Where did all the older Escapist users go?

Zip Loc

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Jun 10, 2010
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Came for ZP, stayed for Critical Miss & Escape to the Movies, and still here because aforementioned 3 haven't decayed into obscurity like a few other parts of the Escapist. As for the forums, I lurk more than I post. One of my main rules, so I don't get instabanned for saying something on a forum. Prior experience from 4chan explains the random-ban-ophobia.
 

Death God

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Jul 6, 2010
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On my profile, it says 2010 but I've been here reading articles and watching videos since 2008-2009. I am not super old but I guess the older ones are either banned or simply left for other things.
 

Korolev

No Time Like the Present
Jul 4, 2008
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They've grown bored. There's only so much you can say on forums. You can't really have any serious political discussion, because it devolves into a shouting match, where people aren't really listening to each other, or are willing to concede defeat. As for video-game discussion, there's only so much of that you can talk about - and usually you'd go to websites that specialize in discussing that particular game.

I'm also starting to see a LOT of repeated topics, and after you see the 50th thread about "Israel and Palestine" or "My girlfriend did X, what should I do" or "Am I the only one who doesn't like X?" an overwhelming sense of apathy overtakes you.

Most threads aren't interesting any more. And the internet is the last place you'd want to have a meaningful discussion, because unlike in real life, you can say the silliest thing and since you don't have to look someone in the eye when saying it, you aren't constrained by things like logic or reasonable behaviour. Having debates and discussions in real life is slightly more purposeful, since you run the risk of personally looking like an idiot if you spout nonsense and BS. That's not the case with the internet: You can shout and scream the most meaningless nonsense about how "Fluoride is giving us cancer" or "Vaccines cause Autism", and your personal reputation is unaffected - and better still, you can just IGNORE posts that contain messages you don't like! Which is what happens on internet forums: You get two groups of people yelling at each other, but neither side will ever really thoughtfully read or consider what the other side has to say. They just glance over counter-arguments, skim over comments which take an opposing view and continue to repeat the same 4 or 5 arguments over and over again.

I'm beginning to question the purpose of having discussions on the internet. When you don't have to listen or read what your opponent says or writes, debate is meaningless.
 

thenumberthirteen

Unlucky for some
Dec 19, 2007
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2007 FTW!

What are you implying? That I tracked down anyone older than me and secretly packed them into shipping crates? That's just silly! How could I afford a shipping crate?

I rarely see anyone older than me, but they are there. I sort of want them to have a 4 and 5 year badge since I already got the 3 year one.
 

Piorn

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Dec 26, 2007
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I read the forum, I just rarely post.
I originally came here for ZP, and since then, I regularly visit this site to read all sorts of stuff.
 

Gunner 51

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Jun 21, 2009
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There's a myriad of reasons why I think the older members seemed have dropped off the Escapist forums.

Firstly, there's the zeitgeist shift from this site being an uber intellectual gaming forum, to plain ol' gaming forum. Though this happened over the course of many years

A lot of us got banned in the 2009/2010 March Mayham for giving Zynga fans nothing short of hell when they came to cheer on their team. Which was kind of understandable when Zynga's boys did nothing but write low content posts and greatly upsetting the Mayhem with their spam-voting of Zynga.(It got to number 2, IIRC beating legitimate developers like Infinity Ward, Square Enix - the intellectuals HATED this.)

After that, the Mods were keen on keeping order and not allowing another Mayhem like that to happen again. They tightened up the posting rules even further than normal - so now a lot of people, including myself are a little afriad of posting anything controversial. Controvesy is the life-blood of debate (and flaming alike) and with debate dying down, the intellectuals were unintentionally being weeded out with the flamers and the trolls.

Then there was the mess to do with Game Dogs, which was a show put on by The Escapist's staff which the user base seemed to hate. People bitched about it with a passion and got banned for it. While I never saw it myself, the sheer number of people moaning about it put me off. The sad thing about the bannings, was that most of the people bitching about it weren't being abusive - at least to me, anyway.

I also don't know if this has anything to do with the drop off in intellectuals, but main articles had dwindled quite soon after, starving the intellectuals of moot things to discuss further.

A while later, Extra Credits came along. This was a valiant attempt to win back some of the intellectuals, if it were given a longer run - it would have worked. However, there was some big pay-dispute between them and the Escapist. As a result, they got the boot. Taking more people with them, who then went onto Penny Arcade to follow them.

Shortly before the demise of Extra Credits, a new show comes on - the Jimquisition. To say it polarised opinion would be a huge understatement. At this point, there were only a few die-hard intellectuals left on the Escapist. When they saw Jim's show - which they saw as an insult to their intelligence - they written into the forums to moan about it. To them, it was an abrasive, over-bombastic and reactionist show free of the wit and dry charisma that Yahtzee had.

