What's going on?

I have only been back for about three weeks, but a few things have become abundantly clear to me. Number one is that a large number of the quality posters who used to come here are now gone, or almost completely inactive. I'm not sure they all made "retirement" threads and such, but is there a particular reason for their absence?

Did something happen to drive them all away? The quality of the non-NBA Live sections quite frankly is poor. Even NBA Talk which was always strong regardless is now a shadow of it's former self, General Talk is a mess that no one bothers with and the Photoshop Lounge? Jesus.

I understand the community seemingly revolves around patching and NBA Live, that is all well and good, but don't tell me those sections wouldn't also benefit from higher quality posters/posts in the other sections. The outside sections are what makes this place enjoyable, yet they're dying a miserable death and no one seems phased. Can someone explain this to me?

I must admit it has been a very slow off-season. Not a lot going on for a while. I think it is due to a couple of things:

- The wait for 08
- Obvious lack of NBA gameplay (dying for training camp to come around personally)
- Northern Hemisphere summer
- Forum being down randomly and occasionally very slow loading times
- The shit taste in everybodies mouths that was Live 07
- Next gen games stealing a part of our thunder. Less incentive to post here if you can't patch the games anymore.

I've personally been hoping it would pick up again soon, but I think we'll be waiting to the pre-season/NBA Live release date before things truly turn around. It's crazy though, because there's been days I've posted and come back 10+ hours later and there's no new topics or responses in the non-NBA Live sections. Never, ever seen that before.

Yeah activity is way down. I still come to the site pretty much every time i'm on the internet for a half hour or whatever, but there is so little discussion that there is not much to post. Its a snowball effect.

Theres been summers in the northern hemisphere. Theres been bad nba lives. Theres been no pc version (2002) before. Theres been nba off seasons before.

The forums are more dead then they have ever been. I have a theory but we all remember what happened last time I tried to improve this place.

Yeah activity is way down. I still come to the site pretty much every time i'm on the internet for a half hour or whatever, but there is so little discussion that there is not much to post. Its a snowball effect.

I know you would have been busy with life stuff, but as a moderator it's really part of your job to counteract that. To try to start discussions etc. Not just you, but everyone.

I'm interested to see how sit feels about the situation

I- The wait for 08
- Obvious lack of NBA gameplay (dying for training camp to come around personally)
- Northern Hemisphere summer
- Forum being down randomly and occasionally very slow loading times
- The shit taste in everybodies mouths that was Live 07
- Next gen games stealing a part of our thunder. Less incentive to post here if you can't patch the games anymore.

I think alot of the guys who are missing weren't really that into Live anymore anyway, they just came here for the social/entertainment side of things. I'd imagine the NBA off-season would be playing a part though.

I think the forum seems quieter than it seems as well because of the separation of general talk and entertainment. It has seemingly amplified the fact not a lot is happening. When Andrew made the change I thought it was a good idea, and if there was a lot of traffic perhaps it would be worth wild, but due to the current lack of action it may be better to merge them back so, at worse, it looks busier.

As to the off-season. Since the draft nothing major has been going on other than the KG trade. It has been a fairly sub-par off season for general NBA fans. I mean, the Bucks thread in NBA talk has been at the top for weeks because Yi has been one of the only topics of interest.

The whole place has a "No one's saying anything interesting so I won't post" vibe about it.

The snowball effect.

Things were going sour while you were still around, then you left. Then one person left because of that and the other left because of that one person. Quality posters found other things to entertain themselves with, we got the return of Sit as if it was the most normal thing ever, stupid posters like ConverseWade whatever get to do as they please given they never "retaliate", sure, just dumb down the place since he didn't flame anyone.

It's been a free for all for quite some time now. I didn't like the split to Entertainment Talk either, it was doing nicely in General Talk. Find it quite pointless. Nice try and all, but it didn't really work out.

