Good forums are hard to find

[Rosa 28]

Lately every forum i've tried is either failing or dying slowly, this is the only big forum i found so far. I think the main issues are just the admin/mod abuse, the members disagreeing to the point it turns into a spat or worse, or the always obvious problem most have is the small amount of users they have. So why can't people just behave and just get along with each other? The one thing i remember being said was that arguing with another person is pointless, never serves any real point but to make you look bad in other's eyes.

 

The horror stories i've heard about this site are huge, though whether or not I believe them idk.

 

Only about 10% of forums have a good community, leaving the last 90% being bad communities. What do you guys think is the major problem they're facing and what they could do to improve their sites?

Edited December 16, 2016 by Rosa

[yeet 2,027]

This forum is pretty shit tbh, but it's better than any of shit hole community i've found other than furvilla. Which is not very active talking wise.

[Unikitty 1,212]

Ultimately, forums are at the mercy of their community. A community becomes what it is because of the people involved in it. It's impossible to truly police a populated forum, without becoming a forum that would be considered unappealingly strict.

There's no such thing as an optimal community that befits everyone and really you just need to find a forum that suits your personal preferences.

Communities are subjective when it comes to finding out what works, and usually what works is the result of the community's long time evolution.

So,the forums you mighr consider bad, likely work perfectly fine for all those who've chosen to stick around on it.

[Monsoon 1,662]

To be honest I see a lot of people taking their stress and sadness out on the forum which is pretty negative and it just made me go on a very long hiatus and even now all I do is check my inboxes

[honk friend 1,978]

They're a lot more than horror stories if you've witnessed them, or have had run-ins with the staff firsthand.

IIRC a few of the better staff members left all at once a few months ago because of the qualms they had with the rest of the staff team. I'm pretty sure they deleted the thread and blocked discussion of the situation.

[Corgis 574]

It's not bad.  It can be a bit annoying with all the sad status updates and the senseless drama.  

[Derplight Sperkle 1,013]

Take it from someone who hasn't ever been frequent on a forum before this one.

 

This is the first forum I've stayed on for a period of time. Community isn't too bad and of course there will be drama from time to time. Trolls come in as well and the staff keeps things in control as much as possible for a forum with just over 36,000 members (Damn, that many?). 

 

I for one am not biased about this in anyway   Not at all....

[Untitled Goose Q 5,137]

I've been a member of a lot of forums, and this is the best of them.

 

Sadly, that's not saying a lot.

 

There are... issues here. Not entirely obvious ones, they are easily missed.... but they are there.

I'm not going to go into details, but suffice it to say that this place used to be a lot better than it is. Time marches on, and everything changes. A forum can be amazing, and then become worse over time, and you don't notice until it's too late. There's not a lot that can be done. I suspect the root of the issue is that forums are populated by humans.

My advice to everyone is make sure you have a way to speak to any friends you make outside of the forum. Discord is quite popular at the moment. This ensures that if you feel you have to leave the forum- any forum- you can keep in touch.

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,302]

Every forum I've been a part of has, unfortunately, experienced some fairly significant staff-related issues.  Not saying the members themselves were always blameless, but I've tired of running into basically the same problems wherever I go.

 

I'm not going to go into details, but suffice it to say that this place used to be a lot better than it is.

Many of the more interesting and fun people stopped posting or straight up left, and, in several cases, it had to do with how the site was managed.  Place became increasingly strict; a number of people were banned or pointed for things that might not have incurred any punishment at all in the past.

 

Eh, c'est la vie.

[Rosa 28]

I'm not saying that all are bad forums, just one of them i had a bad run-in with a staff member before. You do have biased staff on some forums, yes, but more often than not its the member's fault for getting in trouble. Basically i want to have a place i can enjoy, not run away from...

Edited December 16, 2016 by Rosa

[2DPone-3 21]

Forums fail due to lack of the community and of the admins and because of the existence of multiple forums on the same subject.

If the community isn't nurtured constantly, then it typically fails. This often leads to burnout if a single individual is responsible.

This place keeps active because the fandom is strong despite all the drama and it partners with other pony communities which help to nurture and bolster it.

[EmployeeAMillion 70]

It's probably just the hiatus being itself. By the next Spring, I'm sure there will be a resurgence in activity.

