Suggestions and Criticisms of the forums

[Props Valroa 26,042]

I have been around here long enough to see the forums through various stages and upgrades. I have seen a general downward trend of the forums in general, it feels like there is a lack of any new mechanics and existing problems continue to go unsolved for long periods of time, with no end in sight. This discussion thread is intended to open up discussion from the community itself to suggest suggestions for how to make the forums more lively and better for everyone. 

I have a few things I would like to say for suggestions and Criticisms: 

1 - Resolution of the various bugs on this forum. User Ranks don't update when a user reaches a certain rank, image posting sometimes is impossible for me to do in DMs, along with other such things. Supposedly the staff are said to have been working on it, but it's been months and there has been no resolution to these problems.

2 - A native dark theme for MLPforums. I know @Rikifive has made one, but it would be nice if there was a Dark Mode integrated into the forums settings itself. 

3 - Inability to change Poniverse names. You can change the way it is displayed, but you can't change the actual name of the account. I have been wanting to do that for a while, but it's impossible to do.

4 - Bring back the World Cup and Forum Events we had years ago. We used to have events where the Community would get involved with and it was fun, but now that's not here anymore. I enjoyed the World Cup and what it entailed.

5 - General lack of activity. It seems like there has been a genuine downward trend in user traffic on these forums and I don't see any signs of that reversing even with G5 material. I see a lack of retention with new users. New Users join, post a bit, and then never return. This forum would do well with new blood. While there is likely not much one can do to fix this, it is something to note.

6 - General feeling of stagnation. It feels like not much has fundamentally been changed about the forums for years. While the Debate Pit has been brought back under different rules, nothing else about the rest of the forums has really changed. It feels stagnant, with nothing new to really look forward to, beyond what has already been done before. 

7 - Layout of the forums. I notice that there are sections of the forums such as the G5 sections that is hard to navigate. For example, there are subsections within the G5 section, and I feel as if due to that there is not that much activity in those sections, and they are not exposed to the viewer who scrolls or looks at the main page a lot. I am not sure how to suggest to resolve this, more visibility for those sections, maybe? 

8 - Faster approval of characters. I would suggest some sort of community thread in which characters are submitted, and approved by staff members, which then can be used as profiles. A faster approval process, and vetting of character profiles to ensure quality content is approved at faster times. Just a minor suggestion. 

9 - Bring back the post count on public areas. This has always bugged me since it was removed for reasons I didn't think made any sense. 

Edited August 13, 2022 by -HeedGreen-

[Sir Hugsalot 8,621]

I have to agree with this post as much as I don't intend to put pressure on anyone, aware that staff has its private life to tend to and that some of problems (forum glitches) are not 100% staff's fault.

The forum glitches are going on for far too long (the fact that I complain is saying a lot here) - it'd be nice to give people at least some kind of update with what is going on. Especially lack of notifications on status updates feels very detrimental to social aspect of the forums. As soon as the problem appeared activity in those literally plummeted and it's been going on for over a month as far as I can tell! 

Forum feels even sluggish at times and some fresh energy is needed. We have gen 5 going on right now, giving the forum chance of revival and I feel like the potential is being wasted. Contrary to popular opinion - fandom is everything, but dead, some people left, but some keep coming in and they need a safe place, where they can enjoy their newfound passion. 

Events of all sorts are a driving force for every online platform, especially social ones. What happened here? I know that not many users may be active, but start involving them with some activities - even small ones and that may attract additional members. Look at statistics, a lot of people are simply not logged in. Give them a reason to log in and interact. If current staff doesn't have time for that due to real life stuff - it's okay, but there must be someone willing to do something! Even I will happily pitch in and I know at least one other person who'd be more than happy to do something.

 

Currently the forum is going down. And that is not fault of a dying fandom, reddit or discord taking over. That's not the fault of members leaving, I am sorry. It is fault of complete lack of activity that would encourage members to stay. We were once a friendly community that gave some a reason to be happy for who they really are, while it made others (generally bad people) envious and hateful, especially when their ways were not respected here. Now it feels like an old, worn inn that is barely able to support itself, because the owner just doesn't care anymore. 