NBA Talk is off right now only because of the lack of anything interesting happening in the NBA. That'll pick up in due time.

General Talk is what worries me. There isn't really anything worth discussing. For some posters who have been here long enough, they've witnessed most of the discussions too. Riot going on and on about patriotism gets old after awhile. Jackal with his sexual/gay/split personality bullshit is good for a laugh once in a while but like with everything else, it gets stale. I mean there is that debate going on in the 11th September topic but honestly, don't guys that have been here for a long enough period get that feeling of..."been there, done that"? It doesn't interest me to go and discuss something that's been discussed better and more to the point with newer people solely based on the fact that they are new.

That's bad reasoning, I know. That's the whole point of a discussion board, I know that too. Alas I can't do anything about not wanting to discuss that all over again and no one's changed their viewpoints despite having the "discussion". Everything is less of a discussion and more of a "I'm right because..."

Uhm, yeah, that's pretty much it. I can tell you the threads I actually visit. Movies Talk, Fitness Guide and Letting Off Steam thread. Yep.

I hope the place picks up and I wish you guys the best in trying to make that happen.

Gonna agree almost completely with what jackal said, its eerie the longer I come here how i used to think he was a pompous ass and now I agree with him more and more...

Anyway, I understand theres more to being a mod than doing anything asked, I know you need to give people a chance to learn. But the reason I stopped coming for a long time, is dumb shits like xbox360, theflash02, and even that king2k guy just keep posting and posting without repercussion for way too long a period. 1 warning is enough and then it should be kicking time.

I left for a little while because of exactly what Jackal said about the same old same old effect. I look in NBA talk and it was people dickriding their favorite players or their favorite teams and not opening discussion and then when proven completely wrong they'd just emotes to cover up and say sorry. No one was discussing, everyone was just arguing there is a difference. As for General Talk, i dont even post against our resident republicans (nothing against you guys, love the fact you'll discuss things from your point of view even if i completely disagree with you) anymore because i know where it will lead and i'd rather stay quiet than go back and forth with people i know for the most part are just going to attack either how my argument is full of fallacies or how i'm just flat wrong. To me that's not discussion/debate, and Im sick of bothering.

As for the entertainment talk switch i'm simply gonna echo what others say, seemed like a good idea at first, but 3 or 4 posts a day i dont think is a beg enough traffic allotment to give it its own section.

My final issue: why the hell has this site been slow lately, half the time i try to come i time out? Also , wheres the old log me in automatically feature?

I think, that the release of Live 08 will bring in new posters and certainly bulge the NBA Live 08 section with new posters. But there will not be any sort of major trickle down of new posters (ignoring even quality) into the Bottom sections.

Everytime someone asks "wat's up?" with the forums you have people who go "There's no good posts, so I don't post" and people who go "I pledge to start making good posts." Then the latter pick up posting for a week then stop.

Converse, king2k, etc. these are strawmen. They are not problems, forums have had people like them forever and survived without the need to ban them or spend hours whining about them. If you do not like their posts, ignore them. Removing them from the forums will not spur other posters to start making better threads. If you do not post because they exist, then you do not want to post here anyway. If you seriously have a negative gut reaction to a stupid post by a robot or fanboi and decide "Man, the forums suck, I'm not posting there" you do not actually care about the forum.

The Entertainment Talk would have worked if the Movies/Music threads had been locked forcing posters to create new threads. The "vets" are sticking to those threads for the most part. This is also the problem with any "Official" massive thread. 99.999% of nubs will not enter 85 page threads and read them to catch up. Just look at the patching threads where people have clearly not read beyond the first five posts of the thread, and sometimes the last page. And these people are interested in the actual topic of the thread. The movement on here to compress everything into "Official" threads had a huge effect on stagnation of the forum. I know I did not want to (converse)wade into the Lakers or Bulls topic to discuss the latest transaction, I wanted a "Kobe traded to the Bulls" thread. I do not want to go into a fifty page (albiet nonexistant) "Official TV PROGRAMS Thread" to masterbate over The Wire.

