Celebrate old Escapists! The war against the newbies has been won!

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cryogeist

New member
Apr 16, 2010
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Uhh, we won? Woo?
Gotta say though as someone who dropped off for 2-3 years this place is pretty dead now. (in comparison)

Elementary - Dear Watson said:
But then again, most of them were utter shite... All about morals of drowning people (who will you save?) or billy basic 'what do you look like?', 'what is your favourite geek possession?' or 'who is your favourite game character?'
I will admit to being guilt of this though, and some other crap.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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Elementary - Dear Watson said:
Hmmm... The only thing I have noticed about the Escapist over the years are less new topics posted each day.

But then again, most of them were utter shite... All about morals of drowning people (who will you save?) or billy basic 'what do you look like?', 'what is your favourite geek possession?' or 'who is your favourite game character?'
Hey, it's vitally important to know whether your forum posters would save a drowning ham sandwich over Mother Theresa.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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Secondhand Revenant said:
DOWN WITH THE- *looks at friends list* *sees join dates*

Well um... good thing guys I guess? Just let me hide and escape the purge until I gain senority
Don't worry, we rely on tokenism to keep up the appearance that there isn't a horrific slaughter cleansing of the innocent.

You're safe...for now...
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
24,756
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deeman010 said:
Kinda posted to see what my join date was/ is.... nice to see a lot of oldies here.
You can check your join date from your profile or messaging page. Just, you know, so you know.

I start from my inbox, so I literally see it all the time, but others might not.
 

jklinders

New member
Sep 21, 2010
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Firstly calling it a war is not my idea of an inviting environment for people to discuss anything which is the purpose of being the member of a forum.

Secondly, at least until someone shows themselves to have ill intent, slamming on them for being new and being gleeful at their leaving is not very cool.

Lastly, how is it a good thing that fewer new people are joining and staying? Seems like a sign that the community is dying and what passes for new content here (pretty crappy of late) is not drawing anyone in.

So it's kind of shitty.
 

Cowabungaa

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Feb 10, 2008
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Elementary - Dear Watson said:
Hmmm... The only thing I have noticed about the Escapist over the years are less new topics posted each day.

But then again, most of them were utter shite... All about morals of drowning people (who will you save?) or billy basic 'what do you look like?', 'what is your favourite geek possession?' or 'who is your favourite game character?'
Don't forget the obligatory versus threads before those mostly died out thanks to the crackdown.
Queen Michael said:
Um... yay?

Seriously, this place needs something to bring people.
Like what? The only area in which it's really lacking, though I don't personally miss it, is anime and manga content.

What it definitely doesn't need is stuff like that weekly deal nonsense. The increasing reliance on lists doesn't sit well with me either. But overall, there's still quality content to be found here.
 

DazBurger

New member
May 22, 2009
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Urra! This has to be my greatest achivement ever! And will most likely continue to be till the end of my days.
 

V da Mighty Taco

New member
Apr 9, 2011
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shrekfan246 said:
Um, "yay"?

Nomad said:
This seems to me like it would be a bad thing, and also like it would be connected to the recurring complaints about the pace on the forums having slowed down these last few years.

You could, then, also view it as a victory for the "others". We're just the people that got left behind.
And also this.

I mean, it's already been pretty well determined that a lot of "oldies" have basically stopped posting here entirely. Chances are they're not going to be coming back, and the ones who are still here but just don't pay much attention to the forums anymore likely have their reasons which still haven't really changed. So if the "newbies" stop posting as well, we've just got a situation where oldies and newbies alike come into the forum and see that there are no interesting topics with no interesting posts being made and no interesting discussions being had, and then stagnation and the eventual slow heat death of the universe.
Damn, you make a good point. I mean, just look at my ass for a good example of what you're talking about - I've literally only posted on this site at all 3 times in the last month, and I'm not even true old guard (I officially stopped lurking and registered in April 2011). I remember when this site was once one of my top 3 most visited sites (alongside Youtube and TGWTG), but now I watch Steven Universe more than I do spend time here... and that show only releases new episodes these days like once a month at most (though in handfuls of 5, fortunately).

I'd imagine it comes down, for me personally, to a combination of the Content Exodus during GG, my strong opposition and resentment to both sides of GG, many old posters and mods that I liked getting banned or leaving (I think the only friend I have left on here anymore is Spidermod), and lastly - what is probably a bit rude for me to say - the influx of Chan-like posters (again, due to GG and Quinn's damn censorship campaign) changing the entire atmosphere of this place from elitist and uptight pseudo-intellectualism with quite the silly side to an openly hostile battleground brimming with over-seriousness where non-silly derails and direct insults are the norm (I actively remember during GG's peak Topaz telling me how they, as mods, were actually being heavily restricted on moderating non-discussive or hostile content regardless of what side of GG was doing it (if either), something I feel was a big cause for GG's disastrous aftermath here and wouldn't be surprised at all if was still the case. You mods have it rough). The site could have also used an area like GID long ago, though I will still stand by Tito's decision not to ban the subject entirely like so many clamored for. I honestly think the site would be in such a better shape if the mods were actually allowed to do their jobs and make sure all GG discussion was actually civil (as long as they didn't pick sides on who and who not to come down on) on top of giving it and other overly-controversial topics a place to thrive away from the people who want no part of it once said topic got too big for containment (imagine if ME3 or all Sarkessian topics could've been kept in a forum like GID. Wouldn't that have been lovely).

