As you know, I've been struggling with my interest in TTI. We've bounced around to some different platforms, tried adding or removing features, experimented with sister-sites... The whole bit. None of it worked, and our community has suffered for it. I'm not pleased with that being the end result, but it is what it is, and it's time to move forward.
In previous posts, I've said that I believe the future of TTI lies beyond the forums. That I need to pursue the site *I* want to be part of.
I bought TTI because there's a legacy here that shouldn't vanish like Anomalies or Time Travel Portal did. What we have here is also part of internet culture, however small, and that's not something I wanted (or want) to simply disappear.
My frustration has stemmed from having a much broader range of interests than time travel. There's SO much more I want to share, explore or discuss, but time travel is a niche of a niche, and that makes it difficult to expand the way we ought to. Time travel as a genre is exciting, but there's only so much one can say about it.
As an attempt to keep TTI as a brand intact, we experimented with having Curious Cosmos as a sister site. All that did was split attention across two separate communities, one hurting the other.
The logical conclusion here is simply to become Curious Cosmos, with Time Travel Institute as a niche within that platform. As of January 1, 2017, we'll begin using the CuriousCosmos.com domain, and I'll restructure the site to reflect that change.
First, the forum structure:
Each forum will more than likely have many different thread prefixes enabled, but I'll discuss those in another thread (this one is going to be long enough as it is).
A few notes about specific forums:
Podcasts, Videos & Blogs - Largely outlined below, but any item that gets posted to the blog will show up here, and we'll use the forums as the commenting engine.
Time Travel - To maintain some continuity and help people not feel like TTI is being disposed of, this forum category will continue to use the current blue theme. The current TTI domains will also land directly in this forum category.
Survival - This is a new addition and will start off with very few threads (if any). However, I think the subject is important, and we should give people a place to share and discover ways to handle themselves in a bad situation.
The biggest thing we'll be adding as Curious Cosmos is a podcast and a Curious Cosmos YouTube channel.
Podcasts will be 20 to 30-minute episodes exploring any number of topics - Aliens, time travel, science, breakthroughs in technology, politics, whatever. Each episode will be a little different as far as what gets discussed, but It'll all have an overarching theme of "curious stuff." I'll be recording and editing, and Hallie will be helping me research and come up with ideas. We'll more than likely be using BlogTalkRadio.com to start, then maybe adding the 24/7 streaming radio option once there's enough original content to support it.
YouTube videos will be called something like "Microcosms" and be no more than 3 to 5 minutes in length. Most of these will be self-contained "Hey, did you know" sort of videos, but I'll use them to outline a podcast topic briefly and then direct people where to listen to learn more.
Both the podcasts and videos will start being crafted in April after we move, but planning is already underway.
Another feature that you all already may know about is the Time Capsule. Sites like Anomalies or Art Bell's Post-to-Post vanished without the owners really understanding the value of what was being lost. I've modified a script that's allowed me to download EVERYTHING Archive.org has on file for various domains, and I'll be incrementally posting that stuff as it becomes available. The sites I'm currently planning on rescuing content from are:
Anomalies.com
Art Bell's Post-to-Post
TimeTravelPortal.com
In addition to that, I've also recovered everything possible from prior versions of TTI. I'll be using these to go back and fix threads that have severe formatting errors, fix inbound links and some other boring stuff. The end result is a very solid forum foundation with as complete a history as possible.
As a compliment to the Creative Cosmos forum, we'll be adding a Media section for people to upload and share things. We'll be using xenForo's addon for this:
Media | XenForo Community
We'll have a Resources section, also using xenForo's own addon:
Resources | XenForo Community. This should compliment a LOT of forums. Couple use-cases might be if someone wants to write a survival manual or a PDF outlining how to lucid dream - They can submit it here, get a dedicated thread for it and then manage that upload by providing updates later ( for which people can receive notifications). This also gives visitors a central location find things that they can use, vs. sifting through tons of threads.
Cosmos Prime is effectively just a way to allow people to support the site, remove ads, get access to a members-only forum and get a few other perks that I'll outline later. One key thing here though is that self-promotion posts will ONLY be possible by members of Cosmos Prime.
We'll be reintroducing Tachyons (renamed to Buckazoids after the currency used in the Space Quest series). People will be able to purchase abilities such as bumping a thread without posting in it, sticking a thread, becoming a moderator in a forum category for a set period, renaming another person's user title... Fun stuff like that. I'm still exploring the specifics here.
In addition to being able to buy forum abilities, we'll also have what's effectively a virtual trading card system. Sets of cards, each having varying degrees of rarity. People can purchase these outright, earn them through forum competitions, trade them back and forth, etc. This is something I've wanted to do for a while, and I think will help improve stickiness and get people more involved. Still, some specifics I need to explore here, too.
On the front-end of the site, we'll do a few key things:
I think there may be some smaller things I've forgotten, but this should be complete enough for you guys to get a good picture of the changes coming.
Let me know what you guys think!
In previous posts, I've said that I believe the future of TTI lies beyond the forums. That I need to pursue the site *I* want to be part of.
