First of all, <3 Lord Ravenclaw. Great idea, this thread.

So, everyone and their grandmothers has chimed in already, so I'll just sum up what I agree with.

-The Library needs to stay, and I vote for a Cleanup July campaign (my finals disagree with Cleanup June). WbA is to be nurtured and cared for.

-I'm enthusiastic about expanding into other fandoms, like DLP did for Dresden.

-DLP the acronym CANNOT go. If you want to pretend it means something else, sure, but DLP should always be DLP. The banner and slogan, eh, it'd be sad, but I could get over losing them.

-Real Life is the forum that grows fastest, I think, and the blog idea should be a natural step of its evolution. Politics, Multimedia, etc are a big part of the awesomeness that is DLP.

-On the journal thing : eh, might be interesting. Most likely won't participate in it, though, other than just reading the stuff.

-The attitude, as has been said, needs to stay. No watering down for the 'mainstream' public.

-DLP as a social network site :-/ I love DLP much more than Facebook.

-And finally, let's never forget where we came from. HP is the core, and should be treated as such.

My 0.02 €

 

I reckon we should aim to introduce the following things:

- Get rid of the banner/logo/motto and make it something less gay and more conversation friendly. The amount of times people have walked in my room and it has been up and asked what is dark lord potter? and I've tried to palm it off is getting too big of a number.

- Make a projectdlp.net front page with section links to the forums, articles and maybe a knowledge base wiki?

- introduce more subforums like homework/essay/paper discussions, article forum(When one submits an article, once it has been approved by a moderator, a thread is created with the article in the OP with discussion following, with the article in a normal webpage linked from the article section fron the front page.

- integrate PC and DLP with one another more closely, ratings, reccommended fics, hall of fame, staff picks, monthly etc reccommendations.

Bring those changes about slowly whilst keeping the core of DLP intact, i.e. the WBA and forums. Then everyone is happy, there is more things to draw in the community to engage with each other and DLP isn't something you keep in a shoebox under your bed.

 

I'm against change for the sake of expansion. I understand that HP fandom is dying, and we need to compensate for that, but that doesn't really feel like a reason for a complete rebuild. We already have a lot of fanfiction of other fandoms; at most, I'd say emphasize that a little more. Maybe add a subsection or two, depending on the popularity of those ideas. But no real reason to change the name or basic structure. Maybe doing so would promote new members, but that isn't really a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.

 

Also, as part of the reputation friendly and more public friendly image, I think the HoS has to go.

 

No. HoS should stay. It's part of DLP. Sacrificing the site's identity for the sake of expansion is not the way to go.

 

This, so much. Dark Lord Potter needs to stay, but it's not a bad thing if it's accompanied by other stuff.

Although I'm not sure how this would work out with multiple forum subsections. I don't want separate forum sites, either.

 

I'd keep HoS up so we have an example for new members of what not to do.

And that's basically what it's used for anyway.

 

I dislike the talk of DLP 'changing.' Thats not really whats happening. We're just trying to grow and evolve into new endeavors we already follow, just on a broader scale. Lets face it, gentlemen, DLP has been stagnating for a while.

If we want to see the site go on, we need to find some way to freshen things up. I personally don't want to see it die or change from what we have now. But realistically, I have to choose one of the other. >_>

 

You might be mis-understanding me a touch, I don't think thats a good thing by any measure, I'm just saying that's what Lyndon's idea being implemented would mean. I actually agree with you.

Also LOL Vir maybe if you didn't keep pointing it out people wouldn't notice you trying to hide something in there.

 

Alright, so I seem to be unique in that I consider DLP working best in its current form as a forum about nothing. To me, it's always been a "Come for the fanfics, stay to watch the monkeys fling shit at each other." type of deal.