Regardless though, I do have to give the Escapist some credit in that it did play a massive part in me becoming who I am today. All the way back in April 2011, I came across a thread that got derailed by "Mods are asleep, post ponies" pics (which the OP had a good laugh about and even encouraged for a while). This lead to me not only becoming a brony, but instilling in me a massive passion for both animation as a whole as well as the arts of storytelling and creating good characters. It also pulled me out of a dark place in my life, lead to me getting my first job (yes, entirely so I could go to BronyCon 2012), and ended up giving me a sense of direction with my life. For that at least, this site will always have some small place in my heart (even if all the GG / anti-GG people here keep tainting my memories of this place -_- ).
 

Barbas

ExQQxv1D1ns
Oct 28, 2013
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Misericorde said:
Cowabungaa said:
Elementary - Dear Watson said:
Hmmm... The only thing I have noticed about the Escapist over the years are less new topics posted each day.

But then again, most of them were utter shite... All about morals of drowning people (who will you save?) or billy basic 'what do you look like?', 'what is your favourite geek possession?' or 'who is your favourite game character?'
Don't forget the obligatory versus threads before those mostly died out thanks to the crackdown.
Queen Michael said:
Um... yay?

Seriously, this place needs something to bring people.
Like what? The only area in which it's really lacking, though I don't personally miss it, is anime and manga content.

What it definitely doesn't need is stuff like that weekly deal nonsense. The increasing reliance on lists doesn't sit well with me either. But overall, there's still quality content to be found here.
Cut the rules down to what a lot of sites are doing now, "Don't be a dick". Then only moderate obvious examples of dickery or disruption that the normal people on the site can't handle themselves with a bit of time. Change your points system to assign grades to infractions, because the idea of a low content "whoopsie" having the same weight as someone calling me a stuttering prick is obviously dumb.

Lose the health bar that everyone can see. You're making a point system and health bear visible to a bunch of fucking GAMERS. They're gonna turn it into a GAME.

and not a nice one...

Beyond that, what everyone else is saying... more content. That's hard though, that takes talent and money. What I'm saying just takes the balls to do it.
It's best to take all moderation woes to the staff, since they set the policies and liaise with the mods on how to enforce them. Whenever people air their grievances in the forums - usually by starting a new thread to ask why they got a warning or to complain about the site's rules - more warnings usually follow. If you speak to [user]ffronw[/user] (Community Manager), [user]s0osleepie[/user] or [user]JonB[/user], they'll be better able to answer site policy questions. You can also ask in the mod group chat and they'll see it and get back to you quicker. If you post here, though, they won't be able to do much since they likely won't see it.
 

Ravenbom

New member
Oct 24, 2008
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stroopwafel said:
Hmmm..I think the 'kids' these days just prefer Failbook and Youtube over a forum. It's not just The Escapist that is dwindling in numbers, other than a few popular ones it's most other forums as well. At this point I think the site having more content won't even contribute much to a more active userbase. Hence why it's a smart move of both Jim and ZP to migrate to Youtube. Forums look like they are on their way out. I don't see that changing until the social media fad fades away and/or these companies do something stupid that pisses their users off. Which will happen sooner or later. :p

Also I think it's a smart move of the Escapist to atleast separate that whole 'gamergate' garbage from the general discussion. That shit always stuck out like a sore thumb, as well as related 'opinions' that polluted the entire forum. Definitely not inviting.


Yeah, unless Twitter starts making you reCaptcha every time you want to post on your phone forums are going to go back to being more of a niche thing. Outside of certain black holes like 4chan and reddit many forums are on their way out for sure.
It's just that everyone has a smartphone now and we all like to binge-watch Netflix while perusing Facebook, Twitter and other things that made usable phone apps. ("We" being you all since I excised myself from the Facebook-verse but my inner Grammar Nazi won't let me use "you all" in a sentence when I want to be taken seriously.)

I'm old fashioned and mildly part of the PC Gamer Master Race so I still like my browser tabs and forums while binge-watching Netflix.
 

Shoggoth2588

New member
Aug 31, 2009
10,247
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Hoo...ray? I didn't realize we were at war. I was also sure that a lot of older users left the site when Extra Credits did. Well, whatever; I'm one of the oldies after all so I suppose I've won too...in this contest I didn't realize I was playing.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
24,756
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Falling said:
Wait. 2010 is considered old now? 2009, and I don't particularly feel like an old one.
5 years is a lot of time for most people to participate in an online forum. Hell, many of the ones I've frequented haven't survived that long. Which is probably my fault.
 

lacktheknack

Je suis joined jewels.
Jan 19, 2009
19,305
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I have a sad now.

An old, old sad.

We still lost a bunch of posters who were actually fun to read, so it's still a loss by me.
 

Callate

New member
Dec 5, 2008
5,114
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Well, my profile says I joined in 2008. So I believe I'm compelled to spout something about how y'all are a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies who don't know what for, and wax nostalgic about how great the place was before you came along and ruined everything.

...Okay, then, let's consider that done. Moving on...?
 

Lil_Rimmy

New member
Mar 19, 2011
1,139
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Huh. Well, I guess it's less us oldies (can I say that yet, Papa?) winning the war and more all of the content creators being taken behind the shed with a double barrel so no-one wants to come see the circus any more, even if Yahtzee the Magical Bear is still here. Frankly, it sounds like Yahtzee's just here out of the fact of not caring to move anywhere else.

But, you know, once the pack of Loading Ready Run Collies that can imitate humans and the guitar playing K.K Dunn are gone, along with everything else, less new people want to come see the sadly empty circus.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
8,405
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Its quite funny you took a comparison to 2011, the year i joined the site. Im both the "good" and the "Bad" member in your statistics. Apparently sticking around a site i like is bad.