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Ever been a part of an online community that lived, thrived, and then slowly died?
- Thread starter Slayven
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Same.
and Titan seems to be moving at a glacial pace. But it didn't really slowly die.. The community was alive and thriving when NCfucks pulled the plug. Assholes.
Nope sorry not me. Too many fake Chojins out there
I was the Chojin that was on J2E Translations, did Violinist of Hamelin. I was also a moderator for ZMD2 on Zophar's Boards a long, long time ago.
Could imagine if Original SWG was released today? It was minecraft before minecraft was minecraft
The first message board that I was ever a regular member of was an X-Men fan board about 15 years back. It was big enough to host several prominent x-men writer/artist sub-forums. Chuck Austen had a board before people drove him away. Frank Tieri used to take requests regarding who people would like to see killed in his Weapon X book at the time.
I don't remember why I stopped posting there. I tried to find the forum a couple of years ago, but it looks like it's long dead now.
I don't remember why I stopped posting there. I tried to find the forum a couple of years ago, but it looks like it's long dead now.
mcz117chief
Member
Subpar Scrub
Banned
Halo 3 on 360 and titanfall on Xbox one. When you start getting the same group of people every night, you know the situation is dire
Also a few gmod and counterstrike servers that dropped from a few thousand regular players to a couple dozen. It's depressing.
Also a few gmod and counterstrike servers that dropped from a few thousand regular players to a couple dozen. It's depressing.
A couple videogame message boards on AOL way back in the 90s. FF7 and 8 were the big ones, but there were also a bunch of gaming "clubs" that had their own boards that people hung out at. People tended to just drift away as they got older / got cable, and eventually all of them just got "invaded" by trolls from other boards (don't ask, it's exactly as stupid as it sounds). Only two of them ("FFCX" and "RPGA") really survived by transitioning to web boards, but they eventually died out or got flooded with garbage / spam too.
I met my wife through them, and I still talk to a handful of them that I've stayed in touch with over the years. I also see a few people from back then running around on GAF.
I met my wife through them, and I still talk to a handful of them that I've stayed in touch with over the years. I also see a few people from back then running around on GAF.
There was a time when the IGN message boards were just massive. I was a mod there for a long time, posted there for 10 years.
Then they started to move them around. Consolidate. Delete boards. IGN's main site also went through a ton of changes.
Then they changed the UI, then a lot of people in thriving community boards left because all the dead boards left them uncertain where to go now.
I don't know what it's doing now, but it was kind of sad in hindsight. Chatted with some pretty funny and interesting people that I don't know what ever happened to.
Then they started to move them around. Consolidate. Delete boards. IGN's main site also went through a ton of changes.
Then they changed the UI, then a lot of people in thriving community boards left because all the dead boards left them uncertain where to go now.
I don't know what it's doing now, but it was kind of sad in hindsight. Chatted with some pretty funny and interesting people that I don't know what ever happened to.
Milly Osworth
Member
World of Warcraft.
I played on Aszune and Twilights Hammer (EU), both very crowded servers with looooads of people online every day.
Now, ghosttowns.
I played on Aszune and Twilights Hammer (EU), both very crowded servers with looooads of people online every day.
Now, ghosttowns.
I was a mod at a hispanic Castlevania community. The site was thriving and of course the reboot brought new people in. Then the admin woke up in a bad mood and deleted the forums without warning. Welp. Neogaf has been my home since, and I'm sure that as long as it is the main source of news for the gaming press, it's not dying anytime soon.
Oh wow. That's some long term grudging right there. I remember getting banned from one of my favorite game communities by mods I felt were particularly biased. I ended up starting my own community out of spite because I thought I could do a better job. After about 2 years or so and a few thousand members, I abandoned it and shut it down. Turns out that at the time for me, it was time consuming, hard work. Also didn't like like dealing with trolls and people who deliberately made my job as an admin harder. I never went back to the first community, not even under an alt, but I did end up finding sympathy with their mods and admins. That pic just reminded me of them and that time.
GentlemanCrow
Member
Did you use the same name? I think I remember you. I was Daxceon on those boards.
Yeah I miss how that game played a lot. It had a bunch of jank, bugs, but god damn I loved it. The player made cities were so cool. Being able to have your city on the map of the planet and them getting a flight path/ticket right to it was amazing for PvP. Crafting was more in depth than any RPG I have ever played. I remember staying up late with my dad multiple times to go plant harvesters on this new hotness resource that popped at like 1 am. You could make credits by sitting around playing music and dancing if you felt like it. I price-gouged people with my doctor buffs every morning.
I am still bitter to this day over it all.
If they remade it and released it today with improved graphics, more balanced combat classes and bug fixes I would maybe die of hype.
AtomskEater
Member
Ah man so many good memories of rushing through homework so I could play Trickster until bedtime. One of the few MMOs where I actually talked and partied with people instead of just soloing as long as I could.