That said, I can see a few ideas I'm pretty violently against. Articles? Social networking? What the fuck is wrong with you people? I mean, I guess I'd be fine with articles and such as long as Taure was point blank never allowed near them. That'd be acceptable. /Maybe./

On the other hand, though, there are a few things I'd like to know. Do we have any artists or musicians hiding around? If so... Well, we already have an Original Fiction section, so why not exploit that side of the site? I mean, DLP's partly so successful because FF.net is utter crap. Well, DeviantArt is crap, and there are precious few good music sites.

Also... Yeah, we really do need to change the name, banner, and motto, but keep the acronym. (Side note: Do you know how many times I've typed darklordotter.net in and not realized it? -_-)

Also also, when I think of a DLP wiki, I immediately think of everything2.com. Make of that statement what you will.

 

Or maybe a specific thread in it, aimirite?

 

All of that.

The colour scheme needs to stay though. No changing that, ever.

 

I really like the PatronusCharm layout, look of the site, usability...but after posting roughly 130k words, I had something like 12 reviews. Yeah, doesn't exactly inspire one to keep posting there.

I do think the idea of a PC-exclusive story would work, if promoted on FF.net chapters posts or something.

I would personally like to see a return of the DLP awards.

This idea isn't going to be hugely popular, and I don't know if it's feasible, but...

The sole reason I post in the WbA is to get feedback. While I understand that a large majority of the people who read may not have anything constructive to add, over the course of the 250k+ words I've posted, there are a great many users that don't comment at all, on anything. I think roughly half of the people I've seen in my story thread have a zero post count. Would it be possible to block the WbA to lurkers?

I think that's about it.

 

Well everyone pretty much wrote what I wanted to write so I'll simply settle with nodding and reading.

I Agree with most of Coyote's points, especially the social networking and article part. It just seems like potential for a massive shit storm so I really don't want to see that come through. Banner, slogan, and name could do with a change though the acronym has to stay. DLP just wouldn't have its identity anymore if that were to change.

Also:

DLP already has a reputation. It's one that I respect and I certainly don't want to see it beginning to fade with a retarded idea like that. Keep the HoS and continue adding fail threads into it because I, along with a good deal of the members here, could do with a good laugh every now and then.

 

I would agree with DLP merchandise to help pay for the site, there are plenty of sites where you can make tshirts, messenger bags, pins and whatnot to sell. Personally I would rather pay $15 for a dlp shirt if I knew the profits from it were going towards maintaining the site and such whereas if I donate $10 flat out I feel like I'm throwing away money? However if I bought something that had to do with DLP it would be profit to DLP and advertising.
DLP blog and article style reviews sound good as well

 

My 0.02 €

I agree that the site should change the banner/logo/motto to something more generic but still maintaining the feel of the site. Maybe some kind of "generic-looking" Dark Lord or keeper of knowledge?

Also we should expand not only to other fandoms but to other genres like horror and science fiction. The fanfiction should remain the main motif though.

Name change - keep the acronym. I like the name DLP Literature Project from previous pages.

Bring back the yearly awards.

EDIT: Maybe a place to host translations of fics from English to other languages or the other way around.

 

First of all, as many people have already stated, the DLP acronym needs to remain. Make it stand for something new, or just say, fuck it, and just call it DLP-no new meanings needed. Personally I kinda like the last one (or Project DLP), but whatever.

I have no problems expanding to different fandoms as long as HP remains an integral part. I think it could be fun, and I'm always looking for new fandoms to read in although, honestly, at this point I spend more time looking at the RL discussion and Politics threads so...

The idea of expanding the essay writing help, and peer reviewing and all that sounds interesting too. I might not have much to submit, but I'd probably read the articles and essays.

The idea of expanding with art and music would be cool too.

And I want a DLP t-shirt.

Basically, I've been semi-lurking since 2006 and will continue to do so. Having more fun things to check out will be a welcome change as long as the spirit of the site remains intact (Hall of Shame included--we need to give the dumbasses and trolls some kind of warning of what they're about to face. It's only sporting ).