That in my opinion is the biggest structual problem with the forums.

There's also how many "list this" threads. Like JaoSming's thread that became people just saying what they're playing. Why don't people make threads about these games and discuss them. If you truly want to post on this forum instead of one about that game, make a thread.

Then if a thread ever naturally drifts away from the original topic into a logically related topic people whine about "we're getting off topic" which is something new to me. Every thread in the so-called "glory days" evolved into something else. (Even if it was often a "flame war".) There's also people who complain about how long posts are, and how they don't have time to read them. Alright, then don't complain about "lack of discussion" then.

are just going to attack either how my argument is full of fallacies or how i'm just flat wrong. To me that's not ... debate

Heh. What?

Discussion forums are confrontational. If everyone agrees on everything, life is boring. What point is there in sitting around and everyone posting "Yeah, I love fitty too." Disagree, saying "no fitty sucks, he's causing global warming" is what sparks discussion. Dissent is discussion, agreement kills discussion. Our beloved Forum Sargent isn't beloved because he stayed away from confrontation.

Tired about "dickriding" then write your own analysis of a team and post that. Start to debate that analysis. Etc. Suddenly, lively thread. Hell, you don't even need to do something so mentally intensive. If you see a goofy news article, post that, often times a good thread will come out of it. Before the "Letting off Steam" and threads like it, how many off the cuff rants about stupid real life things spawned winding threads? Say what you will about Andrew, but look at the two threads he made in Ent. Talk, Scrubs and Simpsons, those I would call "lively threads" and he did basically no intensive work to deliver those to the forum. (Execpt maybe finding that Scrubs logo.) Look at what The X has done, I doubt he spends a huge amount of time on those re-drafts but they have spawned plenty of interesting discussions and debates in the thread by "good posters" too. Best thread in NBA Talk for a long while, even if re-drafts aren't original.

If you actually give a shit about the forum, then give a shit.

Then if a thread ever naturally drifts away from the original topic into a logically related topic people whine about "we're getting off topic" which is something new to me. Every thread in the so-called "glory days" evolved into something else. (Even if it was often a "flame war".)

Yeah, most of the best threads we've had at this place have all started from something else. It's not like someone made a thread called "This will be the best NLSC thread ever" and then everyone proceeded to make posts that confirmed that. The thread was called I cannot believe my starting 5... and was essentially about Kevin Garnett playing PG, then it evolved.

There's also people who complain about how long posts are, and how they don't have time to read them.

There's no real genuine excuse other than "that post doesn't interest me" or "I can't be bothered reading all of that". Saying you don't have enough time is just stupid, it's a bunch of letters on a page, it's not War & Peace.

Tired about "dickriding" then write your own analysis of a team and post that. Start to debate that analysis. Etc. Suddenly, lively thread. Hell, you don't even need to do something so mentally intensive. If you see a goofy news article, post that, often times a good thread will come out of it. Before the "Letting off Steam" and threads like it, how many off the cuff rants about stupid real life things spawned winding threads?

That's what we're lacking. People were making too many threads to "promote good discussion", but now no one's bothering to make threads about anything. The Letting Off Steam thread had it's great moments but I do miss people making threads purely to bitch and complain about their lives.

The fact is, no one can force this place to be enjoyable again. It can happen though, and all it requires is for people to just post... stop over thinking, stop worrying about whether you'll get flamed or not... as long as you're not making a bullshit spam thread/post for no reason, you will be fine. I refuse to believe that none of the active members (there aren't many) have no personality at all... there's got to be some, and if there is then let it out so we can all go back to enjoying the NLSC outside of the patching/Live sections.

Hmm, didn't dig getting one of my favorite threads locked. Not every movie worth seeing deserves it's own thread.

But hey, whatever works.

Make a "Last movie you saw" thread or something.

