The Forums.. *sigh*

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by EnderMagic1, Feb 26, 2017.

?

Do you agree?

Yes 7 vote(s) 63.6%
No 4 vote(s) 36.4%
  1. Before I rattle on with all of my suggestions for the forums, let me tell you all this. EMC is my favorite server, no doubt. Every time, every event, everything. In-game activites are spectacular and the moderators on this server are incredible. I didn't know this before, but there's another part of it that's missing. The Contribution Team. Those players are so underrated in the work that they put in. Fendy and Alex have been so helpful in reviewing blogs, wiki, etc. Those two need a round of applause. Behind the scenes, I can tell you, there are many blogs coming toward emc. I'm proud to be contributing(hehe.. that pun) to the forums.

    However, I need some things fixed on the forums.

    1. Auctions
    Oh boy.. Where do I start with these things. I think I have expressed my opinon far enough. Those cockroaches lurk the forums and eat up all of the good threads. There are way too many, creating so much boredom for me. Many other players have noticed this as well; we have to get rid of them. :mad: I know the staff can't change much about the forums, but you have to fix this. Please. I still don't understand why there are so many threads about this. Does everyone love the economy? Are auctions peoples' favorite thing to do on EMC? Why are there so many? All of those questions are never answered. Create a sub-category or remove them from the recently active threads please. Usually, all of the active threads are auctions. Remove this miserable sight.

    2. Community Bonding
    Recently, I have encountered many new/old players on the forums. I feel like I've never seen them before, but that's my opinion. I feel like the forums is lacking that community bonding idea. EMC has one benefit: the community is small, so you know each other better. The only event close to this was the Halloween Event 2016. That was the best event in terms of community bonding. There were so many players: old, new, moderators, etc. Everyone was trading candy and frantically running around, meeting other players. I remember the community caused so much lag with the haunted candy; it was hilarious. Even though players just gave each other candy, you got a chance to see all of the old or new faces on EMC. This can apply to the forums too. One time, didn't we do that valentine exchange thing? Or a secret santa? I can't remember. :)

    3. Communication
    This only applies to the staff. I feel like the staff are picking and choosing which PMs to respond to on the forums. To keep this general, let me describe the basic idea. I pm-ed some staff member for my thread to go on the front page. After some time, they didn't respond. This is totally acceptable because not all the staff are online at that time.. Duh! :p However, even after the giveaway ended, they still didn't respond. Not even a yes or a no, just no answer. It was very strange. Next time, I hope I can even receive an answer. I have experience for replying to private messages with my EnderGraphics service. Sometimes, I don't realize a conversation in my inbox. Immediately after, I apologize for my delay and answer their requests. Its not that hard. For those of you who have ordered from me, that is the truth.

    Overall, the forums need to be fixed. I hope you all can consider my points stated above. Please, DO NOT start a debate here. Its a simple, 'I agree with you' or 'I disagree with you.' I didn't want to make anyone feel bad, just state my opinion with problems on the forums. :D

    Have a wonderful day,
    -Ender
  2. Did you try bumping said conversation? People can get very busy sometimes and it's easy to overlook things. Next time, try giving the convo a bump. Also, I don't think giveaways get put on the front page since there are often quite a few of them.
  3. Very nice write-up. Thank you for your thoughts.

    When I first joined, auctions were not allowed. Funnily enough, I'm pretty sure I got a "warning" for creating an auction. I learned pretty quickly... :p

    When auctions were allowed soon after I joined, they quickly became what you described now "Usually, all of the active threads are auctions. "

    You are not the first person to file a complaint with the auctions on site. A few years ago there was a pretty big referendum I think on whether auctions should be banned, removed from active threads, or something like that.

    Obviously the community chose to keep the auctions.

    I personally like the auctions. I like to bid on things and boost the economy. It's a good way to see people and see what they like what they need. I always have fun wondering why are they bidding on this? What do they need most? What new auction could EMC benefit from? Granted, I doubt many people think like this, but I do. Auctions are in fact an integral part of EMC as an economy server. Without auctions, the flow of money would decrease dramatically, lowering the enjoyment many people feel when they buy and sell things.

