The discussion of the Alien series of films and the props used in them is the aim, but if it's got Big Bugs and Big Guns, then they are welcome too!





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 Post subject: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 8:13 pm 
'Nuff said.
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Location: Effingham, Illinois
Service Number: A08/TQ0.0.12146E1
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So what are your ideas on what we can do to get this site/group into the open! I personally do not care if I step on some toes or bruise some egos. Top thing heard Knoxville weekend is that people did not know we exist. We are going to shift this thing into high gear and I want your input. Are members willing to donate to some recruitment banners next to the table? http://www.easysignsfl.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Easysigns_catalog.pdf I am pricing them as well as coming up with the art work based off some real ones. I also feel that I we need to add more Deltas of the new groups to the table banner. I forked out my own money for beverage huggies/koozies and they took off like hot cakes at Knoxville after sitting like lumps on a log at DragonCon. I do not care to foot the bill for some of the items but we are talking hundreds of dollars. As for those who think this forum is too general to the Aliens movie all I can say is tuff cookies I am a marine. I love this movie. Let me hear your ideas. We will also have a table at next year's Fanboy Expo. More information will be coming. I know Joker has already posted about it. And the contacts made with the cast and ADI will be priceless in the months to come.

Thanks!

Greg

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Last edited by gman666 on Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:22 pm 
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I'll step up to the plate and donate to the Cause. These are the ones we use for the West Coast Avengers, they are eye-catching attention getters!

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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:26 pm 
'Nuff said.
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Location: Effingham, Illinois
Service Number: A08/TQ0.0.12146E1
Country: United States
Send me any pics you have!

Greg

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Newell, Greg A aka Gman
Illinois - USA
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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 11:04 pm 
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Location: East Tennessee
Country: United States
I cannot do much until January - working like fury on another Aliens-related project until December - but will be able to help out in some way, not sure how yet.
Probably help with graphics, being available to man the table in case the marines at the event need to eat / pee / parade (maybe all three at the same time!)....also once settled on a banner design I work with a Knoxville sign company frequently so can get alternative costs for comparison on anything if needed.


Last edited by Space Jockey on Sat Oct 21, 2017 3:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 11:12 pm 
'Nuff said.
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Location: Effingham, Illinois
Service Number: A08/TQ0.0.12146E1
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A parade is a pipe dream until the organizers deem it necessary. We can suggest but should never be the ones organizing it. The purpose is to draw a crowd and I do not think that is going to happen at Knoxville.

Thanks!

Greg

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Newell, Greg A aka Gman
Illinois - USA
UKCM
Shoot first, think never.
Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun.
SMMFD
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn't exist.


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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 2:03 pm 
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Location: Kentucky
Country: United States
Greg;

It was an honor meeting you and the rest of the USCM at Knoxville at FanBoy Expo; that's been the highlight of my year. Please remember me when it comes time to pay for that banner; I'll chip in.


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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 4:00 pm 

Service Number: A05/TQ2.0.32141E1
Country: United States
Space Jockey wrote:
I cannot do much until January - working like fury on another Aliens-related project until December - but will be able to help out in some way, not sure how yet.
Probably help with graphics, being available to man the table in case the marines at the event need to eat / pee / parade (maybe all three at the same time!)....also once settled on a banner design I work with a Knoxville sign company frequently so can get alternative costs for comparison on anything if needed.


I have storage space for whatever. The props I work on are for the table...

We have an April and a June event with fan tables booked.

One thing I want and I am not sure if others would think it is a good idea:
Get a back drop of the hanger with the drop ship in the back ground on the fan boy back drop.
For sides I want do do a drop with top of caution rails (pipe fitting over with caution tape on top with some banner attached underneath, not sure what to put on that.

