How can we make the 405th great?

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Art Andrews

Community Owner
Community Staff
As mentioned elsewhere, we are very excited to be managing this community! We think it has a tremendous amount of potential and want to see it grow and flourish, but we need YOUR help to do that! This thread is for posting your thoughts and ideas about 1) existing changes as they are made and 2) changes you would like to see made.

Please bear in mind that there is only a handful of us and 10s of thousands of you, so we may not respond to every post or comment on every idea but we WILL read and consider every idea, comment and even criticism. Some things we should be able to implement quickly and easily while others may take time or not be feasible at all. Be patient with us as we already have a tremendous backlog of things that need to be done, but one-by-one, we will get to them.
 
Show me another free app on Android that let's me browse and follow subscribed threads with notifications, and I'll give it a try. Until then, this is my only way to participate in forums with my work/home schedule.

That is the only reason we are still using it, but we REALLY do not like a lot of the things it does. :(
 
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I've been wondering, with there already being several non-Halo models, builds, and general interest here, and with that growing with the fasts approaching release of Destiny, should an area be set up in the forums for non-Halo costuming? Looking at the current topic areas, we have Elite, Recruit, and everything else is all Halo this or Halo that. So I guess what I'm wondering is should there be a catch-all "miscellaneous costuming" or "non-Halo costuming," should things just be left as they are, or with the push for a more Halo-centric focus to the group as a whole, will the non-Halo stuff be getting phased out and possibly even relocated to a different site? In a way I wouldn't have many objections to a separate "405th: Destiny Division" so to speak, but at the same time, I like having basically all my costuming chatter bundled together on one site rather than having several different forums to keep up with.

We were just talking about this yesterday amongst the staff and this is what I laid out as my rough thoughts on the matter:

Technically, anything not Halo would fall into the OT.

Ideally, anything not Halo SHOULD be pushed to the RPF as it is a general-interest site.

Realistically, if you really and truly feel that there is enough of that type of content (non-Halo) created by people who have an overwhelming sense of community here, we could create and OT Costumes and Props forum here, although that is not what I would like to see...
 
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I personally believe that we should consider having a section dedicated to Destiny.

A part of me feels like we aren't the children of Halo, we are the children of the creations of Bungie and 343 Industries.


I didn't preorder Destiny because of any of the hype, I preordered it because it was made by Bungie, the creators of Halo. I'm a Halo fanatic, so somehow Destiny is just already in my blood and is a part of me.

As such, while I think our ultimate mission should be to focus primarily on Halo builds, I would like us to be the home for Destiny builds as well.



I'm on here and not the RPF because of the names all of us Forum-ers at the 405th know. Sean Bradley, Hugh Holder, L3X, Timecon, Ben Streeper, and the list goes on.
First and foremost, this is the community I grew up in and learned about everything I know in terms of costuming. Making a Halo costume is my first goal, but once I have done that, I definitely want to be able to share any future non-Halo themed costumes with everyone here, and I plan on doing so 100%.

Maybe there is some limited knowledge here (I don't mean any offense) and that I should join theRPF as well in order to gain more knowledge since they don't just focus on Halo builds. Maybe theRPF has the Guides I am looking for that we lack here, idk. Be that as it may, I still consider the 405th home.
 
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I personally believe that we should consider having a section dedicated to Destiny.

A part of me feels like we aren't the children of Halo, we are the children of the creations of Bungie and 343 Industries.


I didn't preorder Destiny because of any of the hype, I preordered it because it was made by Bungie, the creators of Halo. I'm a Halo fanatic, so somehow Destiny is just already in my blood and is a part of me.

As such, while I think our ultimate mission should be to focus primarily on Halo builds, I would like us to be the home for Destiny builds as well.

We would have to see an OVERWHELMING amount of Destiny content to create a Destiny forum. Not saying we wouldn't be we wont' do it preemptively.


