Final e-hole.net Announcement - A Guide

This is going to be the last comprehensive post by the e-hole team before the launch of the site. Please, read this over and ask any questions. This ‘transition guide’ is written with the intent to help transition UX members to e-hole.net. It will include answers to basic questions as well as what to expect on the new site; if you have been following e-hole since its announcement late last year, please read this anyway, as this does have updated and new content.

E-hole.net Description

E-hole.net is the natural evolution of Undead Xbox. Undead Xbox has relied on, for almost exactly five years, a single game: GTA4. Naturally, as time went on, events surrounding the game peaked and have since declined in both interest and active users. Running a website on a single game is not a suitable model. It is true that Undead Xbox has hosted many events across many games, but the crux of the website has always been GTA4. True, GTA5 is coming out, but it still wouldn’t be a suitable to run a website around. A website needs to be run around a model that is flexible to change with the times and is not reliant on member’s interest in one game, or even one main event (zombies) hosted on a weekly basis.

E-hole.net is the solution to that problem. The site focuses on content that is meaningful and promises the potential for a large amount of growth. The site will be malleable enough that it will not be stuck to a rigid model that requires a stupid amount of work on the side of either members or site moderators. Essentially, e-hole is the natural evolution of a dying community, as it is the best possible way for our community to not only revitalize, but experience growth, as the e-hole community will evolve from the Undead Xbox community but will, in its own time, be a different entity entirely.

Why E-hole is Different and Unique

E-hole will place a heavy emphasis on user-created content such as videos, podcasts, blogs, and articles. These will include let’s plays, rants, reviews, etc.; really, it will include anything and everything that the creative community at e-hole outputs. There is no limit to what content may be created. Exceptional community-created content will land itself on either the front page (yes, we will have one of those) or the youtube account.

BASIC INFORMATION

Username, Post Count, UX-Medals/Achievements

E-hole.net will be a blank slate for everyone. You will have the ability to create your account using the username you desire, your post count will of course be zero, your medals and achievements will likely not carry over in the format that you’re expecting, however it is not unlikely that we will not have a record of Undead Xbox-related achievements/medals. Take note that this board will not have the feature to change your username at will like Undead Xbox, so select your username wisely!

Banned Users

As stated above, e-hole.net will be a blank slate for everyone. Banned users will be allowed into the community, and they will be judged by the same rules and criteria we expect of any other member.

Undead Xbox Holdouts

Undead Xbox is a dying community. If you wish to stay there, you are more than welcome to for the short period of time that the site will be open for posting. Eventually, shortly after e-hole’s launch, Undead Xbox will have posting and new registration closed and will remain open for archival purposes only. If you still would rather not join e-hole, then question where your loyalties lie; with the domain www.undead-xbox.com, or the community.

THE E-HOLE HIERARCHY

The e-hole hierarchy is what those of us who have been working on the site since it was first suggested by DeadApe refer to as those who essentially run the website.

Regarding the “Staff Team”

There is no staff team on e-hole.net. The staff team on Undead Xbox was necessary when there were events that needed to be ran and posts that needed to be moderated by a group of individuals. We have reworked this design and implemented it in a way that is more streamlined and friendly to the users as a whole. Rather than one team accomplish all the objectives necessary for e-hole.net, there will be several teams concerned with a single, specific objective.

The E-hole Hierarchy is as follows:

-Global Administrators: DeadApe and a very small team of individuals that will handle basic board moderation as well as creation of boards and modification to the specific physical aspect of e-hole. These people are unlike the staff team, as they deal solely in moderation and are not in a position higher or more important than any other. Boards that do not deal in specific content creation, such as General Discussion, will be moderated by these people.

-Content Moderators: These people will moderate content to be published on the front page of e-hole’s media such as youtube.

-Members: Everyone else.

Different Content Moderators

The Content Moderators is a general term to describe several teams of individuals with a similar goal to moderate and publish content. There will be Content Moderators for every section of content.