Please, we are better than this. I understand everyone has their private life to tend to, but this is going a bit too far in my opinion... 

 

[Mothra 543]

So none of what the others said was taken to heart then...

I just recently joined back after years away, and most of what I'm seeing from users is old/dead accounts that are named as such, and people talking about how bad this place is and leaving shortly after too. I don't know what it takes to run a place like this or anything even close but 20 users on average at anytime should not be how many people are talking about MLP at once, even after G4 it should be way more.

Again, I only just recently got back so I'm not 100% sure on this, but it seems like the status update bug has been going on now for 3 months, and if something like that isn't been fixed after this much time, no events, no people most of the time to talk to, is it even worth staying?

[Props Valroa 26,042]

@Mothra

I only stick around for RP to be honest. I wish the staff would finally look into and fix these issues. Really, I don't like to complain but come on now, it's been months.

[Jeric 46,835]

On 2022-08-13 at 7:33 PM, WinterS said:

1 - Resolution of the various bugs on this forum. User Ranks don't update when a user reaches a certain rank, image posting sometimes is impossible for me to do in DMs, along with other such things. Supposedly the staff are said to have been working on it, but it's been months and there has been no resolution to these problems.

I’ll happily ping our tech staffer again who can take a look, but if he can’t, the most we can hope for is that a future update will help clear some issues up. In the past some bugs hung around for years, so it’s not all that shocking to me. 

[Jeric 46,835]

On 2022-08-13 at 7:33 PM, WinterS said:

2 - A native dark theme for MLPforums. I know @Rikifive has made one, but it would be nice if there was a Dark Mode integrated into the forums settings itself. 

This won’t happen. That would be an effort more time consuming than anyone is willing to commit to. 

[Jeric 46,835]

On 2022-08-13 at 7:33 PM, WinterS said:

3 - Inability to change Poniverse names. You can change the way it is displayed, but you can't change the actual name of the account. I have been wanting to do that for a while, but it's impossible to do.

You would be the first honestly. Because of that if I had the development resources, I’d be using them on other projects. The only one who sees that is you.

Honestly if I could decouple the Poniverse login completely I would. The activity of the other connected Poniverse sites is non-existent and it’s even made me pause several of my own projects I wanted to launch to help Poniverse. It is what it is. 

[Jeric 46,835]

On 2022-08-13 at 7:33 PM, WinterS said:

4 - Bring back the World Cup and Forum Events we had years ago. We used to have events where the Community would get involved with and it was fun, but now that's not here anymore. I enjoyed the World Cup and what it entailed.

5 - General lack of activity. It seems like there has been a genuine downward trend in user traffic on these forums and I don't see any signs of that reversing even with G5 material. I see a lack of retention with new users. New Users join, post a bit, and then never return. This forum would do well with new blood. While there is likely not much one can do to fix this, it is something to note.

6 - General feeling of stagnation. It feels like not much has fundamentally been changed about the forums for years. While the Debate Pit has been brought back under different rules, nothing else about the rest of the forums has really changed. It feels stagnant, with nothing new to really look forward to, beyond what has already been done

I’m going to lump these together. They all are basically saying that the site has lost that general sense of fun. That falls on leadership and I actually agree that things that bring excitement have been sparse. This is something that I am very aware of. There are several things in what I call the nursery. Some small some large.
 

World Cup is coming back, but I am working to condense it to an event that runs for a few months instead of the year it took last time. 
 

I would love to also bring back movie night. We using to do this through Equestria TV … 

 

I’m also working to do a few Con related things that may allow those that can attend a Pony Convention to at least participate a little virtually. 
 

MCM will be returning this year. I didn’t do it last year because of the commitment that it requires. 
 

Hopefully new ideas can refresh the site a little. 

[Props Valroa 26,042]

@Jeric

Quote

I’ll happily ping our tech staffer again who can take a look, but if he can’t, the most we can hope for is that a future update will help clear some issues up. In the past some bugs hung around for years, so it’s not all that shocking to me. 

