Hello All, Mako here once again. I would like to take the time to speak to all of you here among Rare-Extreme.

We have had our rough patches, very recently, I'd consider our worst in standing history. And we have no shame in admitting, that we let things get far too out of our Control. As of now, the Staff and Myself are making reparations to the damage done. We have lost many a members, due to our irresponsibility in taking care of matters such as Flaming, Spaming, Trolling, etc. We let things fly, that should not of flown.

As of now, we are going to turn Rare-Extreme around. The first step in this process was to reform the forum, formerly known as 'The Asylum'. The Asylum had been the cause of many problems, members feeling they can go a bout insulting members with no grounds, with no consequences. This has all been put to a stop. Rare Extreme will once again be an enjoyable place to post. Since then, The asylum has been reformed, and renamed (The Pub), the pub is a place for all interesting discussions, at a mature level.

Most of us were disgusted, with the state Rare-Extreme was, and to some extent, still is. As we can not fix a few choice things, and pretend things are alright. We want to reobtain the wonderful members we have shunned away in the past somehow, and we thank those of you for baring with us in these difficult times. Things will look up soon enough, no more will Rare-Extreme be a joke, Once again we will Become a place of enjoyment and more importantly, a place to discuss all that is, and will be Rare.

Most Importantly, We want you, the member, the moderator, the guest, to play a vital role in Rare-Extreme's future. Please, let us know via this topic, what changes you would like to see take place and rules to become implemented. We will review these suggestions, and decide if any are to be tweaked/added.

Please stay tuned, Many New changes will be taking place soon. Spread the word! Have your friends, other forum goer's, Register on our forums! We'd love to expand our family once more.

I reckon members should be able to change their display names on a whim once again. It gives members a chance to express themselves better.

I've noticed a couple of members who have changed their names over the past few weeks, so maybe it's already happening.

Name changes are allowed, under the circumstances that.

Name change has to be similar to your name, or a former name.
Only available to Veterans (2 years +)
Limited to one name change per 4 months.

Of course, some admins won't listen to these rules. We don't allow just anyone a name change, for the sole reason that It becomes too confusing, realizing who is who, when someone has altered their name completely. It would be WONDERFUL, if people would realize this!

I think renaming Latest Rare News to General Rare. Because General Rare Discussions cant really be talked as RNN is for News only and Retro Rare is for...Rare of the Past.

Like Zeneks topic for the Future of Rare's Site (What ever its called), he posted it in Off Topic.. I dont think it should go there.

And I think the Conker Forum has to go, that game was a whole System ago.

I'd like to see a more rounded community. Whatever happened to Raremania?

Is it still under construction? I cant even log into it.

Raremania was Wozza's old pet project, wasn't it? Dunno what happened to it though.

I agree with Richjohnny (gasp!). I think we need to restructure the Rare forums.

I believe you're forgetting that Banjo was five years ago.

But I think everything needs to be restructured, not just the Rare forums. I also think that we should have a debate forum, because the closest to that is The Pub/Asylum or Off Topic. If that was the original plan for the asylum, then it obviously wasn't enforced very well. If that's the plan for The Pub, you'll need to enforce the seriousness a LOT more.

I think your forgetting that there is a NEW Banjo game announced.

Conker, is done and dusted. Chris Seavor said himself that he would kill Conker for good if he were to make a new Conker game.

Being honest, i doubt Seavor meant it like that. I thinkhe was using it metaphorically to say that their isnt going to be another Conker game.

To be honest, I didn't think the forum was bad at all, but you have definately improved it. Who left because of the Asylum?

I'd personally like to see the Conker forum stay

We always regret taking down old forums when the new game comes out because it contains all the history etc

When we scrapped the Starfox forum, even though we all know Starfox is finished, we still lost members who clung to that forum.

We can always just put the most dead forums down the bottom but still have them as a reference for the past and a place for people who are playing the game for the first time etc to post questions etc

Unfortunately, a majority of the members from here left not only because of The Asylum; also due to the fact that there remained members which constantly flamed/trolled all over the place, no matter where, towards members.

