Where are all the people??

[Pete]

The reason for stopping political discussion was, as you say, because it did get out of hand despite some people's best efforts to get it back on track.

 

I did point out an alterntive in the Off Topic forum introduction - the BBC.co.uk forums which in my mind is as un-biased as you can get (hey, they don't support everything the government says for one - they actually think for themselves).

 

Ivory was going to leave after I put a halt on those threads until I pointed out that I was only after stopping a very particular type of topic and not other threads that might just border on politics but not really be about it (this is where it all gets a bit grey, but you catch my drift). So, it might have put a few of the current members off slightly, but hey, people come and go all the time. Remember Warlord? Greg? MacK was around for a while though not always posting? I'm sure you can all pull out lists of people that have come and gone - it's just the nature of the internet.

 

Personally, I flick very fast through four software development forums for specific software (that runs this site) each day to check for updates and addons, and then spend more time at this site and https://www.thelastoutpost.co.uk and that's easily a couple of hours gone. If someone finds a site that has more discussion about things they want to talk about then I can't see them really having time for too many other forums. Until we grow four more arms and can operate three PC's at once, people just don't have enough time to drop by each site all the time. Oh, and real life also happens to people occasionally (me too... grrr ) and people can't drop by

[Bomb Bloke]

Greg... Ah, there's a nick I'd forgotten.

 

The political threads for the most part weren't just locked - warnings were posted first. The problem with such threads is that everyone has a different opinion, no one will ever get anyone else to agree with their own opinions, and the inevitable result is what you call an 'arguement'! :lol: Even before the merge, a topic had been stickied for this reason to stop such topics. But that was just a recent thing - it hadn't been there before simply because there hadn't been many such arguements before, and they were turning into a regular hassle.

[Slaughter]

But so far, every post in this topic thus far has done nothing but praise this new design. So I guess you should ignore me on this matter.

That doesn't have to mean anything. People that have posted here so far are mostly regular visitors, and chances are good they visit regularly because they like the site. We wish to hear critique, as that is the only way to improve. But we will never undo this merge, so critique on how to improve what we already have would be more worth than critique against the merge itself. Not that people shouldn't criticise the merge if they do not like it, but the other sort is more worth to us.

[Strong Bob]

The problem with such threads is that everyone has a different opinion, no one will ever get anyone else to agree with their own opinions, and the inevitable result is what you call an 'arguement'!

 

It's not a difference of opinion that's the problem. But rather that everyone feels they are right regardless of what they are told and/or shown. That's why debate and discussion exist separate from argument. In one way, a group discusses their views, opinions, and beliefs while open to another's views opinions and beliefs. And by open, I do not mean accepting or even tolerant. The goal of a debate/discussion is to come to a common decision or at least learn as much as you can from the opposite end of your opinion spectrum.

 

This tactic was not followed. And I feel that because of a few bad apples, I don't like throwing away the pie that the rest could've made. BBC is an alternative, yes, but so wouldn't any other forum on the planet. But I am not as close to the BBC forum members as I am with some of the members here. (Trust me, I've even gotten close enough to talk to DragonHawk via phone on occasion.) So the opinions I ask for on BBC will not be from sources I know and/or trust. You can probably see where I'm getting at. It's a different feeling when you speak to a bunch of strangers about your political opinions than when you talk to people whom you've seen around for over a year.

 

I understand the removal of the Politics posts and their forbidden nature... But if the only real reason is the hassle it causes you guys.... You know, if li'l Bob had a slight piece of moderator power in the Off-Topic section he may be willing to lift the weight. Haha! But since that's more than likely out of the question, I feel like I'm fighting a phantom here.

[Accounting Troll]

I think that encouraging politicial discussion is at least as likely to discourage people from coming here as banning it. I personally have been put off one gaming forum where I was a regular poster because of the consequenses of politics being allowed.

 

The politics area of that forum is popular but it causes massive problems for the moderators. There are frequent flame wars between people who have developed personal animosities over controversial political and moral issues. When the moderators try to sort things out, they get accused of being politically biased. The atmosphere of hatred discourages a lot of people from posting because they think they are just going to get a whole load of abuse by way of a reply.

 

It amazes me that even in this era people can be so intolerant of even the narrowest of political differences.

[FullAuto]

Yes. Ours is such an enlightened era.

Quite frankly, you can get to all the forums with one click, I don't see the problem. Of course x-com.co.uk was smaller and perhaps more economic, but this place covers a lot more games.

[Strong Bob]

The politics area of that forum is popular but it causes massive problems for the moderators. There are frequent flame wars between people who have developed personal animosities over controversial political and moral issues. When the moderators try to sort things out, they get accused of being politically biased. The atmosphere of hatred discourages a lot of people from posting because they think they are just going to get a whole load of abuse by way of a reply.

