What's caused the change?

Hiya everyone,

It's no secret that I'm not as active as I use to be long ago, so no doubt many of you over the last few years won't have ever heard of me. But it's because of this which is why I'm asking what's happened to the general sections of the forum? Meaning all the none developmental parts.

Once The Legend of Mir died, what kept me active on here for so many years was the social aspects of the forum. Moderating these areas use to be so difficult because of how popular they were, but that's definitely not the case anymore.

Yesterday I remember seeing over 1500 people in the development side of the forum, and only roughly 50+ in all the areas I'm talking about (Evolution) which is really weird.

So why? What's caused such a 180 to happen over the last few years? Because its really sad :(

Some of the activity moved to the Neverland Ranch.

Yeah Spamzilla seems to have sucked out attention from the outerworld but @ChewBecca, the Evo team and other senior staff have put in some great work to merge some sections and try to sort things oot!

There has been a lot of neglect from mods in general so we have all been working hard on bringing the activity back up. Doing this by merging dead sections, and monitoring which mods are active or not to ensure that sections are actually covered. Trust me raff it was a lot worse xP

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Originally Posted by cypher

Some of the activity moved to the Neverland Ranch.

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This basically.

The problem is that at 1 point spamzilla was removed from the public eye, while threads that weren't super duper important, were closed in this section.

Frankly I'd say remove spamzilla, disallow spam, allow slowchat and make post count only visible in your profile. That way people will care less about it and people will actually post to interact with others, regardless of post count, section etc etc.

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Originally Posted by ChewBecca

There has been a lot of neglect from mods in general so we have all been working hard on bringing the activity back up. Doing this by merging dead sections, and monitoring which mods are active or not to ensure that sections are actually covered. Trust me raff it was a lot worse xP

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I'm sure you've done a lovely job becca ^_^. It is a shame to hear things went so awfully down hill though. Personally, without an active social section there's nothing keeping me. No interesting discussions and or good people to chat to etc. Years ago me & you use to speak for hours on end when Evolution was thriving, was good times :P.

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Originally Posted by (>'-')> kirby <('-'<)

This basically.

The problem is that at 1 point spamzilla was removed from the public eye, while threads that weren't super duper important, were closed in this section.

Frankly I'd say remove spamzilla, disallow spam, allow slowchat and make post count only visible in your profile. That way people will care less about it and people will actually post to interact with others, regardless of post count, section etc etc.

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Maybe this is something to consider then, I dunno. It's difficult to say whether the answer is to condense people in fewer social sections because the numbers are to thinly spread. Thousands of people are on this forum daily, maybe the Evolution section needs more awareness. I know Ragezone is a MMO website, but without sections like these they'd be no life here. It would just be thousands of drones attending to there own personal agenda with no interaction.

A combination of spamzillas existence and the insurmountable fact that all of those people that used to be constantly active in the evo sections including us grew up and have lives. Now we have less to talk about in terms of random threads being made to get to know each other and our opinions because we've already had those discussions before, the same applies to all those debates and ideological discussions that used to get bombarded with various levels of tolerance and opinion.

We grew up, we changed and Ragezone isn't the same thing to us as it once was. Not to say that it's a bad thing, it simply is what it is and the only reason us old bastards are still here is because RZ is the internet equivalent of our home with people who we care about and are our life long friends. Hell it would probably be less of a hassle if we just left RZ and used facebook to keep in touch but personally I find the hassle worth it because it means there's still a place where we come together to share our lives even though we're all way too far apart and don't even get to see each other for maybe years at a time.

Plus boobies.

I have to agree that people just post in spamzilla rather than actually posting in any of the evo sections.

Have to agree with Flameing, we grow up have less time =/ just the circle of life I guess

To be honest, my love for MMO games almost died, but I stay and I wish we could talk about more cool things.
But clearly, the spammer section took it all off as I can see. I'm not motivated to talk with people there, because there are so many posts behind my post after some minutes, so less people would read the message, the conversation becomes a one-way conversation. That's the thing I feel about, because I'm not better in the spam section. ... The lazyness to read tons of pages with filler posts to find interesting posts.

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Originally Posted by (>'-')> kirby <('-'<)

This basically.

The problem is that at 1 point spamzilla was removed from the public eye, while threads that weren't super duper important, were closed in this section.