Some people get hurt easily, although it is on the Net, but that doesn't mean anybody can't have any share of fun, just as long as people start to play nice around here. Some who used to troll on RE don't even come here anymore, and IMO, it's for the best. Not going to mention or put the blame on any members whatsoever though. What matters is that finally, after like, I have no idea how long, I guess a long time, there will be change, if the Admins and Mods are willing to coerce the rules if things do get out of hand again, which I really hope doesn't happen anymore.

I think that RE needs to stop with the "tough-guy" act, like no offense to anybody on here; if that could change, then more people would come over, register, and talk. I see it just as simple as that, IMO.

I think some things on the main site should be changed.Things such as the staff list the xbox live section (I know we have a new topic but the site needs an up to date list). I also agree that the raremania page should be updated/fixed up. Other than that now that your taking things seriously Mako I think you've really improved when it comes to the forums (of course he can't take all the credit yes I'm looking at you Don).Also I have a question about the rumors/mailbag section. Has anyone sent anything in since 2005?

Plenty have! Including me.

Jesus Christ, I had a look back on the topics, and nobody who didn't deserve it got flamed badly. My theory was if you couldn't take an insult or two, you just didn't post in the Asylum. In my opinion, whenever you have 2 people together, there's always going to be disagreements, and if you can't take what some internet tough guy says on a "forum about googly eyed video game characters", you're frankly being naive about it, and you're not going to last long in the real world.
Life is like that, you just have to deal with it, the mods had enough on their minds without worrying if little Johnny gets called a "N00B 1337 Haxorz¬-¬" in a topic called "LOL mans chop ###** offf".


The only people I can remember leaving because of the Asylum were the obvious people like Blades, Ninja Tedi, ACX, Genocide and Murdoc (an exception to the following ), who were generally unlikeable and offended easily. If anyone could find serious flaming, bullying and etc, then I would change my opinion.

We don't leave the flame posts up long, jimbo, most of them were deleted soon after or altered.

There has been some pretty uncalled for cruelty on the forums, and obviously this holds true if other members are taking note. Not to say that the asylum was the sole problem for the lack of member influx, but the lack of RARE activity in general from the company.

You can not say we do not have our share of bad apples here, well had. Most of them have been removed/don't come back anymore. The asylum was not a good place, people took the flaming aspect too seriously as to call out people on minor infractions, which was never the idea. We now won't be turning a blind eye on such things. Not to mention the constant avoidance of the filter with members constantly cursing, outside of the asylum, we saw such a rise in this and flaming in general after its introduction. You shouldn't be here for the flaming or oppurtunity to put someone down, In my opinion, that is why things are changing.

I can not stress this enough, if you want to post in the Pub from now on, a topic that is, It can't be a stupid god damn pointless topic, we want the topics to have some meat on their bones, not just bone and flesh.

I know it doesn't really belong in this thread, but I would like to know why I was suspended for 1.5 years. My old account was paulnelthorpepdz, and near october I think last year I was suspended, but I have no Idea why. The only thing I might've been guilty of was being a complete noob, and I know a lot of you would agree with me there. I have changed since I joined, this was my first ever forum I became a member of, so that explains the complete noobyness. Please feel free to reban my new account, but please, could an admin send me an email at paulnelthorpe007@hotmail.com, telling me why I was suspended, and if you could be really nice, I could have my old acount back, but I'm not expecting anything.

I have sent you a notification on the situation Paulee. Feel free to log into your former account at anytime and continue posting.

Lets behave though eh?

Why was my thread archived????

god i hate SPAM

I always said that the Asylum was a bad idea. A forum that allows forum-goers more freedom is often times abused. Freedom is almost always abused. You guys should take a lesson from sites like the Rare Witch Project. They've got great forums over there.

It's kind of sad to see the forum in the state that it finds itself. This was my home for a good, long while, so I really do think remorsefully on the situation. And, if I read you right, you'll probably not have much problem with my posting here since you want to promote a relatively peaceful posting environment (for once).