 

Exactly, I think these "personal anomosities" are what should be fought against. Not the politics topics themselves. Although I never saw once on this forum, or any other, a moderator being accused of taking sides. But I don't think it impossible either. (Someone who takes such a stance against a moderator should really have the previlige of political debate revoked.)

 

It amazes me that even in this era people can be so intolerant of even the narrowest of political differences.

 

I live in a country where such things are common enough to make me cringe. It doesn't amaze me much. In fact, I guess that's why I'd like to see the political stuff return. I saw some good hearted people in that debate. Something nice and refreshing from the same-old in other places. And what better place than the number 1 forum I visit?

[Bomb Bloke]

I doubt I could join a political debate at the moment without donning a cardboard sign and waving a bell, yelling 'The end of the world is nigh!'. I really don't like the way laws are heading at the moment, especially freedom of information laws.

 

It's got to the stage where no matter who is in power, it's gonna suck. And to anyone who can argue with that, I wish all the luck in the world - I've got no more to say on the matter.

[Bomb Bloke]

I just entered the forums from the front page for the first time in ages (looks great, by the way). Took me three tries to get everything on screen at once! I'm used to just going for the first 'forum' link I see, and this time I had to click on an image... Reflex actions, you see.

 

I stick to the X-Com section, but I also check the news/staff/off topic sections. I reckon those at least should always be visible. Everyone has their own opinion, of course... poll?

 

Edit: Gah, it doesn't help that the forum link I want to use is one of the last pictures to load!

[Slaughter]

Yeah, I guess every forum link should just take you to the main baord. I'll fix it

[Stun Grenade]

Do you think the boards have gotten even more quieter? Man I miss x-com.co.uk.... somedays I did 20posts a day!!

[Slaughter]

Here's a few stats:

Month     Posts  Visitors  Hits
June      1,237
May       1,412  20,513    2,426,595
April     1,706  14,771    1,790,375
March     2,131  16,085    1,532,096
February  1,400
January   1,300

I don't have all data for all months, but as you point out the posting have gone down. When we get the stats for June, I expect the visitors to have gone down as well, because we had some new material in May (E3) and little in June. May saw a lot of visitors but few posters.

 

The reason Aftermath and Silent Storm see few posters is to a small extent the move, and a large extent the fact that they are both "near dead" communities at present. If you visit their official forums you'll see what I mean.

 

As for X-COM, I can't really answer. Move may have a little to do with it, but not everything. If you look at the XCOMUFO boards, you'll notice they are quieter these days as well. They get more posts than us, but not all that many related to the X-COM games. To me it seems that a lot of people are finally starting to give up on ever getting a new X-COM game. Even news like "Download X-COM CE for free at Fileplanet" doesn't seem to spur as much enthusiasm as one would expect.

 

Another problem with StrategyCore is that we haven't been able to produce as much content as I had hoped. Most of us are busy in RL, and keeping a site like this updated is A LOT of work.

 

Anyway, we DO get a lot of visitors, just not a lot of posters. 20,000 unique visitors in May is GOOD, and even though it will not stay that high, this site has a good deal of visitors. If you wish to make people post more, you should post more . Post about X-COM, post off topic movie reviews and the likes, send PMs to the veterans asking how they are and so on. We need enthusiasts like yourself to keep the community alive

[Strong Bob]

Despite how there's obviously more to see on this board, I think by merging x-com.co.uk in with a number of other games has caused a loss of a sorts.

 

I find myself ignoring every section except Off Topic and the X-COM Sims. (And both sims are currently off-line, except for XCAS which is recieving it's final character epilogues.)

 

I think the move might have killed it. More than once people have managed to find Strategycore by luck and claimed they could not reach it via the x-com.co.uk redirect. (Which I think may have stopped functioning after a few weeks, since I don't get a redirect either anymore.)

 

Maybe if something new pops up, Strategycore will get more posters. But currently, I see a steady decay, and it saddens me. x-com.co.uk used to be my favorite site, when I was in High School it was the one place I would risk visiting in my study period time just to see what has been updated on the site and forum.

 

Nowadays, I only visit it once every day or two just to see if anyone I know has posted something. The unnecessary removal of political discussion, the forum becoming a bit cluttered with games... It's still a good site, but I think the target audience it used to have has deviated extensively.

[Stun Grenade]

Nice thoughts there SB. I want to know the exact reseason why x-com.co.uk merged. Was it to do with hosting costs? Or the fee that comes along with Invision? They all could've been sold by changing board software or different host plan (dyndns).

 

Maybe allow Guest posting? Have another Sasquatch to spruce things up?

 

..., and keeping a site like this updated is A LOT of work.