Inevitably, when people shown their displeasure - they were shown the door. A lot of them left for essentially not being allowed to ***** about things like they were once allowed to do. Now I only see Crudus and Therumancer these days. (Those guys totally rock!)

So let this experience make you wiser, if you have an intellectual fanbase - don't neglect them. They keep you better than the competition.
 

Leviathan_

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Jan 2, 2009
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My guess is that they just got banned over time. A lot of them just didn't like the new policy of the Escapist and left for other places.
 

JoesshittyOs

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Aug 10, 2011
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A lot of them just lost interest, and I noticed a bunch of them got banned around the time the Health forum bar thing was introduced.

A lot of them getting banned for mundane things.
 

The Madman

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Dec 7, 2007
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thenumberthirteen said:
I rarely see anyone older than me, but they are there. I sort of want them to have a 4 and 5 year badge since I already got the 3 year one.
Joined on the 19th of December 2007? Psh, newbie.

Heh, looking around pretty sure I'm the second oldest poster in this topic actually if only by a few days, go me I guess! Pity I rarely post in the Off-topic forums.
 

Lazy Kitty

Evil
May 1, 2009
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Well, the last 4 months I've spent on pony RPs on tumblr.
That kind of made me forget to come here most of the time...
Also, I came here for Unforgotten Realms, the moment I heard it had moved here instead of on URealms, where it is now again.
 

Mr Cwtchy

New member
Jan 13, 2009
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I don't think I'd class myself as an 'older' Escapist, but I do remember there not being an Advice section. All those relationship trouble threads in OT were terribleh. *shiver*

Don't post much these days though. Just lurkin'.
 

Lunar Shadow

New member
Dec 9, 2008
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I just realized I am one of those older members. I friggin miss Joe, MaxTheReaper, Demented Teddy, Khel, etc. I personally tend to stick to the R&P forum, but I find my self posting less and less as the people I like to discuss that crap with disappear.
 

KarlMonster

New member
Mar 10, 2009
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Odd, I don't remember any of those guys.

It's hard to figure out what the heck these capcha say when I'm sleep deprived.

Also, my title has 'junk' in it now.
There is a pressing need for my junk.
 

Latinidiot

New member
Feb 19, 2009
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JordanXlord said:
lobster1077 said:
Mr.Puns got banned a while back, the place just isn't the same any more.
oh yea Hankman!

i will miss you Lord of the puns...
Hankman got banned? Oh man, he always nailed it. Every single thread had some kind of flawlessly oerformed pun, sometimes even two. Sigh.

OT, I've been around for a while, seen many users come and go. All this talk of how quality went down as yahtzees popularity went up I can't confirm, as yahtzee was already making vids for half a year by then.
 

ToastiestZombie

Don't worry. Be happy!
Mar 21, 2011
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JordanXlord said:
lobster1077 said:
Mr.Puns got banned a while back, the place just isn't the same any more.
oh yea Hankman!

i will miss you Lord of the puns...
He got banned! :( He truely did some of the best puns I have ever seen. Why did he get banned?

OT: They probably went due to the amount of trolls on here now, or got banned. It is really sad to see a really cool member be banned for just one post.
 

ToastiestZombie

Don't worry. Be happy!
Mar 21, 2011
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Hardcore_racist said:
TheYellowCellPhone said:
The new forum health bar has to be the nail in the coffin with it. Before, you could see an older user get probation around half a dozen times, but now half a dozen offenses = suspension or banning.

Or when they introduced IP bans, rather than account bans... or, at least I don't remember us always having IP bans.

Some left altogether, some only stay in the user groups, some went to other forums. I remember Furburt made his own forums, and I'm sure several of the older users went there.
They have IP bans? Then why can I keep making new accounts after they ban me all the time? This is like my seventh account on here, I think.
You do know ban hopping is violating that law? They banned you because you did something wrong, and coming on here again, calling yourself "Hardcore_Racist" then admitting that you have banhopped 7 times will probably get you banned *reported*
 

Continuity

New member
May 20, 2010
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Sup I said:
Something I recently became aware of was the lack of older Escapist users on the forums. That's not to say they're not there, but they appear rarely. In 90% of the threads I enter, 20% are 2011, 30% are 2010, 20% are 2009, 10% are 2008 and the rest are older.
Obviously I welcome every newcomer. I'm not even that old. All I saying is it seems really odd. Where did everybody go? Was there an exodus with extra cedits that I missed? Because I feel sort of lonely these days...
To make this discussion worthy, post why you came to the Escapist. For me it was Unforgotten Realms, before it was shit.
Its partly that these forums get pretty repetitive, same old topics and arguments being rehashed every 5 minutes by new posters. That and yeah, a lot of long term members are mostly just here for ZP and EC, and now that EC has gone thats just one less reason to spend time here.
 

mikecoulter

Elite Member
Dec 27, 2008
3,388
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I used to love all the videos and the forums, but now I find myself just browsing YouTube a lot more...