    The only way to keep auctions thriving is to bump them. Auctions that don't get bumped don't get bid on. It's easy.

    I can although, agree that perhaps the auctions clutter the "Recent Threads". My suggestion would be to have a separate "Recent Auctions" areas on the front page of the website.

    That being said, it is hardly the fault of auctions for people not producing good threads. There are plenty good non-auction threads. And they can be more, it's just up to you.

    In essence, completely removing auctions would be going back on many years of progress.
  4. Sure but how many times can you bump what is essentially a one sided conversation before a reply happens?

    I loved the Halloween event. I couldn't just run around and wait for candies.
    I know I saw a lot of alts on there and can't help wonder how they collected all the candies needed for both masks per account.
  5. If auctions were taken away you would get just as many [selling] threads of people wanting to sell items, EMC is advertised as an Economy server so I assume a lot of people enjoy the economy and the auctions, I know that I do.

    Edit: I think an economy box is a good idea so that way we keep auctions, and put them out of view of people that don't want to see them :)
  6. I also have been waiting on a conversation to be noticed for about two weeks for posting a thread. I got an initial reply but the person wasn't sure about one aspect of it so they asked someone else to look into it, which in my opinion is reasonable enough. I also hate that auctions are always crowding the recent box. So why not a separate Economy box and Community box?
  7. I agree with you
  8. 3 doesn't seem that bad...
  9. Well, sort off. Although it is true that auction threads are seemingly always heavily present in the recent activities box (front page) there are more ways to keep track of what's happening on the forums.

    For example the new threads page. This will list all threads which are either new or have new posts in them. Another useful page is your newsfeed; it shows you what the players you've been following have been up to. From posts to likes to status updates. Next stop is the watched threads page. If you see a thread which you find interesting then all it takes is clicking "watch thread" (see upper right corner) and you'll be alerted of any new posts. Even if you haven't posted anything yourself.

    So yeah... I do agree that the auctions gobble up a lot of space, but the forums also provide a lot of ways to look past that and only focus on the threads you want to see. Auctions are a big part of EMC gameplay, so I don't think that bad about them.

    I can relate to that. There are many players who took a long break and eventually came back. However, also keep in mind that with 9 different servers it's easy to overlook someone ;)

    I have to politely disagree on that ;) The community is far from small, I think it might even be a lot bigger than you think.

    I'm also a little puzzled as to what you meant with this. I mean... you mention the Halloween event but was that really about bonding or about players who tried hard to get the highest score and/or the most goodies out of it? ;)

    Thing is: there are some things you can't enforce, and rightfully so. Because although you may think something is a great idea that doesn't have to apply to others as well. Which in my opinion is what makes the EMC community so special: the huge diversity. I mostly skipped the Halloween event (also because it doesn't really mean anything to me since it's not being celebrated here) and I know of plenty of others who did the same thing. Which is also where my comment about about the community being bigger than you might think comes from.

    Hmm... I can say this: I've noticed plenty of times where staff members responded in a completely different way and even applied the rules in a totally different way. I can definitely understand that this can sometimes be a little frustrating.

    However, it's also something known by the community manager and I have no reason not to believe them when they said that they'd be looking into all that (referring to both a public statement on the forums and something shared in private).

    I have to politely disagree with you because I don't consider the forums to be broken in any way.

    And there's something else as well: never underestimate what you can do yourself. It's one thing to notice and address a problem, its another to go out of your ways and try to do something about it.

    You can't hide the auctions, but you can try to be more active on other threads. You can't change the forums but you could try to come up with topics and threads which appeal to plenty of players which might then create topics / threads which become heavily active.

    I think you shouldn't be solely pushing this onto the staff, there's also plenty of things you can do yourself.
  10. I'm not sure if this is possible, but a fix to the auction problem would be having two recent thread sections: One for economy threads (Buying/selling/price check/auctions), and another one for everything else.
  11. I can see completely what ShelLuser is saying about the forums already providing ways to avoid the auction threads, but I don't think it would harm to have the forums box front page without auction threads, or a box separate as people have said. Sometimes the recent threads is purely auctions, which is great economy wise, especially as a lot of the player shops have dwindling stock or are no longer operating (least on SMP1 ;-; ). Sometimes the forums are the only way to find something, from my very limited experience. However, more exposure and easier ways to access community threads would hopefully boost the responses on them, and therefore the forum community.