I bought TTI because there's a legacy here that shouldn't vanish like Anomalies or Time Travel Portal did. What we have here is also part of internet culture, however small, and that's not something I wanted (or want) to simply disappear.
My frustration has stemmed from having a much broader range of interests than time travel. There's SO much more I want to share, explore or discuss, but time travel is a niche of a niche, and that makes it difficult to expand the way we ought to. Time travel as a genre is exciting, but there's only so much one can say about it.
As an attempt to keep TTI as a brand intact, we experimented with having Curious Cosmos as a sister site. All that did was split attention across two separate communities, one hurting the other.
The logical conclusion here is simply to become Curious Cosmos, with Time Travel Institute as a niche within that platform. As of January 1, 2017, we'll begin using the CuriousCosmos.com domain, and I'll restructure the site to reflect that change.
First, the forum structure:
Each forum will more than likely have many different thread prefixes enabled, but I'll discuss those in another thread (this one is going to be long enough as it is).
A few notes about specific forums:
Podcasts, Videos & Blogs - Largely outlined below, but any item that gets posted to the blog will show up here, and we'll use the forums as the commenting engine.
Time Travel - To maintain some continuity and help people not feel like TTI is being disposed of, this forum category will continue to use the current blue theme. The current TTI domains will also land directly in this forum category.
Survival - This is a new addition and will start off with very few threads (if any). However, I think the subject is important, and we should give people a place to share and discover ways to handle themselves in a bad situation.
The biggest thing we'll be adding as Curious Cosmos is a podcast and a Curious Cosmos YouTube channel.
Podcasts will be 20 to 30-minute episodes exploring any number of topics - Aliens, time travel, science, breakthroughs in technology, politics, whatever. Each episode will be a little different as far as what gets discussed, but It'll all have an overarching theme of "curious stuff." I'll be recording and editing, and Hallie will be helping me research and come up with ideas. We'll more than likely be using BlogTalkRadio.com to start, then maybe adding the 24/7 streaming radio option once there's enough original content to support it.
YouTube videos will be called something like "Microcosms" and be no more than 3 to 5 minutes in length. Most of these will be self-contained "Hey, did you know" sort of videos, but I'll use them to outline a podcast topic briefly and then direct people where to listen to learn more.
Both the podcasts and videos will start being crafted in April after we move, but planning is already underway.
Another feature that you all already may know about is the Time Capsule. Sites like Anomalies or Art Bell's Post-to-Post vanished without the owners really understanding the value of what was being lost. I've modified a script that's allowed me to download EVERYTHING Archive.org has on file for various domains, and I'll be incrementally posting that stuff as it becomes available. The sites I'm currently planning on rescuing content from are:
Anomalies.com
Art Bell's Post-to-Post
TimeTravelPortal.com
In addition to that, I've also recovered everything possible from prior versions of TTI. I'll be using these to go back and fix threads that have severe formatting errors, fix inbound links and some other boring stuff. The end result is a very solid forum foundation with as complete a history as possible.
As a compliment to the Creative Cosmos forum, we'll be adding a Media section for people to upload and share things. We'll be using xenForo's addon for this:
Media | XenForo Community
We'll have a Resources section, also using xenForo's own addon:
Resources | XenForo Community. This should compliment a LOT of forums. Couple use-cases might be if someone wants to write a survival manual or a PDF outlining how to lucid dream - They can submit it here, get a dedicated thread for it and then manage that upload by providing updates later ( for which people can receive notifications). This also gives visitors a central location find things that they can use, vs. sifting through tons of threads.
Cosmos Prime is effectively just a way to allow people to support the site, remove ads, get access to a members-only forum and get a few other perks that I'll outline later. One key thing here though is that self-promotion posts will ONLY be possible by members of Cosmos Prime.
We'll be reintroducing Tachyons (renamed to Buckazoids after the currency used in the Space Quest series). People will be able to purchase abilities such as bumping a thread without posting in it, sticking a thread, becoming a moderator in a forum category for a set period, renaming another person's user title... Fun stuff like that. I'm still exploring the specifics here.
In addition to being able to buy forum abilities, we'll also have what's effectively a virtual trading card system. Sets of cards, each having varying degrees of rarity. People can purchase these outright, earn them through forum competitions, trade them back and forth, etc. This is something I've wanted to do for a while, and I think will help improve stickiness and get people more involved. Still, some specifics I need to explore here, too.
On the front-end of the site, we'll do a few key things:
- List recent threads directly on the home page
- Improve navigation so people can get to specific areas easier
- Introduce the "Titor Navigator," something Time Travel Portal had which meticulously cataloged Titor's posts
- Introduce Encyclopedia (or Glossary) pages that outline specific subjects like the Betty and Barney Hill abduction, Bigfoot, Men in Black, etc.
I think there may be some smaller things I've forgotten, but this should be complete enough for you guys to get a good picture of the changes coming.
Let me know what you guys think!
Part of what I'm doing with the podcast next year will be going ON SITE to places like these:
