Hello people,

As some of you already know is that we want SilentEternity to focus more on gaming for and by the community. I for one would love it if we could make SE big and known and have lots of people having fun together.
Some of you may know the late SHINYleet stream, the gaming stream with a girl wearing latex usually playing Call Of Duty: Ghosts, Outlast and Need For Speed: Rivals on the PlayStation 4. SHINYleet got a lot of attention in a really short period and I've become a moderator in the first week it went live (together with Syphere). Since then I've been friends with the producer and other moderators of that stream and we've been having contact through Skype up to this day.
The producer wanted to get rid of the name SHINYleet since we still used it as Skype group chat title and our Euro Truck Simulator 2 virtual company. Just for the hell of it I said "SHINYEternity" pushing it more towards becoming part of SilentEternity though some personal interests of the members may lie elsewhere most of them if not all are active gamers.

Now one of the people in the group had an idea to make a place for gamers and by gamers while using the name SHINYEternity. I told them that was the direction we wanted to go to with SE and I wasn't to fond of the name since it was close to ours as well as close to our general direction. Then the idea came to put it all under one name and it would bear the name SilentEternity, it would be our SilentEternity taking it to the next level basically.
What the exact idea is that SE would get reviews, gameplay videos, streams, trips to conventions (at some point) and all that other game related stuff for and by the community all while keeping the community as we know now it together. The producer, who is also a webdesigner/programmer, wants to use the theme used on the website http://pmag.djwd.me/ and extend it with some features with my main concern being the actual members community being quite absent in this template. I would never want us to lose the place where we can just hangout like we do now.

My other concern is that it would change quite a bit on how the site will look and feel plus that we'd need more people to deliver the content for the main areas of the website (the inner community would still be like this, just our regular hangout place). I'm not alone in SilentEternity and I could and would never just change stuff without discussing it with all of you, especially not something this big. Therefor I would like to know what you guys think of the idea of basically still steering SE in the direction we want to go but then taking it to the next level. Although I would like to see more user-generated content out of free will than what the aforementioned link suggests. Making another IGN or Gamespot like website is probably not gonna work all that well since they're so much bigger plus I feel like their community is not involved enough in the website itself.
For SE I'm still trying to get the Wiki pages to look good enough as well as a blog thing that would basically function as this user-generated content with member reviews, videos (not just gaming although it would get a front page spot when having to do with it), etc.
If you have any questions, remarks, suggestions or whatever please say so because I could then answer these as well as relay them over to the Skype group to steer this in a direction (if any) that we could all live with.

Another thing, I've got offered the opportunity to do more with my gaming streams and videos. The idea was that I would then try to gain more success with them and then taking SE with me basically I'd become an ambassador for SE. This would mean I would benefit from it personally but of course I don't want to just take all the success because I don't like being in the spotlight too much as I feel that I'm part of SE and not the other way around. To be frank, I hate the idea that SE is part of me as we're all in this together and I hate breaking my promise to always be part of SE every time I think about it.
I've thought about getting a group of friends on Facebook together to have small gaming community but my thoughts always go back to the idea of them just becoming part of SE. And not only that, I've acted upon it. Just look at the amount of people not actually being part of the old group. So about me benefiting from it I would of course stuff it into SE as I would love to do more for SE and you guys.
I'm not sure what I should do as I have a feeling I can't do this by myself. I mean, my stream for instance, it may be my stream and I'm hosting it but it would not have been anywhere near as fun or known without you guys. My single player stream is only there because I didn't want to do streams without you in it but I still wanted to play single player games on the stream.
But for this thing I would be doing more than just a bit of gaming. I think the idea was also for me to do some reviews, commentaries and I think some other stuff too. This would all be put on a personal website (not liking that idea though since it pulls me away from SE and makes me a separate thing) and SE itself. What do you guys think I should do? This would also be in conjunction with the aforementioned "merger" of SE.

Please let me know. Also, if any of you would like we could organize a meeting on TS for a more direct discussion.

I will follow and suport SE were ever and whenever i can

Greetzz,

SiarnaQ

I be thinking we should gather on TS at some point, most likely on a weekend, and talk shit out. Don't really have anything against.
Siar pls no need to quote all of everything.

As long as I still get to be an Admin and aslong as all of us are still apart of the SE family and it benefits all of us, I'm willing to support any new direction that the site takes.

