Quarterly or Yearly results, because occasionally the derby won't let me put in actuals. So it won't read those weeks, thus it won't spit out stats.

The derby, if working properly, is actually very nice and easy to use.

Gotcha buddy. You said this ‘ I could probably figure it out eventually’

and I was wondering if something was getting in the way of you working to figure it out (I.e. ‘Eagle has the password to x, y, or z’ for example). Just trying to get an idea of who has the keys and what the troubleshooting challenges are.

Looks like we had a day. 5 new members and 2 actual candidates to be posters

I tried a different approach. Focus on the Derby and cater to peopls’ competitive spirits. I essentially said the people on this Derby are among the best and if you have what it takes...

The Derby is a path to active discussion participation. Timing has to be on a Tuesday when a new competition just opens.

Talking to Lecter about handing over the reins of the sites inner workings. He’s too busy

Once we revamp the site we can market it as the refuge for ex-IMDb forum users. There was a YUGE population that had nowhere to go when Amazon killed the forums. We could be it.

Is the revamping you mention underway?

We were trying to figure out who has access to the site codes and get in touch with them.

So basically nothing has happened in 4 months.

The thread topic is Marketing and we’ve made strides with our social media presence and more exposure for the Derby and forum. Once we get the reins to the site then enhancements can be made quickly. Open to ideas on who reach out to on the site.

That might have been something to think about almost two years ago. People who were searching for a new place already went to one or more of the dozens of sites and forums that were competing for the userbase right when the imdb boards got closed. KJ also doesn't have what many of them were looking for: Individual boards for each movie and person. Of course, there might still be a handful of people who a) spent 2 years searching for a new forum, but found none of the vast and varied choices to be satisfactory and b) realize that a random forum like KJ is exactly what they need to meet their very particular needs.

lol

But there might be an opening here for some of those ex-IMDBers. With next to no moderation on KJ, the venomous IMDBers would run riot here and love it. Short-lived plan, I know. But that's the only attraction I see for the two or three people that haven't yet found another forum to call home.

I would welcome 2-3 evil "troll" bastards to usurp, say, thegun. I think that would be a decent tradeoff for almost all people involved.