I look forward to any future updates that would clear up these bugs. The most important of these bugs in my opinion is the fact that ranks are not updating. I have above 10,000 posts for example but am still a unicorn, for example. The status update issue is also a big one.

Quote

This won’t happen. That would be an effort more time consuming than anyone is willing to commit to. 

Won't blame you for that. I already use a Dark Mode anyways.

Quote

You would be the first honestly. Because of that if I had the development resources, I’d be using them on other projects. The only one who sees that is you.

Honestly if I could decouple the Poniverse login completely I would. The activity of the other connected Poniverse sites is non-existent and it’s even made me pause several of my own projects I wanted to launch to help Poniverse. It is what it is. 

That's understandable, why is it that the forums have to be connected with Poniverse? 

Quote

I’m going to lump these together. They all are basically saying that the site has lost that general sense of fun. That falls on leadership and I actually agree that things that bring excitement have been sparse. This is something that I am very aware of. There are several things in what I call the nursery. Some small some large.

World Cup is coming back, but I am working to condense it to an event that runs for a few months instead of the year it took last time. 

I would love to also bring back movie night. We using to do this through Equestria TV … 

I’m also working to do a few Con related things that may allow those that can attend a Pony Convention to at least participate a little virtually. 

MCM will be returning this year. I didn’t do it last year because of the commitment that it requires. 

The site has lost it's general sense of fun to be honest, and it's good to see that we are attempting to bring that back. With that in mind, I am much more interested in pursuing further things on this site and this community. 

Glad the Cup is coming back!

Movie night and virtual things would also be really nice as well. 

[Jeric 46,835]

On 2022-09-03 at 6:48 PM, WinterS said:

I have above 10,000 posts for example but am still a unicorn, for example.

As of 4.6 the rank system was changed. I will be running a rebuild of the data here in a moment. 

[Props Valroa 26,042]

Moments ago, Jeric said:

As of 4.6 the rank system was changed. I will be running a rebuild of the data here in a moment. 

I wonder what would cause the rank system to not upgrade? I am not well versed in this sort of thing, so I do not know much about it, so pardon my lack of knowledge. 

[J.J 918]

Alot of biased personal persecution that violates free speech, everything was fine, until a status got censored that had no political context, personal attacks OR EVEN PROFANITY in it whatsoever, the mods are over extending their power based off of personal morality/belief that has nothing to do with my right to express myself freely and vaguely, if this post gets "moderated" in a criticism section I'll be forced to take drastic measures, they claim I'm STILL complaining about the debate pit debacle an instance where I have PUBLICLY RECOGNIZED MY FAULT IN, NO? I'm complaining that IM STILL BEING CENSORED OUTSIDE THE DEBATE PIT ABOUT VAGUE PERSONAL TOPICS THST HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING IN THE DEBATE PIT, no, this is personal prejudice and persecution for saying things others think can get censored bc of the mental gymnastics THEY use to perceive the things I'm saying in a form of context I'm not even saying them in? I'm not satisfied with this website being the hub of super brony fandom AT ALL and I need a clear outline of predated rules making sure these strict personal targeted rules align with the date I made my posts, If you can censor on this basis you can mentally pervert anything you want into being offensive. This is wrong and it is injustice and I need rules and context for how me having social perspectives break any rules WHATSOEVER...!

[Jeric 46,835]

3 hours ago, Uncle Bumper said:

