"Why, nobody's here, how original."

^ Anyone who remembers that golden quote from the Spamfest days knows what I'm getting at.

This place is dead, man. What the hell's happened since I departed some seven years ago? Shouldn't a forum be growing over time, rather? Is it perhaps that technology these days has evolved to a point that message boards are no longer convenient, much the way e-mail's obsolete for informal communication? Is it preferred now to play your favorite game and use the in-game feed to communicate instead while playing? Perhaps the advent of smartphones? Or is it something more general, like the falling-off of videogames, videogame sites, or maybe SC itself? Have other videogame sites superseded this one, or has Rich managed somehow to damage the value or accessibility of the message boards, or perhaps General Chat in particular? I have a hard time thinking everyone just happens to be off in the videogame message boards now; in any given message board, the General section's the most populated because it's the quickest place to find contact.

Did you know my WPM under optimal conditions is 100+ thanks to SC? I don't even type the way you're officially-trained to; I owe it to SC the way these forums used to be. I was constantly typing to respond to others' comments, now there's nothing compelling to respond to here. After setting fire to about seven or eight threads and disappearing to FB for a half hour, nobody's replied, still.

I swing by every six months and each time I do, it's lilted further, or seems to've. Unless I just so happen to step in at exactly the wrong moment each time, this place is... not what it was like back in my days, man.

Admittedly, a lot of the sh*t buzzing back then might've owed to me being a first-class instigator. I would never chalk this up to my leave though, even if I had some integral part in it. I'm just wondering what in the coldest hell I missed in my absence, and if I had some passive part in it.

It's not like I lose sleep over it, but this was the first message board I ingratiated with, and this is like a little virtual home on the Net for me, even though I rarely visit.

Filip killed it.

Forgoten_Scars said:

Filip killed it.

Elucidate.

Nobody mentioned this 'Filip' to me before. Last I heard, each of the known forerunners of this forum just... 'fell off'. Conflicts among the administrators, accounts being banned, Net drama, and changes in lifestyle just eroded away the old member base until they disappeared. With their absence, the forum just went south. Slowly.

...That's between what I was told, and impressions I had. Didn't expect it to get so stagnant though.

« Last edited by darkboarder_77 on Jun 21st 2012 »

There are so many more forums out there these days, doesnt help that any roger can make one for free. Filip is Qwertyio and you know him. He didnt kill SC.

Tell me, if you hardly visit now what has put you off coming here more often?


« Last edited by balthiersbit on Jun 21st 2012 »

I do remember exactly why I left the forums.

First, the creation of the T&C Forums and closure of the boards. I was most active there and loved that there was just one thread per team and that there was this battle to get your thread to be on the top of the by the time the forums calmed down.

Then, all the forum drama. I didn't like some members, I didn't like some decisions Rich made by modding and making others admin. It might have been because I was slightly jealous and/or because I didn't see that going the way he wanted.

Also, most of my friends were leaving. Some just disappeared from the internet, others moved to other websites and others stayed here. I decided that, to avoid everything, I would move to another website and email or message the people I wanted to talk to on MSN.

It's a shame, because I seriously loved this place and all of that happen around the same year, making it complicated to balance the departure of old members with new members.

It's probably because older members come back every few months and then post every so often complaining about the lack of activity. Now someone from the olden days might come lurking and see Darkboarder posted and then maybe want to strike up a conversation with you and then come back and then we'd have two new members who would contribute heavily to activity. Ideally, of course.

Our main problem is the lack of a large number of members in the same timezone who all contribute regularly. We do have a lot of frequent posters, just not so many that are able to dedicate every moment of their lives to the site. With the mean age of members increasing as it has, more people have jobs to attend to, some even families, others are involved in demanding projects on the side.

In my opinion, it can't be the same as it used to, because we don't have the member base or structure of a social networking site in order to keep ourselves with new posts, new topics, activity at all times. We do have certain times with lots of activity, some days, as a few of our members share the same time zone and internet habits, but otherwise you're not going to be able to make a post and have a response immediately. We also don't have the publicity of a site like gamespot or ign, so many people who need help with or cheats for their game go there. Google searches in the way of video games do turn up Supercheats quite a bit, but not as much as gamespot or ign.

Now the old members who come back, I don't see them as part of the problem, they're just not at all part of the solution. Visiting every few months to post a topic about how dead the forums is doesn't help. What does help is continuing to post when you have free time, and maybe getting other people to join, other old members to come and post. If you have somebody from the "good ol' days" as a friend on xbox or ps3 or facebook or whatever, send them a message, ask them if they remember the days of Supercheats, get them back here. That's how we can help, not by coming around every so often and whining about the lack of activity.

darkboarder_77 said:

Forgoten_Scars said:

Filip killed it.

Elucidate.

I would, but I'm not serious.

We're all used to forums by now, and think we know everything about SC. We're stuck in our ways and aren't as friendly as when we first joined.

