Champion RD92's Blog

I've noticed the same thing since I came back just before the premier. I try to post what I can, but it's hard when almost no one is adding to the discussion.

A large reason that I have largely left the forums and as such, don't make many posts, is do to the character limit. It is a limit to freedom that is unnecessary and annoying.

Dimitri's here, so that's a temporary solution I guess.

I don't post because everyone makes redundant and boring threads that I'm not remotely interested in.

Also, I'm mostly in it to PM people, and no one PM's either

I've posted less because there just isn't any discussion I feel like engaging in. I thought that maybe I'd feel more compelled to participate once Season 3 began but nope. Forums are stagnant despite the new season I'm afraid. Maybe there's no staying power in keeping new members to stick around so that we become familiar with them.

 

I could be totally off but it seems like a new person joins the site, posts a bunch right away, but more for their own art or to RP, not really to discuss anything, then leave a week or two later.

I don't post because everyone makes redundant and boring threads that I'm not remotely interested in.

 

Yeah I noticed that the threads aren't nearly as interesting as they used to be. I was gonna try to revive some older threads but I'm not sure if people would post in them anyway :/

Not something I've really noticed.

 

Even if the minimum did push some people away, I'd rather have more quality posts in exchange for a bit of activity, instead of raging activity with tons more posts less than a sentence long.

 

If people leave because of a character limit, that's not actual dedication to a community, in my honest opinion. The character minimum is not something that the staff wanted to implement from day one, it's just the only solution for quality post incrementation that works so far. It's alterable in the future, and the staff is always approachable about it.

Not something I've really noticed.

 

Even if the minimum did push some people away, I'd rather have more quality posts in exchange for a bit of activity, instead of raging activity with tons more posts less than a sentence long.

 

If people leave because of a character limit, that's not actual dedication to a community, in my honest opinion. The character minimum is not something that the staff wanted to implement from day one, it's just the only solution for quality post incrementation that works so far. It's alterable in the future, and the staff is always approachable about it.

 

Would the staff ever consider lowering the minimum character limit? I think 100 characters is much too high.

To be honest, I hate the character limit now :L

 

It seemed like a good idea at first, but now all I see is the new ponies leaving and getting frustrated because they receive warning points by avoiding the character limit. I don't post as often, it didn't take long for me to get this badge, but it's taking forever to get out of it because I hardly ever post o3o

 

Would the staff ever consider lowering the minimum character limit? I think 100 characters is much too high.

 

If you haven't noticed, numerous forums have had it lowered down to twenty, fifty or some other number.

Personally, I've never had a problem with the character limit. One thing that has kept me from posting is the amount of duplicate threads we get. There is no point in me reposting in a new thread because someone didn't search for the old one.

Not enough engaging threads like we used to have.

Well the character limit isnt the only thing. I noticed people aren't really interacting with each other, just making a post and leave, causing people just to become bored and leave. That and what didact said.

Then make those engaging threads. You're apart of the community, people, not a bystander critic who is only there to watch.

100 characters, too long? i beg to differ; 100 characters is a perfectly acceptable limit to create a post worthy of quality discussion, too.

 

^ see? that wasn't so hard to type, just took me a few more seconds worth of my time. if you can't take a few SECONDS more worth of your time to form a coherent sentence, you may want to think about why you were gonna type your post in the first place.

 

maybe that's why people earn warning points for cheating the character limit in the first place: because they type half-assed comments then fill it out with random, nonsensical filler. and, if you DO believe you've been warned unfairly for something, go file a support ticket about it and get help from there. because getting mad over it and threatening to leave the forum or whatever won't help anything at all.

100 characters, too long? i beg to differ; 100 characters is a perfectly acceptable limit to create a post worthy of quality discussion, too.

 

^ see? that wasn't so hard to type, just took me a few more seconds worth of my time. if you can't take a few SECONDS more worth of your time to form a coherent sentence, you may want to think about why you were gonna type your post in the first place.

 

maybe that's why people earn warning points for cheating the character limit in the first place: because they type half-assed comments then fill it out with random, nonsensical filler. and, if you DO believe you've been warned unfairly for something, go file a support ticket about it and get help from there. because getting mad over it and threatening to leave the forum or whatever won't help anything at all.

 

Yeah but sometimes 100 characters isn't necessary. It's annoying to have to try and figure out how to make your sentence longer so you reach the minimum limit of characters.

Then make those engaging threads. You're apart of the community, people, not a bystander critic who is only there to watch.

 

Hey now, no need to get defensive, we're just searching for answers to help make the place better. We say there's a lack of engaging threads, but what if we make said threads yet no one responds or the newer users contribute nothing of merit to them? Don't take it as a shot at the staff and the site, it's a collective effort to make things better.

