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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Morrus" data-source="post: 269528" data-attributes="member: 1">There is another factor, too, which is harder to explain - but I'll try.This is a fan site.  It's not Gaming Report (an industry media site).  It's a community of gamers who use it for their needs, whatever they may be (only a small percentage actually use the boards, so there are many others to take into account).Now - I don't want to be "that news organisation that publishers send their press releases too".  That's just not what I'm interested in doing. Yeah, I post news.  Yeah, I'll continue to do so.  But my thoughts on "rebranding" encompass more than a name change - we're talking more of a "back to basics, Eric Noah style affair".  Something that's personal, warm and homely - I feel that these days the site is becoming more and more "official" and "organisation-like".  I'm really not explaining this well.It's like this.  The trend has been more and more for publishers, other sites etc. to send impersonal press releases etc.  Sometimes, it's more of a terse instruction.   But the side-effect of it is that I start to feel more and more like the PHP-Nuke powered sites that I don't like.  Except that in place of automated code, there's me.  I just feel like a piece of software, sometimes.  And I don't want to end up like that - if I do, well - I'll stop.  Not interested in running Gaming Report #2. So the rebranding (that's probably not even the right word) is partly to emphasise that this is a fan community, and a fan site, not a faceless news reporting agency.  I still have the disquieting feeling that I've either not explained myself correctly here or that, even worse, I've put across the wrong impression.  If you're unclear, please ask - it's important to me that you guys know where I'm coming from. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />A couple of other things that factor into this - *One person brought up the recent thread on expanding into other RPG news.  They were correct that that thread was a sympton of the same issue, although in a tangential way.  Now, don't misunderstand me: I'm a full-on D&D/d20 fan.  I want to run a D&D site. But this, I think, was an attempt to spread my eggs into other baskets.*I'm vaguely considering changing my approach to news reporting.  I haven't figured it out yet, but, as I said above, posting people's press releases is boring - and could be handled by automated code.  I'm fully against automated code  as I think it seems impersonal, and the main news will always be hand-written by me.  But I want to make it more interesting and to inject more of myself into it before I actually turn into a robot. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I'm also a little fed up of "politics".  Although I'm not as involved in such stuff as some publishers are, I find myself feeling..umm...I dunno.  Let's just say, I'm going to start saying more what I think in public without worrying so much about keeping publishers happy.   That doesn't mean I'm going to start sayig nasty things about publishers - far from it!  It just means I'm going to be more "casual" (while still being equally as comprehensive!). Because the alternative is to just be an extension of publisher marketing departments (which is what I feel I am, right now), and I have no interest in that.  That's not running my personal fan site (which all you guys are very welcome guests at!).  I'm not anybody's PR department, although some seem to think otherwise. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />So, that's a closer look at what's going on in my head.  I hope it helps to clarify things. The change is as much about "shaking things up" as it is about making adminstrative tasks easier.Getting more visitors isn't a goal.  Being happy with what I do is; and the people here being happy with what I do is equally important.  I'm here for the fans first and foremost - the publishers are in a distant second place.</blockquote>

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