I am working on the following props to provide:
Motion tracker electronics set in clear acrylic case
Smart gun electronics set in clear acrylic case
Pelican case with FPS feed from helmet cam
in case as well telemetry feed from first beat telemetry monitors
Working on sourcing a shirt you can wear for telemetry feeds (Israeli company came out with on this year.)
Life size auto gun turret controlled with wii nunchuck (don't think I will have time to get a motion activated movement tracking working)
Predator canon controlled with wii nunchuck

As far as getting group recognition the next thing I am wanting and this is a dream:
a cosplayers parade.
Shannon Rhea (organizes the marble city comic con and geek and nerd toy shows) was interested in the idea.
Minimum cost on a minimal parade is about a thousand. More if you have to have more safety barriers and police officers involved. Also City of knoxville has a three year contract with cycle USA (I think that is the name) to provide for them so no parade on days they are manning those events.

But parades have to be organized by the event organizer(s) not by an individual, it is in bad taste to do otherwise. If you man up and provide it and things back fire you will be asked to not come back to the event. We are working towards this but we have to get buy in from everyone involved.

You can pm, email, or contact me on Facebook at knoxvilles_joker.

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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:42 pm 
reload
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Location: Hamburg
Service Number: A03/TQ3.0.12136E1
Country: Germany
I'll donate to the Cause.
Thanks for your efforts very much appricated! :delta:
We do the simular in Germany, but apart from flyers, banners, photo backgrounds etc. simply talk and work with other groups.
Youtube, facebook & Co are the media to do this.

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 8:37 pm 
'Nuff said.
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Location: Effingham, Illinois
Service Number: A08/TQ0.0.12146E1
Country: United States
I am currently working on getting a blue screen so we can have a series of backdrops and not just one.

Thanks!

Greg

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Newell, Greg A aka Gman
Illinois - USA
UKCM
Shoot first, think never.
Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun.
SMMFD
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn't exist.


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 Post subject: Re:
PostPosted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 8:44 pm 

Service Number: A05/TQ2.0.32141E1
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gman666 wrote:
I am currently working on getting a blue screen so we can have a series of backdrops and not just one.

Thanks!

Greg


And thanks to lumenlab.com we can take a broken LCD monitor and make a cheap 100 dollar projector. Though I think if we look around we can find a wide dispersal close range projector and scoot our table up a little bit to have a nice backdrop.

We do have HP-VIDEO locally so we could do some cheesy fan videos which could allow for some royalty free videos. I can reach out to them and see what our options are. They have a studio there and I think with some ingenuity and a little money we could have some good material. I will have some offline discussions on this, as there are some details we need to hash out before getting too too excited.

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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 21, 2017 8:51 pm 

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Blivet, if you really want o swell the ranks then we need to have a monthly meet up in K-town and try to get folks interested and show up.

The kicker is you have to pick a venue large enough and cheap enough to allow those who are tight on a budget to attend without issue. Asia Cafe or Mandarin house are good choices as the menus are relatively cheap. Star bucks would be good but would get too small once the group gets too large.

The key is a place with a buffet or a big selection as if folks are bringing kids trying to get something for them to eat that they will ingest is the really big pain.

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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2017 5:39 am 
THAT guy
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Location: Virginia
Service Number: A03/TQ2.0.02146E1
Country: United States
Well, I have pulled table duty at 3 of the last 5 dragoncons (2.5hrs at the last dcon) and I was at this Knoxville event. I can confirm I had more table and legit interest from this last knoxville event in limited action than I did any of the 3 d*cons combined.

HOWEVER...it should be noted this most recent event was very aliens heavy drawing a crowd already inclined that direction. Further, our spot sucks at D*con camped in front of one of the larger panel halls. The star trek LINE covered our table for about 1.5 hrs of the 2.5 hrs I was there in 2016. Of course we weren't getting any action when we were literally not visible from the main floor. So we are not comparing apples to apples.

HOWEVER however....in general, I have sensed that we are not competing with 'lack of info' but rather competing with facebook and more modern media.
Many of the interested parties I met at both events were well versed in online fan centers...but the center was based in facebook. Our competition isn't really 'lack of awareness' vs. 'us', its 'us' vs. the 'facebook groups'. The 'Weyland-Yutani Bulletin' has more than 8k members and there are multiple posts daily. "Aliens Collectors" on facebook has 10k. I have seen many of our sub-groups are on facebook (USCM, chicago, MD, and other groups for starters), and I see plenty of action over there. They represent and the fans find them.

