God this place has gone down hill

[Dumb Ideologies]

And a discussion of the forum's descent into humourless petty bitching and score settling itself descends into humourless petty bitching and score settling.

Meta; not necessarily better. I give up.

[Demoness]

I agree. This attitude made me quit long ago and now I kinda regret it as I want to get back into RPing and the scene seems to have changed quite a bit. It is really funny though when the "in my time..." threads pop up. Posters will complain about how older people aren't around anymore and then six months later, a new version of the thread pops up naming posters from the previous thread as "old".

This is what I was sayin' earlier, bullshit 'punk rock cred.' It's as old as the forum itself.

Hell, when I joined back in 2003 Beeker was making 'things ain't what they used to be' threads.

Seems like things are how they've ever been.

People were making those threads within the first 6 months, even as the site was evolving to suit the influx of newcomers. People just don't like change.

[Katganistan]

That was well written.

The problem is that many people, including Generalites, complained about some of the topics being posted on NSG. That they were too lite or too much bent on 'socializing'. Hence we get F7. F7 is not a hard place to navigate. But many a Generalite won't do this, they won't give it the time of day. So yes, the place has become a separate community. But it's no fault of F7ners, I see them cross to NSG when they feel like debating. I consider myself a Generalite and I have no problems going from one board to the other. It seems the rest of NSG doesn't think the same way.

That'll be because your an obnoxious, vacuous, attention whore, but whatever.

Annnnd, *** Warned for flaming. ***

[Demoness]

Man, there's a name I haven't seen in aaaages....

I recall once hypothesizing that the average webforum has about three months of looking forward to how cool the future will be and nine months of moaning about how much better the previous three months were.

That said, for the past... year or two... apart from odd stretches every now and then I've found NS a good deal less entertaining than usual, and have been trying to offer suggestions for improving it. One of the reasons is a measurable decline (in terms of numbers of active posters/threads), but the "feeling" of the forum has changed, subtly but noticeably. So naturally I speculate wildly as to what could be causing it, since that's what we're supposed to do in threads like this, right?

Perhaps as an "outsider" who hasn't legitimately posted in several years my perspective is skewed, but the forums seem to be the same as they always were. I left with the population boom, but I monitored its growth for a long time afterward. Threads tend to be the same rehashed subjects dressed up in new debates. RPs are always going to be the same ideas, especially since everyone loves war, but even the actual debates and "fun" threads are recycled, sometimes even from the past week.

[Conserative Morality]

I get it, quality not quantity... *sniff*

I think the new forums came in in '09, and you came in '08. Not old enough to be old, but too old to be young.

[Maurepas]

NSG be srs bsns!

[Buffett and Colbert]

I get it, quality not quantity... *sniff*

I think the new forums came in in '09, and you came in '08. Not old enough to be old, but too old to be young.

But I only started posting when the new forums came.

[Conserative Morality]

Screw you

I was only asked for ten posters.

[Conserative Morality]

But I only started posting when the new forums came.

But the old forums and new forums blend together in my mind.

[Maurepas]

Screw you

I was only asked for ten posters.

I didn't know y'all cared,

[Buffett and Colbert]

But I only started posting when the new forums came.

But the old forums and new forums blend together in my mind.

My first post was in May 1, '09. Sure I lurked, but I never posted.

[Conserative Morality]

My first post was in May 1, '09. Sure I lurked, but I never posted.

But if you had posted in my the old forums, but not regularly, I may not have noticed, so I played it safe.

[Buffett and Colbert]

My first post was in May 1, '09. Sure I lurked, but I never posted.

But if you had posted in my the old forums, but not regularly, I may not have noticed, so I played it safe.

Well now I can assert my rightful place as a newb, right?

[Conserative Morality]

Well now I can assert my rightful place as a newb, right?

'Now'? You were always on the list. Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.

[Nadkor]

But like I said, I haven't been here long. Maybe it's legit in this case. Either way, I should probably pull my nose back out of this thread.

It's not legitimate. NSG has always been like this. It has its peaks and valleys. The only "downhill" I see is that it's quite hard to read all threads posted in a reasonable amount of time before they grow to a considerable size.

It's perfectly legitimate. In the past there was maybe a thread once a year lamenting the loss of certain posters, and saying it would be awesome if they were still around.

Since the move here, there has been a thread like this about every 3 months, and each time there has been a consensus that there has been a general and noticeable decline in quality on NSG.

