Chat Room Going Away

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
Status
Not open for further replies.

Endless Flight

I have the power!
Administrator
Moderator
Joined
Apr 24, 2017
Messages
15,294
Reaction score
41,624
I’ve decided I’m going to remove the chat room. It doesn’t really get used and it might actually affect performance just existing. I’ve been keeping my eye out to see how busy it is and it’s only had a few posts for the last couple of months.

I think I might see about getting a Discord server for the Pub if that would be used more.
 
I’ve decided I’m going to remove the chat room. It doesn’t really get used and it might actually affect performance just existing. I’ve been keeping my eye out to see how busy it is and it’s only had a few posts for the last couple of months.

I think I might see about getting a Discord server for the Pub if that would be used more.
Discord could be nice. I like the idea of a chat room. In part it hasn't worked well for me here because it doesn't integrate well with mobile.
 
Sounds like a good idea, I have a Discord account but don't use it much but would give it a shot for the Pub.
 
Discord could be nice. I like the idea of a chat room. In part it hasn't worked well for me here because it doesn't integrate well with mobile.
To elaborate a little more here. The only time I see the chat room is when I view the page in Desktop Mode from my mobile chrome browser. I have to work to see that it exists and if anyone is on. That seems like one of the two areas of xenforo that I dislike. The other is that I only have an option to see signatures in Desktop Mode.
 
I’ve decided I’m going to remove the chat room. It doesn’t really get used and it might actually affect performance just existing. I’ve been keeping my eye out to see how busy it is and it’s only had a few posts for the last couple of months.

I think I might see about getting a Discord server for the Pub if that would be used more.
I think a chat facility that worked well on mobile might be helpful on PbP games. It's next to impossible to get players on PbP games to discuss stuff on the forum (IC or OOC threads) itself. A chat that worked well on mobile might help. On one or two occasions I've suggested starting whatsapp groups.
 
I admin a Mythras discord with Bilharzia Bilharzia ane find it to be more and more useful. I don’t like it for certain kinds of long discussions because it’s not always the place people search, but it is good for chatting
 
While the chatroom issue is being worked out, please feel free to come visit Randomworlds! It's got a VERY RPGPub vibe -- good friends, no politics.

We're on both IRC and Discord.
 
No one asked me, but when I owned a forum, we had the chat live and visible on most of the forum/subforum pages, at the top. Any forum I've ever been on that had its chat separate from the actual forum led to a splintering, or to a reduction in forum traffic as some people preferred to remain in chat. Having a live chat on each forum page gave people the best of both worlds, and kept them logged into the forum. I used Simple Machines, btw, because it was free. Downsides to a live chat is it requires constant moderation, and if there's any forum drama/cliquishness, it can bleed over. That aside, it really ramped up the sense of community on our board.
 
I used SMF for years (2006-2014). It was good software for its day. I was kind of surprised to see the Site switch to it from vBulletin when I was surfing over there a few days ago. Any forum software that isn’t mobile responsive is past it’s prime.
 
I used SMF for years (2006-2014). It was good software for its day. I was kind of surprised to see the Site switch to it from vBulletin when I was surfing over there a few days ago. Any forum software that isn’t mobile responsive is past it’s prime.

I'd honestly be surprised if that wasn't one of SMF's many mods.
 
I used SMF for years (2006-2014). It was good software for its day. I was kind of surprised to see the Site switch to it from vBulletin when I was surfing over there a few days ago. Any forum software that isn’t mobile responsive is past it’s prime.
Occasionally I surf on the site, but it seems to be mandatory there to have a chip on one's shoulder.
 
I occassionally check out the latest drama bombs on the Site, and read TBP's Infraction boards. Part schadenfreude, part just astoundment at what's become of places I once hung my hat online.

Each time I'm simply more appreciative to have the Pub.
 
That’s part of the fun though. You can always go there for a laugh, shake your head, and come back here. What I don’t get are people who know they should leave but keep banging their head against the wall and come back for more.
 
Sometimes it's amusing, sometimes just stressful or depressing. But that's true of social media and the news these days as well
 
I occassionally check out the latest drama bombs on the Site, and read TBP's Infraction boards. Part schadenfreude, part just astoundment at what's become of places I once hung my hat online.

Each time I'm simply more appreciative to have the Pub.
I mostly just spend my time when I'm not on here searching for sexy ewoks.
 
I occassionally check out the latest drama bombs on the Site, and read TBP's Infraction boards. Part schadenfreude, part just astoundment at what's become of places I once hung my hat online.

Each time I'm simply more appreciative to have the Pub.
Yeah, me too. Rpg.net still has pretty good where I read threads.
 
I occassionally check out the latest drama bombs on the Site, and read TBP's Infraction boards. Part schadenfreude, part just astoundment at what's become of places I once hung my hat online.

Each time I'm simply more appreciative to have the Pub.

I sometimes trawl RPGnet's RPG forums but I mostçy check out VGO -- big, friendly subforum. And steer clear of everything else.

I see nothing else that interests me at the 'Site and that's just sad, but sometimes I log in to read old threads. We had a good run there, I think.
 
I sometimes trawl RPGnet's RPG forums but I mostçy check out VGO -- big, friendly subforum. And steer clear of everything else.

