Straight up WTF why the f*ck you so dead?

Titles says it all people. Why does no one talk, why do people lingering, why aren't people contributing to the interest gathering threads and idea thread and projects and conversation.

I know right now it seems hard. I know most people have the "I try but no one responds" mentality, or the "why bother", or "nothing is interesting", or "I have nothing to say".

WELL ENOUGH LADIES AND GENTS!

This place is dying around our ears. People actually use to talk to each other in public threads and made the public group community areas of the board active, the very areas we need active to attract active users.

I ain't putting the blame on no one. Nope. Because I am guilty of being far to quiet lately.

I just think we need to be proactive again. We need to show this place some love. Contribute to the conversation, share our ideas, engage one another outside of our private little holes in the wall. Get outside of the OOC threads, outside of our tiny circle of friends and GIVE THE STRANGER NEXT TO YOU A KISS ON THEIR OPEN MOUTH!

YUH HEAR ME?

I just . . . miss how boisterous the community was a year ago and we need to revive this place. I am not lying WTF is dying and there is very little the mods can do at this point.

IT IS UP TO THE COMMUNITY TO SHOW SOME INITIATIVE.

---

Phew I had to get that off my back, but that little rant aside it is true WTF is dying and the community is the key. Right now I have no real suggestions off the top of my head as to how to fix things. This is mostly because I don't think gimmicks are going to win over activity, believe me as an ex-moderator I know we've tried. Rather legitimate and genuine activity from our members is needed outside of members OOC threads and mostly private areas of the board.

WTF is puttering out because the community aspect of the site, this forum, interest gathering and brainstorming forum, greeting threads / new member forum all need more attention. Members need to contribute outside of their private gigs. I know right now it is difficult and frustrating, but if only a small handful of us pull up our big girl socks and get a chattering it we won't get the board anywhere . . . this needs to be a larger everyone reading effort.

I have been meaning to say this for a while. I wanted to get this off my chest. Good evening.

I agree, wholeheartedly, with what you've said. I don't foresee gimmicks as the solution either. WTF is more… reserved and quiet than it was a year ago. Slowly dying but WTF can be saved.

A lot has changed in the course of that year and some people, myself included, don't have a comfort level with the site right now due to past issues. I think, if anything, time will determine the success and growth in the community. I know I've been taking baby steps to work my way back into the community. I burned a lot of bridges and my 6-month hiatus, although helpful, came at poor timing. My absence also caused some of the WTF users to vanish too. I've been working on bringing them back. Old and new members, working together, are the key to the success of the community -- or at least that's my opinion. We oldies know what works and what doesn't. We've also "survived" the various changes to the site's layout and workings. The new members bring fresh blood and untainted views. If we learn from one another, I think we'll turn out just fine. :)


In all honestly, I think we just need to "start over" some aspects of the site and do some "clear cutting." But that's just me talking. I know I still need to apologize to people, you being one of them, for my behavior. It was misplaced anger and the WTF community suffered from my inability to control my emotions. So I know I'm certainly one of the many factors that contributed to the muted community here.

Anyway, I'm not 100-percent sure what we should do to get that community back. I guess we just keep up and increase our current posting in the non-roleplay sections of the site and hope others will catch on and join us?

This is fantastically put post, Strude, and I agree; it is straight up no louder in here than a single cicada on a foggy night. There's some buzzing but nothing of substance or anything that can help you. Let's make this booger worthwhile, huh?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Avarice

This is fantastically put post, Strude, and I agree; it is straight up no louder in here than a single cicada on a foggy night. There's some buzzing but nothing of substance or anything that can help you. Let's make this booger worthwhile, huh?

---

Exactly, and it is up to people to actually talk.

I mean the site isn't inactive either. Truth is we have many users who log on daily to post and chat they simply do all their chatting in the OOC thread to the one RP they're part of and all their posting is to their one RP. One on one games too, you see lots of activity there as well.