Fridge Door: These moderators will handle specifically with the youtube channel and front page of the website. They will moderate what created media reaches the youtube channel, and what youtube videos reach the main page. They will moderate and review videos, podcasts, and other miscellaneous user-created content. It is their duty to moderate the Fridge Door message board as well.

Blogs/Articles: These moderators will handle specifically what written word is published on the front page of the website. They will moderate, review, and publish material to the front page that is included but not limited to written reviews, blogs, etc. In addition, they will also moderate the Blogs/Articles message board.

Events: These moderators are the closest thing to Undead Xbox staff team that will exist on the new site. They will facilitate the hosting and creation of events as well as moderating the Events board.

Forum Games: They will create and manage forum games, as well as moderating the Forum Games board.

Other brands of Content Moderators will be added in response to the growing of the site and need for different kinds of content.

How to Join the Content Moderators

Content Moderation is done by members who have applied and been accepted to the position by DeadApe. Anyone, at any time, may apply for the desired position, though it is entirely up to DeadApe when and who to add. If a Content Moderator is not doing his or her job correctly, or becomes inactive, then he or she will be replaced by another willing member. Forum Games Content Moderators are a less strict on the application process, as they will include any who is currently running a forum game. As of now, all the Content Moderators have been hand selected to facilitate the launch of e-hole.net. Specific people for each role will be announced shortly before the site launches.

CONTENT CREATION AND PUBLICATION

At any time, any member is encouraged to create and publish content through the appropriate means.

How to Publish Content to the Main Page, Youtube Channel, Etc.

You will post your content in the message board that is most appropriate, then it will be reviewed and published if appropriate. Specific criteria for each kind of content is up to specific Content Moderators, who will be in charge of reviewing and publishing content to e-hole’s various media. Let’s give an example: say you created a video of you and some friends playing Day Z. You would post this video in the Fridge Door topic and, if the Content Moderators of the Fridge Door deem it to be of acceptable quality, they will reupload it to the youtube account (per your permission, of course) and it will be posted to the main page of e-hole.net.

Rules and Criteria for Publishing Content

This is entirely up to the Content Moderators of the specific boards. Check the message boards when e-hole launches for more details.

MISCELLANEOUS

Regarding Events and the Event Moderators

E-hole.net is not an Event-based website like Undead Xbox, though Events are more than welcome to be hosted. This will be a small part of the whole, and not the main focus. Like Content Moderation, the criteria for creating Events is up to the Event Moderators, however, it is very highly encouraged that members take Event creation upon themselves. One of the failings of Undead Xbox was the reliance on a small group of people to create and host all events; if you’d like to host an event, host it.

Rules, and How to Get Banned

The rules on e-hole.net will follow a standard of most boards today. Obvious infractions such as non-tagged spoilers and NWS will be moderated. The cardinal rule is: Don’t be a dick. To elaborate, don’t take a joke so far that you are continually harassing a user. Trolling and flaming is acceptable to a certain degree. Off Site harassment, or continual and redundant harassment is not. These will, of course, be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Be a dick, and you will be banned, as per DeadApe’s discretion.


One Final Message Regarding Rules

E-hole is designed to be a more liberal board rule-wise than undead xbox. For that to work, and for the community to be able to post without excessive moderation, one final message must be made to every user on this website: HAVE FUN.

Who Created E-hole, and Who Contributed

E-hole is the brainchild of DeadApe. The creation of the website, the same with Undead-Xbox, comes from him. However, it is important to recognize who contributed thus far to the making of the site. The following people, in no particular order, have helped behind the scenes to ensure e-hole is a reality:

Spoiler:

I have the same question I had in thew other topic. If I make a review and launch it on or shortly after E-Hole launches, is there an appropriate way to advertise the community? I get that you post your video on the fridge door and if it's good enough it gets on the site's YouTube channel, but I mean something else. For example, at the beginning of a zombie video, I'd put the UX intro there. That way, if anyone saw the video on my channel, they'd know the group Undead Xbox was behind it, and might potentially join. The idea here being, I make a review and post it on YouTube, and then anyone who watches it to the end sees something along the lines of "This video was created by a member of E-Hole.net. If you have an interest in games, reviews, rants, etc.. blah blah, come check us out.". That way, if they like the idea of E-Hole, of creating that sort of content and sharing it with others, or writing rants or whatever, now they know that the site E-Hole likes that stuff too and they may potentially join.

