24 replies to this topic

[DeM0nFiRe]

Ok, so maybe this is more a question than a suggestion. What exactly was the point of changing the Trap17 Forum title to Open Discussion? The title of the site is very clearly not Open Discussion so why call it that? You're confusing some multi-taskers over here! I can't find the Trap17 No Ads, Free Hosting tab in my taskbar anymore!

[Saint_Michael]

Trust me I have ask the inner circle and I get either no idea or no response from the man himself and for all we we know we gone made and thus needs to go on a very long vacation to refresh himself and then come back to trap . In all seriousness even yours truly doesn't know what is going on but something is happening I guess.

[-Sky-]

This topic got my attention about the same thing too. Why is Trap17 now called "Open Discussion" and not "Trap17 Webhosting, No Ads"?

What's going on OpaQue and BuffaloHELP?

[travstatesmen]

Glad to know that it is not just me! I had just started using the Firefox search plugin for Trap17, and the first time that I used it the forums came up as "Open Discussion", whereas a minute before I installed it, they weren't like that at all. Uninstalling the search plugin seemed to make no difference to me, and it still showed as "Open Discussion".

I hadn't visited the Astahost forums until just now, so I don't know if the current "Free Web Hosting" moniker is the same as it was before. Anybody know if Astahost changed as well? Is this a sign that the free web hosting part of Trap17 is being phased out? Or are we no longer going to be required to post on the forums to support our hosting? Or is it a marketing move, to encourage more non-hosted people to participate on the Trap17 forums without being worried about hosting issues? OpaQue, are you out there?

[jlhaslip]

Astahost's tag-line has not changed. Both Forums were the same until a day or two ago.

[galexcd]

I don't know why you guys are complaining. I love the new title. I used to think it was confusing and strange to have the main board list to be called "free web hosting, no ads" when really it was just one sub forum under these many forums of content that deals with web hosting. Open discussion seems to make much more sense. And you have to remember that the title of the entire website hasn't been changed, just the forums.

[innosia]

I am also shock when seeing Open Discussion, I thought it is a temporary problem..
Maybe some file is replaced or some database is error?

[DeM0nFiRe]

I think that changing it is a bad idea simply because we're used to it being called one thing. There is no practical reason for changing the name, but there is a reason to keep it as the 'Free Webhosting, No Ads.' The title is more descriptive and makes it more obvious what is on the task bar.

[innosia]

DeM0nFiRe, on Sep 27 2008, 01:47 PM, said:

I think that changing it is a bad idea simply because we're used to it being called one thing. There is no practical reason for changing the name, but there is a reason to keep it as the 'Free Webhosting, No Ads.' The title is more descriptive and makes it more obvious what is on the task bar.

maybe we should wait for admin for telling us what is going on
If for improvement, i think some design improvement is needed, the combination of blue and red in shoutbox is not matched (i think so). Then add more image to make it lively, like each sub forum has its representing image, and the thread or subforum text at top right should not be black or underline.

if it is aiming Open Discussion then the hosting features is much like being blurred, people see that this forum is discussing anything, and dont know in fact that it is for free hosting?

[BuffaloHelp]

OpaQue is going back to the beginning and focusing on the forum establishment rather than a forum used to gain free web hosting.

So instead of coming to Trap17 for free web hosting and finding other discussion topics, Trap17 is focusing on general and specific discussion and providing a free web hosting solution to those who want to take it.

This has been OpaQue's view all along; it is just now that he is able to redirect Trap17 to the right path.

As I have been informing and reiterating to new and old members--free web hosting is the byproduct of actively participating in Trap17 forum, it is not the the main goal

[etycto]

BuffaloHELP, on Sep 28 2008, 11:09 PM, said:

OpaQue is going back to the beginning and focusing on the forum establishment rather than a forum used to gain free web hosting.

So instead of coming to Trap17 for free web hosting and finding other discussion topics, Trap17 is focusing on general and specific discussion and providing a free web hosting solution to those who want to take it.

This has been OpaQue's view all along; it is just now that he is able to redirect Trap17 to the right path.

As I have been informing and reiterating to new and old members--free web hosting is the byproduct of actively participating in Trap17 forum, it is not the the main goal

that makes a lot of sence, because if the focus is more on the discussios than their obligation to hosting there will be better posts, not just attempts to get more credit.

[OpaQue]

Glad to see soo many people noticing it in the first place.. Dunno if its good or bad .. because the layout n look of Trap has not changed much since it started..

Anyway, getting back to the question of "Why?".

1. Many Many people get stumped with the title of "free web hosting" being the parent category of topics like "gardening", "life-talk" etc.

2. When I started visiting other forums on the web, I really learned what a forum was... its basically a CATEGORY which people with like interests come to discuss about. However At Trap17, things were quite vast from the beginning.

3. I felt it is better to keep Trap17 as an official Discussion forum of Xisto..(with a wierd name Trap17, ofcourse) rather than a FREE WEB HOSTING forum.

4. I want to promote the contribution by Guests visiting our forums.

Eg: http://www.trap17.co...ers-t23716.html

[Saint_Michael]

I thought as much as to why the name change but I would think adding the title "Trap17 Open Discussion" would be more beneficial due to the fact that that dropping trap17 from the main link would have adverse affects in SEO. Especial due to the fact that hte topics and posts would have to be reindexed under the new name and not the url name and it could be just me but I have seen the PR rank go up and down through a firefox extension when I visit trap. Hopefully it doesn't affect it to much though.

