CyberShadow wrote:
But I really hope that it doesn't. In my mind, the Discord server and these forums are designed for two different uses, which I hope will complement each other. The forums are most useful in their ability to organise thoughts and content, thread conversations and archive ideas. There are points made regarding development of EA lists here that are still relevant today and were posted years ago. In contrast, the Discord discussion is much more real time. Its great to pop in and see what people are working on, but if I want to find a specific picture a week later, its not going to be easy. I hope that I will be able to bring these distinctions out and make the most of each platform, and not attempt to simply replicate the same discussions and structure in both places. For example, I recently removed a channel in the Discord server for trades, because I think that this is far better suited to these forums. I will do what I can to keep these distinctions in mind always.
It is true that each have its own characteristic and good points and it would be wonderful to have Discord if people where to use it for its strenghts and maybe that could get rid of all the completely private messaging, but we are in an era where people want everything in one place, be it Discord, Whatsapp, Telegram, Twitter or Facebook (no matter how bad it is for them), so only a small fraction will be both here AND in Discord, which is what happened in all of those cases i know, bringing a fracture to the community till one absorb the people of the other. Most probably both will not coexist and i still have yet to see an example of a community where they do after a year.
CyberShadow wrote:
In the end, the web is an odd place, and simply put, if I dont create a place for this conversation, then someone else will. Forums are falling a bit out of favour now, with Discord, Facebook groups, Telegram groups, etc, but I still think that have a very real and important set of advantages.
There is also the fact that this has happened already. Leaving aside Facebook, Twitter and around a hundred blogs, I know of a few Whatssapp groups for Epic which group more than one hundred people, and only around 10 are here or on Facebook but half have been here and in Facebook for a long long time. These Whatsapp groups also half-killed the websites and blogs of Epic in the area, but that's another matter.
This is a concern, but i have been at this point several times in other games' communities and i am still struggling with it not being a defeatist position or delaying the inevitable. Could there be something we can do to attract the younger and those not much into Epic to the outside of blogs and SNS, it is better if we just go with the flow and stop struggling and improving, or it is better to ignore the popularity as we are a niche already and SNS have been around for long already and have not affected us much as other issues? Difficult to decide.
The best i could think of would be to create our own SNS integrated into the website, but the sheer amount of programming work this would mean would make it a pipe dream and while there is some freeware code for small chat windows on the side they are restricted in use, so that's why i proposed a message board, which have the same function as an SNS and still of public view.
A second option would be to advertise anything which happens here on the Facebook groups, even more as it seems there is a disconnection between the people here and those on SNS, something made evident like for example with lots on Facebook not even knowing of Vanguard or Onslaught. Problem of this one is that it needs the collaboration of lots of people, which dooms it before beginning. Vanguard have been doing this lately but they are a company so they can accomplish it.
From my side I have been planning on advertising my battle reports and other publications on Facebook now that i have a good amount by putting only half of each on Facebook and linking here for the rest. Have done that on Whatsapp already but it had a mild reception level as do not take a look at what links point to in general. I suppose it will be better on Facebook as there are more computer/laptop users than mobile there but time will tell.
Well, after of all of this rumbling, all i can say is, good luck, and hope it really turns for the better with this, really hope it.