Here's some free advice: Reduce the avatar and signature size. They're obnoxious and gaudy most of the time. You need to keep a leash on your member privileges.

^This.

Rare-Extreme use to be my home as well years ago. So I, too, also feel remorseful for what this site has become. I was a part of this place in it's prime time where great discussions could be had. Hell, R-X was my very first forum. Wozza used to host me and tyrant's website for a year.

I remember back in 2004 when the 'big surprise' was being touted. I literally stayed up all night the day Wozza said it was to be revealed, even though wasn't that night anyway. Aside from just that, I was addicted to R-X. This was always the first place I would come to when I signed online.

So why is that? It was because of the members at the time. Mako, flame of dark, crazy little monkey boy, tyrant, stopnswopper82, fantanoice, evilpsycho, biohazard3, and the list goes on. I had a very positive experience and that's what kept me here.

And how could I forget? Team SFS- Searchers for Stop n Swop. That was a ton of fun back in the day. Many of us here getting together to for one cause: find the answer to Stop N Swop. Those were some incredible nights with all of us staying up playing Banjo-Kazooie and posting about every little thing we could find.

But then...something happened. One wrong decision caused R-X to begin it's descent from what it once was to what it is now. As Conkertribe said above, giving users too much freedom can cause a collapse in the order, and that's exactly what happened. IMO, it all started going downhill the day you all began letting everyone change their usernames. I know I've mentioned this several times before and many of you may disagree, but I still stand by that. It was hurtful trying to post here after knowing the members for years and then suddenly not being able to differ between who was a n00b and who wasn't it. On top of that was when you all chose to create the hidden forums that required a certain amount of posts. That created a lot of spam with new members trying to reach their 500 posts as quickly as possible so they could catch a glimpse of the secret forum.

I'm glad to see that you're all now doing your best to try and restore order here and I wish you all the best of luck. I would be nice to see this place as it once was again. Now if I may, some adice:

-Change the site's layout. You've all had the exact same layout since R-X began. Don't you think it's time for a change?

-Get rid of the bots. Too many bots posting here. A simple google search will find you the coding you need to solve this problem. In fact, I believe tyrant even PMed it to one of you, so i suggest applying it if you haven't already. It solved Rare-Elite's bot problems instantly.

-Maybe try for a better forum setup. Even though we don't use V-Bulletin, it's an extremely awesome type of forum with an incredible amount of features. Just go to RWP and take a gander at their 'social network' that it allows. Simply amazing!

Whew, okay, that was a mouthful. Can't remember the last time i've made a post this long. I just hope that you all understand and not take it the wrong way. Last time I did something like this I was flamed and told to go away and not come back by a couple of your mods =/

While my forum activity has become lulled some as of late, due to the hours I work, I find it harder to come on the forums and fulfill everyone's desires. The bots have already been done away with, and there is little I can do outside of the forums, or to the forums without Wozza's permission. Some of the personal changes I'd like to see done would be:


-A new, more incessant, hard working staff.
-A new forum lay-out
-Perhaps the creation of a few more interactive activities.
-Spam and bots for the most part, have been done away with, but persistent efforts to keep it in such a state is required.


It's a difficult situation, as I know the pressing issue for change is quite amiable among the forums, It seems like it will be a relatively slow process. Even though things have started to look up with new rules in place. All we need is new moderators/Admins to enforce them..

A majority of what both Hylian and Tribe has said, is a process already underway, but with such restrictions and conflicts, there is little that can be done at this time.

Thanks for the support, but there is only so much active staff can do with such low numbers. Hylian and Tribe, If you guys would post a little more, there might be a little more interest in the forums than the pique amount we've been seeing lately. The problem now is our members activity, everyone who lurks, does not want to make the effort to stir up and conversation. If you miss such conversations, why not spark up old ones? Food for thought.

The suggestions that we have yet to address will be posted in the Staff HQ, the feedback is much appreciated! Thanks you two, and lets pray we can keep our bumpy pasts behind us.