Alot of biased personal persecution that violates free speech, everything was fine, until a status got censored that had no political context, personal attacks OR EVEN PROFANITY in it whatsoever, the mods are over extending their power based off of personal morality/belief that has nothing to do with my right to express myself freely and vaguely, if this post gets "moderated" in a criticism section I'll be forced to take drastic measures, they claim I'm STILL complaining about the debate pit debacle an instance where I have PUBLICLY RECOGNIZED MY FAULT IN, NO? I'm complaining that IM STILL BEING CENSORED OUTSIDE THE DEBATE PIT ABOUT VAGUE PERSONAL TOPICS THST HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING IN THE DEBATE PIT, no, this is personal prejudice and persecution for saying things others think can get censored bc of the mental gymnastics THEY use to perceive the things I'm saying in a form of context I'm not even saying them in? I'm not satisfied with this website being the hub of super brony fandom AT ALL and I need a clear outline of predated rules making sure these strict personal targeted rules align with the date I made my posts, If you can censor on this basis you can mentally pervert anything you want into being offensive. This is wrong and it is injustice and I need rules and context for how me having social perspectives break any rules WHATSOEVER...!

I’m allowing this post to stand for now so that I can address this directly and for the benefit of the community at large. I’m a patient man, I’m a genial one (most of the time) as well. I caution you in taking that for weakness. Also while this is public, I can promise you that it would be the same response if it were private. 
 

I won’t address the mod issues you bring up directly, because I’ve done my utmost in stepping away from getting involved. My philosophy is less punitive in nature, and far more discussion oriented. My anger is usually wielded only when a user I admire and have tried to protect makes my job harder than it has to be. 
 

I can address your general concern about biases. I’m not going to lie. They exist. It’s stupid to pretend they don’t. That said, it doesn’t exists in the way you may think it does. We have, mostly by accident, hired users who are in each camp of the ideological and religious spectrum. Debate Pit is set up to be fairly moderated. It’s set up to toss someone who plays a fool pretty quickly without fail.  Decisions involving you were made by your conservatives and your liberals. It actually makes he smile to see how amazing people can come to common ground when obvious decisions are present for them. It’s fairly easy to stay in Debate. No. It’s like kindergarten easy. There are people in there who are doing an admirable job at trying to have a meaningful debate. Not sharing of ideas. Debate. One side disagrees vehemently with the other. They are being asked to be more polite. For the most part it works. 
 

Regarding censorship, yep. We do censor. We will censor. We will not apologize for it. Ever. It’s a hard no and has been since 2011 when this comes up. Most staff may try and spin this I guess afraid it may come across as palatable if they massage the words just so. Not only do we censor posts, we will censor status updates. You got a beef with staff you can come to Feedback. If you have a beef with a staffer who PM’d you … kick it up the ladder. More importantly you can always add more staff into a PM if someone is being a bit unprofessional. But no, MLPF is not meant to be a personal pulpit for anyone to sit up there and scream that Jeric smells like meatloaf because he’s a ruthless libtard. I know modern society and internet culture awards the loud conspiracy minded types. If that’s what you want, you have a large amount of options available for you. That’s just not going to be allowed here. 
 

I don’t believe we are a hub of the community. The internet is far to fragmented for there to be a true hub. MLPF is what it is. It’s like Coke. Some like it and drive the hell out of it. Some hate it. Some will drink it here and there. 
 

MLPF won’t be Pepsi. It’s fine if it doesn’t fit your tastes. It doesn’t have to. You can be a fan here with our rules. Or you can be a fan were the rules fit you personally. 
 

And no I’m not going to ever itemize rules. It isn’t hard to to polite. It isn’t hard to stop doing what the staff politely ask you to. If this answer doesn’t satisfy you, then I’m sorry. I genuinely am. We can take it up elsewhere. But I let you have a public statement on your feelings. I replied. That may not be the answer you were looking for but it is the answer. You would have a better chance of changing my opinion on Rarity than changing my opinion on this. 

[Lunaholic 892]

The only problem is that the fandom is actually coming to its end. Gen 5 isn't as popular as gen 4 used to be. I follow MLP subreddit and it's all about G4

[Evil Pink One 12,981]

5 hours ago, Lunaholic said:

The only problem is that the fandom is actually coming to its end. Gen 5 isn't as popular as gen 4 used to be. I follow MLP subreddit and it's all about G4

Well what can we say? Gen 4 is gen 4.... And gen 5.... Is..... Gen 5

[Evil Pink One 12,981]

Can we have a troll pit of tartarus?