I'm on here and not the RPF because of the names all of us Forum-ers at the 405th know. Sean Bradley, Hugh Holder, L3X, Timecon, Ben Streeper, and the list goes on.
First and foremost, this is the community I grew up in and learned about everything I know in terms of costuming. Making a Halo costume is my first goal, but once I have done that, I definitely want to be able to share any future non-Halo themed costumes with everyone here, and I plan on doing so 100%.

Maybe there is some limited knowledge here (I don't mean any offense) and that I should join theRPF as well in order to gain more knowledge since they don't just focus on Halo builds. Maybe theRPF has the Guides I am looking for that we lack here, idk. Be that as it may, I still consider the 405th home.

Nothing wrong with that mentality. It is completely natural that this place feels like home to many. It should and we do not expect the RPF to be your new home. As I posted earlier to the staff, we absolutely ARE going to promote the RPF (and heck yes, you should sign up there, even if you don't visit often), but we aren't going to ram it down your throat or force you.
 
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You want "overwhelming"? The game is a month away. Roxyroo is already starting her build, and she has one of the best of the elite costumes I've seen. Most of the work Crimmson has done recently is based on Destiny. Many others have started. There were 4.6 million individual players for the beta. Realistically, Destiny is Halo 2.0. I know the logistics are tricky, but let's acknowledge that Destiny is going to be huge, and people are going to want to build these costumes. I'm one of them. You talk about promoting TheRPF. I am a member there, but I don't visit often because finding anything is a pain. Unless it pops up through Google, I don't look for it there. Why not short-circuit that process, accept that Destiny is going to be the next major costume focus, at least until Halo 5 comes out, and set up a section for all things Destiny. That way when the flood starts, everyone already has somewhere to go to talk about and look for the information/files they need. Work smarter, not harder and all that.
 
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You want "overwhelming"? The game is a month away. Roxyroo is already starting her build, and she has one of the best of the elite costumes I've seen. Most of the work Crimmson has done recently is based on Destiny. Many others have started. There were 4.6 million individual players for the beta. Realistically, Destiny is Halo 2.0. I know the logistics are tricky, but let's acknowledge that Destiny is going to be huge, and people are going to want to build these costumes. I'm one of them. You talk about promoting TheRPF. I am a member there, but I don't visit often because finding anything is a pain. Unless it pops up through Google, I don't look for it there. Why not short-circuit that process, accept that Destiny is going to be the next major costume focus, at least until Halo 5 comes out, and set up a section for all things Destiny. That way when the flood starts, everyone already has somewhere to go to talk about and look for the information/files they need. Work smarter, not harder and all that.

Content and the community will prove whether they want it or not. It is very easy to say Destiny is Halo 2.0 but Titanfall was also supposed to take us all by storm and while a lot of people are playing it... not seeing a lot of costumes coming out of it. Until the demand is there, you aren't going to see us jump on every new game release that isn't associated directly with Halo. You may not be at the RPF, but at 55 posts in 5 years, you aren't exactly burning it up here either. That isn't said to be insulting, but just to point out that participation at that level won't sustain a forum.
 
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Now, Although destiny is going to be pretty big, and people will make builds in such, having dedicated destiny sections would be a little off focus forthe 405th. We focus on Halo. There are plenty of other builds on the site from ironman to titanfall and gundam, but our focus is halo. I expect to see some destiny builds, but I doubt it will be bigger than the others Ive mentioned. maybe a section for non halo costumes would suffice, but honestly it isn't really necessary. We are a halo based community that likes to dab in other things on occasion, but our focus will always be Halo.
 
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We are a halo based community that likes to dab in other things on occasion, but our focus will always be Halo.

I've been on forums and on this earth for that matter long enough to have learned not to be all encompassing when referring to a group of individuals. This may be how you and a majority here see this site but it is not how some of us see it.

