Future Plans For Office Outlaw

Hello, everyone!

I wanted to take the time to talk about the future plans we have with OO.

It's been over a month since this forum started gaining members, and that's thanks to all of you who have taken the time refer others here.

At this point, the forum side of things are functional and fun and we're working on our Trading Post next.

I can't give exact dates or timeframes for anything because it's a little hard to estimate everything with where we're at right now. Although, I think

Merch Shop In 2026?
For those of you who don't know, I used to work on the merch shop for the other forum.

I was very limited there in terms of what I could, but now that I'm unbridled, I can run a merch shop here for OO (possibly in 2026). I listed a couple of them below.

• Competition for graphics to be featured in the merch shop. This is to stick with building things up with the community as everything is better when we built it together.
• IM designs based on memes from our community. There was a mock-up of one I made called "GSA Sir" that I always wanted to put on a t-shirt, but there are a lot of others as well.

An Official Discord Server
Some of you have asked me why I didn't start Discord server in the first place. I'll share those reasons with you below

• If you look at the date of my account here, I set this forum up 4 months before my termination. I made this forum in an adjacent niche to avoid any conflicts with my contract, but I was setting it up in a way because I saw an opportunity coming up that I knew I had to seize.
• Discord servers are owned by Discord. I don't know about everyone else here, but it's useful to have something you own to act as a central hub.
• There's utility in having a public-facing site where others can learn more about your community.

Despite this, one of the plans we have is to eventually have a Discord server for more private discussions. This was a request many of you made on the other forum, and I thought it was a great way to modernise things for the following reasons:

• Real-time engagement in more modern setting.
• We could potentially use it to onboard new members and moderators
• Another member suggested using the server for announcement.

What we're trying to work out is how we can have both without reducing the activity on the forum. For instance, if we just used it for announcements, that wouldn't be an issue. On the other hand, maybe we could use it as a Sapphire benefit for discussions that we normally can't have as easily on the forum, that would give it a real purpose that doesn't conflict with our forum.

It's going to be more work in terms of moderation, but I know many of you have been requesting it for a reason, and I think it's something worth trying out.

Our SubReddit
When we get the time though, it would be good to give others the option of also using the subReddit. You know, increasing our presence and even bringing in some likeminded people from Reddit into our community by giving them a more familiar avenue to joining.

Community Projects
I want everyone to think about this: all of us built this place up in a month. The bug fixes, the features, the functionality; this is all here because of work we did collectively.

I know there's more work for us to do for OO before we consider this a success, but doesn't that make you wonder what else we could build up as a community? I'm not talking about stuff for me either; I like the idea of being able to help members of the community build up their own projects, so maybe we can find a way to coordinate on that here. I want to show the members here the support that all of you have shown me, so this is something I want to look into for OO. After all, the more people we build up, the stronger our community becomes.

A Telegram Announcement Channel
Another member suggested that we should look into having a Telegram announcement channel just for updates. Again, it's something we've been considering the last month because we want to modernise everything here.

One reason we're looking at all these associated properties is to ensure that the community does not get separated should anything happen to OO. We would have to work out what happens to someone who gets banned on OO in terms of these other platforms, but that's a problem for later. We've not even had to issue a warning to anyone here yet.

I know it's a lot and I can't promise all of these will get implemented, but I can promise that we will do our best to look into everything to continue making the Office Outlaw experience both fun and productive.

Zwielicht said:

I was very limited there in terms of what I could, but now that I'm unbridled, I can run a merch shop here for OO (possibly in 2026). I listed a couple of them below.

• Competition for graphics to be featured in the merch shop. This is to stick with building things up with the community as everything is better when we built it together.

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That's the way to go. I always thought it wasn't good to stamp a logo on something and call it a day... A merch shop needs for sure more than that, but I suggest not opening it anytime soon to avoid low engagement in the beginning.

Zwielicht said:

There's not much going on there right now (or anything for that matter) as we've been very busy building this up.

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I lost my subreddits for buying 2000 fake subscribers. So I suggest you not to open that either anytime soon. If there are malicious actors they could close it in a blink of an eye.

Fill it, then send us the link privately so we can first join up with our legit accounts so if there should be a massive amount of new subscribers then its less likely to affect anything you built there.

Or set it as private and make us to request access, I think that can be done too temporarily... can't keep it private forever otherwise there will be no SEO benefits or any benefits for that matter.

INCC said:

That's the way to go. I always thought it wasn't good to stamp a logo on something and call it a day... A merch shop needs for sure more than that, but I suggest not opening it anytime soon to avoid low engagement in the beginning.

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Yeah, I feel that way as well.

The merch shop is something that should be much later and when we have significantly more members. It'll also give those who joined later something to help build up like all of our early members got to experience.

INCC said:

I lost my subreddits for buying 2000 fake subscribers. So I suggest you not to open that either anytime soon. If there are malicious actors they could close it in a blink of an eye.

Fill it, then send us the link privately so we can first join up with our legit accounts so if there should be a massive amount of new subscribers then its less likely to affect anything you built there.

Or set it as private and make us to request access, I think that can be done too temporarily... can't keep it private forever otherwise there will be no SEO benefits or any benefits for that matter.

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You make a very good point with that.

We'll make sure once it's properly up, to limit who joins it to reduce the chances of abuse.

I can send it to the Founding & OG Members first once it's ready.

