Super new to the whole forums thing. Why not earlier??

[billzo]

Hey all! I've recently been rekindling my interest to play (and now develop!) shmup games, and as a result, I've been led to this amazing forum here. And I'm totally in love with it. I've used reddit and imgur a little in the past, but I've never really been much involved in forums before.

It wasn't until very recently that I started using this site (mostly lurking) and another game dev forum, but so far, I've been enthralled with em and hopefully made/will make some worthwhile connections with the people who frequent them.

My question though is.... why aren't more people dedicated to at least a forum or two? Like, I'm a person who spends a fair amount of time on the internet almost every day and never got involved in one. I would imagine that there are people who are on the interwebs significantly more than me yet have no community to which they belong (or so far as I know).

Do you think there's some kind of prejudice against forums? I'm pretty serious with that question. I wish I found some internet communities earlier, so I'm feeling a little bummed on that. But yeah, I never felt that forums could provide a meaningful interaction with others. Yet it's a wonderful place to share ideas.. Thoughts?

[Blinge]

Social networking.

[cicada88]

ignorance is bliss

[system11]

Forums require slightly more input on the part of posters than social media sites - people might actually ask questions

[Fudoh]

I have four or five forums I visit every day. This and another one multiple times a day. If one of them's temporarily down, I already break a sweat (I think a few days ago this one was down for a few hours) - makes me totally nervous.

In exchange I don't get social media. There's not a single facebook page, twitter feed or god knows what else that I visit regularly. Thinking of it, there's are a few tumblr sites I visit, but that's for the media, not for exchanging knowledge with other people.

[ryu]

Forums aren't mass advertized and are all about the text, the latter leads to basically what system11 said.

[KindGrind]

I do exactly 0 social media, nothing. I have no time for it at all, never saw the interest. I prefer to have somewhat of a real life social thing going. Much to the dismay of the people around me, I don't have a cellphone. I like being impossible to reach at times. This forum is the only one I visit everyday, but I have 2-3 more I go to when I think of it.

I can see why people would be turned off by forums. Prejudice? I think so, yes. Some forums are cesspools, others are full of people that believe everything is "srs bsnss" and crap on newcomers. No wonder why some people think you can't get anything remotely interesting out of forums.

While there are jackasses everywhere, people around here are mostly nice, and know their stuff. Definitely lots of perks in connecting with people that share your interests...

[billzo]

Yeah. I totally get that a forum requires a little more effort over social media, but man, after a day at university where there is very little actual input, dialogue, whatever, I'm really drawn to a place where talking and contribution actually matter.

While there are jackasses everywhere, people around here are mostly nice, and know their stuff.

This is good to hear. It seems like this is a pretty open place, and I'm excited to get to see and participate in some niche development

[BulletMagnet]

Much to the dismay of the people around me, I don't have a cellphone.

High five!

Honestly, aside from all the reasons you mentioned, it's almost worth it alone just for the utterly horrified expressions and exclamations that flow unabated from people when you tell them you don't own one. On more than one occasion I think I could have said I was an axe murderer and not been greeted with the same degree of flabbergasted repulsion.

[Tamagon]

I think forums used to be a lot more popular several years ago, but the rise of social networking + sites like Reddit put a huge damper on that. I honestly prefer forums over stuff like Facebook.

[Some-Mist]

If one of them's temporarily down, I already break a sweat (I think a few days ago this one was down for a few hours) - makes me totally nervous.

sort of a unrelated story....

Spoiler

but I spent 7 years of my life playing competitive tfc. we had a messageboard that I participated on from 2001 - 2012 in which all competitive NA clans would post on, we had a tracker that tracks all WONID + steam matches, etc. over the last 4-5 years, the owner of the board didn't want to pay to operate the wesbite any longer, and he offered to sell it first come first serve. someone who never played the game paid to take it over. he power tripped over the course of the 4-5 years even when the entire community offered to buy it from him. this is what remains of the site today:
http://thecatacombs.net/

this is what is used to look like
http://web.archive.org/web/201007301026 ... combs.net/

threads about people bashing the guy who downed it:
http://forums.fortress-forever.com/show ... light=rasp

there were actual employees from valve that would consult our community...and all those years of my game logs/steamid tracking being erased was the worst thing ever. for at least 1-2 months I would by instinct type in the address out of habit just to see what the latest discussion was to find that it was null...

cave-stg closing down (tho people weren't a fan of EOJ) didn't have the same effect, but that kinda sucked too.


anyway, messageboards are awesome. shmups is by far my favorite one, and I visit a handful frequently. some sites can really turn off newcomers due to the dickhead nature, but once you get past it, it's a blast

[Ed Oscuro]

I do exactly 0 social media, nothing.

