Eyes on Final Fantasy: Posting Activity History

[Madame Adequate]

Hey, don't look at me, I'm in the top 20 posters.

But seriously I think one problem is that the staff are somewhat set in their ways. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but it's possible that good ideas have been rejected because, ultimately, change is feared. (That's an oversimplification, and not to suggest that any proposed changes haven't gone through which should have, but when you look at the difficulty we had getting 80x80 avatars... God help an attempt at a serious overhaul of the site's policies or the like.)

I also think there may be a slight excess of zeal at times. Sometimes people earn their bannings - Roto's a case in point, and although we'll miss his activity, he clearly stepped over the line a few times too many. On the other hand, we do sometimes get threads that get zapped too zealously, people banned seemingly for being annoying rather than any actual rules infraction, and similar.

I don't think the root of the problem is the staff, but I do think the staff might be an obstacle to fixing the problems at times. The thing is, the problems are significantly more than a competition or the like will fix - whilst things like that are a good idea, a spike in posting for a couple of weeks while that's underway (And in all probability not that much of a spike) isn't going to fix the endemic problems which are clearly in existence. Similarly, fun things like EoY, the Ciddies, whatever - they're not retaining members and they're not increasing membership. And when it comes to ads, well yes, the place sucks when you look at it without adblock of some sort, but the point isn't that we're not attracting new members, but we're not even retaining existing ones. People who either do have adblock, or have been around long enough that they're used to the ads (God help any such soul).

Also, it's a cyclical effect. When I hop onto EoFF, I'll look for interesting posts above all else. I'm simply not very good at making threads so I tend to have to rely on others for that, so when threads are rarely posted in, I don't get as much chance to drive up activity myself.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

To be brutally honest, the only thing I can see happening right now is EoFF continuing it's slow, downward death spiral.

To continue the community, someone would basically have to make a new site that we could do with as we pleased.

And as some have noted, Final Fantasy just isn't really too popular right now, and Square-Enix games in general have been declining in quality and are overpriced as hell (the "Square-Enix tax" as my friends and I refer to it as).

My proposal would be to make BoB go and buy a forum and then we'll all hop over and fix it up. Also make the theme more broad, such as RPGs in general or something.

[demondude]

I like that idea.

[qwertysaur]

To be brutally honest, the only thing I can see happening right now is EoFF continuing it's slow, downward death spiral.

To continue the community, someone would basically have to make a new site that we could do with as we pleased.

And as some have noted, Final Fantasy just isn't really too popular right now, and Square-Enix games in general have been declining in quality and are overpriced as hell (the "Square-Enix tax" as my friends and I refer to it as).

My proposal would be to make BoB go and buy a forum and then we'll all hop over and fix it up. Also make the theme more broad, such as RPGs in general or something.

As brutal as that sounds, it is also a possible solution. Only thing is I feel it's wrong to force only BoB to pay for a new forum for everybody. Instead, we could all help pay for the overhead, and have donations like when Cid owned EoFF. We each donate around 5 dollars. If 50 people do that, it's $250 right there. It also keeps the ads away.

[demondude]

Uuh .... I'd donate my support.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

To be brutally honest, the only thing I can see happening right now is EoFF continuing it's slow, downward death spiral.

To continue the community, someone would basically have to make a new site that we could do with as we pleased.

And as some have noted, Final Fantasy just isn't really too popular right now, and Square-Enix games in general have been declining in quality and are overpriced as hell (the "Square-Enix tax" as my friends and I refer to it as).

My proposal would be to make BoB go and buy a forum and then we'll all hop over and fix it up. Also make the theme more broad, such as RPGs in general or something.

As brutal as that sounds, it is also a possible solution. Only thing is I feel it's wrong to force only BoB to pay for a new forum for everybody. Instead, we could all help pay for the overhead, and have donations like when Cid owned EoFF. We each donate around 5 dollars. If 50 people do that, it's $250 right there. It also keeps the ads away.

You're ruining my master plan in which I make BoB do all the work though

That said, I too would help donate to a new site.

[Goldenboko]

I suppose now we come to a question, how far are we willing to go to spark activity, and will the owners get involved?

Getting rid of the ads on this site, advertising on other sites, branching out, and give a reason to continually visit the frontsite (easier said then done).

The real problem is... realistically there's little reason to visit EoFF now. Helpsites (gamefaqs) have diminished the needs to ask the fanbase questions, art-only and writing-only sites (DevianArt) have robbed EoFF of a real creative fanart/fiction section, etc. That's the real problem. This is why Behold the Void has the best solution, the mere specificness of the site renders it outdated.

[Flying Mullet]

What kind of site would this be?

[qwertysaur]

Then we destroy Gamefaqs and Deviantart?

Edit: Eyes on Role Playing games?

[Flying Mullet]

We start a World War on the internet? Intriguing...

[Tavrobel]

I suppose now we come to a question, how far are we willing to go to spark activity, and will the owners get involved?

People talk big, but very few people are willing to do anything about it. And the general rule of thumb is that the owners will not get involved unless it affects them. Unfortunately, almost every action that can be taken by the community would be detrimental to them.

[Flying Mullet]

As long as this site brings in revenue, the owners won't do anything. They'll spend their energies elsewhere and leave this site to do it's thing.

[demondude]

[Goldenboko]

What kind of site would this be?

Then we destroy Gamefaqs and Deviantart?

Edit: Eyes on Role Playing games?

We start a World War on the internet? Intriguing...

As much as I love the idea of destroying other internet sites, we do not yet have the power. :/

Perhaps the best overall strategy would be to branch out, as qwerty said Eyes on Role Playing games, only with a bigger zing to it (EoRP? Fail name D. Some kind of unique aspect would be nice as well. "Yugiohtheabridgedseries.com" forums get a lot activity, because the frontsite has a UNIQUE aspect to it.

I suppose now we come to a question, how far are we willing to go to spark activity, and will the owners get involved?

People talk big, but very few people are willing to do anything about it. And the general rule of thumb is that the owners will not get involved unless it affects them. Unfortunately, almost every action that can be taken by the community would be detrimental to them.

The numbers talk big here too though. If we could even get a solid core of members to dedicate themselves to making something new something could be done. I think a big change is needed if we want EoFF to not spiral down into death, but of course your right we need people who care.

[qwertysaur]

So there is a third solution, drive this site into the ground, get the owners to sell it to us, then delete the stuff that drove it down in the first place, then extend EoFF to encompass the entire RPG genre