.com Forum · Alpha Dog Forum

So, as the name suggests, this thread is here with the intent and purpose of bringing together those of us who remain loyal to the game. Who spent entirely too much time on it. To those whom crave that big win as much as the next. To those who simply cannot stop hitting the breed button. And to those who just seek a place to belong with people who share the same passion!

This thread is here in the attempt to conjur up those people mentioned or described and draw out their intelligent (I pray) responses and/or suggestions on what we can do, as a community, to better the site. To attract some much needed attention and overall and ultimately, more members.

As a loyal player who's been actively on and off since 2003, it pains me greatly to see showdog in this...paused state of play, so to speak. I would rave the day the site were to see its once glorifying days. However, I'm a realist and do not foresee that happening...without the right help of course. Could it happen again, nothing is quite out of reach.

But Jeff simply cannot do it alone. It will take those of us who have been here, made the friends, witnessed the magic this site has offered to it's members and our personal experiences to really draw people in. It will take some innovation, ideas and strategy. It will take making some changes perhaps. Things we can work together to achieve. That said, I'm hoping that I am able to bring the majority of this site together in this coalition and lets work together to advocate this site. To headline the breeds in need. To really appreciate those who's prestige trumps the rest. To remember and honor those dogs of the month!

Brick by brick, we can do it. It must start from the inside and work it's way out. I'm financially ready and perfectly capable. Who's with me?!

Yes...Yes....Yes....

I'm with you - BIG TIME.

I don't know how I lived for 10 years with SD (may well have had something to do with living without internet lol!)

I'm back now after a prolonged absence but jumped straight back into my old accounts (luckily).

I'm trying hard to get some enthusiasm back into the game too.

I think it just goes to show the lure of SD, the fact that it is still here some 12 years after inception.

I wondered if we could have a thread with a virtual show on - ie we have say 5 classes, we all post photos in whichever class/es we think our photos fit into (do not need to be dog photos as I imagine some of us don't have RL dogs) and we ask either a panel of members to judge it, or Jeff if he has the time.

I would propose some more awards and payouts to graphics contests as well. Try to help bring the banner forum back to life. I've managed to rack up some funds in a couple of kennels and wouldnt have a problem hosting real banner competitions.

I also feel like we need an offsite sister site to be able to feature our top kennel, dog and SDWC winner. There could also be kennel advertisement, stud advertisement and litter announcements which would not only look more professional, up to date with today's views (ie Canine Cronical) as well as to bring to life the banner forum.

Perhaps a small monthly fee to maintain your ads on the page, say $5 SD money per month into an account designed specifically for this and put back into the game in the form of shows, payouts or contests.

OR

And I am sure this would be too much work for Jeff, but on the main page, where there are the pictures of real life dogs being shown or performing events, we would have the monthly SDWC winner there. It would really give people a new sense of accomplishment to be so noted and also give people something to aim for.

We also need some recruiters and advertisers, people whom can get out and ?Advertise for the site.

More details to these are coming.

-Four

I have a breed in need! I came back from a 9 year break recently and want to help bring the site back to the glory days as well but don't know how :/ Not enough people understand the wonders of the showdog world

I'd appreciate it so much if we could get more breeders and showing kennels in this breed! I am the only kennel showing right now making it very difficult to finish any dogs - HOWEVER that also means that almost all dogs are finishable! I get a group placement every night with my dogs and have even taken BiG! I have lots of dogs and am working with the other kennel, Agamede, on Black & Tan color lines for the breed. Agamede was so helpful in getting me started and gave me the abandoned kennels stud links so that the breed's COI isn't through the roof but since then I've bred a lot of diverse dogs so we're in a better place I also have so many broods I'd be willing to lease or sell for $1 to a new kennel to help them get started

One thing about the breed - There seems to be a person who creates four or five basic kennels and shows source dogs but they get shut down pretty quickly.

I'd really love any help to keep this breed going! It's tough finishing dogs when you're only against yourself.

i think some "of the year awards" would be a cool addition. i have some other ideas but i am at work right now so i will type some up later.

I'd like to see EITHER every breed to have the wonderful drawings that are being produced (sorry can't remember who is drawing them but they are wonderful) or a HALF DECENT photo in show stance of the adult of any breed that doesn't have a drawing.

