1.) Formalize the tutorials and/or write articles that are of interest. At this point, AO seems just like a giant forum. There needs to be more front page advertising for things such as tutorials and/or articles to make it more of a legitimate information site.

2.) Other than the current state of IRC, I wouldn't change anything (excluding the AntiPoints system)

3.) The overall mood is somewhat poor. A lot of people are afraid t post (myself included) because of fear that someone with leprachauns carrying their antipoints will get me banned. I don't like the idea of thinking to myself, "Hey I might get banned if I post my opinion of the two IRC chat rooms." I seem to think that quite a few people that post on here post for no other reason than to chit chat about nothing, rather than talk about security, or even general computer issues. I remember back in the day before the new forums that there was a much smaller community, but it was much more heavily focused on computer security, and general computer issues.

4.) The ability to keep flames and spams down is adequate, but I still see quite a few members who have unbelievable amounts of antipoints flame newbies just for asking a question, and then that newb ends up being banned.

5.) I read posts all the time. I'd be more interested in reading posts if they had some sort of value to me, which the vast majority do not. I understand that this is a community, and as such you can't talk about computers all the time, but that happens to be where my interests lie, and right now on the front page I think it is about a 1/2 - 1/2 split between computer related threads and random threads, not to mention the fact that computer security related threads make up a small portion of the 1/2.

6.) I'll admit I don't post to the forums much, as is evidenced by my 120 something posts even though I was one of the first to sign up for the new forum. Basically I only post to two kinds of threads, ones that are intellectually stimulating and ones where I can answer questions. As you can tell by my post count those don't happen to occur all that often. I don't just post to say, "Hey, good post," and I think the only way to help me to post more is to have more meaningful threads.

7.) The AntiPoint system is fine, if you try not to consider it the AO populations popularity rating. I'm not going to mention any names because i think they are genuinely good people, but I'm quite sure that the reason they have a boatload of AntiPoints is because they are female, and not because their topics are intelligent or of value to the community. I mean the whole point of the system was to show whose posts are worth reading, and whose are worth skipping, and I gotta tell you I don't use AntiPoints to do it. I would change the AntiPoint system to take into account only posts made in relevant forums (ones related to computers and security, not made in general chit chat or cosmos), and I would also take into consideration post count (in the relevant forums) and how long you've been a member. Let's face it, any chump can post a topic in the General forum about how his girlfriend dumped him and how he feels girls like guys that are asses, and he'll get positive antipoints for it, but does that add to the Computer Security community? No, so why should that be represented in his AntiPoint count?

8.) The speed is excellent, especially considering it is all PHP based. Uptime can be flaky sometimes, but that most likely can't be helped.

9.) If I had 10K dollars I would start an AntiOnline security conference, and/or use it to make some genuinely original articles and tutorials and/or start a wargames server for established members of the community.

10.) I think the way you admin the website and IRC is fantastic. As a member, however, you don't make any posts that help us learn from you. I doubt many members can say they do research for the government, and while you might not be able to go into specifics, I'm sure you have more than a lot of lessons that you've learned the in the process.

11.) The only other comment is that I think that AntiOnline should start diversifying rather than just piling onto the forums. The forums are definitely the focus of the community, and that is fine, but you seem to be putting so much time into the forums that you don't put time into other projects. I think it'd be fantastic to have wargames, or some articles/tutorials posted on the main page (i.e. actually commisioned by AO, not just from the forums). Or maybe an AntiOnline security conference! The opportunities are boundless, but you just gotta lay off adding wierd, and obscure features to the forums first.

Also, going along the lines of the tutorials/articles, I really really liked it the way it used to be with the old AO when there was a lisiting of computer related news and articles and such at the top of the main page along with the mailbag.

Regards,
Wizeman