How about replacing the forum colors with game appropriate ones then. :P Oh wait, that’s INSIDE THE BOX (pun intended!) thinking. lol
@Field:
@Cow:
I think there are too many A&A related websites and forums. � We need to combine them all into A&A.org
This sounds wise.
It won’t work. Every forum has its own flavor and identity. Each forum can potentially create many different kinds of content on their own platforms. If you put them all together you will loose the overall creativity. Forum owners loose control of their own vision and it becomes watered down. If we come here we cannot have signatures, if you go to the Underground we are a support forum and WotC Bashing isn’t allowed, if we go to the Forumini you play by their rules and so on.
A&A.org needs to reinvent itself and its going to take some thinking outside the box to get us there.
No WOTC bashing there? Is that what you want here? If not, then we’re on the same page. If so, you don’t think it’s fair to criticize a company for creating so many board mistakes when asking for my money? All the WOTC bashers are still buying its products. I wasn’t sure the inference of that comment. Just wanted to give you the opportunity to clarify.
No there is no WotC bashing on the Underground, we don’t whine about stuff, we fix it! No, I don’t want to merge forums. My point was you can’t consolidate all the forums together successfully without splintering the groups and you just verified it by your statement. Frankly if A&A.org is struggling why should successful venues move here? So lets forget consolidating forums together and find another more creative homegrown solution.
Everybody complains about signatures but nobody has an explanation why they are a good feature. I, personally, try to stay away from forums with signatures because it burns my eyes to have to read that crap between posts. Create a forum profile to advertise your cool minis repaints or whatever. I don’t need to see them every time you say something.
We struggle with the same problems that many forums do or have at some point. Not because we’re special but because forums are intrinsically broken at this time in internet history. They are archaic, out-dated, and have not advanced since 1999 (that’s 13 years) but there is nothing else.
I both agree and disagree with the statement about forums and identities.
Agree: different games in the same continent, different contents with the same game. To me, that makes a lot of sense. Also a very small group of folks in a smaller region sorta makes sense too, although email sometimes does good enough for that.
Disagree: does there really need to be 2 North American based A&A forums dedicated to the board game? No. I might agree that the board game forums and the minis forums could live independently. But why are there 2-3 major minis forums for a game that may or may not continue? I don’t really buy the flavor and mission of the forums thing. You can create a sub community of players within an existing board. The true problem is this moderation thing. The community should be the moderator, not individuals. Look at StackOverflow, they have a vibrant community that works and there are it is “moderated” by the community.
Forums are broken. I don’t have a quick fix.
In regards to signature lines I agree with David 100%. I don’t want to have threads broken up by repeats of a signature line. If one must do this one can copy and paste something after every post and endure the negativity that would be forthcoming from the rest either expressed or internalized.
Background colours specific to each flavour of the game for each sub-forum would be kind of cool touch.
I have seen signature lines work (Larry’s site for one) but then, it’s differentiated. The problem here (reading wise) wasn’t the signatures, it was the format of the page. If you want my unqualified opinion.
Do I want them back? I dunno. We got rid of some of the more ludicrous individuals finally, so the reason of getting their vulgarity out of signature lines does not exist anymore. Do I think we should have them back? Nah. To be honest, we survive without them.
Karma was just abused ROYALLY.
As for fixing the site to draw more users, I’d say bring the TripleA folks over for your more users but more importantly FIX THE FRAGGIN TRIPLEA GAME with all the glitches, memory leaks and incorrect rules! Sorry, personal rant there. I’m boycotting the program again until they fix it - sick of getting 2 or 3 game turns in and having it crash. Better to go back to Play by USPS!
I’ve heard that lots of people try to create new accounts, and that they are deleted for being suspected of “spam” or “bots”.
I’ve noticed lots of people complaining that they can’t seem to make accounts here. And that is only the ones who able to find a way to complain. I would think that 99% of people who’s first account is deleted, just don’t come back at all.
Perhaps using better captchas and giving players the benefit of the doubt by allowing all new accounts, would help increase the user base?
(i also agree about signatures, I don’t like them most of the time)
But, as WOTC and Hasbro are finding out, boardgames are dying out for the replacements demanded by this newer generation.Â
I agree that electronic games have lots of attraction for some poeple, but I wouldn’t go as far as saying that board games are dying out; if that were the case, BoardGameGeek would be a dying website instead of the highly active one it is. When hex-and-counter games became all the rage a few decades ago, hobbyists similarly predicted that miniatures-based wargaming would soon die. Instead, it became one gaming niche among many – a smaller one than in the days where miniatures games had a monopoly, but still an active hobby with its devotees and with companies catering to it…including WotC, when it launched A&A Miniatures just a few years ago. New forms of gaming aren’t necessarily replacements for older types; I think of them more as supplements and alternates that cater to different tastes.
Not because we’re special but because forums are intrinsically broken at this time in internet history. They are archaic, out-dated, and have not advanced since 1999 (that’s 13 years) but there is nothing else. Forums are broken. I don’t have a quick fix.
Could you expand on this a bit by explaining in what way they’re broken and outdated? I don’t see how those two adjectives apply to our forums here, which I find highly valuable.
Is this still happening? Right now I’m only deleting accounts that never login and ones that have never posted within the past 90 days.
All they have to do is post once to introduce themselves and all is good.
I’ve heard that lots of people try to create new accounts, and that they are deleted for being suspected of “spam” or “bots”.
I’ve noticed lots of people complaining that they can’t seem to make accounts here. And that is only the ones who able to find a way to complain. I would think that 99% of people who’s first account is deleted, just don’t come back at all.
Perhaps using better captchas and giving players the benefit of the doubt by allowing all new accounts, would help increase the user base?
(i also agree about signatures, I don’t like them most of the time)