Convincing millennials that the 'old fashioned' forum is the way to go is tough. They don't comprehend the fact that searches for past threads can reveal SO MUCH INFO. All you get on facebook is flavor of the month pop. You can't easily find old threads on facebook! There are no "how-to's" which you can learn from. There is no history! We have to sell our strengths and the hard part is we have to sell it to the new generation. They are creatures of the 'now,' and look for it on their phones. I think if we want to 'kick things off', we gotta get an app, and we gotta advertise on social media.


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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2017 11:05 am 

Service Number: A05/TQ2.0.32141E1
Country: United States
And I think this is part of the "redesign" paul is talking about. If we can get it to where the forum threads also post on Facebook, AND, we make it more millennial friendly, we can boost ranks.

Predatorium, AVPGalaxy, and TheRPF all regularly post on Facebook and entice you to visit the website. We need one per day for our site.

Facebook is starting to go the way of myspace, slowly. Just not sure what is going to replace it. I have personally been toying with a WAMP (Web, Apache, MySQL, PHP) personal computer setup installed at multiple homes to protect and share forums/information for when we start going the total media lockdown route.

Our bigger issue is the current search algo-rhythms are too varied that you honestly have issues finding what you are looking for on google. Yahoo and others are just as bad. Even Facebook is rotten in that regards.

I will talk to Paul and Greg regarding the master Facebook page as we do need to post daily on our group's Facebook page(s.)

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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2017 4:15 pm 
You tell me man, I only work here.
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Location: Los Angeles
Country: United States
A proper sequel to Aliens might help.


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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2017 5:03 pm 
Expendable
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Service Number: A05/TQ0.0.52155E1
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1. facebook presence. give me things to post other than links to knicknacks, and i'll gladly post them on the facebook and our instagram page.

2. i know we talked about this a few years ago, but we should see if we could do an Aliens specific con. most of the major fandoms have it, i don't see why we cant have one for aliens. especially if we made contacts with actors/ writers /authors.

3. the Weyland-Yutani bulletin board have approached us to collaborate at conventions. After seeing their display at Dublin Comic Con, i think this is something we should consider.

4. i think re organization might be necessary. in the past, we've let battalions run their events, but maybe we need to have a colonial administration above all the groups who can delegate money for big projects.

5. table fund. we need this, especially for major events. I know Paul, Greg, and myself have spent a lot of money on stuff for the dragoncon table without asking for re-reimbursements. The UK and German tables always look way better, but that is because they invest in their tables.

6. As far as Dragoncon, the table location i believe is what suffers for us. Traffic just is not the same in the Hilton and i dont think they will ever move the fan tables away from there. so we either have to think of something to get people to come over or stop getting a table.

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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:36 pm 

Service Number: A05/TQ2.0.32141E1
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hunterkiller86 wrote:
1. facebook presence. give me things to post other than links to knicknacks, and i'll gladly post them on the facebook and our instagram page.

2. i know we talked about this a few years ago, but we should see if we could do an Aliens specific con. most of the major fandoms have it, i don't see why we cant have one for aliens. especially if we made contacts with actors/ writers /authors.

3. the Weyland-Yutani bulletin board have approached us to collaborate at conventions. After seeing their display at Dublin Comic Con, i think this is something we should consider.

4. i think re organization might be necessary. in the past, we've let battalions run their events, but maybe we need to have a colonial administration above all the groups who can delegate money for big projects.

5. table fund. we need this, especially for major events. I know Paul, Greg, and myself have spent a lot of money on stuff for the dragoncon table without asking for re-reimbursements. The UK and German tables always look way better, but that is because they invest in their tables.

6. As far as Dragoncon, the table location i believe is what suffers for us. Traffic just is not the same in the Hilton and i dont think they will ever move the fan tables away from there. so we either have to think of something to get people to come over or stop getting a table.


