We need fresh blood- dont we?

[TheEgoWhip]

So this ISN'T a post about True Blood then???

[th'FOOL]

That said, I'm content to be a minor part of a small clique, although I wish it was adding members at the same rate that it loses them. I further wish that those new members included more nymphomaniacs of the nubile young female variety. We have enough middle-aged male science fiction nerds already.

All of the young females seem to be flocking to our facebook page.

[TheEgoWhip]

I have always felt like a peripheral member of the forums. I don't read them during the day and I rarely post on a thread.  I have been fairly active in the online gaming part of the group. EQ1 as a Gone Golder, SWG and WoW as a Wanderer, MW2, Black Ops as a GTer.  I may be doomed to remain a forum lurker, but I do appreciate that your all here. Heck I came to this forum for over a year before I realized there WAS a main page.

[th'FOOL]

Tell me oh wise one, what am I not aware of?

Heck I came to this forum for over a year before I realized there WAS a main page.

This is what I was talking about. 

[Kagath]

My problem with the front page is that it loads so slow for me. All the social network integration bogs it down too much so I skip it. Seems to be better now but initially with this design it was unbearable.

[metallicorphan]

yeah its a shame with the front page,because i can see you guys do a good job(Fantastic job infact),it looks great and you are up to date with the newest stories etc,but i just use the forums to talk about whatever it is i want to talk about

I hope 'new blood' coming to GT,doesn't come to the front page and think no one posts on here because of seeing all those great topics with no comments is pretty sad to see,however i am glad you say that the front page is getting more hits now..but it is a bit slow for me as well(I've had slower  )

[AWS260]

If the lurkers would just post every once in a while...

[corruptrelic]

My problem with the front page is that it loads so slow for me. All the social network integration bogs it down too much so I skip it. Seems to be better now but initially with this design it was unbearable.

Same here. I tested it again just a few minutes ago with Google Chrome and it completely froze up, so I went out and made dinner, came back and it was finished loading.

[th'FOOL]

The "front page loads too slow" stuff is curious to me. Our page speed rank on google is 90 out of a hundred (which kicks the shit out of 90% of the other gaming sites out there). We just started using a CDN for the entirety of the site which speeds it up even more (including other page caching tricks and such). Comments definitely picked up during E3 when we were running facebook promotions and some FB commenting integrations we implemented are helping too (though it has been a little dead lately n that area- pretty standard for that time of year tho).

Regardless, it isn't as good as we want it but I feel we are making steps in the right direction. The new community feature stuff we are testing should help out a lot tho.

[th'FOOL]

My problem with the front page is that it loads so slow for me. All the social network integration bogs it down too much so I skip it. Seems to be better now but initially with this design it was unbearable.

Same here. I tested it again just a few minutes ago with Google Chrome and it completely froze up, so I went out and made dinner, came back and it was finished loading.

Chrome, I assume PC? I'm going to look at the load order of javascript on the page and see what further tweaks I can do. This should not be happening at all.

[Gromit]

FWIW, I lurk a helluva lot more than I post.  I imagine that's a common theme.

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

FWIW, I lurk a helluva lot more than I post.  I imagine that's a common theme.

You know it.

[Ironrod]

That said, I'm content to be a minor part of a small clique, although I wish it was adding members at the same rate that it loses them. I further wish that those new members included more nymphomaniacs of the nubile young female variety. We have enough middle-aged male science fiction nerds already.

All of the young females seem to be flocking to our facebook page.

After I made that quip I got to wondering: Are there any actual females here? Girls of GT, sound off!

[Purge]

[Nonnahob]

Can't think of a single female here.

[Purge]

Mytocles -also, we have some female staff. Ceekay, for instance.

Or Hepcat, on weekends.

[CeeKay]

Can't think of a single female here.

no puckered love caves for us on GT.

[USMC Kato]

My wife posted here for me when I was deployed but I guess that doesn't count 

[wonderpug]

Can anyone who also frequents the Gamers with Jobs forums weigh in on why their forum population seems so much more self-sustaining?  I think the forum cultures there and here are pretty different, but the overall demographics are very similar. Have they just reached a critical mass that we are below? Is their targeting (e.g., their name) that much more likely to lure in people like us? The site content? The forum integration with the site content? A more alluring forum culture? The mascot?

[EngineNo9]

I definitely feel the lack of posts for the last year or two.  It's always so disappointing to see a game I'm really excited for and maybe one other person here actually cares (or at least responds so I don't feel so alone).

