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Author Topic: All very quiet in forum land?  (Read 5176 times)

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Offline Trokair

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All very quiet in forum land?
« on: January 18, 2014, 04:04:47 AM »
I think this is the right place, if not, sorry.

I have been on the site for some years, sometimes more active, sometimes less. Recently I have been getting back into the hobby and as such have become more active again, though in all fairness I do lurk a lot more than I post.

What I have noticed is that the forum seems very quiet of late. I did not notice at first but now that I am on almost every day it stands out. In the times when I was active before, at various points, there was always way more activity.

So my question is what has happened? Where has all the activity gone?
Sometimes, the best answer is a more interesting question.

Offline Slick Samos

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2014, 04:25:45 AM »
I was thinking the opposite actually :P  But last year was a very quiet year, so compared to that we're doing alright :)
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Offline Killing Time

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2014, 05:46:52 AM »
Last few years have seen a steady decline in forum activity, but my personal experience is that 2014 has seen a little of an upturn.
Hopefully the trend will continue.

Offline Irisado

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2014, 06:12:46 AM »
So my question is what has happened? Where has all the activity gone?

To Facebook, blogs, real life, or they've stopped playing the game.  There's nothing we can do about the last two.  How best to compete with the first two is the subject of ongoing discussion.
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Offline Wyddr

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2014, 10:55:19 AM »
Of note, I would point out the best way of increasing activity is not talking about how activity has decreased, but rather actually increasing your activity.

Start threads. Ask questions. Post army lists. Comment on other posts. Visit boards you don't usually visit. It's what I've done, and so should all of you. I like this place, but it's been slow. To get it running, the best thing to do is to make it lively. Be the change you want to see in the world and all that stuff. 

Offline starstrider

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2014, 11:35:22 AM »
My suspicion (and this is purely speculative) is that GW priced some people out as well. The only reason I'm here presently is that I'm not trying to build up my new army in a reasonable period of time anymore, and am rather just going for a squad a month or so. That's not a huge deal for me, since because of real life time limitations I wouldn't get to play a ton these days regardless of if I had a full army or not. What's left to me, really, is enjoying a slow build up and paint process (and if that interests you, I'd encourage you to check out the challenge thread over in the painting forum. Lots of activity in there, as well as cool pictures and tips, and it's not to late to get in on the ground floor for 2014). I suspect that some people though, don't really enjoy the painting and build up aspect all that much. So when prices got pushed beyond a certain point, and GW started making a point of pushing out several $80 kits, they had issues.

I remember back in the day when I first got exposed to this and started up, my parents weren't fans of the hobby at all and I was still a little kid. So I had to save up little  bits of money here and there to sporadically put together my first army (it helped that cardboard dreadnoughts and griffons were allowed and included!). As I grew older and had access to more personal freedom and money, I ended up giving greater sums of it to GW. In the present day, I'm pretty sure that no kid would be able to very successfuly put an army together by saving up little odds and ends like that. I see that as a lot of missed opportunities by GW to grow the hobby, in favor of more immediate returns from existing customers. But when existing customers slowly take breaks or leave the game, and you stop bringing in as many new ones, it's natural that forums slow down a bit.

So yeah. The forum is a bit quieter than it was. I hear that's sort of how it is across the board with forums these days, as the young kids play with their tweets and hashtags (I'm not that old... I don't think.... but sometimes I feel it when I realize how much of this social media stuff I don't use or understand).

Still, there's stuff going on and a solid bunch of people seem to have stuck around.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2014, 11:41:17 AM by starstrider »

Offline Rasmus

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2014, 12:21:15 PM »
Pretty much all forums across all hobbies are on the decline. The advent of push-services such as twitter, instagram, facebook and others, are just driving them down. We are seeing the same drop in activity as most everyone else in the world.

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Offline The GrimSqueaker

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #7 on: January 18, 2014, 02:14:36 PM »
Of note, I would point out the best way of increasing activity is not talking about how activity has decreased, but rather actually increasing your activity.

That.

Not seeing things you'd like to see? Then start a few threads along those lines yourself and see if anyone else joins in. You might be surprised that the only thing holding people back was not wanting to be the first.
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Offline Trokair

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #8 on: January 18, 2014, 04:17:45 PM »
Thank you all for answering. So it is the cumulative of many little things as opposed to a great drop. Well I hope that the observed trend of 2014 continues and that the forum returns to the activity level I remember. Or think I remember, perception is a tricky thing.
Sometimes, the best answer is a more interesting question.

Offline faitherun (Fay-ith-er-run)

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2014, 07:44:26 PM »
My suspicion (and this is purely speculative) is that GW priced some people out as well
....
 So when prices got pushed beyond a certain point, and GW started making a point of pushing out several $80 kits, they had issues.

