The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
I have become a fairly irregular visitor to this sight. (mainly due to things like work exams and games) and I have just been bumped off the top 100 posters a couple of days ago. I just wanted to say its interesting to see how this site has evolved since it started. Only Grix,Ant,me and a couple of others (and are still around)have been here since somewhere near the start about 500 days ago (I won game a day sometime last june). Its amazing how quickly this site has grown. In the begining for the first 3 months posts were very irregular. We averaged about 15 every day and it was months before the first forum past 1000 posts. Last Summer the most popular forums were N64, Perfect Dark and Future of Gaming. Now it has changed dramatically the posts must approach the thousand mark each day all the forums are buzzing however the n64 one is dying of a bit. The major posters from the earlier days are falling down the posters list and are being replaced by newer wider range of members with new ideas and opinions and the site is growing quickly. Sometimes I think there are to many Junk posts but generally the quality of peoples posts has increased in the last couple of months. Originally the site was just a big white list with blue writing with all threads following onto each other. The site has become somuch asier to navigate in its new form. I'll probably start posting a bit more regularly now as I like the way the site has changed and I hope it continues to grow with hopefully new and interesting material.
How do other older members feel about how the site has grown up?
How do other older members feel about how the site has grown up?
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How long have you been on that forum?
Yes FM-beware of the growing WWF Forum.
Growing in quality, as well as size.
Growing in quality, as well as size.
I have been around a fair old while now. It is very strange, looking back at the old style of SR discusions compared to now. I was chrizzyt back then though, a poor qulaity poster with one GAD to his name, damn I was proud! Ah memories.
Nicely put FM :D
Sheepy (doesn't care about word count as post above shows)
Sheepy (doesn't care about word count as post above shows)
i was here from near the start....
i got started 496 days ago....
actually though i only really started posting at these forums about three quaters of a year ago :)
i got started 496 days ago....
actually though i only really started posting at these forums about three quaters of a year ago :)
The Forums aren't 'forums' as such anymore, they've actually developed into 'Communities' in their own rights.
The old FOG was the main meeting place for the regulars, then when the changes happened, and we had the WWF forum, then the Games split off into separate forums, 'Life, Sport and General' sprang up, mainly all this as a result of all the chatting that was going on in the original FOG instead of good topics.
With the shift in forum emphasis came social changes as well, people found forums that contained like minded people, all discussing their joint favourite topics, and they kinda 'bonded' into groups.
So you have the Ninty's discussing all things Ninty (yes, I do drop by and read it sometimes), and the enthusiasm is palpable in every word. Same with the WWF forum, which, to be honest, some of us only take the micky out of from time to time because we see a rival to our own communities, the WWF forum is probably the most active outside of FOG Chat. The same with other forums, some taking off more than others. Personally, owning a Dreamcast, when I visit the Sega forum I get a feeling of 'being home' where I'm safe to post without being slated for enjoying a 'near-defunct' console.
In each forum, people have discovered friends and like-minded souls, and we all now have little lists of 'Buddies' on our Messenger and ICQ software that we stay in touch with when surfing elsewhere.
These are all great things, the forums are alive and growing daily as Special Reserve continue to drag more people in by the day with enticements of free games, when in reality people are getting sucked into the communities and more often than not finding new friends there.
With the good, as Grix says, comes the bad.
You can post what you feel to be a GAD winner, and within a few minutes watch it plummet down the threads without a reply. A little unnerving. People popping their own topics has always been a problem, but now it happens because of necessity more and more often.
Because we all have our preconceived ideas about each other now, particularly the longstanding members, we tend to forget that in most cases we still know absolutely nothing about these people that we interract with every day. For all you know I could be a nun with a heroine addiction who goes out at night nabbing stray cats to sell for money to vivisectionists to pay for my habit. (Sorry, nun/habit jokes are my favourite). Because these preconceived perceptions are so ingrained now, it's going to be hard to adapt to revelations later on should they arise, which can lead to some amazingly longwinded feuds on the threads from time to time.
In terms of SR's business, the worst aspect in my mind is newbie bashing, made easier by the 'caste' system of notables, regulars, newbies and JATs (Just Arrived Today). We tend to forget that newbies and JATS are just that, and therefore ridicule their console wars and 10 favourite game topics. The lesson here is look at your own last 10 posts, how many of them were actually to do with gaming? I welcome JATs and Newbies, they ALWAYS, without exception, have something new to inject into our discussions, and they DO want to hear our opinions on the wars and our 10 favourite games, because they've just arrived and don't know us. I'd like to see them welcomed more into our communities rather than jumped on.