I'll use myself as an example. When I first joined, I was all about making friends. I would put up with anything and want to talk to everyone every day. Now I don't make an effort to make friends with newer people, and I won't put up with a lot of things. I don't make an effort to track down people just to talk with them all day.

New members come all the time, but the older generations are still here and they don't instantly fall in love with the new people. With nothing and nobody holding them to this forum, they move on.

Generation gap

Yogi_Bear said:

That's how we can help, not by coming around every so often and whining about the lack of activity.

I haven't been around enough to know others come around and 'whine' about it. If you're referring to this thread as a 'whiner thread', help yourself. If I'm uninformed there's little else I can do but ask.

balthiersbit said:

Tell me, if you hardly visit now what has put you off coming here more often?

I don't come around more often because, although I have time enough to do so, SC's no longer a part of my Internet routine, and I'm perfectly happy using FB instead to chat with friends I actually know personally (as well as my girlfriend) rather than traverse SC without the old members I once knew. Also, before I considered returning as an active member, I was already noticing how slow the forums were becoming. Are those good reasons?

Also, the old memories keep me at bay. I don't feel I need to come around and achieve much. I left my mark, and I return routinely to refresh it.

That being said, having anyone around to converse with isn't my aim, and therefore it should be clear I'm not here to complain about the emptiness, but to ask why my old home on the Internet has, against all expectation, slid backwards in forum popularity. Anyone who knew me on here - I mean, really knew me - would mention I moved frequently and couldn't keep a friend longer than a few months, but no matter where I lived I still had my friends on SC. So my childhood's social needs were practically satiated by who I bonded with on here. That's why it matters enough to bother asking.

The only of Yogi Bear's statements which makes any reasonable sense to me is the fact SC isn't the top site among videogaming networks, and of those on level ground with it, SC's not especially well-known for its message boards - really, it's an exponential disadvantage. Not only on the low-end of popular gaming sites, its forum's also on the low-end of its own league. GU and XVGN were the sites affiliated with SC that were predominantly forum-based which is why they had PM systems long, long before SC ever developed the sad PM system it now has. I believe Nitrazius once said many years ago on here that GU was the adult version of SC's infantile forum. He was right. SC's niche was strongly set in a system conveniently conveying videogame cheats.

At least, that's how it used to be. I don't know what's changed over the almost-decade. I know XVGN was shut down, predictably with the advent of SC's revamped communication system outsourcing the need for a dedicated forum-site when it can all be integrated on SC instead. Googling XVGN.com turns up SC instead. I just went on GU; it doesn't appear to have a forum anymore. So stuff's moved around a bit.

The uncertainty I had was what I'd been given as a reason for this decline over the years following my leave. Certain old members I was close to who still frequented this board, like Zelda Fan (and others I can't remember,) would update me on how the board's come downhill for multifarious reasons. The accentuated point was something about Aeshma creating a major problem and the whole forum hiccuped. Who remembers Aeshma from the time he joined? Not half of you. He was regarded as the best thing since sliced-and-buttered bread and became admin of SC within a month of joining. Unheard of. Everyone - and I mean everyone - loved him. But I wasn't here to see what became of him or if it's true he somehow had some involvement with SC's forum's direction.

Something else about various old members clashing and fighting, or getting bored and bidding farewells, the forum undergoing undesirable changes, mod conflicts, screw-ups Rich supposedly made, deceptive alternate accounts, cross-board conflicts, members having their own board wars, clan conflicts, and basically anything else you can imagine which makes SC seem like it's actually an office where we all congregate in person to make world-altering decisions. Supposedly, as I'd been told, this is post-war SC as the ruined aftermath. Scary, apocalyptic description there.

I'm so far under the impression only a child's handful of you were around long enough to even witness the end of how it was, let alone have any idea how it all started.

Forgoten_Scars said:

darkboarder_77 said:

Forgoten_Scars said:

Filip killed it.

Elucidate.

Generation gap

(*shakes head*) This is probably true. It was one of the points I considered in my initial post... the obsolescence effect. The fact message boards are not nearly as convenient now as they used to be because our standards go up with new technology. Everyone has a smartphone now, why bother with a message board anymore? We can practically hear each other's thoughts with the tech we can own now.

Forgoten_Scars said:

New members come all the time, but the older generations are still here and they don't instantly fall in love with the new people. With nothing and nobody holding them to this forum, they move on.

Generation gap

you know to be honest that happent to me over time. not to begin with but graduly over time.i still am not yoused to some of the sorta new members never mind the new or the almost old members. its a bit like im used to my generation and the generashion after. but the uthers.
1)thay have still to. aculy make a topic i would reply in and thay have still to make aculy decent posts. thay raraly do both.
2)thay post for what a week and disaper
3)teams and clans gets the members now . not us on the forum. its a shame but i think teams and clans is more popular than the forums now adays


« Last edited by neptis on Jun 21st 2012 »

darkboarder_77 said:

Yogi_Bear said:

That's how we can help, not by coming around every so often and whining about the lack of activity.