Frankly I'd say remove spamzilla, disallow spam, allow slowchat and make post count only visible in your profile. That way people will care less about it and people will actually post to interact with others, regardless of post count, section etc etc.

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YES, just YES. I don't know in what aspect spam is useful, there is not even any game behind it, just to waste traffic and time without any better sense. When I read such posts, there is no interesting for my mind, I can clearly see a small group of people telling each other any picture or any yawn, that's what it looks to me sometimes.

Topics lack on sense, posts are short and even on 100 posts per page I have to click so many NEXT buttons.
Thus signature takes the half of the whole page, too. Seeing in my settings there are new posts on topics I answered making me disappointing because of the spam sections. People do less "read" and more "write" without reading, so less response on old posts on spam sections. And quickly the real interesting posts are hidden behind the pages.

I lurk, everyday without a doubt, but never do I post anymore. I miss old times. :(

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Originally Posted by Tyler

I lurk, everyday without a doubt, but never do I post anymore. I miss old times. :(

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Dude, post more. GAWD

Spamzilla started to kill the site when it first was made, but its got to the point that you simply cannot kill spamzilla or you will more or less empty the site. At one point we used to move the good topics from there to here, but mods got lazy, then mods started abusing there powers, and this does not include the power crazy Gohanssj!

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Originally Posted by Lee

Spamzilla started to kill the site when it first was made, but its got to the point that you simply cannot kill spamzilla or you will more or less empty the site. At one point we used to move the good topics from there to here, but mods got lazy, then mods started abusing there powers, and this does not include the power crazy Gohanssj!

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there isn't really any threads in spamzilla anymore apart from the main big one now. I have been trying to encourage people to post things in Evo in general rather than Spamzilla, and it looks like it has been working. its cause all you guys grew up and starting having lives! STOP THAT xP

Maybe we can have a SpamZone in the normal Forums?

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Originally Posted by שเ๒єtгเ๒є

YES, just YES. I don't know in what aspect spam is useful, there is not even any game behind it, just to waste traffic and time without any better sense. When I read such posts, there is no interesting for my mind, I can clearly see a small group of people telling each other any picture or any yawn, that's what it looks to me sometimes.

Topics lack on sense, posts are short and even on 100 posts per page I have to click so many NEXT buttons.
Thus signature takes the half of the whole page, too. Seeing in my settings there are new posts on topics I answered making me disappointing because of the spam sections. People do less "read" and more "write" without reading, so less response on old posts on spam sections. And quickly the real interesting posts are hidden behind the pages.

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I personally don't see any reason to post anywhere else.It's impossible to learn everything just so you can post and interract with people. Now to post once per year in something that I actually know an answer to, it's pointless to even visit RaGEZONE. So basically with that you would pretty much tell everyone who didn't come here to develop to kindly leave RaGEZONE. Why ... thank you @Wibetribe

Like Gohan said, removing Spamzilla would be the best bet to see the changes Raff is talking about. Spamzilla is a shithole and overall has made the forum experience (for those not active in MMO dev) incredibly boring and dry. We've lost a lot of good members because of the hellish nightmare that Spamzilla is.

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Or, remove the huge mega threads in Spamzilla. They're basically a fucking shoutbox and if anyone out of the normal circle of people (Becca, Nick, etc) try to talk there their post is usually ignored and left behind. Remove those threads or remove Spamzilla as a whole.

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Originally Posted by Mucski

I personally don't see any reason to post anywhere else.It's impossible to learn everything just so you can post and interract with people. Now to post once per year in something that I actually know an answer to, it's pointless to even visit RaGEZONE. So basically with that you would pretty much tell everyone who didn't come here to develop to kindly leave RaGEZONE. Why ... thank you

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@Mucski, no dude, you have not to learn anything about MMOs or something (look at me lol) to interact with people outside of the spamzilla, because there is still a nice Outerworld section you are in right now that waits for your great stories that are on your mind. Create new topics for them instead of just posting the message in spamzillas big thread where only 1 or 2 persons will answer it until it's forgotten. I'm not taking action on many sections, too. Just lurking around on the coding section cuz thats my passion and job. I wish, there would be more to express in the outerworld section.

