Off topic loosing its life?

I havent been in this forum in a few years and it seems like there are a lot less people posting? what happened did everyone leave because the gamespot website looks like poop now? i remember this place had a new post almost every minute or so.

Two major contributors

1: The new rules update which let people basically roam free a bit like ign

2: The website which eliminated unions and is still to this day slow to load and full of glitches...

It was slowly losing traffic before the rules update but after that it went downhill and with the website redesign it SPIKED to near rock bottom...

Anytime a website has to unban many members will show you how bad it has become(and it had ZERO positives when it happened)

@fueled-system: Yeah this place used to be glowing with life and now its just dead. I hate how they changed the look of the website too, it looks terrible. Ign has kept it the same since forever, if it isnt broke dont fix it i say.

I wonder if it'll ever get better. They should revamp it back to its original form.

OT makes me sad.

Losing, its dead. I have resumed my gamespot ways and still hardly even come to this board anymore. As much as I have always hated the place, system wars actually still moves faster.

I think it can get back to better standing, but it's going to take a community effort to get there. As long as new and old members keep contributing to the boards, I don't see why it wouldn't be lively again.

We need more trolls

For over a thousand generations, the GS Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Unions. Before the dark times... before the Changes.

It used to be more fun, less religion threads, and less arguments. I don't see many of the old members that used to post here, guess they moved on. And there are not more "Post your pic" or "Rate this ___" threads from what I saw. The site is just not the same.

Cause there are tons of other forums out there and plus life happens.

Don't ask what your gaming websites can do for you, ask what you can do for your gaming websites.

GS pretty much gave us the middle finger when they did the revamp taking away Unions, user content like blogs on the front page, game night ect ect. OT and System Wars are pretty much dead except E3 2014 kinda gave life to SW but it's gonna die down again here shortly.

I seems to me a lot of Internet forums have gone quote inactive or dead, not just game spot.

I only joined here in march and it seems pretty active compared to what I used to on sights like the dead fmbase or no longer existing nexgenwars

@LeBump: think most people got put off with not after hours

+1s

but it was pretty broken before the changes

@thehig1: ever been to the vestibule on ign? theres like 5 post every second.

now there is more spams than real posts here

What if a forum started something revolutionary in posting like merging Reddit or Anandtech OT forums with Gamespot OT and other forum categories. And each could be like a union within the expanded OT. Sounds silly when you consider how money is made from ads and the structure the way it is now. And you'd have to come up with a new overall title for the merged sites. Just an idea.

@LeBump: No I haven't actually, might take a look

People just need to realize that this forum isn't about posting your inanities. The section is called "Off-topic Discussion". If your threads have no substance, you're only contributing to the shittiness. There used to be semi-decent discussions going on. But people are more interested in being trolls nowadays than actually posting something of substance.

It is a cesspool of American hating leftist, why would anyone want to hang out in here every day?

Ready the defibrillator.

3-2-1

Clear!

It lost most of it's life after the update.

Yea, this place is boring. The userbase needs a huge surge of newb meat... but how?

Recently in my eyes, the place has been glowing with a tad bit of light.

Get your eyes checked....

I do miss the Game Nights now I'm all sad :(

I haven't posted since Rich left On The Spot lol. I remember back then mods were banning for E.V.E.R.Y.THING. capital letters got you banned, bad grammar got you banned, even if they SUSPECTED you were a troll just for asking a question you got banned. I suspect banning 70% of the community and new members finally caught up with this site. I too have been posting on IGN (Vesti) and Reddit now these days.

I never took part of the game nights but they were fun to see the banter between people lol :P

Also miss the Union awards they use to do, it made Unions compete against each other for the Union of the year award.

I don't know if you were around in those times but you know what I also miss

Scavengers Hunt!

I remember people were going crazy around the site looking for the pieces of the puzzle looking at every article

Good times!

i'm still here

It seems every other post is a spambot watch this free online post. Getting pretty tired of them.

And yet the decline started when the removed those bans and let people return.

It was in decline well before that, thus TDH and Systemwars.com. A lot of good members left for those sites.

And of course GabuEx left for teh ponies.

Not in decline. Yes people that were here regularly left at various times but they were always replaced with new blood. The forum was still very very active. The start was really the unbanning and rule change. The redesign was the last gasp. You never used to see hour old threads let alone day old or week old threads on the first page. Now it's the norm. Kind of a sad thing to see happen. On the other hand I spend less time here which is a good thing.

The unbanning and rule change was a result of people leaving. That's why we had the whole conversation about the rules to begin with. Now I'm not saying that the above didn't exacerbate the issue, but it was indeed a reaction to the declining number of users.

Well actually it was a reaction to a select group of individuals and the community manager at the time giving them what they wanted. Or didn't you know they petitioned for the unbanning and rule relaxing?

And they petitioned because all the best posters were either being banned or leaving due to disputes with mods. Hell I left for a year after getting suspended for calling someone a hypocrite who was factually and demonstrably being hypocritical.

There were indeed issues with some of the mods and their uneven implementation of the rules back then, and while things did need to change I do think it went too far.

Best? Best is subjective. Their buddies were being banned....and some deserved the bans. They were disruptive.

Yes there was issues with the mods. I always said minor comments like yours above shouldn't be worth a moderation etc. But the site was still active until the rule change etc.

Anyway nice chatting....have to head to work. Last day before vacation. YAY! Have a good one.

Like throwing a hotdog down a hallway.

The change in design was the final nail in the coffin.

Think I remember something like it, I remember some sort of scavenger hunt but I don't know if GS did it or my Union was doing it.