P.S. Anybody want to apply to becoming a moderator and or an admin? We could for sure use the manpower, if interested in a position, please send a Personal Message my way, It won't be an instant promotion, as we won't elect just anybody. But you need not worry, if you have prior warnings, you still maybe accepted. IF any of you wanted to have some major effect on Rare-Extreme, here is your chance, do not pass it up.

Well I agree with hylian about the mainsite, it needs an overhaul while it's a great design it's outdated when compared to the other rare fansites.

Yeah sorry about only replying now, I just noticed the post. lol

Update on the situation.


While me and Zenek, have many ideas just ready to go and put into effect. We are still running into huge barriers at each turn we look at.

We have very little skill in creating new skins, or the coding that would make an appropriate look for these forums, instead of just throwing a few colors together and making it look terrible. Any help on this situation would be kindly rewarded.

The bigger problem now; Several new ideas for the Main Site have been garnered. The problem being? Only Wozza and Sir Zenek have access to the main site. Wozza had offered me a position a few months back, and idiotically, I declined due to my hectic work schedule and schooling. Trying to get another chance to become a site Admin, has proven quite the daunting task, as in... I can never get ahold of Wozza. Some of these changes would be;


~New sections (keeping it hush for now)

~I would be updating videos and news alongside zenek and wozza, as the manpower for writing and creating news posts seems to be in a lull lately.

~Somehow, we will figure out how to make an attractive main site layout, with the absence of powerboy, it will be tough for us to conjour up one out of thin air.

For the Forums? Well, they are still being worked on, and somethings are planned to hit soon;



~Altering of some of the forum sections.

~Creation of a new skin for the forums (in progress)

~Many more interactive features.



So Wizard of Woz, if you see this message. I am still willing to extend and fulfill my duties on the main page, if still allowed to.

To the rest of you? Thanks for your patience, this is a difficult process for us especially, we have a lot of work ahead of us yet, and little manpower to get it done in an efficient time, but we promise you these implements will become active sometime in the near future.

Anymore suggestions would be greatly valued. As well, a few helping hands wouldn't be a bad thing either

I'm currently taking classes dealing with CSS and HTML coding and I'm slowly learning things in Dreamweaver. But I don't feel I'm experienced enough to put anything offical together as of yet. But I indeed will get back to you on the situation Mako.

All Sounds good buddy we're behind 110%

I haven't the slightest clue who closed this thread. But I wish bad juju upon them. I never even noticed.

Anyways, we'd still like to improve the forum. But the general consensus right now leads me to believe that it's not just RE dying. But Rare forums all over. I would love to revamp the main page still, I've been told it was getting done, but I've heard nary a word on it since then (nearly a year ago). And I still hold firm to my belief that we should place Tyrants banner as the current Rare-extreme logo. It matters not if he is a staffer here or elsewhere, it just works. Zenek, I'm asking you again for I will not change it because even after all my down time as an Admin here, I still consider us both to have equal say as to what gets placed where. Have we made any headway on a rotating banner with different characters/thems? I'd love to see the Red/yellowish gold/darker colors baddie skin/banner come to fruition one day, it would give this site something new and original

We're still open for suggestions. I know we have another thread for suggestions, but I do not see the harm in allowing them to be carried over here. Tomorrow I will be going through the other thread and seeing about giving a second go on some of the suggestions I could not figure out originally (how to implement them, that is).

I could not figure out how to merge certain forum categories, I'm not tech monkey as I've said before. I'll have to get ahold of monkey man perhaps and see how he is doing with his CSS and HTML coding because that is surely something this site needs right now. We can still bring this forum out of the gutter, it may not be active, but it is not the steaming cesspool of needless hate it once was. And well, the bots are finally gone as well Who knew it would just take a little thinking outside the box and an extra verification field upon registration? Haha!

Rare-Extreme does not need to die. If we make a community effort we can salvage what little we have left of this great site and perhaps allow it to bloom once more.

Any little suggestion will be taken (as always) into great consideration. Cheers folks! Glad many of you are still here, and I assure you we're not even close to calling it quits!

PS: I was never given access that I was once offered nearly two years ago to the main site for news updates and rumors. Wozza if you get the time (it only takes a moment), please message me about this. If you did I have completely forgotten about it and require the know-how on how to access said features.

