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Lasereth · 10-31-2010, 08:43 AM

This is a very interesting thread and something I've thought about many times in the 7 years+ I've been here. Now I will post some random shit in a numbered list.

1. Facebook has single handedly ruined many forums on the Internet. One forum I used to go to for 4-5 years or so had dozens of posts per day by my friends. The forum was comprised entirely of my friends and little to no outsiders. It thrived. We talked about everything there, and slowly as Facebook got more popular, people stopped posting. One day the owner of the site said "I'm shutting the forum down. People post everything they want the Internet to read on Facebook now. Sorry." And it was gone. Like it or not, the same thing is happening to TFP. Definitely not as drastically, but it's true. Blogs, discussions, they all happen on FB now, except on FB you usually get a response quickly and it's far simpler than going to a forum to do it where everyone you've ever known WON'T see it.

2. The banner at the top saying how broke TFP is and asking us to donate money is discouraging. At first I was like OK ok, we need some upgradez, here's some billz. Then it kept coming every single month. You know what it screams? It screams that the owner of this site doesn't like it enough to pay for it. How's that for encouraging a site's popularity and use? The owner doesn't want to pay for it, or can't. I have a simple question: if TFP is so dead (and I admit it's very, very close to death), then why is the bill so high for it? Axe the functionality of this site, merge half the sub forums, and get the costs down so you don't have a "donate or we die" sign at the top. Seriously.

3. Bring the porn back. It was a huge mistake to move it. You know what, make the porn section even bigger and have intricate little sections about porn. Porn is what started this place so why is it gone now. Dumb.

4. My posts have gone down drastically in the past few years as well and it's because no one gives a shit. When I reply, no one replies to me. When I try to get a discussion going, there's just no one to talk with. In the Tech Section (my favorite obviously) there's little to no activity. There's just no reason to post something I saw on engadget or Kotaku or Wired here because it's been posted and discussed on Facebook already, and because if I post it here, one person will come in and be like "cool" and the thread will die.

Internet forums in general are dying because of the evolution of the Internet. More people are on the Internet now and social networking has cause discussions to move on to Facebook rather than websites made for discussions. TFP doesn't allow the real interesting stuff of the Internet to be posted here (illegal stuff, torrents, cracks, etc.) so the only reason to come here is to get an intelligent discussion going (which doesn't exist because no one posts anymore). It's a cycle that has to be broken somehow. You know, when I think about TFP and why I stay here, it's because of the intelligence and friendly attitude here. Why can't we have intelligent discussions, awesome moderation to prevent flame wars, and some fucking warez. Which direction do you think TFP will go if we offer intelligent discussions, a shitload of non-spam porn, flame-free discussions, and a 1-stop shop for torrents? I know TFP has been totally against this from the beginning but you have to evolve if you want to survive.

In the short term I think TFP needs to get its costs down by eliminating functionality of the site and merging some of the subforums. When I tried to get my friend from work to join here, he said holy shit that's too many subforums and closed the window (quite literally).

10-31-2010, 08:43 AM	#71 (permalink)
Lasereth Knight of the Old Republic Location: Winston-Salem, NC	This is a very interesting thread and something I've thought about many times in the 7 years+ I've been here. Now I will post some random shit in a numbered list. 1. Facebook has single handedly ruined many forums on the Internet. One forum I used to go to for 4-5 years or so had dozens of posts per day by my friends. The forum was comprised entirely of my friends and little to no outsiders. It thrived. We talked about everything there, and slowly as Facebook got more popular, people stopped posting. One day the owner of the site said "I'm shutting the forum down. People post everything they want the Internet to read on Facebook now. Sorry." And it was gone. Like it or not, the same thing is happening to TFP. Definitely not as drastically, but it's true. Blogs, discussions, they all happen on FB now, except on FB you usually get a response quickly and it's far simpler than going to a forum to do it where everyone you've ever known WON'T see it. 2. The banner at the top saying how broke TFP is and asking us to donate money is discouraging. At first I was like OK ok, we need some upgradez, here's some billz. Then it kept coming every single month. You know what it screams? It screams that the owner of this site doesn't like it enough to pay for it. How's that for encouraging a site's popularity and use? The owner doesn't want to pay for it, or can't. I have a simple question: if TFP is so dead (and I admit it's very, very close to death), then why is the bill so high for it? Axe the functionality of this site, merge half the sub forums, and get the costs down so you don't have a "donate or we die" sign at the top. Seriously. 3. Bring the porn back. It was a huge mistake to move it. You know what, make the porn section even bigger and have intricate little sections about porn. Porn is what started this place so why is it gone now. Dumb. 4. My posts have gone down drastically in the past few years as well and it's because no one gives a shit. When I reply, no one replies to me. When I try to get a discussion going, there's just no one to talk with. In the Tech Section (my favorite obviously) there's little to no activity. There's just no reason to post something I saw on engadget or Kotaku or Wired here because it's been posted and discussed on Facebook already, and because if I post it here, one person will come in and be like "cool" and the thread will die. Internet forums in general are dying because of the evolution of the Internet. More people are on the Internet now and social networking has cause discussions to move on to Facebook rather than websites made for discussions. TFP doesn't allow the real interesting stuff of the Internet to be posted here (illegal stuff, torrents, cracks, etc.) so the only reason to come here is to get an intelligent discussion going (which doesn't exist because no one posts anymore). It's a cycle that has to be broken somehow. You know, when I think about TFP and why I stay here, it's because of the intelligence and friendly attitude here. Why can't we have intelligent discussions, awesome moderation to prevent flame wars, and some fucking warez. Which direction do you think TFP will go if we offer intelligent discussions, a shitload of non-spam porn, flame-free discussions, and a 1-stop shop for torrents? I know TFP has been totally against this from the beginning but you have to evolve if you want to survive. In the short term I think TFP needs to get its costs down by eliminating functionality of the site and merging some of the subforums. When I tried to get my friend from work to join here, he said holy shit that's too many subforums and closed the window (quite literally). __________________ "A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert Last edited by Lasereth; 10-31-2010 at 08:47 AM..