Is it just me or do the forums seem a lot less active?

Nilden

I can't be the only one noticing the abundance of single digit replies to news posts here. A lot of the old regulars are gone too. I don't want this to be a doom and gloom post but it sure seems like there has been a drop in activity here over the years. Back in the Bill and Suzy era it was much more lively. I'm guessing this just corresponds with less interest for MMORPG's in general.

Sovrath

Nilden said:

I can't be the only one noticing the abundance of single digit replies to news posts here. A lot of the old regulars are gone too. I don't want this to be a doom and gloom post but it sure seems like there has been a drop in activity here over the years. Back in the Bill and Suzy era it was much more lively. I'm guessing this just corresponds with less interest for MMORPG's in general.

Just not enough mmorpg's to talk about.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Kyleran

Sovrath said:

Nilden said:

I can't be the only one noticing the abundance of single digit replies to news posts here. A lot of the old regulars are gone too. I don't want this to be a doom and gloom post but it sure seems like there has been a drop in activity here over the years. Back in the Bill and Suzy era it was much more lively. I'm guessing this just corresponds with less interest for MMORPG's in general.

Just not enough mmorpg's to talk about.

Well, conversation shifted, these days more people visit r/MMORPG, 471 online at 1am ET visiting it.

Nevermind the title specific subs like r/elderscrollsonline with 768 users online.

Both pale in comparison to r/news which is at 14.3K ATM.

Nevermind the many different Discords, Twitch and You Tube comments, just many places to comment on gaming these days.

sweetdreams

I don’t think it’s terribly more inactive. Certainly less than before, but the website has gone through a lot of changes throughout the years.

DigDuggy

It comes and goes.  Let another 'hot' MMO release or get announced and people flock to the various sites to glean anything they can.  Then it dies back down.

cameltosis

Extremely few new MMORPGs getting released in the last 10 years, so far less to talk about. This has meant a lot of the more casual posters left.

New modes of online discussion (reddit / discord) which has reduced the inflow of new members, as younger people tend to gravitate towards new mediums.

Older, bitter posters taking out their frustrations with the genre on these forums, resulting in a lot of bans.

I still check these forums pretty much every day, but I post a hell of a lot less than I used to. No new games to discuss is a big reason for that, but also the discussions we do have are just repeats of the same old discussions we've been having for years. Some of them I can't help but post (anything relating to depth or horizontal progression for example) but a lot of the time I start writing a post and then think "why bother?". I don't mind revisiting old discussions if there are new opinions or new data......but there just isnt.

achesoma

With the recent Pantheon implosion, it seems busier than it had been in a while. 

Kyleran

achesoma said:

With the recent Pantheon implosion, it seems busier than it had been in a while. 

Who doesn't enjoy discussing a good trainwreck, especially when it proves them all to be right?

Hengist

Kyleran said:

achesoma said:

With the recent Pantheon implosion, it seems busier than it had been in a while. 

Who doesn't enjoy discussing a good trainwreck, especially when it proves them all to be right?

Is it about time to talk about The Day Before, or the ad campaign previously known as The Day Before?


I kinda suspect the next delay, or story about how they couldn't get enough unpaid employee's to get things moving, but it totally wasn't there fault, will drop in the next week or so when it misses another date.

Some stories just write themselves, and it's who doesn't like seeing it happen?

Nanfoodle

Some here seem to focus on game bashing over talking about games. I cant count how many times I have seen someone post info in a game to just get slayed for sharing. I have experienced it myself.  It can get really toxic here. There are awesome things happening in gaming, I dont even talk about here and do it on other forums just because of that. Dont get me wrong, there are many here I deeply respect buts its not always a safe place here. 

As an example. We had someone share some insight into the pantheon situation that happened while they were on discord. They shared their insight and got cut down. Over just asking for more info or proof. I felt bad for them and when they did prove the truth of what they were saying. No one thanked them for it and they were new to this forum. If I was them, I would not have come back.  

Wargfoot

Is it about time to talk about The Day Before, or the ad cam paign previously known as The Day Before?

I'd totally hire those guys for an ad campaign.

