Content: Recent website launch, forum remodeling, overall company direction.
Bon Ink Forum Newsletter - 001 - June 23 2012
Foreword
I (Jon Bon) started this newsletter in an effort to help keep the members of this forum, the front line of creation at Bon Ink, informed about the goings on both here on the forums and relating to Bon Ink Creations in general. Newsletters are sent to all members of the forum and can be shut off/turned on in your profile options. I promise to keep these as concise as possible, and would like to thank you for your time and consideration.
Forum Changes
I took the liberty of changing the style of the forum. I was very displeased with the button layout, style, and the overall feel and color to the other theme. So when I made up the Bon Ink Official website(see below for more info) I decided to pick a style that matched both sites. Having accomplished that I also decided it was time to look further into the function of the forum options here at forumotion, as I had been limited in time in the past and have failed in acquiring an active admin, I finally had enough time to give it a try.
As you may or may not have noticed there is now a big ugly section of the side of the website dedicated to 'widgets' now, functional applications. Although I believe it looks worse with the section dedicated, it serves high function. Everyone can now see what the most recent topics posted are, our official blog from our new website, and many other necessary forum functions.
Specific additions are as follows:
Website Link - Top right, separate color on the header bar.
Forum Search - Search based on key words in the forum widget section right side.
1 Section - Talk about us through Facebook, Twitter, or Google, widget section right side.
Recent Topics - 10 most recently posted topics on the forum, widget section right side.
Live BICs Blog Feed - Posted from our official website, widget section right side.
Calendar - For a quick look at up coming events, widget section right side.
Affiliates - For websites who we are affiliated with, widget section right side.
Keywords - As the website grows common words will appear here, widget section right side.
Rss feeds - A direct way for anyone to live feed our whole forum, widget section right side.
Chatbox - Used for instant communication with members while on the forums, very bottom of the screen.
Official Website Launch
There has finally been enough free time for me to relaunch the Bon Ink Creations official website. We did have one hosted by jigsy.com but I seriously disliked their setup, so I have changed to weebly.com. The new site links directly here through a forum button on the top header navigation bar as well as this forum links to the new website through a bar in the same position here at the top header bar far right.
The official website is only a first draft, but it is definitely starting to look like what I want it to. Eventually when fully setup, each development group will be able to edit their own page in order to link to their game releases, conceptual designs, change their logos/links for accuracy, etc. For now it is setup as best as it can be with what we each have available, eventually it will have a page for 'release games' and likely other sections too. Take a look at the site and let me know if you have any opinions.
http://boninkcreations.weebly.com/index.html
Social Networking
Many of you have heard me mention the benefits of social networking sites when it comes to spread word of ones game, but I have yet to go into specifics or even do so myself. So I have begun to tie Bon Ink Creations into the social networking scene. We now have an official twitter page which post automatically on our facebook page, and onto our main website's home page. Twitter will be where we post tidbits of info and updates on progress about our development projects. I will choose information the teams post here to share with others (by request/permission) in order to help build awareness for the different work going on.
Additionally I am working on a guide that will go into great detail about how to setup a social networking system to use with as little effort as possible. I hope to have this up by the weekend, but that may be wishful thinking. Work setting up the Bon Ink social networking system is still ongoing.
Feel free to follow us on twitter, or like us on facebook, or become an official fan on fanpop.
https://twitter.com/#!/BonInkCreations
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bon-Ink-Creations/408268799212193
http://www.fanpop.com/fans/BonInkCreations
Site Issues
There have been two site issues so far presented I would like to address them and welcome anyone to bring more to my attention or comment on the known issues.
-Wait period after signing up before being allowed to post.
I have heard of at least one person who was told by on screen prompt when signing up to the forums that they had to wait 1 week to post here. That is NOT the intended method here, and I would like others to come forward if they have had a similar experience, because I would like to correct this if it happens in the future.
-Being forced to use BBCode when typing
Even I myself thought this forum was forced to use BBCode when typing stuff, and would get frustrated post here, then I noticed the button at the very far right of the post editing tools (where the bold, underline and italic stuff is, at the end on the right). It is a small (lowercase) 'a' above a large (uppercase) 'A', with a slash '/' between them. That button changes it so you do not have to type all the code, and it won't show most of it. Make sure the button is red. This makes posting on the forums here much much easier, and far more realistic and comparable to other forums.
Wrap Up
Well that about sums up everything going on with the company. I want to end by strongly suggesting that everyone at least take a look at the information in the library I have posted. Those posts represent the 3 years of research I have been doing into this effort/company, and I would never post that stuff anywhere else other then here for the people I have personally recruited (and by proxy) to see and use. The knowledge in the Library will only grow, and I only put posts in there that I believe to be valuable information for aiding in the development of independent video games.
So I again thank you for your time and consideration for reading this, and I look forward to the work everyone is doing.