 

Yeah but sometimes 100 characters isn't necessary. It's annoying to have to try and figure out how to make your sentence longer so you reach the minimum limit of characters.

 

Of course it's not always necessary. If it was people wouldn't hate it, and the staff would have installed it far sooner. But as Feldo has said,

 

I'll have to be blunt here: I'm not bigoted or stupid enough to think that it is impossible to formulate a decent post in fewer than 100 characters. Introducing a hard ban against posts based on a counter is the last thing I wanted to do, because I am absolutely aware that not all short posts are spam. But our efforts to improve post quality without introducing a character minimum have not been received very well.

 

Yeah but sometimes 100 characters isn't necessary. It's annoying to have to try and figure out how to make your sentence longer so you reach the minimum limit of characters.

 

yeah, that's annoying. they did lower the character limit in a few other forums, though, mainly some of the Canterlot Castle ones comes to mind.

 

also wtf, i'm not getting notifications from being quoted on blogs.

Hey now, no need to get defensive, we're just searching for answers to help make the place better. We say there's a lack of engaging threads, but what if we make said threads yet no one responds or the newer users contribute nothing of merit to them? Don't take it as a shot at the staff and the site, it's a collective effort to make things better.

 

I'm not being defensive in the least :3 I too am offering suggestions. I'm fully aware some people may not respond to those threads if what you're saying is true, but not posting them at all isn't helping, either. Every bit helps. If we're trying to revitalize more activity, it only seems natural for people to create the threads they want to see.

 

Like you just said, it's a collective effort. Only discussing it and throwing out proactive solutions like making those threads because 'people might not even post in them' isn't the best battle plan.

Here is the reasons:

 

1. Unnecessary character limits, 15-50 is okay, but 100 is overkill, all because RP posts where allowed to count as actual posts.

 

2. Forum "drama"

 

3. A long summer without new episodes

 

4. DDoS attacks

 

5. Chat closed

Here is the reasons:

 

1. Unnecessary character limits, 15-50 is okay, but 100 is overkill, all because RP posts where allowed to count as actual posts.

 

2. Forum "drama"

 

3. A long summer without new episodes

 

4. DDoS attacks

 

5. Chat closed

 

Chat's been dead long before this apparent 'activity drop' occurred. It's hardly a reason.

Statistically, there is no evidence to support the idea that the forum is less active.

 

No one hardly posts anymore? We are still averaging over 2,000 posts per day across the site. We are also steadily climbing to over 10,000 members (we should hit this milestone before march of next year).

 

With that said, the Forum Lounge does not have a minimum character limit and it is a wonderful place to engage in "short conversation". I frequent that area of the site quite a bit. RD92, perhaps you should consider joining me in the Lounge if you don't like the 100 character minimum in other areas.

 

1. Unnecessary character limits, 15-50 is okay, but 100 is overkill, all because RP posts where allowed to count as actual posts.

 

I'm sorry. Once again. We have discussed the minimum character limit to death in other areas of the site. If people are not willing to write 100 characters to make their point, then perhaps the point should be made in a blog or status update.

 

We have both blogs and status updates now to fill in the gap that is left by the character limit, and they have both become insanely active. Since we introduced blogs, hundreds of them have been opened and thousands of comments have been posted to blog entries.

 

This is only the beginning... Over the next few weeks, we're going to introduce even more fancy additions to the blogging system. (We're also going to do lots of interesting things in other areas of the site as well. Be patient, and you'll be surprised about what we can pull off within just a matter of a month or so.)

 

2. Forum "drama"

 

I can't think of any drama that has occurred recently that had more than just a handful of participants. In order for drama to affect the entire site, it would need to have thousands of participants. That simply has not happened.

 

3. A long summer without new episodes

 

Now this is something that I completely agree with. Activity was lower during the summertime, which makes perfect sense.

 

4. DDoS attacks

 

We lost maybe two or three days to denial of service attacks. Despite the attacks, we still ended up with over 1,000 posts on both days.

 

5. Chat closed

 

Skype chat, synchtube chat, general chat thread. We have plenty of capable replacements.

Duplicate threads, duplicate threads, and duplicate threads.

2 out of every 3 new threads I see are duplicates of others. Why post in a new one and bury the older one even farther in the graveyard? It's quite angering to see that some threads that I had the most fun conversing and debating with other member is gone because someone else maed teh saem thred xcept spelt liek this.

Duplicate threads, duplicate threads, and duplicate threads.

2 out of every 3 new threads I see are duplicates of others. Why post in a new one and bury the older one even farther in the graveyard? It's quite angering to see that some threads that I had the most fun conversing and debating with other member is gone because someone else maed teh saem thred xcept spelt liek this.

 

Then why not revive the old thread that you had so much fun conversing in? That's certainly not against the rules.