The Story Behind the Slogan

[CaptainMorgan]

I'm glad someone brought up the elephant in the room... and for me that elephant has been the legitimacy of the slogan we have here, "The Largest Java Community". My question is simple and for the owner(s) of our forum or for anyone that can provide the answer(other members with opinions please provide your input too!)- can you provide proof of this statistical claim? If it exists, I'd be really interested in seeing it and further promoting it.

If it doesn't exist, then I think we need to take a look at the possibility of changing the slogan to something more accurate. Other well known forums for example, like the Sun Forums have a very large community. Another one devoted solely to Java(like here) is very big too and I'm choosing not to name it because it gets enough attention already- their user interface is horrible. Another popular forum doesn't devote itself to only Java, but to the whole software development community and has over 300,000 members with over 69,000 of them being active members-- what are the chances there is a great number of that active member number that is devoted to their Java sub-community? Pretty good I would say.

The place with the horrible UI that I describe above claims itself on being a "friendly" place for Java developers. But forums like Sun and the massive one I mentioned above simply state that they are mere Discussion Community's. I feel that this strengthens their image, and a strengthening of an image only serves to help. If they had claimed to be something and it was found out that they are not what they claimed to be- they would lose credibility and members might stop visiting.

I love this place. But in a logical sense, we have over 4,000 members with just over 600 of them being active.... unfortunately, these are small numbers in comparison with the other forums I talked about. With that said, is the slogan "The Largest Java Community" accurate?

What about something like:
Java Forums; The Friendliest Java Community
Java Forums; A Java Developer Community
Java Forums; Java Developer Community
Java Forums; A Java Development Community
Java Forums; A Community for Java Developers

or something to these effects. I think this is something worth considering and can only serve to the betterment of the community.

I look forward to your thoughts on this subject.
-Capt

[Java Tip]

Hi Capt,

I am open to suggestions as far as we find someone to edit the logo appropriately. At the time of selecting the slogan, i just thought the slogan as a target not an achievement of course. :)

[Eranga]

Hi Captain,

I see this thread today. :)

Nice thought pal. As you said, most of the time we are talking about "The Largest Java Community". Honestly, point of me I don't like to use it more. As Captain says, we have around 600 active members. They are the people more and more helped to make our community the largest one.

Just registering on our forum and keep quite! not helped to make our dream come true. Still we can found some people just post one or two threads within a long time.

Welcoming on Introduction forum, normally I avoid that slogan and change it as "Welcome to Our Community". Word Largest make a bad impression, that is what I think, for newbie to our forum that they think, since this is a largest community within a short period of time. If they failed on it, what happened, that user become inactive here.

At the same time, I've a doubt that is there 600 active members(or close to that). See the nice thread started by Captain regarding the Java IDE. Only 36 members voted there at the time I write this post. :(

So, from the list of slogan listed by Captain I like to vote for "Java Forums; A Java Developer Community" :)

Eranga

[sukatoa]

Just a suggestion.

How about this:

Java forums, Where real java developers live.
Java forums, An active java developer's community.
Java forums, Were learnings and development starts. ( interesting for a newbie to read )
Java forums, A Java lover's community. ( weird but unique )

What can you say about the phrases above?
How good/badly is it?

[sanjeevtarar]

My suggestion is :

Java Forums
The Java Developer Community.

[Eranga]

Java forums, An active java developer's community.

Inactive developers, ;) they are the majority my friend. :o

[CaptainMorgan]

So, from the list of slogan listed by Captain I like to vote for "Java Forums; A Java Developer Community" :)

Great points made my friend. I like your choice too! "A Java Developer Community" seems appropriate and accurate. "The Java Developer Community", in English terms, implicitly implies we're the only community. :) Thus, I think what you've suggested is fantastic.

[Java Tip]

Great points made my friend. I like your choice too! "A Java Developer Community" seems appropriate and accurate.

Ok. Who wants to update the logo? :)

[CaptainMorgan]

I started this - I might as well finish it. :)

I won't change much, if at all- I would only change the slogan and would like to leave everything else the same. I can post it to this thread after I come up with a few designs- when I get some time later.

:)

[Java Tip]

I won't change much, if at all- I would only change the slogan and would like to leave everything else the same. I can post it to this thread after I come up with a few designs- when I get some time later.

It is ok for me. But please make sure that you are working on the correct part of the logo (i mean i should just replace a figure on the server).

[Eranga]

:) Best of luck Captain. Do it well.

[Nicholas Jordan]

caffeine for hire, or sanjeevtarar's suggestion.

I was originally put off by the slogan and spent about a year at another site already the firendliest site around, thought it was the only site in town.

It is telling of the caliber and count of the traffic that I put up an actual avatar of actually myself after only a week. I made the thumbnail after browsing through the copious tips that have been going up for the last few days. I had to go get some code somewhere else to get it to actually run, yes, but we really have a new level.

