RF Generation Message Board

To be honest with you it kind of did, yes. But it's ok, you're forgiven :)


But to come back to what I was saying yesterday:

A forum can't be neglected on any community-type website. It's always one of the cornerstones for expanding that community; some websites die or florish because of the (in)activity on their forum.

I know that in RFG's case 98% of the members here register to use the collection tools but it's the forum that can be the deciding factor for them to stay here or not. And that's not to be underestimated because it's only once you become part of the community that you'll start doing serious submissions and care for the database, etc...  - whereas an anonymous member might do a few title additions (quickly filling out only the required fields) just to have it show in his/her collection and be done with it.

If I may be so free to say this: I honestly think the RFG forum is rather inactive. Despite having more members regulary being online the average post count is still struggling to get to 100 posts a day. When I look at the stats page (http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?action=stats) and compare august '06 with august '08 you might even say the forum is less active than it used to be. (despite almost twice as many users online on a daily basis)

Please note I'm not pointing fingers at anyone here because I think RFG's staff does a great job. All I'm saying is the forum could use some more attention to figure out why it's not moving forward like the rest of the site cleary is doing.

Stealing Bad Enough Dude's words: Just an observation ;)

Eh, we already talked about everything.

As far as I'm concerned, the forum is secondary to everything else. Many will disagree with me, but I'm here for the collection tools, blogs and database as are many of not most of the staff. I read half a dozen forums just for gaming, all of them fill a niche but I hardly post in any of them. Another section of the community socializes in the IRC chat, others the blogs.

When you devote your free time to maintaining the site you don't have the time for browsing every thread in the forum. Staff have no responsibilities towards the forums with the exception of the staff forums where we post daily on the day to day operations and issues. If members really want a more active forum, then they should be taking the initiative and start more gaming threads. This is after all a gaming website and that's what most of us come here for. ;)

I came here for the collection tools, I stayed here for the forum.

I think we can all agree though, that the forums could use more activity. But since most of us are classic game collectors, so many topics have been done numerous times, there really isn't much to talk about anymore.

The most popular topics (by views and replies) are Completely Unrelated and the small scores thread, which shows that we're more into showing off our treasures and chatting than talking about the latest releases or something. In fact, out of the top 10 topics (by replies), only 3 have anything to do with video games. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just another observation.

That's what I was talking about.

I agree with you (Tan) that the forum is (and should be) secondary to the collection tools, etc... but a more active forum would lead to the important things (database, blogs, ...) growing faster than without one.

So in an overal perspective of RFG's growth, the forum should not be considered as just a little thing on the side.

Actually the blogs conflict with the forums quite badly. We've made strides to make more possible forum threads blogs posts instead over the last year or so to help with this.

See if we made weekly polls, site news, features and news stories on the forums, no one would read the blogs. So we try to keep those for the blogs and leave the general game discussion & site admin to the forums.

As far as the database and forum relationship, it's a dual edged sword. On one hand, it's good that members can post problems and errors for us to fix, on the other, half of the most consistent submitters don't post at all, some of them never have. They spend hours working on the database and little else.

1. It does and it doesn't. Although some forum threads could be made into blogs, most of them aren't suitable for that. Blogs are more like articles you would write for a newspaper. They are also more for those confident enough about their writing skills and those that like to write. A forum thread can be made for even the smallest of thing you might want to discuss and doesn't require a whole lot of text to be written. In any case all topics that involve alot of dialog or discussion between members should be kept to the forum because even though the blogs have the "comment" possibility, they aren't exactly as easy to use as a forum thread. Doing the opposite wouldn't be good either because not many people would feel happy about posting in a blog.

2. You're right. Artificially raising forum activity by moving blog posts into the forum wouldn't make much sense. I don't know about you guys but the RFG Home Page is my bookmark so I always read the blogs first before advancing to the forums. Like you said earlier there should be more gaming threads (or other typical forum threads) to raise activity a bit.

3. Maybe we should wonder what it is that "prefents" these database users to start posting in the forum. Some of them may dislike forums, that's their right. But what about the others? Maybe the RFG forums are too inaccessible for novice members, or does the forum has rather closed or unfriendly feel to it? (I'm not saying this is the case; I'm merely shooting ideas in the air for others to think about)

After sorting the members list by post count and doing some basic maths on my trusted TI-40 Collège II (feel the sarcasm :P) I found out that about 82% of the registered users have posted less than 10 times and 67% of all users haven't posted at all. I know there's always a big amount of non-posters on every forum but those numbers are pretty high nontheless.

Yeah, but those 621 or so members have posted a total of 115492 times (Including this post). So the active members are VERY active. About 187 posts per poster on average for the life of a forum is quite high (in my opinion).

LOGICAL's 999 POST HOORAY

Those 621 members include both people who have posted once and those who posted 10000 times. Seeing them as a single category is kind of a stretch and doesn't represent things right. 400 of those can be considered hardly active at all.

I know there's a group of very active and dedicated posters but I was pointing towards the huge group of non-posters.