I remember back in the day when I first got exposed to this and started up, my parents weren't fans of the hobby at all and I was still a little kid. So I had to save up little  bits of money here and there to sporadically put together my first army (it helped that cardboard dreadnoughts and griffons were allowed and included!). As I grew older and had access to more personal freedom and money, I ended up giving greater sums of it to GW. In the present day, I'm pretty sure that no kid would be able to very successfuly put an army together by saving up little odds and ends like that. I see that as a lot of missed opportunities by GW to grow the hobby, in favor of more immediate returns from existing customers. But when existing customers slowly take breaks or leave the game, and you stop bringing in as many new ones, it's natural that forums slow down a bit.


This

For me, As a recent college grad, and newly married, I had to choose between my hobby and eating. Guess which one won?

In the last 3 years I have gotten 4 new models - and 3 of those were gifts.

That being had, it is something I am starting to come back into trying to afford again, but with prices increasing all the time...
So, what your saying is it's not your fault you look stupid by using words you don't get?
Flawless logic.

Offline small_furry_spider

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #10 on: January 19, 2014, 04:42:59 AM »
I personally suspect it comes down in part to accessibility from mobile devices. If you are sitting at a laptop/desktop forums are easy. If you are using a tablet/phone Facebook etc is really easy but forums become a hassle.
It is also a vicious circle- I know that if I post on my local gaming club's facebook page (~150 members) I will get a response within minutes. Here a response can take hours or days. So which do I often choose? And the more people who choose push services, the worse it gets.

Offline Calamity

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #11 on: January 23, 2014, 05:14:21 AM »
As someone who hates, detests, loathes and despises twitter and faceberk, I vow to ignore them and remain here, were there is intelligent and structured discussion.

Offline Irisado

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #12 on: February 1, 2014, 05:27:00 AM »
Last few years have seen a steady decline in forum activity, but my personal experience is that 2014 has seen a little of an upturn.
Hopefully the trend will continue.

Just to confirm your personal experience, the forum statistics show that January of this year saw the most new posts made since June 2013, and the highest number of new topics started since July 2013, which is very good news.
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Offline Calamity

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #13 on: February 1, 2014, 10:37:57 AM »
I'm hoping that once the IG codex comes out the old crew will return in force.  How have you nid players found it post codex?

Offline fremen

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #14 on: February 3, 2014, 01:54:13 PM »
When you think about it, I find it very funny in a way. This forum is, just like the Eldar race itself, slowly dying.... Uuuhhhh, the mystery! ;D

Offline Mr.Peanut (Turtleproof)

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #15 on: February 3, 2014, 03:21:49 PM »
I'm hoping that once the IG codex comes out the old crew will return in force.  How have you nid players found it post codex?

To avoid derailing this thread, why not post a thread about it in the Tyranid forum?  ;)
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Offline augustmanifesto

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #16 on: July 24, 2015, 12:03:02 PM »
Not sure what the traffic was like when this was posted, but I stopped in today to see if 40k0 was alive and there were a fair amount of recent posts. Which is good! Perhaps I should get my moderate-post-on up in here, eh? I can't even remember who used to make me mad! It's like a whole new world  ;D
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Offline Wyddr

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #17 on: July 24, 2015, 12:14:27 PM »
Not sure what the traffic was like when this was posted, but I stopped in today to see if 40k0 was alive and there were a fair amount of recent posts. Which is good! Perhaps I should get my moderate-post-on up in here, eh? I can't even remember who used to make me mad! It's like a whole new world  ;D

That was about a year ago. Traffic has been steadily increasing since the site became stable again.

Welcome back!

Offline Grand Master Lomandalis

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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #18 on: July 24, 2015, 07:08:48 PM »
When we were having constant server issues, it could be days before we would see any new content.  Now, I think I see about 10 or so threads popping up in the unread link, usually with two or three responses per thread.  So traffic is slowly filtering back.

Glad to see that you have made your way back as well.
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Re: All very quiet in forum land?
« Reply #19 on: December 30, 2015, 09:18:45 AM »
Pretty much all forums across all hobbies are on the decline. The advent of push-services such as twitter, instagram, facebook and others, are just driving them down. We are seeing the same drop in activity as most everyone else in the world.

Talk about burying your head in the sand. Truth of it is the amount of down time this forum has suffered has not helped but the problems go far deeper than that. Websites like Warseer and dakka dakka are not having this problem. They go from strength to strength.

For years this forum has suffered from cliques. When I look around now, I see the overwhelming majority of posts coming from the very same names that were moderating this forum when I first joined with my first account back in 2004 (I'm on my third account btw, I know it's not allowed but deal with it).

Truth of it is, right now, this forum only appeals to a small niche, members of the cliques and people who actually enjoy excessive moderation. When I make a post to show people my latest battle report or whatever I post it on a number of forums, I literally make an identical post on... Warseer.com, Dakka Dakka, The Waaagh.com and a couple of others. This is the only forum where I have had moderators delete posts ad send me warning messages etc. That type of thing has always made this forum, above all others, be quite an unpleasant place to post. So I stopped. Haven't posted here in years

Your lack of traffic right now is a result of your chickens coming home to roost. You need to change or die.

It genuinely makes me sad to see what has happened to this place. I wish you all the best but you guys need to wake up to your current predicament.

 


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