Inner Forum Mechanics

[Ehjookayted]

I am quite curious as to the inner workings of the forum.

[Ehjookayted]

Sweet, thanks Covert! I messaged you earlier, so hopefully you've got time to answer. I'll be around to read the interesting things that came before my time.

[Covert Gunman]

Yup, I saw it Ehj, and if you don't mind I'd like to answer your questions here. I don't have time to answer them now, but I'll be sure to do so in a few hours. If anyone else has some questions for me, please let me know and I will answer them later on.

[Ehjookayted]

Actually, yeah, it's probably better to have them posted here so everyone can see them. They aren't personal or anything, just cool general knowledge. Thanks!

[Covert Gunman]

Alright, well I suppose I should start from the beginning. Zombies was born in late 2008 with the release of World at War, but it really wasn't until early 2009 when the storyline began. It started out with the release of Veruckt and Shi No Numa and most discussion concerning the storyline took place in numerous places, but one of the more dominant places was the Xbox forums. Here's a link back to that original thread, but due to changes to the Xbox forums, the link no longer works. I don't know where the thread would be now, or if it even still exists. Anyway, last I knew, that thread had over 5,000 views and 8 pages full of theories and explanations for some of the mysteries of Veruckt and Shi No Numa. Progress was then continued on the Aggregame forums in June of 2009 by carbonfibah. This is where I came into play. I spent a lot of time reading through all of the theories and speculations that had been posted both in the Xbox thread and also on the Aggregame forums. I then began to do research and speculation of my own. I put out some of the ideas that I had in the AG forums and carbon gave input on them.

It wasn't until several days later on June 19, 2009 that the first official CoDz site was born. It was built on a free hosting service and so the quality was very poor. We had very little control over what could be put on the site. I won't link to the site because it no longer exists anymore and the link redirects to some other random site. The site had been under construction for several months and that was when it was finally released. The first admins were carbonfibah (of course) and Julez. Most of you probably won't remember Julez because she was only involved in the very early beginnings of the old site. I just have to say this though, she was an absolutely amazing person to hang out with and she brought a lot of love and unity to the forums at the time. Anyway, I started out as just a regular user on the forums, then within several days of joining I was made a Zombie Mod, which is a step below a Global Mod, and then shortly after I was made a full Global Mod, along with another good friend addor, who also isn't a member of the site anymore. He had a bit of a falling out with carbon, but I won't go into details with that. We ended up with a staff of 10 members which consisted of the following: carbonfibah, MINUS Stl, YoungMaxwell, firevice, shri046, XxCrazzyxX (XxCrazzyGuy92xX at the time), Ibanez, Niho (NihonjinRikugun at the time), lissa110, and myself.

We continued to use that site for about 10 months where we had accrued close to 4,000 members and over 13,000 posts. Close to the end of the site's life span we spent several months working hard on a new project that would allow us to expand and improve the site even further. We began work on a brand new site built from the ground up that would be larger and better than it's predecessor. Carbon gave full access to the new site to the staff about halfway through March of 2010. He also gave access to Zombie Cakes, who you should all know as being a very talented artist, along with MaTtKs and CHEFS, who, at the time, had been two of the Call of Duty VIP's. MaTtKs now works at Treyarch as the Multiplayer Production Coordinator and CHEFS currently works at THQ working on Darksiders 2 and other games, and for a while he was the Community Manager for Homefront.

The new site, which is the one we're on now, opened to the public on April 1, 2010 and that was when I became the Community Manager for the site. Becoming the CM was something that was a late birthday present to me from carbon. We've made numerous changes to the site since that time and we've also grown a lot since then. We now have over 9,000 (yes, I know) members. There have been over 141,000 posts made on the forum in 13,000 unique topics. Our staff now consists of 24 members, some not active, but they're still included.

Now let's see, Mods and Dwellers are chosen on an individualistic basis, meaning that we carefully think and debate about why someone should be a part of those groups. At one point, we had a competition on the old forums to see who would be chosen to become new Mods and that is where several of our Mods have originated from. We have also done polls within our own private forums in order to pick out possible candidates for Modship.

Concerning how both Alpha and I were made Admins, it was based on a situation that carbon was in at the time. I don't know if I have the authority to say what it is that allowed him to make the decision to make us Admins, so I'll just leave it be and hope that carbon will at some point explain and make it publicly known.

Anyway, I hope that that will answer many of your questions, and if you have questions about specific things, please feel free to ask them.

[Ehjookayted]

I can see why you took your time! That was so well written and honestly, like a another story on its own. Thank you very much, Covert! That was a very enjoyable read.

Two quick questions: is the Community Manager also a Global Moderator and are Dwellers Global Mods?

Thanks again. You've really stepped it up to a power level unbeknownst to man quite recently, and we are all grateful. 8-)

[Covert Gunman]

The CM is a full Global Mod with all of the same powers as a Global Mod. Dwellers are essentially just regular Mods. They have some of the same powers that a Global Mod has but they are limited in some things. For instance, Dwellers can't edit, delete, or change the author of any members posts, but Global Mods have that power.

[MegaAfroMan]

Thank you all, for the information I have received here! It is always nice to know a little history.