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Originally Posted by Xantar
Trying to recruit new members isn't going to do anything for this forum because, frankly, there's nothing here that a new member would want. You guys may think that you're a nice tight little community, but that also means you're a bit insular. Not that I blame you. When people have been around each other online for this long, they can't help but keep talking to each other in inside jokes all the time.
Being confrontational and argumentative isn't going to do anything either. I'll put down Jerry Falwell and Typhoid to the end of days if you want me to, and I'm sure the one formerly known as Indigo Montoya will be happy to do the same for nearly everybody else. It's not going to pull in new members, though. And whenever Ursinus-boy and I get into a real discussion (which I personally think are the best parts of this forum when they happen), everybody else just steps aside instead of participating. As far as we can tell, we two are the only ones who even bother to read each other's posts at that point.
This forum discourages people from spamming and mouthing off whatever pops into their heads. It looks down on the kind type-first-and-think-later posting that you find at all the bloated forums like IGN. But if you're not going to have that, you have to have a level of depth and intelligence in your posting that will hold the attention of those newcomers who appreciate that sort of thing. And before you protest that this forum has that, I suggest you go look at the forums of N-sider.com or TelevisionWithoutPity.com. Or even better, post the same thread topic at those forums and then post it here as well and read the response. People there really talk to each other instead of basically skimming a thread, posting their own half-baked opinion once and then pretty much not responding to others (except when they get really directly challenged or insulted). Frankly, the discussion at this forum is mostly the pits. This thread has gotten to the second page and people are still barely even acknowledging each other's posts.
Oh, and by the way, arcade games, buying imaginary gifts for people and checking the weather on a front page that's updated mostly by a robot isn't going to hold a newbie's long-term interest any more than the reputation system did.
What you have here is a website that doesn't even know what it wants to be. If GameTavern is just about being one big happy family, that's great. But don't expect anybody else to care about it. And if GameTavern is supposed to offer something to outsiders that they can't get from most other sites, you'd better decide on what that is and start offering it.
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I think you're being a little harsh. There's barely a post in this thread that doesn't acknowledge something of what someone else wrote. A person shouldn't have to completely disect someone's post before posting their own opinion.
The feedback I've gotten from features like the gifts and arcade games has been overwhelmingly positive. It's the little things that add character and personality to a site. And good luck trying to find a Survivor-style contest at another site that doesn't degenerate into chaos and die after a few days.
What else is it you think we should offer? There's nothing we can do in the way of regular original content without having a paid staff or industry contacts. GameTavern is one of the few places that is large enough for you to have on-going discussions but small enough that you can maintain some kind of identity. None of us are trying to be intellectual giants here, we just want to have a little fun.