Regardless, a forum to funnel those general non-halo projects and efforts would not only be sufficient but necessary. It would allow those that wish to focus on Halo, and only Halo, to do so and those of us that wish to diversify our interests to do so as well and still centralize our efforts on one site.
 
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Content and the community will prove whether they want it or not. It is very easy to say Destiny is Halo 2.0 but Titanfall was also supposed to take us all by storm and while a lot of people are playing it... not seeing a lot of costumes coming out of it. Until the demand is there, you aren't going to see us jump on every new game release that isn't associated directly with Halo. You may not be at the RPF, but at 55 posts in 5 years, you aren't exactly burning it up here either. That isn't said to be insulting, but just to point out that participation at that level won't sustain a forum.

And I am pointing out the content and community are already heading that way. With a month until release, costumes and files are coming out. People are starting builds. People are asking for a sub-section to organize, gather and discuss. WandererTJ pointed out what Destiny is. I'm in the same boat as he is. I preordered Destiny because it was Bungie. Playing the beta, the first thing I did was compare it to Halo 4, and Destiny is orders of magnitude better than Halo 4 as far as I'm concerned. As far as Titanfall goes, it was marketed as the next great Halo, but the players saw through that, judging by the lackluster sales it has had. On the other hand, Destiny is still being talked about, even more so after the beta that everyone played. In fact, Bungie is actively encouraging costumers to start builds. Let's give Bungie a place to point to and say "Hey, go there and see what other fans are doing" just like they did with Halo Waypoint when they helmed the title. That is the kind of hype that will not only keep the forums going, but grow them. I give you and your team credit. TheRPF is going strong and there is a lot of good information there. Why not provide that here? Especially since the main forums section looks like a Halo branding campaign, with every sub-forum titled Halo something. I'm not even saying it has to be Destiny specifically, just provide another section, something like "None Halo Costumes" or "Other Costume Builds". Just something where people can go to post their work, regardless of where it draws inspiration. It would also be a way to get ahead of any potential growth in regards to Destiny, and MAYBE bring in some of the people that will be looking for references to Destiny in the weeks and months to come. Especially since there won't be a new Halo game (The Collection doesn't count) for another year at least.

Your right, I'm not active here. I only participate when I have something to offer. That being said, the very fact that I AM participating should speak to where and what the community is doing, and I find it vaguely insulting that you would judge on that. I would point out that prior to taking over the site, you weren't a member here. We don't judge you based on that. Would you have joined if you weren't the new owner?(I am glad you took over the site, as it almost instantly revitalized it) I ended up here after problems on CTN years ago. I have been glad to be here since, but my lack of posts does not indicate my commitment to the site, or my willingness to see it survive. What it does indicate, is that over 5 years, I have remained here. How many of the people that were hyper-active 5 years ago are still here? How many of the people active now will be here in 5 years? You have access to all the back-site stuff, you can look at Stealth, WizardofFlight, and all the others that lead the community when I joined. Most of them are gone, and have been so long I can't remember their names.
 
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And I am pointing out the content and community are already heading that way. With a month until release, costumes and files are coming out. People are starting builds. People are asking for a sub-section to organize, gather and discuss. WandererTJ pointed out what Destiny is. I'm in the same boat as he is. I preordered Destiny because it was Bungie. Playing the beta, the first thing I did was compare it to Halo 4, and Destiny is orders of magnitude better than Halo 4 as far as I'm concerned. As far as Titanfall goes, it was marketed as the next great Halo, but the players saw through that, judging by the lackluster sales it has had. On the other hand, Destiny is still being talked about, even more so after the beta that everyone played.

Again, that all sounds good, if this were a gamer site. It isn't and a good game doesn't necessarily make for a strong costume following. I am not saying you are wrong, but you aren't making a strong argument.

In fact, Bungie is actively encouraging costumers to start builds. Let's give Bungie a place to point to and say "Hey, go there and see what other fans are doing" just like they did with Halo Waypoint when they helmed the title. That is the kind of hype that will not only keep the forums going, but grow them.