Same here. I'm kind of getting ready to finally sign up for a few just to do Supa-Pro Level stuff, but for me the mantra is always "less is more." I'm not gonna spend my time trading barbs with people, but I would like to ask random questions of people.

There may be some level of generational dissonance here - forums are basically the same concept as BBSes and Usenet from back in the day, and while I always was lucky (or not?) enough to use forums with a modern graphical HTML-based interface, many have a shelf life of maybe a decade or so, then hosting is suddenly lost and then people are on the social network (back in the day, IRC or AIM or whatever - well, I'm actually on IRC right now) to ask what happened and try to pick up the pieces. This obviously leaves younger people with fewer choices of established forums to get into. There's also social or even financial (i.e., the $10 fee on Something Awful) barriers to getting in to some forums. Join some arrogant old fogies talking about stuff young people don't care about, or get on the social network...hmm!

System11 will know since he's been generously hosting our babble for years, but I think that in general forums should be in a better spot than previously as the resources it takes to host a Forum are less than they once were. CPU cycles, disk space, and bandwidth are all cheaper than they once were. But maybe I'm wrong here and prices are still bad - I don't think it's exactly cheap or free. But it's a nice trend, and I hope that forums never disappear.

Edit: I didn't read Some-Mist's response before this (typical me) but that is (unfortunately) a pretty normal kind of thing. Exceptional community, run into the ground. It's important to try and get a plan going early when a site owner needs to bail, so the community can find a way to keep going, but rarely happens. This is especially likely to happen when a site owner is hands-off (except for paying the bills and doing maintenance - things that are absolutely critical but at the same time not a part of the public experience of the forum). Especially when there's money to be made.

COOL STORY BRO time:

Spoiler

My own problems with a forum were basically entirely related to new corporate ownership and toadies wanting to do the minimum to hang on to their jobs. Everybody up and down the chain of command tried to hide from, or just hide, the fact the entire ecosystem had been bought so the unprofitable things needed to be starved to death - like cool content written by awesome people, or the pretty good social forum - in a way that wouldn't provoke mainstream controversy and which would hopefully ease people into the new corporate-approved...systems. They mostly succeeded (rats!), but I think that the lower-level folks were hoping against hope that not giving the community the go-ahead to do its thing would somehow not result in the collapse of popular support for their group. I know everybody has to toe the line, but couldn't somebody have said "I'll work to make sure this doesn't lead to the neglect of any of our faithful users?" Of course that's not the whole story - I also alluded to the other major factor with forums earlier, that many forums have cliques that form and get really nasty and unreasonable.

Speaking of the worst things ever, robots.txt when a site gets bought. "Gee, we wouldn't want people seeing that things were actually not totally shit back in the day when things weren't run by bean counters"

[LordHypnos]

I am also one who has eschewed social networking, but likes forums. I'm usually only regularly frequenting about one at a time, though. Currently shmups. Also I sometimes post on DC-Talk. I don't have a facebook or twitter or anything, either. Not sure what it is. Probably something about being anonymous but still having a single screen name associated with everything that I say, plus talking about interests that none of my IRL friends have.

[drauch]

I use both. I primarily use social networking for news, rather than social media. I filter out all the bullshit and use it for updates for publishers, game projects, DVD/BD relases, etc. There's also plenty of hardcore, dedicated groups on Facebook as well that have some good conversation, but yeah, you're typically better off on a forum for that sort of thing.

[cools]

I miss actually threaded forums for the stuff I'm interested in. The flat style that is pervasive nowadays simply isn't as good.

That said, actually administrating a forum - I like phpBB a lot.

[Ji-L87]

While I do hang out on Reddit sometimes, I just lurk. Sometimes, on very specific subreddits, I do post, but mostly I find that I'm late to the party and everything interesting have already been said. Also, I find the whole mechanism of up/down-voting and popular comments to be more a hindrance than anything. Sure, I can change the post order, but still.

And in general I never really get to "know" somebody in a place like that. Very few names I recognize. I'm bad with names and a something like an avatar really helps me remember you internet folks.

I like forums because they feel more structured, more organized and more cozy. There might be a gazillion registered members but only the regulars will bother to show up most of the time. I also find the text editor to be better, easier to quote and embedding an image or a link.


And the pace is slightly slower, which I also like
On reddit it feels like you're just passing through, a forum like this is different.

[Xyga]

Zero social networking for me too. It's just no my thing and I like to use more than a single sentence to express my thoughts.

And I barely use my cell phone (got one only because some people otherwise wouldn't contact me, and because of the pricing policies in my country).