So yeah, is there an appropriate way to advertise the community?

Also, will you be changing the UX YouTube channel name to E-Hole, or starting a... hole... new channel? I'd recommend the first option, since the only subscribers you'd immediately get on a new channel would be current members, and unless you're lucky or the videos are incredibly good, the channel would be unlikely to experience quick growth. At best, you'd slowly gain subscribers at first and then maybe start getting big, but that's unlikely.

If you stick with the current channel and just rename it though, you'll have however many subscribers (1113) already. You'll just have to make some announcement video saying "Hey, we're doing a HOLE bunch of new shit now. Check out E-Hole for blanks, blahs, blah-blahs, and blublubluhs.".

Sleepy has a good idea of changing the account name to E-Hole, driving off that subscriber base already. Is it possible to change a YouTube account's name?

Jagdgeschwader wrote:Sleepy has a good idea of changing the account name to E-Hole, driving off that subscriber base already. Is it possible to change a YouTube account's name?

Sadly not really. Basically we can change the name on the youtube page, but the account URL is still youtube.com/undeadxbox, which I think will become more confusing than it's worth.

however, I think it would be a good idea to make a video on that channel to promote E-hole/ the new channel.

Meatshield718 wrote:Sadly not really. Basically we can change the name on the youtube page, but the account URL is still youtube.com/undeadxbox, which I think will become more confusing than it's worth.

It's worth 1113 subscribers. I think changing the display name will be more than adequate. It's not like anybody manually types in the URL, and plenty of YouTubers have old names but more appropriate display names that they're known by. It would be downright foolish to make a whole new channel when there's literally nothing to gain from it, except a new channel URL and the loss of every subscriber. This isn't like the new site thing. Back before this was all final when a few members (or at least me) suggested just redesigning and renaming the site, the idea was that the URL might not be changeable and that we needed a fresh start on something other than forumotion. But all YouTube channels are the same. You'll get the exact same customization options on a new channel as you do on the current one.

The benefits of a new channel:
-New URL
-Maybe some irrational good feeling about being a new channel

The cons:
-Loss of 1113 subscribers who have an interest in gaming and videos, both of which will obviously be the most prominent part of E-Hole.

Good YouTube videos are the most effective, non-luck based way to expand. If you start a new channel, you'll basically get maybe ten or twenty subscribers, all of them members of E-Hole already. None of them have a substantial amount of pull, so you can't expect new subscribers to flock to subscribe to E-Hole even if every one of the E-Hole subscribers makes a video saying "Check out the E-Hole YouTube channel". Growth is SLOOOOOW as fuck on YouTube. Unless the next SeaNanners joins E-Hole and starts recommending it or it's new channel to their 100000 subscribers, the channel is unlikely to ever be big. Unless you're hoping we're the only group that might capitalize on trying out GTAV zombies and there's another video like the one by Finland that gets over a million views.

The 1113 subscribers of UndeadXbox are basically dormant. They don't expect any new content. An announcement video telling them to go to a new channel won't do it (the last video got just over 100 views). If however an announcement video were put up, promising all this new content, and then come April 1st and so on some new content follows? The collective best videos of all current members put up on a channel with 1113 subscribers? That can conceivably go somewhere. Starting at zero all for a URL that ultimately doesn't matter instead of using the substantial amount of what you already have is just downright insane.

You can change your URL now!

PatrickQ 96 wrote:You can change your URL now!

OH RLY?

Please do tell how.

EDIT*** Looked up a tutorial. Looks like you have to submit a support ticket. Will talk to DeadApe.

