I have used giantbomb a long time (since launch), so I think I have earned the right to speak up about what I feel are the problems with giantbomb. Also to suggest ways of fixing them. Here are some of my biggest giantbomb beefs:

COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT

THE BLOGS

USER REVIEWS

THE LAYOUT

Project BombShelter:

Wow you have such energy, should put it to good use! Make a game or something

Wow i was expecting to see you complain about the forum like most people do . Bomb shelter is a great idea :D

Yeah i agree that stuff is fucked up they should really change some stuff too make the community a bigger part of GB

I'm Jensonb & I Approve This Message.

HEAR HEAR! You have my support, Sweepster! Where's the petition I have to sign?

"Wow i was expecting to see you complain about the forum like most people do . Bomb shelter is a great idea :D "

I agree completely Sweep, 
And that Photoshop of what things could be is amazing, 
 
+1 vote to sweep's Idea, Snide make it so!  

I demand featured user reviews with various star ratings!

very cool thoughts and the bombshelter will probably encourage me more to read community entries.. SWEEP FOR PRESIDENT

This is an excellent mock up, but, at the same time, don't you think that your page violates one of the key points of your argument?  This Bomb Shelter page is just another page. You may many fair arguments about the site layout, but your own suggestion seems to be a whole new page entirely, whereas many of the features you want (Access to blogs, seeing things promoted to the front page, like user reviews) is already on the front page. 
Your argument is salient, make no mistake: the community presence on Giant Bomb deserves a boost in visibility and access, if only to encourage more people to get invested in the site and be more thoughtful/attached to the content they produce. The whole "point" of the community part of Giant Bomb is centered around a desire to make content, be they wiki pages, lists, blogs, or whatever weird thing you want to be making. However, because of the focus on Giant Bomb's editorial offerings, the site squanders good opportunities to give users the incentive to actually make that content. Building a thoughtful, active community of users who WANT to make content only serves to forward Giant Bomb's wiki, it's guide section, and it's selection of writers, and it would all help to build a community united around more than just the Bombcast inside joke of the week.
Great post!

Groovy!

" This is an excellent mock up, but, at the same time, don't you think that your page violates one of the key points of your argument?  This Bomb Shelter page is just another page. You may many fair arguments about the site layout, but your own suggestion seems to be a whole new page entirely, whereas many of the features you want (Access to blogs, seeing things promoted to the front page, like user reviews) is already on the front page.  Your argument is salient, make no mistake: the community presence on Giant Bomb deserves a boost in visibility and access, if only to encourage more people to get invested in the site and be more thoughtful/attached to the content they produce. The whole "point" of the community part of Giant Bomb is centered around a desire to make content, be they wiki pages, lists, blogs, or whatever weird thing you want to be making. However, because of the focus on Giant Bomb's editorial offerings, the site squanders good opportunities to give users the incentive to actually make that content. Building a thoughtful, active community of users who WANT to make content only serves to forward Giant Bomb's wiki, it's guide section, and it's selection of writers, and it would all help to build a community united around more than just the Bombcast inside joke of the week. Great post! "

ZombiePie is indisputably awesome. He is a a badass, benevolent and truly outstanding guy who would be absolutely perfect for this purpose.

Hope that this or something similar happens but I've got little faith in it.

The problem with giantbomb is that everybody is so boring these days and there's just an endless brief of generic MW2 threads or yet another thread about what somebody thinks about an upcoming game. The fun of internet forums is all gone, basically.

someone promote sweep already. 
 
also i own the rights to "bombshelter", i haz copyrights.

lol "Project BS"

" The problem with giantbomb is that everybody is so boring these days and there's just an endless brief of generic MW2 threads or yet another thread about what somebody thinks about an upcoming game. The fun of internet forums is all gone, basically. "

That community page looks great but... where is the space for great wiki pages?

  @Ahmad_Metallic said:

" very cool thoughts and the bombshelter will probably encourage me more to read community entries.. SWEEP FOR PRESIDENT "

" That community page looks great but... where is the space for great wiki pages? "

What I think contributes to the problem is that there is no breakdown, As Sweep has said there are no Categories for Community made content, I follow people for different reasons, Reviews, Blogs, Forum threads, and a few friends that I have made here and talk to frequently, If this proposal gets off the ground, Categories should be a main focus,

There are some people I follow and they make brilliant Blogs but I mostly don’t see on the forums, and then there are people that I haven’t followed yet but read their Blogs quite regularly, I don’t want to add to many people to my following list, as then that becomes to cluttered and defeats it’s purpose, which in turn then defeats the purpose of the follow option,

I see no reason for this not to work, Although this has been brought up before by multiple people, and even some people have even taken the initiative and created a thread of Community Blogs and other such content, But because of the way the Forum chews through topics it got lost,

We need a Page, A community only page edited by people in the Community, For the users by the users, You could use the Wiki format so you don’t have to rewrite a whole lot of code but just restrict it’s edit ability to (as Sweep has said) Community Manages,

Also, Sweep does a fine Job but it’s out of the way, it’s on the Forums when it should have it’s own area,

Giant Bomb has a large Core userbase that uses the site everyday, I may not be well known but I have logged on to this site everyday since it’s inception, and I think a lot of people can say the same thing,

I think it’s time to let us provide some content, there is enough of it to go around.

EDIT: I know I have basically re-cycled what Sweep has said, but this is in my own words and for a while I have wanted to say it.    

yes sir, I agree.