[serverph]

shorter. better. (that's just the brief summary of my opinion on the matter.) MAIN or INDEX would have been shorter (since that is where the link goes anyway), but OPEN DISCUSSION works for me as changed from the very long one before. i think trap17 has firmly established itself already as a free web hosting provider, and i'm happy we can focus on establishing the forum community more.

[OpaQue]

SEO will not be harmed. Because Trap17 in-itself is not a GREAT word that google loves. It has associated that word in all Free Hosting searches and it has always affected adversely rather than in a good way.

However, the new Invision Version 3.0 is burning my behinds bad.. Most the optimizations and tweeks we did on this forum is now bundled in this new software already in a much better way (as its developed from core) :-) with an in-built reputation system.

[DeM0nFiRe]

Ok, I can see why you'd want to change the name. However, "Open Discussion"? Come on, you guys can do better than that. The name of the site is not Open Discussion, it's Trap17. As previously suggested Trap17 Open Discussion would make more sense, but even that is so cliched. Calling it Open Discussion is so bland, who is that title supposed to appeal to? It seems like you are trying to appeal to everyone, but what is going to happen isthat it will appeal to very few. I mean, who is going to do a google search for Open Discussion and happen to come across Trap17 and just say "Oh hey, I've been loooking for a forum with absolutely no central idea!" You should me up with a name with some sparks on it, something interesting.Otherwise, calling it "Open Discussion" just kind of makes it sound really generic. You guys want to sound like you are Open-Minded, Accomodating to many tastes. You don't want to sound like you are generic. You don't have to pick a central idea, you can pick many central ideas if you want (which is what I assume you want) "Open Discussion" seems more of just a lazy way to describe the site rather than something to call the site.

[rayzoredge]

I have to agree too that the title should say something towards "Trap17 - [Thread Title]" or "Trap17 - Forums - [Thread Title]" or something like that. That way if people look for the text on their Firefox tabs or bookmark a thread or whatever, it's easily identifiable. I was kind of weirded out with "Open Discussion," but I recognize Trap17 by the white and blue V symbol (which a lot of forums share, I'm gathering) and not so much by what my tabs say.

I did a Google search for just Trap17 and we come up on top, followed by sites that have their say about Trap17 and one hit for a pheromone site. I don't think people will really have a problem as far as Google, and you won't have a problem having people score hits on this site since it tops out everything else.

Edit: Oops... just noticed the change. Throw Trap17 up there too, like how I suggested?

Edited by rayzoredge, 30 September 2008 - 03:11 PM.

[Deretto]

I had just noticed this as well. I'm glad that not much else is changing.

Although I'm more glad that the focus of this site is open discussion as said by the new title. Often times sites tend to stray from their original purpose and more often then not end up going down the drain.

[Saint_Michael]

Well when you have thousands of websites talking about the same thing it gets kind of hard to be unique with the name, but on that note though if you notice most hosting websites that have forums they are either for support or for general discussions. So if everyone notices this isn't your typical hosting forum since trap17 has topics that cover most things and we didn't have all these different forums the credit system wouldn't exist and we be the post to host instead of posting to earn credits for hosting.

[DeM0nFiRe]

Right, if they want to come up with a better name for the forums than Trap17 Free Webhosting, then they should go for it. However, "Open Discussion" is certainly not that better title.

[Mich]

For what it is worth, I just did a search on MSN and Google for "Open Discussion". Trap 17 showed up on page 6 of the MSN. I gave up looking on Google at page 13. Is Google ever going to catch up with the new monicker/title?

[miladinoski]

The name sucks, just change it. Who the hell will know what this forum is mostly centered about if you don't include free web hosting in the title. Yes, you don't have to be fully hosting oriented, but it won't hurt anyone if you make the name something like: Trap17 Forums - Free web hosting included, or w/e.
Yeah, I know I'm not a good title maker

P.S. Change the name.

Edited by miladinoski, 05 October 2008 - 08:09 PM.

[Saint_Michael]

It has Mich, it is all about keywords and in this case you would need to put in Open Discussion and free web hosting, for trap to appear and so it is going to take awhile unless OpaQue submits a new site map to google. Which is a task that is time consuming in itself because of how many links their are and so getting open discussion to work with trap is going to take time and so using site:trap17 and the + in google is going to help in searching the trap17 forums.

[galexcd]

miladinoski, on Oct 5 2008, 01:08 PM, said:

The name sucks, just change it. Who the hell will know what this forum is mostly centered about if you don't include free web hosting in the title. Yes, you don't have to be fully hosting oriented, but it won't hurt anyone if you make the name something like: Trap17 Forums - Free web hosting included, or w/e.
Yeah, I know I'm not a good title maker

P.S. Change the name.

The name doesn't suck, don't change it. Who the hell won't know what this forum is mostly centered about if you don't include free web hosting in the title. Besides I don't post to this forum for free web hosting at all, the only reason I am hosted is to give away credits to other members. I was even slightly embarrassed some times when I would try to get some of my friends to join this forum because it was so centered around free web hosting and I would have to explain that it has a good community for just ordinary posting, not just hosting.

P.S. Don't change the name.

[DeM0nFiRe]

So if you type in Open Discussion Free Web Hosting then you get Trap17 on google? Yeah, that seems like great SEO! Seriously, the name Open Discussion is very bland, uninspired and generic. If you don't want to use the name of the website (Which really seems like the best idea, even if you want to leave out the web hosting, "Trap 17 - Forums" would suit quite well) at least pick a name that isn't so "so what?"