[North Star 4,540]

Yes!  

Our Majesty, who knows no bounds, shall provide a troll pit.

 

[Props Valroa 26,042]

We do not need anything such as a "troll pit" on the forums. The lack of moderation was precisely why the old Debate Pit was shut down.

[Minterwute 60]

the forum background image is narrower than my 4K monitor

elements of it are also oddly grainy

it'd be nice to just use an SVG and scale that to 100% viewport width

[Evil Pink One 12,981]

Debate it pshhh troll pit ayehh! I support the troll pit!

[Evil Pink One 12,981]

6 hours ago, Props ValRoa said:

We do not need anything such as a "troll pit" on the forums. The lack of moderation was precisely why the old Debate Pit was shut down.

You dont need to moderate the troll pit silly. Its the troll pit. If you went inside the troll pit and got trolled i think thats your fault for going in the troll pit.... Since thats the place to troll.  And what happens in the troll pit stays in the troll pit. Unlike the debate pit where it needs to be serious the troll pit doesn't take you seriously. So its okay to ban unruly people at the debate pit because theres things that need to be followed. But in the troll pit everything is for fun!

[J.J 918]

7 minutes ago, Kujamih said:

Debate it pshhh troll pit ayehh! I support the troll pit!

Problem may be a "troll pit" could potentially be used for the opposite intentions of what it was made for, people could use "trolling" as a guise to discuss more serious topics while attempting to make them reflective of satire, but really just using it as a escape rope from the Debate Pits rules, a lot of people think im a troll, but they are just slow... lol

[Evil Pink One 12,981]

3 minutes ago, J.J said:

Problem may be a "troll pit" could potentially be used for the opposite intentions of what it was made for, people could use "trolling" as a guise to discuss more serious topics while attempting to make them reflective of satire, but really just using it as a escape rope from the Debate Pits rules, a lot of people think im a troll, but they are just slow... lol

Well that IS what a troll does...and so if they disguise it in that way the only one who would read it are fellow trolls... So?  no harm in that since fellow trolls know other fellow trolls

And what happens at the troll pit stays in the troll pit XD

[North Star 4,540]

1 hour ago, Kujamih said:

You dont need to moderate the troll pit silly. Its the troll pit. If you went inside the troll pit and got trolled i think thats your fault for going in the troll pit.... Since thats the place to troll.  And what happens in the troll pit stays in the troll pit. Unlike the debate pit where it needs to be serious the troll pit doesn't take you seriously. So its okay to ban unruly people at the debate pit because theres things that need to be followed. But in the troll pit everything is for fun!

exactly! And that would help with modding the debate pit because the sillier posters could let off steam in the troll pit and save up their seriousness for the debate pit

mane point is: the Debate Pit was fun partly because it was a sassy place. It is the nature of internet discussions to be sassy. I don't know what's happening in there rn, but no amount of using nice words will have changed that. Regardless, the decision was made for it to not be outwardly sassy and me more akin to the rest of the site except that emotive stuff is allowed to be talked about there. Ok, I get that and I don't want to hurt the feelings of anyone who came to debate and feels they're getting needled about their ideas instead. The Troll Pit allows there to be a place where sassiness is allowed and people who post there know that if they're in the troll pit they might expect sassiness. It won't only be sassy ofc - we're pretty huggy types :3 - but the same sort of emotive stuff will come up and people will know that the other poster might take the mick a little in response.

[North Star 4,540]

3 hours ago, J.J said:

people could use "trolling" as a guise to discuss more serious topics while attempting to make them reflective of satire

but what's wrong with that. The trolls aren't just going to be posting floods of emojis or deal with topics in a similar way to other areas of the site. Mane thing disallowed on most of forum: the sort of political discussions that clog up facebook and Twitter. Mane things I'd want to do in the troll pit: discuss those things in the same silly way (except with ponies). Ofc there may be other things people fancy putting in the troll pit and as long as they conform to overall site rules (no bullying and that sort of thing) then that's ok too (although if you just want to talk cute pony, you might as well do it in the other forum).