Of all the people in this thread, I agree with Eoghan and Tainers the most.
This place still matters to me. I don't want to see this place die so pointlessly, with people pointing their fingers at each other to this site's demise. I've registered to at least four forums in the last couple months and I barely go to two of them consistently. I end up here most of the time because I know my ****** string of words matters to people on this site.
I don't really have much else to say. I do have a suggestion, however. Instead of a chatbox, I say we have a daily chat thread/subforum. It spawns forum activity and (from what I've seen) people are less likely to be rude. I could elaborate more, but uh. It's too early in the morning for me to argue about anything.
Last edited by Shaymin; 01-12-2016 at 03:21 AM.
So now that this is an actual discussion I thought I'd post my two cents.
I don't think any of us truly want this place to die. If we don't want it to die, we should be active in it. Instead of s***posts in PFG we should be making threads that create actual discussion.
This post grinds my gears. Especially the part about paying for the forum. How dare you say that. Garth is giving money out of his pockets to keep a site alive that we've been using for a long time. This place isn't dead yet. If it were dead, we wouldn't be having this discussion. You're the only one here saying that it's dead. It's almost like you want the forums to die.
But I don't want to spend this time fighting. It's time for me to get something off of my chest.
All of this happened when I became a mod. I don't know if that's a coincidence, but I don't think it is. It's the worst feeling in the world. I love this place, it's where I got to talk to people a lot. It wasn't like I didn't talk to people irl, but I felt like people here talked about things that I enjoyed talking about. So why? Why did me becoming mod destroy this forum? What did I do that was so bad that it sent this forum to its death? I feel like I'm responsible, and it makes me feel ashamed of myself even though I don't truly believe that I'm at fault. Have I been the best staff member? No, and I hope that I can make up for that. I just wanted to make news articles. I could say more but I think I've said enough. If we want this forum to stay alive, we need to act on it.
Last edited by SuperSceptile; 01-11-2016 at 08:02 PM.
People just didn't want change and that included you being a mod but honestly I gave up on caring awhile ago. You're doing fine.
Was it all worth throwing away?
Since this has become so violent, I guess I'll toss my hat into this arena as well.
I always like saying how I ran old forummotion, and some users have hit on good points about it - the place was active, users cared, and people would actually talk. It kept getting members primarily because Superskarmory was a youtuber who could get people to come along, but we kept interest by having users talk, post, and be active.
To those of you who are complaining that the staff are doing nothing and the staff aren't posting enough and the staff are letting their projects die like Eyan did, I have a few things to say about that. I'm legitimately furious about the selfishness of these complaints, but I'll write a calm and sensible answer instead of going off. As Tainers said, there's not much that the staff can do when users don't follow up. It's the most crushing thing to make a thread, put a lot of work into it, and see nobody post.. and those that _do_ tend to post oftentimes just say whatever they feel like and never revisit the thread. That's not all of you for sure, but a damn lot of the users here do that. The projects I did on the Squadcast tapered off in views like you wouldn't believe, and interest in the squadcast tapered off as well. If posting a thread and seeing no discussion is depressing, how about making content and nobody even watching it? I'm in my last semester of college and preparing to move states to enter the workforce, and the rest of the staff are also in the thick of things as well. If only a handful of people will watch the content we produce, much less discuss it, then frankly I'm not going to put my time into it. Blame us all you want for not putting enough effort I guess, but the honest truth is I've become pretty disillusioned with the members of this site and their willingness to participate in stuff.
I feel like it's important to reiterate that not everyone is like this - a lot of you feel similar to how I do, and are sensible. You might feel like your hard work won't matter either, and I really sympathize with that. People like the early posters like Dragonite and Gengar, however, those comments are just selfish in my opinion. I think you're claiming things that are just wrong (I never said the merger was a success - we are pretty aware it didn't bring in swaths of people, but the main goal was to separate from SS.NET for Garth, as previously mentioned, as well as in name). I think you're saying things that miss the big picture and don't want to accept any of the blame yourselves. I think that if you really care about this site, productive conversation and productive ideas to reinvigorate it are welcome, but lashing out at the ones who run it won't do anything.