Desert Sleepy wrote:

Meatshield718 wrote:Sadly not really. Basically we can change the name on the youtube page, but the account URL is still youtube.com/undeadxbox, which I think will become more confusing than it's worth.

It's worth 1113 subscribers. I think changing the display name will be more than adequate. It's not like anybody manually types in the URL, and plenty of YouTubers have old names but more appropriate display names that they're known by. It would be downright foolish to make a whole new channel when there's literally nothing to gain from it, except a new channel URL and the loss of every subscriber. This isn't like the new site thing. Back before this was all final when a few members (or at least me) suggested just redesigning and renaming the site, the idea was that the URL might not be changeable and that we needed a fresh start on something other than forumotion. But all YouTube channels are the same. You'll get the exact same customization options on a new channel as you do on the current one.

The benefits of a new channel:
-New URL
-Maybe some irrational good feeling about being a new channel

The cons:
-Loss of 1113 subscribers who have an interest in gaming and videos, both of which will obviously be the most prominent part of E-Hole.

Good YouTube videos are the most effective, non-luck based way to expand. If you start a new channel, you'll basically get maybe ten or twenty subscribers, all of them members of E-Hole already. None of them have a substantial amount of pull, so you can't expect new subscribers to flock to subscribe to E-Hole even if every one of the E-Hole subscribers makes a video saying "Check out the E-Hole YouTube channel". Growth is SLOOOOOW as fuck on YouTube. Unless the next SeaNanners joins E-Hole and starts recommending it or it's new channel to their 100000 subscribers, the channel is unlikely to ever be big. Unless you're hoping we're the only group that might capitalize on trying out GTAV zombies and there's another video like the one by Finland that gets over a million views.

The 1113 subscribers of UndeadXbox are basically dormant. They don't expect any new content. An announcement video telling them to go to a new channel won't do it (the last video got just over 100 views). If however an announcement video were put up, promising all this new content, and then come April 1st and so on some new content follows? The collective best videos of all current members put up on a channel with 1113 subscribers? That can conceivably go somewhere. Starting at zero all for a URL that ultimately doesn't matter instead of using the substantial amount of what you already have is just downright insane.

I have like 15 subs, and average 100 views.

Posting a video explaining and promoting e-hole.net on the UX channel might not even be worth it.


*EDIT


Didnt see the "You can change the URL" post.

If we can keep it, might as well.

Interesting. Maybe changing our channel url is an option now.

Im not doubting that 1000 subs is a good thing. But based on our stats, only about 1% of our views come from our subscribers. The rest come from people clicking related videos.

DeadApe wrote:Interesting. Maybe changing our channel url is an option now.

Im not doubting that 1000 subs is a good thing. But based on our stats, only about 1% of our views come from our subscribers. The rest come from people clicking related videos.

I'm sure the stats are pretty skewed by the fact that the channel presumably got most of it's subscribers after those huge videos with tens of thousands of views. Without something new and no subscribers, a new channel isn't likely to be highly successful. While there's nothing new being done now (like how GTA IV zombies was new), decent quality and a large amount of subscribers is something.

Making an interesting custom game type on a relatively new game would be a good idea.

Meatshield718 wrote:

Jagdgeschwader wrote:Sleepy has a good idea of changing the account name to E-Hole, driving off that subscriber base already. Is it possible to change a YouTube account's name?

Sadly not really. Basically we can change the name on the youtube page, but the account URL is still youtube.com/undeadxbox, which I think will become more confusing than it's worth.

however, I think it would be a good idea to make a video on that channel to promote E-hole/ the new channel.

Not to mention that the subscriber base on the UX channel is geared toward an UX form of the site, and give the wrong impression that e-hole is a copy of UX. The confusion part is a big one though. A new channel has been created.

Probably putting an announcement up would move the active people over, but the migrating is up to them.