    In terms of the community, I can't really say a lot cause I've only been around a couple of weeks, but the community on the forums is great, you can see A LOT of love between a lot of players. It's beautiful, really. I 'm just not sure whether a lot of that is, residual? Based on years of being on the server. Which I of course understand and appreciate, however, in game, it's actually really hard to meet people. I've found, anyway.

    Other than people who have seen me active in the forums, I've mostly played alone. Which, in terms of why I actually came to the server, completely defeats the point. I have to agree with EndermanMagic about community bonding. Whether it's more in game, like icebreaker events or mining groups, I really have no idea, but more community in game I think would reflect in the forums, and other ways for old / new players to become acquaintances so that older players don't feel the community get warped into something new, and so new players don't feel like outsiders with faces pressed against the glass.

    I think it'd be nice to see more games / events in EMC based on just, fun. Fun for the sake of fun. On just getting to know people and having a nice time. Apart from RainbowChin's Firefloor, the other events I've managed to get to seem purely about prizes, and as a very average player with no intentions to become an EMC millionaire, it really sucks the fun out.

    Stuff like this I think would ultimately affect how long people keep returning to the forum for. And it would be a shame if EMC has already peaked, which is a fear I've heard several times, unfortunately.
  12. Thanks for the clarification. Some players have certain 'hobbies' like bidding. :/
    Equinox_Boss likes this.
  13. Contrast to other servers like ******* and ********, the community is is smaller.
    #FCCStruggles
    Not to be rude, but I have attempted to fix the problem. Thats the whole reason why I have my EG service and wallpapers and giveaways and forum games. I want to be happy with everyone else. There is always room for improvement. The May the 1st Festival (created by me) is coming up and I have lots of goodies planned. ;) Also, I am on the contribution team and the EYT team and the FCC team.. So, I feel like I am 'solving' the problem.
    True. :p
    Equinox_Boss likes this.
  14. Been asked before, by myself and others. I think the answer was something to do with this forum's version of Xenforo being outdated (and some hackish things Justinguy did in the root code that makes a "simple" update impossible).

    And yeah, as others already mentioned, Auction threads were blocked from the thread-feed for a while, but that change was reverted when too many auctioneers complained that their offerings weren't being seen.
  15. It's very well possible that I'm one of those people you're about to meet that you've never heard of before ;)

    I find your Community Bonding section the most interesting portion to read. I do agree with you on it for the most part. Being a persistent part-timer since 2012, I've observed that a lot of us veterans are active in waves, we take long breaks and then come back with some grand idea that consumes a lot of our time until we decide that we have to get back to irl stuff. No question, I've never encountered a server as engaging as EMC when it comes to community opportunity. This does not necessarily imply that we all choose to participate in the forums or in-game events, hence we get the problem that you bring up. Auctions and economy threads are engaging, sure, and events such as the Halloween Event last year are a lot of fun, but when the idea of player economy is the driving force behind them, it makes the "community bonding" aspect of all that a lot weaker.

    The cure is to promote straight up player events a lot more. In game announcements, sometimes days in advance, of locked in player events for a certain date will definitely help attract the crowd who has historically neglected to look at the forums, and having some bloggers/YouTubers cover these community events would be amazing, giving the host a real feeling of belonging and accomplishment by putting on a show for the players to enjoy. As one of those guys who has really worked their butt off on this server over the years, I would honestly expect that out of an event that I might potentially be throwing tons of rupees down the drain just for the sake of community enjoyment. It starts in-game and has the capability to move to the forums, or at least it should in order to maximize its potential for community engagement. If we put our best foot forward, we can definitely improve this aspect of the forums and EMC in general.
    AyanamiKun, Daynsyy and Equinox_Boss like this.