I’ve been playing FF an uncomfortably long time (~9 years) and I remember when the forum was insanely active and would love to try bringing that back. A few people have been handicapping again and the promising 2yo thread each year is fun. Beyond that, it’s mostly seeing how much money we burned in various auctions or, during its run, Color War discussions. Really our most active board by far is when all the new foals hit the ground. I was roaming around the forum looking for old ideas that seemed popular and came across the old Stallion Spotlight that would be posted in the Newsletter board. If there’s any interest, I would love to take this on as a random once-a-month look at a member-owned FF stallion. Horses would be chosen randomly but written up as in-depth as I possibly can with a look into their pedigree, races, foals, possible good crosses, and with cooperation from their owners a fun “slice of life” tidbits/personality notes just to add some realism. Not sure if anyone has any sort of mental idea of their entirely stats-based horses, but might be fun!
Any interest? Fun? Waste of time? Any other thread ideas that might be of interest? Additional random ideas: a bragging board for race results, a thread of regrets when that super expensive horse can’t hit the board in a maiden for 5 years, upcoming stakes highlights – Markos used to actually go through some of the stakes entries and highlight favorites/longshots like an actual program, and these seemed extremely popular; foal name brainstorming thread for when the time comes, “stallion radar” for horses working towards stallion status, and bringing back the handicapping competition even if it’s purely bragging rights.
I know I’m relatively new, but I’d love to see the forum more active as well!
I LOVE the stallion spotlight idea! If you’re willing to do it! I’m not the best writer, otherwise, I’d offer to swap months with you.
I think a foal naming brainstorm thread would be a great idea. Maybe just 1 thread for the year, so anyone stuck could post, and others could respond? Keeps it simple. I know sometimes I’ve posted I’m stuck, and people will reply to my thread, but 1 area would be easier.
Also, love the stallion radar post! Again, maybe one post for the year of those that are close/hopefuls, and can be updated when people feel like it/have time.
I’ve recently gotten back to the handicapping (because hello! taxes LOL) so that’s been fun. Maybe in January, we could do like double payouts? See if it sparks some interest? Get more people involved?
Would anyone like to start an official “Stallion Prospects” thread? We have the “New for [Year]” posts every year, so this would act as a single go-to reference and watch thread. We can also post about new stallions officially entering stud the following year, even if they weren’t on the radar or it was announced somewhere they would enter stud.
Sounds like a Stallion Spotlight thread would be fun, so I’ll start getting something together to begin in December.
Keep the ideas coming and feel free to start your own! It sounds like we’d all like to see more activity but are busy ourselves, so maybe if we all started a small something we can help each other out and get some consistent discussion going.
Great ideas. I keep thinking I want to try and jump-start things on the forum again, get things more active, but I’m not even keeping up with my stable at the moment, let alone the forum, or coding, etc.
Having said that, if it would help to have any particular horse info to do profiles, PM me - it might be quick/easy to throw together a page that combines a bunch of info rather than someone having to dig through manually.
I don’t mind digging up the information myself but I will definitely keep the offer in mind if I want more information! Or am feeling lazy.
Also, I know it’s been mentioned many times, but if there’s anything we can help out with, Shanthi, let us know! It’s obvious many of us would love to see FF perk up more and you have a billion things to do in FF alone, let alone in RL. So if there’s anything on your to-do list that anyone could help out with, maybe post a list, we’ll call dibs on whatever, and get started.
Me too!
I remember the stallion spotlights and Marcos’ write-ups - I’ve been here for 10 years now!!! Wouldn’t mind lending a hand where possible as well.
Same here! I’ve only been here a year now (previously played before for another year) and I love this game!
Wiling to help out however I can! I’m pretty website savvy, but I can’t code
Aw, thanks guys. That’s really nice to hear (especially since I’ve sometimes wondered with the forum quieting down if people were losing interest in the game).
I think my main stumbling block is how to keep the current site going (and try and at least investigate the many bugs it has) while also developing the new version. It may have to come down to a planned period of downtime while everything shifts over, but I’m hoping to avoid that.
(Help-wise the only things I can think of are CW setup/prizes, which is mostly automated if I can figure out what - if anything - needs tweaking in the scripts, and doing HOTY polls - which I usually forget to do until February, haha.)
I think MOST of the bugs we can live with – unable to enter races maaaaybe not as much, unless we can take advantage of the bug and use November and December to move things over unless the new version isn’t quite THAT ready. HotY voting I think everyone is okay with waiting on. Would it help if we compiled a list of things bugs to address so it’s all in one place?
Definitely not losing interest! This is my stress outlet since I no longer have the time for the super old school, non-automated style games I used to love.
I don’t mind a few bugs because I know that code likes to just break for no reason lol
Not losing interest in the least. I’m more of a serial lurker on the forum, but I’ve been trying to post more. I definitely love this game. I left once many years ago, regretted it immensely, came back, and have been addicted ever since. XD
I have the first Stallion Spotlight ready to launch December 1st! I’ll try and make this a thing every first of the month, barring unforeseen RL schedules.
I was roaming around the forum looking for old ideas that seemed popular and came across the old Stallion Spotlight that would be posted in the Newsletter board. If there’s any interest, I would love to take this on as a random once-a-month look at a member-owned FF stallion. Horses would be chosen randomly but written up as in-depth as I possibly can with a look into their pedigree, races, foals, possible good crosses, and with cooperation from their owners a fun “slice of life” tidbits/personality notes just to add some realism. Not sure if anyone has any sort of mental idea of their entirely stats-based horses, but might be fun!
