I’ve seen a lot of new faces visiting the site, and expect quite a few more to follow. Refugees from the death of D&D3e, grognards of the Castles and Crusades and OD&D variety, board gamers looking for another daily fix…they’re all welcome here in The Dome, where gamers make the rules.

And because you all make the rules here, I’d like to talk a little bit about what I’m planning to do with the site, and how you can help. First, the plans:

• I’m going to be blogging more regularly now that things are set up acceptably, so look for new posts at least once a day Monday through Friday. Weekend posting will be at my leisure. All the posts should be relevant to you as a gamer, whether it’s a review, an article, or just some links to cool stuff around the Web.
• I’m going to be adding a ton more links to the site, and hopefully a pile of good resources.
• I’m going to develop a new meta-system for any roleplaying game, and I’d like for you guys and gals to help me refine it. I think it’s exciting, and I hope you agree. Look for that to start in about two weeks, after I’ve recovered from GAMA Trade Show.
• The visual style of the site is going to be fluid over the next couple of months. First up, getting rid of that gawd awful banner I’ve got up there. Next, making links more friendly and information easier to come by.
• I’m going to be holding some contests over the summer in which you can win a vast array of Glorious Gaming Prizes (TM).

That last one leads me to what you can do for the site to help make it something fun and useful to you. Why? Because I’d like you all to subscribe to my RSS feed, that’s why! (See that little guy up in the right corner? Yeah, that’s it.)

If you felt like joining my mailing list, that’d be keen as well. Joining the mailing list will make you eligible to win Glorious Gaming Prizes, as well as make you more attractive to your preferred gender. You can find that form on the right hand side. I won’t be selling your name to spammers, worry not! I’ll send you a newsletter a couple of times a month to let you know when I’ve added new features and resources, run down the best of the blog and the gaming Web, and I might also pester you just to be my friend. I am a blogger, after all.

So, what can you do to help build the site into something cool?

• First, leave comments on posts that interest you. There’s no better way for me to get feedback than to see which posts are drawing the most comments. So, join the conversation, or start one if there’s not one there.
• Use the social networking “Share” link at the bottom of every post to get your favorites onto Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, and others.
• Also, participate in the contests! Sure, they’ll be fun, but they’ll also usually be about helping the site grow more useful and interesting, so the more participation the better!
• Please, please, please subscribe to the RSS feed and the email list! Come be a part of something new that I hope will grow into a great community. I have an idea of what kind of community I want this to be, but ultimately it will be you that decides. I’d like to make a community wiki project that includes the community standards, so they can evolve along with the people that are coming here.
• Feel free to email me at thegamerdome@gmail.com with your thoughts.
• Tell your friends, and have them do all of the above! It will be more fun with them that without them.

The thing about cults is, you don’t look stupid if your friends join too.