There in lays the problem. You can be active in your games but a community doesn't survive on roleplay alone the rest of the site needs attention too. Members need to venture outside their private threads and talk to one another.

As Xavirne said some people have left, no where near as many as she may think, but I'd say at least 5 of the more active members. It was enough to punch a whole in the activity of certain forums and effect the overall liveliness of the board.

We've actually gotten more members over the last year to replace the people who left. They've simply been very quiet.

In a nut shell it is too quiet and we need more chatter.

You can't force people either, but those of us who have been members for a year or more know what is was like and know exactly what we use to do. We're all comfortable talking to one another we just don't do it.

It's kinda like the family you love but don't want to talk to around the dinner table. There's no reason for it, you're just being a pain. What's really confusing me is the recent brainstorming threads are getting hella views but no one's commenting. Yo, this is one of the most important part of these forums.

The brainstorming threads have always been like that, generally, there were members who genuinely contributed and joined the games they helped brainstorm. No so much now.

For me personally, I'd post to them but I would never join the games. I'd just want to help the creator work out kinks for a better final product . . . not sure people are to keen on that though. That said I should just say fuck it and do it anyway, because heck that forum needs FAR MORE activity.

I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but here's my thought and suggestions in brevity.


1. Just post more in the various forums. It doesn't matter if no one else is doing it; that isn't the point. As long as some people are willing to chat, it will encourage other members to join in. A few will have to pick up the slack and comment in threads.

2. Don't make a ton of new threads. There are plenty of threads; pump those instead of starting new threads and watching them turn into a ghost-town. There is no need to clutter forums with redundant topics.

I think it's because whoever proposes their point of view or asks a question either gets harshly shot down or brutally ignored if it doesn't rub the thread starter the right way, but that's just an opinion.

Most people don't bother checking out an interest thread if the title does not appeal to them.

I also haven't been too active as of late, and it honestly falls to my lack of time management. Summers are busy for me, and this one more than the last due to me trying to get my rear in gear for my Masters. But I have made a point as of late to give more to the community due to my lack of participation.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by joonsexual

I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but here's my thought and suggestions in brevity.


1. Just post more in the various forums. It doesn't matter if no one else is doing it; that isn't the point. As long as some people are willing to chat, it will encourage other members to join in. A few will have to pick up the slack and comment in threads.

2. Don't make a ton of new threads. There are plenty of threads; pump those instead of starting new threads and watching them turn into a ghost-town. There is no need to clutter forums with redundant topics.

---

This- this all over and left and right and up and down. Then again Jing always has wonderful ideas and Strude always is the one to get people's rear in gear.

But I agree totally- our community is not big enough to support multiple OOC threads about the same things, and so making broader ones that everyone can jump in on if they so please would help the activity and maybe stir up people that have been lurking in the sidelines for a while. And the brainstorming threads do need more love, but like Ophelia mentioned sometimes the creators of the threads take opinions or suggestions the wrong way. And this goes both ways. Some people that are interested have thrown ideas out there that have nothing to do with the original idea presented and more towards what THEY want to play in an RP that needs input on the fundamentals. I've tried to give opinions on certain games before- ask question so maybe I can get a better feel for things and have been met with either a straight ignore/the thread dying/or the creator getting hostile. This isn't every time, but it did put me off of posting to people I didn't know so well. Also the themes as of late haven't really interested me, but I have noticed that the threads on there that DO get love inevitably become games.

There is also a weird problem, and this is not all the time, of the 'Most Recently Created Games' on the front page being nothing but 1x1s. I am not saying that there shouldn't be any full featured 1x1s (because some games are massive and have multiple characters and locations), but I find that people look there more than at the recruitment threads to find games. I'm at a loss on how to broadcast this more, but it might help in all around participation in neglected games. Just some thoughts.

And yes this thread is older, but I finally got some time to sit down and read it properly and formulate a decent response. c: Hope I didn't resurrect it from the dead.