The Smash Lab Portal: Currently in the Brainstorming Phase

[Indigo Jeans]

What is the Smash Lab Portal?​

The Smash Lab Portal is an endeavor being undertaken by me, to get us as a community to increase the transparency of the Smash Lab. In my waking visions, I see this as a sort of periodic, monthly "magazine", in which we report to the community with what we are currently working on, all the while making it entertaining, interesting, and immersive.

Where did This all Come From?​

Upon being admitted into the Smash Lab, my curiousity was quick to run its course, and I peeked at all of the older threads, made by Smash Researchers who were here before me. One instantly caught my attention, and it was Infzy's Smash Lab Portal thread. I thought, "Hey, this is a pretty rad idea!" before realizing that it had obviously never caught enough steam. And so, I had proposed to lead a new Smash Lab Portal, but never did. Life caught up with me. I had to travel. School started. Etc. Johns. However, when I logged onto Smashboards today, I noticed JV's Smash Lab Announcement.

In the coming weeks you can look to start to see individual official Smash Lab stickies in all of the Brawl Character Forums with a slew of data and an Official Smash Lab sticky in the Brawl Tactical room with all the latest data and findings.

Once I read that last part, I knew I had to step it up. No more excuses. Sure, I'd keep my priorities straight, but I knew that upon accepting admittance into the Smash Lab, I had accepted responsibilities along with it. Being a Smash Researcher isn't just about flaunting around a pretty cyan name color. It's real work. Just because this is on a video game forum doesn't make it any different from being a real lab technician, or a biologist, or a meteorologist. Nature gave them secrets to crack, and so did Sakurai to us. And just as they do their research to better the layman's understanding of the world he's living in, we need to do the same. No more super secret science clubhouse. We need to really connect with the community.

So What do I Have to do?​

Your job is simple and the same as mine: Brainstorm. What can we add to this virtual magazine to make it more enjoyable to read, all the while keeping its original purpose intact? Aesthetics? Content? Layout? Connection? I've already thought about all this quite some bit, but I know I alone can't meet what the community expects from us. We can all add a little bit to this little project to make it something big and amazing.

So far, here are some ideas I've come up with, but I appreciate any suggestions. There's always room to improve.

*Ask a Researcher: Got a question about something you feel doesn't really deserve its own project? Or maybe just want to have some intelligent discussion? Ask a participating researcher. Please, do not ask character specific questions. The majority of character boards have their very own Question and Answer threads. There will either be one set person to ask, or the person will change every month
*Project Requests: Think something is a little too obscure? Put in a request for a project. However, please put the request in along with at least two other people. All reasonable requests will be put into consideration, which means that there are no promises. We might have our hands full.
*Interviews: Want to get to know a Researcher a little better? Well, apart from social networking sites, this is your best choice. Researchers must be willing to be interviewed, which means that they can turn down a specific question, or being interviewed altogether.
*What We're up to: News from the Smash Lab! In this section, we'll give you a brief rundown of what projects we're undertaking this month. [collapse=Indigo Note:]The format I'm thinking of for this is like so:

Project Name:
Headed By: Project Leader
Project Summary:[/collapse]Even though we're going more transparent than ever, the Smash Lab still needs to maintain some degree of secrecy. How much is revealed in the summary is up to us.
*Random Poll/Questionnaire: Yep
​

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"What We're up to" seems to me like it's going to be the most space-consuming section of the Portal, so I'm not so sure what else we can include. Ideas people, ideas!

Also, apart from my pretty yet pathetic

, this could still use a little spicing up. I think a graphic designer would be a nice idea. You know. Making a banner for the magazine, then little headers for each section. I was thinking we could put it up for the outside community to tackle, and add some kind of incentive. This would also bring in more readers. Or maybe one of you would like to take this up?

Currently, this is what I'm thinking of for the layout and such-

Spoiler

The Smash Lab Portal(Or a banner)​

*monthly foreword/team statements*

What We're up to(Or a banner)​

Project Name:
Headed By: Project Leader
Project Summary:

Project Name:
Headed By: Project Leader
Project Summary:

Project Name:
Headed By: Project Leader
Project Summary:

Ask a Researcher(Or a banner)​

[collapse=AaR]

[U]Previous Month's Questions[/U]
Asker: Question
[img]http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/4779/flask.png[/img]Researcher: Response

Send in your questions via PM to *Researcher*, this month's person to ask!

Interviews(Or a banner)​

[collapse=Interviews]

[U]Previous Month's Interviews[/U]
Asker: Question
[img]http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/4779/flask.png[/img]Researcher: Response

[/collapse]
Post your questions either in this thread as a reply, or VM them to *Researcher*, this month's person to ask!

Credits
Obligatory credits and staff.
[/collapse]

So come on guys, let's make this something amazing.

 

[Luxor]

This or this? What's going on here, rPSI? How's it gonna go?