Announcement Mariana Bay Late 2023 Plan & Onwards

[Dwayne]

Just wanted to share my plans for the forum going forward. As I have been busy with uni communication on here hasn't been great so wanted to share some bits of what I have planned for this forum so you have a good idea what I want to do with it going into the following months:

(Also writing this so I don't forget to get this stuff done.)

Now to Dec 2023

• Make the Neocities forum forwarder more presentable which is what I'm currently working on. Need to brush up on HTML and Javascript for my uni course so it's the perfect excuse to do so as it's technically homework
• Release Episode 5 & 6 of the MarianaCast: These are the interviews with @Lumbuhjack and @MemoryHead 記念頭部 which just need a bit of editing before release, the Lumbuhjack one has completed artwork for it and editing had started in early September with me initially intending for a before university release but stuff came up, however I want to release that one and the Memoryhead interview by end of this year for sure. Both interviews are great and it was great having both on, just need to get around to releasing them.
• Attempt to shill this forum more. Due to being at uni I don't really want to be using funds to advertise the site with self-serve 4chan ads (they did a bit shit anyways) so I'll back to shilling on other sites normally. Gonna try to be creative and think of better ways to do so, just being an independent small forum yeah it can be difficult to convince people to join a forum in 2023 and stick around long-term, so I'm really grateful to those who continue to hang out here and use this forum, and believe in it's long-term vision and potential for growth.
• If @nagolbud get his microphone working, record that interview. That definitely will not be released until early next year but it would be absolutely legendary to at least get that recording done as Nagolbud is one of the most genuinely interesting people I've met online and I would love to have him on as he's a guy who definitely has a lot of good stories to share and things to talk about.

2024 & Onwards

• Create more articles for the site. What helps these small forums grow a lot is not only promotion (though that is the most important thing) but also quality, original articles that help garner interest into the forum. If an article is good enough it will be shared, passed around, and hopefully even spoke about by people with a lot more influence in the internet sphere than I have which will ultimately help direct people to the site. This all relies on a mix of luck and hard work however, and we just really need to find that one topic of interest that is unique enough to be a breakout hit that will help draw people here. I was actually considering making videos of the articles already on here to upload to YouTube but still thinking on how I want to do it and the best way to sell it to an online audience so extra research is needed beforehand.
• Make a website dedicated to Dwayne The Cat. This is a fun, little neocities project I want to do involving Dwayne the Cat that will give lore to our beloved mascot and his exploits, and will just work as a way as giving the forum further visibility on the web. I want it to be my most advanced site project so far so I want to give it my all and actually go somewhere with it compared to the other small neocity projects.
• Add to the blogfront. Just want to make it look better and more presentable, just a bit extra pazaz to get people interested in what we have to offer y'know?
• General forum improvements and new features.

Might add to this later on but this is some of what I have planned and want to do as time progresses. Shoot other ideas below but yeah hope this gives some idea of what I want to do. I reckon end of this year will be somewhat quiet on here due to myself being busy but as time goes on and I find the time between studies hopefully some more actual work can be done on here to help this place keep chugging on forwards in the right trajectory.

 

[MemoryHead 記念頭部]

• These are the interviews with @Lumbuhjack and @MemoryHead 記念頭部 which just need a bit of editing before release,

strap in fuckers