Make your voices heard, or else. Splendid.

[Skinner8]

Well, anyway, this isn't the place for site suggestions...

[Clive]

In an ideal world this thread will hopefully give you a little kick up the arse and encourage you all to post some interesting stuff with which we can all enjoy a good, hearty debate. Unfortunately, however, it isnt an ideal world - but we are all aware that this place hasnt been that lively for a while. But as Ive said to my fellow mods and admins, we've been here before, ridden the storm and came out (to my mind at least) better for it...however, standards are slipping.

Perhaps to an extent us moderators have become complacent. Perhaps we too can be accused of not being overly active. However, there is still a great core community here, and I firmly believe we can turn this place into the premier place not just for emulation discussion, but for a chat with your friends, a place to blow off steam, whatver. Its in our hands and only we can make this place into something a bit special.

So get posting. Seen a good film? Let us know about it. Had an interesting thought about an issue that could affect us all? Share it. Found an awesome girl (heh, see the positive vibe thread), and want to tell everyone? Then do so.

I thank you.

[Cyberxion]

Complacent? How so, exactly? It seems as if you believe standards are slipping, so what do you percieve as being problem areas? What can we as moderators be doing better? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

[Clive]

The allowance of spam to dictate the boards, for a start. Im all for off-topic discussion but a lot of it has become silly, and yeah, I too have been guilty of this, so Im in no way shrugging off the blame - some of us just need to pull up our proverbial socks I guess.

Ive seen quite a bit of baiting between members recently too, it would seem that some are too quick to judge and to snap at the heels of other members. We need to chill out a bit and be a bit more welcoming and more accomadating too, of members whose English isnt too great, or who havent the luxury of English being their first language.

I think its high time we pruned our members list again, including inactive moderators. As a counterbalance, I think it would be nice for a more welcoming environment for new members, maybe a true introductory sub-forum, for instance, that new people would be locked into until they posted to say hello, or something. Little touches like that are the ones that are remembered.

[Deach]

As a counterbalance, I think it would be nice for a more welcoming environment for new members, maybe a true introductory sub-forum, for instance, that new people would be locked into until they posted to say hello, or something. Little touches like that are the ones that are remembered.

I like that idea. Make it so they need about 5 posts or something in this sub-forum, you talk about. Maybe that would stop people from registering just to complain about something too.

[polobunny]

Some people stick here, some don't. Maybe just not bothering to make more people stick, but starting by making this place a cooler place for people already there.

That would be your first mission, Cyberxion.
This message will auto destroy himself in 5 second.

[Cyberxion]

Hmn. So I guess I shouldn't post then?

As far as spam goes, we decided quite awhile ago to remove the reigns and let the horses run wild. If it's an issue now, it's because I don't think any of us really know just where to draw the line.

I suppose the only way to deal with this issue would be to reinstate the anti-spam rules, or at least come up with some very clear-cut definitions as to what is and isn't aloud. I find myself complacent regarding spam, because I'm not completely sure what to do about it. With a clear cut rule set in effect, we'd avoid any confusion amongst both members and mods.

As for the rest, I agree.

[Clive]

I dont think its complacency as such, moreover a disregarding of spam that leads to a deterioration of a topics content. You'll have to bear with me a little, and excuse my wording, as I have a cold and its 20 to 3 in the morning.

Polobunny, I agree with what you said too. I think that would come with more people joining and sticking around, which in turn would see activity increase. Its just getting people to browse around the forums and see that it is a good place to come, to see that it is a bit of a laugh. At present, and because they can, theyre just coming here, getting what they want, then sodding off again. Which is fine to a degree, but in the last year moreso than any other time members have left and not been replaced. Before there was a natural turnaround of members, old ones left and new ones joined, but at present people just arent staying around. Synonamous with the lifting of the post rule on the Request Forum? Possibly. Maybe its only now we are seeing the longer-term effects of that.