Well I would love to help out, I have huge experience with this kind of work, since I admin 3 of my own forums (taxigrab.podcast.net for instence). So keep me in mind Slaughter. I also admit I could contribute more and I will when I start playing Apoc and UFO later this week

 

~SG

[FullAuto]

I believe the reason for the merge was that it was thought to be convenient, amalgamating the three forums into one, the games all being of a similar kind, to achieve cross-pollination. But you'd have to ask Pete. I don't think costs came into it.

It's not so much updating what we have as adding entirely new stuff. We appreciate content of any kind, be it art or fiction, tables, graphs, articles, you name it.

Oh, could someone tell me what the problem is with the new layout/design? I don't know what it is that's apparently putting people off. All the forums are accessible with one click, right?

[Bomb Bloke]

The merge was just another forum reset to me. *shrugs*

[Slaughter]

Nice thoughts there SB. I want to know the exact reseason why x-com.co.uk merged. Was it to do with hosting costs? Or the fee that comes along with Invision? They all could've been sold by changing board software or different host plan (dyndns).

As FA said, similar games. In addition, easier to update because of a MUCH better admin system and the fact that I wanted to be able to post news not related to the games. And we thought the communities could benefit from each other. And a few other things.

 

Maybe allow Guest posting? Have another Sasquatch to spruce things up?

We can discuss it, but I am no fan of guest posting. Saswhat?

 

Well I would love to help out, I have huge experience with this kind of work, since I admin 3 of my own forums (taxigrab.podcast.net for instence). So keep me in mind Slaughter. I also admit I could contribute more and I will when I start playing Apoc and UFO later this week

Any content you wish to make for the site is welcomed! Besides that, I will review staffing soon...

[Slaughter]

I think the move might have killed it. More than once people have managed to find Strategycore by luck and claimed they could not reach it via the x-com.co.uk redirect. (Which I think may have stopped functioning after a few weeks, since I don't get a redirect either anymore.)

The redirect works in the latest versions of Firefox, IE and Opera (just tested it). What browser (versions) are the people that can't make it work using? And if people really wanted to find it, searching for X-Com.co.uk in for instance google brings up StrategyCore as the sole result.

 

Maybe if something new pops up, Strategycore will get more posters. But currently, I see a steady decay, and it saddens me. x-com.co.uk used to be my favorite site, when I was in High School it was the one place I would risk visiting in my study period time just to see what has been updated on the site and forum.

 

Nowadays, I only visit it once every day or two just to see if anyone I know has posted something. The unnecessary removal of political discussion, the forum becoming a bit cluttered with games... It's still a good site, but I think the target audience it used to have has deviated extensively.

Well, if political discussions were what kept people here, I'm not sure they were here for the right reasons. We're discussing the option of adding it back, but banning political discussions shouldn't be sufficient to make people leave.

 

As for more games, the layout of the forum is very easy to navigate in my opinion, so I don't see how this can be a big problem. Only problem with it is that you can't leave out any in the "View new posts" feature. Sure some people aren't happy with it, but leaving a community one really likes because of a small thing like that?

 

Anyway, I am sure these things have a part in it, but I don't buy these being the sole reasons. There has to be something else. But were really X-Com.co.uk so active towards "the end"? It was very quiet at UFOAftermath.co.uk just before the move...

[FullAuto]

Sasquatch is what happens when people inbreed. He was amusing, but retarded, and crossed the line several times, finally getting banned for screwing up a sim, I think.

[Accounting Troll]

I came over with the other baggage from UFO Aftermath, and I have found that I have spent a lot more time reading through, and occasionaly contributing to the X-Com forums than before the merger.

 

I would be surprised if X-Com fans are being put off or confused by the merger. It isn't as if there are that many active forums for the games we cover.

[Slaughter]

How about we start a new topic along the lines of "Why are you no longer active at the boards?". Then the active members would send a PM to previously active members that they had contact with, and direct them to the topic. That way we'd get some good and constructive feedback on why people are no longer active, and maybe get some of them active yet again

 

Would you guys be willing to do this? Or would it be wrong?

[Stun Grenade]

Maybe that could work..... which vet. members are we talking about here?

[Strong Bob]

The redirect works in the latest versions of Firefox, IE and Opera (just tested it). What browser (versions) are the people that can't make it work using? And if people really wanted to find it, searching for X-Com.co.uk in for instance google brings up StrategyCore as the sole result.

 

I have the most updated version of Firefox and I get a message saying it cannot be found. (I tried it just as I posted this.)

 

Well, if political discussions were what kept people here, I'm not sure they were here for the right reasons. We're discussing the option of adding it back, but banning political discussions shouldn't be sufficient to make people leave.

 

As for more games, the layout of the forum is very easy to navigate in my opinion, so I don't see how this can be a big problem. Only problem with it is that you can't leave out any in the "View new posts" feature. Sure some people aren't happy with it, but leaving a community one really likes because of a small thing like that?

