Has the forum considered developing a presence on Facebook?

Yes, we had the first popular Facebook harpoon page. When AGSI later created one we closed ours down, not the best idea in hindsight but it was a time sink. AGSI later closed theirs in favor of the Old Pooners Group which has little to do with Harpoon though it is a great place to talk naval shop.

 

A project that never gets undertaken is upgrading our forum software. We have the license but not the time to implement. That would mean more social network integration but wouldn't in and of itself create such a social presence as a FaceBook page/group.

 

Got some ideas and potential plans?

What about Twitter?

Although I know about it, I'm not familiar enough with it to post stuff on it. Besides, I don't have a smartphone.

Okay guys, we need more out of you, this is silly You are far more capable and intelligent of more than one-liners.

 

Yes, I've thought about ruling the world, being a millionaire, curing cancer, being a billionaire who spends his days on his private island inventing gadgets. We've thought about FB and Twitter and LinkedIn and Google+ and ...

 

What do you want to see? Why do you want to see it? How would you make it happen? How is it going to meet the goals (speaking of which, what are the goals?)? What will you contribute?

I see an FB page as a social media extension of the forum. We could share scenario expereinces (not full AARs) and scenario ideas. An FB page could serve more of a social side of the forum - conversations and comments, while the HarpGamer forum is for file posting and updates. News items like NNSotD and OPINTEL pieces can still be posted here, while a tag note can be posted on the FB page, highlighting the update(s).

Thanks Greg, that fleshes things out a bit more. I'm interested in anyone's thoughts on the following questions (my answers given for reference).

 

Why?

To drive interest in computer Harpoon and in so doing increase the ranks of regular participants on HarpGamer AND keeping the games alive and actively developed. Our core is tiny and feeble right now, with the strike of a bus development of either game could end indefinitely.

 

Where?

Facebook presents the most obvious place to start. Twitter bringing up a distant second in my mind. I love the idea of automated Twitter postings from HC Export DLLs (#harpoon TonyE launches HC 2012.002 and fires up "Gregor's Follies" from the WestPac BattleSet written by CV32 and using HCDB-120801) and later (#harpoon TonyE closes the game after 3 Hours, 27 Minutes covering 2 hours of game time). If we establish a Twitter presence I would commit to one programmer-type tweet per week (#harpoon Investigating distributed database editing today and getting buried in scope creep)

 

What?

Oops, looks like I put my What in the Where? Greg shared some Whats, what would yours be?

 

How?

Well, in the FaceBook example I would set up a HarpGamer group. For Twitter I'd set up an organizational account. On FaceBook people like Greg and anyone else would regularly post to the Group about their Harpoon and warfare activities. Anyone can tweet with an agreed upon hashtag like #harpoon (no, I haven't done a search on its existing popularity and subsequent suitability).

 

When?

I want to see some more buy in here before setting up the accounts. I don't want to devote a lot of time to these efforts because they don't much matter to me. I'm pretty happy with the game I have and with the time I have I prefer coding and occasionally playing the game. Now if we have great social successes and it helps keep us developing the game longer or even acquiring rights to the computer game I have more interest.

 

Who?

Well, Brad and I would set up the accounts and would hope to delegate administrative oversight as able. However, to make any social endeavour succeed there has to be regular participation from far more than Brad and myself.

 

If there is some good interest shown here to re-establish the social presence I have to say it would encourage me to get the forum software upgrade moving which would further help the social effort. Make yourselves and your availability/dedication heard and we'll see about moving forward.

 

Thanks!

Thinking on the topic, but I'm in FB only from the past January, and I've not any answers, yet ...

We could use Twitter to update on new scenarios. Also, we could link a dedicated blog to this site as well; with some more in-depth articles.

 

A certain person has been posting videos of them playing Harpoon on YouTube; we could do something similar.

A certain person has been posting videos of them playing Harpoon on YouTube; we could do something similar.

 

It would be a nice idea, but I oppose to it for 2 reasons:

- Dale is already posting videos over Youtube

- If there's a harpgamer channel, the other side will cry for plagiarism, and I don't wish to give them such an opportunity.

 

As for the FB page, I think we should consider it. I created a poll to know if people would like to see a HUD4 group (there used to be a HUD3 group, but Darren was the only admin, and since he passed away, it's no more possible to access the HUD3 group).

 

FG

A certain person has been posting videos of them playing Harpoon on YouTube; we could do something similar.

 

It would be a nice idea, but I oppose to it for 2 reasons:

- Dale is already posting videos over Youtube

- If there's a harpgamer channel, the other side will cry for plagiarism, and I don't wish to give them such an opportunity.

 

As for the FB page, I think we should consider it. I created a poll to know if people would like to see a HUD4 group (there used to be a HUD3 group, but Darren was the only admin, and since he passed away, it's no more possible to access the HUD3 group).

 

FG

That's okay Gunny, I was posting Harpoon videos long before the others. They may cry foul but they will cry foul no matter what, don't let it slow you down if at all possible.

 

imho, the more videos the better, if that is how you like to participate. For me it takes too long and my play style doesn't suit itself to video capture.

 

I don't like HUD3, HUD4 specific Facebook pages. My personal view is that Facebook/Publishers/... sites are transient whereas HarpGamer should be a much more effective long-term repository of information (which again goes to why, I'm for preservation but a why of wider viewership understanding the information is transient would argue for Facebook)

 

Dedicated blogs I really don't understand in thise case when we have a whole forum just waiting for you all to produce content.

 

Thanks guys, keep the comments coming!

Tony,

I agree. We shouldn't make any FB presence flavor-specific. It should cross all boarders of the game PnP, HUCE, and Gen3/4. The stuff that is posted on Twitter should also be pasted into FB as well.

FaceBook Page. I struggled choosing between a group and a page but settled on a page on the far flung hope of integrating database applications someday way way down the road.

 

http://www.facebook.com/harpgamer

The new FB site is great! I'll be posting stuff, including a POD (Photo of the Day).

The new FB site is great! I'll be posting stuff, including a POD (Photo of the Day).

 

I just added it as an Interest. It's giving me an excuse to learn a little more about Facebook, which I confess I hardly ever use.