Of course I acknowledge that the staff has slowed down due to busy times and lack of enthusiasm due to the lack of replies and posts. If you're going to point the blame though, realize the problem is deeper than that. I won't say this has been the most effective forum I've run, but I 100% agree with Tainers - there's only so much administration can do when there is nothing happening below. Ideally, forum moderators and admins are supposed to ensure the site runs properly and nobody breaks the rules, but even assuming their job is to be the conversation starter, I don't understand why you believe normal users can't also start conversations.
In closing, this site, and its iterations throughout the past years, do mean a lot to me, and hold a lot of memories. I would love to see it flourish. At the same time, I don't have the time to make threads and videos that people won't participate in, especially with life catching up. I don't harp on the users for not being more active because this is supposed to be a fun place for discussion, not an obligation. At the same time, however, when discussion isn't happening, I just refuse to accept it falls on the shoulders of the staff to keep making endless threads for you to post once in and never read again - that's an abysmal existence for everyone. I encourage you to come up with productive ideas and stop this ranting.
~Majorasfan
Dude, all you have done in this thread is say that there is a problem, I realize that the first step in problem solving is acknowledging that there is a problem. But if you repeat step 1 10 times you are going to get no where. I wanted discussion on how to solve the problem.
Pokecheats was dead before merge, merge happened more for garth's sake and some staff wanted to feel fresh, it's a shame that the merge didn't work for the best. And to be honest, how else are we supposed to bring in new members? To be real with you the no members joining is a much bigger problem than inactive current users. And it's been something that I've been talking to people like Nick and Scott for years.
Posting ettiquette thread would be nice. I'd do it but I have awful ettiquette.
Go back to double dash you stiff brit.
reminding you that staff are regular members as well and we should be talking to you guys more.
Is there anything we can do to encourage you to post more?
I really like this suggestion but some members that use the chatbox might riot and my acetaminophen expired recently so i can't afford another headache.
we should just make this a weeb only forum under the rule of majorasfan
Was it all worth throwing away?
Hey guys. I randomly saw a link to this thread on Skype.
I figured it would be good to say why I'm not really around anymore and don't post.
1. Skype.
2. The site has a chatbox, so any thread ideas can quickly and easily be discussed in real time there.
3. Most threads I see haven't interested me and the ones that do are inactive. (Such as the FE chain play. RIP)
4. Skype.
87. This is, like, the 5th version of this forum I've been to and after trying my best to be active in at least 2 of those redos, I became tired of seeing the same threads or types of threads being created and posting in them with thought out posts that no one responds to.
I don't think time has ever been an issue with being active here. I just don't have the drive to contribute more than I already have in the past 7 years.
Now.
What kept me posting when I first joined the forum in 2009 was a nice group of people willing to talk about things they really enjoyed. I would read what everyone thought about a topic with interest and give a wordy response in return. People would read what I said and respond to that and the cycle kind of continued a bit. It felt less like a questionnaire and more like a big group conversation. Also, back then you kind of knew everyone and everyone knew you. Small, active communities are great like that.
Oh, and one of the biggest, most influential and positive things about the forum was its moderators and administrators, especially you-know-who. He and his mod/admin team were very active and just seeing them talk in the chatbox or getting a response or pm from them felt like one of the greatest things in the world. They felt like down-to-earth protectors of the peace, especially when people intent on ruining the site or "hacking" it showed up. All in all, it just seemed like that forum had a different atmosphere than this one.
Of course, back when this forum was more active, it was still fun to post even if no one responded most of the time...
I don't especially want to get into a fight with you, but a lot of that isn't what I had an issue with? I should have worded op more carefully, I'm not blaming the staff specifically, I'm saying we've basically dug our own grave and nobody seems to care. I don't think I did much writing in December outside of fabula and code either, it's more of a staff locking a thread about (sort of, maybe) this same topic being the catalyst.
Also to be honest idk where I was going with the "staff should start threads" thing, especially since I've also been saying
is the primary source of the problem.
I doubt it. I have (had, will have) my questions about why we needed another mod in the first place, but just an offshoot of the main thing I'm complaining about.