" @ColumnBreaker: That could becoming confusing, a star rating of a star rating.  I would think an Amazon-like system would work better (23 of 40 users recommend this review). "

" @FelixLighter said:

" @ColumnBreaker: That could becoming confusing, a star rating of a star rating.  I would think an Amazon-like system would work better (23 of 40 users recommend this review). "

I wasn't being serious. I just found it humorous that the mock up had nothing but 5 star user reviews featured, art imitates life. "

Great ideas, dude. It'll definately be helpful if these can be used correctly.

Ryu Hayabusa and I are all about this idea.

I agree with the majority, but even if there was more of a noticeable section given to the community, the reason I'm here is for 4 awesome dudes and Snide (maybe Drew and Andy on occasion.) Even with these changes and a bit of a focus shift, I'm still not sure if I'd pay much more attention, I imagine that to be the same for alot of people, the reason this place grew pretty quick was the dudes who are running it.

" @ColumnBreaker said:

" @FelixLighter said:

" @ColumnBreaker: That could becoming confusing, a star rating of a star rating.  I would think an Amazon-like system would work better (23 of 40 users recommend this review). "

I wasn't being serious. I just found it humorous that the mock up had nothing but 5 star user reviews featured, art imitates life. "

thats because all those games deserve 5 stars!?!? "

+1 for great post.
 
You've expressed a lot of issues I've had with the site over the past few months. It seems with every redesign the site starts pushing the new features forward, which is a good thing, but then a lot of the older features take a seat behind everything else. Trivia hasn't been talked about in ages and I haven't answered a single question since they were taken off each of the specific game pages. Wiki points deserve to be shown at the forefront of user profiles, perhaps in the forums next to one's achievement score or something.
 
I agree that user reviews should get a bit more light too and not just the featured ones for (usually) brand new titles. I've had four comments on my earlier reviews back when user reviews weren't split into "reviews for new games" and "most recent reviews", but since I don't usually get to write about something the very week it comes out nobody reads my stuff anymore. :,(

A CM's job is to promote and police, really. He/she works directly with the moderation team and gives them continual guidance, while also working to promote within the community. It's something we've been discussing internally for the past few months. Good to see what we have roughly similar ideas about it.

I'd really rather see the plethora of broken ass features around the site fixed (LIKE THIS RAGE INDUCING GUIDE SYSTEM). I've long since lost interest in being a member of the giantbomb community- which is sad, cause I really liked it when the site had just launched. Obviously these things evolve, but I don't feel it's going in a direction I really care to participate in. Maybe your proposal would help, who knows, but in a lot of ways giantbomb now seems like a community oriented site with a community that just doesn't care.

Problem one, I would never visit this Community Spotlight.  done.  Nobody gives a shit about someone elses review unless its about something other than a game or something the guys here have not reviewed yet.  Thats why you dont see Mass Effect 2 reviews all over the place.

Yeah, all good points, both some new things and fixing existing features. Like, I really loved Trivia when it was introduced, but I miss questions being attached to pages, and ftm they seem to load up in a truly weird, non-random way when I go mess with it. 
 
I would LOVE a real Community Manager here. As a wiki nerd, I most get excited about someone staff level who could help with all the deleting and stuff that mods can't do...but mostly it would be awesome to have someone who's job it was to be around and help out. I honestly have to remind myself this is just a semi-funsies volunteer gig to be Mod sometimes. Logging 2 or more hours a day and then realizing I haven't watched any Quick Looks or done anything fun is frustrating! (Plus, releases are my baby and I haven't paid attention to them for two months....sigh.)

hey that owner guy from all dem videos on the front page just replied to this blog post.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
lol just being silly :P

" @crunchUK said:

" The problem with giantbomb is that everybody is so boring these days and there's just an endless brief of generic MW2 threads or yet another thread about what somebody thinks about an upcoming game. The fun of internet forums is all gone, basically. "

Not everything is about MW2 or an upcoming game some people really make interesting things and they should get more attention thats were this is for.  "

I wholeheartedly agree.   One of the reasons I stopped posting here - I use it as my main entertaining games-news source - was because these aspects of the community weren't promoted.  The spirit of the site, with its wiki-style editing and sweet database, would be fulfilled even more with the inclusion of these minor perks for dedicated members of GB.  Think of it like DeviantART for games - features and feedback - but with fewer furries.

What a neat idea. The best part of this blog is that Jeff commented on your idea Sweep!! Why aren't you (Sweep) a mod yet? = - P Lol.

I would totally hang out on this site more if there's something like that. I'm all for it. 

" I would totally hang out on this site more if there's something like that. I'm all for it.  "

" HERE HERE! You have my support, Sweepster! Where's the petition I have to sign? "

I agree with all your suggestions but I'd wish they'd update the wiki features. That's a part of the site that's been neglected for a long time now.

That seems like a great idea. Good job Sweep. 
 
Also,  the interface of user's Profiles is messed up. I preferred the very first one, the one before the redesign.

As much as I love seeing the content of the staff of Giant Bomb and as well as I think a lot of this site is made, you do make some very good points Sweep. It would be great to see both a lot of the awesome community-created content that is going largely unnoticed get the spotlight it deserves and to see more members of the Giant Bomb community be encouraged to contribute more content. The fact that Jeff has said they've been talking internally about the idea of a community manager gives me a lot of hope and I'm really excited about the idea of seeing this kind of stuff implemented.

I totally agree. Great contributors are going unnoticed. I also don't know who to follow if I haven't been exposed to their blogs/reviews by some accidental nature.