Why is the forum so quiet?

[sann0638]

Ha. Nothing worth seeing vs nothing at all here? Each to their own.

[Lyracian]

Ha. Nothing worth seeing vs nothing at all here? Each to their own.

Signal to noise ratio. If only we could get something in the middle? If you have the time to wade through Facebook great. I would rather do something else such as read a book or play a game on FUMBBL.

I find Podcasts quite good for keeping up with information.

[EastCoast]

I've been away for awhile, and I replied to a poll question in general, but this seems like a more pertinent place to post. So why is the forum so quiet? Here's my unsolicited opinions:

Well, part of it is an outdated structure. For example as I mentioned in that thread, there are literally more subforums on this site than there are general chat threads created in 2021.

But that doesn't explain all of it. A big part of it is the remaining community can't or won't ever move past LRB and CRP. Lyracian did a complete review of the new Deathzone, he didn't get a single reply. The lack of engagement is because most users here never got BB2020 and have not played it (PS, they never will, most likely).

This place is a ghost town and it has nothing to do with the software, or how it presents on a phone. People will still frequent forums if there is an active and vibrant community. For example, Waldorf rightly pointed out BB2016 which was mostly LRB was treated as an inconvenience here. Which for a Blood Bowl-centric site is pretty odd. But that behaviour manifested itself anytime something new arrived. Cyanide/Focus digital versions of Blood Bowl were widely panned and trashed here.

The fact of the matter is the LRB lovin' GW hatin' fanboys actively chased everyone new away from here for years. On a personal note, for the record, I warned a moderator this would happen when he and the community shit all over a youtuber with 3 million subscribers because he had the audacity to be excited about telling all of us here about the upcoming BB2 video game release.

That seemed to be pretty standard behavior around these parts at that time. Once the BB world moved on past LRB and CRP, and GW re-launched the game this place and those community members no longer had any purpose or any reason to engage.

Long story short, this place is dead because that is exactly how the TFF community at large wanted it.

How does it ever recover? I'm not sure it can, but step 1 is to wash away that general consensus about this place that Leap and Waldorf mentioned.

Lyracian starting threads on BB2020 is a good start.

But so much of this place is still devoted to LRB ancient history. Lunchmoney apparently compressed the subforums already, but it's not enough. Scrap 'em. Archive or shitcan everything prior to 2016 (It's been 5 years ffs). Autolock threads that haven't had any engagement in the last year. Move everything back to General. You could create a tournament section, but literally nothing else is driving enough active traffic to necessitate it's own subforum.

BB3 is coming (and yes the Beta was horrible) but start welcoming it. BB3 within the next year or so will become the most common way people engage with Blood Bowl and the new ruleset. Learn the lessons from the past and embrace it. As people pick up this game through Steam, or kids buy the BB2020 box set at the store, none of them will care that GW once abandoned the game. It won't matter to any of them that GW mistreated Tom Anders. They won't care that at one point the rules were community sourced, none of that will matter to them. Either this site will be devoted to love of the game and universe of Blood Bowl or it can be geared toward the airing of those old grievances. If it's the latter this place will continue to decay into irrelevance. Just my 2 cents.

[Lyracian]

Thanks for the shout out. It only takes a few people to get something going again.

Personally I would not want to get rid of all the history; there is a few good tactical discussions buried in the forums.

I recall being at the NAF Champs and talking to people who had the attitude "new edition might be alright but I am never buying anything GW produce again". Where as with the new edition we have about 40 players in our local league now. I think the Tournament section is about the only reason this place kept going.

Lyracian.

[EastCoast]

Personally I would not want to get rid of all the history; there is a few good tactical discussions buried in the forums.

There is and some of those tactics are still valid. But they are surrounded by "blight" and most are not in a format that anyone under 40 years old wants to digest.

For example, the top pinned post in general is from 2009 with a bunch of BB links. So everything in that first post is LRB 5 or prior. The creator of the post joined in 2009 and last signed onto the website... 10 years ago. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that he doesn't plan on updating those links for BB2020 anytime soon.

Some people have added new links in the subsequent pages, but anybody coming here is going to expect that the first post is updated and current. It's... for lack of a better term, "blight". No matter how good some of those old tactical discussion are, they are absolutely surrounded by old outdated discussions. If you don't want to trash them fine, but they really should be archived. There's a search feature here.

Another example of blight, the Elfball forum, does Impact! even sell Elfball any more? The last post from 4 years ago wasn't even about new product or the game. It makes a website that already looks really dated look even worse.

By the way @Lunchmoney, this is in no way, shape, or form a shot at you or your moderation. You inherited this and the few people still using this site owe you a debt of thanks for keeping the lights on. I'm not sure the undertaking of cleaning this place up is even something one person could manage.

[Lyracian]

To me it seems like we are a couple of late night patrons and a janitor talking about how to change the signs in an old railway station. Unless you find a way to get the commuter train to stop I do not see it really making a difference.

[lunchmoney]

For example, the top pinned post in general is from 2009 with a bunch of BB links. So everything in that first post is LRB 5 or prior. The creator of the post joined in 2009 and last signed onto the website... 10 years ago. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that he doesn't plan on updating those links for BB2020 anytime soon.

Comments like this are good! I hadn't looked at that so didn't really know it was so out of date - poof! It's gone!

[lunchmoney]

I have also asked the owner if he would let me update the software to something more modern - so far no reply

[EastCoast]

I have also asked the owner if he would let me update the software to something more modern - so far no reply

Does Doubleskulls own it? or is it the JohnnyP guy?

Also, how much control do you have over the current version of phpBB? Are you, for example allowed to install the extensions that would allow us to embed media content? If so, can we get that?

[lunchmoney]

It is Doubleskulls, yes.

As for what I can do re installation? Nothing - need access to the server and only the owner has that.
I would love to install and transfer to completely different forum software.

[Steam Ball]

Comments like this are good! I hadn't looked at that so didn't really know it was so out of date - poof! It's gone!

Gone as in deleted or archived?

I would love to install and transfer to completely different forum software.

Please no doomscrolling, no "you need JS to even read the basic text, and even if you have the latest browser, it will take 5 seconds to show it", etc. There must be forum software that is new/updated yet not implements all the latest fads. Thanks.

Edit: silly typo.

[EastCoast]

Comments like this are good! I hadn't looked at that so didn't really know it was so out of date - poof! It's gone!

Gone as in deleted or archived?

Neither, he just unpinned it. It's still on the first page, somebody had added a pitch image within the last year or so. It's here: Collected Resources in case you need those links for whatever reason.

[spubbbba]

It looks like some people are making an effort to revive the forum.

You'd think GW introducing a brand new team along with some stars to go with it would have generated a bit more interest though.

[Lyracian]

It looks like some people are making an effort to revive the forum.

You'd think GW introducing a brand new team along with some stars to go with it would have generated a bit more interest though.

Maybe; not really seen much interest in Khorne anywhere though. Maybe I just do not go to the right places.

[EastCoast]

Blood Bowl Reddit already has 54 comments from the news release yesterday. My theory, and it seems supported by Lyracian's NAF tourney anecdote, I don't believe the remaining forum users here have any interest in Blood Bowl if it isn't CRP or LRB.