We really shouldn't start making a habit of bringing all of our old shit over here just to recreate the misery that Zoklet was. Same people bitching about the same things, just in a new location. That being said, let me start my bitching.
1. Install thumbnail plugin for all images posted so it doesn't stretch the page with a full size image, cause slow loading times for slower connected users, cause the servers to take more of a hit than necessary, slowing the experience down for everyone. It keeps images posted as nice, neat little 100x100 thumbnails that can be enlarged if clicked on.
2. Do not allow animated images to be used in avatars or signatures. It's pretty annoying when you're trying to read all your eyes are involuntarily distracted by someone's rolling text signature, flashing avatars, etc. Once again, with the amount of new users you've just inherited here, if everyone started doing that, it would make page load times long, harder hit to your servers, slower for everyone.
3. Do not allow users to be able to wildly chance the font and color of their text. Blowing up their font to 48 with bright, flourescent green No-Name Script. Keep it uniform and neat.
4. You're going to need more moderators than what has previously been acceptable. Choose wisely. There is going to be a number of former &Z mods who almost expect to be mod'ed over here as well and quite frankly, some of them just don't deserve it. If this is going to be a new slate, let's not fall back into the same institutions and gatekeepers as we just came from. Let's start fresh. However, some of the old mods is probably still going to be your best bet over here as well.
5. Add the emoticon package from Zoklet to Sanctuary's.
6. Provide a Mission Statement, as SpectraL suggested. Don't allow it to get so deep that that's all we talk about. "The mission", "Who we are", "What we want to do", etc. The community will never grow that way if we rules lawyer all the time about what we should or should not be doing, who we are, what we're about, etc instead of just doing it. Make up a mission statement and then leave it to your new user base to naturally bring that to fruition. Nudge it along in the right direction, but don't fall into the cycle of philosophy and "deep thinking" about who we are. It's detrimental rather than beneficial.
That's about all I can think of at the moment.