Finally there's the 'caste' or ranking system of JATs, Newbies, Regulars, Notables. Some are for it some are against it, both sides have very strong arguments. Considering the number of posters here, we NEED something to distinguish the old from the new, so JATs and Newbies is good. The Newbie to Regular conditions are, in my view, a little lax. To me a regular is someone who is here every day without fail (holidays excepted) over a LONG period of time. But it's not my place to set the rules. Then there's Notable Voting, again it's not my place to set the rules, but I'd rather see the staff of SR select the Notables rather than have a voting system dependant on us lot voting.
Becoming a notable IS a very nice thing to have happen, it IS nice to be recognised as having achieved 'something', no matter how insignificant that 'something' is in terms of our own lives. But I'd turn it in anyday and become a regular again because, like most of you, we all know who the notables are, they are up there on the Top Posters boards, although it has to be said that some are notable for spamming more than anything else.
The Top Posters board was my biggest contention of all because of the spamming it encouraged, but balancing that against the encouragement it gives people to continue staying in the forums, it's probably overall a good thing, which is why we still need the 'caste' system as well, it weeds out the real notables from the spammers I guess.
Overall, I've been here nearly a year, I've seen people come and go, others drift away and come back again, but I've made MANY good friends, even though for all I know they could be nuns with habits...
FM: (Getting his wordcount up with this post, heh).
:-)
The old FOG was the main meeting place for the regulars, then when the changes happened, and we had the WWF forum, then the Games split off into separate forums, 'Life, Sport and General' sprang up, mainly all this as a result of all the chatting that was going on in the original FOG instead of good topics.
With the shift in forum emphasis came social changes as well, people found forums that contained like minded people, all discussing their joint favourite topics, and they kinda 'bonded' into groups.
So you have the Ninty's discussing all things Ninty (yes, I do drop by and read it sometimes), and the enthusiasm is palpable in every word. Same with the WWF forum, which, to be honest, some of us only take the micky out of from time to time because we see a rival to our own communities, the WWF forum is probably the most active outside of FOG Chat. The same with other forums, some taking off more than others. Personally, owning a Dreamcast, when I visit the Sega forum I get a feeling of 'being home' where I'm safe to post without being slated for enjoying a 'near-defunct' console.
In each forum, people have discovered friends and like-minded souls, and we all now have little lists of 'Buddies' on our Messenger and ICQ software that we stay in touch with when surfing elsewhere.
These are all great things, the forums are alive and growing daily as Special Reserve continue to drag more people in by the day with enticements of free games, when in reality people are getting sucked into the communities and more often than not finding new friends there.
With the good, as Grix says, comes the bad.
You can post what you feel to be a GAD winner, and within a few minutes watch it plummet down the threads without a reply. A little unnerving. People popping their own topics has always been a problem, but now it happens because of necessity more and more often.
Because we all have our preconceived ideas about each other now, particularly the longstanding members, we tend to forget that in most cases we still know absolutely nothing about these people that we interract with every day. For all you know I could be a nun with a heroine addiction who goes out at night nabbing stray cats to sell for money to vivisectionists to pay for my habit. (Sorry, nun/habit jokes are my favourite). Because these preconceived perceptions are so ingrained now, it's going to be hard to adapt to revelations later on should they arise, which can lead to some amazingly longwinded feuds on the threads from time to time.
In terms of SR's business, the worst aspect in my mind is newbie bashing, made easier by the 'caste' system of notables, regulars, newbies and JATs (Just Arrived Today). We tend to forget that newbies and JATS are just that, and therefore ridicule their console wars and 10 favourite game topics. The lesson here is look at your own last 10 posts, how many of them were actually to do with gaming? I welcome JATs and Newbies, they ALWAYS, without exception, have something new to inject into our discussions, and they DO want to hear our opinions on the wars and our 10 favourite games, because they've just arrived and don't know us. I'd like to see them welcomed more into our communities rather than jumped on.
Finally there's the 'caste' or ranking system of JATs, Newbies, Regulars, Notables. Some are for it some are against it, both sides have very strong arguments. Considering the number of posters here, we NEED something to distinguish the old from the new, so JATs and Newbies is good. The Newbie to Regular conditions are, in my view, a little lax. To me a regular is someone who is here every day without fail (holidays excepted) over a LONG period of time. But it's not my place to set the rules. Then there's Notable Voting, again it's not my place to set the rules, but I'd rather see the staff of SR select the Notables rather than have a voting system dependant on us lot voting.