Okay, revamp time... wEeeeEEEE.

- Re-organise the forums layout. It has been discussed numerous times and had a lot of support but nobody has gone ahead and done it. :|

-> Help and Announcements
Split them up. Help and Announcements are two very separate things and deserve their own forums. Also, some members may be discouraged from posting in an 'Announcements' forum due to it usually being a place for staff to post. They may be more likely to leave suggestions in a separate Help/Feedback forum.

-> Bring back the 'Introductions'. The topic we had a while back may have gotten spammed to bits but I know a lot of new members would be discouraged from posting if there is no section to introduce themselves. :| We could even get an Introduction forum instead.

-> Generalise the 'Rare' sections. Back in the day when there was plenty going on, the forums got heaps of topics. We don't have that activity anymore, so may as well make the forums 'look' active to some degree.
--> Rare News (which should be removed from General Chat as well)
--> Rare Gaming
--> General Rare
(You may want to be a little more creative, but that's generally the idea).
Also, move the Rare section above the 'General Chat' section.

- Make all Access members Veterans and remove the Access group/forum all together. Just have the one VIP-ish member group.

- Make the Entertainment forum available for all members to see and place it in the 'General Chat' section.

- Start advertising again. http://www.forumpromotion.net is a good place to start, IMO. The exchanges and packages are a great way to get jump start some activity.

- Not exactly 'important' but if you have the funds, upgrade to IPB 3.

That's all I can think of off hand.

"- Re-organise the forums layout. It has been discussed numerous times and had a lot of support but nobody has gone ahead and done it. :|"

No one currently on the active staff knows how to make any sort of layout. If we are refering to the general blue yellow and white interface. I've been bugging Wozza and sent Powerboy several messages, none of which were returned. If someone here knows how to do so and is willing, I would not mind giving them the power to handle this for a week or so. And I'm sure we could find a way to compensate them. If you are referencing to the separate banters and such, then I'll get on that tonight.

"-> Help and Announcements
Split them up. Help and Announcements are two very separate things and deserve their own forums. Also, some members may be discouraged from posting in an 'Announcements' forum due to it usually being a place for staff to post. They may be more likely to leave suggestions in a separate Help/Feedback forum."

Not a bad idea really. Or we could just make it even more linear and say all the feedback goes into a pinned topic in the off topic section. Say this thread. Instead of creating an all new one, and change the other to solely announcements.

"-> Bring back the 'Introductions'. The topic we had a while back may have gotten spammed to bits but I know a lot of new members would be discouraged from posting if there is no section to introduce themselves. :| We could even get an Introduction forum instead."

Good Idea again, I'll get on this after a little more feedback. This site has always been lacking one, even a pinned topic would be an improvement.

"-> Generalise the 'Rare' sections. Back in the day when there was plenty going on, the forums got heaps of topics. We don't have that activity anymore, so may as well make the forums 'look' active to some degree.
--> Rare News (which should be removed from General Chat as well)
--> Rare Gaming
--> General Rare
(You may want to be a little more creative, but that's generally the idea).
Also, move the Rare section above the 'General Chat' section."

I can't see us taking it to that extreme a level, perhaps we could temporarily hide the individual forum sections for the time being? And go ahead with this idea? This one I'm iffy on though, and always have been since the Starfox section mass exodus. But some renames and deletions all together might be wise.

"- Make all Access members Veterans and remove the Access group/forum all together. Just have the one VIP-ish member group."

Vet forum will stay, but since Access is dead perhaps we should just do away with this? There is some info privy to certain members in Vets, and I'm sure wozza would like to keep it at that as some of the news is not to be released to anyone. A few promotions would be in place obviously.

"- Make the Entertainment forum available for all members to see and place it in the 'General Chat' section."

Could of sworn I removed that section all together, never understood the point. Wouldn't the topics be just as welcome within the off topic forum? This idea never even took off anyways.

"- Start advertising again. http://www.forumpromotion.net is a good place to start, IMO. The exchanges and packages are a great way to get jump start some activity."

