This place seems....

Inferno The Dragon · Sep 05, 2009 9:43 PM

This place has definaltly slowed down... Hopefully it'll pick up soon though.

DarkMaster · Sep 07, 2009 7:42 PM

I'm trying to get my friends to make accounts on here

midget_roxx · Sep 08, 2009 1:17 PM

No its definetely dead. 10 posts a day on a forum = dead

RedDragonX · Sep 08, 2009 3:56 PM

Just so you know the forum has an average of about 222.8 posts per day. So I don't really know where you're getting ten from, but the forum is far from dead.

bmah · Sep 09, 2009 4:28 AM

Statistically, 222.8 posts per day infers little about the activity of the forum. The number of active members, the number of threads made, and where said threads/posts are made are just as important of a criteria.

First, consider what forum/subforum is posted on the most; compare the overall usage of other forums/subforums. Now clearly the vast majority of subforums are empty because many of them pertain to specific Spyro games, and new or interesting information on said games are hard to come by in what you might call a "Spyro drought". Where are most of the posts made? General Chat seems to be the preferred place, and that's better than, say, the spam forum. If you have the majority of posts in only one or two forums, that doesn't bode well if you consider the entire activity of the site. However, this is not too relevant since there's only so much you can talk about old Spyro games, and as such, I can't say this is the best counterargument.

Out of those 223 or so posts, who posts them? If there are 1000 members, but only 30 of them are regulars who've made those posts, you cannot say that this site is very active. I've been reading threads in this forum recently, and there's only a handful of people who actually post.

Are the forums "dead"? In a technical sense, no. But when people say "dead", they're most often implying a slow-down in terms of overall traffic of the site and not "dead" in a literal sense. Are they active? I have to disagree with that from what I'm seeing. However, it would help if someone can break down the stats for me a bit more, since 222.8 posts means moot if the people posting them are few and far in between.

My real point is that I keep seeing a consistent reaction of denial amongst people who respond to questions pertaining to the site activity as "dead". While it's not dead in concrete terms, I get the vibe that no one wants to actually do something to increase traffic to this site*. To be honest, I think that the "keep the status quo" mentality is not very healthy to the forums here. However active the forums are now, it's no excuse to turn one's head away from the issue and imply a shrug of the shoulders.

I'm trying to maintain a presence here in the forums, and I hope that there will be more regulars in addition to more activity (hint: see how many users browse the forums next time you're online) throughout the site in general.

*One suggestion I have is to have the staff members look over the current restrictions and, judging by the current quality of social activity, remove some restrictions that might have restricted a range of topics to be non-discussable in the past.

*Another suggestion I have is to make contest threads, and they can be serious or just for fun as well. Poll threads do a decent job, but we haven't seen much of competitive engagement (suitability of "competitive" engagement depends on behaviour of people on forums)

*P.S. Spyrorocks...take a look at the list of censored words I've provided Stormy months ago. I know you've been busy, but I have indeed been waiting for a considerable period of time. Gawd, I hate having my hours wasted in vain.

RedDragonX · Sep 09, 2009 5:40 AM

I see plenty of posts on this forum daily. My point is simply that the place is not "dead" as some like to call it. Slow, of course, that's what happens in all forums especially when they are based around something that is as come and go as Spyro is. Nothing has happened in months in the Spyro world and nothing will happen for quite some time as far as I can see.

Personally I could really care less about statistics in the matter, the place is fine in terms of posts per day that I do manage to see, and it is still well above ten I can assure you of that much.

And if you're trying to get a personal message through to SR then why don't you try going on the chat or sending him a PM, because leaving a little side message in one of these topics is not going to help I'm afraid, you'll have to get in direct contact with him.

Stormy · Sep 09, 2009 3:58 PM

My real point is that I keep seeing a consistent reaction of denial amongst people who respond to questions pertaining to the site activity as "dead". While it's not dead in concrete terms, I get the vibe that no one wants to actually do something to increase traffic to this site*. To be honest, I think that the "keep the status quo" mentality is not very healthy to the forums here. However active the forums are now, it's no excuse to turn one's head away from the issue and imply a shrug of the shoulders.

Just because we don't publicly announce what we're planning doesn't mean we're doing nothing. As a matter of fact we are, at this moment, brainstorming some ideas that might bring up the activity level a bit, and we expect to have one of them, a ranking system based on gem counts, implemented soon. As for contests, our contest moderator, Spyro, is inactive and is showing no signs of returning any time soon, so we're still trying to figure out who's going to take over for him as well.

No one is saying we're perfect already and nothing needs to be done. We are well aware that some things might need adjusting, but we are all fairly busy so this might take a while. Rest assured that things will be changing in the near future.

bmah · Sep 09, 2009 4:50 PM

I didn't even know there had to be a qualified person to make contests...I thought anyone could create them (and I don't see how any other mod is unable to approve of contests made by other people).

It's great to know that you're in the works of doing some new things for the site - why not make occasional public announcements on it instead of having people keep guessing?

Finally, does any of you know how responsive SR is to emails? Would prefer to contact him that way instead of finding him through a chatroom.

Stormy · Sep 09, 2009 6:21 PM

No, I think only mods are allowed to post new threads in that forum. As for being "qualified," there are no qualifications, but as I said we're busy with a lot of other things, and we don't want the members getting angry again if we can't judge the contests by an appropriate date, so we're putting them temporarily on hold until we get some other things sorted out.

That's probably a good idea, actually - this is where I wish mods could make new threads in the Announcements section.

RedDragonX · Sep 09, 2009 7:35 PM

Yes I wish that we could also do that, but that's not our decision to make. As for SR he will prolly respond quickly if you send him something on gmail. If it catches his attention anyways.

Stormy and I are not as good with contests as Spyro was, and we certainly don't want to open something we're not ready to full judge. I want to find an effective replacement for the section before it becomes activated again.

And yes, as she said we are still brainstorming for more ideas to make this forum a more active place.

#26 Sep 05, 2009 9:43 PM

Re: This place seems....

#27 Sep 07, 2009 7:42 PM

Re: This place seems....

#28 Sep 08, 2009 1:17 PM

Re: This place seems....

#29 Sep 08, 2009 3:56 PM

Re: This place seems....

#30 Sep 09, 2009 4:28 AM

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#31 Sep 09, 2009 5:40 AM

Re: This place seems....

#32 Sep 09, 2009 3:58 PM

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#33 Sep 09, 2009 4:50 PM

Re: This place seems....

#34 Sep 09, 2009 6:21 PM

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#35 Sep 09, 2009 7:35 PM

Re: This place seems....

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