chet, your very wrong, its not up to yourself that this forum is going downhill, with bring threads, pointless posts and a lack of intresting conversations. its everyone elses fault.

its not my fault that some people post pages of jokes or write one word replies or calls everyone a smacktard, thats whoever said it, like the pissed guy at a dinner party, theyre ruining it for those who ARENT looking for that. forums evolve if the material the forum is based in is evolving too, the only way your gonna like it is if you like the new stuff thats being brought in to replace the old. me, i'm a fan of the old, the evolution isnt desirable from where I'M sitting, but thats not MY fault, i have done **** all to add to this evolution, ive stayed quietly and participated in threads that are worthwhile and intresting, its eveyone elses fault that the place is changing because why the hell would i change something i love for something i hate?

-arcon
------

@Arcon: I hope you're kidding, 'cause if you're not... I never said that you should give up on what you care about and accept something that you hate with a smile. On the contrary, I meant that if you don't like something, then change it. Don't wait for it to change itself back to the way you liked it. In other words, stop whinig, and start acting. "So what can I do? " you may ask. Change the people around you. I know it sounds crazy, but take me for example... I've changed drastically during the last few months, and yet, in my essence I remained the same. I "adjusted" my approach to many issues, my style, my sig, even my username, so it suits everyone better, and it doesn't bother me being this way either. It's called a perfect compromise... Decide what really makes you happy, and what is a "bonus" that you like to see, but can live without... Being yourself means understanding yourself, not being stubborn about your habbits and narrow-minded about new suggestions...
At least try to understand my babbling, it might prove helpful...

Edited by - Chetnik on 30-06-2003 02:30:47

i hate to take sides here but arcon has a valid point which people could do with taking a look at and use it

"Make it so Number One"
Captain Picard 'Star Trek the Next Generation'

fascinating thread, I stayed up 'till 1pm last night reading it all.

I have some sympathy with the OP's point, but the dilution of quality of contributions is an inevitable consequence of the increase in popularity. You either have a larger fan-base and a wider variety of opinions, good, bad, or stupid, and all the peripheral jokes and flames and pictures etc. OR you have a smaller more elite and tightly knit group who end up just talking amongst themselves. You have one or the other, it's as simple as that. I'll take the former until it becomes too much to cope with.

Look at the WingCommander newsgroups for example. They now consist of half a dozen posters who've all been posting there for years, and no-one else, and they're all so far up each other's arses they're coming out of their noses, and arrogant with it too.

The only way to prevent either result is active and sensible moderation and an effort by all concerned contributors to lift the level of debate up. Stupid and offensive threads, threads which are going nowhere, and blatant spamming should be hit on for everyone's benefit. But if you start being too elitist and hammer people for not knowing something you've known for months or years, banning humour, and jumping down the throat of "noobs" then you might as well close the site and just e-mail each other. I'm not suggesting that anything like that is currently the case, but if you aren't careful it could go that way; happens all the time.

having said all that, if anyone still isn't happy with the current situation then they can always set up their own board/site for them and their mates. No-one makes you come here.

Alternatively you can be patient and wait a few months and I bet you things will be a lot quieter.

..you think you're done with the past; but the past isn't done with you..

TLR has always been the one site I visit each time I surf the web, just to check in. I am happy we've collected a few new peeps since FL was released. Some of these will probably hang around for the long haul as well. So many diverse personalities, it is no wonder people enjoy coming here to visit. We all have our own reasons (I'm not much for editting/modding) and all (including the newer peeps) contribute to what makes up the soul of this website. 2 1/2 years I've been here and I could probably count on my fingers and toes how many 24 hour periods I've gone without visiting this place. I gone through lots of impersonalble and personal setbacks in that time. But I still hang in there as do many others. Let's see how many regular posters we have in 6-8 months and if compared to 2 years ago, I'll just bet we have a larger family.

Group noogie!

@ tawak, i'll second that. The last thing i want is to end up an arrogant asshole the happy medium is more guys, stricter moderating.

-arcon
------

Arcon, why have you got a picture of my ex-Mrs as your signature?

..you think you're done with the past; but the past isn't done with you..

i'm getting your hand-me-downs

All good points but keep in mind not to swing the pendulum to far in the other direction. You don't want to over enforce the rules or people will feel unwelcome.

you've got a point mustang but if you don't enforce the rules then ppl are just going to take advantage of nobody enforcing the rules by spamming and flaming as much as they like

"Make it so Number One"
Captain Picard 'Star Trek the Next Generation'

We try to strike a balance - with the last part of the equation being the time we can put in moderating...

I could moderate for hours each day and still not cope with the traffic. So I have to take a point where things fall through, and I'm sorry about that - but I and the rest of the moderators want a life too...

So we try to moderate closly, ban on occasion, lock threads and all in all guide this tidal weave to some extend... but make it into something totally different is impossible....

Anyway - interesting thread!

I had a few reasons making this site, and they where:

a.) Seeing if I could build a great community, and be able to apply my understanding of psychology to it
b.) Practise my coding skills
c.) Get cover a game I love
d.) Get to know a bunch of great people

I would say I succeeded pretty well on all accounts, and thus right now I'm having a hard time setting the next goal for TLR.

I hope MS/DA will continue with the Lancer-franchise, and it looks like Freelancer is acutally selling pretty well in Germany (wich is no small market btw). I have no feeling for US sales lately, but let's hope we are on the better side of Starlancer

Best Regards
Christian "Bargib" Koerner
Editor in Chief, The Lancers Reactor

Didn't SL sell like 500,000 copies or something? I forget, but I remember being suprised.

I would like to see the off topic area to focus more as an place to discussion popular culture and anything pertaining to that and advertised as such. Maybe that will bring more people in the off topic area where you get to know them as people rather than as impersonal critics(that could be positive or negative critics).
When people become more personally involved wouldn't they in theory have more respect.
Anyway this is just a suggestion you have been in the forum business longer than me I am sure you'll come up with whatever you think needs to be done.

it's a hard balance to get Bargib, but your team do a good job in getting that balance, well most of the time anyway

"Make it so Number One"
Captain Picard 'Star Trek the Next Generation'