I spent a good three hours promoting our site in the highest viewed Youtube videos for banjo, conker, KI, Donkey Kong, etc etc. I imagine we may gain a few members from this act. I'm not too sure how the website works to be frank. I believe I went there last time it was suggested and had several roadblocks. If you are in good standing there would you throw in a good word for us? Or atleast explain to me how I would go about effectively promoting our site on there? I would be more than willing to do it if no one else is.

"- Not exactly 'important' but if you have the funds, upgrade to IPB 3."

Again, this falls under Wozza's Jurisdiction, talk between us and him these days is about as communicative as speaking to Helen Keller.

No one currently on the active staff knows how to make any sort of layout. If we are refering to the general blue yellow and white interface. I've been bugging Wozza and sent Powerboy several messages, none of which were returned. If someone here knows how to do so and is willing, I would not mind giving them the power to handle this for a week or so. And I'm sure we could find a way to compensate them. If you are referencing to the separate banters and such, then I'll get on that tonight.

I meant the forum organisation, not the actual 'theme/skin' of the forum. The skin is just as good today as it was when it was first implemented.

Vet forum will stay, but since Access is dead perhaps we should just do away with this? There is some info privy to certain members in Vets, and I'm sure wozza would like to keep it at that as some of the news is not to be released to anyone. A few promotions would be in place obviously.

Though if this goes ahead, remove the 'password protected' forum and just mess with the forum permissions so that just the Vets can see the Vets board (like how only Access can see the Exclusives forum). It would provide better security for the section.

Could of sworn I removed that section all together, never understood the point. Wouldn't the topics be just as welcome within the off topic forum? This idea never even took off anyways.

That works too. It's still there though, in the Access section. You could just delete the forum and move the topics to Off Topic.

I spent a good three hours promoting our site in the highest viewed Youtube videos for banjo, conker, KI, Donkey Kong, etc etc. I imagine we may gain a few members from this act. I'm not too sure how the website works to be frank. I believe I went there last time it was suggested and had several roadblocks. If you are in good standing there would you throw in a good word for us? Or atleast explain to me how I would go about effectively promoting our site on there? I would be more than willing to do it if no one else is.

Well, the post packages are, as the name suggests, packages of posts. The staff will post on your forum in exchange for a certain amount of the forum's virtual currency (which you get by posting and doing other things).

Exchanges are when you do things for other members and they do stuff in return. These can be posting on their forum in exchange for them posting here. Some members even post for virtual cash as well.

Again, this falls under Wozza's Jurisdiction, talk between us and him these days is about as communicative as speaking to Helen Keller.

Then do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips... (or that was terrible)...

Did a Little trimming around the edges. Renamed a few forum spots. Overall less individual forums.

Anyone else have suggestions?

I'm sure I can nit-pick at something... Just cbb thinking of something right now.

I think that RE could benefit from not only a forum makeover, but a revamp of the main site. A new banner, and Wikipedia-styled bios on Games, Characters, and the company of Rare itself would be great.

Actually, that's a good point. R-E hasn't really changed at all since about '04.

It's a thought none of the current staff are remotely capable of handling without completely screwing it up. I have a hard enough time trying to alter the forums.

If you want that to be changed, don't leave it up to us, we've no sway over it. Start harassing Wozzabear in PM's. I'm sure he'd get the point quicker that way

I quite like the new banner.

Actually, the Red banner doesn't look half bad at all with the blue theme. I've left the red theme in place for Rare Baddies 2.0, but if anyone wants the Red Banner with the blue backing, it's under Rareware Bad-Arse Krew in the bottom left corner drop down menu.

I've also come up with somewhat of an 'alternative' for rotating banners, until I can find a permanent fixture. The Asylum will now have the Rare Baddie banner no matter what, seems fitting given it's shoddy past

Hope you all like the changes!

The Baddie banner only looks good on the blue theme because it is the correct dimensions. :S It doesn't really match the colour scheme at all.

*Bonks you on the head* well duh!

I'm just saying, it could of clashed ten times worse.