[Abstract 832]

In the four and a half years I've been a member here, things have definitely changed; sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Most, if not all, of the most prominent members from around the time I joined are no longer active, for one reason or another. I think perhaps some people just jump too hard into this place when they first arrive, and put way too much of their time and effort into it; eventually, the negatives wear them out to where they can no longer justify the energy into dealing with it all anymore, and they bail on it completely. Some I've seen return for brief periods of time, but no one has made a permanent "comeback" to my knowledge. And that's OK. I'm sure for some of them, being a brony was just a phase, and nowadays MLP no longer interests them; we sure do seem to get a lot of people in the 15-16-17 year old range, and I would not be surprised if this was the case for a lot of that age group.

 

Whatever the reasons may be, this forum is definitely not what it once was, and that's not completely a bad thing. It's still one of the more civil and friendly places I've frequented over the years, and there is still a lot of active discussion that goes on and events that happen, and I can assure you that is quite a feat for a forum that is 5+ years old.

[Alphys Hedge 671]

MLP Forums is certainly not the best website, I've been on plenty of better ones.

It's still okay though.

[Ganondorf8 11,311]

A lot of members who frequent a forum have this feeling that they can go there and have themselves a good time, and this is true although they do have to adhere to the rules even when they feel that moderation is enforced to make them unhappy. I've been on a few forums in the past that housed lots of members and devolved into flame wars among other things, and it was the old NSider Forums that was especially guilty of this. The NOA mods and admins were rarely around to enforce anything, the volunteer user mods were around a bit more but not by much, and ultimately things just went out of control.

 

Many members didn't like those who were given special treatment--the Sage rank of which I was one of them--and viewed them as being elitist since they were given their own sub-forums. Having over 300,000 members would result in tense moments that almost brought things down entirely.

[Steve Piranha 29,424]

So far, yes, though might not be much coming from someone who has not been active in many forums. I've just found this forum for ponies to be the most active, and I've stuck 

[GrimGrimoire 4,973]

Well forums in general are one of those things many think are on the way out. Social media is more and more finding ways to make them less useful and more tedious for a great majority. That being said, I think a forum is only as good as what people are willing to put into it.

 

Since less and less people want to put anything worthwhile into any given community, whether that is time, effort or just a positive attitude, it is not wonder to me that they are later found complaining they have gotten nothing worthwhile out of it.

 

That being said, every forum everywhere has issues because it is both run and utilized by real people with real lives, real problems, real opinions and real emotions. Just like anywhere else in life, sometimes crap hits the fan in some shape or another and it does not take any wizardry to predict what happens next.

[Lucky Star 972]

Out of all the forums, I've used. this forum is certainly the one I've enjoyed the most.

Sure I have bouts where I go inactive for a little while, but I always end up coming back.

 

I think the worse thing for a forum is not having enough members.

There was this one Animorphs forum that was a complete ghost town! No one posted. 

No one did anything! At least not anymore. The only thing the site had that was any good anymore was the download page where you could get PDF version of the books to read. 

 

A good forum should have the vibe of a small town! 

At least that's what I think. 

[Kaneki 1,073]

I love this one because it's similar to one forum I was on, but I'm gonna avoid saying anything bad about it, since a former admin from that forum is an admin here as well.

Edited December 17, 2016 by Cloggedone

[DixonTheAdversary 1,632]

I have not been on any other forums aside from this one, so I can't really have an opinion on this topic, but I do think that MLP Forums is a really good website.

[Yellow Diamond 7,569]

@@Rosa, I've moved this thread to General Discussion since the topic isn't exclusive to the MLP fandom.

 

And yes, clearly we're the best forum. No bias here.

[Zyrael 1,471]

I'm here, so obviously it's the best

[Prospekt 11,018]

It's still the best MLP forum out there, mostly cuz all the other ones have died out in the past couple of years. I took a hiatus from ponies in general once Season 6 was over and just quit using the forum anywhere near as often. It's not because of the members; the majority of people I've interacted with on here are wonderful. Since it was my first semester of college, I wanted to focus more on school, work, and extracurricular activities for a while.  :awuh:

 

But I still enjoy it here, and I don't see my love for MLP going anywhere anytime soon. Honest.  Now that I've gotten my s**t together and finished up with finals, I can finally devote some time to being a brony. Time to get active on the forum again!

[cmarston1 5,959]

I have stayed on this website for a few years now, and I have enjoyed my stay here.

For the most part I enjoy the community here, and like to just post my random thoughts on media and other things right here.

[Kaneki 1,073]

I should add I kinda messed up, BADLY on the last forum I was really active on (and some of you know which one). I've learned from that, and let myself mature over those 9 years ago that I was on that forum, and now I'm doing well on MLPF.