So... How we doin?

[Giana]

Still using my A1200 classic.
Mostly for games and / or educate that 18yo son of mine about the good old days.
Also some demo running, usually late at night when nostalgy is taking me.

[B00tDisk]

If you're serious, I'll see about hooking up my spare copy of Xenforo to it next week when I get back.  Anyone else "game"?

Wayne

Save

Drop me an email; bsilvey@gmail.com

[Wayne]

Drop me an email;

Sorry I haven't replied.  Work has been crazy this week, but this hasn't been forgotten..

Wayne

[B00tDisk]

Sorry I haven't replied.  Work has been crazy this week, but this hasn't been forgotten..

Wayne

No worries; I saw your email and will respond.

[Wayne]

So to get public opinion on what B00tDisk and I are discussing, are Internet forums (aside from this one) "dead"?

Still thinking about what to do with my dndplayer.com domain.  B00t brings up some very valid points about the fact that people are weaning themselves off of forums in general, which has me wondering which direction to take it...

Wayne

[SamuraiCrow]

Re:web forums
I prefer RSS feeds and Tapatalk apps on my phone to web-based forums.  The latter is especially handy for allowing me to subscribe to the forum topics that I want to follow.

[Debaser]

RE: "game"

I "game" as well. Once my son got to the age of 10 I introduced him to D&D and mini wargaming that I enjoyed as a 10-17 yr old. His interest fizzled but it rekindled my interest in pen and paper RPGs once again.

I have used Roll20 for gaming and finding groups to play with "virtually" it works pretty good. I still enjoy face-to-face games more however.

Mostly play indie OSR games,  1st and 2nd Ed. D&D, Dungeonslayers, and many others. Cool tangent conversation - glad someone brought it up. Would love to see a nice RPG-centric online forum that doesnt suck.

[Wayne]

Edit: Sorry, apparently my PC is caching the page, so I don't see all the responses.

Wayne

[motrucker]

I'm down to logging on once a month or so - to see who else has left. I'm still using an A2000, w/'040 GVP, and a whopping 21Mb of RAM.
I've been working with the older 8 bit C-128 lately - more active forums and less arguments.

[Beast96GT]

So to get public opinion on what B00tDisk and I are discussing, are Internet forums (aside from this one) "dead"?

...
Wayne

My perspective:

Internet Forums:
+ Archiving technical data.
+ Topics are easily categorized.
+ A large number of related posts are easily seen in relatively quick fashion.
- Images / videos are tedious to post, require separate hosting.
- Searching is unwieldy.
- Up-to-date information on topics require constant attention (FAQs, Sticky's) and can require navigating through hundreds of posts (45 pages of 10 posts each).
+/- Posting, reading, responding requires more effort (quoting, personalizing, etc.), but posts tend to be more meaningful.


Social Media:
+ Appeals to a larger audience with a single login
+ Images / videos are a snap
+ More personable (like, laugh, etc.)
- Finding answers to common questions previously answered
- No real categories other than the main topic
- Posts disappear quickly as new ones come in.
+/- Easy to post and respond

Both:
+/- User experience highly affected by other users.

I think that forums will always have a place, especially within the Amiga community, mainly for a technical standpoint.  However, the interface of forums is shockingly similar to what was available circa 1998.  Sure there are a few added features, but the experience is largely the same.  

Social media apps like Facebook are definitely catching up and evolving more radically.

I think the forums would definitely benefit from a paradigm shift and take advantage of some of the in-roads made the social media apps.     Of course that's not cheap.  

One of the reasons I know that Amiga.org isn't as popular as it used to be has to be because of some of the user-base running people off.    People don't want to post something only to have someone with 182,839 posts tell them "that's not a REAL Amiga, you wasted $$$$, dumbazz".    

I think the only thing that can fix a bad user-base is simple, clear instructions on acceptable behavior and strict enforcement.  Of course, not everyone will be happy, and some people will leave (or you make them leave), but negatively and hostility can really bring down a group.  I think it's never worth it to keep someone around if they can't play nice with the other kids, and it will pay off down the road.  Everyone has opinions, but there are proper ways to express those opinions.

Just my thoughts, Wayne.  

[motrucker]

So to get public opinion on what B00tDisk and I are discussing, are Internet forums (aside from this one) "dead"?

Still thinking about what to do with my dndplayer.com domain.  B00t brings up some very valid points about the fact that people are weaning themselves off of forums in general, which has me wondering which direction to take it...

Wayne

Guess I picked a good time to check in. How are you.
Most of the forums I'm on are still doing OK - Even found a new Amiga forum yesterday. So, reports of their deaths sounds like jumping the gun.
It's to cold to ride here, so it's time for some computer upgrades.....

[klx300r]

So to get public opinion on what B00tDisk and I are discussing, are Internet forums (aside from this one) "dead"?
...

well don't care about any other internet forums other than amiga.org, amigaworld.net, amigans.net, EAB and many of my C64 sites are still very active and helpful for users so in terms of Amiga the answer is plain and simple- NO:hammer:

[Kremlar]

Edit: Sorry, apparently my PC is caching the page, so I don't see all the responses.

Wayne

Had this issue too using Chrome.  Strange.

[Wayne]

Thanks for the replies guys.  I realize that asking "are forums dead" here is about like asking an aquarium fish how they like the ocean, but I'm just trying to imagine what could be done.  

I *could* just put up a clickbait site and work to hit critical mass, but that's a lot of work.  What I'm hoping to do is to find a way to actually have fun with the Internet again...

My real options for dndplayer.com seem to be to put up another forum (Xenforo) or to put up a Social Media site using SocialEngine which would be more akin to Facebook meets (whatever is out there)

(check socialengine.com)

I have spare licenses of each, so it's not a matter of money as much as a matter of direction...

I'm also not really a D&D player (as much as I would truly like to be) so whatever direction I go in, maybe I can find someone who's interested in the admin side but not the hosting/techy stuff.

Wayne

[B00tDisk]

Thanks for the replies guys.  I realize that asking "are forums dead" here is about like asking an aquarium fish how they like the ocean, but I'm just trying to imagine what could be done.  

I *could* just put up a clickbait site and work to hit critical mass, but that's a lot of work.  What I'm hoping to do is to find a way to actually have fun with the Internet again...

My real options for dndplayer.com seem to be to put up another forum (Xenforo) or to put up a Social Media site using SocialEngine which would be more akin to Facebook meets (whatever is out there)

(check socialengine.com)

I have spare licenses of each, so it's not a matter of money as much as a matter of direction...

I'm also not really a D&D player (as much as I would truly like to be) so whatever direction I go in, maybe I can find someone who's interested in the admin side but not the hosting/techy stuff.

Wayne

Well, you're in luck; right now Wizards of the Coast (the owners of D&D; they bought all TSR's intellectual property in 1997 or so) is being very not-aggressive as far as going after community creations.

I say, start it, slap a few different "edition" forums (original D&D, AD&D 1e, 2e, D&D3rd, 4th, 5th, Basic D&D) and see what happens.  Hit the usual suspects (various D&D facebook groups and other webforums) and lightly advertise with the permission of the PTB on those fora, and see if you can build a critical mass.

As far as community admins and such, I'd throw my hat into the ring for Original D&D and AD&D1.

[Cyberus]

Hey! My first log in in about a year. Hope everyone is well. I'll always have a lot of affection for this site, but I guess social media has hit a lot of forums hard :-(

Back in 2003 this place was THE place to be. All IMHO of course, DYOR and YMMV ;-)

Much love