I see nothing else that interests me at the 'Site and that's just sad, but sometimes I log in to read old threads. We had a good run there, I think.

I think peak Site was 2009. Still fresh, still had a lot of different and interesting voices, and the politics didn’t invade main in every other thread.
 
I think peak Site was 2009. Still fresh, still had a lot of different and interesting voices, and the politics didn’t invade main in every other thread.

I joined late 2009 or early 2010, not sure. Politics started getting really annoying circa 2016 IIRC.
 
I joined late 2009 or early 2010, not sure. Politics started getting really annoying circa 2016 IIRC.
Sounds about right. I joined in 2013. Even then it had some weird things like a ban on discussing male circumcision. Besides the sort of obvious why would you have to discuss that on an RPG forum it, banning it should have been a red flag.
 
I took a trip down memory lane, rereading some old threads from TheSite way back when. We had our fun times

site.JPG

From what I could tell, the tone of the place overall started to change around 2015, with the fallout effect on the hobbysphere of Gamergate. By 2016 Jennifer Aniston had embraced politics completely over storygaming as their controvery of choice, and a conspicuous amount of myfarog fans were starting to show up.
 
I took a trip down memory lane, rereading some old threads from TheSite way back when. We had our fun times

View attachment 22503

From what I could tell, the tone of the place overall started to change around 2015, with the fallout effect on the hobbysphere of Gamergate. By 2016 Jennifer Aniston had embraced politics completely over storygaming as their controvery of choice, and a conspicuous amount of myfarog fans were starting to show up.
Okay... I missed something along the way. How did we end up refering to Pundit as Jennifer Aniston?
 
I took a trip down memory lane, rereading some old threads from TheSite way back when. We had our fun times


From what I could tell, the tone of the place overall started to change around 2015, with the fallout effect on the hobbysphere of Gamergate. By 2016 Jennifer Aniston had embraced politics completely over storygaming as their controvery of choice, and a conspicuous amount of myfarog fans were starting to show up.

The year of the publication of Dark Albion interestingly, which would seem to be some evidence for Rob Conley's view that the politics increasingly became a marketing tool.
 
I think it was 15 or 16 I finally quit the Site, after the "arguing for the sake of arguing" pissed me off enough. Like, compared to the other place, I prefer to be stabbed in the face rather than in the back... but not every situation needs to be solved via stabbing, y'know?

I took a trip down memory lane, rereading some old threads from TheSite way back when. We had our fun times

View attachment 22503

From what I could tell, the tone of the place overall started to change around 2015, with the fallout effect on the hobbysphere of Gamergate. By 2016 Jennifer Aniston had embraced politics completely over storygaming as their controvery of choice, and a conspicuous amount of myfarog fans were starting to show up.
Don't forget the time Jennifer ran Benoist off the forum for having (Fair and legit) criticisms of the 5e starter set, because having "worked on it" in some nebulous manner Jennifer needed to defend it AT ALL COSTS.

I think it had started to fall apart a few years earlier, when the Site seemed to want to define itself as anti-arr pee gee dot net rather than have it's own identity. Remember how excited folk were when arr pee gee dot net sold them some ad space?
 
I think it was 15 or 16 I finally quit the Site, after the "arguing for the sake of arguing" pissed me off enough. Like, compared to the other place, I prefer to be stabbed in the face rather than in the back... but not every situation needs to be solved via stabbing, y'know?
This is perhaps the most annoying thing about RPG forums in general. A lot of places have folks (sometimes well respected regulars) who will dive-bomb a thread and come up with a of shitpost full of shifting goalposts and straw man arguments about how your proposal is the dumbest thing ever. It sails past the realms of robust debate and into flaming and putdowns, and does so with depressing regularity in some places.

There's not much point in engaging with folks who do this sort of thing as they're basically not acting in good faith. I've largely given up trying to have informed discussions about game or setting design, for example, as you will get far more of these posts than anything relevant, well thought out or (god forbid) helpful.

Not everything needs 'robust debate,' and nothing needs cheap rhetorical tricks. One of the nicer aspects of the pub is that most of the regulars here are more mature than that.
 
Last edited:
I think it was 15 or 16 I finally quit the Site, after the "arguing for the sake of arguing" pissed me off enough. Like, compared to the other place, I prefer to be stabbed in the face rather than in the back... but not every situation needs to be solved via stabbing, y'know?


Don't forget the time Jennifer ran Benoist off the forum for having (Fair and legit) criticisms of the 5e starter set, because having "worked on it" in some nebulous manner Jennifer needed to defend it AT ALL COSTS.

I think it had started to fall apart a few years earlier, when the Site seemed to want to define itself as anti-arr pee gee dot net rather than have it's own identity. Remember how excited folk were when arr pee gee dot net sold them some ad space?
Quick someone get me a meme that shows a friggin huge knife with the quote
"A knife. If it's not working you're not using a big enough one!"
 
I took a trip down memory lane, rereading some old threads from TheSite way back when. We had our fun times

View attachment 22503

From what I could tell, the tone of the place overall started to change around 2015, with the fallout effect on the hobbysphere of Gamergate. By 2016 Jennifer Aniston had embraced politics completely over storygaming as their controvery of choice, and a conspicuous amount of myfarog fans were starting to show up.

Yes, we did. When the ‘Site was good it was really, really good.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top