KnightFalz

Few new MMORPGs are released and those that do aren't generally warmly welcomed.

Complaint and critique, recycled until there is something new to complain about and critique is common.

And of course there is the celebration of every failure and bare recognition of any success.

It's a tad morbid here.

That may partly inhibit participation.

Sensai

Nanfoodle said:

Some here seem to focus on game bashing over talking about games. I cant count how many times I have seen someone post info in a game to just get slayed for sharing. I have experienced it myself.  It can get really toxic here. There are awesome things happening in gaming, I dont even talk about here and do it on other forums just because of that. Dont get me wrong, there are many here I deeply respect buts its not always a safe place here. 

As an example. We had someone share some insight into the pantheon situation that happened while they were on discord. They shared their insight and got cut down. Over just asking for more info or proof. I felt bad for them and when they did prove the truth of what they were saying. No one thanked them for it and they were new to this forum. If I was them, I would not have come back.  

You want us to thank people for posting?   Little too Hello Kitty for my tastes.  And not sure that the poster proved anything other than he was on discord one day and paraphrased the discussion. 

As for the greater discussion,  we haven't had that many discussion worthy posts as of late.  Each week we have the obligatory expensive accessory review posts, at least two New World posts, at least one TESO expansion/feature post, and the random crypto/VR/sponsored post.  Generally not much discussion on those unless trading was suspended in New World. 

Quizzical

A lot of the old regulars have been perma-banned for one reason or another.  This is most visible when a long thread from several years ago gets bumped, and half of the posts are from people who have since been banned.

The forum moderation here used to do a lot of warnings and temp bans, but at some point in the last several years, it shifted to perma-bans for a single offense.  This was sped up considerably by a run of political "news" articles on the front page, combined with moderation that sometimes handed out perma-bans for forum posts no more political or strident than the news articles that they were in response to.

Tokken

Due to the fact that there are fewer MMORPG's out there!

Slapshot1188

When you ban your most frequent posters, post counts will go down.  So will thread creation.
Circular firing squad.  Too many people have "won" their arguments by getting the other poster banned.

Kyleran

Slapshot1188 said:

When you ban your most frequent posters, post counts will go down.  So will thread creation.
Circular firing squad.  Too many people have "won" their arguments by getting the other poster banned.

Also has the effect of chilling conversations, definitely find myself reconsidering something I wrote and deciding to just delete and not bother commenting.

These days I do some of my best trolling...err, commenting over on Reddit.

Actually takes a bit of skill to bait others into getting furiously downvoted into oblivion while avoiding a moderator's wrath or having the same done to yourself.

Not my fault the moderators of r/news didn't get my wry gamer sense of humor (especially when joking about real life events) and gave all of my reddit accounts a permanent ban for a single one line bad taste comment

FrodoFragins

You can thank people who couldn't leave politics, and worse, out of conversations.  the bans were warranted.

Wargfoot

FrodoFragins said:

You can thank people who couldn't leave politics, and worse, out of conversations.  the bans were warranted.

I doubt the moderators care until a post is reported.

PRO TIP: If you find yourself reaching for the 'report' button the internet may not be for you.

Theocritus

Sovrath said:

Nilden said:

I can't be the only one noticing the abundance of single digit replies to news posts here. A lot of the old regulars are gone too. I don't want this to be a doom and gloom post but it sure seems like there has been a drop in activity here over the years. Back in the Bill and Suzy era it was much more lively. I'm guessing this just corresponds with less interest for MMORPG's in general.

Just not enough mmorpg's to talk about.

Maybe its a weakness of the site? At the time it was made, MMORPGs were the rage....Now they are barely a blip on the radar....Maybe a reconsider of the site to mroe of a total gaming site to get more traffic? I dont know if alot of the younger players even know what a MMORPG is anymore.

KnightFalz

Sensai said:

Nanfoodle said:

Some here seem to focus on game bashing over talking about games. I cant count how many times I have seen someone post info in a game to just get slayed for sharing. I have experienced it myself.  It can get really toxic here. There are awesome things happening in gaming, I dont even talk about here and do it on other forums just because of that. Dont get me wrong, there are many here I deeply respect buts its not always a safe place here. 