If you have access to Bungie and they wanted to actively work with us, we'd have a Destiny forum created in no time, but being as the 405th IS primarily Halo oriented, even if we were to preemptively create a Destiny section, I would think the chance of them noticing would pretty small. HUGE difference between that and the established relationship we enjoy with 343i which results in the mentioned we get from Halo Waypoint. Again, not saying no, but there are a million empty and dead forums that started with the idea of "build it and they will come."

I give you and your team credit. TheRPF is going strong and there is a lot of good information there. Why not provide that here?

Because we don't provide information. The community does. We provide the services that allow them to do so, but any successful forum is community driven and the community decides what it wants and doesn't want. Why does the RPF have certain forums for franchises like Star Wars and Marvel but not others like Aliens or Ghostbusters? Because there was so much Star Wars and Marvel content on the RPF it DEMANDED its own section. We didn't build those sections and then members filled them. They filled up all the general sections with so much of that content we felt compelled by the community to break those strong franchises off into their own things. The same would be true with Destiny. We aren't stopping anyone from creating Destiny content here... and if there is enough, we WILL make a Destiny section, but what you are asking is on the far end of preemptive.

I'm not even saying it has to be Destiny specifically, just provide another section, something like "None Halo Costumes" or "Other Costume Builds". Just something where people can go to post their work, regardless of where it draws inspiration. It would also be a way to get ahead of any potential growth in regards to Destiny, and MAYBE bring in some of the people that will be looking for references to Destiny in the weeks and months to come. Especially since there won't be a new Halo game (The Collection doesn't count) for another year at least.

We are considering this right now.

That being said, the very fact that I AM participating should speak to where and what the community is doing, and I find it vaguely insulting that you would judge on that. I would point out that prior to taking over the site, you weren't a member here. We don't judge you based on that. Would you have joined if you weren't the new owner?(I am glad you took over the site, as it almost instantly revitalized it) I ended up here after problems on CTN years ago. I have been glad to be here since, but my lack of posts does not indicate my commitment to the site, or my willingness to see it survive. What it does indicate, is that over 5 years, I have remained here. How many of the people that were hyper-active 5 years ago are still here? How many of the people active now will be here in 5 years? You have access to all the back-site stuff, you can look at Stealth, WizardofFlight, and all the others that lead the community when I joined. Most of them are gone, and have been so long I can't remember their names.

As I said, my comment wasn't meant to be insulting but to point out that as someone championing an entire new area of the site with an untested franchise, you aren't helping your argument by not having contributed to the content of the existing community. I am not questioning your commitment, to the community, only pointing out that you haven't given me anything yet to make me feel like we should be slammed a Destiny section into the site. A Non-Halo Costume and Props section? Possibly.
 
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I've been on forums and on this earth for that matter long enough to have learned not to be all encompassing when referring to a group of individuals. This may be how you and a majority here see this site but it is not how some of us see it.

Regardless, a forum to funnel those general non-halo projects and efforts would not only be sufficient but necessary. It would allow those that wish to focus on Halo, and only Halo, to do so and those of us that wish to diversify our interests to do so as well and still centralize our efforts on one site.

Agreed. While many do look at this as primarily or even solely a Halo community, to be honest when I first came here I saw it as a video game cosplay armor building community, with the only specification being that it seemed to cater mostly towards hard armor as the primary focus and general sci-fi as an overall theme. Having spent time here, I revised my initial impression slightly and began to look at this as a costuming community primarily focusing on Pepakura and EVA foam techniques with a "majority" focused on Halo by percentage only. It felt like half the community focused on Halo builds and half the community focused on non-Halo builds, but because half was one theme and the other half over the years was divided amongst Star Wars, Mass Effect, Iron Man, Skyrim, Gears of War, Soul Calibur, Defiance, and more recently TItanfall and Destiny, that second half appeared "negligible" because no individual theme had the same following or clout as the conglomerate Halo franchise. It started as a Halo community, probably a lot of people want to keep it as the number one name in Halo prop and costume building (and I don't see how that could ever change), but it has grown into something bigger than just Halo I feel.
 