For the longst while, Yuii, you've taken the place of Shayphis by fathering the site and keeping us all together, which I'm sure we can't be thankful enough for. And now, if your gaming endenvour is becoming larger than what SE was originally created and used for, then I say all power to you. This merger could be a very good thing, not only for you, but for the whole site and for your dedication toward the site as it is now, I believe that we should be behind you now 100%.

In summary, I'm completely with you man. Do what you have to do for your gaming stream and the site. I look forward to facing it with you.

While I don't care all that much for the user-generated review shit you mentioned, I couldn't give a flying pig about where the place goes, so long as it's fun to be on. You have my armored fists!

And My Axe!

And my Gluttony

and my wrath

Some of you know that there was a meeting a while back to discuss some of the ideas for the future of SE. Nothing will happen yet as I want to relay everything back to all of you. Plus, I really don't want to rush into things without getting proper feedback and agreements.

Main Content
The things that were discussed were obviously the site itself. We've discussed the content and that will come from SE members themselves as well as other sources. This would be things like news, reviews and a weekly digest, all gaming related would be front page stuff so to speak. A weekly digest can be the shortened version of all the articles collected in a week. Those being global gaming news (from other sources), community gaming news, community news/videos and all that stuff and global clan (C.SE) updates.
Any SE member having made any of these news or review articles (excludes the weekly digest) can have hers or his article on the front page if they are good enough. See it as a highlight of a community produced thing. Of course, everyone can make a review or news article but they don't necessarily have to or will end up on the frontpage so everyone would just be free in how they like to make their reviews.
For all this front page stuff there need to be people acting as the editorials. These members will, as a team, find interesting gaming related articles on the web from news websites like IGN, Gamespot, etc. and/or get them from within the community. The editorial staff would have to be committed to do this. In the beginning there won't be much but later on it may pick up of frequency of these articles. It depends on how many members we have as well as how many articles need to be processed.
The editorial staff shouldn't have to spend too much time on managing the front page. I'd say an hour per day at most should be long enough but as said before it all depends on the supply.

Community & Clan
For the community I wanted the option for blogging for everyone. This has been an idea for a long time and we would have that option. Another thing is we would have a normal forum like we have now but we'd also have more options in terms of our profile. Since the idea is that the site would be also be a social network kind of thing you'd have a profile kind of like what Steam has. You'd be able to befriend other members and keep in touch this way. Most of the community will just be the similar fashion as we know it but with additional stuff.
Events will be held for the entirety of the community to make it a place where people want to come and stay. Such events could be anything from tournaments, (internet) get-togethers, maybe some conventions if possible. It's all open for ideas and suggestions though it's not important to have these set right away ofc.

The clan sides of the community will also be put out there and I will try to make this a more active thing but I will need help from other people willing to help out. My idea is to have some clan leaders that can make clan new updates (which can also be put out on the main page of the website) and have different game divisions and teams.

It also doesn't stay with the website as the plan is to build up a joint YouTube and streaming (Twitch.tv or Hitbox.tv) community where people would also be able to earn money. Money earned on the SilentEternity YouTube account would could then be used to help out other financial less fortunate members doing stuff for that YouTube account. I stressed that I want people to keep their freedom and I also want the rights to always be in the hands of the creator.
And while earning money and doing stuff on joint accounts for YouTube, Hitbox and Twitch could be fun I also want people to have their own creativity for their videos though I'd say for YT vids a default SE/C.SE intro would be nice to gain fame for SE/C.SE. I myself am not entirely done with this subject because I don't want the focus point to be making money but building a community. The money would come eventually anyway if things are set up right. I'd like SE to stay for and by the people.
Basically this idea would be similar to what Machinima is doing on YouTube.
WrathNL and myself are already streaming while using Clan SilentEternity as a banner but we haven't brought it out there. I planned to do this when things for SE are all in place (already had this idea prior to this merger thingy) but I need your input on this in particular. I want SE members to be as free as they are now, no strings attached and no obligations (unless you're a staff member of course ). Also, only a select few (staff) will be able to upload videos to YouTube to prevent abuse.

A Few Other Things
Some of you have seen the template that DocBrayne (R4yk3l4r) wants to use and it's bright. I opted to make it dark to stick with what SE has always looked like. I think there will an option to change it between colors but dark will be the primary scheme.
All of SE3.0 will be imported into the SE when the time comes so all will be preserved. SE3.0 will also not disappear as I will make a backup of it. The website will still SilentEternity.net.

I'm not sure if I forgot anything here but throw me feedback. I have my sword and shield ready for them and I can relay them if need be.