You think 187 posts per user on active is alot but I'm not too sure about that. Even though I can't back this statement up by data I think that alot of forums score higher than that when looking at the active (1 post or more) members only. Also, you leave out 67% of the members on these boards but even when adding those (so taking all users into account) you still get 61 posts per user on average. That still looks "quite high" but doesn't represent the reality at all :)

A lively forum isn't something that can be forced. Let's tell the story of RF Generation's forum.

It's true that RF Generation cherishes its community more than anything else, but at the same time, we know that as a site we do have a primary purpose that is in fact not the community. We exist first and foremost as a video games database. It truly is our bread and butter. Without the databases, there would be collection tools, no progress tracker, no checklists, all we'd have is some forum like everyone else. Fortunately for us, that's not the case.

When RF Generation was founded in 2004, it was originally tight knit bunch. Those members knew each other, and they treated each other as internet friends. It truly was a special place. Topics we random, lively, and above all else, fun. It was okay to bullshit with each other because at the time RF Generation was just a very small burgeoning site. Topics could afford to be off the wall and they were.

For better or worse, RF Generation got more and more popular, and time progressed. Over time, people get caught up with real life, and things changed here in terms of what was occurring. More and more people were interested only in the collection tools, and as the old guard moved on with their lives, there were not enough new members picking up where they left out. The feeling of a lively community seems at times, lost.

The truth is that there are still quite a bit of new posts every month. While the number of new topics are down, the number of new posts stays about at where it has been for a long time. RF Generation prides itself in caring about its community. We love you guys, and we want what is best for the community. I don't know how many forums are as laissez-faire as the one you find here. It's what makes us us.

I personally I am quite happy that after 4 years we still have a lively community. A lot of sites come and go, but we're still here, and I hope we'll be here for years to come. It may seem as though the community at times seems dull, but in reality we're all still here, and we're all part of what makes RF Generation great.

Beautifully said mate. I would never let this site go for the world. Heck, RFGen makes up 60% of my internet time. 35% is youtube, and 5% is other.

There are two types of blog entries. Purely personal and news/gaming opinion. The latter we place on the front page, the former on our own personal blogs (which anyone can start). I don't want anyone to get the impression that blogging requires some skillset or natural talent as it certainly does not. All it requires is motivation and something to write about

I've been blogging for 2 1/2 years now, before I even joined the site. I treat it as an extended forum post that may or maynot have pics. Not everyone like long forum posts and others like greater detail, the blogs provide both. Personal opinion, humor and honesty are the only things you really need. If you treat it like a newspaper then your writing will become as stale and monotonous as one. Write like your telling a story to a friend and it's actually easier to get your point across than a forum and isn't drowned out by dozens of others posts.

The reason blogs have become so popular is because they have a down to earth feel about them, leaving out the formality of published journalism. In that regard regular gamers such as all of us here at RFG are better suited to write for our fellow gamers than a reporter or journalist. I'd rather hear about a game from a fellow gamer than a paid employee who writes for a living.

I know that I sure didn't think of myself as a writer when I started blogging on here. In fact, until I started my Treasure Hunt Chronicles, I figured my first blog would be my last one.
I never liked writing in school either, especially the "personal" type of writing that blogging is so similar to.

I think one of the "problems" with our community is that it may be too close knit. I remember when I first joined I was a little intimidated by the fact that everyone knew each other so well. I thought I would viewed as an outsider, which of course never happened.

Outcasting does NOT happen on this site, which is great. Just read my first 3 posts...

POST1-

Hi, I'm Robert.

I'm a chicagoian native, live in chicago, only in chicago.

My hobbies are buying junk, selling junk, trading junk, etc.

I have an officially measly collection of about 90 games to 9 systems.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I'm obsessed with the END OF THE WORLD (evil manic laughter follows  :evilhappy:).

Ill be posting a lot on this site, cause its the best one of its kind.

Thanks

logical123

POST2-

Whooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

100 games milestone!!!!! :Grin:

Thank god thats over.... :Smiley:

Now, onto 200... :laugh:

POST3-

Everyone, It is of my great grief to tell you that on Sunday, May 6th, 2007, my SNES 'Gray Guy' Passed on. :Cry:

He was not one of the SNES's that discolored with age. :Shocked:

A power supply short was found to be the cause of death. :Huh:

RIP: 'Grey Guy' the SNES :embarassed: :Cry:


All of these were met with warm replies. The meaning of this post (as in THIS one) is to show to any guests here that were are a really nice group of people, and that you CAN indeed post without feeling outcasted.

Shut up. ;)

 :laugh:

You know, your post count 5445 is a palindrome.  8)

wow

Hmmm, maybe I wasn't being too clear.

My comparison of a blog post with the word "article" was only for showing the relative lenght of both. Like you said yourself, blogs are more for the somewhat longer posts than a typical forum thread. The style in which you write a blog shouldn't (but can if you want to) be like a newspaper article, sorry for the confusion.