This week's Community of the Week is FanCentral.us, created by FanCentral.
If you'd like to see your site featured as a Community of the Week please post an introduction following our guidelines.
FanCentral.us
1. Could you explain what your site is about for those that aren't familiar with it?
FanCentral.us is a community for anyone who loves Science Fiction, Comics and/or Fantasy. Fans of any part of these genres will will find a smorgasbord of things to do, people to chat with about their interests and activities to attend. We work hard to make everyone feel welcome and keep the site safe and the content 'family friendly'.
For instance, let's say you are a Star Trek fan... on Fancentral.us you will find Star Trek groups, discussion boards, events and Trek loving members to chat with! We even do a weekly podcast with celebrity guests!
2. What gave you the idea to create a site? Was it a natural extension of a hobby or passion you already had?
The inspiration for this site was our passion for Star Trek and our mutual feeling of disappointment in other Trek communities we had been members of. After careful consideration, we decided to expand content to include all SciFi, comics and fantasy genres and set out to create the best 'geek' community on the web!
3. Is your site a join effort between you and other co-creators, or did you create it by yourself?
Yes, there are four people who came together to create FanCentral.us.
4. How did you hear about Spruz?
We were a paying site on the NING network, but chose to move because of the direction NING was going. After a couple months of test driving the various options, we foundSpruz on a message board and gave it a try.... INSTANTLY we knew Spruz was MUCH different than the others and it was our new home!
The support at Spruz is second to none...Spruz people will actually TALK to you and help you when you have a problem....and they are POLITE! The best we've found, HANDS DOWN!
5. What feature has your community found most useful?
The feature we most appreciate, as site owners, is the ability to see exactly how much storage and bandwidth we are using at any given time. That was one of the main reasons we left NING... NING gave you no way to monitor your communities storage and bandwidth usage, so most people over paid in fear of running out.
6. Do you have any tips or suggestions for other site owners? Was there anything you wish you had known when you created your community that you know today?
First of all, I suggest every site owner make the decision to approve new members. Since we have done this, spammers are a thing of the past and it is easy to catch internet 'riff raff' before they get on your site and create problems.
Also, you need to monitor what people post on your site. Members are the lifeblood of your site, but there will always be a few that push the limits and potentially disrupt a blissful site. If you give some people an inch, they will take a mile.
Finally....if there is a problem with the site itself (glitches and such), don't blow up at Spruz. Glitches happen and sites have hiccups on occasion. No way to avoid that. Simply contact the support people and I guarantee the Spruz team will promptly get back to you and work with you to get the problem resolved. They are GREAT people....please be considerate to them when problems arise.
7. Was there anything else you'd like to add?
FanCentral is a warm, friendly 'geek' community with tons going on and great people to interact with! We hope to be here a very long time and look forward to new members from the Spruz network! Thanks to all the Spruz people who are constantly working to make things better for all of us.
Live Long and Prosper!
|