[Cyberxion]

I think it's quite the stretch to say that, but I suppose we can't rule out anything at this point.

[polobunny]

I think now that anyone agrees this forum/website is going down, maybe slowly, but down for sure. Now someone gotta make the first step(s) to start this revolution.

Mods and Administrators, start your engines!

Not too long ago, someone posted about a Genesis emulator he was working on. We need to keep this kind of people obviously. Same goes for all the good releasers. But as time pass, they get bored and slowly go away.

I just wish more people would talk about what they think is the best for EP. Even though I think the arcade hack, and a "vip" tracker would be great ideaa, some people may not think it is. Only about 15 members posted in this thread, while I can think of more than 25 really active members.

I would also be interested in hearing the voice of newer members, what they like in EP, what they hate, what they beleive EP is, and mostly, what they hope they will get when joining the EP community. Those newer members will maybe become the new generation of EP "long lasting" members, that's why I think they also have the right to talk/to be heard.
They reflect what EP should be, in it's best look.

Another thing. I don't want to just bash it in again and again, but we should try to find a way to fix the double thread/posts problems, aswell as the impossible to make a new thread/post problem. It really annoys some members (now mostly new members which doesn't know about the problem).

Making the first step is always hard, and what newer members search is to be first recognized as a good/helpful member of the community. (most DO want that...)
Not being able to post while they want to help, just sounds like EP was refusing newer members, even though it's not anyone's fault.


I beleive the idea Deach was talking about (making a place where new members would be locked until they had 5 posts only to introduce theirselves and stuff) would help a bit, they would feel a bit more confident, because a thread/section would be reserved to them. But, that may cause another problem, newbies hurrying to post 5 unuseful posts, only to gain access to more interesting parts of the forums...

[Ryan]

The idea of a newb zone is a good idea. But ive been noticing that most members that have under 5 posts dont ever come back, or they do and they post once a month. So itll be like the the member there would be all alone and no-one to talk to. So that may and may not work, we should test it and find out. On the other note about the dieing forums around here. Its all b/c people just go to the main site and download like crazy and dont really bother to sign up for the forums to chat and talk about games. All there thinkin is "Allright another site that I dont have to join to download stuff". Maybe we should implement a lock on the download page to where you must join the forums and have "X" amount of posts before you can gain access to all the downloads. We really need to do something to make this place alive again, like it used to be when I first joined, and like polobunny said theres about 25-30 active membrs that come here out of how many 10,000+. Thats pretty sad. If we're gonna do something to make this place full again, we need to do it now. *Sigh* Im done.

[Skinner8]

If the main site's downloads required you to have a certain amount of posts, that would get people to complain and spam here.

But, hmm... How about a sub-forum for like... Projects you're involved in? Like that Genesis emulator, people could post about things they made like that in there. I think that could work.


I'm going to guess Clive closed and unstickied the personality test thread so people could start making their own smaller threads on the subject every once in a while. This sounds good to me.

[djnickname]

Sprung posted a suggestion of mine in the staff section and it was about the members that are registering here to request things. I suggest the request section is locked until someone has 50+ posts or something.

[Deach]

Sprung posted a suggestion of mine in the staff section and it was about the members that are registering here to request things. I suggest the request section is locked until someone has 50+ posts or something.

Wouldn't that just lead to more spam though?

[djnickname]

Wouldn't that just lead to more spam though?

Maybe , but if you see that someone would spam up the forums it would turn into a ban.
What I saw at another forum is that members where locked at a place where they first had to sign a form , then a admin needed to approve it and then they could post.
So they needed to sign why they wanna join , how they found the forums , what they can mean etc etc ..that could be a idea maybe .. ( and if they are approved and the first thing they do is asking for games and screaming for a reseed will turn into a ban.)

Or another idea.

Many of these members are comming from SN , now if people upload there torrents to SN they aren't allow to relate the torrent to emuparadise , this way people never know where the torrents are from and they will never come here