Be Excellent To Each Other

We're trying an experiment: http://bits.of.beex.co.uk/

One part of the original motivation for UpToJump was as a promotional tool for the forum. A website which would hopefully attract inward traffic from links and search engines and whatnot. As the content flow to it has almost completely dried up, it's become less and less useful for that. So Grim... and I talked about the best way to streamline that process, and I came up with an idea, and he made it happen, and now I'm taking all the credit. A career in management awaits me.

What this is: simply a place where we'll put copies of posts we think non-forum-members might like, with links back to the thread. The moderators can load any post from any thread into that site with two mouseclicks, so it's quick and easy to copy content over from the forum. We're aiming to put up posts that are informative, interesting, and/or funny on their own, without relying on the context of the wider forum. It's designed to be a teaser and a taster for the forum in general. It might not work, but it wasn't much work to do and is almost zero work to maintain, so we thought it was a worthy experiment. It's also hopefully the kind of site you could usefully link a friend to when you say "well, I'm on this pretty cool forum, here's the sorts of things we talk about", as opposed to dumping them into the scrum of hundreds of threads in General Discussion.

What this isn't: a replacement for UpToJump. We're not suggesting you write content aimed at this site, and we're not designing it to appeal to members of the forum. If anyone wants to write a longer piece on gaming, or anything else for that matter, UpToJump offers a much richer set of features for things like that, including better navigation and a better text editor.

What you can do to help: nothing really. Just keep posting like you always did. People who don't read much of the forum might find it useful as a catch-up medium, like the old BeexWeex summary bit, but we'll be making no efforts to actually summarise threads so it probably won't be great for that. Again, we're trying to keep the purpose sharply defined for this site; it's nothing but a promotional tool. If you feel there's something that should desperately be on there that isn't, in which case you could PM us; but don't feel you have to flood us with stuff.

Heh, I noticed this after Grim... had it in his friends on the melted chocky tumblr link.

I think it works a treat how it jumps back to the forum.

I demand you have everything posted by DavPaz and Coffey on auto approve.

That is all.

An excellent idea. I wonder what search requests it'll attract, and if people will hang round.

What a great idea! Seriously, I really like this and I'd feel very happy pointing friends in it's general direction.

This looks like an ace idea!

I'm viewing it on my mobile and was going to ask if there was a mobile specific version but... Well, would you believe it! There's a link down the bottom! An enhancement I didn't even demand!

oh MAN. I had persuaded myself buying a slow cooker to just make Craster's Pulled Pork thing was really stupid so managed to wipe that thread from my mind and now it's back with the picture again.

This place is ace but it makes me spend money on stuff. Lots of stuff.

Also this idea is great. Carry on.

Without wishing to blow my own trumpet, could we perhaps dig out that review I did of the Revo a few months back and stick it up? Machines for running emulators cheaply is exactly what this place is about.

I think this is a great idea. I don't really have any suggestions for improvement or significant comment on the idea, but it seems to work really well.

Yes. I'll let one of the brainiacs do it because I'm not sure how you get it to deal with images uploaded to beex.

They don't work, and are unlikely to be made to work in the near future. We can manually fettle individual posts if they deserve it, which Chinny's review certainly does.

Just used the instant short-url creator function to send a link to the pork dish to a friend. What a nifty little feature.

If I had one suggestion, it would be tagging, but I guess that would slow things down.

[EDIT: I've just pressed the 'Archive' button. Wow]

I find the page too long. Consider doing the 'read more' things to it.

Can I make a wee suggestion that we add something to the top of the forum that lists all the various links we have? I know there's not many, but for newcomers it may help.

Stuff like the mobile version, bits.of.beex and uptojump as it may help people who don't know they exsist.

That is true, but (and this has been discussed at length), the main aim of bits.of and u2j is to drive visits to the forum, rather than the other way around.

Good point and well made! How about a link to the mobile site in the info thread up top? I don't believe it's there already.

I've tinyurl'd it and promised easter eggs about the Lost finale and notes from the writers. I rock.

I have no idea what this means.

I used tinyurl.com to change the web address and then stuck it into a thread elsewhere about the Lost finale saying it contains something special hidden jokes and notes from the writers about the whole thing.

Is that going to encourage people to visit us or make them think we are dicks?

Is it the dicks one?

I took your comments on board and made suitable alterations.

I like the idea, but I think you're trying to reinvent the wheel here. If you want to drive more traffic to the site use the free tools available to you: Twitter and Facebook seem likely candidates plus all those other ones I don't understand or use. If mods tweeted forum posts (of merit) to a beex account, then re-tweeded those on their personal accounts, and if members then re-tweeted those, and then if friends of those beexers re-tweeted those and then if friends of those friends re-tweeted those... it's the classic pyramid scam, except it costs no one any money and might actually work.

The problem (or advantage) we have is that all of us like to wax lyrical and I doubt we'd fit inside any of their character limits

[quote="End of an Era"] If mods tweeted forum posts (of merit) to a beex account, then re-tweeded those on their personal accounts, and if members then re-tweeted those...[/quote

...then I very quickly wouldn't be following many people any more.

Also, 140 characters? Most of the posts that have gone up there are over 140 sentences.

The format is slightly confusing, and there seems to be a slight issue with quoted text, eg you have what appears to be a floating "trousers said". I understand why it, is, but as this is aimed at interlopers outsiders newcomers, it may be slightly confusing/look broken. Other than that, I like it.

Also, there is a block of something below the "tweet" that is blocked by the net nanny at my work, it is a quite large thing.

It's like every day we're not working at work, we're working to create better content here. Thus working and no longer have to feel guilty.

I like it. Although I think sticking to the Bill and Ted Theme, it should have been "Totally.BEEX.co.uk" i.e. Totally Being Excellent To Each Other". But everyone's a critic!?

I quite like that idea! Too late now though

Bugger. I took a day to name it, too.

Like Tumblr?
We could tell Tumblr to repost everything straight to a Facebook account (I do that with my personal one), but whose*? We could also create a Beex page and have you all become 'fans' of it, but a lot of people tie their facebook and their work together, so you perhaps don't want your boss to pop in...

*Is that the right word?

Yes.

IT WORKS!!

If it were not for Bits.Of.Beex then I would never have discovered extraprints.co.uk which Craster recommends.

That's good enough for me!

Nice idea there Doc, good one mate.

*Adds another item to the list of things not used or well understood in the Era household *



Could make for some comedy gold - like that thick girl who slagged off her boss on Facebook (or one of them) forgetting that he was a chum

They are simply never going to beat this one:
http://www.geekologie.com/2009/12/21/revenge-2.jpg