Private Boards
Contents |
Origins
On April 1st, 2004, CJayC made topics on Iconia and Idolatry asking for applications for private boards. Many users applied, and 10 users received boards. [1] [2]
Later, an 11th board was added with the name of Hacked. Owned by Steve, it was added later than April 1st as a reward to Steve for finding an incredibly serious exploit that gained him access to other users accounts. The 12th board, Bunny!, was added on December 12, 2005, as a reward to RockMFR for reporting an exploit allowing him to hack accounts.
SBallin' Contests
On June 27th, 2008, Sailor Bacon mentioned on SBallin'! that he would soon hold a series of contests in which he would give out five more private boards. [3] DarkstarRipclaw won the first of these boards, [4], which he named Second Foundation. The following week, SybreTiger won the second contest after LUE organized together to win [5]. She named her board (which was strangely numbered 832 instead of 823) Restaurant at the End of the Universe. On the third week, the contest was won by TheLabelBabyJr [6]. His board, named So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish was oddly delayed in its creation time, being made after the fourth board. The following week, MIND FREAK won the contest, and chose to name his board !. [7] WRRYYYYers won the fifth board and named it G. Other [8].
On October 10th, 2009, SBAllen created the first private board contest of 2009, [9] which was won by Pondos [10], and named The Pond. The second week's contest [11] was won by Idioteq [12], who named his board Soundcheck. The third board was won by Dreamwalker, who named his board Hardcore. On the fourth and final week, SBAllen gave out two private boards, won by Ruby Knight and Lemmiwinks69. Lemmiwinks69 named his board That's What She Said, and Ruby Knight named his board That Famous Feeling.
In 2010, SBAllen decided to hold the private board contests differently. Rather than the winners being chosen at random, users had to create an entry in response to SBAllen's prompt (for example, a video or image) representing their idea for a private board, and the winners were chosen by SBAllen himself. Three different contests were held at GameFAQs Competitions, and users posted their entries in the contest topic. In the first contest, SBAllen asked for users to create a video presenting their ideas. Two users tied for first: Inch and RePmGuTheThird, and Paranormal, Cryptozoology, and the Creepy and Working Title were created. The second competition asked for a book / video game cover to represent the board, and it was won by InfinitySlayer, who won with the board Games-N'-Things. Finally, the last contest asked for a comic strip. BamboozledFox won first place with her board, LifeFAQs, but Tarrun also had his board created for its idea. All users who won earned extra karma (with the exception of Tarrun) as well as the 2nd and 3rd follow up winners.
Info
According to Steve, board owners can see the list of a board's members, as well as their invitation and/or booting date although this was later revealed to be due to an unofficial add-on he created himself.
Before August 13th, 2008, the Private Board Admin page was nothing more then a list of the invited users sorted by their user level which was visible on the page. Users were added to the board by way of a box at the bottom and booted with the link near their name. A "0" next to a username indicated a regular account, a "1" indicated boot\kick abilities, and a "2" indicated board owner status. These were changed through the use of feedback tickets.
On August 13th, 2008, a new version of the Private Board Admin page went live. Gone were the user levels and a new "rank system" was put in place; owners and admins. Owners can add other admins to the boards and remove them as well. Additional owners can be added through a feedback ticket. Current coadmins of a Private Board were made owners after the change due to an oversight.
To be invited to a Private Board, your GameFAQs account must be at least Level 20. To be promoted to Admin, your account must be at least Level 30. A Private Board can have at most 10 Admins (not counting Owners) and 2000 members.
The boards LUE and TOS Discussion are controlled by the administration and have special admission rules.
Private boards were also intended to be a feature for the abandoned Premium Accounts. The idea was scrapped due to users believing that it would promote elitism between paying and non-paying members.
The private boards that your account has been invited to is listed in the Private Board Category List.
List of Private Boards
Boards are listed by reward times, not by numerical order.