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Somewhat tying into the current topic at hand, and I think I might have mentioned something like this before.....

I would love it if we had toggle buttons or something similar in searches in order to filter content we want to see more, or filter out the content that does not interest us.


The two pages I visit most are my Subscribed Threads and New Posts. I hardly ever go to the home page and surf in a particular subforum nor do I use search unless I'm trying to find something to reference for a discussion I'm having in a particular thread, and even then, I've most likely Subscribed to the thread and I would probably start by searching through my subscriptions.

Does Subscribed Threads need a filter tool?
No, I just need to manage them a little bit better instead of grouping them all into the main folder.
But... I'm sure that there are ways in which we could improve our Subscribed Threads page(s).
Since I don't have them divided into their own folders, I'm not exactly sure how they function when you do place them into specific folders.
I might take the time to try and sort through my 120 or so subscriptions today.
If I add something to a specific folder, do I have to navigate to that folder from the main folder in order to see if it has updates, or does it also always appear in the main folder as well? I would like to have a view/list of "All Subscriptions" and then have folders for however I'll sort them that I can go to if I'm trying to find something in particular quickly.​

Do New Posts need a filter tool?
Yes!!!
Okay, so this is what ties into what we've been currently talking about; I see 6 pages of threads with New Posts in them when I go to the New Post search page. Do all of them interest me and will get read at some point? No, and I don't want to click each thread so that they are marked read and disappear from my list.
1st) Let's say we add a subforum for Destiny or just all the Non-Halo related builds
2nd) Okay, now let's say I am ONLY here for Halo and I could care less about those threads, well that's totally acceptable, but how can we fix things so that I don't have to see those threads when I go to "New Posts"?
Answer: Add some filters you can toggle On/Off. Do they need to maintain their selection when you refresh the page? No, but they do need to maintain their integrity if you are going through multiple pages.

Some days I'm only looking for info regarding building or to look at the builds by others and I don't really need to see threads pertaining the Pacific Regiment (as an example) and it would be nice if I could temporarily remove them from the list.

Why would I want to just temporarily remove those threads from the list?
Well, depending on what you are filtering out, there is always the possibility that the threads you are filtering out DO have information that could be extremely helpful.
Let's say you filtered out all the Non-Halo related builds; well, it is totally possible that someone in one of those threads came up with some new amazing revolutionary way to build things. While I may not have interest in it today, because I'll only be searching through Halo related threads, I'd hope that I would still stumble upon the thread at some point, and who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll only want to look at Non-Halo related threads.



On another note, I think it would be nice to one day possibly filter by Tags. Now, I'm not asking you Art to go into each thread one by one and determine what tags they need. All I simply ask is that you give us, the 405th users, the ability to give tags to any thread.
But, I think that the tags need to be predefined, such that we aren't all creating tags like "Useless" or "Crap" or "Cool" or "Helpful" or anything like that, which are more like comments or remarks about a thread rather than detailing what the thread is actually about, which is what you want tags for.
Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, Halo Reach, Halo Wars, Halo Non-Game, Halo FUD, Covenant, Non-Halo, Foam, Resin, Mold/Cast, Vacuform, Scratch, Machined, Build, Info, Event, Guide, List, Tutorial, Discussion, Concept, Props, Weapons, Technique, Convention, Question, Completed, Pepakura, 3D-Model, 3D-Printing, Broken Links/Images, etc, etc, etc.

Eventually, as those who add tags when they read through threads, more and more threads will progressively receive tags allowing us to sort through them.
As it goes along, it might be a good thing to be able to search for threads that don't have tags added to them.
 