Heretofore I crawled in fear on the open web, in an enhanced Paranoia. There is no shortage of Java sites, I find the one's written by college professors in html 1.1 to be appealing. I cite ( will edit in citation later ) but fishtoprecords has already brought up the issue, you guys need to revisit the possiblity of revamping the slogan.

Also, plural of Forum is Fora ~ though no one does it that way.

[tim]

Hello everyone

When I joined the forums I noticed the slogan "The largest Java community" and I thought it was a bit dodgy myself. I mean, is it really? But, for me and many other potential members, this is only eye candy. What really matters is the content, usability and the attitude of the users on the forums. For Java Forums, I noticed that all these are excellent and I decided to join. The slogan did not really effect my choice much.

Also, maybe we should reconsider "A Java Developer Community". Not all of our members or potential members are developers. Many of them, including me, are still students. I found developer sites very intimidating to be honest. My recommendation will go for

______Java Forums, For the Java Enthusiast

This shows what we really are, Java enthusiasts, and it brings out individuality. And as a bonus, it might discourage those who think we are on the forums to do their homework ;)

Just a suggestion, thank you. :D

[Eranga]

Lots of suggestions are going on. I'll try to discuss this in depth with all other moderators and let you the progress of this.

Thanks for all comments, and I really appreciate personly more on this. :)

[CaptainMorgan]

I wish I knew a week ago I would have time today for this, at that point I would have suggested a poll. So without further ado, here's what we have so far:

1. Java Forums; A Java Developer Community
2. Java Forums; A Java Development Community
3. Java Forums; A Community for Java Developers
4. Java Forums; Where Learning and Development Starts
5. Java Forums; A Java Lover's Community
6. Java Forums; For the Java Enthusiast

I think I'll make a poll with these exact options and refer the post back to this one for clarification. I won't post it in the open, unless anyone has objections to that(I want to get votes from folks that have been here for awhile as well as those that are relatively new, but not brand new - in an effort to thwart spammers).

If anyone has any further suggestions, post them here soon because once the poll goes up, no more suggestions will be added. This is because with the many choices to pick from, we can only choose once - and when new options are added, it ignores those that could've had the choice.

EDIT: Due to the number of designs I'm getting ready to post - I've reduced the number of options to six... if anyone doesn't like this decision definitely post your opinion.

[fishtoprecords]

Actually, I don't agree that this is the friendliest. Some of the folks are a bit snarky. I think some 'be nice' and anti-insult moderation would be needed to make it really friendly.

More importantly, I don't think being the "est" for any given adjective is all that important.

From what I can see in a couple of weeks, java-forums has more action than javaranch, and is more java-focused than general sites like dev-shed.

This site does seem very approachable, and thus has a lot of very early beginners asking very basic questions. Perhaps stronger FAQs would help.

All just IMHO

[CaptainMorgan]

Great input fishtoprecords.

I'm not a fan of Java-Ranch, but I am a fan of the people there, Bert and Kathy and their respective team members are really great people with lots of insight. However, the site itself is too slow and bulky for my tastes. I like a quick and minimalist interface with fast loads, and this is why I strongly believe our forums are growing.

I agree completely that the FAQ section needs to be revamped - and if Java Tip is okay with it, I would like to head that section. I began rewriting the section on my own separate from Java Forums and my goal was to later propose it to the owners, but since you've brought it up I figured it's a great time to get going with that section. Of course, I am not suggesting that I control it - I think it would help tremendously and be of added value to collaborate with the many folks here during this phase.

[fishtoprecords]

Java-Ranch, the site itself is too slow and bulky for my tastes.

Yes, its painfully slow over there. Clearly you are growing, I'm here :-) Nick's here, etc.
I've notices that this site is way faster. Which I really appreciate.

[CaptainMorgan]

Update, see my post two posts back:

1. Java Forums; A Java Developer Community
2. Java Forums; A Java Development Community
3. Java Forums; A Community for Java Developers
4. Java Forums; Where Learning and Development Begins
5. Java Forums; A Java Lover's Community
6. Java Forums; For the Java Enthusiast

[CaptainMorgan]

Currently six potential slogans with about twelve potential designs, 6 x 12 = 72 total pictures I got so far that are ready to be uploaded somewhere and voted on - anyone got any suggestions?

Just remember, if we decide to add more slogans to this short list, I'll have to whip up 12 more pictures per slogan... which is time consuming to say the least. But I think it's good to see every slogan against every design, unless you have a better idea.

At this stage, the designs are done, so here are a few to get an idea of what I've done. There's virtually not a whole lot that's changed to the design besides the slogan, duke and some fonts. Otherwise, the look is roughly the same.






These are only the few, there's many more... ;)