Becoming a notable IS a very nice thing to have happen, it IS nice to be recognised as having achieved 'something', no matter how insignificant that 'something' is in terms of our own lives. But I'd turn it in anyday and become a regular again because, like most of you, we all know who the notables are, they are up there on the Top Posters boards, although it has to be said that some are notable for spamming more than anything else.
The Top Posters board was my biggest contention of all because of the spamming it encouraged, but balancing that against the encouragement it gives people to continue staying in the forums, it's probably overall a good thing, which is why we still need the 'caste' system as well, it weeds out the real notables from the spammers I guess.
Overall, I've been here nearly a year, I've seen people come and go, others drift away and come back again, but I've made MANY good friends, even though for all I know they could be nuns with habits...
FM: (Getting his wordcount up with this post, heh).
:-)
Ant as far as I know you are pretty much the only person who has been here as long as me so do you know what happened to.
Fogmaster and my old N64 ally Sopdragon. Did they leave or change names?
Fogmaster and my old N64 ally Sopdragon. Did they leave or change names?
Will you people please try and just talk about the topics instead of criticising spelling mistakes.
Jesus, you write me a 10,000 word essay on the usages of linguistics in the written form and then I'll happily read you telling everyone how to spell.
Jesus, you write me a 10,000 word essay on the usages of linguistics in the written form and then I'll happily read you telling everyone how to spell.
Dan2K1 has also been here a long time.
On the Dreamcast forum we had a very long discussion about a year ago, when every reply had it's own 'topic.' Every time we posted a reply, more of these: ////// were next to it!! By the last post there were about 40 of them!
Imagine the WLT if every reply had it's own topic!
Anyway, the site is so much better, it's unbelievable. It used to take ages for the PS2 Forum to load-as it was 'so big,' now it takes no time at all, even though it's double the size.
As you've all put, it's much easier to navigate, and the GAD and FAD is a huge success.
One other thing that makes these forums so great is the effort Tony, Ali, Joe, Webmaster and other put in. They ALWAYS listen to our suggestions, and Tony is the boss of SR-yet he still finds time to visit the forums.
The quality of posts is amazing now. When I first joined myself and Edgy were arguing rather childishly with posts like, "Sony rule," and ,"Sony are crap."
Of course, we do still get some newbies posting like this, but they learn.
Just like we did. No one on these FOG Forums (well, none of the respected posters anyway,) argue stupidly and are VERY biased. We're all a little biased, but now we use reasonable and thoughtful arguments, rather than childish and petty arguments.
Although there has been a newbie invasion of late, it's nice to see the Notables, most of the regulars and even people like Ashley coming back to visit the site.
So overall, the forums have become much more crowded (although that's not neccesarily bad) and have improved dramtically. These forums are a compliment to SR.
Well done everyone-I've enjoyed my time on these forums.
Thanks for reading, Ant.
{:) "ONCE YOU POP, YOU CAN'T STOP!!" CLASSIQUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On the Dreamcast forum we had a very long discussion about a year ago, when every reply had it's own 'topic.' Every time we posted a reply, more of these: ////// were next to it!! By the last post there were about 40 of them!
Imagine the WLT if every reply had it's own topic!
Anyway, the site is so much better, it's unbelievable. It used to take ages for the PS2 Forum to load-as it was 'so big,' now it takes no time at all, even though it's double the size.
As you've all put, it's much easier to navigate, and the GAD and FAD is a huge success.
One other thing that makes these forums so great is the effort Tony, Ali, Joe, Webmaster and other put in. They ALWAYS listen to our suggestions, and Tony is the boss of SR-yet he still finds time to visit the forums.
The quality of posts is amazing now. When I first joined myself and Edgy were arguing rather childishly with posts like, "Sony rule," and ,"Sony are crap."
Of course, we do still get some newbies posting like this, but they learn.
Just like we did. No one on these FOG Forums (well, none of the respected posters anyway,) argue stupidly and are VERY biased. We're all a little biased, but now we use reasonable and thoughtful arguments, rather than childish and petty arguments.
Although there has been a newbie invasion of late, it's nice to see the Notables, most of the regulars and even people like Ashley coming back to visit the site.
So overall, the forums have become much more crowded (although that's not neccesarily bad) and have improved dramtically. These forums are a compliment to SR.
Well done everyone-I've enjoyed my time on these forums.
Thanks for reading, Ant.
{:) "ONCE YOU POP, YOU CAN'T STOP!!" CLASSIQUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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