Thank you as always for the tips!

Zwielicht said:

Merch Shop In 2026?

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Yes, that's a good idea we can keep in mind for the future. Not right now, but in the future, for sure.

Zwielicht said:

An Official Discord Server

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I feel like its similar to the Shoutbox suggestion that I have made a while ago. I am all in for a Discord server as well, but it should not be open to the entire forum as this will end up in a moderation nightmare. Having it only available to Sapphire Members is a good trade and this also makes it another perk that can be used for the Sapphire Membership.

Zwielicht said:

Our SubReddit

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All in for that. We should take the opportunity to get more members from Reddit. Not doing it would be a big waste.

Zwielicht said:

Community Projects

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I like this idea a lot, and you can really be creative with whatever you want to run. Competitions like "Who makes the most $X in a week" or "Who shares the best ... in April" would be really fun to do.

Zwielicht said:

A Telegram Announcement Channel

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It's fine, and we can use it, but I really would only use it for announcements. Telegram is a nightmare to moderate (much worse than Discord or any other platform), so having full and open chat would lead to a disaster.

Zwielicht said:

Merch Shop In 2026?

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Sure, I would love to buy some coffee cups and maybe send some designs.

Zwielicht said:

An Official Discord Server

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Big NO, it would drop the engagement here, servers are the competition of forums so I vote against.

Zwielicht said:

Our SubReddit

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Yeah, why not, it can bring fresh new traffic.

Zwielicht said:

Community Projects

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That sounds interesting, I am looking forward to see how this is developing.

Zwielicht said:

A Telegram Announcement Channel

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That is good, something just for announcements.

MR.Spuf said:

Big NO, it would drop the engagement here, servers are the competition of forums so I vote against.

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Don't worry, these kinds of ideas are things I would have a vote for to make sure the community wants it.

Whenever we do consider that, we obviously want to make sure it doesn't take away from the forum. If we can't work out how to have both without reducing engagement on the forum, then it is something we just wouldn't be able to do.

Merch Shop In 2026?

Will there be a premium for the older logo to be on keyring and mouse pads?

Awesome - Good Luck for The Future Plans !

t2van said:

Will there be a premium for the older logo to be on keyring and mouse pads?

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I thought I was the only one who couldn't identify with the new logo

I hope people don't get mad, but this is an IM-forum first... this saloon type of thing is too niche... like way too niche.

This can be too hard for people to see through when they arrive, maybe we get it but for mainstream, it's too niche.

t2van said:

Merch Shop In 2026?

Will there be a premium for the older logo to be on keyring and mouse pads?

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Yeah! It was our first logo, so I want to feature it in the merch shop.

INCC said:

I thought I was the only one who couldn't identify with the new logo

I hope people don't get mad, but this is an IM-forum first... this saloon type of thing is too niche... like way too niche.

This can be too hard for people to see through when they arrive, maybe we get it but for mainstream, it's too niche.

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There's nothing to get mad about and you do make a good point that the logo might give the forum that it's too niche. It's why for we keep the theme loose and only a few subforums have that kind of naming structure.

If you think anything should be changed, you can start a feedback thread on it. You can even do an old logo vs new logo poll, although if we changed the logo again, I feel like it would be better to get suggestions on what the new logo should be rather than go back to the old one. I don't have an issue with the old logo myself, but some of the new types of people we want to try bringing here might have an issue with it (and as you said, they might even find the western-themed logo to be too much of a tipping point).

Things are still early enough here that it's not a big deal to change these type of things.

Edit: Actually, I started a poll on our options here: https://officeoutlaw.com/threads/what-do-you-want-for-the-office-outlaw-logo.855/

Feel free to vote in it as to what you prefer.

Zwielicht said:

Yeah! It was our first logo, so I want to feature it in the merch shop.

There's nothing to get mad about and you do make a good point that the logo might give the forum that it's too niche. It's why for we keep the theme loose and only a few subforums have that kind of naming structure.

If you think anything should be changed, you can start a feedback thread on it. You can even do an old logo vs new logo poll, although if we changed the logo again, I feel like it would be better to get suggestions on what the new logo should be rather than go back to the old one. I don't have an issue with the old logo myself, but some of the new types of people we want to try bringing here might have an issue with it (and as you said, they might even find the western-themed logo to be too much of a tipping point).

Things are still early enough here that it's not a big deal to change these type of things.

Edit: Actually, I started a poll on our options here: https://officeoutlaw.com/threads/what-do-you-want-for-the-office-outlaw-logo.855/

Feel free to vote in it as to what you prefer.

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Thanks. I was sweating that you'll be fuming with anger tbh

I will check that pool later today and will voice my opinion, too. It's 11 a.m. here right now, so I gotta get this working day sorted first.

INCC said:

Thanks. I was sweating that you'll be fuming with anger tbh

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Not at all! You make really good suggestions as you know your stuff and you don't just complain about something for no reason.

You're not the only one who's mentioned having issues with the logo, and I feel like enough people at this point have complained about it that I'd be an idiot if I didn't start that thread about the logos and listen to what others have to say.

INCC said:

I will check that pool later today and will voice my opinion, too. It's 11 a.m. here right now, so I gotta get this working day sorted first.

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Of course! The poll will be open for 4 days (and if we don't get enough comments and votes, I'll extend 3 more days).