If you just come to RaGEZONE for spamzilla though, I think you are really wrong here, get any chat and join any group, then. Should be the same, just with other people, of course.

Create a spamzilla forum on a different domain, or talk on skype or something. That's all that goes on there anyways. Bullshit banter that takes away from the forum as a whole. The whole banishing new spamzilla users is old and tired and drives new members away from rz as a whole. Man, this thread got me passionate. I know I joined in 2008, but I really miss what used to happen here on this forum.

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Originally Posted by Savage

Create a spamzilla forum on a different domain, or talk on skype or something. That's all that goes on there anyways. Bullshit banter that takes away from the forum as a whole. The whole banishing new spamzilla users is old and tired and drives new members away from rz as a whole. Man, this thread got me passionate. I know I joined in 2008, but I really miss what used to happen here on this forum.

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Always awesome to know someone feel like this on spamzilla.

Outerworld died when all the ridiculous restrictions regarding what can and can't be posted got put in place. The old Outerworld is what Spamzilla is currently; an off-topic forum with lax restrictions regarding what can and cannot be posted. If its not related to development, and there isn't a section specifically covering what you're posting about (ie Gaming/Tech), then it was fair game.

The large shoutbox threads came from "last person posting is the best", where we all enjoyed a large off-topic shoutbox-like conversation with each other. People then got out of hand and started to spam it mindlessly, which is why we lost that. Then people took that mindless spamming to creating their own threads in the Outerworld, leading to stricter rules against what can be posted here. Everyone posts in Spamzilla because Spamzilla is what the Outerworld used to be.

The following things need to happen in order for the community to return to what it once was:

• As Goha-kirbydouche mentioned, post counts need to be hidden. People ruined Outerworld by spamming to get their post counts up. By all means keep the post count ranks and have post counts visible on the profile pages, but take it out of the forum postbit. This does nothing but encourage people to spam to get their posts up, regardless if it means anything or not.
• Rules need to become more relaxed again. People stopped posting here because of asshole mods and every other thread getting closed. This used to be the off-topic section. Let it be that again, because that is what it was when we remember back to when everyone was still active. If a thread is off-topic and does not apply to any specific sections, it belongs here. Throw out the "is this worthy for the Outerworld" discussions because that is killing this place, as the years have shown.
• STFU about the "old times of RZ" and start welcoming new members. Everyone dwells on the past and doesn't give newcommers a chance to join in conversation. Instead, they get bashed and flamed until they eventually leave. The gay jokes and unwritten "initiation" have run their course, not to mention it can be quite offensive to a lot of people. Shut the fuck up about it and just welcome people. You'll be surprised by how many stick around after that

Those are the three main issues with the Outerworld and why it has been going downhill. Spamzilla itself isn't the problem, because we had both Spamzilla and Outerworld active for a long time. The problem is the unreasonable rules against posting in the Outerworld that eventually drove everyone to deem Spamzilla the only "worthy" place to post. We get one of these "why is this place different" threads about once a year. Maybe its time to actually fix it?

Merging a few more of these sections would also help. A section averaging 5 to 7 posts per week, POSTS, not threads, does not need to be separate from the Outerworld. Content needs to stop being segregated. This will help the community part of the forum look a lot more active, thus attracting more members. That is another discussion entirely however.

Spamzilla has no place IMO. There is no reason for anyone to spam. Just go for slowchat.

To not screw up those precious postcount, you can just put the old Spamzilla in a closed forum under this section or keep as a closed on in the hidden section.

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Originally Posted by Ron

We get one of these "why is this place different" threads about once a year. Maybe its time to actually fix it?

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I don't know why nothing is ever done about it. Ron, Gohan, myself, and others have all brought up viable solutions and suggestions for some positive change to the forum. Why isn't anyone with a higher position actually chiming in and attempting to work on it? These posts go ignored and it's bullshit, especially when so many "respected" long-time members of the forum are backing and supporting it.

P.S. @Ron, you brought up some great points.

Bump for change. You know, that stuff Obama promised. @MentaL @Junkers @Madison @ChewBecca

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Originally Posted by Ron

Bump for change. You know, that stuff Obama promised. @MentaL @Junkers @Madison @ChewBecca

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atm @Ron I am focusing on a few other sections but when I come back up to OW I will be keeping these in mind for you. They are certainly good ideas.