I think it's a big 'turn off' to check the show results, go to that show page and see the BIS winner represented by a photo of some badly positioned dog that may or may not be an even fair to middling representative of its breed. Whilst I appreciate many dog owners in RL may want to use photos of their own dogs on SD please remember that this game attracts many younger players who may not know what a decent Blue-nosed Truffle Snuffler should look like so I think we should be educating alongside providing fun.

I think breeds should be 'polled' with players nominating adult and puppy photos and those voted on to decide which photos are breed representative.

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posted by King Blazzo Kennels
i think some "of the year awards" would be a cool addition. i have some other ideas but i am at work right now so i will type some up later.

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This is great idea!

I have already made a flyer usable online or IRL. I have gotten Jeff's permission to use it to promote SD.

This is the smaller version for sharing on online (FB etc) there is also a larger one for printing out flyers.



I have also volunteered my graphics abilities for whatever is needed. These were in a couple of different threads.

I am also a fairly accomplished writer and would be willing to volunteer in that regard.

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Last edited by Almost Heaven on 3/18/2015 7:39:25 PM

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Last edited by Almost Heaven on 3/18/2015 7:40:02 PM

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posted by mournebrake
I'd like to see EITHER every breed to have the wonderful drawings that are being produced (sorry can't remember who is drawing them but they are wonderful) or a HALF DECENT photo in show stance of the adult of any breed that doesn't have a drawing.

I think it's a big 'turn off' to check the show results, go to that show page and see the BIS winner represented by a photo of some badly positioned dog that may or may not be an even fair to middling representative of its breed. Whilst I appreciate many dog owners in RL may want to use photos of their own dogs on SD please remember that this game attracts many younger players who may not know what a decent Blue-nosed Truffle Snuffler should look like so I think we should be educating alongside providing fun.

I think breeds should be 'polled' with players nominating adult and puppy photos and those voted on to decide which photos are breed representative.

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yeah the great dane and god pic are down right pitiful

i say for the breeds that don't have pictures have a show dog photo show people can submit their own dogs to be the default show dog picture and vote on it in the forums.

I agree, the Great Dane photo needs changing asap, it's bad. The Borzoi photo is pretty dire too.

We don't have a drawing or a photo for Mudi's.

For some enexplicable reason the Otterhound puppy photo changed itself during the week. The one that was on there was my photo from upload in 2003, strange it's gone walkabouts this week, especially as I don't have the original anymore.

i thought borzois just got the drawings?

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posted by King Blazzo Kennels
i thought borzois just got the drawings?

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They got them a while ago.

No when a Borzoi wins BIS there's a dire photo of a poorly stacked dog used.

Borzoi.jpg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.showdog.com/Pictures/Dog/Borzoi.jpg

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Last edited by mournebrake on 3/19/2015 5:21:34 AM

Bringin the site back sure won't revolve around color pics or even a decent picture. It's going to take a lot more than that.

Also, please note that Picardy is working as hard as possible to get the color pics up and running for all breeds. They will come eventually.

I do like your idea of a "of the year" award also, King Blazzo. I believe we could definitely run with that idea.

Most importantly, right now I am trying to find useful ideas that we could possibly put into motion as a team, that would work in the betterment of the showdog community and the site as a whole. I will definitely need some people ready and willing to commit to the task; I'm calling it "Project Restore". Lol

That said, toss out the ideas and let's make this happen!

Advertising for this site- you're a good person to do that for Jeff.
I have offered my coding abilities too. I am financially ready as well.

But the sad thing is I don't think Jeff wants it, or it could be he doesn't know how to take third row into the next decade?

For instance, he goes to places like 99designs, when he could have asked for a contest in his own forum.

The folks that reply to this thread only see ithen potential in the game, if only we see it in Jeff, or Jeff sees it in us.

I loved SD back in 2003 and then after having put everything into the game I decided to leave in 2005 (I can't remember why but it must have been something lacking for me to give it up).
Now I'm back and I love the whole idea of SD again but the more I'm on here the more flaws I find.

We report bugs but they don't get fixed, so why bother springs to mind.

I'm promoting obedience but we are second class citizens as far as simple things like a link from our kennel page to the obedience results EVER happening.

I'd like SD Fever back up and running and will help.

I love the idea of a unofficial showdog coalition too but I'd say 'act now' before those of us who have come back after long absences away remember what drove us away from here last time.

