I think your overblowing things. Yes, forum traffic is lower than it was a few years ago, but like i said there are new members coming while old members are leaving. Its natural. Do note that the forum activity levels have dropped before GG was a thing so its hardly the thing to blame. Though some very active users did get banned during GG as emotions flared wild.BloatedGuppy said:
i miss the escapist
- Thread starter incandenza
- Start date
It wasn't just GG to blame, but an entire cocktail of BS that started brewing even before the ME3 ending scandal. It's been a slow burn.
I could probably get over all the angst that the last year has brought if there was actually anything left to discuss once the dust had settled. The forums are a ghost town and the site content is virtually non-existent. I've been doom-saying for quite awhile now, I realize, but nothing I've seen in recent months has convinced me this place is going anywhere but deeper into the grave.
I could probably get over all the angst that the last year has brought if there was actually anything left to discuss once the dust had settled. The forums are a ghost town and the site content is virtually non-existent. I've been doom-saying for quite awhile now, I realize, but nothing I've seen in recent months has convinced me this place is going anywhere but deeper into the grave.
I really only see the tight-nit community aspect of the site in user groups these days, never the general forums (and my favorite UG is dead now, sooooo DCaramel Frappe said:
. It's almost all bickering these days.I really don't ask for a lot when it comes to a forum community. I just want to have a good time, goof off and maybe learn a thing or two from some people. I don't feel like you're allowed to have fun on these forums anymore. Any joke will be twisted or misconstrued by someone who's looking for trouble and the mods can't do a damn thing openly without someone demanding they be burned at the stake. This place has just become too cold and hostile. Too srs bsns for me.
It's sad
This place has been dying since it was created. Same for you. Same for me.LostGryphon said:
This is all I can think when I see these threads.
Charcharo said:
I agree we're probably more distant than we could be.
OT: I've been here since 2008 and the only big thing that's changed is the content line up, IMO. Plus we got a few more sub-forums. People come and go, and with the new arrivals you get both good and bad. I just try to focus on the good.
I've been here for 6 years, and to be honest I don't really miss the content that has come and gone that much. Bob's stuff was nice, especially Big Picture, but his movie recommendations were often completely ass backwards (looking at you, "Splice") and when he got into politics on occasion it was really heavy handed. Unskippable I watched for a short period of time (MGS4 month was fun), Jimquisition I never really got into. Many of the series with storylines I never followed. ZP was my main cause for coming here and still is, but also the columns and editorials here are often informative and interesting.
I guess I became active on the forums a touch too late to miss any past "glory days", since I hardly ever got into any of those big shitstorms that hit this beach from time to time.
I guess I became active on the forums a touch too late to miss any past "glory days", since I hardly ever got into any of those big shitstorms that hit this beach from time to time.
Not really. Someone posted the forum traffic numbers a couple months ago over the past few years and the decline was startling. Like off-a-cliff startling.Strazdas said:
Way too sharp a decline to be natural churn.Strazdas said:
What the...I already noted that! *I* said that!Strazdas said:
A wise man once said "be the change you want to be". If you really care about the community enough to want a better one then you'd better do your part to make it, because nobody else is going to do it for you. If you prefer to mourn and live in the past, there won't be a place for you in the future; you'll never feel at home here because you'll never be able to appreciate your situation without comparing it to some idealized point in the past, so you might as well leave now and save yourself the constant heartbreak.
If you have suggestions, provide them - the staff are present and receptive. You have everything you need.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Ideas-for-The-Escapist
Your choice, your power. There are no excuses.
If you have suggestions, provide them - the staff are present and receptive. You have everything you need.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Ideas-for-The-Escapist
Your choice, your power. There are no excuses.
I miss the content the Escapist used to have. Most of the really good content creators have left. Jim, Graham and Paul, MovieBob. I'm miss those guys.
For forum specifically? No. Someone else crunched those numbers. Alexa will show site traffic, but not forum specific traffic.Strazdas said:
On a completely unrelated note, you probably shouldn't use Alexa for anything. I'm told it's very unreliable.
Eh. times go around.
Surprised there's been no mention yet of friend zone topics, those were hilariously depressing. Or we had a period where the same people were making variations on the 'who's your favority escapist' topics on a frequent basis, of course with always those same people replying and being mentioned.