I haven't been around enough to know others come around and 'whine' about it. If you're referring to this thread as a 'whiner thread', help yourself. If I'm uninformed there's little else I can do but ask.

That wasn't meant to be a personal attack on you, but there have been several relatively well-known members returning rather recently and posting topics along the lines of, "I decided to pop up for the first time in years and where is everybody? Why are we dead?" It doesn't make sense to me why they would make topics about the lack of activity, and then leave, thereby contributing to the lack of activity.

I suppose the fact that I have seen so many topics with people "asking" what's happened to the former activity that I don't feel particularly inspired to do much but tell them they're not helping anything by making one topic and leaving.

I'm with Yogi here. Nothing against you, darkboarder, but frankly I'm tired of seeing this same exact thread every month. I've been here 6 years, and heard every reason under the sun for why this place isn't active. I'm tired of coming up with reasons. All we can do is post ourselves.

Yogi & Mikey have stated exactly what I would have :D

Forum = dead because people see it's dead, and either complain it's dead, then leave, or just dont post.

The site would pick up if people just posted and threw themselves into things, and not just complain, make a few arbitrary posts, then disappear for another 6 months only to come back & do it al over again.

Makes sense, it's all understandable. I wasn't aware everyone else did this.

I can't say I mean to stay around and contribute much; this is meant to be a drop-in effort as I previously stated. Better I do that than abandon SC altogether.

Way I see it, it's a message board, not a job meeting. Not like somebody's career's on the line for not showing up in General Chat to make small talk. But I could be around more to maybe attract older members back or pick things up a little. Bear in mind, I was a supermod here once. Not like I was here for a month, vanished, then returned seven years later all like "hai guise y so emptee heer LOL" just to dip out again.

I'll be honest, I did notice the unusual abundance and attention toward threads on here directed at remembering the old members (including some too new for me to know about) and/or wishing they'd come back.

So I'll go back to asking if anyone knows anything about the older members... Zelda Fan, Nintendo_Dude, Actionshark, Dingo Dile, Nicko9000, Joslifer1, Bleepman, Aeshma, Cez, Ozzy, and a few others I'm sure I missed. Whatever became of them?

N_D - wasn't that Volkes older username? I can't remember, I didn't really pay attention to that whole topic haha.

Daveyboy left. Nicko9000 used to pop in every so ofte, haven't seen him around for a little while though. Cez is gone for a while now, Zelda Fan haven't seen for a while either. The others, not really sure about.

Ozzy, or did you mean Ozzo? Co Becky did come back for a bit, then disappeared.

Ozzo.

What about Aeshma? (*Condescending Wonka meme*) This should be good.

Aeshma is Dave - changed accounts to Youko or something stupid.

darkboarder_77 said:

Bear in mind, I was a supermod here once.

Amazing how nobody remembers Smods, but everyone remembers who was Admin. Orange status babies really are a dime a dozen.

« Last edited by Forgoten_Scars on Jun 21st 2012 »

I don't see the place as dead, I see it as going through a slow time. Yes its true that the posts are here they just aren't as consistent as 500-1000 posts a day but the activity is still here. But like what was stated in previous posts, newer members and old members don't mix together with the snap of the fingers either. Both sides play part for newer members they need to find something here that interests them or keeps their attention while older members if they choose create a comfortable and welcoming environment which isn't always easy.

Then there is also change, over time you will lose members and the gain new members and people also start to change or move on. So a lot of things could contribute to this.

Forgoten_Scars said:

darkboarder_77 said:

Bear in mind, I was a supermod here once.

Amazing how nobody remembers Smods, but everyone remembers who was Admin. Orange status babies really are a dime a dozen.

Haha. We didn't have shiny orange tags identifying our position back then, it just said, "Status: Supermod" in plain text. 'Admin' status was something considered out of everyone's reach, a position nobody really qualified for until the forums developed a good bit. When Aeshma launched out of the n00b z0ne into admin status he completely skipped supermod status, I think. Until then, TSC and Sanzano were the only to-be Admins at the time. Of course Admins get all the love here, 'supermoderator' is just a trophy status, your position's meaningless until you're given a banhammer...

kimmy456 said:

I don't see the place as dead, I see it as going through a slow time. Yes its true that the posts are here they just aren't as consistent as 500-1000 posts a day but the activity is still here. But like what was stated in previous posts, newer members and old members don't mix together with the snap of the fingers either. Both sides play part for newer members they need to find something here that interests them or keeps their attention while older members if they choose create a comfortable and welcoming environment which isn't always easy.

My join date looks a little more impressive now in 2012, so it's more intimidating - which means, more opportunity to make them comfortable. It's how you swing the weight you carry. Being Admin doesn't help it 'cause it's assumed that's the protocol they adhere by anyway, so it's deferred as little more than a must-be-done with no sincerity backing it. I'm glad to be a regular member in that respect... "I'm on your level, man. Don't need to fear me."