I think traffic on the old Greyhawk board really dropped off when 4E was announced and they put up a 4E Greyhawk board. That was when I noticed a lot of familiar names disappearing - so I can't say for sure that this forum reorganization was the sole force in driving people away. But I also don't think it helped, either.
I still hang out here and I'll probably post every once in a while, but the merged forum simply does not offer what I used to come to the individual worlds forums for. I can't blame people for moving to places like the Piazza or the Nexus.
As I have posted in the past, the forums with the most posts were:
1) Dark Sun (Those guys were amazing)
2) Dragonlance
3) Mystara
4) Greyhawk
etc...
The forums with the highest posting frequencies lately were:
1) Dark Sun
2) Mystara
3) Not sure, but I think Dragonlance.
Havard
Lots of chnages to fit in a Greyhawk world....
But yeah, it seems like there are fewer posts.
ROB
Heck, I might as well take it as a possiblity to broaden my scope out a bit. ;)
I see advantages in all sorts of communication methods, but forums have two big selling points:
1) Threads are easy to navigate (compared to mailing list threads). As long as people are careful of the thread titles they pick, you can quickly surf around a forum and look for things you are interested in.
The reorganisation has taken away from this, because with everything being lumped in together there is going to be more white noise than signal. Anybody who only likes one campaign setting is going to have to wade through lots of stuff they don't like.
2) Forums are stuck up on the Internet where anyone using a search engine can surf in and read posts. So in theory they might attract more people than a mailing list.
Again the reorganisation has taken away from this, because with everything squeezed into one forum things are going to fall off the first page a lot more quickly.
But for me, the big killer for some of these OOP forums, is that the major movers and shakers in the fan community (of specific settings) have "deserted the sinking ship" and set up homes elsewhere.
Faced with writing in a single Dragonlance subforum at Wizards COMmunity Boards or an entire Dragonlance forum (over at dragonlanceforums.com) many fans have already jumped ship and moved across.
Canonfire have slightly less active forums than Dragonlance Forums, but those forums are also better than the limited Greyhawk/Living Greyhawk forums that WotC have offered here.
Even Candlekeep's forum structure has some advantages over the old structure that WotC had for FR fans.
I actually like most of the TSR campaign settings, but having seen some "I hate X campaign setting" comments online, I'd usually prefer to go to a dedicated forum over a multi-topic forum.
However, having said that, I've found that (for the campaign settings that don't have a big community forum) the Wizards COMmunity boards have been a really interesting place to hang out.
I just hope they reverse their decision and make a bunch of subforums for each campaign setting. I can't see this place working with everyone lumped into one place.
Well, I know for certain where the Mystara contingent went (see my sig). We've been trying to get the other old campaign world communities to join us, since the synergy woudl be great, but they are a little slow in coming on board.
That's where I went. I came to the old Other Worlds boards for one setting, Mystara. At least then, the other settings' forums weren't in the way. Now, there's just too much stuff getting in the way.
I may still visit here a couple times a month, but I've moved my daily reading and occasion posting over to Piazza.
Many thanks to Rhialto!
I'm trying to drum up interest in a project here to see how things go discussion-wise, but depending on how that turns out (and it certainly isn't looking good so far), I may remove the Wizard boards from my regular surfing as pointless.
Especially as I just haven't seen anything of interest to me on the forums since the changeover, and I used to find at least one thing a week on the old DS-forum (which leads me to suspect most of my forum-mates have abandoned ship completely at this point).
But, that said, I'll still wander by here every now and again.
sigh
Tree
The way I see it, even if we do get new boards at some point in the future where my favorite world is miraculously published, I will now be worried about how long that will last. Sure, the forum will be around for a few years as long as the setting is being published, but by the time 5e comes out, everything else will be lumped into the Previous Editions forums again.
I am sorry if I keep coming off with a negative attitude here, but actually I have just resigned to the fact that wizards are not interested in providing me with a service that is of interest to me. Personally, I think this is a mistake from a marketing PoV. The discussions over at the old Mystara Forum made me want to buy 3e books. I think it had the same effect on others as well. We weren't grumpy old men spreading negativity. I don't think the other forums were like that either.
Havard
:D
But the links still work in my Tyranna-sig, so...
Now back to work on my story!
Sadly I will not be back. Ever. I do not want to wade through a mess of things I don't have an interest in just to find the needles in the haystack.
Thank heavens the mailing lists have not been blown up and merged.