As for the decline in numbers. I think it's a lot less anything to do with the Escapist and much more that there's a lot more alternatives for gaming communities to go around. A simple matter of the number of online gaming communities growing at a much larger rate than the number of members of said communities. Not to mention gaming becoming increasingly mainstream so for many there's probably less demand for such communities as it's increasingly easy to find other gamers in real life.
I don't think the Escapist is worse off than it used to be. It's downsides do shift around, but overall I think it's still a great place. Hell, I'd even say it's somewhat better as the current shitstorm has a sub-forum of it's own and isn't spamming off-topic like in the 'good' old days.
Surprised there's been no mention yet of friend zone topics, those were hilariously depressing. Or we had a period where the same people were making variations on the 'who's your favority escapist' topics on a frequent basis, of course with always those same people replying and being mentioned.
As for the decline in numbers. I think it's a lot less anything to do with the Escapist and much more that there's a lot more alternatives for gaming communities to go around. A simple matter of the number of online gaming communities growing at a much larger rate than the number of members of said communities. Not to mention gaming becoming increasingly mainstream so for many there's probably less demand for such communities as it's increasingly easy to find other gamers in real life.
I don't think the Escapist is worse off than it used to be. It's downsides do shift around, but overall I think it's still a great place. Hell, I'd even say it's somewhat better as the current shitstorm has a sub-forum of it's own and isn't spamming off-topic like in the 'good' old days.
I might miss the greater traffic, but it's still my forum home for now. I'll just keep trying to be a part of it, however insignificant, for as long as I can.
Likely helps that while I enjoyed content here, it was probably never my primary reason for sticking around.
Likely helps that while I enjoyed content here, it was probably never my primary reason for sticking around.
You can spin these "Everything was better in the old days" threads right back to ye olde online journal days (which had the best content the escapist ever had - actual interviews and genuine news, nothing copypasted from elsewhere). They're always right to a degree but mostly just blind nostalgia. I for one don't miss the days where the slightest slip immediately got you banned, that was also a big thing on here "back in the day".
Meeeh. I think what a lot of people are mistaking for a slow death is just a return to the norm for a gaming website forum. Lets be honest here, the forums on the Escapist were way better than they should have been for a site like this for many years, basically because Yahtzee was insanely popular when he started out and sucked vocal people to the site like crazy. Same with a few other contributors that followed. Then with the natural progression of time, they became less new and therefore attracted less new attention.Fappy said:
Now add the fact that some of the contributors started taking pleasure in pissing people off, some of contributors moved on, the natural progression of conflict in a large group and the reality of aging and finding new interests and there you go. The forum appears to be dying because without a new Yahtzee there is no way to attract new people at the rate they were previously attracted at, and in reality this is totally normal. Eventually the site will stabilize, as it has slowly been doing so, and the only people who think it is terrible or not enough somehow will be the ones convinced that a brief but vibrant boom was the norm.
I've benn lurking since 2008, my friend used to write for the Escapist. I only come here for ZP and Critical Miss now; Jim, Bob, LRR...all my favorites are gone.
Yeah, but they have lost MovieBob, Jim Sterling and several others that made interesting (albeit controversial) content. Heck, they are going to lose the Game On Hardcore [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comicsandcosplay/comics/game-on-hardcore] webcomic! (and that one is relatively new)crimson5pheonix said:
Gonna throw my hat in with most of this.EvilRoy said:
OT: This place got relatively big not only due to Yahtzee, but to others as well. Jim became pretty big, even Moviebob at attracted a modicum of people.
Far as I'm aware this site was a bit of an anomaly for a while. So many personalities still under one roof. But then I may just be too used to the way youtube works now.
I lurked here around 07 and 08, then joined a bit later. It is very different now. But I don't think that's a bad thing.
It's just a forum guys... not sure what else to say. I was never a fan of the main staff, and not really sure why others were either. Being not a fan doesn't mean I dislike them, in this case. But I never saw anything special about Susan or Greg. Though, thinking about it, I might trend more toward dislike for Greg since he actually admitted to trying to force change on the community/site.
Pretty cool. The mods are fine, and I've never been one to object to how I'm treated. Indeed it's pretty great around here what with the extremely lenient warning system. As for the community itself. Meh. Some notable posters have gone, and I'm actually pretty happy not seeing a couple of them around anymore. People come, people go. It's the way of things.
Frankly there's just not enough to make me start lamenting the days of old.