On the other hand, I don't want to see this just become a site with throw-away comments put at the bottom of a news post never to be looked at again after a day.  I like the small community and history here, I just wish it wasn't quite so small or full of lurkers. 

[Eel Snave]

I'll be honest... I don't mind the small group of people. It's nice knowing the people you're posting with, knowing who's responding to your comments, as opposed to "XxHeroMan2887xX" or something like that.

For that reason, I just plain don't go to any other forums. At all. That's just me though.

[TiLT]

I think many of you may be forgetting an important factor here: Since we're a tight-knit community, we're also much harder to fit into for someone on the outside. It happens to all small social circles. A lot of us know each other from more than 10 years ago, which I think is highly unusual for Internet communities. "Newbies" might feel that our community is impenetrable for them and thus give up before they've even tried.

[corruptrelic]

My problem with the front page is that it loads so slow for me. All the social network integration bogs it down too much so I skip it. Seems to be better now but initially with this design it was unbearable.

Same here. I tested it again just a few minutes ago with Google Chrome and it completely froze up, so I went out and made dinner, came back and it was finished loading.

Chrome, I assume PC? I'm going to look at the load order of javascript on the page and see what further tweaks I can do. This should not be happening at all.

Yes Chrome on PC. I'm exaggerating the load times, it's probably in the 20 second range to load the front page. It usually locks the computer where I can't do anything else on it (such as browsing another tab while waiting for GT to load) which is why I tend to just skip the main page.

Thought we had two main females here msduncan (Ms. Duncan) and Victoria .. but they turned out to be dudes too!

[Harkonis]

I EAT NOOBS! 

[Caine]

I EAT NOOBS! 

yeah, about that.  we are gonna need you to use this. 

[forgeforsaken]

This place has too many subforums IMO.   Too many places to check for posts especially with the low volume.
Discussion would probably be increased by consolidating the forums.

[metallicorphan]

This place has too many subforums IMO.   Too many places to check for posts especially with the low volume.
Discussion would probably be increased by consolidating the forums.

Oh,i was going to suggest to add a Sports Forum,LOL

[forgeforsaken]

This place has too many subforums IMO.   Too many places to check for posts especially with the low volume.
Discussion would probably be increased by consolidating the forums.

Oh,i was going to suggest to add a Sports Forum,LOL

Eh that might be fine, I'm mostly looking at games where there's what 6 game subforums.  Places like QT3 and GAF have a single game forum, Broken Forum has effectively 2, maybe 3 if you count their let's play dedicated forum.

[rshetts2]

This place has too many subforums IMO.   Too many places to check for posts especially with the low volume.
Discussion would probably be increased by consolidating the forums.

Oh,i was going to suggest to add a Sports Forum,LOL

Eh that might be fine, I'm mostly looking at games where there's what 6 game subforums.  Places like QT3 and GAF have a single game forum, Broken Forum has effectively 2, maybe 3 if you count their let's play dedicated forum.

Agreed.  It always seemed silly to have separate forums for console and PC as well as two multiplayer forums.  There really are not enough console or PC exclusive games to warrant the separation.   And considering the vehemence that abounds in the sports topics they could just roll that into Politics and religion   
 Sometimes less is better, consolidation would be a good idea.

[wonderpug]

This place has too many subforums IMO.   Too many places to check for posts especially with the low volume.
Discussion would probably be increased by consolidating the forums.

I keep feeling like I'm the only one who browses the forums exclusively via the "view all unread" button.

[Harkonis]

Is there a 'view all unread except P&R, Steals and Deals, and Trades' option?

[wonderpug]

I think many of you may be forgetting an important factor here: Since we're a tight-knit community, we're also much harder to fit into for someone on the outside. It happens to all small social circles. A lot of us know each other from more than 10 years ago, which I think is highly unusual for Internet communities. "Newbies" might feel that our community is impenetrable for them and thus give up before they've even tried.

This is true, but we're losing regulars and not gaining replacements. I meet people on other forums who seem like they would mesh well with our crew, but of course, those people are generally already happy with said other forum.

I don't think we're in a full on life support situation here, but just look at how the bovine OO spinoff went to see what can happen when you have a very tight knit but low population forum. If there's something we can do here to prevent that from happening to us, I'd love to see it happen sooner than later.

[CeeKay]

There really are not enough console or PC exclusive games to warrant the separation.