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I don't mean to nitpick or cause strife, but what constitutes an "overwhelming" amount? Zombiegrimm has put over 2 years into refining almost the entirety of Skyrim into Pepakura form and has made scores of files available and people have been making use of those files for costume and prop builds, but you won't find many (if any) build threads because Zombie's thread has become the catch-all for all things Skyrim. Two years and drawing very near to having every piece of peppable armor and equipment in the game all by the hands of one diligent, ambitious (and some might say crazy) man. If that does not constitute an "overwhelming" amount of content sufficient enough to warrant a dedicated or even simply a "non-Halo" section, what exactly would be the requirement for Destiny to achieve that status?

I am going to preface this by saying there is probably no way to give you a response that isn't going to sound just a bit condescending, but it is not intended that way, so try not to be offended.

While I absolutely appreciate the feelings you and a number of others have, you are taking a very narrow view of things and are allowing your personal feelings to cloud your judgement. The examples you are providing to back up your argument are VERY narrow in scope. Don't fool yourself. This is a Halo-based community and always will be a Halo-based community. Is it so because I say it is so? Of course not, but I have seen these things too many times and recognize it when I see it. When Halo dies, this community will (slowly) die with it.

Notice how several of you are arguing that there are other topics discussed here and that this should be accounted for, yet many of those same people don't like the RPF. Do you not realize that what you are essentially arguing for is to make this the RPF, thereby undermining what makes the 405th great?

You mentioned zombiegrimm 's pep thread for Skyrim and I just went and took a look at it. The amount of work represented there is nothing short of astounding! As amazing as that is, does that justify a Skyrim section? No. Not even close. Does it justify a Skyrim section in our File Archive if zombiegrimm was so inclined to want it as opposed to the files being shared out from 4shared? HECK YES!!! But don't mistake one for the other and a single thread, even one as insanely successful as the Skyrim thread, does not justify an entire section. This is even more true with Destiny. I am by no means downplaying anyone's Destiny projects, but you have to take a broader view and realize that Destiny now and likely always will be a fraction of a fraction of what we do here. Creating a forum for it, based on a very few threads will only make us look watered down and foolish. You would need dozens of active threads and hundreds of threads in total as well as seeing inbound referrals based on Destiny to see us feel that overwhelming need to create such a forum.

Agreed. While many do look at this as primarily or even solely a Halo community, to be honest when I first came here I saw it as a video game cosplay armor building community, with the only specification being that it seemed to cater mostly towards hard armor as the primary focus and general sci-fi as an overall theme. Having spent time here, I revised my initial impression slightly and began to look at this as a costuming community primarily focusing on Pepakura and EVA foam techniques with a "majority" focused on Halo by percentage only. It felt like half the community focused on Halo builds and half the community focused on non-Halo builds, but because half was one theme and the other half over the years was divided amongst Star Wars, Mass Effect, Iron Man, Skyrim, Gears of War, Soul Calibur, Defiance, and more recently TItanfall and Destiny, that second half appeared "negligible" because no individual theme had the same following or clout as the conglomerate Halo franchise. It started as a Halo community, probably a lot of people want to keep it as the number one name in Halo prop and costume building (and I don't see how that could ever change), but it has grown into something bigger than just Halo I feel.

While other things may be discussed here, this is not a general gaming cosplay site. It isn't' even up for debate. It simply isn't and never has been. It is a Halo site. It isn't EXCLUSIVELY Halo, but it absolutely is Halo by every conceivable metric and there is nothing wrong with embracing what it is.
 
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When Halo dies, this community will (slowly) die with it.