EDIT: Needed to read further down before posting; URL change could work, HOWEVER, I feel like it is the same principle as UX. If we just want to change our youtube URL over, then why not just change UX's URL over? A fresh start should be, well, fresh (for the forum and the channel).

eaustinn36 wrote:Not to mention that the subscriber base on the UX channel is geared toward an UX form of the site, and give the wrong impression that e-hole is a copy of UX. The confusion part is a big one though. A new channel has been created.

Probably putting an announcement up would move the active people over, but the migrating is up to them.

EDIT: Needed to read further down before posting; URL change could work, HOWEVER, I feel like it is the same principle as UX. If we just want to change our youtube URL over, then why not just change UX's URL over? A fresh start should be, well, fresh (for the forum and the channel).

I don't think they're really subscribed to the site. They're subscribed to the gaming videos it put out, and probably most videos put out by E-Hole will still be gaming related. It's not like they'll feel violated that a channel they're subscribed to is now putting out the same kind of stuff they started watching on it, as well as new stuff too. If they actually see that we're more than a gaming site now, they might actually join up (if they haven't already).

You guys already explained why a URL change wouldn't work for the site: Forumotion isn't flexible enough, and it might not be possible. And a fresh start for everyone, with the only "harm" done being a loss of post count and medals, which isn't harm but part of a fresh start.

There isn't any good reason to start a new YouTube account. And I see no reason to be optimistic about the site's chances of drawing even ten new users in a year if you don't use the old account. I haven't seen E-Hole yet, but I can't imagine that there's a single thing being done that hasn't already been done on another site by more people with more experience and more funding and more support a decade ago when it was a lot more fresh. It's all been done and better and sooner. The only thing we have going is a tight knit user base and a staff team that actually seems like they belong on the site, unlike larger sites where mods will usually seem distant and detached from everything. On the off chance that someone is actually attracted to a site for that, instead of just immediately joining the much larger, more evident site that suits their interests, they have to actually find it first.

As a new channel with no subscribers except the ones who'd see the videos anyway, you can expect to get absolutely minimal views on everything. Without subscribers to hopefully view and possibly share your videos, it'll have a tiny view count. With a tiny view count, people are way, WAY less likely to click on it, and it's also less likely to appear in any related videos which means even less views. Why watch a review by these people you don't know when there's one by IGN and one by The Escapist and so on and so on? These "E-Hole" people's review only has like 38 views, it must suck.

Maybe within a year the channel will have a very, very modest subscriber base. Unless of course you get lucky, or do a video that's very relevant (meaning a good video released very soon after a game comes out or a topic comes to light) and STILL get lucky. You can't count on getting lucky at all, though. The 1113 currently dormant subscribers are pretty much the community's only ace in the hole. Getting their attention again and releasing content that's appealing that they'll drive up the view count of and thus increase the chances of others finding or viewing it is the site's only realistic chance of success. It won't become big just because we hope it'll be, and good content won't be viewed just because we make it. If we don't use those subscribers to elevate us above "nobodies", the chances are good that we'll stay that way, nobody will find out about us, nobody will join (AKA revitalizing), and the community will just continue to decay (members leaving more often than joining).

Sleepy is on a roll here.

The member 'A Groovy Tophat' has done the following action : Dices roll

'Dice' : 5

... no way to rate or write a review to recommend games to other members...

A Sneaky Whale wrote:... no way to rate or write a review to recommend games to other members...

that's what the Blogs/Articles section is for

also Games Discussion

Will E-hole have a chat/shout box?


Also, does this site still have the chatbox?

Nicolas Cage wrote:

A Groovy Tophat wrote:


Also, does this site still have the chatbox?

...

Im guessing that just means i was "Perma banned" from it by erik LOL

Ok. I havent actually seen the chatbox since like... before november i think.

We're investigating adding a chat box to e-hole.

Super Mega King wrote:We're investigating adding a chat box to e-hole.

Ah ok, cool.

Lmao tophat....

but yeah the site will have a chatbox. I'm still working with it though, it'll definitely be up by launch but it'll probably be a work in progress during the first week.