The Stagnation of the Escapist forums.

[Dahni]

tl;dr

i got to the bit about conversation.
I think you will find that the noble art of conversation, at least for me, takes place in private messages.

 

[historybuff]

Are we dying again? I thought it was about time.

Oh, not again.

 

[OpiateChicken]

I have to say that, overall, I am satisfied both with the amount of people who have agreed and disagreed with me in this thread, because you all bring up very good points, some that I can argue, some that I can't. Now, I just wish every thread could be like this, because I now see my own argument from different angles and see reasons why it may or may not be hypocritical.

For the record, I didn't want to seem like I was complaining as much as I wanted to be seen advocating lively discussion in general.

aboot

It seems you have uncovered part of what my identity is aboot, or maybe this is just a typo, but either way, I lol'd.

 

[Anarchemitis]

I?m guessing that a lot of people here are going to tell me to stop whining, or to just go to 4chan, or something stupid along those lines. But do you really think that the ?golden age? here depended on who used this site, as opposed to the way people used it? We can bring back an age better than whatever the previous golden one was. You can listen to each other and state your insightful comments and show that high IQ that so many of you profess to have, so don that monocle and get out that decanter of whiskey. I guess that?s all for now, Escapees. Stay classy.

Sincerely,

Opiate Chicken

I am one of the few who could say with all honesty of first hand experience that this is very true. The extent of cyclic cynicism, pessimism and conceited narcissism has left me thinking that I probably would've stopped regularly attending about a month ago, were I not constrained to an active RP in the hopes that it might bring me the awesome joy that was it's thrird prequel.

No, no we can't.

It never existed, and the slightly 'better' forum of the past existed because the mods could keep a track of the small populace.

There was only one moderator and about 1200 regulars, and 20 of them were staff. You can think this, but it actually is incorrect; there was a genuine Golden age. It started to end about the same time you joined, summer of 2008.

Overall, I don't understand the purpose of this thread. The majority aren't going to read this and it will sink because of the lack of any discussion.

The people who come on here and the way these people act is directly related. The old glitter on a turd analogy fits quite well. Half a year on the site and you've convinced yourself things are changing. They aren't changing, they cycle is just being sped up.

It's true that the Escapist is now 'another Gaming site with a forum', due to the fact that it tried to garner the attention of the mainstream of gamers on the internet, and was swept away from where it berthed.

Well...The Escapist kind of works in loops. At the moment, I think we're in a good loop. You don't seem to truly know what your talking about boy, you haven't been here that long.

How could you then?

 

[quiet_samurai]

It's just an internet forum. Go outside or something if you are searching for some deep meaning or purpose or good conversation. I only come here either when I'm working or have nothing else to do, and it will probably always be that way.

Different stroke for different folks, just accept it.

 

[Soulgaunt]

I love the escapist[footnote]Though I wish MaxTheReaper were still here[/footnote] but my biggest thing with it is the 'Use The SearchBar' comments. I understand when it is a thread that was done about 5 minutes ago, but when people just use it at every possible moment it gets tiresome. I would even go so far as to say that the 'repeat searchbar-ism' is worse than the repeat threads.


However I think the biggest reason there isn't such deep discussion on here is because there are a ... select few who tend to be overly sensitive on debatable issues ... which makes me wonder ... has anyone done a euthanasia/eugenics/abortion thread ercently, because I woudln't mind findingg out escapists' views on the topics there I go blabbering again.

What?! Maxi is gone?! When did this happen?!

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I am probably guilty of sabotaging my own posts to be honest. I regularly write posts several thousand words in length and rarely get comments. What I need are shorter, punchier posts.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

Ooooh, computer talk! Hrm, what are your other specs? Windows XP is a decent OS (it's what I had until I fell into the beautiful and glorious trap that is Windows 7). It also depends on what you want to run. Just TF2 or are you planning on doing more?

I never really experienced The Escapist pre-MtR myself. Funny enough, one of my first posts I had "the recently banned user" tell me he/she/it was going to nail me to the wall through my eye sockets. Luckily I'd lurked long enough to know that was his/her/its way so didn't take any offense and actually teased him/her/it about it for a while to come.

Though I've gotten involved in religious/political debates before, I'm definitely avoiding that board. It's actually quite nice to not have those threads staring me in the face when I peruse the off-topic board now. I can instead involve myself in debate that isn't based completely on individuals berating each other over their faith, no matter what the faith is in or isn't in.