Not a movie but just finished the last season of Six Feet Under. A very well written show with a lot of depth. Amazing show.

Top 5 easily. HBO rocks. The Sopranos, The Wire, OZ and now Six Feet Under. Amazing.

I think age plays a role here too.

Since most posters that join, including myself are in their first half of their teens . That doesn't mean they aren't intelligent . They just don't bother reading long posts, usually from what I saw they just skip them . I think most people here can write worthy posts if they only try . Thats the real problem in my opinion. People will go " Meh, its just a forum why would I bother writing long posts if I can say everything I want in one sentence ." People rather say : " good job man, release " than make a constructive post that would give pointers or offer help on how to improve their work . I wasn't a great poster when I joined here, I wasn't even good ... I mostly spammed, but then I realized that a forum is not a place for one liners or msn like talking. Its a place where you could discuss things in a calm matter. I did get picked on for my bad writing, but that didn't stop me . I took it like a game. I started making posts that were actually readable. Also, posters now get scarred fairly easily and then play the " i suck but i don't suck as much stop picking at me" attitude card.

If we can get people to make a little more effort in their posts then we could get the good discussions back .

- Forum being down randomly and occasionally very slow loading times

That's probably the number one thing that irritates me about the forum lately; I can barely get on or the loading times are ridiculous. I just give up and don't bother to check the forum until a couple days later.

If we could put the quality posters in a group then it would be alomost the same that it was a couple moths ago. Maybe even a year ago. My point is, some of the new posters lack personality. Posters have come and gone since this forum started, but the new ones are missing something. It's not entirely their fault, of course. I check the forums everyday, but I barely make new threads or post consistently. We need to make an effort.

I think its somewhat concerning that the head of this site ignores this problem...

- Forum being down randomly and occasionally very slow loading times

That's probably the number one thing that irritates me about the forum lately; I can barely get on or the loading times are ridiculous. I just give up and don't bother to check the forum until a couple days later.

Same here.

When I come to the site it will load maybe 60% of the time, and about half of that time it will be still working by the time I post.

I thought it was just me.

I look in NBA talk and it was people dickriding their favorite players or their favorite teams and not opening discussion and then when proven completely wrong they'd just emotes to cover up and say sorry. No one was discussing, everyone was just arguing there is a difference.

Sorry about that, I'll make sure to cut down my references to Cedric Ceballos & Sean Marks to just one a day

Look at what The X has done, I doubt he spends a huge amount of time on those re-drafts but they have spawned plenty of interesting discussions and debates in the thread by "good posters" too. Best thread in NBA Talk for a long while, even if re-drafts aren't original.

Thanks for nice words....the re-drafts don't take too long, although since you posted that handy link to the basketball reference site with historical PER's, they seem to take a little longer

- Forum being down randomly and occasionally very slow loading times

That's probably the number one thing that irritates me about the forum lately; I can barely get on or the loading times are ridiculous. I just give up and don't bother to check the forum until a couple days later.

Same here.

When I come to the site it will load maybe 60% of the time, and about half of that time it will be still working by the time I post.

I thought it was just me.

Right here also. It's so annoying I could say 'fuck you all' to the posters in this thread.

But I thought you loved us Shadow?


Everyone is saying that they're going to post more, but if you force conversations, then people don't post in that topic because it's way too awkward of a conversation. There's always lulls in activity here. People will come back soon, just let it happen by itself.

This is my third time trying to post in this thread, first I got logged out after writing for 15 minutes, then my mom made me get off in the middle of a post. This one is the charm.

my reasons:

1) sit on a computer all day at work, don't feel like surfing much at home anymore. i used to work retail on my feet all day, so it was nice to get home and use the computer. not anymore.

2) same reasons as a few people said before... the site doesn't load reliably, and logs me out randomly while posting, etc

3) xbox 360 and/or wii and/or nintendo ds

4) dipshits