25 out of 40 of the topics on the first page of the PC forum are PC exclusive discussions, and all updated within the last week or so, so I'd say PC and console should definitely be separate.  Maybe Multiplayer and MMO could be combined though, and maybe General Gaming could get rolled into off-topic-

* CeeKay dodges knives thrown by Hepcat, Kronovan and Isgrimnur

or not.

[rshetts2]

There really are not enough console or PC exclusive games to warrant the separation.

25 out of 40 of the topics on the first page of the PC forum are PC exclusive discussions, and all updated within the last week or so, so I'd say PC and console should definitely be separate.  Maybe Multiplayer and MMO could be combined though, and maybe General Gaming could get rolled into off-topic-

* CeeKay dodges knives thrown by Hepcat, Kronovan and Isgrimnur

or not.

I didnt say there were not any exclusives, just that I felt that it may not justify the split forums for electronic gaming.  A lot of the topics you refer to are regarding older games now readily available thru GOG or Steam and have a small number of posts.  Excluding the stealth sales posts, that kind of belong in the steals and deals forum, the largest post counts are on games that are not PC exclusives.  Anyway, its just an opinion and an idea and there will be of course arguments both for and against the concept. 

[forgeforsaken]

There really are not enough console or PC exclusive games to warrant the separation.

25 out of 40 of the topics on the first page of the PC forum are PC exclusive discussions, and all updated within the last week or so, so I'd say PC and console should definitely be separate.  Maybe Multiplayer and MMO could be combined though, and maybe General Gaming could get rolled into off-topic-

* CeeKay dodges knives thrown by Hepcat, Kronovan and Isgrimnur

or not.

NeoGaf, arguably one of the most active gaming forums on the internet, has one single game board.  It's less a distinction of games per platform and more a distinction of gamers exclusive to only one platform.   If you have a PC only board you might as well have 360, Wii, and PS3 boards as well because that follows the same logic.   Really it's a question of is the community really that segregated into console and PC only folks?  I feel like the majority of folks you find on a forum these days tend to play games on the PC, consoles, and mobile.

[Razgon]

There is *way* too little going on in the PC forum, the Multiplayer forum, the General gaming forum for them to be separate forums.

I agree -they should be merged. All we need is a separate Ceekay forum for him to clutter ;-)

Anyways - I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing a problem, and I really think that as we lose members and not gain any new ones, something should be done because otherwise we all know where it is heading.

I propose a merger of the gaming forums into one big one, or two if people can't stand PC and console being in the same one. I think its silly, but there it is. That - combined with the new forum software mentioned upthread is a good start I think.

[kronovan]

These forums aren't alone, as I've noted a slowdown on most gaming sites. I blame it on all the new social media geared towards the multitude of handheld devices. I really don't see the appeal of them as you give up way too much of the power of a quality laptop. With so many people, its like if it doesn't fit in 1/2 the area of you palm its chuckable. Heck, I walk down the road with my laptop open on my shoulder, an Internet-anywhere card and a pair of hefty headphones slung over my ears playin sweet CD's - I'm like some 60's soul brother with his Transistor blazing in his ear. People these days, they just can't appreciate the shear awesomess of a quality portable luggable device.  Forget the fresh blood - get people to join the luggable pride movement and you'll for sure start seeing gaming forums rejuvenate

[Tokek]

Count me in as the mostly lurking kind though I have no issues with the number of people GT has. I "know" most of the regular posters here and I like the fact that GT is a small, tight-knit community of mature people/gamers. Plus with being half-way around on the other side of the planet kind of puts me a bit out of touch.

[Mithridates]

Interestingly, traffic to the front of the site has increased.   

Sounds like you need to point them towards the forum more then.

Well, for years we tried pointing you guys to the front of the site to no avail...

That's because I come here to read the Forum and have zero interest in getting any news from GT.  I don't think I'm the only one who feels that way.

[th'FOOL]

Interestingly, traffic to the front of the site has increased.   

Sounds like you need to point them towards the forum more then.

Well, for years we tried pointing you guys to the front of the site to no avail...

That's because I come here to read the Forum and have zero interest in getting any news from GT.  I don't think I'm the only one who feels that way.

That's too bad. You see, this is a gaming news and reviews site with a forum, not the other way around. We love providing a place for everybody to hang out and talk, but our efforts are considerably more focused on the rest of the site. You should check it out sometime.