Is this forum really as busy as it claims?

[CautiousChaos]

Hello everyone,
This is somewhat of an aimless post. But...

Every time I visit this forum, even today, the forum shows a lot of people that are currently actively visiting. Yesterday it showed 100 viewers, this morning 93.

For a game that has been out for years and years, that's remarkable. Of course, I've been playing for years and keep coming back to the game, so maybe that makes sense.

It's a game that just has never gotten old to me!
-cc

[GameExtremist]

The way I see it this game has a legion of staunch followers, I used to play in a MUD that was easily 10 years outdated and we still (have) a strong community....The game goes from strength to strength.

[Gandalf Parker]

Recently this forum splintered and scattered. Its now about 4 forums that I know of.

Plus this game has always been on multiple levels creating the numbers you see. The need to create a login tends to go hand in hand with either posting a question on this forum, or joining a game on this forum, or getting some quick answers from the Chat on this forum (the link up top here by the Forum Rules). Many people play solo, or in "me and my friends" games. And now there are multiple places to sign up for mp games where you dont have to have a login here for it. So we have always had a high number of lurkers just looking up answers. Lately even more.

But Im confident (see my title under my login name) that this forum will pick back up once people who were chased away by some of the split-off factions come back to try again. Not to mention the influx we are seeing of new players since Dom3 became a digital download.

[Calahan]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

But I'm confident (see my title under my login name) that this forum will pick back up once people who were chased away by some of the split-off factions come back to try again.

I'm not confident of that at all personally.

A fair number of the former regulars can't come back for obvious reasons, while another fair number weren't 'chased away' at all, as they decided for themselves to simply not post here any more due to 'the incident', and in particular the way it was handled.

I think this forum will only pick-up again if new players seeking to play MP games become regular contributors, while at the same time developing the skills and knowledge base (especially in the modding department) that was possessed by the former regulars referred to above, who are now no longer part of this forum community (although they do continue to be part of the Dominions community on the other forum(s)).

Everyone has their own opinion on 'the incident', and on those individuals who were banned. I'm not at all looking to open that issue up again, but a lot of skills and knowledge was lost on that black weekend in early May, and this forum community will take a long time to recover from it. If in fact it ever does actually fully recover from it. (Which is doubtful IMO)

[lch]

Personally, I'd say that these forums are a lot less active than they have been half a year to a year ago. Where do you get your numbers about visitors? From the view count? That's a page view count, so you'll have to divide it by a non-negligible factor.

But it's true, it seems like there's been a lot less activity especially since some people were chased away. Those were big-time contributors whose lack of presence can be felt very strongly.

[Ragnarok-X]

If it really is view count, you basicly divide it by 5 i guess.

[Gandalf Parker]

Most peopl ehave spent years going to one forum, or only seeing something like the NewPosts link.
If you to go the main entrance of the forum and scroll to the bottom.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/index.php

it presently says

If the high point was 5 years ago and we are half of that, its not too bad as game forums go.
Of course it should be mentioned that a number of those guests are spiders from search engines. But the admins can see that. I see them on my server and their numbers are never those numbers. I feel safe in saying we have many lurkers reading but not yet interested in joining our mp games.

[lch]

Oh, but that's a side-wide counter. I haven't visited the other forums myself, but it is my impression that they're at least as busy as the Dom3 subforums. You're the only Top five poster that I know, after all, I have never noticed the four other guys.

[Makinus]

As a honorary member or the Lurker Alliance (TM) I can attest that, while i only post once every month or so, i check these forums and read threads pratically every day....

[llamabeast]

Taking both this and the dom3mods forum together there is still quite a lot of activity going on. This forum has more volume of posts, that one far more productive output (actually output has been really very high lately).