I was a very well-known member on a huge Michael Jackson fan board for years and it was actually a pretty big part of my life.. Unfortunately, the fan community was split when Sony put out an album with tracks that had a Michael Jackson impersonator singing on them and was for other unrelated reasons generally terrible.
This forum was around a short while before MJ announced his 2009 tour and in the run up to the rehearsals the forum had a boom of new sign-ups which actually only increased further after his death. Things were great despite the loss of our favourite artist on the forum for a long time until the aforementioned album was released.
It pretty much killed all unity within the community and every other fan forum as well, and had once close members at each others throats. Tempers flared, people were banned. Someone even hired a forensic scientist to analyse the audio in an attempt to prove to those in denial that the fake tracks were indeed fake. Shit was cray.. and while I used the forum for a little while after this it just was never the same and eventually the owner shut the place down (Members of the mod team tried resurrecting the forum but the place is now a ghost town). I actually met up with the guy a year ago and hearing him talk about how building this awesome community and having it go from a paradise to a nightmare pretty much over night was really stressful for him.
It killed, not only my enthusiasm for the forum I used, but the way Michael's estate and Sony have handled his legacy still kinda has me jaded about my identity as a fan of Michael Jackson.
This forum was around a short while before MJ announced his 2009 tour and in the run up to the rehearsals the forum had a boom of new sign-ups which actually only increased further after his death. Things were great despite the loss of our favourite artist on the forum for a long time until the aforementioned album was released.
It pretty much killed all unity within the community and every other fan forum as well, and had once close members at each others throats. Tempers flared, people were banned. Someone even hired a forensic scientist to analyse the audio in an attempt to prove to those in denial that the fake tracks were indeed fake. Shit was cray.. and while I used the forum for a little while after this it just was never the same and eventually the owner shut the place down (Members of the mod team tried resurrecting the forum but the place is now a ghost town). I actually met up with the guy a year ago and hearing him talk about how building this awesome community and having it go from a paradise to a nightmare pretty much over night was really stressful for him.
It killed, not only my enthusiasm for the forum I used, but the way Michael's estate and Sony have handled his legacy still kinda has me jaded about my identity as a fan of Michael Jackson.
pseudocaesar
Member
Back in high school, I used to live on the Tip.it Runescape forums, and a few other Runescape forums. Then Jagex brought out official forums on their own site, and the ones I went on all withered and died eventually.
jadedm17
Member
Neopets was the shit. The forums used to be a crowded place and last I checked, 2 years ago or so, it was barely clinging to life. A shame too, I made a lot of friends there.
Also BOTS! online and a bunch of other Acclaim titles that disappeared when the company blew up again.
I met my first girlfriend on there; We dated four years.
I love the battledome chat.
The main creators sold the site and now its just peddling cosmetic nonsense.
Team Fortress Classic. At the height there was 1-2k competitive players, with even more casual players. There was about 4 or 5 leagues of varying sizes, each with multiple skill levels, tournaments and championships. Everyone hung out in IRC in their clan channel or favorite clan channels. People who specialized in certain classes joined class guilds which was mostly a status symbol. Community was big enough for a while there was multiple forums for people, one ran by Planetfortress(Gamespy) and a community ran forum which was mostly for competitive players (The Catacombs). It was very common to meet up with other players near you, I made a few good friends from TFC. Eventually we got into CPL for tournaments. I traveled to Dallas and played in one of them, grand prize was $10k. Watched that fatal1ty dude win a UT2k3 tournament. Very solid community from about 99 to '04, slowly dying until about '06 or so when TF2 killed it off.
The Catacombs was the main form where all the drama happened. There was flame wars, cheating accusations, clans talking shit, but it was mostly friendly. It was eventually completely deleted by the person who took over after the founder handed it off.
Miss those days!
The Catacombs was the main form where all the drama happened. There was flame wars, cheating accusations, clans talking shit, but it was mostly friendly. It was eventually completely deleted by the person who took over after the founder handed it off.
Miss those days!
SolidChamp
Banned
Except that your job as an admin probably entailed you doing your best to remain impartial, despite how time consuming it was. You felt you were banned by biased moderators and wanted to do better. My circumstances weren't all that dissimilar.
Those guys were anything but impartial.
This thread brought those guys to mind. Not so much a "grudge"; I'm being reminded of a community that had so much potential, and went to waste because it was infested by fanboy wars and moderators who were either too biased or too spineless to fix the problem.
Why do you think RT went to shit? It went to shit long after I was banned from that place (for the same reason that Vagrant just displayed now by posting my own PMs to the former moderator). My PM is between me and the person receiving it, not meant to be displayed by anyone here. I was banned for that on RT. And now in a grand display of hypocrisy, the guy on the receiving end decides that his ego can't suffer the hit so he needs to use someone here as a megaphone to whine and bitch about it.