Forums are best, but only a few selected really gather an interesting crowd, the larger forums from bigger and mainstream websites are often a vast circus full of people who just don't care and it's impossible to build any really constructive discussions.

[soprano1]

and because of the pricing policies in my country

What do you mean? Just curious.

[Xyga]

and because of the pricing policies in my country

What do you mean? Just curious.

If you call a mobile using your landline you pay extra at the end of the month, and the tariffs are high.
So when I need to call someone's mobile I have to use a mobile too.
Also most people, institutions or whatever just completely stopped calling landline numbers because they think people always have their cell with them, when they're not necessarily available on the landline / away.

Teenagers often don't even call and just use social media apps to communicate, because unlike voice calls the use is unlimited on contract (part of their data plan).

[soprano1]

Oh, that's what you meant. Yeah, something similar happens here too.
But it's true, money is kinda short, and apps like Viber are useful to text or call someone who also has it.
Only people i call or text with my smartphone's balance money are older people who are still having trouble using a mobile phone at all

[Some-Mist]

Speaking of the worst things ever, robots.txt when a site gets bought. "Gee, we wouldn't want people seeing that things were actually not totally shit back in the day when things weren't run by bean counters"

this pisses me off more than anything haha

[gct]

Welcome billzo.

I am on Facebook (and only Facebook) and not very active, making updates < 10 times per year for the last few years, but I am on at least one forum for each of my hobbies.

My observation is that on social media, the content is very focused on the individual, whereas on forums (fora?) at least there is topic-driven discussion and while personal experiences are still shared, the content is relevant and interesting to most users.

Contrast to 90% of what shows up on my Facebook feed, my reaction is just "Who gives a shit?!"

[neorichieb1971]

Forums are a double edged sword.

They are wonderful for getting to know people in your area that are actually interested in the theme.
Wonderful for getting advice / shopping tips / prices/ values etc.

But most of all they are ideal to getting trapped in a euphoria of buying frenzies of things you only want because the "Forum" is excited about it. Luckily most shmups are old and have done the rounds so you know the market quite quickly. Another forum I frequent is "bluray.com" and there its about getting preorders in quickly in case you lose out.. Inevitably you end up with a lot of products you will never use because your so wrapped up in the event of posting and being excited about other peoples excitement you don't hesitate to preorder just about anything. So beware of getting into that trap.

Otherwise forums are excellent places. I'm quite an old veteran here although I don't shmup much anymore due to room constraints which will be lifted tomorrow.. yay!!

[Xyga]

^ I know what you mean, got trapped into head-fi.org BS a few times in the past.

[system11]

Another forum I frequent is "bluray.com" and there its about getting preorders in quickly in case you lose out..

You can blame the disinterest from many content owners with regards to their back catalogues for that. I've got a bunch of Twilight Time releases myself and yes, if you don't jump on the train at the start you potentially lose out, but it's not their fault - just the business model of them having to license making 'X' of something.

[Some-Mist]

Another forum I frequent is "bluray.com" and there its about getting preorders in quickly in case you lose out..

You can blame the disinterest from many content owners with regards to their back catalogues for that. I've got a bunch of Twilight Time releases myself and yes, if you don't jump on the train at the start you potentially lose out, but it's not their fault - just the business model of them having to license making 'X' of something.

some of those criterion collection price points piss me off so much

like chungking express's $70+ price point.

[KindGrind]

Another forum I frequent is "bluray.com" and there its about getting preorders in quickly in case you lose out..

You can blame the disinterest from many content owners with regards to their back catalogues for that. I've got a bunch of Twilight Time releases myself and yes, if you don't jump on the train at the start you potentially lose out, but it's not their fault - just the business model of them having to license making 'X' of something.

some of those criterion collection price points piss me off so much

like chungking express's $70+ price point.

But isn't this one OOP, hence the high price?

I registered last year to blu-ray.com, never posted there though. In fact, I didn't remember having registered until I saw your post here.

[Some-Mist]

But isn't this one OOP, hence the high price?

I registered last year to blu-ray.com, never posted there though. In fact, I didn't remember having registered until I saw your post here.

yup... I didn't get in quick enough to buy it at it's low price and since it went OOP, the price shot up significantly.

[Obiwanshinobi]

What you NEED a cellphone for: calling an ambulance. After I got hit by a car, then got extremely lucky with people around the place at the time, I got myself a cellphone.

[Ed Oscuro]

But most of all they are ideal to getting trapped in a euphoria of buying frenzies of things you only want because the "Forum" is excited about it.

Totally on the same page with you...I wrote about this a bit recently so I'll not say more. I think it's important always to ask the question "is this really worth it to me?" And then maybe "is this really worth it, period?"