As an example. We had someone share some insight into the pantheon situation that happened while they were on discord. They shared their insight and got cut down. Over just asking for more info or proof. I felt bad for them and when they did prove the truth of what they were saying. No one thanked them for it and they were new to this forum. If I was them, I would not have come back.  

You want us to thank people for posting?   Little too Hello Kitty for my tastes.  And not sure that the poster proved anything other than he was on discord one day and paraphrased the discussion. 

As for the greater discussion,  we haven't had that many discussion worthy posts as of late.  Each week we have the obligatory expensive accessory review posts, at least two New World posts, at least one TESO expansion/feature post, and the random crypto/VR/sponsored post.  Generally not much discussion on those unless trading was suspended in New World. 

I'm thankful people post. A discussion site in the absence of would be rather pointless. Occasionally something interesting is raised which cannot happen if people don't post at all.

That there may be a good deal of chaff for each bit of wheat doesn't invalidate that bounty when it occurs.

Quizzical

Wargfoot said:

FrodoFragins said:

You can thank people who couldn't leave politics, and worse, out of conversations.  the bans were warranted.

I doubt the moderators care until a post is reported.

PRO TIP: If you find yourself reaching for the 'report' button the internet may not be for you.

I report blatant spambots with dodgy links a lot.

FrodoFragins

Wargfoot said:

FrodoFragins said:

You can thank people who couldn't leave politics, and worse, out of conversations.  the bans were warranted.

I doubt the moderators care until a post is reported.

PRO TIP: If you find yourself reaching for the 'report' button the internet may not be for you.

They were banned for what they posted.  End of story.

MadBomber13

FrodoFragins said:

Wargfoot said:

FrodoFragins said:

You can thank people who couldn't leave politics, and worse, out of conversations.  the bans were warranted.

I doubt the moderators care until a post is reported.

PRO TIP: If you find yourself reaching for the 'report' button the internet may not be for you.

They were banned for what they posted.  End of story.

Agree to blame the person reporting is not fair. That power ultimately rests with the moderators acting on behalf of the site. Sorry, but some people on here got to asshatish with the politics and deserve their bans. Good grief, this is a site to discuss games not devisive politics. If I wanted to deal with negative and hateful political rhetoric I'd go anywhere else on the internet. 

As for the lack ofactivity on here, well that's more reflective of the state of MMORPG in general and the constant failure of the last hope for it which was crowd funding/indie developers.

I still come in here to read post from the community and old time favorite posters like Kyleran, Slapshot1188, Quizzical and others who keep the old forums interesting. 

Slapshot1188

MadBomber13 said:

FrodoFragins said:

Wargfoot said:

FrodoFragins said:

You can thank people who couldn't leave politics, and worse, out of conversations.  the bans were warranted.

I doubt the moderators care until a post is reported.

PRO TIP: If you find yourself reaching for the 'report' button the internet may not be for you.

They were banned for what they posted.  End of story.

Agree to blame the person reporting is not fair. That power ultimately rests with the moderators acting on behalf of the site. Sorry, but some people on here got to asshatish with the politics and deserve their bans. Good grief, this is a site to discuss games not devisive politics. If I wanted to deal with negative and hateful political rhetoric I'd go anywhere else on the internet. 

As for the lack ofactivity on here, well that's more reflective of the state of MMORPG in general and the constant failure of the last hope for it which was crowd funding/indie developers.

I still come in here to read post from the community and old time favorite posters like Kyleran, Slapshot1188, Quizzical and others who keep the old forums interesting. 

Just would like to remind that there IS an ignore function which allows you to... ignore a person that annoys you.

Controlling what you hear (see in this case) is far preferable to controling what others say (type).

But whether or not I think it's right or wrong, its undeniable that the banning of active posters has played a large role in the downturn of forum activity.  As someone above mentioned, just pull up one of the good and active threads from 2 years ago and count how many of those posters now show BANNED or DELETED next to them.

It's a sad graveyard.