Yes, you're exactly right, unless we adapt. However, what you don't realize is Halo is already dying off. Regardless of how many more games they release, many of their original and core fans have already started to slowly turn their collective backs on the franchise for what it is becoming. There are those of us that enjoyed linking our consoles together in our friend's basement that don't get as much joy from the franchise as we once did. It might garner success with just as many if not more fans to replace those lost over the years with the flashiest new tech in their latest games but the gaming community is a fickle thing. It loses interest quickly and moves onto the next shiniest object just as fast. I've been apart of that for pretty much all my 30 some years. Now Halo costuming will endure for a lot longer than the games' popularity no matter how many times they remake/remaster them, but the numbers will dwindle over the years. Interest will wane. It's just human nature.

Notice how several of you are arguing that there are other topics discussed here and that this should be accounted for, yet many of those same people don't like the RPF. Do you not realize that what you are essentially arguing for is to make this the RPF, thereby undermining what makes the 405th great?

Hardly. Expanding or at the very least, allowing diversity in costume interest will only enable this site to grow and flourish above and beyond the original expectations. This won't be an RPF clone. The members here are far to inviting to make that happen and that is what makes this site great. That is what these forums are about.

While other things may be discussed here, this is not a general gaming cosplay site. It isn't' even up for debate. It simply isn't and never has been. It is a Halo site. It isn't EXCLUSIVELY Halo, but it absolutely is Halo by every conceivable metric and there is nothing wrong with embracing what it is.

This site may not be defined by the general user as a gaming costume(I hate the word cosplay btw) site, but it does cater to their needs if they so choose. The same methods and techniques that can be learned here which are used to create Halo costumes can be used for any number of other costumes. Methods that were never thought of for Halo armor have been brought here, adapted, and even refined. Pete Mander created an Elite costume out of eva foam from floor mats. Others have gone on to further that material when used for Mass Effect costumes. Later others started using the material for other Halo projects. EvilFX, David, just made a kick ass Auto Rifle from Destiny almost completely out of foam. Sean Bradley has told me on several occasions he would really like to branch out from making ODST kits and try something new for himself.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think embracing everyone's interests on this site while keeping a certain level of focus on Halo isn't such horrible thing. What's the harm in providing those interested with a small section for these other projects? The successful projects will always float to the top whether it's Halo or not.

That said, I'm not saying that the club will be anything other than Halo. That should be a given, but we have had site members march in the parade with us at events like Dragon*con that were not in Halo garb. It was a little awkward to have costumes such as War Machine tag along at first but none of us really minded it.

The key is openness. I never feel like I can't share anything crafty, game related, or even nerdy with the members here. Ideas, aspirations, or even actual progress on a project. Many here are very supportive of everyone else. That's the community part. It has nothing to do with just Halo. I don't get that feeling when I visit the RPF. If I did, I wouldn't care so much about what happens here. If nothing else I've said makes any sense, I hope that THAT helps make my point.
 
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Yes, you're exactly right, unless we adapt. However, what you don't realize is Halo is already dying off. Regardless of how many more games they release, many of their original and core fans have already started to slowly turn their collective backs on the franchise for what it is becoming. There are those of us that enjoyed linking our consoles together in our friend's basement that don't get as much joy from the franchise as we once did. It might garner success with just as many if not more fans to replace those lost over the years with the flashiest new tech in their latest games but the gaming community is a fickle thing. It loses interest quickly and moves onto the next shiniest object just as fast. I've been apart of that for pretty much all my 30 some years. Now Halo costuming will endure for a lot longer than the games' popularity no matter how many times they remake/remaster them, but the numbers will dwindle over the years. Interest will wane. It's just human nature.

Agreed, but I am not sure a community like this is capable of adapting to another franchise or that there is another one strong enough to sustain it. What I do see is that Halo, especially the later games, offer a lot of room for customization and the ability to "make it your own" is a HUGE draw for costumers (think Mandalorian Mercs). I also think that the club aspect of this particular franchise can also sustain it for a lot longer than it otherwise would.

Hardly. Expanding or at the very least, allowing diversity in costume interest will only enable this site to grow and flourish above and beyond the original expectations. This won't be an RPF clone. The members here are far to inviting to make that happen and that is what makes this site great. That is what these forums are about.