Um, not sure what my specs are. I have over a gig of RAM, a 500+ gig external hard drive, and I think the comp is a Pentium something or other. Just looking for a good graphics card (PCIE) that doesn't break the bank. I don't need to be able to run FarCry 2 on max settings, but being able to play most PC games would be nice.

I used to be a part of religious debates, but the stupidity never stops. So I decided I'd better. As I said, knowing when to say when.

Some days you're the Librarian, other days you're an Imperial Guardsman facing a pack of ferocious forum Warp Beasts. Can I draw a comparison between a recent forum member's ban and the Horus Heresy? Why yes I can! I think I'm actually growing a pocket protector on my shirt as I type this. And my glasses are getting thicker. Where did these braces come from?

You two just made my day. I'm crying tears of laughter as I'm typing this.

For the record, I very much agree. And no matter how many trash posts I see in otherwise valuable threads, stumbling over a few rare pieces of gold completely makes up for the time spent sifting through the waste.
After lurking for quite a while I eventually registered on these forums because I was becoming more and more intrigued by the style, wit, eloquence and obvious intelligence of some of the regulars, and that's what still keeps me on the Escapist. The back-and-forth in a thread between certain members is what's the most fun for me on the forums, and when I wake up in the morning (or noon, after staying on the Escapist for way too long once again) I'm actually looking forward to seeing if anyone took the time to respond to one or more of my posts and thus potentially starting a discussion on a more personal level (as opposed to just gobbing my contribution into an already huge thread).

Now make room in your line for another battle-brother, it looks like you could use some heavy flamer support.

So, to give my opinion to the OP, no, I don't think the forums are dying. Yes, there's always going to be a varying amount of folks around here who'll try selling their opinion through wit alone, as well as the teeming masses with maybe two functional brain cells between them (deny it if you like, but they do exist), but the Escapist forums are (in my opinion) very much alive, and I hope it stays this way for a long time to come.
By the way, I think you've made an excellent thread, and as long as threads like these are around I'm not convinced the forums are capable of dying.

Every Battle-Brother is welcome to join our Chapter. The proud standard of Excapitorius, our founder, will fly today! For the honor of the Chapter! I wonder if Ultrajoe thinks he's Sanguinus or Russ? Does this mean all the Mods are Primarchs? Or just Chapter heads? Why are jocks shoving me into a locker?

I agree the forums aren't "dying," but they are changing. I think the userbase is gradually getting younger and younger, and so the maturity of the forums is vanishing, to be replaced by faux-intellectuals, like people who take IQ tests seriously as a measure of how smart you are.

 

[ItsAChiaotzu]

Stay Classy, Yours sincerely Opiate Chicken. Made me laugh.

Anyway, there are far too many pretentious know it all twats on here, and unfortunately that's not gonna stop, because 95% of the population of computer owners are, so I guess what I'm trying to say is that effort is futile.

 

[CognitiveDissonance]

It's just an internet forum. Go outside or something if you are searching for some deep meaning or purpose or good conversation. I only come here either when I'm working or have nothing else to do, and it will probably always be that way.

Different stroke for different folks, just accept it.

One would hope that you could find deeper and more meaningful conversation on a forum with sub-forums titled 'religion and politics' etc, than simply taking a stroll out the front door.

Although, i am the first to admit that the Religion and Politics section is generally just overflowing with bigoted tripe, which is partly what this thread is about.

 

[Kriptonite]

Dear Escapees

We're Escapists not Escapess.

 

[Knight Templar]

Things go up and down, new people join and for a while they seem to be jerks, but I think it has much to do with them not understanding the etiquette older users expect. People who don't read threads before posting; don't care to backup what they say; aim for popularity or infamy rather than saying something worthwhile and people who think the report button should not be pressed. These are the people who are the problem, in essence they are people who do not care. As these people do not care they are unlikely to change, just as the people who refuse to consider other view points.

What I'm getting at here is two things.

1- Beyond reporting and trying to be better ourselves there isn't much we can do, giving up and ignoring the problem are not options.

2- I don't think the Escapist is as bad as you claim. Yes it is not super at the moment, but that?s likely due to school holidays going on in most English speaking nations, not some terminal forum disease.