 

Anyway, I am sure these things have a part in it, but I don't buy these being the sole reasons. There has to be something else. But were really X-Com.co.uk so active towards "the end"? It was very quiet at UFOAftermath.co.uk just before the move...

 

I was only listing two of my own examples. Do not presume that I am implying that my reasons are universal. , but at the same time I feel they may be popular.

 

The banning of Political Discussion seemed to have caused some tension. Granted... There were people that caused tension in those discussions, but I'm not a believer of throwing a whole batch of cookies out the window just because a couple were burnt. More than once I've wanted to bring up in-depth issues with some of the people I know here, but the ban on politics has left the board a little boring... Plus I have no doubt that at least some people whom were mature in those topics, myself included, may have been insulted to have lost the previlege due to other's inane banter. (Also, the ban is a tad mocking. Since I've searched BBC.co.uk quite a bit and can't find a forum anywhere...)

 

The extra games are... Making the board less personal. It's like a public school. I no longer feel like I'm part of an X-COM Community, rather I am a member of a board that just happens to have an X-COM section. Not sure how else to put this, but it's not a good feeling, in my opinion.

 

Some of you may remember a particular fellow named Lonestar? Prior to the merger I spoke with him frequently through the X-com.co.uk PM system, 4-5 times a week. Directly afterwards, it seems he has stopped posting completely and won't respond to my PMs. That is at least one member gone MIA after the move. I can also name SGT. Strike and M. Hoz that also disappeared. Hoz was also part of XCAS for a time, so he would've known about where Strategycore went.

 

It could also be a rather selective redirect. Mouse Nightshirt (And at least one other I remember posting on the Off Topic section...) has explained that it does not work how it should. And even now, it does not work for me. Can this be fixed? I don't know... Might be better to change the redirect into a page with a link on it, but I wouldn't know if x-com.co.uk is even owned by Pete anymore.

 

If the other topic is started I can simply port all this over there if need be...

[Slaughter]

Maybe that could work..... which vet. members are we talking about here?

That is up to you. People you used to enjoy talking to for instance. I'll set up the topic, and we'll get the ball rolling.

 

Edit: New topic here. Is it okay, or should I change/add something? If it's okay, please start contacting people who's views you'd like to hear

[Slaughter]

I have the most updated version of Firefox and I get a message saying it cannot be found. (I tried it just as I posted this.)

So with Firefox 1.04, using x-com.co.uk or www.x-com.co.uk, you are not redirected? Works with mine. Could anyone else try this?

 

The banning of Political Discussion seemed to have caused some tension. Granted... There were people that caused tension in those discussions, but I'm not a believer of throwing a whole batch of cookies out the window just because a couple were burnt. More than once I've wanted to bring  up in-depth issues with some of the people I know here, but the ban on politics has left the board a little boring... Plus I have no doubt that at least some people whom were mature in those topics, myself included, may have been insulted to have lost the previlege due to other's inane banter. (Also, the ban is a tad mocking. Since I've searched BBC.co.uk quite a bit and can't find a forum anywhere...)

Well, no doubt politics and religion discussions create more activity and...initiative . As for BBC.co.uk, try the Talk link at the top, or use this link for ease.

 

The extra games are... Making the board less personal. It's like a public school. I no longer feel like I'm part of an X-COM Community, rather I am a member of a board that just happens to have an X-COM section. Not sure how else to put this, but it's not a good feeling, in my opinion.

But all the previous members and posts (except Off topic) are here. I see your point, but I don't get how a few extra forum categories can be such a big issue. As mentioned before, one can just "Remove" them by clicking the minus. The site isn't dedicated solely to X-COM anymore, but from what I can see the X-COM part gets more updates now than it used to, so it's not like the X-COM part have suffered in that area...

 

Some of you may remember a particular fellow named Lonestar? Prior to the merger I spoke with him frequently through the X-com.co.uk PM system, 4-5 times a week. Directly afterwards, it seems he has stopped posting completely and won't respond to my PMs. That is at least one member gone MIA after the move. I can also name SGT. Strike and M. Hoz that also disappeared. Hoz was also part of XCAS for a time, so he would've known about where Strategycore went.

The "E-mail alert when new PM" didn't work until BB fixed it recently I believe, so he may never have noticed you sent him PMs if he doesn't come here. Try again now and see if you get a response. Strange that he would just stop replying to your PMs because the boards got a new look and bigger, don't you think?

 

It could also be a rather selective redirect. Mouse Nightshirt (And at least one other I remember posting on the Off Topic section...) has explained that it does not work how it should. And even now, it does not work for me. Can this be fixed? I don't know... Might be better to change the redirect into a page with a link on it, but I wouldn't know if x-com.co.uk is even owned by Pete anymore.

Yeah, that's a good idea. I'll talk to Pete about it.