What is this place?

[deckard]

What is this place?
This is a new home for those of us who enjoy the games on the PC Engine, TurboGrafx-16, and other NEC hardware in specific. But also enjoy older video games in general.

Where did all the old posts come from?
Using a combination of a couple tools to extract and replicate older data, the content was imported into this new host.

Why doesn't my member account work?
Because replication was based on public facing data, the only things that could be easily replicated were usernames and a few statistics on them.  Accounts were created as "shells" to make the posts integrate properly in the threads.  The accounts still exist though, and it is possible to reclaim your account.

Do we really need another forum?
That question is up to you to answer.  This project was originally started simply to backup and preserve legacy data so that it was not lost, but became something a bit larger over time.  The goal is to have a long term stable platform that will be maintained and updated.  The domain and hosting itself is owned by a group of people to prevent any one person from either letting the content languish or allowing a single person to impose their will on it without consensus.

If you have additional questions please post below and I'll update this main post with answers.

[KingDrool]

I do have some questions and thoughts about this place.

First of all, I think it's great that you guys did the work to make this happen. I know it was a pain in the ass and a lot of work, so thanks.

Wondering what the plans are for the future.

 - Updates/upgrades. Are there plans for more custom themes, a banner, icons? Anything beyond the current generic theme set? Something to make it a little more PC Engine themed?

 - Mods. What's the plan for moderation? Who's running the show? We know what happened last time, so I'm curious about who's going to be given the keys this time.

 - Spreading the word. It'd be nice if everyone could spread the word about the forum to anyone they think might be interested. I know most people believe PCEFX is dead, so they'd probably be interested to know they can come here and get their old accounts back. Also, spelling that out clearly (HEY! YOU CAN GET YOUR OLD ACCOUNT BACK!) would be a good idea.

 - The main site. Right now it has a landing page with a graphic that leads here. Are there any plans for a main/non-forum site? Articles, galleries, resources, etc? Or is this purely forum only.

 - New users. This is my main concern. I feel like if this winds up being a place for the small handful of "those in the know"/old timers to hang out, it'll probably wither and die eventually. Spreading the word that this is "The largest and longest-running PC Engine enthusiast community on the internet" would probably be in our best interest.

That's all I've got for now. I'll post more as it comes to me.

[deckard]

I'm happy to answer some stuff as much as we have answers for:

Updates/upgrades:
The site is currently in more of a soft launch right now, we're trying to polish a couple of the themes so that they look nice and are still usable.  The current base theme is very mobile friendly but not everyone like it so I'd like to add the option of a more traditional version as well.  Also, there is work in putting all the smilies back which is a surprisingly non-trivial task right now.

Mods
The admin account is shared between a couple people and we have one person set as a specific mod and approving people already where needed. 

Spreading the word
I'd love to spread this out a bit further, but we're trying to come up with a better way for people to reclaim their accounts first.  I'd hate to have a ton of people come back and want their accounts but we can't verify them fast enough or accurately enough.

The main site
There are some plans to put news and articles on the main site as well, but again the first focus was getting the forums back up before we lost everyone.

New users
I'm hopeful we can get new blood coming in as well, but I think pulling people into the forum will also hinge on adding additional content to the main site.