Finally all you do is complain and point out flaws, you sound very much like the people you claim are the problem. You didn't see the "Golden Age" and neither have I, there was just a time when less people used the site, nothing more.

Dear Escapees

We're Escapists not Escapess.

Indeed.

 

[Booze Zombie]

No I'm not. You just don't understand me because I'm smarter than 95% of everyone here. Actually, 96%.

Crappy, unfunny responses aside the OP has a point. There seems to be a level of detatched discussion in a lot of the thread with many users either skipping a few posts because they're too long or not reading a full post before adding their own response. As a result we get all these one liners, repeat posts and half-assed discussions which, most of the time, result in the two people going "oh yeah you're right, sorry, I was an ignorant prick and I forgot to read the latter half of your post" then "don't worry about it, I am a total douchebag myself" hahaha etc. friends forever.

However that's not to say The Escapist is completely devoid of dicussion, nor full of douchebags and socially incompetent weirdos, most of the time it is just because (and I quote again).

Funny thing is, I forumulated my reply by reading only parts of the OP, but I guess the difference between me and some people is that I'm skim through a post to get the point quickly, others might just do it because they don't care.

 

[Lavi]

*Licks the nice articulation in the OP*

Anyways, the quality of discussion on a thread (EDIT: ^^ I wrote threat) exponentially decreases as the population increases...

I just like using the word exponentially.

 

[Borrowed Time]

Um, not sure what my specs are. I have over a gig of RAM, a 500+ gig external hard drive, and I think the comp is a Pentium something or other. Just looking for a good graphics card (PCIE) that doesn't break the bank. I don't need to be able to run FarCry 2 on max settings, but being able to play most PC games would be nice.

Well, since you have a pentium, I'd probably go with a Nvidia card. Especially since you're looking for a cheaper solution, I would recommend either a Nvidia 260GTX for around $200 or a Nvidia 9800GT for around $100. Both are PCI-E and really just come down to how much you want to spend. Links follow.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150398 260 GTX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130435 9800 GT

 

[OpiateChicken]

*Licks the nice articulation in the OP*

Anyways, the quality of discussion on a thread (EDIT: ^^ I wrote threat) exponentially decreases as the population increases...

For all who tl;dr'd this thread (for shame), this is the basic conclusion reached so far, I suppose. That and a steamy pile of discussion which is inconclusive about the relative past of these forums, but I think the fact that we can all talk about it like this is proving me wrong/starting what I'd like to see more of.

Also, I will lick you, Nibbles. Give me some of that 'exponentially' you've got there. It will go nicely with my InferiorPostCount pizza and Red-Hot Articulation wings.

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

I partly blame Yahtzee. All the children from Gamespot and Gametrailers with their Yahtzee avatars keep joining saying "OMG yahtzee totally pwned that game and was so funneh, he's so cewl and I'm definutely not gettin that crappy dum game for my crismas cuz he said so lulz."

And so begin the "Halo sucks/rulez/is overrated" and the "What's the best console?" and the "Well I was wif this gurl and I want her to be my gurlfriend and totally bone her insides but I need advice from random people on the internet lulz" threads.

That's almost the age old archetype of the gamer on the internet, Yahtzee can't be credited for that.Perhaps Yahtzee popularised a certain method of mauling a game's qualities, but those kind of threads would have happened without him. Gaming has always been a source of polarised debates, which I think the old days of "console wars" (general third party fluidity has alleviated this somewhat nowadays I think) has contributed to.

As for this website? Certainly not dying. I reckon the perceived lack of intelligent/unique posts is rather down to the increased number of members, as intelligent/unique posts that don't get backing are swamped by more populist threads. The elitism round here doesn't seem to be as bad as I remember it (although the intellectual superiority some claim has always puzzled me) either.

 

[Asturiel]

Sorry I havent read pages 2-4 due to the fact I would like to get some sleep soon and I know this is a bit hypocritical but im going to say my peice.

On this website we call "The escapist" I am rather fond of the threads that come from its forums. I mainly stick to the off-topic discussion and I notice that even though most of the posts are probably short post number increasers if you just filter some of those out you can find the people with valid opinions and have insight into your post. Now I dont post on everythread so I do avoid the "Zombie plan" ones and others etc etc.

I do though try my best to keep to threads with a low post count so I can read the entire thing and not feel guilty like I am now Now to post this and let the pile of words be swept into the ocean of this thread and the sea of the escapist.