That was the RottenTomatoes forum, in a nutshell. I'm certainly fine with being here instead, where moderators actually do right by the community.
I also like how Vagrant failed to post the response to my messages there. You guys are missing out on some grade school "nobody likes you" and "you'll never get laid" responses.
Hickbilly Deluxe
Banned
I played Star Wars Rebellion religiously back in the day, and found out it had it's own hardcore fan forum. Lots of mods, strategies, ways to connect to other fans for online play. Even a staff dedicated to a full revamp of the game with new factions and improved graphics that included a dev from the original.
Sadly, the forum admins were all rookies, and their coding skills led to the site falling apart in the end as it became unusable and everyone just gave up.
Sadly, the forum admins were all rookies, and their coding skills led to the site falling apart in the end as it became unusable and everyone just gave up.
Merriweather
Member
I used to spend a lot of time on the Bendis Board at jinxworld.com. At one point it was a thriving board full of comic fans and aspiring comic creators. Then it morphed into a comics/pop-culture/general discussion with lots of interesting posters and thoughtful discussion. We were informed by Bendis himself that the "eyes of the industry" were watching us now that comics were blowing up in Hollywood. But at some point it became very insular with basically the same 5-8 posters dominating the conversations, most of which had become minute-by-minute analysis of The Voice & America's Got Talent and whatnot, driving off board vets and scaring away new posters. Eventually Brian Bendis just shut the board down one day so he could promote himself & post gifs on Tumblr.
SolidChamp
Banned
Bobby Roberts
Banned
There are about three or four Star Wars forums burnt and salted in my wake. Plus a couple of those forums' weird passive-aggressive spinoffs/hideouts for "too-cool-for-school" posters who got themselves kicked/banned and needed somewhere to pout about it.
Only like, one of 'em was directly my fault, though.
Only like, one of 'em was directly my fault, though.
I use to love taking my little landspeeder out to my windfarm out in the wilds of Naboo.
ever posted on Stardestroyer.net?
Vestal
Gold Member
I actually wasn't in FOH but spent many days and nights on the boards in the Glory days shooting the shit, talking strats and well just having fun at SOEs expense.
I think part of the death of FOH was when Vanguard Bombed hard. Took the steam out of the community which at one point was really invested in it.
I personally miss it, it was the 1 real place you could sit down and analyze MMOs, encounters and mechanics with like minded people. Was a fun ride.
Edit: I also want to throw a call back to Abiworld.com which later became Realpoor.com
Abiworld was run by two former guildmates of mine.. Great times.
This. Nothing else has really been able to take its place. Monster Hunter gets close but it's just not the same.
ThreePiMatt
Member
Did you see the news? They're finally shutting down the PlanetSide 1 servers on July 1st. I think people are organizing a going-away event for that day.
https://www.planetside2.com/news/planetside-closure
Yeah, I figured you were just a board regular, only a few people were actually part of our guild. And yeah, the Vanguard thing was nuts. Though the people who took over admin'ing the site with the move to RR really drove it down the shitter with how they just let trolls run rampant.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
This is the first I've ever heard of it.
Let's see, there was:
T'Bonez Star Warz Universe
Corona's Coming Attractions (a whole bunch of your favoritest film writers crawled out of this primordial ooze)
Jedinet
TheForce.net (technically those boards are still around but it's like 50 really fucking stupid people pawing at each others' nuts at this point)
Aldera.net
The X-Boards
MillenniumFalcon.com
(these all had like, 2 or 3 spinoff boards where the cool kids hung out and smoked weed and made fun of the squares. People still do this dumb shit, apparently)
At that point Starwars.com had their own boards, and I helped out with those for about a year or two, and then I pitched a giant hissyfit about some stupid shit or another, consumed myself in a giant fireball of stupidity and forum politics, retreated to one of the spinoff communities, and then I got a job, and basically didn't even think to check on any of that shit until Lucas sold the company and a bunch of us started spotting each other on twitter/facebook like "Oh hey, remember when this is all we did online for most of the early 2000s?"
The sale of that company was like a half-ass 10-year High School Reunion for dipshits like me who think about Star Wars too hard.
I used to be part of a forum on the The Sixth Axis. To be fair, it lasted for a good while, from late 2008 to early 2013, but in the final year and a half, it started to decline rapidly thanks to social media taking off around that time. Coupled with a few times where I saw things on both the forums and articles on the main page, and I felt like it was time for to exit stage right, just as the forum really died on it's arse. A great shame really.
Transistor
Banned
I was active on XDA for the longest times, but you can really tell the forums there are on their downward slide
Stardestroyer was for the fans that felt the need to do calculations for how hot a turbolaster is, and how heavy the millennium falcon was
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