Most of the Planescape posting wasn't done on the Planescape board, but on the general Planes & Deities board, neither of which now exist. Not having a shred of interest in the 4e cosmology, this leaves me without a defined place to post. My posting is now (at best) about 10% what it used to be, and it's pretty scattered. The search feature is about the only way to find any threads I'm interested in, ever since Mike&company trashed the prior boards organization.
-As you know, there's always extra room for everyone's favorite Arcanaloth in Realmspace, Shemmy. ;)
-As you know, there's always extra room for everyone's favorite Arcanaloth in Realmspace, Shemmy. ;)
Which may or may not be totally trashed right now by WoTC but I guess we will just have to wait and see in August.:D
Which may or may not be totally trashed right now by WoTC but I guess we will just have to wait and see in August.:D
-Regardless, there's always a seat reserved for Shemmy at the boards. That's kinda how I meant that.
-Regardless, there's always a seat reserved for Shemmy at the boards. That's kinda how I meant that.
Well of course. Its always nice talking to a fellow fiend
Well of course. Its always nice talking to a fellow fiend
-Shemmy is an Arcanoloth.
What are you talking about?
-WizO_Clayben removed content from this thread for vulgarity and trolling.
Talking about WizO's and such like who can I ask around here about not having search functionality on these boards, I've already tried to fire off some specific messages, to no avail.
I believe either a direct message to a wizo, or a post in community management, is teh prescribed course of action. But they seem to be overworked with general forum meltdowns and the DDI business these days. I don't know how long this will last.
Yeah, I was being sarcastic.
I just wrote that because I don't really get what is trolling or what isn't (to WizOs standers). The WizOs sometime remove stuff tha shouldn't have been removed.
-Well, being as that whatever it was was deleted, we don't know if it met the criteria that you, specifically think would be trolling, or not.
Talking about WizO's and such like who can I ask around here about not having search functionality on these boards, I've already tried to fire off some specific messages, to no avail.
-A post in the Community Business section would be best. Note, though, that the 'Search' feature seems to go on and offline fairly frequently, with all of these boards upgrades and problems, lately.
I have been contacted by a number of Dark Sun board veterans that have packed their things and left this forum. It´s sad, as we had a really active community compared to some of the other Other Worlds, and I fail to see which gains have been accomplished through the merger process.
I hope we won´t lose even more members I have seen some of the veterans posting in the Arena forum at athas.org, but I fear a number of valued community members may be lost, as they simply seem to have disappeared.
This thread derailed somewhat from the thread title.
I have been contacted by a number of Dark Sun board veterans that have packed their things and left this forum. It´s sad, as we had a really active community compared to some of the other Other Worlds, and I fail to see which gains have been accomplished through the merger process.
I hope we won´t lose even more members I have seen some of the veterans posting in the Arena forum at athas.org, but I fear a number of valued community members may be lost, as they simply seem to have disappeared.
Ideally, I'd like to gather all the old posters from these various forums that use to exist here to The Piazza. I quite understand though if they gather instead at a major fansite devoted to their specific campaign world. I just don't want the communities to be lost through WotC's strange behaviour.
I have been contacted by a number of Dark Sun board veterans that have packed their things and left this forum. It´s sad, as we had a really active community compared to some of the other Other Worlds, and I fail to see which gains have been accomplished through the merger process.
I hope we won´t lose even more members I have seen some of the veterans posting in the Arena forum at athas.org, but I fear a number of valued community members may be lost, as they simply seem to have disappeared.
I just don't want the communities to be lost through WotC's strange behaviour.
I'm not confident that WotC will reverse the merger decision, even though I think they should, and I've been trying to explain why in a thread in the Community Business forum. But even if they did decide that the merger hasn't worked out like they hoped and they decided to give each world its own forum again, would the people come back? Since these are the official D&D forums, I would think that they have the potential to reach more people than any other messageboard or fansite, so they could potentially become hubs of activity - but would they? Maybe some people would come back, but is it already too late to get them all back?
I'm not confident that WotC will reverse the merger decision, even though I think they should, and I've been trying to explain why in a thread in the Community Business forum. But even if they did decide that the merger hasn't worked out like they hoped and they decided to give each world its own forum again, would the people come back? Since these are the official D&D forums, I would think that they have the potential to reach more people than any other messageboard or fansite, so they could potentially become hubs of activity - but would they? Maybe some people would come back, but is it already too late to get them all back?
