[LoCash]

I used to publish a site called mac3d.com from 1997 until 2001 roughly. The site focused on gaming and creative news. It was pretty successful, we were the official news publication of the gaming championships at Macworld when they ran, had some great partnerships, etceteras.

Anyhow, I haven't done anything with the site for a while. A few years ago when I first proposed moving the AI forums to a different server, I offered the domain insider.mac3d.com for it. I put together a little mockup over the weekend, which is available at: http://mac3d.com/beta/

That's an old design, keep in mind. The idea was to have three primary sections to "Mac 3D": Creative, Gaming, Insider. Insider would obviously be the rumor/insider info wing, and each section would act as its own subcommunity as it were to the whole site.

Anyhow, that may just be making this community a part of something could potentially get pretty big, or maybe people would be into that. It is an option however, and I thought I would toss it out there. If you guys aren't for it, no harm.

[LoCash]

Nobody has any comments about this?

[psmith2.0]

I'm letting it stew and sink in. Settle down.

Actually, I never really thought about it, outside of what it is. I'd imagine things would get larger, more crowded and active here. OR make them, making them a destination unto themselves, drawing the necessary community.

Sure, I'm up for anything good. I'm so pleased and impressed with the quick launch and nice look/speed of this place, I trust you to add to it as you guys see fit. I'd probably never once visit the games section, but that's just me. Maybe the creative one, sure!

I'm just along for the ride, kicked back in the rumbleseat...

[curiousuburb]

Seems like a fish size vs pond size question.

Would we like to be a forum as primary content (big fish) in what is currently a small userbase (pond)...
or would we like to be one of three core content areas (smaller fish) in what might be a larger userbase due to draw of the other streams (bigger pond).

Am I mischaracterizing the subtext of your question?

I'm here for the forum more than the frontpage, but synergies could be explored.

Though I'd request the current design templates overwrite the mac3d retro look.

[psmith2.0]

Well I've now found something I hate more than car analogies: fish analogies.

[LoCash]

Well, there are two ways to do this. One would be to toss it all under Mac 3D. Mac 3D would have those three sub-sections, and the "Insider" sub-section would be called just that: Insider or Mac 3D Insider. It would have the same design as the rest of the site for continuity's sake. Clicking on the "insider" tab from the front end would take you to a similar looking front end that only had the "Insider" news.

The other way is to rebrand this site anyway. Say we picked the name AppleNova. The insider tab from the mac3d front end would go to applenova.com, or nova.mac3d.com and that site would have its own design... would probably be the design we have working here. We'd find a way to add links back to other Mac 3D sections (creative and gaming) but for the most part, this "community" could live and breathe here without letting itself be overrun by the other two sections.

In a sense, we'd be looking at fostering three separate communities: gaming, creative, this one. If this makes any sense, and I hope it does....

[MCQ]

While it would be nice to have a coherent design across the board, I'd probably rather see each area be its own style, with links to the other areas. For the most part, they're distinct entities with different target audiences. IMO, they would probably be better served by unique site designs, rather than one overarching style.

Put me in for the second option