Don't be mean... ;)

This site may not be defined by the general user as a gaming costume(I hate the word cosplay btw) site, but it does cater to their needs if they so choose. The same methods and techniques that can be learned here which are used to create Halo costumes can be used for any number of other costumes. Methods that were never thought of for Halo armor have been brought here, adapted, and even refined. Pete Mander created an Elite costume out of eva foam from floor mats. Others have gone on to further that material when used for Mass Effect costumes. Later others started using the material for other Halo projects. EvilFX, David, just made a kick ass Auto Rifle from Destiny almost completely out of foam. Sean Bradley has told me on several occasions he would really like to branch out from making ODST kits and try something new for himself.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think embracing everyone's interests on this site while keeping a certain level of focus on Halo isn't such horrible thing. What's the harm in providing those interested with a small section for these other projects? The successful projects will always float to the top whether it's Halo or not.

That said, I'm not saying that the club will be anything other than Halo. That should be a given, but we have had site members march in the parade with us at events like Dragon*con that were not in Halo garb. It was a little awkward to have costumes such as War Machine tag along at first but none of us really minded it.

The key is openness. I never feel like I can't share anything crafty, game related, or even nerdy with the members here. Ideas, aspirations, or even actual progress on a project. Many here are very supportive of everyone else. That's the community part. It has nothing to do with just Halo. I don't get that feeling when I visit the RPF. If I did, I wouldn't care so much about what happens here. If nothing else I've said makes any sense, I hope that THAT helps make my point.

Again, I think chances are good that we will eventually put together a Non-Halo Costumes forum, but as with anything, we would need someone to champion it and be willing to put in the work it is going to take to get it done right... much like rundown is doing for the file section.
 
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This is a Halo-based community and always will be a Halo-based community. Is it so because I say it is so? Of course not, but I have seen these things too many times and recognize it when I see it. When Halo dies, this community will probably turn into a Destiny community.

Fixed. ;)
 
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Ease up on Art, while I have no real side in the current dispute, I think the comments coming from this dispute are quite rude or unfair. I'm not seeing much respect here from either side and with that going on I don't see any progress happening just a division.
 
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Agreed, but I am not sure a community like this is capable of adapting to another franchise or that there is another one strong enough to sustain it. What I do see is that Halo, especially the later games, offer a lot of room for customization and the ability to "make it your own" is a HUGE draw for costumers (think Mandalorian Mercs). I also think that the club aspect of this particular franchise can also sustain it for a lot longer than it otherwise would.

Oh no, we don't need to dedicate a new section to any one subject or franchise. Just a kind of catch-all for the random stuff that isn't Halo. Yes, the club will provide a certain extended longevity to the life of Halo here on the site and within the club at the very least. It will eventually face a slowing of growth and then shrinkage. This could be several years off though.

Don't be mean... ;)

Not my intention, it's just how I feel about that. :angel

Again, I think chances are good that we will eventually put together a Non-Halo Costumes forum, but as with anything, we would need someone to champion it and be willing to put in the work it is going to take to get it done right... much like @rundown is doing for the file section.

Truly, I think it wouldn't be too difficult to regulate within one forum section. I think it would fit nicely in the Community Section just above the Off-Topic Talk forum. Also, while I think not as many would use it as the other forums, it would still get a decent amount of regular usage by the members, present and future, that are interested in or have been making other things they wish to share.
 
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Truly, I think it wouldn't be too difficult to regulate within one forum section. I think it would fit nicely in the Community Section just above the Off-Topic Talk forum. Also, while I think not as many would use it as the other forums, it would still get a decent amount of regular usage by the members, present and future, that are interested in or have been making other things they wish to share.

Sorry. The management wouldn't be the issue... the tedious and time-consuming effort to move ALL of the exist non-Halo content to that area. You up for the challenge?
 
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