I can reach out to Shannon Rhea locally and see what we can do to start the process for getting an Aliens Con here in Knoxville. The Holiday Inn at Cedar Bluff is where the small cons start out and those are usually 5 dollar admittance. I guess Everyone needs to pick a month on that one.

I am actively investing into the table by building more props.

Knoxville is wanting to grow and attract more events and businesses. An Aliens Con would be a good start in this regards. If you want the central theme to be a cosplayers parade we can work on it.

I would say that each major city has a battalion, but leadership as you were stating is a big deal. Paul and Greg have things covered here. I was thinking of forming a USS Andrew Jackson group. Paul has been mulling over on how to fix things in that regard and anything in that regard I would have to defer to him regarding.

As far as posting to Facebook I think if everyone can make a video on their setup how they did it and why they did it that way, you would have an endless stream. My build threads are active WIPs. I post progress pics on my pages.

If we have any other authors here, we need one article per week to post on the Facebook page. Post in forums as well. We need to compete with the other sites for attention. Not negatively, but together we can build the community.

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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2017 10:31 pm 
Expendable
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Send me a link and a picture to a build thread and I'll make it out #colonialmarinemonday post :)

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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 12:28 am 

Service Number: A05/TQ2.0.32141E1
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hunterkiller86 wrote:
Send me a link and a picture to a build thread and I'll make it out #colonialmarinemonday post :)


viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17091

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17092

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17111

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17053
Linux setup

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16924

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17024

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17043

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16829

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14539


Those are either good threads I have commented in or good build threads.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:19 am 
Hellooo Nurse!
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Location: Sherwood Park AB Canada
Service Number: A03/TQ1.0.02153E1
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Not many young folk know what a forum site is anymore. Having a facebook/ social media sytem of somesort would greatly enhance our chances of getting new blood. Face it, we are practically 1 foot in the grave when it comes to an internet presence


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:27 am 

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Apollo wrote:
Not many young folk know what a forum site is anymore. Having a facebook/ social media sytem of somesort would greatly enhance our chances of getting new blood. Face it, we are practically 1 foot in the grave when it comes to an internet presence


Paul is working on that I believe. I am also trying to press things a little as the site needs to look more like avpgalaxy which has hybridized the experience.

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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:20 am 
'Nuff said.
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Location: Effingham, Illinois
Service Number: A08/TQ0.0.12146E1
Country: United States
No offense but we have been working on that for a while now. We need to bring more people into it. I hear the biggest thing is lack of community contribution either it be pictures of members in their costumes or general info. I am working on getting into some other cons here in Georgia and the east cost. I see a lot of individual effort but I believe it needs to be combined into one Facebook page. Sorry but the crap I see on WY Bulletin makes me roll my eyes daily but you cannot deny their numbers. We need something focused like that. If it means making more active members Admins so be it. I am not so big on making deals with other groups. We should be able to do something ourselves and not look like an out shoot of another group.

Thanks!

Greg

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Newell, Greg A aka Gman
Illinois - USA
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Shoot first, think never.
Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun.
SMMFD
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn't exist.


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 Post subject: Re: What do we need to do to kick this place off!
PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 3:48 am 

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gman666 wrote:
No offense but we have been working on that for a while now. We need to bring more people into it. I hear the biggest thing is lack of community contribution either it be pictures of members in their costumes or general info. I am working on getting into some other cons here in Georgia and the east cost. I see a lot of individual effort but I believe it needs to be combined into one Facebook page. Sorry but the crap I see on WY Bulletin makes me roll my eyes daily but you cannot deny their numbers. We need something focused like that. If it means making more active members Admins so be it. I am not so big on making deals with other groups. We should be able to do something ourselves and not look like an out shoot of another group.

Thanks!

Greg


Agreed. Paul needs to accelerate his website revamp. I told him my opinion on the front end and how it should look like avpgalaxy but we shall see. I will help him however I am able. I just want to make sure I am on the same page as him so we don't step on toes and back track on progress.

I have seen some backends that make each forum post a post on Facebook too. I am thinking that might be what Paul is shooting for.

Plus we need to get this forum to be smart phone friendly. I will dig through software programs we could load on our devices to showcase the website.

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