God now, i'm the bad guy....

Death, get out of my House, NOW!

Um...you could try doing a humorous dog site, I guess. Like people send in funny/weird pics of their dog or something. Or, you could do a web comic strip or flash cartoon oriented around dogs.

You have to have something they'll keep coming back for, not just look at/read once and then be done.

But it's soo confusing. Maybe I could set up an animal rights site as I'm an animal rights activist and all around animal lover and I think anyone that hurts animals should be %&*$£"!

Sorry, but there is already an animal rights forum. I was going to make an Ed Edd n' Eddy forum but it doesn't seem to be a reality anymore, though maybe one day I'll have enough free time an energy to start it.

PS: don't steal my idea, damn you!

Sligslinger, I'm not going to steal your idea, besides, who wants to steal lame ideas anyway? ;)

Mudokon, you are basically listing all of the LEAST original sites I can think of. Animal rights and petsites are some of the most numerous on the net. Music, Art, and Film are about the only types of website where it doesn't matter how many others are already out there, if they are fans of your work then they will come.

My suggestion to you is that you browse the net for things that interest you, and take note of all the searches you do that turn up little to no results. Those are your potential areas of originality. If you can be the first to make the best match on the search engine you use then you will achieve that originality, and you will get all of the traffic.

I was talking to mudokon you mop :p
and my Ideas are not lame, that show rocks many socks.

I guess I'm really late in replying to this, and the original topic has changed multiple times since the beginning, but there was something that I wanted to say about the whole forums and Oddworld thing.

One thing I have noticed being a fan of both Oddworld and Final Fantasy is the difference in how sites are constructed and how the communities are structured [these are examples that I can refer to, it may or may not be the same for other larger games].

With Oddworld we have a main forum and several major fan sites. Then we have other fan sites as well. Web-masters help each other out, or combine their efforts on a project. But the community all remains in the one place. There are a few other smaller communities around [one which has remained there from the beginning and ever earlier than OWF is the Yahoo Exoddus Club]. But generally other Oddworld based forums come, gain a few members and then dissapear due to inactivity. Usually smaller sites like to link to this forum instead, although this doesn't of course mean that someone can't create their own forum too.

The Final Fantasy community on the other hand consists of many large and popular websites, all having their own forums with lots of activity and members. People will sometimes be a member of more than one site, but usually stick to one main site. It is rare to see sites join up to form a community [although it does happen], but instead sites will affiliate with each other which is really just a linking program. Occasionally you will come across a site that sees you as a "rival" site and doesn't want anything to do with you because you are covering the same game as they are.

And you know, having experienced both sides first hand, I prefer the way the Oddworld fan community is. We are all together in one place, we work together, we help each other. Sure we have our spats and arguments, but in the end we are a group of fans together. I think the main reason it is like this is because the Oddworld fan base is much smaller, so maybe it would change if Oddworld were to become more of a popular mainstream game. Generally there are not enough of us to support lots of active forums. But everyone in the one place is like a family. :)

Abe Babe...

I personally think the way the Oddworld fan community is structured is the worst. There is only one site that gets lots of participation, and all the others either don't stand a chance or don't get visited at all.

I much prefer fan communities where everybody has an equal opportunity to create something successful.

Oddworld doesn't have a very large fanbase. It makes sense to have one central community, where we can all congregate. Rather than five or six smaller communities, each independant of eachother. Arguements break out, and superiority is sought. This is true with many Final Fantasy communities, and something I don't wish to see here.

We do not discourage the creation of new communities. We are, however, aware of what usually happens to them, and so we inform those that need to know.

Alcar...

Making a forum or site about something that has been covert a long time ago over and over again is never a good idea. Its all been said: Be creative, think of something to put on your site noone els has, and maybe your own style of making site's helps 2.
For example: Here in the Netherlands 10 years ago we had a lot of gameing magazine's. They where all dead serieus about what they wrote and their layout was professional and classy. Then somewhere around 1992 there was a small magazine started called Power Unlimited. They did something completely diffrent. They wernt serieus about a thing, you just couldnt read a page without laughing. Their layout was colourfull instead of white and gray and they where just totaly diffrent than every other game magazine.
Now, ten years later they are the biggest gameing magazine in the Benelux (being the netherlands, belgium and luxemburg).
So the moral of the story: Be uniqe and you will grow!!!