A thought

The question posed was 'how best can we encourage new players?', or at least I think that was the gist of it.

Well maybe the obvious is just too obvious.

Existing members (must be logging on at least 3 days in every 7 and have been a basic at least for a minimum of 30 days), and be seen to be 'playing' the game, either by sessioning, breeding or showing (obedience counts) can gain SD $ for bringing new players to the game.

Those SD $ could be converted to Paypal $ say at a rate of 1000 SD $ = 1 paypal $.

For each basic who joined, and fulfilled the criteria above you would get 1000 SD $.

So if you brought 5 basics to the game after 30 days+ you would have 5000 SD$ which would be enough to cover the cost of 1 months Premium paid via paypal, or if you didn't want to use the paypal $ you would be free to have them sitting in your kennel account.

For every basic that upgraded to Premium you would get 1000 SD $.

The obvious drawback would be the slightly underhand practice of setting up basic kennels just to get the payout, HOWEVER, if all the basics had to 'play the game' for 30 days you would have to be pretty dedicated ( or pretty desparate) to go to all that trouble just for $.

SD registers the ISP of all players so this would be based on new recommended players having a different ISP address from the recommending kennel.

Reasons I left before: everything takes so long. Yes, it's a sim game, but look at the games that are popular today: instant gratification.
If you are lucky enough to find dogs for sale in the breed you want, they are often bottom of the barrel for the breed, you have to wait 30 days before you can breed them, and then wait 30 days to breed those puppies. And the timelines are off - if 30 days is about a year, then we should only be able to breed girls (realistically) every 15 days, since they certainly don't come in season 4 or more times a year in RL. So if that timeline is truncated, why can't the breeding age be truncated?
In the lower spectrum breeds, it would be nice to be able to advance and be competitive a little quicker.
Then there is the super kennel issue. When one kennel has control of the breed, their dogs are far superior to the rest of the breed, they don't sell, and they don't have studs available. It's frustrating.
When you come to the game and all that is available is source dog stuff, and the rest of the breed is mid-90's/solid dark blues....why bother? You will get frustrated and give up before you can get anywhere.
I wish "source dogs" would be a median of the current status of the breed. They don't have to be the best ever...but if the average SOP for the breed is 89%, why can't source dogs be created at 89% as well?

Very good points - it takes too long - true.

5 sessions a day for basics isn't enough, it should be 10. That's just 2 sessions per day per dog if you have 5 adults. You should still be able to buy in more sessions but it shouldn't be limited to 10 a day.

Obedience training should happen quicker. If you train and gain CD, training for CDX should take less time, not more, and likewise if you gain CDX, training for UD should take less time too.

The bugs, glitches and gripes that players have pointed out should be sorted, certainly within a reasonable time, not ignored as many appear to be.

Source dogs should be higher SOP, it's ridiculous getting a source dog with 3.45 SOP when the highest SOP in the breed is 90.0 SOP (I know this because it happened to me!)

The stud dog situation MUST be sorted - the breeds that have NO dogs at stud need an Admin owned stud of high SOP available at a fair stud fee.

I think SD needs more comradery and obviously more players. Advertisement is a must, any successful business has some form of advertising whether it's online, billboards, or word of mouth.

I totally get it about the super kennel thing and what not but these are things that are earned. Those kennels are producing top quality dogs out of luck, they found a recipe that works for them. I am not saying it doesn't get frustrating because I know it does, but there isn't anything that can be done about the fact that some people in some breeds are dominating.

As for the lack of studs and readily available dogs for sale, I very rarely just go on to the for sale pages and buy a dog. I either post in the general forum or in the alpha forum or I message breeders directly. I am one of those people who has dogs up for sale, but I have better dogs in my kennel and if someone who was just starting out in the breed or someone who needed new blood in their lines messaged me privately, I would let go of one of my top quality pups/older dogs. I won't just list them though for fear of them being bought and FHed.

I think that the right way to go right now would be advertising the site, hoping to get new players. We also need to see about fixing some bugs on here but lately I haven't seen anything that was so extreme that it threw everything into an upheaval. I think most of what people miss is the forum activity and the chat activity, those are vital things for this site, as it allows us to communicate as members openly rather than through messages constantly.

Four, do we still have the other chat site? I know it didn't work for a bit there? Or are basics allowed back in the chat room on here?

Do we want to set up a chat/help website off of this site that basics can access as well?