Excellent point. My visits here have dropped off to pretty much zero. I heartily salute the guys behind the Piazza and there is an excellent Dark Sun forum in the making over at http://arena.athas.org/ with a rapidly thriving community.
Would I come back here if the merger was reversed? No. Probably not.
There was a really interesting thread like this (over at Enworld, I think) a short while after Dragon and Dungeon were cancelled. The original poster asked about the viability of WotC reinstating the print versions of the magazines. There was a large percentage of respondents (myself among them) who felt - sad though it was - that it was already too late for that. Much as it would have been great in theory to see the magazines back, that's all it was - a theory. Paizo have moved on. The gamers have moved on. It simply is too late.
Anyway, it's just my feeling, but that's how I see things with the forum merger. The damage is done. The communites aren't in danger of fragmenting. They have fragmented. And maybe for the better. If the "Other Worlds" develop their own communities at places like the Piazza or http://arena.athas.org/, then those are safe harbours that cannot be taken away from us. So be it. And about time.
No, they knew what they were doing....
They'd probably just as soon that we stayed gone, even if our chosen settings get tapped for a 4E makeover (and shiny new forums of their own), because then they won't have a bunch of grognards grousing about how things were better before and how the new version is a perversion of the way that the setting should be.
No, they knew what they were doing....
I don't think they did. The world forums I frequented never had the grumpy grognard attitude and rather than just be all nostalgic, were quite eager to talk about new WotC books in relation to their worlds. Grumpyness only appeared after the merging.
Havard
There was a really interesting thread like this (over at Enworld, I think) a short while after Dragon and Dungeon were cancelled. The original poster asked about the viability of WotC reinstating the print versions of the magazines. There was a large percentage of respondents (myself among them) who felt - sad though it was - that it was already too late for that. Much as it would have been great in theory to see the magazines back, that's all it was - a theory. Paizo have moved on. The gamers have moved on. It simply is too late.
I disagree. Trust can be rebuilt. But it is going to take time. Similarly, I would always be interested in print Dragon/Dungeon magazines if they can offer interesting articles.
Havard
I don't think they did. The world forums I frequented never had the grumpy grognard attitude and rather than just be all nostalgic, were quite eager to talk about new WotC books in relation to their worlds. Grumpyness only appeared after the merging.
Havard
I'm just saying that, when WotC considered the merger and recognized that it would probably result in some people leaving the forums, they probably decided they'd be better off without those people. I'm not saying I agree with their reasoning. Long-time fans of established settings are great resources. Great, but, apparently unappreciated.
I'm just saying that, when WotC considered the merger and recognized that it would probably result in some people leaving the forums, they probably decided they'd be better off without those people. I'm not saying I agree with their reasoning. Long-time fans of established settings are great resources. Great, but, apparently unappreciated.
Okay, I see what you mean. I do believe it is a big mistake by WotC. Much of the recruiting to the hobby today happens by getting introduced by older gamers, parents who are gamers, older siblings who are gamers etc...
Havard
I'm still around, still going to be keeping up. Even as I'm working on something specificly for athas.org
Heck, I might as well take it as a possiblity to broaden my scope out a bit. ;)
Hey Flip, I see you're the admin over at The Arena. I'd love to post over there, since many of the remaining DS heavies are over there now, but it won't let me log in.
Guess I'll be kicking around here for now.
Hey Flip, I see you're the admin over at The Arena. I'd love to post over there, since many of the remaining DS heavies are over there now, but it won't let me log in.
Guess I'll be kicking around here for now.
The Piazza also needs more Dark Sun love...
Havard
I've avoided WotC's forums since late 2007.
Eric isn't the only one. On a whim, I looked up the last activity for a few of the people I remember as being fairly active on the old Greyhawk board, once upon a time. One of them was last active here in December 2007, while the other two have been absent since June 2008.
Has anyone at WotC ever asked why people have been leaving the other worlds forums? Has anyone ever wondered whether there's something that could be done to draw people in (as opposed to drive them away)?
i'm already active over at the athas.org site and will probably drop into the piazza site as well
That's just it: I know that the other people I checked on are active elsewhere (Canonfire!, the Paizo boards), but not here. To some extent, it may have to do with the new edition, in which case there's not much to be done - not nothing, mind you, just not much.
Personally, I don't think that CM cares who has left or what the community here has lost by their leaving. Their only concern is dealing with the people who come here; they're not concerned with bringing people in.