Each time the problem has been identified as a lack of a more relaxed, social, element to NSG, such as there was previously. Each time F7 has been identified as a potential cause of this. Each time those in charge have done fuck all about it, and each time a number of established posters have left in disillusionment as a result.

[Buffett and Colbert]

Well now I can assert my rightful place as a newb, right?

'Now'? You were always on the list. Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.

I'll wear the stamp with pride.

[Demoness]

It's perfectly legitimate. In the past there was maybe a thread once a year lamenting the loss of certain posters, and saying it would be awesome if they were still around.

Since the move here, there has been a thread like this about every 3 months, and each time there has been a consensus that there has been a general and noticeable decline in quality on NSG.

Each time the problem has been identified as a lack of a more relaxed, social, element to NSG, such as there was previously. Each time F7 has been identified as a potential cause of this. Each time those in charge have done fuck all about it, and each time a number of established posters have left in disillusionment as a result.

In the "old days" it was still more than once a year, either lamenting particular players or the general loss of quality. A few years ago the trend was "I'm leaving NS because..." and summarized how much NS sucks in comparison to a few months ago or when they joined. I may not have been posting in the interim since I left, but I have been tracking the trend. I have also seen several people claim they're leaving simply because they feel the moderators are too "harsh", which is a common theme in any forum. Typically, the people come back. Hell, I left because I was disillusioned and I'm participating in this thread.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

'Now'? You were always on the list. Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.

I'll wear the stamp with pride.

As well you should. You earned it.

[Maurepas]

It's not legitimate. NSG has always been like this. It has its peaks and valleys. The only "downhill" I see is that it's quite hard to read all threads posted in a reasonable amount of time before they grow to a considerable size.

It's perfectly legitimate. In the past there was maybe a thread once a year lamenting the loss of certain posters, and saying it would be awesome if they were still around.

Since the move here, there has been a thread like this at least every 3 months, and each time there has been a consensus that there has been a general and noticeable decline in quality on NSG.

Each time the problem has been identified as a lack of a more relaxed, social, element to NSG, such as there was previously. Each time F7 has been identified as a potential cause of this. Each time those in charge have done fuck all about it, and each time a number of established posters have left in disillusionment as a result.

Eh, I disagree, the reason there's one of those every three months is because the base is getting older, I was like 16 in my first incarnation on NS. It's like a Nintendo Wii, it doesn't matter that it's an amazing system, it'll never be as good as a Super NES to anyone that owned a Super NES in its heyday. People leave in disillusionment because about the sixteenth time you rescue the Princess it starts to get old, .

Further, I'll be honest, I have never "taken a break" from NS in that time, and I've seen the complaints that things just aren't as "Social" as they used to be from various people. When those people left there was a real drop in the number of "Debate" threads, and a real upswing in the number of "Social" threads, F7 being there the whole time. And guess what? The forum was boring as fuck, those social threads are great in a place like UMP or GM because everyone somewhat knows eachother in them, and you care about what's going on and about socializing with them. When you've never seen a poster before, you don't care, or at least I don't generally. I took a bit of a break from NSG during that time, not consciously, I just happened to start writing in the other forums and came to General less often.

When those people came back, and all the trolls got their favourite partners back, and debate threads were stated up again, General got interesting again, and about three months later, they went to bitching and leaving, and they'll be back in about three months. In short, I think the reason you see these threads every three months is that the people who lament "the good old days" leave and come back in a bit of a three month cycle,

[Buffett and Colbert]

I'll wear the stamp with pride.

As well you should. You earned it.

i c wat u did thar

Although in all seriousness, the level of ostracism that takes place here against anybody who isn't outside "the circle" is quite amazing. And we've all contributed to the problem.

I'm also amazed that we are reminiscing about a more relaxed and social NSG, while two seconds later we flame and troll others. Obviously we're not this right.

[Nadkor]

Maurepas, I disagree with your analysis, but I really can't bring myself to care enough.

[Katganistan]

Right... because I'm sure I'm the only one who noticed that the player who touched all this off 1) hadn't posted for months before 2) hasn't posted since and 3) trolled from the outset.

Continue, if you please, in the Why do people hate Forum 7 thread. This one be locked for trolling.

Trolling: Posts that are made with the aim of angering people. (like 'ALL JEWS ARE [insert vile comment here]' for example). While Trolls often make these posts strictly in an attempt to provoke negative comment, it is still trolling even if you actually hold those beliefs. Intent is difficult to prove over the internet, so mods will work under their best assumptions.